Arkham Horror: The Card Game |OT| Cards of Cthulhu

Malverde · Dec 28, 2017

My brother and I just finished the campaign that comes with the core set. We were playing on the normal difficulty (with the two recommended decks) and we ended up having to run away half way through the second act (after I got KO'd) and that ended up biting us in the ass in the third act where we ended up dying.

We are going to go down to the easiest difficulty and run through it again with custom decks. I ended up buying a second starter set along with the two stand alone sets. The Carnevale of Horrors set was missing one card (one of the conclusion cards). I filled out a form out a form online to request the missing card but am still kinda bummed. Anyone know what the eta is on getting a card from them is? :(

XShagrath · Jan 3, 2018

Got in my first larger game yesterday, playing a 5-player Rougarou at a gaming pub.

We lost.

It was pretty fun overall, and I enjoyed playing at the larger player count. The only thing I didn't like was just the configuration of the environment. The table was pretty large, but the seating was spread out. So I couldn't read all the locations and whatnot without asking people to hand them to me. On the other hand, my personal play area was really small due to drinks and napkin holders, etc. I definitely think I'll go back and play some more though. This group gets together once a week and plays either Arkham LCG or Mansions of Madness.

trapperkreeper · Jan 4, 2018

XShagrath said:
This is the ever-present dilemma of LCGs. You will always outgrow your storage solution as you buy more expansions. I don't think using the core box for storage is a good choice, as it's rather small, and you'll run out of space fairly quickly.

The two options that I see most often are briefcases with custom inserts, and plain card storage boxes. I personally use the latter. I can get each campaign into a single box, and they only cost a couple of dollars each. I keep my player cards in a binder, although those could be kept in a separate box as well. The briefcases obviously look a lot nicer, but at quite a bit larger expense ($50-200).

which plain cards storage do you buy? Do you have a link

Deleted member 4452 · Jan 4, 2018

I've personally settled for cheap 1$ish cardboard card storage boxes. BCW is the brand I see showing up online, not sure if that's the one I picked up at my local shop of if it was just generic.

XShagrath · Jan 4, 2018

trapperkreeper said:
which plain cards storage do you buy? Do you have a link

BCW Boxes - This is the most common version. You can find these at pretty much any gaming or sports card store. I'd definitely try to find them local, as they're pretty cheap, so shipping would kill that.

Max Pro Boxes - I went with these (you can find packs of them on Amazon, eBay, and other places). They come in white, black, green, blue, and red (I got black). These single row boxes let you store the cards standing, while the BCW ones have them horizontal. Not a big deal, but it made it easier to use the dividers I already had.

You could also do a multi-row box (both companies make them) if you wanted to store your whole collection. The 800ct boxes are perfect for storing a full cycle (every scenario pre-built).

Cindres · Jan 5, 2018

Does anyone here have experience playing this and the LOTR:LCG solo? I've found solo play with LOTR a bit tricky and I'm not a huge fan of deck building which is tricky when they want you to build decks of 30-50 cards, though I really like the gameplay. I'm pretty close to biting on this because it looks more close to what I was hoping for from LOTR. I don't really want to have to play 2-handed which I often see recommended for LOTR scenarios.

XShagrath · Jan 5, 2018

Cindres said:
Does anyone here have experience playing this and the LOTR:LCG solo? I've found solo play with LOTR a bit tricky and I'm not a huge fan of deck building which is tricky when they want you to build decks of 30-50 cards, though I really like the gameplay. I'm pretty close to biting on this because it looks more close to what I was hoping for from LOTR. I don't really want to have to play 2-handed which I often see recommended for LOTR scenarios.

You can play true solo in Arkham, but it will be very difficult. There are many things to do in the game, with the two prominent ones being investigating and combat. With a (usually) 30 card deck, it's best to focus on one, although there are some rare investigators that are pretty good at both. So playing just one character turns you into a "jack of all trades," which usually isn't the best option.

With that being said, deck building in this game is way less of an issue than it is in LotR. Firstly, each investigator has their own deckbuilding rules, which helps to cut down the pool of potential cards considerably. Also, the max copies of a single card per deck is two, rather than three. Lastly, and my favorite aspect of the deckbuilding in this game, is that you carry your single deck through a campaign, with minor changes from leveling up as you move through. This gets you away from LotR's core problem (for me), which was "I have to build a deck specifically for this quest, and it's not going to work for the next one."

When I play solo, I usually just play two-handed. It's not as much of an issue, as you are only playing two characters (instead of six in LotR). It's pretty easy to wrap your head around, doesn't take up too much table space, and allows you to have two decks that are a little bit more defined in their roles. In some scenarios, you might even be able to keep the two investigators traveling together for the most part, which may be beneficial in keeping the squishier character safe. Sometimes it is essential to spread out though.

