Seconded! I’m currently blitzing through Dunwich with a very stabby Zoey and Rex doing the investigating lifting, and having a blast. Using builds suggested by Arkhamdb that incorporate two core sets and a few of the Dunwich expansions.
Yup, one the best things about the "LCG"db websites is just taking a look at other players decks and see how they use certain cards in conjunction with others. Players also usually write very detailed piloting instructions for the decks they make, why the cards they use are there, etc. You learn a lot of good play techniques.
Decklists > Hall of Fame shows the most popular and/or highest rated decks.
Thanks for that link! That site is a tremendous resource. Can’t wait to dig into this.
The game is extremely atmospheric and really cleverly designed. One of my favorites ever. Just be aware that it’s a $$$ sink. Each of the campaigns (except the first one) requires an expansion for $30 plus 6 Mythos packs for $15 each. I sold off my complete set about halfway through the Forgotten Age campaign because I just didn’t want to keep dropped $15 every month for a new pack. If I’d enjoyed deckbuilding, I’d probably have kept it anyway, but I just don’t.
Thanks for the advice. I’m just tipping my toe in the water for now, and we’ll see how we like it. In the past, I’ve enjoyed games like the LOTR LCG and Netrunner, but after a couple expansions I usually move on to other, newer, shinier things. Probably the same will happen here. We’ll see.
I received the core set and played it obsessively all day Monday. I’m really enjoying it! But I have to admit to a bit of embarrassment: I forgot that I already own one core set – and the Dunwich expansion! Someone gave them to me as a birthday gift a couple years ago. Back then I started the first campaign and never finished it.
This time I was utterly hooked. Interestingly, I could hardly remember any of the plot points from my aborted play-through two years ago. That might be a good sign for replayability. I worked through the first mission with Wendy and Roland, earned some XP, upgraded some cards, started on the second mission, and had to stop there. Too busy to continue today, but will definitely be back to it later in the week.
I think I prefer this to the LoTR LCG, which is also a good game. In LoTR, it’s more of a puzzle, with more emphasis on deck construction, and less of an RPG. Arkham has interconnected scenarios that form larger campaigns; it looks like Dunwich has 7 or 8 such scenarios. Best of all, losing a scenario doesn’t mean you give up and start over; the campaign keeps moving forward. I much prefer the mechanics in ArkhamLCG, even if I prefer the theme in LoTR.
@roguefrog, that Hall of Fame section in arkhamdb is a great learning tool. It’s reassuring, too, as it confirms some of my initial impressions of the cards.
I’ve played a lot of LoTR LCG. I think its main drawback is how difficult the quests are. There are like 5 “easy” quests…out of hundreds. You really have to make solid decks often geared towards specific quests in order to clear them and there isn’t much leeway. Also there is a thing called “Location Lock” that can make it nigh impossible to win…drawing too many locations as you can only clear 1 location a round outside of card effects. The saga expansions for LoTR do have “campaigns” but admittedly I haven’t tried them.
Arkham Horror LCG is very much a spiritual sequel/iterative design from LotR LCG.
(Not affiliated with this company) But goddamn, these are gorgeous. Clearly I need more money…I’m not sure I’m quite up for $110 to replace all my tokens, but I do wish I could.
Man.
I’m going to have to make a will test.
Phew, I was worried that was a link to fancy versions of the tokens you draw from the bag for skill checks. That would have been tempting. But there’s no way I’m dragging those metal tokens across my cards!
-Tom
You could if you sleeved them!
As it happens, I just spent $9.99 for 50 plastic token sleeves. I didn’t realize there was a pricier option. :)
I’ve been enjoying this a lot. I’ve run through the Night of the Zealot with Roland and Wendy, playing solo. I lost in the final scenario. Now I’m starting on the Dunwich cycle. Soon I’ll start playing with my kid. Kinda addicted!
I’ve also just ordered the Broken Token organizer for all these cards. And of course I’ve sleeved everything with FFG sleeves. Gah! This really is a lifestyle game.
Yeah, honestly the plastic coin sleeves for the tokens (you do have those, right Tom??) are a pretty amazing, cheap upgrade to the game right there.
You bet! I got them because of you posting about them. I can’t imagine NOT having them, not just because they protect the tokens, but because they give the game some cool tactile heft.
-Tom
On the strength of this thread, I went ahead and picked up the base game for my birthday. My wife and I just played through the first scenario. Sadly, we were both defeated, but we both loved the experience.
I was playing Roland, and drew the auto-fail token on the encounter card that loses you one sanity per point failed. Ouch! That proved to be too big a hole to climb out of, and my wife (as Wendy) wasn’t even able to manage to escape the finale after opening the last room.
There were lots of memorable moments in the game, and we’re looking forward to scenario two tomorrow.
Thanks so much for the recommendation!
Aww, glad to hear that! Roland is very strong, but has a bit of a glass jaw to horror. Try to build in ways to fight back against that, bearing in mind that Guardian is also a very resource poor class. It’s a challenge to be sure, but your reward is an investigator with strong stats in the two most important things you need to do- fight and investigate!
I guess I may as well report on the second scenario. What a disaster! I think play time was less than setup time, and yet we still had fun.
I had an amazing mulligan draw, ending up with the special reward from the first scenario and my character-specific weapon in hand. Turn one I laid those down and headed off to target an Acolyte, while Wendy stayed in the starting location to prep.
The first Mythos phase resulted in the big-bad from the first scenario dropping on Wendy in the starting location (terrible luck). I moved back and did some damage (3 damage per hit with a +4 skill check is pretty nice), but also pulled the auto-miss, which resulted in me hitting Wendy (for 3!!) and taking damage myself due to retaliate. Wendy evaded and ran.
Next round, I figured I could finish the bad guy off with 3 attacks. The first two succeeded, bringing him to 9 damage, then I pulled the auto-miss token again, and the retaliate finished me off (due to starting the scenario with a horror token).
At that point, my wife decided to run rather than try to pull something out. In retrospect, she probably should have tried to do the one more point of damage to finish off the monster. The 2 VP plus not having it in scenario 3 would probably have been worth the risk.
We expect to fail the final scenario miserably (we never found any of the objectives, plus the big-bad from scenario one will be back, plus I’ll be starting with 2 horror). But, it’ll be fun, and then we’ll try the campaign again.
Don’t count yourselves out! A couple horror alone won’t necessarily prevent you from winning. Even an extra bad guy might not matter. Go for it!
I’m about 80% of the way to grabbing the core set of this to give it a go.
I played Arkham Horror the boardgame, but found it really fiddly, even though I likes the theme and ideas.
This seems far more streamlined and engaging and I love deck building.
Unfortunately, I will be playing mostly solo… Is it a pain to setup? Are the rules pretty easy to absorb and then recall if you have to take a break from the game for a couple months?
I only ask because I’m a 1/3rd way through a Gloomhaven solo run, but pulling it out and setting it up has kind of burned me out.
Dude, compared to Gloomhaven, anything you play will be a cake run!
But, no, setup is not a major ordeal with the Arkham Horror card game. It also stores easily, once you figure out whatever card storage solution you’re going to use. You do realize you’re going to have to come up with a card storage solution, right? Fantasy Flight is just dumping cards in your lap and leaving it up to you. I use these and love them:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H5HC9G4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
-Tom