Return to the Night of the Zealot – Midnight Masks – Solo play

So going into the 2^nd scenario or the 3 scenario campaign was a confident investigator, I mean, I wasn’t worrying about the “Ghoul Priest” because he was dead and that’s a big plus right? I didn’t spend any of my experience points before this chapter as I wanted to save them for the “Stick to the Plan” card, however I didn’t realise until after playing this scenario, that Joe cannot pack it as its a level 3 Guardian card and he is restricted to up to level 2 cards.

My starting hand was not too bad; I had 2 copies of “Dr Milan Christopher”, “Deduction”, “Vicious Blow” and a “45 Automatic”. So I was feeling confident that I had a good range of tools off the bat to tackle this scenario as I am aware from previously playing the normal variant of it that there are plenty of bad guys to fight, so away we go. I started play at “Rivertown” as sadly, I burnt my house down in the previous scenario.

Turn 1

1.       Hunch deck revealed “No Stone Unturned”

2.       Spent 4 resources to play “Dr Milan Christopher” as my 1^st action

3.       I then investigated “Rivertown”, pulling a skull token which equated to a 0 at this point allowing me to not only gain a clue but trigger the good doctors ability to gain a resource

4.       My final action saw me move into the “Miskatonic University”

5.       During my upkeep phase I drew “Fingerprint Kit” J

Already feeling that action pinch, essentially did nothing major but used all my actions and my only firearm is stuck in my hand.

Turn 2

1.       The encounter deck threw a bad guy at me straight away sadly, the “Hunting Nightgaunt” enemy spawned with me.

2.       The hunch deck then revealed “Preposterous Sketches”

3.       So I knew I needed to get away from the bad guy, so I ditched my “45 Automatic” to up my evasion by 1 and attempted to evade the Nightgaunt. The chaos bag came through and I drew another skull, again equating to 0. This allowed me to lose the Nightgaunt, for now anyway.

4.       I then investigated the “Miskatonic University” as my 2^nd action; I managed to pull a +1 token this time allowing me to again gain a resource and a clue.  So far, so good....

5.       My last action saw me move into “Northside”

6.       “Emergency Cache” was my upkeep phase draw

7.       Sadly the “Haunting Nightgaunt” readies up

Again, still certain if this was a multi man game, even just a 2 player game, this would be different and I feel like more ground could be covered to get these clues and I would have a little more luxury time to play my handgun.

Turn 3

1.       My old friend the “Disciple of the Devourer” spawned into the “Southside” location and I was fighting against the clock I opted to just give up one of my clue tokens

2.       Hunch deck gave me a “Working a Hunch”, which was so needed

3.       I opted to use this straight away to clear the clue from “Northside”  as a fast action

4.       My 1^st proper action was to then jump into “Downtown”

5.       I then investigated, discarding “Deduction” to increase my skill by 1. Chaos bag gave me a -1 token, which saw me succeed the test, grab 2 clues thanks to “Deductiion”, gain a resource from the good doctor’s reaction and by clearing the location, gain a victory point too.

6.       I paid 4 resources to play the “Fingerprint Kit” asset to finish my turn

7.       I drew my “Survival Knife” as my upkeep draw

8.       Due to its Hunter ability the “Hunting Nightgaunt” moved into the “Northside”

Going into the next turn I gave myself 2 options, activate the act deck to get my 1^st cultist or start tooling up to fight bad guys I would face. If you hadn’t already noted from my detailed account of this game, I had not given myself 1 mental trauma from burning my house down. A mistake I wouldn’t pick up until after I had finished playing sadly and this would be the theme of my playing during this game.

Turn 4

1.       The encounter deck gave me “Mask of Umordhoth” which I eqiuipped to my pal the Disciple in “Southside” and this also added a doom to him.

2.       Hunch deck revealed “No Stone Unturned”, could have used this... should have used this.

3.       I spent 2 clues to activate the act deck as my 1^st action to reveal the top card of my shuffled cultist deck. The cultist revealed was “Wolf-man Drew”, who spawns in “Downtown”... yay!

4.       Leaving me no choice I decided to fight the cultist, discarding a “Vicious Blow” to up my skill by 1, with a -1 token being pulled I managed to succeed and do 2 damage to the cultist.

5.       With 2 health left and me needing to get him gone ASAP, I carried out another fight action and fate smiled this time and the elder sign was pulled, giving me +1 and allowing me to move the “Working a Hunch” to the bottom of my insight deck

6.       Upkeep saw me pull another “Emergency Cache”, not what I needed, not what I needed at all.

7.       “Hunting Nightgaunt” moves in to team up with our cultist friend to beat me for 3 damage and 1 horror

Survival knife is in my hand, where it probably should have been out on the field at this point. I am beating DP’d by two monsters which I don’t have a defence against at this stage and the doom is piling up now.

