Arkham Horror: The Card Game – 4 Player Review- The Devourer Below

So we finally got a time when we could all sit down to play the third and final chapter of the Night of the Zealot campaign contained within the Arkham Horror: The Card Game core set. I had been a bit naughty and caught a glimpse of the scenario on YouTube prior to us playing, but did not manage to get a proper look at the horrors to come.

To set the scene I took the role of Skids ‘O’ Toole, Josh took the role of Roland Banks, Shaun played as Wendy Adams and Stuart reprised his role as Daisy Walker. The game was considered to be “Past the Midnight Hour” so we all had to discard two random cards from our hands which crippled our chances of mass killing a load of bad guys later on in the game and in the previous scenario we allowed 5 of the 6 cultists to escape, which resulted in the agenda card starting with 3 doom tokens.

Act 1a – Investigating the Trail

This act took so much longer than it should have, we all moved into our hidden Arkham Woods locations only to find we had ventured into a location where out skills were wasted and this slowed our clue gathering down to a snail’s pace which resulted in the Agenda deck advancing to the next step. Eventually we managed to get the 12 clues required to advance the act deck and we crawled into the next part of the story.

Act 2a – Into the Darkness

Things went from bad to worse here when our awful showing in the Midnight Masks scenario came to back to haunt us. Our path was blocked by 5 cultists and a random monster which was lurking at the location. Sadly due to having to randomly discard two of my cards I lost my Dynamite Blast which would have made the world of difference here, leaving us with two bad guys to fight so we could get to the ritual site. Sadly though the doom counters were stacking quicker than we could get our acts together and we failed to stop the agenda from advancing yet again.

Agenda / Act – The Devourer Below

In the words of Michael Caine “I’ve got a great idea”, I drew Lita Chantler and had the brainwave of sacrificing her to the Umôrdhoth so we could survive the scenario. Like most plans, this did not go well and in fact it all came together like the start of an episode of Casualty.  Sadly Shaun moved into the middle area to try and clear some of the cultists out, he managed two but sadly once Umôrdhoth moved into the location, the team up was too much, with Shaun being the first eliminated. Next if fell over to Stuart who failed a check thrown at him by the encounter deck, resulting in him taking too many damage tokens, removing him from the game. I felt that all was not lost as Josh and I were still in the game, with Lita Chantler in tow, she would soon be thrown to the wolves so we could live. The start of the turn arrived and my encounter card forced me to take 3 horror, when sadly I only had 1 horror left. Our only shot of surviving was gone and Josh did not have the health remaining to best Umôrdhoth, who quickly defeated him.

Well as per the resolution we unlocked, with our defeat the summoned Umôrdhoth would be left to stalk the city of Arkham uncontested for now and all of our investigators were killed. Absolutely gutted about this result since we had been building this up, but it was a really fun experience and it was a run through using the basic decks from the Learn to Play guide, will build my own decks moving forward. Now that the Dunwich Legacy has been released, I am hoping to build a couple of tougher decks to play through the scenarios again and expand into the Dunwich Legacy campaign after that. I think the four of us are happy to play through it again and to try the Dunwich Legacy campaign also.

I have really enjoyed playing this game and I cannot wait to get my hands on the new packs when they are released. I have also pre-ordered the stand alone scenarios and I am quite interested to see what they will bring to the game when moving through the main scenarios. If you have any interest in this game you can check out the forums on CardGameDB.com or have a wander into Watchtower Games in Crewe to pick up your copy of the games core set or deluxe box.

Fingers crossed I will be able to write a report about the Dunwich Legacy campaign as I play through it and thank you for reading my report of the Night of the Zealot campaign. Check our adventures out on Twitter @bigboss010, Instagram @bigbosstp010 and my pals at SOS on Twitter @siteofshite.

I’m Big Boss.... I’m out.... Peace.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game – 4 Player Review – The Midnight Masks

Ok, so I mentioned in my last post that I would continue with the campaign with my friend Stuart, however my friends Josh and Shaun expressed an interest in jumping in to give the game a try. So Josh took the helm of my Roland deck and my mate Shaun opted to use Wendy. There was the temptation to go back and replay the 1^st scenario with them so they could get a feel for the game play, but we opted to just add them in as per the rules with a basic deck each.

So we set the scenario up as instructed in the campaign guide and made all needed changes to the board such as discarding the house as due to the result of the 1^st scenario, my house was sadly burned to the ground. I had played through the second scenario on my own before we sat down to play as a team, so I could at least be in an informed position. To recap, at this stage I am playing as Skids and Stuart is playing as Daisy.

