|
Lmao is Wendy supposed to be 8? Her card art makes her look like she’s 15.
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2024 20:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 01:56 |
|
|
my interest in this really only extends as far as the LCG co op thing being interesting. I'd play a completely differently themed game with a near identical system. Good luck with the rest of the arkham ip if they are planning on sunsetting this game (not sure why that keeps coming up, there seems to be no offiical communication to that effect)
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2024 20:41
|
|
|
The game line has been doomed since four expansions ago
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2024 20:45
|
|
|
It sounds like they’re just licensing the IP to another publisher anyways, so that wouldn’t have much bearing on the lifespan of the LCG. It’s not like they don’t have half a dozen other spinoff games under their own label, even.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2024 20:49
|
|
|
They licensed all of Genesys to Edge and so now they're just trying to milk any IP that
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2024 21:13
|
|
|
Impermanent posted:my interest in this really only extends as far as the LCG co op thing being interesting. I'd play a completely differently themed game with a near identical system. Good luck with the rest of the arkham ip if they are planning on sunsetting this game (not sure why that keeps coming up, there seems to be no offiical communication to that effect) If anything the latest expansion is the best one yet and a big turn-around from Scarlet Keys... Which I liked, but is divisive. From posts on the Discord from the devs I think it won't be as long a wait for the next expansion. I get the feeling that the hiccup with the delays was a reaction to COVID, the dev team shakeup, and switch to new release model.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2024 21:53
|
|
|
Anonymous Robot posted:Lmao is Wendy supposed to be 8? Her card art makes her look like she’s 15. I always thought she was like 13 or something. I googled it and according to some people on reddit she's at least 12. I also found an article that cites her as being "a couple of years" older than her younger brother, who is 9 (according to the "Investigators of Arkham Horror" lore book? apparently that's a thing).
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2024 22:52
|
|
|
Batterypowered7 posted:I think they swapped Yorick in for Wendy. Thats also Caroline at the front, not Daisy. Got thrown off by the book but Daisy doesn't wear glasses. Nephthys fucked around with this message at 09:01 on Mar 8, 2024 |
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2024 08:57
|
|
|
I went through Hemlock Vale twice now. The scenarios are fantastic, imaginative, and pull tricks with the game pieces that make me confident this game has a future as long as FFG keeps throwing money at it. Maybe longer if fans get inspired. The idea that every day/night in the game changes scenarios in minor or even major ways means you'll have to try hard if you want the same experience the next time you play. The designers even said the "main path" is the one they steered players towards, and I can see that if I followed town residents instead of the doctor I'd have a very different experience. The prelude system is great. I think I'll skip the first one next time as it's very easy to be able to read every codex entry and shape your hand to a degree. But what a great way to familiarize players with the residents and clue them into where to go next. There are some negatives though. I personally hate the finale and will be skipping it and reading the resolutions during the many times I replay this campaign. Big spoilers: After drawing opening hands, you shuffle the top five cards of your deck into the Abyss deck, which replaces the encounter deck and can't be interacted with. You also replace your investigator card with an X/X/X/X that doubles committed skill icons and has X = cards in hand. Then you shuffle your real investigator card into the top half of the encounter deck. Yes, this is a mess with sleeves. My investigators are in clear sleeves, decks are in two different sleeves but I can only imagine the confusion when everyone's using those transparent board game sleeves. When you over succeed, you get to look at that many cards from the bottom of the Abyss deck and draw one. Eventually you'll get your cards and real investigator card back. But if you get unlucky, you'll sit there and have to cycle through the Abyss more than once to get your cards back, because any cards skipped during an over success search are put back on top of the Abyss deck, as are player cards that would be drawn in the mythos phase. My first three times attempting the scenario were like this, and I almost gave up. Not because it's hard, but because setup is a clusterfuck, the encounter cards are constantly discarding cards from your hand and thereby shrinking your skills, and you have to oversucceed over and over as more cards get added to this Abyss deck.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2024 03:50
|
|
|
Yeah there was a Reddit post about how FFG didn’t think of people who played with sleeves, showing a bunch of multicolor sleeves shuffled onto a pile with clear ones. I was wondering where that would pop up.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2024 05:20
|
|
|
