Arkham Horror: The Card Game - The Circle Undone Chapter 2: On Death’s Doorstep

I haven’t written anything Arkham Horror related in some time, so I wanted to put together something about our most recent game. Solely because of how much I enjoyed it. This scenario was tough, yet it felt like everything came together really nicely and we saw some awesome little moments. One that jumps to mind is Stuart managed to end the game with 34 resources as Preston Fairmont.

To set the scene for you. The prologue to this campaign involves 4 characters which essentially are destined to be defeated; no one gets out alive in this story. Following this the wealthy philanthropist Preston Fairmont (Stuart) decided he wanted to learn more about what happened. Then having discussed the matter in depth with his psychologist Carolyn Fern (Shaun), it was suggested that he put together a team or professionals to look into the strange disappearances. Preston proceeded to hire the services of Joe Diamond (Josh), a private investigator with a great reputation for solving tough cases and Tony Morgan (Me), a bounty hunter whose tracking skills have resulted in some well known fugitives being brought in.

After we encountered a coven of witches trying to cast a spell, we have been left puzzled as to what is going on and how these disappearances fit into this. Luckily our wealthy patron Preston has managed to get our names onto the guest list for the next big event hosted by the Twilight Lodge.

So, we have found ourselves at the Silver Twilight Lodge’s latest charity ball, only a short time after their previous event resulted in multiple attendees disappearing without a trace (see prologue chapter of campaign). Our goal was to snoop around to locate any evidence to help in our search for those 4 missing people and perhaps an indication of what happened to them.

Our party started in the Entry Hall, with us quickly splitting up to search the rooms where the missing victims had last been seen. The Balcony, The Office, The Victorian Halls and the Billiard Room. The Act deck would not advance until we were instructed to do so, therefore, we opted to hurry to discover as many clues as we could before a sudden game effect would cause us to advance.

The agenda deck would advance first, causing us to read the scenario’s interlude chapter. Following this we were on the trail of 3 of the 4 missing people, I have a feeling we may have lost one of them to the powers of the mythos. After the interlude, the Act deck advanced, causing us to become prey to the horrific circumstances that the prologue investigators fell victim too, although this time, we are more prepared than they were.

Carolyn managed to convince the senior Twilight Lodge member Josef Meiger that we were not responsible for this situation, slowing the doom piling up. I then focused on holding off the Spectral Watcher, the recurring villain from the prologue scenario. Meanwhile Joe and Preston worked hard to find a way out of the estate. Luckily with Carolyn’s assistance, we managed to find an exit to the estate and began directing the remaining members of the Twilight Lodge out the exit. Once we secured their escape route, we followed them out the door to obtain resolution 1 of this scenario.

Following our escape we were confronted by the leader of the Silver Twilight lodge and his entourage.  Following them identifying Preston as one of their own and Josef Meiger promoting us as his saviours, we were offered the chance for us all to become members of the Silver Twilight Lodge. We listened to the advice of our lead investigator, Preston (Stuart), who recommended we join their efforts to get to the bottom of this whole mess and we opted to join the lodge.

We managed to walk away from the game with 7 additional experience points each, 5 from the scenario itself and an additional 2 bonus experience after rescuing Josef Meiger from the perils of his own house.

I am actually really excited about this campaign, the story is really cool so far and it feels like we may have just got ourselves caught up in a rivalry between a coven of witches and the Silver Twilight Lodge. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this story plays out and how us joining the lodge will impact our ability to move forward when bumping into the witches again.

I’m Big Boss...... I’m Out...... Peace

Marvel Champions - The Card Game: Initial Thoughts, Feelings and Emotions

So when this game was announced I was really excited. As an avid player of the Arkham Horror LCG (living card game), I was super happy to see Fantasy Flight Games were going to make a similar co-operative card game using the Marvel IP. I quite enjoyed moving away from competitive games to focus more on co-operative playing games instead, as I have always enjoyed team work and being able to be more relaxed when playing games. This game is also unique as it breaks away from FFG’s usual sales tactic of only releasing enough cards in a core box to give you a taster, if you want a better experience you need to purchase multiple core sets instead. With one of these core sets, you have enough to play the game with 4 people.

First Impressions:

Well the box looked pretty standard. However, upon opening the box did I get the huge surprise to see an actual plastic insert instead of the usual throwaway cardboard insert.

In terms of content though. We have plenty of tokens, lots of cards, a rules reference guide, a quick play guide and I can’t get over that plastic insert. I was legitimately worried about storing these cards and it’s so refreshing to see the box have more use than with previous Fantasy Flight Games releases.

The one thing that did strike me here was the dials, the holes feel almost too small, and I actually think I did damage to them while putting them together, which could have been avoided. The tokens themselves feel pretty standard; I can see these lasting a bit longer than my Arkham Horror LCG tokens, if only because this game won’t see as much play as Arkham Horror LCG. However, if you are planning to really get into this game, I would consider finding some acrylic tokens somewhere to replace these ones pretty sharpish.

In terms of value for money, this game was £45 with postage. I don’t need to buy another core to get a full set and this sits just fine with me. I can pick up odd packs here and there to get specific heroes and villains that I want to play too. 

Set Up:

Well the box comes with 2 pre-built decks for you to trial the game. Spiderman and Captain Marvel are your weapons of choice. The game also comes with pre-built bad guy for you to tackle too, Rhino. I opted to play as Spiderman, only really because I don’t like Captain Marvel that much and with the bad guy being Rhino, Spiderman felt more related story wise.

The quick play guide included with the game was really well done too; I didn’t get confused or lost during the games set up, as it made everything really clear for me. The only thing missing from the learn to play guide was what to do when your deck ran out, luckily this is noted in the main rule book. The game actually looks a little bare once it is ready to go, however this was due mainly to me playing solo.

Game play:

This game certainly makes you think in terms of game play, having to discard cards to pay for cards is a challenge in itself. However does bring a level of urgency to the game, you have to decide what’s more important for your strategy at that time. I pretty much went for damage dealing abilities and abilities that let me generate resources, which worked well, for a time anyway.

The different effects in the game flip from your “alter ego” and your “hero” personas, so it’s also important you are balancing which abilities can be used with each part of your character. There was a couple of instances where I had to flip from Spiderman to Peter Parker, so I could heal up and get another couple of costly cards out. However again this feels right as it’s not uncommon for the hero to take a time out to recoup and rethink their plan when dealing with a certain enemy.

How did it all go?

Well, I lost. Ha. I would however like to say that this was so close, had I lasted one more turn, I would have won. I think this also is a nice thematically to how the stories sometimes go. The first part of the game was going so well for me, and then the encounter deck started hitting me with some nasty effects and boosting Rhino’s stats. I would have limped into another round, however the encounter deck forced me to spawn my hero specific nemesis cards and this spelled doom for me at this stage sadly.

The combination of Vulture and Rhino was just too much for Spiderman to tackle. So Rhino managed to complete his evil scheme to win the game.


I even went as far as replaying the game with Captain Marvel to see how she played out, I’ll say that I either played it wrong, or she is insanely good using the Aggression aspect. I was dealing out up to 15 points of damage in one turn, quickly disposing of Rhino and his fiendish schemes.

Final Thoughts:

Despite the first game loss, I am excited by this game; it was simple and flowed really well. It felt very thematic in terms of a comic book story or movie, and having to alter from hero to alter ego emphasised this too.

For the price you pay you get a game for 1 to 4 players, based on an IP that most people will recognise or know about. The game is really simple with the learn to play guide doing a great job of teaching you how to play and keeping it simple for new players. Highly recommended.