Turn 5

1.       Encounter deck gives me “Hunting Shadow” which sees me spending one of my clues

2.       Back to the matter at hand. My 1^st action is to keep fighting, I committed the “Survival Knife” to give me a +1 and the chaos bag gave me another Elder symbol. Which is great as I beat the “Wolfman – Drew” into the floor, but sadly don’t have any insight cards in my discard pile to put back into the hunch deck

3.       So, feeling confident I tried to again evade the “Hunting Nightgaunt” but my luck had clearly ran out as I drew the auto fail tentacles token L

4.       Not disheartened, I tried again, this time managed to grab the 0 token, thankfully allowing me to evade the Nightgaunt

5.       Upkeep phase saw me get a “Deduction” J

6.       Sadly though the Nightgaunt readies and engages with me ready for next turn

God I want these bad guys to just go away and leave me alone now. I now have no weapons in hand and still having to tackle these pesky baddies. That doom is still piling up and im feeling the action pinch once again. Where is Leo De Luca when you need him.. oh yeah, I can’t play him.... L

Turn 6

1.       Sadly the doom causes the Agenda to advance, revealing a new cultist enemy “Narogath” which of course spawns with me and engages with me...........

2.       The encounter deck gives me a copy of “Masked Horrors” which adds a doom to the agenda

3.       The hunch deck gives me another “No Stone Unturned”

4.       I have to get rid of this cultist and this Nightgaunt, so I start with the cultist, chaos bag gives me a 0 which allows me to poke “Narogath” for one

5.       I rinse and repeat for the rest of the turn, 1^st getting another 0 token and then getting a +1 in my 3^rd attempt. Giving me a total of 3 damage on the cultist, leaving him with 4 health

6.       Sadly though, not enough done to get rid of them, so I take the hit of 2 damage and 3 horror

7.       Upkeep phase sees me draw “Lita Chantler” and not a MOMENT TOO SOON!!!!

Should have dumped 1 of the horror on Dr Milan here to get him gone, but didn’t think, so sadly I knew I was about to lose him anyway to play Lita and just another learning curve sent my way.

Turn 7

1.       The encounter card “False Lead” has me do an intellect test, which I pass when drawing the +1 token.

2.       “Working a Hunch” appears on top of the hunch deck

3.       Play “Lita Chantler” as my 1^st action causing my engaged enemies to attack me for 2 damage and 3 horror, the bulk gets dumped right onto Lita, I take 1 of the horror myself

4.       I fight again with “Narogath”, drawing the skull token, still at a 0 at this point so I win dealing 2 damage to the cultist

5.       Rinse and repeat for action 3, drawing a -1 token, adding the cultist to the victory display with the Wolf-Man

6.       I take one horror and one damage from the Nightgaunt to close the turn, for some reason I haven’t noted what I drew for the upkeep phase. L

Feeling more confident now I have Lita in play, seems like I can investigate just fine for now, so its combat where I need help and boy does Lita help.

Turn 8

1.       Another “Masked Horrors” causes another doom to be added to the agenda

2.       “Preposterous Sketches” its the top card of the Hunch deck

3.       So, time to get rid of this damn Nightgaunt, so Fight time, I pitch an Overpower to the test.... I feel this may have been my draw from last turn.... I pull a -1 token to win the exchange and draw “Bandolier” from the “Overpower”

4.       I just go in for the kill without any skill increases and I get a -2 from the bag which still gets me the big W and finishes off the “Hunting Nightgaunt”

5.       My final action is to activate the ability on “Downtown” to heal 3 horror from me, in the nick of time too, I only had 1 horror left due to my error with Dr Milan earlier

6.       Upkeep phase gets me a “Magnifying Glass”

Ok, so no enemies to worry about for now, so I have a minute to breath and get some more assets into play. With losing the good doctor, I am down an intellect stat and the magnifying glass as a free action will help get me back to a good stat.

Turn 9

1.       Encounter deck sends me “On the Wings of Darkness” which I sadly fail by pulling a -4 token, this deals me 1 horror and 1 damage. However, like an idiot, I don’t move to a central location as the card instructs me too. This actually would have made my turn so much easier, but again, I’m an indiot.

2.       Hunch deck throws us “Scene of the Crime”, wow, this deck has been USELESS this game

3.       So I move into “Eastown” as my 1^st action

4.       Play the fast action “Magnifying Glass” to get me back up to a good intellect stat

5.       I investigate using the “Fingerprint Kit” , pulling a -1 token I gain 2 clues, clearing the location giving me another victory point

6.       I pay 2 clues as my final action to active the act deck to get another cultist enemy. I draw “Alma Hill” into the “Southside” location

7.       Upkeep gets me what I’ve been salivating for, “Dynamite Blast”

 Alma only has 3 health, so these explosives will sort her out with little to no effort. Just need to get over there now which of course would have been easier had I moved due to “On the Wings of Darkness”, as I should have.