jeeves posted:Yeah there was a Reddit post about how FFG didn’t think of people who played with sleeves, showing a bunch of multicolor sleeves shuffled onto a pile with clear ones. I was wondering where that would pop up. They explicitly did think of people who played with sleeves; there's a note in the scenario rules that says basically "if you're playing with sleeves, this will change your experience of this scenario, but that's okay  "The parts I found annoying were when you recover a card that's in two players' decks, there's no way to know whose deck it's in without looking at hidden information (we had all the player decks in the same sleeves), and also the Abyss is hard to shuffle when there's sleeved cards in it. Other than that I thought it was a pretty fun mechanic.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2024 08:31
|
|
|
Regarding Ichtaca in TFA, my read is She's Etzli but got a vision when she was young saying she's a descendent of snakepeople and has been working as a spy among the Etzli since then. The Etzli defend the relic, so Ichtaca has been trying to find an opportunity to figure out how the relic works and then nab it for Yig. The players grab and activate the relic instead, so she panics and heads to arkham to try and salvage her long con. She heads down to mexico city and on the way starts thinking that maybe she can work with us because we seemed to have figured out how to turn the relic on. At some point, maybe in the journey down to the mexico, she realises Alejandro is a Yithian because he knows more than he should about the relic. Padma is a/the chosen of Yig and sees herself as Ichtaca's superior. During the conversation before boundary beyond, Padma talks some poo poo that makes it clear that she doesn't really know what's going on, so Ichtaca performs a ritual to get some guidance in some way (I don't think it's obvious what specifically she's doing). Padma notices Ichtaca doing the ritual and is pissed that Ichtaca is going over her head, so causes the events of the boundary beyond. Ichtaca is a triple agent for the Etzli/Yig/Players in a plan that's going to poo poo around her.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2024 15:25
|
|
|
I finally finished The Scarlet Keys!  It actually turned out really good that I procrastinated for so long, so I don't feel bad about it anymore. I did want to jot down some thoughts though, hope you all don't mind me indulging. My Decks: I ran Kymani and Charlie through this campaign and really enjoyed both decks. I think they're both extremely well-suited to the campaign and would recommend them for anyone else running through it. Usually the investigators I pick to run through a campaign for the first time get countered by it's mechanics, so this was a nice change of pace. Kymani's evasion was incredibly good at revealing concealed cards and dealing with a lot of enemies, while Charlies ability to get massive numbers, soak a ton of damage and make a poo poo ton of investigation checks per turn carried me through the scenarios. A lot of scenarios gave free ally cards as well. Even though they didn't get icons, they were still useful for an extra +1 skill per turn using Charlies ability. Kymani Jones First deck - https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/2513441 Final deck - https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/3644122 I was really happy with the basic idea of using Underworld Market to get a gun and Dirty Fighting out reliably and I think it's the secret to Kymani's success, but I really hosed up in a few ways. Firstly, trying to flex was a waste of time. I never had enough resources to get the investigation tools out since I had to prioritise fighting and Charlie was handling clues just fine. The deck became much better when I removed them all. Secondly, it was really funny when the boss of the first scenario showed up and I realised that without Dirty Fighting I might as well just throw my gun at him for all the good it did. Thirdly, Dirty Fighting and .25 Automatic is a cool combo that lets Kymani fight at 6.... but after a few scenarios it became clear that this really wasn't enough to be a primary fighter in this campaign. Luckily, Hemlock just came out and British Bulldog is transformative for a Rogues ability to perform a standard fighter role. Switching it in instead of those useless investigation tools came at just the right time in the campaign, it seriously saved my rear end. Pay Day ended up being useless, I misunderstood how it would work with my other cards. But overall, I'm really happy with my deck. When I had all the pieces out, it ran really well. Kymani with The Moon, Dirty Fighting and British Bulldog (2) is a beast. Oh and also I have never been luckier with a Tarot card. I drew it in my opening hand 5 scenarios out of 7. I swear I didn't cheat either, it was insane. Charlie Kane First deck - https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/2611810 Final deck - https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/3644128 The concept for this deck was based around this one. I naively felt that using Abigail Foreman to trigger Encyclopedia twice was overkill so went in a different direction, focusing on card draw to quickly get allies out. Without her, the Encyclopedia + Raven Quill combo ended up being too expensive and hard to pull off so it was only helpful a few times but generally, I'm extremely pleased with my deck. Summoned Hound ended up being the real star in the deck, using A Chance Encounter (2) to draw them from the discard pile lets you avoid adding their weakness version into the deck and then you can just go absolutely ham with multiple free