If you do want to play just one-handed, the game does scale though. A lot of the cards in the game have a "per investigator" symbol on them for balance. For instance, the "boss" of the first scenario has 5 health per investigator, so he's pretty easy in a solo game, but everyone's going to need to chip in if you're playing 4-player. Same things go for locations with clues, or the number of clues needed to complete an act. It's a very smart design decision that makes the game accessible for people that don't have a gaming group.

Cindres · Jan 5, 2018

XShagrath said:
You can play true solo in Arkham, but it will be very difficult. There are many things to do in the game, with the two prominent ones being investigating and combat. With a (usually) 30 card deck, it's best to focus on one, although there are some rare investigators that are pretty good at both. So playing just one character turns you into a "jack of all trades," which usually isn't the best option.

With that being said, deck building in this game is way less of an issue than it is in LotR. Firstly, each investigator has their own deckbuilding rules, which helps to cut down the pool of potential cards considerably. Also, the max copies of a single card per deck is two, rather than three. Lastly, and my favorite aspect of the deckbuilding in this game, is that you carry your single deck through a campaign, with minor changes from leveling up as you move through. This gets you away from LotR's core problem (for me), which was "I have to build a deck specifically for this quest, and it's not going to work for the next one."

When I play solo, I usually just play two-handed. It's not as much of an issue, as you are only playing two characters (instead of six in LotR). It's pretty easy to wrap your head around, doesn't take up too much table space, and allows you to have two decks that are a little bit more defined in their roles. In some scenarios, you might even be able to keep the two investigators traveling together for the most part, which may be beneficial in keeping the squishier character safe. Sometimes it is essential to spread out though.

If you do want to play just one-handed, the game does scale though. A lot of the cards in the game have a "per investigator" symbol on them for balance. For instance, the "boss" of the first scenario has 5 health per investigator, so he's pretty easy in a solo game, but everyone's going to need to chip in if you're playing 4-player. Same things go for locations with clues, or the number of clues needed to complete an act. It's a very smart design decision that makes the game accessible for people that don't have a gaming group.

Thanks! Definitely answers my questions and appeases my concerns. It's hard to tell some times when people talk about playing solo whether they're referring to solo character or two-handed with any co-op games. Of course hadn't occured to me there are less characters to have to concern yourself with playing 2-handed, in LOTR when you've got a lot of allies out it can get tricky to keep track of even when you're playing with other people. In general it does seem this game solves the issues I personally have with LOTR which are ultimately just because of the type of game I want to play. It's a shame because I love the setting of LOTR but I'm also a big fan of Lovecraft so I think I'll settle in to this very nicely. I'm thinking low lights and whiskey.

The highlighted in particular particularly appeals, honestly anything that means less time spent constructing decks and more time playing. I actually just picked it up at lunch so I'm going to break it out tomorrow morning.

XShagrath · Jan 5, 2018

Cindres said:
Thanks! Definitely answers my questions and appeases my concerns. It's hard to tell some times when people talk about playing solo whether they're referring to solo character or two-handed with any co-op games. Of course hadn't occured to me there are less characters to have to concern yourself with playing 2-handed, in LOTR when you've got a lot of allies out it can get tricky to keep track of even when you're playing with other people. In general it does seem this game solves the issues I personally have with LOTR which are ultimately just because of the type of game I want to play. It's a shame because I love the setting of LOTR but I'm also a big fan of Lovecraft so I think I'll settle in to this very nicely. I'm thinking low lights and whiskey.

The highlighted in particular particularly appeals, honestly anything that means less time spent constructing decks and more time playing. I actually just picked it up at lunch so I'm going to break it out tomorrow morning.

To alleviate your ally concern, each investigator can normally only have one ally at a time, so an individual player's "board" is usually no more than 3-5 cards, although it can be more depending on build.

I'm not super big into deck building either, but there is a great resource in ArkhamDB where there are a ton of decks that people have built and put online. Typically, I'll look through those for an investigator I'm interested in playing, and either use one of those directly, or tweak it a little to fit my playstyle more.

Cindres · Jan 5, 2018

XShagrath said:
To alleviate your ally concern, each investigator can normally only have one ally at a time, so an individual player's "board" is usually no more than 3-5 cards, although it can be more depending on build.

I'm not super big into deck building either, but there is a great resource in ArkhamDB where there are a ton of decks that people have built and put online. Typically, I'll look through those for an investigator I'm interested in playing, and either use one of those directly, or tweak it a little to fit my playstyle more.

I'll likely give that site a go then, similar to RingsDB for LOTR. For starters is it worth just going by the example decks provided (I assume/believe there are?) for my chosen investigators?

XShagrath · Jan 5, 2018

Cindres said:
I'll likely give that site a go then, similar to RingsDB for LOTR. For starters is it worth just going by the example decks provided (I assume/believe there are?) for my chosen investigators?