Turn 10

1.       Encounter deck throws me another enemy, the “Corpse Taker” which spawns at “St Mary’s Hospital”. I think I may have played this wrong through, as I didn’t add the doom to it, I think I probably should have.  I will have to check.

2.       Hunch deck got me “Preposterous Sketches”, another useless reveal sadly

3.       I use two actions to move to “Downtown” and then to “Rivertown”

4.       My last action sees me spending 5 resources to play “Dynamite Blast”, killing not only Alma and the Disciple which has been sat there since like turn 2 HA HA

5.       “Corpse Taker” moves into the “Miskatonic University”

6.       Upkeep phase gets a “Fieldwork” for me, a little too late by this stage

I had pretty much decided at this point that I would be resigning this turn; I wasn’t going to get enough clues to get another cultist or defeat them before the doom stacked up and the game ended anyway. 

Turn 11

1.       A “Locked Door” came from the encounter desk, this was attached to “Southside” due to it being the only location with a clue, thanks to the efforts of the Disciple earlier

2.       1 doom gets added to the “Corpse Taker”, I know this was right, but I’m pretty certain now on review that he should have had one last turn......

3.       Hunch deck flips a “No Stone Unturned” which really doesn’t bother me now

4.       I move into “Southside” to see what the deal is in there

5.       I quickly realise I am not going to get anymore victory points in this scenario. So I opted to resign. This option gets me scenario resolution 1.

Campaign Log

1.       Alma Hill, Narogath and Wolf-Man Drew have been interrogated

2.       Ruth Turner, Peter Warren and Jeremiah Pierce got away, but I will get them.....

3.       I gained 6 victory points for my efforts though.

Upgrading

1.       11 XP in total and I’m heading into the final part of the campaign

2.       So I took out 2 “Vicious Blows” and 2 “Dynamite Blasts” to replace them both for their level 2 versions

3.       I used my last 3 XP to buy “Higher Education”, little unsure about this one, was tempted by “Charisma” but opted to go this way with it instead as I only have 3 ally cards in the whole deck, so feel I need to make sure I’m getting the most of all the XP at this point.

So next chapter is Return to the Devourer Below, should be interesting. I know the cultists will all be back, but with there only being 3 of them, they should be easy to kill off. Then its just tackling the Devourer himself and if push comes to shove, I will throw Lita at him to get rid of him. Ha!

Thanks for reading.

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

Return to the Night of the Zealot - The Gathering - Solo play

Part 1: Return to “The Gathering”

So I opted to take out the latest Seeker investigator Joe Diamond for my solo adventure. I really wanted to play as Joe as I like the concept of his “Hunch” deck. This contains 11 “Insight” cards, one of which is my signature weakness card and one of these is revealed each turn and can be played at a 2 cost reduction. Also Joe can play a splash of Guardian class cards in his deck too, so we have some tools to fight off enemies when they pop up, as they do.

I tried to keep the deck focused on getting clues and being able to defend itself when needed. Sadly I am low on tools to help with Evasion or Willpower checks. However I am hoping that my clue gathering and monster fighting prowess will mitigate that.

So I got the game set up and ready to go, using the set up instructions from the Return to The Gathering instructions. My final post mulligan starting hand contained Perception, Overpower, Deduction, Shortcut and Fingerprint Kit.

Turn 1

1.       Revealed “Logical Reasoning” from my Hunch deck

2.       Action 1 I play “Fingerprint Kit” for 4 resources

3.       Action 2 was to investigate the “Study”, I pulled a -1 from the chaos bag to succeed the test and gain 1 clue

4.       I then played a Fast action “Shortcut” to move into the “Guest Hall”

5.       My 3^rd action saw me move into the “Bedroom”

Didn’t think to make a note of the card I drew for my draw this game, so I will remember that for the next game, so I added a doom to the agenda and continued from there.

Turn 2

1.       Encounter deck spawned “Disciple of the Devourer” into the “study” and due to its effect, I moved a clue from my investigator back to the study.

2.       Revealed Logical Reasoning from the Hunch deck

3.       Action 1 saw me investigate the “Bedroom”, the chaos bag gave me a -2 which luckily saw me obtaining a clue

4.       I then used Action 2 to move to the “Guest Hall”

5.       Quickly using Action 3 to move to the “Bathroom”

Really need to make a note of what I’m drawing each turn.

Turn 3

1.       Encounter deck threw an “Obscuring Fog” at me, which sadly was attached to the “Bathroom” increasing its shroud by 2. L

2.       The Hunch deck revealed “No Stone Unturned”

3.       I use my 1^st action to investigate the bathroom, increasing my investigation sat by 1 by committing “Deduction” to the test. The chaos bag once again gave me a -2 which was enough to successfully gain the clue

4.       I used my 2^nd action to play the “No Stone Unturned” to look at the top 6 cards of my deck, from the cards revealed I grabbed a copy of Dr. Milan Christopher.