investigate checks per turn by using Bonnie, the Quill, Charlies elder sign or getting two out at a time. I think I maxed out at 7 investigations in one turn at one point. Miss Doyle was great as well to put in two allies at once and get another source for boosted investigation. In retrospect, I would have preferred Milan over Kirby since I struggled with resources a few times and I wasn't able to abuse the latters card draw well. Overall, Charlie turned out to be a clue-gathering machine as long as I could get the right set-up. He could struggle if I didn't, or didn't have the resources to play the needed elements but once he got going he really carried the campaign. Overall Impressions: In general I'm positive on this campaign, but I had a lot of gripes. I did enjoy the story. Meeting the Coterie members was fun and I liked the branching narratives that you can pick between helping or harming them. It was definitely light on the horror aspect though and it seems like you can miss a lot of the context for the plot. Red-Gloved Man turning out to be the bad guy wasn't explained, apparently you need to do the optional scenario to understand wtf is happening in this campaign. I consider it a negative that the game gives you so many places to go after scenario 1 with so little context. I think a better way to do it would have been to give you the dossier's on each Coterie member after beating Riddles and Rain, which would let you plan out your route much better and not force you to page through the whole book to read them. Going in as blind as the game makes you would have been awful for me, so I'm glad I waited to get some impressions which let me actually plot out a route. Also the "joke" about Istanbul/Constantinople can eat a dick, I wasted like 15 minutes going insane trying to figure out what I was missing. In terms of the scenario's, I thought they were good in terms of variety and theming but I again have some big negatives. For one thing they all felt long, which is something I've noticed alot with recent Arkham. Either because of their complexity, set up or actual length I prefer my scenarios to be breezier than this. They were also pretty hard. I got insanely lucky and my decks felt really well designed to handle the campaign, but I can imagine more standard decks getting obliterated. Those cultist tokens really don't gently caress around, you can't go into this campaign thinking that being +2 to a test is enough to carry you. Concealed was a fun mechanic, though could be a bit overwhelming. I didn't really interact with Hollowing much, it felt a bit tacked on despite actually being supposedly important. My route went London - Istanbul - Alexandria - Nairobi - Lagos - Marrakesh - Havana - Buenos Aires - Ybor City - Bermuda - Tunguska. Which gave me 7 scenarios in total and 5 Keys, some thoughts below: Riddles and Rain: A nice easy scenario that introduces you to Concealed. I like easy 1st scenarios so I liked this. Dealings in the Dark: One of my favorites, I felt the thematic element to this scenario was very strong. Even Kymani getting hard-countered didn't feel that bad, Charlie was such a machine that he just powered through it by himself. The final chase is really fun. Dogs of War: I already mentioned that I despised this scenario, but I freely admit to loving up the rules. Even accounting for that, the version I got was a dull game of just stalling out the clock. Maybe the other versions are better. Dead Heat: This actually felt like a better version of Dogs of War. I liked how simple it was; just 5 locations, run around them fighting and getting clues as quickly and efficiently as possible and try not to get overwhelmed. You have a real goal here, which keeps the game focused and it is a genuine challenge to win. I managed to get the easy version by going early and I still ended the game with 1 doom to spare and both investigators on the brink of death. One more turn and I'd have been hosed, Kymani was just about to draw Agent Fletcher at the bottom of their deck. I enjoyed this as a real nail-biter of a scenario. Dancing Mad: Another scenario that was a nice combination of being hard and simple. The twist at the end is cool, but it ended up being kind of unmemorable compared to the others. Sanguine Shadows: I really liked the concept, and it was the only scenario that felt nice, satisfying and short. The mechanic is too unforgiving though. If you don't get really lucky in finding Not!Camine Sandiago asap before she steals anything you might as well just resign the scenario. Which is pretty much down to pure luck. I managed it because this is the luckiest I've ever been playing Arkham but I'm not a fan of it being so drat unpredictable. Due to how little time you have, it's a huge waste of time to use the mechanics to check concealed cards so it's better to just power through but again that's just down to pure luck in whether you can succeed before dying by getting blasted by damage/horror. Congress of the Keys: I overthrew the Coterie, so the version I got was pretty easy all things to be told. The allies and keys I had at that point were very strong. Like a lot of Scarlet Keys, it was very long and complicated but not necessarily bad. And ok finale. Conclusion: I think in general I enjoyed Scarlet Keys more than a lot of people, but some of that was from being aware of what to expect and adjusting. I think I would say that I enjoyed playing my decks and reading the plot more than I did playing the actual scenarios, which sounds damning but it wasn't really that bad (except Dogs of War). Right now, I would likely put it at the lower middle of my campaigns. It's still better than Dunwich or Innsmouth, but I'd put Edge of the Earth, Circle Undone and Forgotten Age over it, at least for now without replaying it. I'm not sure how I feel about replaying it though, since I've heard some rough things about the scenarios I didn't play. Shades of Suffering sounds like a nightmare. It did get me over my Arkham dry spell though and I still had a lot of fun, so now I'm eager for Hemlock to finally show up..... eventually. Nephthys fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Mar 13, 2024 |