If all you have is the core set, then that's really all you can do. The core set investigators are "dual class," so you'll just take all the cards from their two roles, and mash them together along with a few neutral cards. Deckbuilding only becomes an option after buying some more content.

Give the core set a few runs two-handed with the suggested pairs (you can only build certain duos with a single core) and see how you like it. I don't think it's really possible to beat the core scenarios single-handed with only one core. If you're having a good time with what you find in the core, I'll let you know that it only gets better from there. Dunwich was a blast, and Carcosa so far has been absolutely amazing. As with LotR, each expansion pack comes with a new scenario to play, as well as some new player cards (usually two per role).

Cindres · Jan 5, 2018

XShagrath said:
If all you have is the core set, then that's really all you can do. The core set investigators are "dual class," so you'll just take all the cards from their two roles, and mash them together along with a few neutral cards. Deckbuilding only becomes an option after buying some more content.

Give the core set a few runs two-handed with the suggested pairs (you can only build certain duos with a single core) and see how you like it. I don't think it's really possible to beat the core scenarios single-handed with only one core. If you're having a good time with what you find in the core, I'll let you know that it only gets better from there. Dunwich was a blast, and Carcosa so far has been absolutely amazing. As with LotR, each expansion pack comes with a new scenario to play, as well as some new player cards (usually two per role).

That's great, thanks for all the super useful responses. I'll likely be back at some point this weekend with impressions and whatnot :)

dabbert · Jan 5, 2018

I had a dream last night the next mythos pack contained upgraded base investigators for some reason. Roland with 2xp pips but I couldn't read the text because dream lol

Cindres · Jan 7, 2018

I had my first go at the first part of the core scenario last night, I think it went pretty good. I was doing my best to check pretty much every action I was doing as I went on but I did end up abandoning once I got into 3a due to a couple of errors. Not too fussed because I told myself whatever outcome I was going to re-do the scenario anyway before moving on just to make sure I had it all correct (also to be a smoother experience when I don't have to constantly reference the rulebooks).

But as I say I did make a couple of mistakes: (Might be light spoilers in here for The Gathering)
* Missed that triggering a -> action on a card counts as one of your 3 round actions, so the first time I decided to use Roland's .38 to fight I also took 2 other actions, thinking I could just trigger the card action when I fought. Only did this one round so not too bad.
* Forgot to keep an eye on the asset slots - so I had 2 hand items out and wanted a third but then realised I can't bring it out without discarding.
* Big one that led me to abandon: When I moved onto part 2 of the gathering I read the text that says you have to be in the hallway, however I went down to the cellar, defeated an enemy down there which got me a clue token with Roland's ability, then moved up to the attic where a previously spawned ghoul was a-waiting. As I was up there I investigated the clues I needed and got over-excited and used them immediately to get to part 3. It was at this stage as I'm reading the act text that I realised why you need to be in the hallway to progress to part 3... So I'm in the attic with a tough ghoul, the ghoul priest is waiting in the hall and I realise I didn't plan this, so i decided to call it there as I'd done it a bit wrong. Maybe didn't help that my girlfriend and I were also watching The Man In The High Castle at the same time and I consumed a decent amount of whiskey while I was playing.

All in all though super good fun, all the card texts really draw you in to the story/scenario, I can see myself getting into this more over LOTR. Going to attack The Gathering again this afternoon.

One thing I haven't quite been able to figure out: How do I use allies? So I can have one, I know they can take damage, do they just sorta contribute to the things your investigator is doing?

XShagrath · Jan 7, 2018

Cindres said:
...

One thing I haven't quite been able to figure out: How do I use allies? So I can have one, I know they can take damage, do they just sorta contribute to the things your investigator is doing?

Allies can do a variety of different things, so it really depends. Some will give you a passive boost to something (like Leo De Luca giving you an extra action each turn, or the Beat Cop giving you a +1 to your strength/fight). Others might give you an extra action you can take, although the only one in the core set is Cat Burglar. Some will have a free action trigger (the lightning bolt looking thing) that can be done during any timing window, and some have a response (the circle with the arrow) that trigger when some condition is met.

As for their health/sanity at the bottom, you can put any damage you take on them first, unless it is labeled as "direct" on the card. That means it has to to go on the investigator. If an ally ever takes enough damage or horror to bring their health/sanity down to 0, then they get discarded.

I think that covers most of the bases on allies.

As for your first game, that seems fairly normal in the mistakes that you made. There's a lot of moving parts in this game, and they change from scenario to scenario. I don't think I've ever played a scenario right the very first time I played it. This game differs a lot from the way LotR plays. In LotR, most scenarios had the same gameplay loop and you were working towards the same goal in the same ways from quest to quest (mostly). I only played the first two cycles of that game, so that may change later down the road. In Arkham, your goals and the way you get there can be completely different. Maybe you don't even need clues for one scenario. Sometimes you won't get clues through the "normal" investigation methods. This is one of the things I love most about the game, as it keeps me on my toes and I can never get comfortable and always have to adjust my strategies.