5.       My last action was used to move back to the “Guest Hall”

Really feeling the pressure working on my own and not having any back up to assist me, every single move matters and you can really waste an action. Movement feels like it’s taking up all my action slots and poor Joe doesn’t have any ways of upping my action numbers.  In my current group campaign, I am playing as Finn Edwards, between the free evade action he comes with, Leo De Luca as my ally, Fence making my Illict cards Fast and other Fast cards in the deck, I feel like I have loads of actions to use. This is a huge contrast in comparison.

Turn 4

1.       After the doom is added, the Agenda advances. The result of this was to discard a random card from my hand, which sadly saw me lose my “45 Automatic” L

2.       My hunch deck saw a “Preposterous Sketches” on top

3.       Action 1 saw “Dr Milan Christopher” enter play, needed this turn one really, as my resources were stretched enough

4.       I then moved to the “Study” for my second action to engage with the “Disciple of the Devourer”

5.       My last action saw me fight the enemy, I committed my “Overpower” to give me a +2 boost, the chaos bag gave me a 0 token, allowing me to defeat the enemy and draw a card

This lack of actions is killing me, I mean I feel like I’ve done nothing so far as I only need 3 clues and I’m on turn 4. As it took me so long to get the good Dr into play, I haven’t had the extra resources that I would usually expect by now too.

Turn 5

1.       The encounter deck threw out a “Flesh Eater” enemy, which luckily spawns in the attic. Now, thanks to the updated text on the “study” this meant I needed to get the set aside “Attic” and put it into play, so the creature could spawn there.

2.       Hunch deck shows me “Preposterous Sketches” yet again, giving me serious concerns about my shuffling.

3.       This time though I decided to play it from the top of the Hunch deck as my 1^st action

4.       Sadly I drew the random basic weakness “Internal Injury” which goes into my threat area until I spend 2 actions to get rid of it and will deal me 1 direct damage at the end of each of my turns.

5.       Action 2 saw me investigating, I pulled a -1 token which saw me bag that 3^rd clue

6.       With that done I moved into the “Guest Hall”

7.       I then advanced the Act deck at the end of the turn. This resulted in me moving into the newly revealed “hallway” and forcing me to take a Willpower 4 test. Sadly I drew the tablet token which in this scenario was a -2. Causing me to lose all but 1 card from my hand due to my willpower only being 2.

8.       I also take 1 damage from the weakness I drew this turn

So that turn left me bare, I’ve got bugger all resources and I’ve now got two cards in my hand thanks to the upkeep step.

Turn 6

1.       I drew the “Mask of Umordhoth” encounter card, which respawned the “Disciple of the Devourer” from the discard pile, spawning again in the “Study”. With no clues to put a clue on the location, a Doom was added to the cultist.

2.       The Hunch deck threw out yet another “Preposterous Sketches”

3.       Action 1 saw me move to the cellar

4.       Played the “Preposterous Sketches” from the top of the Hunch deck as action 2

5.       A Fast action saw me play my “Magnifying Glass”

6.       My 3^rd action was to investigate the “Cellar”, chaos bag netted me a +1 allowing me to get the clue.

7.       Again, another damage by the pesky weakness, I still haven’t got rid of....... L

Although this all seems to be going well, I have little to no fighting power other than my standard 4 stat and I only seem to be getting the Seeker stuff.

Turn 7

1.       Encounter card was the “Cryptic Chill”, making test 4 willpower, I nearly didn’t bother drawing and just took the hit, but I figured I would give it a go. Chaos bag drew a 0 token, which was of course a fail and I had to chose an asset to discard, I opted to throw the “Fingerprint Kit” away.

2.       My Hunch deck gave me another Logical reasoning, L, did not need that.

3.       Decided to start taking the offensive, so my 1^st action was to play “Fieldwork”

4.       I then moved into the “Ghoul Pits”, which forced me to do an Evasion skill test of 3, in response to this, I tapped my “Fieldwork” to give my evasion a +2 boost, I then did the skill test and the chaos bag gave me a -1, which allowed me to pass by the skin of my teeth

5.       Due to the sheer lack of resources I had, I gained a resource to end the turn

6.       Thats right.... another damage!!! Damn weakness!!

So, got 3 damage now, lost my “Fingerprint Kit” not that I had even used it and I am feeling the burn. The doom is stacking and I know the “Ghoul Priest” is getting closer.

Turn 8

1.       Encounter deck threw me the “Zealots Seal” making me test 2 willpower, chaos bag finally hit me hard with a -5. Forcing me to discard 2 cards, don’t ask me what they were, I didn’t note it down. Like an idiot.