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2024 21:48
|
|
|
I think Congress of the keys is the easiest campaign finale, and if you have the pocket telescope, it’s even easier.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2024 22:56
|
|
|
Yeah I think British Bulldog is the sauce Kymani was missing before this. Did you try False Surrender? Seems like that's a good tutor. I do worry about losing out on the damage bonuses that Guardians get with their 3 damage melee attacks, but Kymani gets more actions so it might balance out.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2024 23:57
|
|
|
Golden Bee posted:I think Congress of the keys is the easiest campaign finale, and if you have the pocket telescope, it’s even easier. Edge of the Earths final scenario is also kind of easy, but I do think Congress was easier... as long as you can get your skills high enough for the final boss. Consistently doing damage to a boss with 5/5 stats isn't nothing, or consistently investigating a 6 shroud location. I think thats an appropriate level of expectation for modern Arkham though. If you're heading into the final scenario without being able to do that you're doing something wrong imo. LifeLynx posted:Yeah I think British Bulldog is the sauce Kymani was missing before this. Did you try False Surrender? Seems like that's a good tutor. I do worry about losing out on the damage bonuses that Guardians get with their 3 damage melee attacks, but Kymani gets more actions so it might balance out. It's night and day. .25 Auto and Dirty Fighting gets Kymani to 6 skill, by British Bulldog and Dirty Fighting gets them to 9 base. It can also shoot aloof enemies, which there are a lot of in Scarlet Keys. I didn't try False Surrender but it looks like a good idea. For 3 damage attacks, I used Backstab or Hatchet Man. I also bought the Berretta but ended up not needing it. Occasionally Charlie even pitched in with Summoned Hound or Zeal.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 00:35
|
|
|
My groups scarlet key experience was going in blind, missing half of the scenarios because we lost a lot of time on event locations and then still beating up the final boss even though we had no idea who any of the characters were. Reading other people’s experiences makes me want to try it again but I really feel like you need a guide, and at that point it might as well be a regular campaign and drop the gimmick. Might run the ones we missed as standalones
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 00:36
|
|
|
LifeLynx posted:Yeah I think British Bulldog is the sauce Kymani was missing before this. Did you try False Surrender? Seems like that's a good tutor. I do worry about losing out on the damage bonuses that Guardians get with their 3 damage melee attacks, but Kymani gets more actions so it might balance out. Unless I’m not understanding, False Surrender doesn’t tutor. Its effect is actually redundant with British Bulldog.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 00:36
|
|
|
neosloth posted:My groups scarlet key experience was going in blind, missing half of the scenarios because we lost a lot of time on event locations and then still beating up the final boss even though we had no idea who any of the characters were. You really do want to look up a guide imo. Losing out on content because you're wandering around event locations and reading instead of playing isn't fun. I'm confident that I made the right decision and had more fun planning out a route after I looked up where the actual scenarios were and how to get a good ending. Although (ending spoilers) overthrowing the Coterie was a bit lame. I thought I would still be joining them and kicking out all the lovely members but instead you just get the crappy epilogue of being disbanded. The ending for joining the Coterie is cooler.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 00:57
|
|
|
neosloth posted:My groups scarlet key experience was going in blind, missing half of the scenarios because we lost a lot of time on event locations and then still beating up the final boss even though we had no idea who any of the characters were. My first playthrough went similarly. I was getting a lot of scenarios in a row, but then had an unlucky streak where I got a few non-scenario locations that ate a big chunk of time. It's unfortunately possible to get a lead that you need to go somewhere and, due to the order you did scenarios, within the time you get the lead and get to the location it's already too late. You get a bit of lore about what you were looking for being gone, and you just wasted 3 clicks worth of time. I liked it despite that, and my hunch is the finale got the difficulty tuned down to compensate for people missing XP from multiple scenarios. Anonymous Robot posted:Unless I’m not understanding, False Surrender doesn’t tutor. Its effect is actually redundant with British Bulldog. Oh, I was totally confusing it in my head with Dirty Deeds. Nevermind!