Cindres · Jan 7, 2018

XShagrath said:
Allies can do a variety of different things, so it really depends. Some will give you a passive boost to something (like Leo De Luca giving you an extra action each turn, or the Beat Cop giving you a +1 to your strength/fight). Others might give you an extra action you can take, although the only one in the core set is Cat Burglar. Some will have a free action trigger (the lightning bolt looking thing) that can be done during any timing window, and some have a response (the circle with the arrow) that trigger when some condition is met.

As for their health/sanity at the bottom, you can put any damage you take on them first, unless it is labeled as "direct" on the card. That means it has to to go on the investigator. If an ally ever takes enough damage or horror to bring their health/sanity down to 0, then they get discarded.

I think that covers most of the bases on allies.

As for your first game, that seems fairly normal in the mistakes that you made. There's a lot of moving parts in this game, and they change from scenario to scenario. I don't think I've ever played a scenario right the very first time I played it. This game differs a lot from the way LotR plays. In LotR, most scenarios had the same gameplay loop and you were working towards the same goal in the same ways from quest to quest (mostly). I only played the first two cycles of that game, so that may change later down the road. In Arkham, your goals and the way you get there can be completely different. Maybe you don't even need clues for one scenario. Sometimes you won't get clues through the "normal" investigation methods. This is one of the things I love most about the game, as it keeps me on my toes and I can never get comfortable and always have to adjust my strategies.

Okay I think that clears up the allies, I don't know why I thought there was more to it, I guess they're just an asset like any other item except they've got the health and sanity too.

Also just perusing some rules again I think I blundered in that I thought your skill had to be higher than the thing you're checking against. I know there was at least 1 occasion where I had skill = test value and thought I'd lost for some reason. That one's right there in the rule -.-

XShagrath · Jan 7, 2018

Cindres said:
Okay I think that clears up the allies, I don't know why I thought there was more to it, I guess they're just an asset like any other item except they've got the health and sanity too.

Also just perusing some rules again I think I blundered in that I thought your skill had to be higher than the thing you're checking against. I know there was at least 1 occasion where I had skill = test value and thought I'd lost for some reason. That one's right there in the rule -.-

Also another one to easily screw up the first few times is that your skill value cannot go below 0. So, say you're investigating at a location with a shroud 2, and you use the action on Flashlight that reduces the shroud by 2 for that test. The only way you could fail at that point is by drawing the tentacle token.

Cindres · Jan 7, 2018

XShagrath said:
Also another one to easily screw up the first few times is that your skill value cannot go below 0. So, say you're investigating at a location with a shroud 2, and you use the action on Flashlight that reduces the shroud by 2 for that test. The only way you could fail at that point is by drawing the tentacle token.

Haha yeah I actually read that one just earlier today on reddit. Definitely never saw that in the rules.

EDIT: Whew, 2nd go I didn't manage to get to part 3. Was overwhelmed by ghoouuuls. Thinking maybe I should go in two handed. Think I'm gonna take one more crack but knock it down to easy.
Early in the game I was stuck in the study because I got the Obscuring Fog which made investigating very hard and I probably had to spend like 3 more rounds in there than I would have otherwise.

trapperkreeper · Jan 9, 2018

I saw this got announced, https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/1/9/return-to-the-night-of-the-zealot/

It would be nice if it was a box for all 3 current campaigns instead lol

XShagrath · Jan 9, 2018

I don't really need the storage, but I welcome the new cards. It's probably similar to the Nightmare decks from LOTR.

trapperkreeper · Jan 9, 2018

XShagrath said:
I don't really need the storage, but I welcome the new cards. It's probably similar to the Nightmare decks from LOTR.

Yeah I don't think the storage is useful if its that limited, I am not familiar with the nightmare decks since I didn't follow the LOTR game

XShagrath · Jan 9, 2018

trapperkreeper said:
Yeah I don't think the storage is useful if its that limited, I am not familiar with the nightmare decks since I didn't follow the LOTR game

I got out of LOTR before they implemented Nightmare decks. From what I understand, they are some alternate encounter set cards for a quest/scenario to make it more difficult (as if that game needed it). They did not include new player cards, so this differs from that quite a bit.

This article says there are 20 new player cards. I hope that means 2x of 10 different cards, as I don't want to buy two of these for a single playset.

Deleted member 4452 · Jan 9, 2018

I'll probably skip on Return to the Night of the Zealots and just invest that money on getting new deluxe expansions instead. An upgraded campaign and new players sounds cool, but not sure it's worth the price. Unless it's really cheap!

Matttimeo · Jan 9, 2018

I don't mind them remaking earlier scenarios, but I do wish they waited perhaps a little longer before doing so. I want to return the Zealot campaign with it having been perfected by designers with the experience of three to four complete campaigns under their belt rather then just the Dunwich and Carcosa we have now. Giving the game more time to mature could allow this and further remakes room to really shine. Oh well, I will enjoy the player cards and storage options at least. I am currently awful at card storage.