2.       Hunch deck gave me “Working a Hunch”

3.       Action 1 was to play “Scene of the Crime” to get a clue from the “Ghoul Pits” adding 1 to the victory display

4.       I used my last 2 actions to move to the “Cellar” and then onto the “Hallway”

5.       1 direct damage once again, still not got rid of that weakness

I made a HUGE mistake by not playing “Working a Hunch” here, which would have been a 0 cost Fast action which would have got me the clue on the “Ghoul Pits” and not wasted 1 action and or resources when I didn’t need to with “Scene of the Crime”. Considering I mentioned earlier how valuable actions were when playing solo, this was a ROOKIE mistake.

Turn 9

1.       “Rotting Remains” was the encounter card this round, once again asking me to do a willpower test of 3, drew a -1 token for this test and resulted in me taking 2 horror, I assigned one onto “Dr Milan Christopher” and took the hit for the other.

2.       “Working a Hunch” makes it second appearance as the top card of the Hunch Deck

3.       I moved into the “Attic” as my 1^st action, tapped “Fieldwork” to give my evasion stat a +2 boost and engaged with the “Flesh Eater”.

4.       Action 2 saw me evading the creature, puling the “Skull” token from the chaos bag, which was a -1 in this instance, allowing me to successfully evade the monster

5.       I was smarter this round, I played the “Working a Hunch” from the top of my Hunch deck for 0 cost as a Fast action allowing me to scoop up the clue on the “Attic”.

6.       My 3^rd and final action had me moving back to the “Hallway”

7.       With enough clues on my side, I advanced the Act deck, to face my impending doom. The “Ghoul Priest” spawned with me and engaged poor Joe. “Lita Chantler” stood stoic in the “Parlour” not helping me the slightest

8.       And of course..... took 1 direct damage

Turn 10

1.       The agenda advanced once more as I reached the Doom threshold, spawning an “Icy Ghoul” in the “Cellar”, luckily miles away from me

2.       Action 1, fight time, I pitched “Bandolier” to the test to give me a +1, hoping for the best here at this stage, I pulled a -1 from the chaos bag allowing me to poke the “Ghoul Priest” for 1 Damage

3.       Action 2, could lightning strike 2 times? Well it did, I pulled the 0 token from the bag enabling me to do 1 more damage to the scenario’s Boss monster

4.       Action 3, “Dynamite Blast” deals the killing blow to the “Ghoul Priest”, kills “Dr Milan Christopher” and hit Joe for 2 damage, leaving Joe with 1 health point left.

5.       With the “Ghoul Priest” dead and in bits, we are able to advance the act deck.

6.       Two choices are then offered to me, I could burn the house down to contain the evil inside or simply run away leaving the house standing. Being the paranoid person I am, I chose to burn the house down, leading me to Resolution 1.

Well, huge mistake made in that turn, I forgot to draw an encounter card!! Could have sent the game either way but what’s done is done! Really felt like the game kept me moving, I didn’t have the freedom of wasting some actions  to get myself set up for next turn or to do something else and this really impacted me. Feel the single player environment is cool, but having partners to help shoulder the burdens gives you a lot of breathing space.

In the Campaign Log I have noted that “The house was burned down”. I suffered 1 mental trauma due to burning my own house down and I left with 5xp points in total, plus “Lita Chantler” in my deck for the rest of the campaign. 

The next chapter is the "Return to the Midnight Masks", I can imagine that will be as merciless times wise as this chapter was. Thanks for reading. 

I'm Big Boss, I'm out..... Peace!! 

Arkham Horror – The Forgotten Age – 4 Man Team Role Call

Very similar to what I wrote before my team started our Path to Carcosa campaign, I wanted to go into a little bit of depth about the next load of investigators we will be piloting when we boldly enter The Forgotten Age campaign.

My logic when I start a new campaign is how to fill all the real roles of the team, such as who will be our main fighter and who will be our main investigator primarily. I’ve always resigned two of us to be the inbetweener, those who may need to service both roles as we progress in the campaign and help the primary should things get touch and go.

This time however, I wanted to try and move away from our standard format, to make things a bit more interesting.  After taking our original choices for our next investigators for a test run using the Carnevale of Horrors scenario, a couple of us were not too happy with our choices of investigator. So with our Mystic and Guardian options now up in the air, it was back to the drawing board and time to review these options.

So originally I opted to go with Father Mateo, a couple of reasons really, him starting with 5xp in the bank before the first scenario would give Shaun (the player) a good lead going into the campaign and some excellent options off the bat for upgrades. However Shaun’s experience didn’t give him much faith (pun intended) on the good Father’s ability to really hit hard during the campaign. After a bit of a discussion about who we had left to chose from our stock of “unused” investigators there was only 1 mystic we had to use which was Akachi Onyele.

