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.

 

 

Warhammer 40,000 UK Nationals – 12th August 2016

This is my first national tournament for Conquest; I am hoping it will not be my last either. The tournament saw 51 players enter and sadly due to this, the top cut was lowered from 16 to 8. I went with the Packmaster Kith deck that I took to the Lincoln regional event, just with a few updates in the deck and I felt that these changes really did help me get the record that I did. Noted changes to the deck were the removal of the Bloodied Reavers for 3 copies of Murder of Razorwings and the removal of Suffering for 3 copies of Thousand Cuts. I opted to go for a more card choke variant of the deck instead my original resource choke variation.

Round 1. – Vs. Swarmlord (Sorry cannot remember my opponents name)

This game started off so well for me and then a couple of really stupid mistakes cost me the whole thing. I used Archons Terror as a shield on a planet that I really didn’t need to win and the  I dropped a Warpstorm at the same planet when I should have waited for his nearly dead Synapse creature to return to HQ before playing it. My opponent had no cards in hand but enough resources to keep powering up his Termagent Horde equipped with the Ymgarl Factor to a point where I just couldn’t kill it and I opted to throw in the towel at that point. This was a real shame because had I not thrown away my Archons Terror so foolishly I probably would have won there.

Loss 0-1

Round 2. – Vs Subject Omega (Sadly I cannot remember this chaps name either)

This game went much better for me, I didn’t throw away my key events as shields in this game, I dominated the command pretty early on and a key placed Warpstorm bloodied Subject Omega himself and the Stalking Liktor Synapse creature too. My opponent had no hand and a few resources but I didn’t allow my opponent to power up his Ymgarl Factor.

Win 1-1

Round 3. Vs Epistolary Vezuel (Ben Davis)

Ben admitted after the end of this game that he made a couple of very critical mistakes during the first turn and he was never able to recover. I dominated the first two planets while hindering my opponent’s resource economy and after bloodying Vezuel on the 2^nd turn, Ben decided to call it there. A very short game and sadly Vezuel never really got going.

Win 2-1

Round 4. Vs Archon Salaine Morn (Shirin Hassan)

The Dark Eldar mirror matchis horrific at best and I think the fact that we both played Archons Palace as our opening moves didn’t help matters either. This match went to the very last planet and sadly ended in my 2^nd loss of the day. Was a very hard match though, I had pretty much choked her of cards but sadly she choked me or resources and due to having no resources I ended up on the losing side.

Loss 2-2

Round 5. Vs Talyesin Fharenal (Mark Challenger)

Another game where the card choke worked to perfection, I managed to win most of the command struggles and I stopped him from drawing cards where I could. The double team of Syren Zythlax and Solarite Avetys works really well. I managed to pretty much sweep all the planets until I won my victory condition planet, I think it was turn 4. My opponent was really cool though and I was good to play against another warlord that only saw 1 entrant in the event, the other being Swarmlord.

Won 3-2

Round 6. Vs Nazdreg ( Dan Mossman)

This game really surprised me, as soon as I saw Nazdreg across from me I figured that 3-3 was a respectable record and boy was I shocked when my opponent played 2 units on his first turn. I managed to pick up a lot of command and also win the first planet. The next turn looked a lot tighter for me as my opponent had 2 big hitting elite units (Venemous Fiend) out and they all but cleared planet 1 when they arrived. However a well timed Archons Terror managed to really help and I managed to go for a 3 planet sweep to pick up the win. I never really saw any choke in this game especially with it being so short a game and him only having 2 army units out. This again was another game that was really fun as my opponent was another cool guy. I was just hoping this win would take me into the top 16.

Won 4-2

Sadly I placed 17 / 51 in this event, a tad heartbreaking in the same manner I feel as the guy who came 9^th, just missing the top cut and I do feel I could have done better had I not made the critical errors in the very first game. However it was a pleasant day and I met some pretty cool people.

A few local events coming up and I am gonna move away from Kith for a while as I feel like I have reached a peak with her. Got my eyes on a couple of different builds moving forward and very excited to try them out.

Thanks for reading. I’m Big Boss.... I’m Out.... Peace.

 

Warhammer 40,000 Conquest Midland Regional Championship 18th June 2016.