Cindres · Jan 9, 2018

Just scanning that announcement, is it both the core set and the upgraded version of the core scenario?

XShagrath · Jan 9, 2018

Cindres said:
Just scanning that announcement, is it both the core set and the upgraded version of the core scenario?

This is only the upgraded stuff. Retail on it is only $24.95, so probably ~$20 from an online store.

46 new encounter cards, 20 new player cards, and 18 divider cards.

Cindres · Jan 9, 2018

XShagrath said:
This is only the upgraded stuff. Retail on it is only $24.95, so probably ~$20 from an online store.

46 new encounter cards, 20 new player cards, and 18 divider cards.

Ahh makes sense.

Update on my progress, I went through The Gathering one more time on Sunday and told myself whatever the outcome - this is what I stick with. Absolutely flew through to the 3rd act this time, had a plan on how I was going to deal with the Ghoul Priest. I was sitting with a good amount of health left and I was on 3/5 horror. Had plans to take control of Lita (hopefully) and utilise her + my guard dog to take the fucker down. Sadly my agenda draw required a willpower check or take horror (can't remember the card's name) and thanks to a poor skill draw I failed hard and went insane... Was so damned close. Looking forward to seeing what part 2 of the scenario has in store anyway, my progress there will determine if I go straight back and make Wendy's deck.

Nappuccino · Jan 10, 2018

Do you all have any thoughts about using the Dunwich characters for the base-game's scenarios? It seems like it'd be much easier to deck build, since you aren't splitting classes. But, do you need to play pairings well or can you just kinda ride with whatever characters feel cool to you? I'm asking mostly because if I start playing with some of my other friends, I'd like to have different characters for each set of playthroughs . . . That seems the best way to keep things fresh for me.

Deleted member 4452 · Jan 10, 2018

You can mix and match any characters or player cards with any campaign.

Nappuccino · Jan 10, 2018

Llyranor said:
You can mix and match any characters or player cards with any campaign.

Awesome! Good to know.

As a side note, are there any articles about why the core investigators have split classes, but they ditched that idea for the expansion investigators? I'm guessing it was just to let deck building be a bit easier, but it also seems to me that adding split investigators in the expansions would have made more sense, since you'd finally have more cards to play with without buying two core sets.

XShagrath · Jan 10, 2018

Nappuccino said:
Awesome! Good to know.

As a side note, are there any articles about why the core investigators have split classes, but they ditched that idea for the expansion investigators? I'm guessing it was just to let deck building be a bit easier, but it also seems to me that adding split investigators in the expansions would have made more sense, since you'd finally have more cards to play with without buying two core sets.

It was the easiest way to make decks with the cards in the core set. Just mash together all of the cards from two classes.

The deck building restrictions on the Carcosa Investigators are all different, so there's not a "theme" per campaign.

nicoga3000 · Jan 10, 2018

Ordered the core set just now! Be here on Friday...Going to read the rules to get a feel for it! I'm excited about the prospect of it being a deck evolving game versus a deck building game. LotR was fun, but I got sick of having to build my deck every single scenario.

Malverde · Jan 14, 2018

Thought I would share the storage/organization method I have been using with everyone. It is pretty much just an engraved long box I got from Etsy along with some dividers I made. The dividers were made with 3x5 cards that I had to cut a bit to fit in the box. My printer sucks though and so all the dividers are slightly creased in the exact same spot. Not a big deal to me as they serve their function. I also ended up sleeving pretty much everything except for the player deck cards. For the investigators, I ended up using some hard plastic holders to give them that little extra (Ultra Pro Premium Toploaders).

For the player deck cards I just put them into a normal 3-ring binder. It creates a nice "store" when upgrading cards or creating a deck rather than simply rummaging through a big stack of cards. Cards are sleeved as they are taken out so rather than need a million sleeves for player cards I only need about 33 per player.

Malverde · Jan 15, 2018

I played through Curse of the Rougarou for the first time today as a side quest in Night of the Zealot and it was super easy.

By the time the Rougarou appeared I had Zoey's Cross, Lita Chantler, Physical Training, and a Machete in play, along with a Taunt in my hand. Taunt engaged the beast with me, which led to the cross hitting him once. Then, hitting with the machete plus Lita twice gave six more damage for a total of 7 in one turn. Then my brother hit him with a stick of dynamite and that was that. Dude went out like a chump.

Matttimeo · Jan 15, 2018

DarthOrange said:
I played through Curse of the Rougarou for the first time today as a side quest in Night of the Zealot and it was super easy.

By the time the Rougarou appeared I had Zoey's Cross, Lita Chantler, Physical Training, and a Machete in play, along with a Taunt in my hand. Taunt engaged the beast with me, which led to the cross hitting him once. Then, hitting with the machete plus Lita twice gave six more damage for a total of 7 in one turn. Then my brother hit him with a stick of dynamite and that was that. Dude went out like a chump.