Now, I’m not a big fan of hers to be honest, with being limited to only 2 Arcane slots until you get some XP behind you limits her “adding charges” ability use early campaign. However, once she does get some XP behind her and gets some useful tools, her combat usefulness is up there with the Guardian class. There are some excellent spells and support tools, such as the Spirit Athame or Book of Shadows are easily useable in the deck. Upgrading to higher level versions of Shrivelling and Blinding Light can also boost the fight power of the deck, these will be searchable too with Arcane Initiate in the deck. This got me thinking that if we went ahead and made this switch, we could ditch the Guardian class altogether for this campaign and use her as our big heavy hitter instead, making a very drastic change to our group dynamic.

I had originally gone for Leo Anderson to fill the role of our Guardian class; my original though was to embrace the Guardian / Rogue crossover and try to focus on using my experience to build him into more of a Rogue than a Guardian by the end of the campaign. Utilising some of the sneaky tactics of the Rogue class while maintaining a heavy Guardian Ally front to serve as shields against any real danger I may encounter.  Sadly, during our test run of the Carnevale of Horrors, I did not really click with this character during any point of the game and I also opted to not continue with this investigator.

During the last campaign I got a taste for the Rogue class while playing as Wendy Adams, I liked it, a lot. When we played the Labyrinth of Lunacy scenario, Josh used Finn Edwards (Rogue character), to great effect in the combat role, utilising Finn’s signature card to attack bad guys attacking other people while using the Rogue weapons to make sure he could defend himself also. The ability to search for illicit cards using Finn’s other signature card really opens some doors too, especially if you have the Chicago Typewriter in the deck, the combat output can be massively boosted.

So onto Finn Edwards, his deck can only play up to level 3 Rogue cards, unless they have the Illicit trait, plus up to 15 Seeker &/or Survivor level 0 cards, also he gets to do a free “Evade” action each turn, which at first isn’t so good, but with the Rogue card pool at hand, it has loads of potential. His unique deck building inspired me to switch to a more full time Rogue character instead of a part time one. Although Finn loses a fair few of the Rogue Class cards with his deck requirements, the ones he does get are sufficient to build a solid deck. So I opted to ditch Leo Anderson for Finn Edwards as my character for the upcoming campaign, plus to try filling some of the combat functions of the group.

Our last remaining two investigators were fairly straightforward to select. Josh opted to take on the role of the Seeker this campaign, with only really 3 options left in my library to fill this role it came down to who would provide the most value to the team overall.  Out of Ursula, Norman and Minh, Ursula was the one which jumped out to me value wise. Her ability to have a free investigate action once per turn when she moves is awesome, also her ability to pack relics, gives her access to some massively useful cards once she picks up some XP. On top of the already massive array of Seeker cards, she has a lot of potential in the campaign. 

The last option was left in the hands of Stuart himself. He expressed an interest in playing as Calvin Wright, as a pretty out there character with no stat line to start with, this was a risky choice, but I feel this whole campaign will be a little risky in comparison to our safer plays previously. I like the potential for Calvin, when we played the Carnevale of Horrors, Stuart was hammering bad guys with Calvin and generally doing well at investigating too, the closer Calvin comes to being defeated, the more powerful he becomes. So I have faith that Stuart will be filling in nicely for the loss of the Guardian class as the campaign goes on. 

So the role call is Calvin Wright (Stuart), Ursula Downs (Josh), Akachi Onyele (Shaun) and Finn Edwards (Me – Tom). This rag tag collection of randoms will embark on a journey into the “Forgotten Age” come January 2019. I for one am really looking forward to seeing how these guys tackle this stage of the Mythos and what crazy crap this campaign will throw at us in comparison to the Path to Carcosa campaign.

I’m Big Boss.... I’m Out..... Peace

Building Agnes Baker - An Arkham Horror: The Card Game Story

So I wanted to give Agnes a go for my groups latest campaign (Path to Carcosa) and I came at the deck from a different angle than I usually do. Rather than thinking of how the deck plays straight off the bat, I focused on how it would play once we had accumulated some experience points. With the upgraded spell cards taking up a bulk of experience I wanted to focus on getting upgrades which would decrease the change of the level 0 spells missing their mark. I’ll go into each point of the deck and then look at upgrades after.

Arcane

So, Shrivelling and Rite of Seeking are the two basic spells in the deck, obviously one for combat and one for investigating. Unless we get an abundance of experience points, these will more than likely stay at level 0, simply because there are so many cards which up your willpower value and provide other little abilities too, however these cost experience, so best to spend it on expanding your action base in my opinion.

Accessories

Only one here and that’s the Holy Rosary, I quite like Agnes’s signature asset, however with not going to spell heavy overall in the deck, it’s not going to get the use it deserves. So, the Holy Rosary will get the slot, its extra willpower bonus and sanity buff is going to fit perfectly into the build. I was tempted by the Key, however the minus 2 sanity really put me, maybe see how these play and we can always amend where needed.

Body

Leather Coat was the only real option here, Agnes has a low enough health value to make this a priority and as it’s o cost card, I don’t have to worry about resources to get this into play. If we have enough left-over resources this could possibly become a Body Armour, but will have to see. 

