Arkham Horror: The Card Game – Two player game – The Gathering

Ok, so following my single player attempt at playing through Arkham Horror: The Card Game, I managed to convince my friend Stuart to give the game a go with me. I allowed Stuart to select a character to play as; he opted to play as Daisy (Seeker class) and following that I then selected to play as Skids (Rogue class). Just as my single player experience, we set up the first scenario as described in the learn to play guide and set to work at discovering the mysteries of the mythos.

I will admit to having the edge this time having already played through the campaign in the single player game, however this was a great chance to see how adding an additional player to the game would impact the difficulty and the impact of the encounter deck.

Act 1: Study:

Of course this part of the game became harder with having two investigators in the room, however despite the encounter deck throwing out two bad guys to fight me managed to avoid them and escape the study within 2 turns. Both of us advancing to the next step in the scenario pretty much injury free.

Act 2: Hallway / Attic / Basement:

This part of the game was actually considerably easier than I thought it would be as both of us managed to secure a room each to uncover the clues there, also managing to set ourselves up for a bit of a fight as I knew what was coming up in the next part of the scenario. We then moved back into the hallway with our 6 clues to complete Act 2.

Act 3: Hallway / Attic / Basement / Parlor:

Thank god I had back up In this instance, Stu managed to move into the parlor to negotiate the inclusion of our mysterious red-headed ally in the fight against the “Ghoul Priest” and this move probably resulted in us finishing the scenario alive. It took our allies aid, a machete and a successful attack to finish off the “Ghoul Priest”, this allowed us to complete the scenario.

This played very differently than my single player experience, for multiple reasons too. The chaos bag always throws a spanner in the works, however this time I drew the Elder Symbol on two occasions allowing me to gain the resources I needed to use my ability, spend 2 resources to gain an action and boy did I use them to my advantage. Stuart’s character was really useful for the investigation elements of the scenario and I pretty much handled the fighting. I allowed Stuart to select our ending as I knew what would happen already. He opted for ending 1, which meant we burned our house down to stop the evil trying to break into our world from escaping.

After having a discussion about what to do next, Stuart and I opted to continue the campaign at a later date with the existing characters, experience and traumas we had accrued while playing this scenario. We both had gained 5 experience points to use with our characters, and this allowed us to make a couple of adjustments to our decks before packing away until we next get a chance to play. I am quite looking forward to moving forward in the campaign and how the game develops in the next step of the campaign story.

Don’t worry, I will be posting a report of the next phase of the campaign once it has been played out. If you are interested in giving this game a go, I recommend getting yourself to Watchtower Games in Crewe or to your local friendly gaming store and see if this is the type of game you can get into.

Thanks for reading.

I’m Big Boss..... I’m out..... Peace.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game - 1 player review - Chapter 1 - The Gathering.

Ok so following the huge level of excitement building up to the release of this game, I finally have a copy in my possession. I opted to build the Roland Banks starter deck recommended by the learn to play guide and decided to give the game a go in the 1 player format mainly to get a feel for the game and how it played, once I can confirm a set number of people interested in doing an actual campaign game I will actually start noting experience points. Please note I have not gone into too much detail about the story as I don't want to spoil the plot.

The Study:

So the game starts with your character locked in a study while investigating the strange goings on in Arkham, I figured I wanted to run through the game with a great deal of haste as to avoid the impending dangers of the Encounter deck. Sadly I did end up having an enemy in the study with me, but managed to escape the study before the bad guy managed to attack me, so all was good.

The Hallway / Attic / Basement:

Ok so I did my best to run through chapter 2 of this mission, however the encounter deck threw me a couple of big curveballs which really hindered me and I also forgot my characters ability which would have helped me to no end during my investigations in the basement. However with a bit of damage and some mental trauma I managed to get enough clues to move forward in the mission.

The Hallway / Attic / Basement / Parlor:

Ok so I hadn’t really thought too much about my health and mental trauma until this part of the game, but boy did it come crashing home that I needed to act fast to stop myself being killed! However luck actually sided with me and despite the encounter deck really throwing me some bad luck I managed to injure the “boss” of the game the Ghoul Priest with an attack, move to the adjacent location and blow up the room containing the Ghoul Priest which allowed me to finish the first part of the Night of the Zealot campaign.

I did have a quick peak of the results from the game, for example how much experience I would have had and the result of the game. Sadly my investigator ended up going insane, which was a bit sad. However I found the experience quite interesting and I am looking forward to playing it with another player to try and expand on the co-operative element of the game.