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 01:23
|
|
|
Dirty deeds is definitely a class-redefining card for rogues.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 01:30
|
|
|
Anonymous Robot posted:Dirty deeds is definitely a class-redefining card for rogues. Well, that redefinition already happened with Underworld Market, which also effectively searches out your illicit cards. I've been a big fan of UM, so I spent a lot of time thinking and doing math about DD vs UM, and my conclusion is that TL;DR: Underworld Market is simply better. For 2 less XP than 2 Dirty Deeds, you can buy the card you need off of Underworld Market guaranteed by turn 5 and very likely by turn 3 or earlier (instead of having to draw it and/or Dirty Deeds). If you have two of the card that you're searching for, Underworld Market gets you it with the following odds (1 million iterations): turn 1 odds: 37.71% turn 2 odds: 28.91% turn 3 odds: 19.98% turn 4 odds: 11.16% turn 5 odds: 2.24% I'm not going to run a sim on drawing Dirty Deeds 'cause programming mulligans is harder, but assuming you have two DD and two of your target card and only one signature card, you have an 81.0% chance of seeing DD or your target if you're willing to mulligan your whole hand for it, and a 14.3% (4 out of 28 remaining cards) chance of drawing it on the next draw otherwise (raising the total odds to about 84%), with the odds on each card draw increasing as you deplete your deck without finding it. Now, if you absolutely need it turn one for some reason*, then 81% is better than 38%, but if you need it simply "early", then UM is roughly "tied" with DD on turn 3, and starts to win the race starting on turn 4 (assuming no other card draw besides upkeep; yeah you can draw more, but that costs actions and that sounds flagrantly bad compared to the guaranteed zero actions of UM). And it does all this without constraining how you mulligan or eating up one of your draws, so you end up with more and better other cards. (Note also that DD's odds get slightly worse if you have other stuff clogging your deck - story cards, extra signatures for chars that have more than 1, etc.) And on top of that, you also get to search for any other good illicit things you've got goin' on. They both cost 1 resource. DD lets you play it and activate it immediately, but it also costs two actions, so that's a wash, action-wise. The main benefit over UM is that if you're engaged with an enemy, you can avoid the opportunity attack for playing it. Is that worth two more XP and giving up the other benefits of UM? As it is, I don't really see a reason to run DD over UM. Now, if there was some really cool illicit card that was limit-one-per-deck/exceptional, then the math would tip somewhat in DD's favor, I think - but the only one that qualifies is Finn's gun, and while it's a decent gun, Finn doesn't need to search it out specifically. *can't think of any card where that'd be true; Lockpicks and Thieves' Tools you probably want asap but if you put BOTH in your Underworld Market you're gonna have a lot better time overall. I didn't simulate finding one of four cards in UM but you have a 93% chance of getting one on turn 1, and then you can buy more of them later.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 03:54
|
|
|
That is interesting to consider, thanks for sharing the breakdown. I’m building an Alessandra deck currently, and Dirty Deeds makes more sense in that particular case as there are only 6 illicit cards in the deck. You’d be fishing for either British Bulldog or Fake Credentials, so 4 targets total, with DD bringing it up to 6. I don’t know that having to add an additional 4 targets in to satisfy UM’s requirements makes sense in that case.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 04:30
|
|
|
Anonymous Robot posted:That is interesting to consider, thanks for sharing the breakdown. I’m building an Alessandra deck currently, and Dirty Deeds makes more sense in that particular case as there are only 6 illicit cards in the deck. You’d be fishing for either British Bulldog or Fake Credentials, so 4 targets total, with DD bringing it up to 6. I don’t know that having to add an additional 4 targets in to satisfy UM’s requirements makes sense in that case. Keep in mind that you'll be adding 10 cards to your deck (at no xp cost) when you buy Underworld Market, so you can shove whatever in there. You can fill your UM deck with 6 pieces of junk and it's still better than DD. I was assuming 2 target cards and 8 pieces of junk. If there are multiple cards you want, UM only gets better, since you can "search" for all of them, eventually. And neither of those cards are ones you need on turn 1, either, unless the scenario starts you with an enemy, which is quite rare. For Alessandra with Bulldog and Fake Credentials, the first things that come to mind to fill the UM out are Blackmail File, Lockpicks, and Disguise. Even if you never buy them from the market, that's fine; it'll still fetch the cards you actually want. And late in the scenario when you've got a lot of spare money, you can buy stuff just to get throw-in symbols, which is useful.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 04:54
|
|
|
I think Dirty Deeds has a decent enough place in some rogue big gun decks because the aspect of ignoring all costs when making the shot makes it work well with the low-ammo count of the sawn off shotgun, the exhausting of the beretta, or just the old shotgun generally. I agree underworld market is better the majority of the time, but I think Deeds is a nice enough design that there'll be some places that it's situationally better (probably centering around the fact it's an event).