Ally

Peter Sylvestre was the sure choice here, not because of his level 0 version, but his level 2 version. The extra sanity buff he provides and his willpower bonus makes him the perfect addition to this deck which is trying to increase its willpower. I also threw in a couple of Arcane Initiates too, as the deck doesn’t have a huge number of spells it made sense to play cards which could go looking for them. It’s great having so many willpower buffs but if we can’t get the spell cards out, they are useless.

Other

Ok, so Forbidden Knowledge and Painkillers take these positions. As noted earlier her lower health means Painkillers was a great include, healing health is always nice, also because it can be combined with Agnes’s ability or even the ability of Peter Sylvestre to mitigate the horror you take from using them. Forbidden knowledge can be used in the exact same way to not only trigger your ability but to simply use Peter Sylvestre to negate the horror being taken to gain a resource.

Skills

So not my usual payload of skills here, I only went with Guts and Fearless. Guts is another great way of pumping your willpower stat and then drawing a card if your test is successful. Fearless at level 0 is ok, the higher-level version is better as its gives you two willpower icons, but the ability to heal horror is great. In most of my builds I go skill heavy but I felt this deck could manage without it.

Events

Some pretty standard choices here, Ward of Protection and Lucky, were my first choices. Evading encounter cards is great when you don’t necessarily have the ability to beat them and being able to add 2 to a skill check when you would lose it is nothing to snub either. So these cards were certainly staples for this deck. I threw in an Emergency Cache too so we could make sure Agnes always had some moolah to hand. I added Drawn to the Flame to give her some clue gathering power should Rite of Seeking not make it to the board within a reasonable time, I can imagine this being one of the first cards to be cut when upgrading. Delve Too Deep also got a sneaky include, I noted that we should be trying to get as much XP as possible to use between scenarios, and two copies of this in the deck could net us 2 XP a game which again, is nothing to be snubbed. As William Yorick is on the Team he can potentially add 1 XP each game too, so the potential for gaining XP is greater with all these includes. 

Ok, so that’s the build as it stands at 0 experience and there is certainly some wriggle room for upgrades of cards already in the deck and some new additions which can be added into the deck. Cards like Ward of Protection have a couple of upgrade options now, Peter Sylvestre as previously discussed, Fearless and Lucky all have upgrade options which give their own little boost to the build.

Spirit Athame provide nice little additions when upgrading, increasing your skill value by 2 when testing a spell card is a phenomenal include and again is a cheaper alternative to upgrading the spells in the deck.  Book of Shadows is also a welcome addition later on, to restock the charges on your spell cards or a Grotesque Statue if you would rather increase your chances of pulling the right token when you do utilise your spell cards.

From the Neutral card pool, I like the idea of the Key of Ys and even the Relic Hunter card, some real potential there especially considering the deck could have a few different accessory cards.

On the Survivor class front, there is nothing really jumping out at me on the upgrade front outside of Peter Sylvestre and Lucky. A Test of Wills is one card that does intrigue me when combined with Ward of Protection you get a good range of cards that allow you to evade the encounter deck. Sadly I feel a lot of the experience points will be spent on Mystic cards.

With our new campaign starting on 11^th April 2018, I cant wait to see where this deck goes as the campaign progresses. I didn’t manage to get much noted down from our Dunwich Legacy campaign, so I am hoping to get some more noted and reported this time around. 

Im Big Boss, I’m out.... peace.

Arkham Horror The Card Game - The Rogue Class

Arkham Horror the card game burst onto the card game scene following Fantasy Flight Games and Games Workshop parting ways as partners in the gaming world. When it was announced I knew very little about the IP other than it was loosely based on the novels of HP Lovecraft, so I decided to look a bit more into it to see what the deal was and I was rather surprised. First it was a co-operative card game, so I would be playing solo or in a group to defeat the game itself rather than the other players and I quite liked this angle. I kept abreast of all the updates being released and the sneak peaks to try and get a feel for how the game would play.

From all the classes which were revealed, I felt a certain kinship to the Rogue class, which from first glance appeared to be a class focused on avoiding trouble and picking their spots to fight or clue gather. This really attracted me as generally in card games I’m a very basic player, I like simple plans and you would think this would draw me to the Guardian class of investigator or the Seeker class, but no. I liked the almost “criminal” aspect of the Rogue cards, the artwork also caught my eye more so than the other cards too, the images were in an almost noir style which was cool. Cards like Pickpocket, Sneak Attack and Burglary have great artwork which reminds me of the styles featured in Dick Tracy.