Act 1 – Uncovering the Conspiracy

Straight away we are at the disadvantage here as we require 8 clues between us to get the top card of the cultist deck revealed, you may think this would be an easy feat with 4 of us being able to move around and investigate, however you would be mistaken for almost as soon as the encounter deck started to hinder our investigations, lock us down with enemies and generally make our lives difficult, our entire game plan fell to pieces. We soon found the first Agenda “Predator or Prey?” activating as the DOOM threshold was met and the second Agenda “Time is Running Short” activated. We found the DOOM tokens quickly piled up and we were unable to fulfil the objective on the Act card in time before the Agenda deck reached its goal.

Josh at one stage was trying to fight 3 bad guys on his own; I was attempting to kill off the cultists who were driving the DOOM counters, while Shaun and Stuart were trying to obtain as many clues as they could. The game gave a sense of separation here and a continued sense of impending doom, with so many obstacles being thrown at us.

The midnight hour arrived and we had finished the second scenario. Sadly 5 of the 6 cultists got away meaning our position moving into the next scenario is already looking bleak. I sadly drew Skids weakness, Hospital Debts, which I was unable to get rid of and this cost me two experience points at the end of the scenario, meaning I gained no experience from this run through. The others all gained two experience points to take into the next scenario “The Devourer Below”. The experience points came from the one defeated cultist and one location where all the clues had been discovered.

Points to note:

The 2 player run through certainly upped the difficulty of the game due to the encounter deck throwing out more cards per player, this really showed in the 4 player run through and we felt like there was no way we could complete the objective set out by the Act card.

I do feel there could be a balance here, with the optimum number of players being 2, this allows both players to pick up the slack of the other while fewer cards are being played from the encounter deck pushing the agenda forward.

With the second scenario being considerably shorter act wise than the first scenario, this report is considerably smaller than my previous reports and I must apologise for that.

We won’t be playing the third scenario in the campaign until after Christmas now, due to work commitments and time commitments over the holiday period. But as soon as we have managed to play the third scenario I will be able to post a full review of the scenario and the campaign on the whole. I will also get the views of the other chaps playing with me and see how they feel about the experience of Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

You can catch me on Twitter @bigboss010 and Instagram @bigbosstp010.

Thank you for reading, I’m Big Boss.... I’m out..... Peace.

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!!

The End of Warhammer 40,000 Conquest

Well the 9^th September 2016 will be remembered for a long time I feel, Fantasy Flight Games, the producers of Warhammer 40,000 Conquest: The Living Card Game announced that they were ending their relationship with Games Workshop. This simply means that Fantasy Flight Games will no longer be producing games or products relating to any Games Workshop material such as Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000. This article concluded that once all currently announced products have been released that there will be no more new products announced or released.

To bring it back into focus, this means that once the Deathworld Cycle is completed, there will be no more Warhammer 40,000 Conquest releases and after the World Championship event there will be no more tournament kits released either.

When I first read the press release from Fantasy Flight, I was almost baron of emotions and it took a good couple of hours to sink in that this game was going to be over soon. I started to get a little upset; I have experienced the end of games before; WWE Raw Deal and Vs System (the original version). I know the feeling our pouring yourself into a game, then watching helplessly as it suddenly disappears, for it to become an all encompassing part of your life and to suddenly end. It’s rather anti-climatic in all honesty and all a little silly, truth be told.

When Raw Deal stopped production it wasn’t that big of a deal, the game had all but ended anyway and with the rebrand into Raw Deal Revolution, the games attempt to stay alive was nothing more than a fools errand and everyone knew it. Vs System was another game that by the time the game actually ended I had not been fully involved in a while. Following Upper Deck Entertainment dropping the license with DC Comics, the Vs System became solely a Marvel franchise and that caused it to lose its appeal to me.

Warhammer 40,000 Conquest has been a major part of my life since it was released, I hounded all my mates until pretty much all of them bought into it and it has been almost an addiction since then. I sit at work on my breaks and lunches reading about conquest. I sit during evenings messing about with my decks trying to improve on them or come up with some new ideas and then try to play as often as possible. What will happen when this game is finally done and there are no more ideas, no new concepts? I have no idea.