What a day, was really chuffed to see a 36 player turnout, and to have the current world champion be there was a little exciting also. After a lot of soul searching I decided to run the dreaded Packmaster Kith, I have been playing Kith on and off since I started playing Conquest and despite playing Ragnar quite successfully in recent tournaments, I decided to fall back to my original love for this rather large event.

This version of my Packmaster Kith deck had only played 1 game prior to the event, I had switched out the Eldar allies for Chaos allies and I was very unsure if they would work, but after discussing it on CardGameDB and with some of my friends, I made the commitment to choose Chaos as my ally for this build.

Round 1 – Vs Paul, playing Subject Omega

This was probably the most fun I had during the tournament, we had a bit of a laugh while playing and the guy was pretty cool. The thing I probably noted from this game was that I never saw 1 Chaos card during the whole game. I think I managed to get the victory here through planets as far as I remember.

Round 1 – Win – 1-0

Round 2 – Vs. Darren, playing Chaplin Mavros

I think this chap had used his bye to skip the first round, I had decided to not cash in my bye for this event, I figure I will save it for the next regional I plan on going to. I have had great success with Kith when playing Space Marines in previous games and so I wasn’t overly worried. I choked him of his economy, and then piled on to pick up the win and get me my 2^nd victory. Once again though, I must note that I never saw a single Chaos card during this game.

Round 2 – Win -2-0

Round 3 – Vs. Pehjmon, playing Anrakyr The Traveller
 

Ok, so I have not really played against Necrons properly yet, despite having a clue what this warlord could do, I have never actually seen what he can do and this was an intense match for me. However, I won a lot of command, stopped him gaining resources with my Archon’s Palace and then finally got to see my Chaos Allies put in some work after warpstorming his HQ to decimate his forces and with his warlord only having 1 HP left, he decided to call it GG there.

Round 3 – Win -3-0

We then had a spot of lunch, if you must know; I went to Burger King and had a Bacon Double Cheeseburger XL meal. It was lovely too. Not had BK in a few weeks. HA!

Round 4 – Vs. Sarah, playing as Ragnar Blackmane

This game did not last as long as I thought it would, I steamrolled command and never went anywhere near Ragnar with Kith. Sarah made a massive error by not activiating her Primal Howl, and once she realised her error, I think she had mentally threw in the towel and I didn’t take long before she conceded.

Round 4 – Win -4-0

Round 5 – Vs. Daniel, playing as Eldorath Starbane

Ok, so both of us are currently 4-0, I saw Starbane and thought “Well it was good while it lasted” however on my victory condition planet, my opponent decided to go to planet 2 in order to win his command and this was just silly, leaving his one major unit on planet 1 ready to be hit by a Klaviex Warleader and my Solarite finished the job. So after 5 rounds of swiss I managed to get a 5-0 record.

Round 5- Win -5-0

Top 8 game – Vs James, playing as Zarathur

Well this went pretty much as expected, I hit the command hard here and I bloodied Zarathur pretty quickly. Sadly my opponent had to get going but this did mean that I got a ticket into the semi-finals and secured me all buy the 1^st place prize.

Top 8 – Win -6-0

Semi Final Game – Stefan, playing as Archon Salaine Morn

Well, this was a boring game, I kind of knew how it would go also, I do think that Kith cannot get ahead of the economy of Morn and it showed in this game. I started out pretty strong but once Morn had her resources I was pretty much over for me and sadly I fell at this critical hurdle. But I must admit I had a great time and TBH if I had gotten into the final game I probably would have just fallen asleep, as I was really exhausted at this point and was ready for home.

Semi Final – Loss – 6-1

I would like to note that we were given additional prizes for being the best in faction, we were given some custom planet dials which were very nice and it was a bit of a shame that I had already purchased one from the same supplier prior to the event off eBay. Man down. However, still pretty stoked to get another little something for the effort I had gone to. Overall I was very happy with the whole day and I very much like my haul of goodies. All my opponents were pretty sound and it was a pleasure to compete against them.

The next stop in the road now is the regional event at Firestorm Games on the 9^th July 2016. I am not too sure who I intend on playing there but do think I will go with something a little more relaxed than Packmaster Kith.

So I will get this closed down now, thank you for reading.

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