Some of the themes on the cards did deter me slightly, cards like the Switchblade and 41 Derringer were only good if you were successful by two or more in the relevant skill check and with the ever-looming randomness of the Chaos Bag, I was not a fan of either of these cards. Despite this I do feel like both fit into the overall Rogue theme of picking your spots, so you wouldn’t bother using them until you had a clear knowledge that you would win. However, the Rogue class brings us a few little gems such as Sneak Attack, Elusive and Lone Wolf. Sneak Attack allows you to deal two damage to an exhausted enemy which is just phenomenal in a class which really likes evading enemies, which in turn exhausts them and you don’t have to worry about making a skill test to do the damage either, another bonus. Elusive allows you to evade those tricky enemies and make a swift escape to another location, great when used in a combo with Dynamite Blast….. Ha. Lone Wolf allows for some extra resource generation when you are off on your own doing your thing, great with Skids ability or Jenny’s unquenchable lust for resources.

From the level 0 cards to the Rogue upgrades, there are some nifty options currently available. One of my personal favourites is adaptable, the ability to change two level 0 cards in your deck for free between each game is awesome and really does allow you to adapt to each scenario, yes, on first play through this card may not be as effective but on replaying a campaign I think this is a must. Big bonus cards such as Hot Streak are also critical to the overall Rogue game, paying 3 resources to obtain 10 resources (netting 7) allows you to build a huge stock pile of resources, which is never a bad thing.



In my solo campaign, I have just added the Exceptional card Lucky Dice to my deck, although I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, I am really looking forward to being able to mess with the token draws from the Chaos Bag. The upgraded version of Switchblade is also a great addition to the upgraded card pool, combining the fight stat boost of the 41 Derringer with the unlimited use and fast play of the level 0 switchblade makes for a staple upgrade in my opinion. I am also quite partial to the Lock Pick, adding your evasion value to your investigation stat is great and that the resources on the card won’t always be spent is great, this fits into the theme of picking your spots to make sure you don’t lose those resources. 

I know I have missed a few bits off, however you can appreciate to discuss all the cards available to Rogues would take a bit of time. I would like to mention the characters available to Rogues. First is the Core starter, Skids ‘O’ Toole, who despite is awful willpower value has the facility to be the most action efficient character in the game, his ability to spend two resources to have an additional action once per turn is phenomenal. When combined with cards like Ace in the Hole, Leo De Luca and the Guardian class card Police Badge, you could end up with an insane number of actions in one turn. Skids can splash Guardian cards up to level 2 and with his 3 fight value he can be a contender when handling the bad guys of the encounter deck. As discussed before a critically played Elusive and Dynamite Blast can be a wondrous thing to behold…. HA. Sorry. His willpower is concerning at a 2 value, but in the right team this low stat can be mitigated. What I love most about Skids, is that he is an ex-con, out of the “joint” and looking to do some good. This really is what attracted me to the Rogue class, this character’s “story” and how the Rogue cards fit into this tale of a guy who is using his criminal background to do some good was really enticing to me. 

The second Rogue character is Jenny Barnes, the dilettante. A character released for the Dunwich Legacy campaign who I was not sold on at first due to all her stats being 3 and her ability to simply gain 1 extra resource per turn not really filling me with any ideas on how to play her or which direction to take her. I was writing a piece about her which went into a bit of detail about how very wrong I was about my original take on Jenny Barnes, however I will resign myself to this piece to go into it.  I have also picked up the Hour of the Huntress book which contained an alternative art card for her and two cards you can use to replace her standard signature cards. To summarise her ability and stat line allow her a vast array of potential builds, making her flexible in solo or group games. Her back story is quite cool too, the Hour of the Huntress novella briefly revealing a bit more of her adventurous nature and just how tough she is. Again, she fits smoothly into the rogue character build with her being very tactical, picking her spots to achieve maximum impact and I am greatly looking forward to seeing how my solo campaign with her ends.

The third and most recent character is the artist Sefina Rousseau, this character really intrigues me because she is very event heavy due to her ability to house up to 8 events under her character card which can be accessed using an action once per turn. My concern here is that she has poor investigation and combat stats, despite being able to work around these with the cards available to her from the Rogue and Mystic classes, I am not sold on this investigator yet. But saying that I was not sold on Jenny Barnes at first, but now I am her biggest fan. I do like how the Rogue class and Mystic class are put together for her character’s story, the idea that she forges paintings but this has sent her into the mystic world is rather unique. Since her Willpower and Evasion are her highest stats, her ability to use the Mystic spells should mitigate her other poor stats while maintaining those cool Rogue events which deal damage or allow you evade enemies. I am sure I will give her a run out at some point, sadly with not being to play much, it is a challenge to get through the characters, I have been playing the game since release day and I have only used Roland, Skids, Jenny, Pete and Daisy so far. Leaving so many characters to try out and play.

To summarise once more, the Rogue class offers some of the coolest characters to play as, with their back stories and play styles all being so very different. This class has some of the coolest artwork and card effects available in the Arkham Horror card game. All of which fall into a cool theme of careful planning, cunning and tactical strikes to make the most of the situation you are in.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I’m Big Boss, I’m out…. Peace.