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 10:45
|
|
|
Primpod posted:I think Dirty Deeds has a decent enough place in some rogue big gun decks because the aspect of ignoring all costs when making the shot makes it work well with the low-ammo count of the sawn off shotgun, the exhausting of the beretta, or just the old shotgun generally. I agree underworld market is better the majority of the time, but I think Deeds is a nice enough design that there'll be some places that it's situationally better (probably centering around the fact it's an event). Hmm, that's a fair point. I didn't think about ignoring non-action costs. Specifically, the Sawed-off Shotgun is a decent use case; don't really think it's worth it with anything else. If only Old Shotgun was illicit. . .
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 11:25
|
|
|
That's a good write-up. Now I think Dirty Deeds is better if your role is fighter and it's an enemy-heavy campaign where every shot matters, but it's moved from "game changer" to "campaign dependent". Alessandra is amazing, she's easily in my top 5 investigators now. Parley in Hemlock Vale is mostly in the preludes, with just a spattering of it in most scenarios so she's outstanding there, but parley on player cards is really powerful, too. I played her as my primary cluever in Hemlock. There were some cards that exceeded my expectations, and some that went way under. Fine Clothes: S-tier. Maddeningly I couldn't draw either copy of these the entire campaign, one of those situations where I had to check my deck to make sure I didn't drop the cards. But when they were in play, it was +2 to all my skills. Fake Credentials: Nope, these sucked. Way too slow and unreliable, requiring an enemy and clues at that location. The upgraded one costs too much XP for a slightly better effect. Stick with Lockpicks (1). Bianca "Die Katz": She looks good, giving free parley tests at will without enemies around. The trouble is, Lola Santiago is so much better for clues, and Bianca alone isn't worth buying Charisma for. I never got her into play. Eldritch Tongue: S-tier. I'll take two extra copies of Vamp. Was amazing every time. Persuasion: Even with the mutation, kind of meh. I could see it being good in campaigns with lots of annoying non-Elite enemies. Interrogate: I didn't play this one because the fist test would be a toss-up even with Fine Clothes. It seems good, I just don't like paying resources, a card, and an action for a one-time test that I can't guarantee I'll pass. String of Curses: Mistakenly included this thinking it'd get rid of her weakness. Whoops. I'd play one or two of these in some campaigns, depending on how hard they go on using the Cultist encounter set. Existential Riddle: Probably good in most campaigns. This was my second time through Hemlock Vale, so I knew the encounter cards liked to make you discard, there are lots of Elites, and half the enemies are aloof anyway. Confound: Two clues isn't anything to sneeze at, I just found it was too much XP and too reliant on enemies being where you want clues. Maybe a one-of is good? Drain Essence: Parallel Agnes had this, where it put in so much work. I think it has the same downside as Interrogate. Grift: A decent action-less Emergency Cache or better. Often by the time you're running into enemies, you want to be pushing the victory condition harder. I usually had better plays than this, but Lola Santiago appreciated the funds. Stir the Pot: Another metagame choice, but a fantastic board wipe that has me thinking a flex Alessandra with damage options such as this and British Bulldog may be amazing in higher player counts. Well-Dressed: Not incredible. Fine Clothes, Lola Santiago, and other static skill boosters made this irrelevant. Parley tests are pretty low for the most part, and I was often only in danger of the auto-fail. Worth including at level 0 and upgrading out of when convenient. Vamp: Vamp (2) is an auto-include no matter what your Alessandra is doing, it's incredible. Two damage, a clue, and evade for one action. I even sniped a doom once. This is the best card in the deck, and Eldritch Tongue is even better. Ask me what it feels like to fail nine tests in a row across three Vamps. ugghh. Somehow I still won that scenario.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 12:04
|
|
|
Given the ease you had with passing parleys, do you think there’s low value in Chuck Fergus? I was eyeing him as there is a lot of Trick in the deck.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 12:54
|
|
|
I'm also eyeing up Chuck, I think he can be a good sub for Fine Clothes in situations where you haven't drawn them yet. I'm also thinking of Friends in Low Places with Trick and Item traits to help draw those key cards. LifeLynx's post has made me take a hard look at a few cards though. Sad to hear Fake Credentials isn't worth it even for Alessandra, that looked fun. I think I finally landed on an Alessandra flex deck that I'm happy with, going with Underworld Support to grab some key cards early. British Bulldog (2) and Eyes of Valusia to fight and then grabbing Chuck and the events. How much XP would you say is easily attainable in Hemlock? I've heard it's only 6 scenarios. Nephthys fucked around with this message at 13:33 on Mar 14, 2024 |
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 13:28
