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Saturday 12 November 2016

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

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