The Good:

1.       Really enjoyed how I was taking a beating, it felt like I was actually fighting against the mythos with a good chance of them actually beating me back and that was quite refreshing when compared to games like Warhammer 40,000 Conquest, where I could avoid taking damage.

2.       The chaos bag really brought a new level to my experience, even when I took on a test where I had little chance of failing, I still managed to pull the instant loss token.

3.       The guardian class, thank god they have an explosive that allows you to deal 3 points of damage to everything in the current room or adjacent room! That single card pretty much allowed me to survive the game.

The Bad:

1.       As my pal Chris pointed out when he wrote a bit about the game, the box is a little out of place, you would think Fantasy Flight would come up with a suitable box for a game like this. I would think something like the DC deck building game or the Resident Evil deck building game would make sense.

2.       Too many tokens, feels like I spent at least 20 minutes separating the tokens out and I still am unaware of what a couple of them are even for.

3.       I understand that the actions are limited to 3 for a reason; however I actually felt like I only really used the move and investigate actions during my investigation.

To conclude, just from the quick run through I played with Rowland Banks, I am now sure I want to play as Skids O’Toole moving forward, I like the combat element of the guardian and the fact it saved my skin at the end, however I really want to play as the rogue class too, so this fits in perfectly with Skids deck restrictions.

I am hoping to actually get a campaign together with a couple of mates and give this game a real spin and maybe even ramp up the difficulty once I have gotten a real feel for the game. Fingers crossed we wont fall victim to mythos in the process.

Thanks for reading, if you are interested in getting into Arkham Horror: The Card Game, then I would get yourself down to Watchtower Games in Crewe or to your friendly local gaming store to try the game for yourself.

I’m Big Boss.... I’m out... Peace

My excitement for Arkham Horror : The Card Game

The impending release of this game has provided me with a muse to write a piece.

Since I heard about this game I have been anxiously awaiting its release, I even picked up the complete works of H.P Lovecraft from iBooks for 40p (Bargain btw) and since then I have read pretty much everything anybody has written about this game.

What attracts me to this game?

Well that’s easily answered, I love the concept of the mythos behind the stories Lovecraft wrote, The Ancient Ones, mysterious ghouls and cults working behind the scenes to bring Armageddon to the world. The fact the characters in the books are just people, no sign of a superhero or heroine anywhere, just regular people who often don’t make it out alive after being exposed to the mythos. The idea of jumping into this universe and being able to delve into the darkness of the mythos is too an exciting prospect.

What am I most looking forward to about playing Arkham Horror: The Card Game?

After the article from Fantasy Flight Games discussing the classes of characters you are able to play as in the game itself I salivated at the thought of playing as the Rogue or Survivor class characters. As the game tries to bring the RPG format to an LCG game, the ability to submerse yourself in a single character and be involved in how the game actually progresses or your character progresses through the game itself. The Survivor and Rogue classes most appealed to me.

The Rogue class (Skids O'Toole) feels like a good fit for the character I would like to portray, a character that is able and willing to help the team effort, however is really out to advance their own agenda in the process. 

 

While the survivor class (Wendy Adams) I find appealing as it utilises the human desire to live and from just reading the cards I dare to spoil for myself I can see this class being a lot of fun to pilot.

What am I not looking forward to about playing Arkham Horror: The Card Game?

I have a feeling this game may just end up being a consistent 1-2 player game for me and I am a little worried about the replay value from the core box alone. I am interested in picking up the first cycle at least to see how the game develops in the first almost critical cycle. Another thing that worries me is the chaos token bag; I have always found myself at odds with games that have a HUGE luck factor involved in them such as Warhammer 40,000. The randomness is often a real hindrance to peoples play experience and all the planning / thought that went to their army list or deck construction. However this is also an exciting element and brings a real feel of the horrors that await you in the game and I figure that’s what the game developers wanted from this.

The game is due out in the UK on the 10^th November 2016 by all accounts and I am pumped to say the least. I am hoping it becomes a game I want to buy into, maybe even convince my mates to jump in with me and enjoy the campaign team game.

I am planning on doing a review of the games first campaign part once I have my own copy of the game and I am able to see how it all plays out.

if you are interested in learning more about this game then check out the game page on the Fantasy Flight website - link below.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/arkham-horror-the-card-game/

Till then…. I’m Big Boss…. I’m out…. Peace!!