Shouldn't he have ran away after you hit him once? I may be missing something so apologise if that is the case, but with two investigators he runs after taking two points of damage in a single phase and with your cross slap and machete hit that easily take him over that limit before you would get your 2nd attack in.

Cindres · Jan 15, 2018

I have a general question regarding combat, I feel like I've got a good handle on the game now but I think the biggest issue I'm hitting at the moment is dealing with enemies.

Basically, what's the best way to deal with enemies? Should I just go in 2-handed so I can double-team them? (only really effective where the enemy doesn't have health/combat power per investigator). I tried scenario 2 from the core set last night and I ended up with the bloody Ghoul Priest chasing me, one of the cultists and

the cultist from the back of the first agenda card

. I mean I know the Ghoul Priest is a bit of a bastard anyway and it's unfortunate he showed up so early on. I had another ghoul to deal with before that and though I did dispatch him it took a couple of turns and in that time I could have had another spawn.

DarthOrange said:
Thought I would share the storage/organization method I have been using with everyone. It is pretty much just an engraved long box I got from Etsy along with some dividers I made. The dividers were made with 3x5 cards that I had to cut a bit to fit in the box. My printer sucks though and so all the dividers are slightly creased in the exact same spot. Not a big deal to me as they serve their function. I also ended up sleeving pretty much everything except for the player deck cards. For the investigators, I ended up using some hard plastic holders to give them that little extra (Ultra Pro Premium Toploaders).

For the player deck cards I just put them into a normal 3-ring binder. It creates a nice "store" when upgrading cards or creating a deck rather than simply rummaging through a big stack of cards. Cards are sleeved as they are taken out so rather than need a million sleeves for player cards I only need about 33 per player.

That's a real nice solution. I want to get something like that sorted out. Was going to do it for LOTR at one point but I'm not sure I'll be keeping hold of it...

Malverde · Jan 15, 2018

Matttimeo said:
Shouldn't he have ran away after you hit him once? I may be missing something so apologise if that is the case, but with two investigators he runs after taking two points of damage in a single phase and with your cross slap and machete hit that easily take him over that limit before you would get your 2nd attack in.

Damn you might be right.

I read it as he leaves at the end of the phase (meaning that he leaves at the end of the investigator phase). Reading over it again I can see that it probably is supposed to immediately leave after two damage, meaning I only would have gotten the first hit in. Dynamite would have hit anyway though, and we weren't sweating anything else so I don't think the outcome would have been different, just delayed by a few turns until I could get a clue (or draw another taunt) and reengage.

I feel like every time I play through this game I find out I am doing something wrong. Sometimes in my favor, sometimes not. First few times I played I thought that all enemies always moved towards investigators every turn (including non-hunters), which led to quite a bit of frustration. I also thought that the mulligan meant that you had to toss your whole hand aside to get a new one. Still having fun as I make sense of the rules along the way.

Matttimeo · Jan 15, 2018

DarthOrange said:
I also thought that the mulligan meant that you had to toss your whole hand aside to get a new one. Still having fun as I make sense of the rules along the way.

I totally did that too. One of my groups has a strong Netrunner heritage so in our minds mulligan meant completely new hand. We never quite sat down and actually read the rules properly. My first few games were mega hard and unpredictable for that reason.

XShagrath · Jan 15, 2018

Cindres said:
I have a general question regarding combat, I feel like I've got a good handle on the game now but I think the biggest issue I'm hitting at the moment is dealing with enemies.

Basically, what's the best way to deal with enemies? Should I just go in 2-handed so I can double-team them? (only really effective where the enemy doesn't have health/combat power per investigator). I tried scenario 2 from the core set last night and I ended up with the bloody Ghoul Priest chasing me, one of the cultists and

the cultist from the back of the first agenda card

. I mean I know the Ghoul Priest is a bit of a bastard anyway and it's unfortunate he showed up so early on. I had another ghoul to deal with before that and though I did dispatch him it took a couple of turns and in that time I could have had another spawn.

You really need to play to the strengths of the investigator. Most enemies are stronger in one category than another, so sometimes it makes sense to just evade them and run away (especially if they don't have hunter). Going two-handed can help, as you won't have to spread yourself so thin. I don't remember which sets you have, but Rex and Zoey is a beast of a team, and for core set, Roland and Wendy pair up rather nicely. If you've got two cores, Roland and Daisy would probably be an ever better duo for the core set 'gators.

Cindres · Jan 15, 2018

XShagrath said:
You really need to play to the strengths of the investigator. Most enemies are stronger in one category than another, so sometimes it makes sense to just evade them and run away (especially if they don't have hunter). Going two-handed can help, as you won't have to spread yourself so thin. I don't remember which sets you have, but Rex and Zoey is a beast of a team, and for core set, Roland and Wendy pair up rather nicely. If you've got two cores, Roland and Daisy would probably be an ever better duo for the core set 'gators.