|
|
|
Finally finished FHV tonight, with Mark and Patrice. My Mark deck was a bit loose but I picked up Marksmanship for Aloof/Elusive tech and also specifically for The Longest Night, where it came in very handy alongside the Mk 1 Grenades. It didn't get any use in the next scenario I chose, but when I saw the back half of the finale for the first time it was like, wow, we're back in business! Great finale too, very difficult and very cool with the narrative effects and stuff.LifeLynx posted:I personally hate the finale and will be skipping it and reading the resolutions during the many times I replay this campaign. Big spoilers: After drawing opening hands, you shuffle the top five cards of your deck into the Abyss deck, which replaces the encounter deck and can't be interacted with. You also replace your investigator card with an X/X/X/X that doubles committed skill icons and has X = cards in hand. Then you shuffle your real investigator card into the top half of the encounter deck. Yes, this is a mess with sleeves. My investigators are in clear sleeves, decks are in two different sleeves but I can only imagine the confusion when everyone's using those transparent board game sleeves. When you over succeed, you get to look at that many cards from the bottom of the Abyss deck and draw one. Eventually you'll get your cards and real investigator card back. But if you get unlucky, you'll sit there and have to cycle through the Abyss more than once to get your cards back, because any cards skipped during an over success search are put back on top of the Abyss deck, as are player cards that would be drawn in the mythos phase. My first three times attempting the scenario were like this, and I almost gave up. Not because it's hard, but because setup is a clusterfuck, the encounter cards are constantly discarding cards from your hand and thereby shrinking your skills, and you have to oversucceed over and over as more cards get added to this Abyss deck. Playing it two-handed solo eased a lot of these issues but yeah, it is definitely one of the most convoluted setups in the game. I think it works pretty well though, but it did take me a few goes to get the hang of it. The only really important cards in this bit are your true investigator cards, and you'd have to get extremely unlucky to be unable to get them on the first pass (like, you'd have to have one sitting on the bottom during the mythos phase), especially since once one player gets theirs they can use their Old Memory to grab the next one if it shows up during a "reveal only" bit during the mythos phase. There's no way I could've gotten through this part blind, and I think it would be very hard on some decks and not others, so that does count against it a bit. But the rest of it makes up for it IMO. I'll post a follow-up to my original Patrice deck to ADB probably tomorrow as it's a lot better tuned now. I took some Parley cards too: Stall for Time and String of Curses were good early-game tech before Mark got his Shotgun, with SfT being a great way to exhaust enemies (including Elites) for Patrice because it's easier for her to use her Willpower rather than Agility until she gets some of her staple cards like Cornered. I took Drain Essence as well, and it's the only one I kept until the end. It's great when you take two physical trauma from In the Thick of It since you can use it right away. I took one copy of Eldritch Tongue as well since all those cards build up in her discard pile pretty quickly and they're all good opportunistic plays so the RFG aspect of it doesn't really matter. They're all usable on Aloof enemies too, no engaging required. Nephthys posted:I finally finished The Scarlet Keys! Thanks for the report! I put so much time into my TSK Hard run with all the route and scenario min/maxing that I'm really not keen on going back to it anytime soon. Next time I won't worry about optimizing the route, I think, I'll just do the one scenario I skipped (Shades of Suffering, like you) and a few others in a different order. The ending was still a victory lap on Hard, but I think there's a way you can end up doing it without all your Coterie buddies so that might make it more of a challenge. I agree with your overall placing of it too, though I need to go back and play Innsmouth again since I haven't touched it since release. I think someone here said they found it very snowbally but I don't remember noticing that during my run. I mean, the game is snowbally in general, though I think FHV actually dialed that back a fair bit. I played Kymani too (with Joe Diamond) and they were great fun. I added Fortune and Folly to my run and Kymani was built for that place, and I still think it's one of the best scenarios in the entire game. It can go very long though. edit: Nephthys posted:How much XP would you say is easily attainable in Hemlock? I've heard it's only 6 scenarios. In my just-finished run I ended up with 38XP, not including In the Thick of It, which I took on Patrice but not on Mark. I did have a fair bit of knowledge of how most of the scenarios worked though, and I took 3XP from reading the backs of the prelude acts - only the first two though, not the final one which gives you trauma. Picking up/starting with the weakness was no problem for Patrice or Mark but I imagine there are some investigators that really don't want it. I got a fair bit less in my blind run but it wasn't any less enjoyable. Kalko fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Mar 14, 2024 |