Looking towards the future there are options of course, we have already existing card games to maybe buy into, such as Magic: The Gathering or a blast from the past in Yu Gi Oh. However there are new games that are potential new obsessions such as Arkham Horror: The Card Game which is due to be released in October 2016. But I guess time will tell. I don’t think anything will truly be able to replace Warhammer 40,000 Conquest as a game, I feel its mechanics are amazing and the actual source material used to add the story to the game is fantastic and out of all the games I have played in my life, this is probably the best one.

There is a wonderful world of games out there and I going to be on the lookout for new things to play. Conquest I feel has truly set the bar for card games moving forward and should I decide to buy into the Arkham Horror game it has some big shoes to fill.

I’m Big Boss..... I’m Out.... Peace!

Warhammer 40,000 Conquest LCG – Watchtower Games 27/8/2016 Summer Kit Event.

Ok I had already been to an event earlier this week and I had already won the main prize for this event so I didn’t want to turn up with anything too serious however I didn’t want to run something too soft. I had tempted fate and I built a Nahumekh deck built with an ELITE focus. I had only played one game with this deck before this event so I hadn’t really got much of a true idea of how the deck would work. It turned out not as well as I would have hoped.

The deck I took was as follows:

Total Cards: (50)

 

Warlord:

 

1x Nahumekh (Legions of Death)

 

Army Unit: (27)

4x Destroyer Cultist (Legions of Death)

3x Firedrake Terminators (The Threat Beyond)

3x Immortal Loyalist (Jungles of Nectavus)

2x Nightshade Interceptor (Legions of Death)

3x Rogue Trader (Core Set)

3x Venomous Fiend (Legions of Death)

3x Void Pirate (Core Set)

3x Warriors of Gidrim (Legions of Death)

3x Wildrider Vyper (What Lurks Below)

 

Attachment: (4)

1x The Staff of Command (Legions of Death)

3x Promotion (Core Set)

 

Event: (13)

2x Hate (Legions of Death)

3x Backlash (Legions of Death)

1x Extermination (Legions of Death)

1x Fall Back (Core Set)

3x Mechanical Enhancement (Legions of Death)

3x Reanimation Protocol (Legions of Death)

 

Support: (6)

1x Obedience (Legions of Death)

3x STC Fragment (Legions of Death)

2x Shroud Cruiser (Jungles of Nectavus)

 

As I hadn’t really played much with this deck at this point I wasn’t really aware of what I should keep and what I should change moving forward but this event was a great opportunity to do so.  We had an 8 player turnout for this event which isn’t as strong as previous events but some people simply weren’t able to get there this time. Still a strong turnout I think.

 

Round 1: Vs. Richard Watkins (Eldorath Starbane)

This game did not go as expected, Richard started really strong out of the gate and managed to win command pretty consistently during the first couple of turns, however the team of my Venomous Fiend and Nahumekh managed to clear them out and I quickly found myself with the dream team of Elite units out on the board and enough firepower to pick up the win myself. Richard is very new to the game and I still think this game could have gone either way, I think had we replayed this game it could have been different. However I managed to pick up the win this time.

Win – 1-0.

 

Round 2: Vs Joshua Johnson (Ku’Gath Plaguefather)

Now this went badly from turn one, I never got out of the gate, I think I only managed to get 1 elite out the whole game and I didn’t see an STC Fragment until the second to last turn of the game. We joked as my first game with Nahumekh was against this exact same deck and it went very differently, in fact it went the opposite with Josh not really getting my leverage and me picking up the win. So a bit of payback there for Josh. J

Loss – 1-1

 

Round 3: Vs Martin Smitherman (Urien Rakarth)

Now, again, another game where I never got out of the gate, I got one elite out turn 1 and he quickly removed that with Power From Pain and I never recovered. I had no cards in my hand but never saw any of my elites until the final rounds command step. I love Urien Rakarth and I do think moving forward in an elite heavy meta he will see more play as he can quickly work around those elite builds.

 

Loss – 1-2

 

 

Sadly not good enough to get into the top 4 cut with this result. However I did already have the prizes so I guess it was more for testing out the deck. I have already made some massive changes to the deck so moving forward I am hoping to have a bit more success. Was a good day though and I enjoyed the games I had, I really enjoyed the games I had after the event too and they were a bit of a laugh.

 

Another fun event put on by Watchtower Games in Crewe and anyone interested in gaming should certainly check them out. You can follow me on Twitter @bigboss010 and Instagram @bigbosstp010. Thanks for reading.

I’m Big Boss, I’m out.... Peace.