I just have one core set at the moment.

If I'm mainly evading then what of the problem of having many enemies piling up?

XShagrath · Jan 15, 2018

Cindres said:
I just have one core set at the moment.

If I'm mainly evading then what of the problem of having many enemies piling up?

That will also be a problem. :)

All investigators should have some ways of dealing with everything they need to deal with. So maybe someone like Wendy isn't that strong of a fighter, but you throw in Baseball Bat or Fire Axe to get in a couple hits when it's crucial. So, you might kill some weaker enemies like Rats, and leave the larger ones alone if they're going to be too troublesome.

The Ghoul Priest shouldn't be that hard on solo if you can get into the Parlor and grab Lita. After that, it's only going to take two hits with a +1 weapon to take him out (on true solo) and not have to worry about him in the later scenarios of the core.
[/spoiler

Cindres · Jan 16, 2018

Fucking hell. I was just scanning the rules again as I was restarting The Gathering. I just realised i forgot to bring the attack of opportunity in to effect this whole time and that I can do any action as many times - so I can attack 3 times in a turn if I so pleased, right?

XShagrath · Jan 16, 2018

Cindres said:
Fucking hell. I was just scanning the rules again as I was restarting The Gathering. I just realised i forgot to bring the attack of opportunity in to effect this whole time and that I can do any action as many times - so I can attack 3 times in a turn if I so pleased, right?

That is correct. You can swing three times with no consequences, unless that enemy has Retaliate.

From the Rules reference:

Attacks of Opportunity - Each time an investigator is engaged with one or more ready enemies and takes an action other than to fight, to evade, or to activate a parley or resign ability, each of those enemies makes an attack of opportunity against the investigator, in the order of the investigator's choosing.

Retaliate - Each time an investigator fails a skill test while attacking a ready enemy with the retaliate keyword, after applying all results for that skill test, that enemy performs an attack against the attacking investigator. An enemy does not exhaust after performing a retaliate attack.

So, using the Ghoul Priest as an example (I don't think he's a spoiler at this point), you could attack 3 times with each investigator. Any failed checks would have that investigator taking 2 damage and 2 horror, and then if the Priest is not dead, it would attack the investigator he is engaged with during the Enemy Phase, doing an additional 2 & 2. Also, keep in mind that if you are attacking an enemy not engaged with you, and you miss, then you hit the investigator the enemy is engaged with instead. This can be really brutal for enemies with Retaliate. So, say you shoot at the Ghoul Priest with your .45 Automatic, and miss. You just lost an ammo, shot your partner for 2 damage, and then took 2 & 2 from the Ghoul Priest.

Moral of the story: If you're going to attack enemies not engaged with you, be really sure you're going to hit!

nicoga3000 · Jan 16, 2018

Does an Attack of Opportunity happen when you play cards or trigger abilities, too?

Matttimeo · Jan 16, 2018

Cindres said:
Fucking hell. I was just scanning the rules again as I was restarting The Gathering. I just realised i forgot to bring the attack of opportunity in to effect this whole time and that I can do any action as many times - so I can attack 3 times in a turn if I so pleased, right?

Yeah, you can attack as many times as you have actions (thanks Leo), you can move three times, investigate, play cards, draw cards, all that jazz three times if you want. Preforming a particular action in a single phase doesn't stop you doing it again as long as you can spend the required costs.

nicoga3000 said:
Does an Attack of Opportunity happen when you play cards or trigger abilities, too?

Generally attacks of opportunity happen when you play cards yes. The thing that is triggering them is the investigator spending an action that isn't fight, evade, parley or retire. Play cards is not one of those actions so AoO triggers. The exception is fast cards because they don't cost an action to play they don't provoke AoO (plus a few cards will specifically say they don't, but that is clearly listed on the card). Free trigger abilities (the lightning symbol) and reaction abilities (curly arrow) don't provoke AoO.

XShagrath · Jan 16, 2018

nicoga3000 said:
Does an Attack of Opportunity happen when you play cards or trigger abilities, too?

Anything that costs an action other than those listed ones does trigger that AoO. Cards with "fast" or free actions (the lightning bolt) will not trigger that AoO.

nicoga3000 · Jan 16, 2018

XShagrath said:
Anything that costs an action other than those listed ones does trigger that AoO. Cards with "fast" or free actions (the lightning bolt) will not trigger that AoO.

Interesting. Maybe I should ask a few questions here because playing the intro scenario last night had me super confused. The rules seem to skip, forget to mention, or hide really well certain pieces of info.