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 13:28
|
|
|
Anonymous Robot posted:Given the ease you had with passing parleys, do you think there’s low value in Chuck Fergus? I was eyeing him as there is a lot of Trick in the deck. Don't need to make events fast when there's the extra parley action. Making them cheaper is nice, but I rarely had money problems and he's $4 upfront. Like you said, the parley tests were easy enough to pass without +2 from him. Lola's essential and so Charisma tacks 3 XP onto Chuck.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 13:31
|
|
|
In my Alessandra I ran crafty as a one of. Made most events free and if you aren't using them for plays you can dump the free resources into beguile parleys and turn them into real money with grift.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 13:45
|
|
|
Kalko posted:Thanks for the report! I put so much time into my TSK Hard run with all the route and scenario min/maxing that I'm really not keen on going back to it anytime soon. Next time I won't worry about optimizing the route, I think, I'll just do the one scenario I skipped (Shades of Suffering, like you) and a few others in a different order. The ending was still a victory lap on Hard, but I think there's a way you can end up doing it without all your Coterie buddies so that might make it more of a challenge. I agree with your overall placing of it too, though I need to go back and play Innsmouth again since I haven't touched it since release. I think someone here said they found it very snowbally but I don't remember noticing that during my run. I mean, the game is snowbally in general, though I think FHV actually dialed that back a fair bit. I suppose a positive to Scarlet Keys is that you can just run through it in a few scenarios if you want to, just doing everything you missed the first time. Going to the finale early probably isn't that bad all things considered. As I remember it, Innsmouth is definitely snowbally in that you either get the memories and the whole campaign is easier or you don't and get screwed over big time. My main problem with it though is just how often they reuse the Tidal Tunnel locations. Over half the scenarios use them iirc. Clearing the same locations over and over again was really boring after a while. I haven't replayed it though. Kalko posted:edit: Thank you greatly. Maybe I won't need my In the Thick of It either, especially with an Underworld Support deck.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 15:04
|
|
|
Nephthys posted:I suppose a positive to Scarlet Keys is that you can just run through it in a few scenarios if you want to, just doing everything you missed the first time. Going to the finale early probably isn't that bad all things considered. Hemlock Vale does this too, but it's way better about making those reused locations feel like a unique part of the scenario.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 15:07
|
|
|
LifeLynx posted:Fake Credentials: Nope, these sucked. Way too slow and unreliable, requiring an enemy and clues at that location. The upgraded one costs too much XP for a slightly better effect. Stick with Lockpicks (1). You're crazy. Fake Credentials (4) is loving amazing.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 19:19
|
|
|
A benefit of "Stall for Time" as well.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 20:49
|
|
|
Time to admit something, after coming back to this thread after two years of not playing: I kind of hate deckbuilding on my own, and I would always rather netdeck. It's one of the main reasons for keeping me away for a while. Do most people just go on ArkhamDB and find the most popular deck for the investigator that they want to run? Or what?
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 21:49
|
|
|
jeeves posted:Time to admit something, after coming back to this thread after two years of not playing: I kind of hate deckbuilding on my own, and I would always rather netdeck. It's one of the main reasons for keeping me away for a while. I don’t generally netdeck, but I have run a couple of this user’s decklists and think they’re pretty interesting and solid, and most importantly have thorough and approachable writeups: https://arkhamdb.com/decklists/find?author=Valentin1331
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 21:52
|
|
|
DontMockMySmock posted:You're crazy. Fake Credentials (4) is loving amazing. Maybe you're right, that connecting location addition is great. I liked Alessandra so much I'm having trouble not running it back with her and a Guardian fighter to try an alternate path in Hemlock Vale.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 22:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 01:56 |
|
|
I’ve just started playing - I’m trying to rope in a friend before I do the 3rd scenario of night of the zealot rather than solo. What’s your thoughts on running path to carcosa using the starting investigators or does it need the investigators pack as well? Yes, it’s because I’m cheap - I’m only in ankle deep at this point.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2024 22:15
|
|