With the AoO clarification, it seems to me that you're encouraged to attack and kill the enemy or attempt to escape in order to avoid taking repeated damage.
When you are attacked, you simply take the health or sanity damage unmitigated?
If you have an ally, you can choose to assign damage to them when you fail an attack or when you're attacked, right?
If an ally is going to soak damage (say, 20 damage) and they only have 1 health, the other 19 goes to the ether. No need to assign it elsewhere?
An ally cannot take horror if they have a "dash" for max sanity, correct?
If you flee from an enemy, do they stay engaged or do they remain at the location?

XShagrath · Jan 16, 2018

nicoga3000 said:
Interesting. Maybe I should ask a few questions here because playing the intro scenario last night had me super confused. The rules seem to skip, forget to mention, or hide really well certain pieces of info.

With the AoO clarification, it seems to me that you're encouraged to attack and kill the enemy or attempt to escape in order to avoid taking repeated damage.

You are correct. If you're trying to kill the enemy, then I'd suggest starting your turn off with attacks and hoping you kill it. If you have to, you might try to evade it on your last action to avoid it attacking you. If you're going to evade, then I would do that as my first action, which can help dictate what the rest of your turn will look like.

When you are attacked, you simply take the health or sanity damage unmitigated?

Typically, yes. There are cards that can prevent damage, but they are few and far between. More often, there are cards that allow you to heal (such as Liquid Courage and First Aid).

If you have an ally, you can choose to assign damage to them when you fail an attack or when you're attacked, right?

That is correct. You can do this with any damage or horror you take, unless it is direct damage or horror.

If an ally is going to soak damage (say, 20 damage) and they only have 1 health, the other 19 goes to the ether. No need to assign it elsewhere?

There is no damage that goes off into the ether. If you take 20 damage, probably everyone on your player board is dead. Say you take 4 damage though, and you have an unwounded Guard Dog out. You could place 3 damage on the Guard Dog, and then 1 on your investigator. Additionally, you could then use the reaction trigger on Guard Dog to hit the enemy for 1.

An ally cannot take horror if they have a "dash" for max sanity, correct?

That is correct. And as soon as they take their max in either category, they are discarded.

If you flee from an enemy, do they stay engaged or do they remain at the location?

An enemy will stay engaged with you when you move, unless they are exhausted. Once an enemy engages you, he will be in your threat area (your personal play space). If evaded, he goes back to the location and does not get to attack or move (if hunter) that turn. The exception to this would be Massive enemies, as they cannot leave the location they are at, unless another card explicitly tells it to.

I think I answered everything. There's a lot to this game, and even after 45 plays or so, I'm still screwing things up (especially as new scenarios add new things that change the way the game works). Don't worry about getting everything perfect the first time you run a scenario.

Matttimeo · Jan 16, 2018

nicoga3000 said:
Interesting. Maybe I should ask a few questions here because playing the intro scenario last night had me super confused. The rules seem to skip, forget to mention, or hide really well certain pieces of info.

With the AoO clarification, it seems to me that you're encouraged to attack and kill the enemy or attempt to escape in order to avoid taking repeated damage.

When you are attacked, you simply take the health or sanity damage unmitigated?

If you have an ally, you can choose to assign damage to them when you fail an attack or when you're attacked, right?

If an ally is going to soak damage (say, 20 damage) and they only have 1 health, the other 19 goes to the ether. No need to assign it elsewhere?

An ally cannot take horror if they have a "dash" for max sanity, correct?

If you flee from an enemy, do they stay engaged or do they remain at the location?

Yeah, the rules are a bit tricky at times. Attacks of opportunity and the method spending player cards to boost skill checks are the two things that come up a lot of times in rules confusion. The learn to play could have done a better job breaking those down.

They is no clear cut way you should always be playing Arkham Horror, but generally yea you never want to take AoO. If you think you can take an enemy, kill them or if they are a bit much then run (and shout at a mate to help out).
You take the damage and horror unmitigated. Bascially you are given damage and horror tokens equal to the numbers on the enemy card and told to do something with them, majority of the time they will go live on your investigator card but sometimes you may have an asset to help out with that.
Yes, if you have an ally you can assign damage to them. Just be aware you don't usually take an attack if you fail an attack action yourself (unless the foe has retaliate).
Sorry, assets can only take damage equal to their health. So that remaining 19 damage is going to your investigator or any other asset you may have.
Yup, they can only soak if they have a number there.
When you successful evade you intermediately disengage from the enemy (they leave your threat area and go back to just chilling at your location) and they become exhausted.

Curses! XS is always 5 minutes ahead of me! Oh well, at least you get two perspectives which hopefully help.

XShagrath · Jan 16, 2018

Matttimeo said:
Curses! XS is always 5 minutes ahead of me! Oh well, at least you get two perspectives which hopefully help.

:)

What else am I gonna do when I'm at work? Can't actually play the game, so might as well talk about it.

Don't know if you guys are on the BG ERA discord, but I'm almost always on there and can answer questions as well. Hit me up if you need a link.

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