----> Investigate. If you succeed, find an Arkham Horror LCG Thread

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61

Yeah, it’s very easy to set up.

Each scenario has an Agenda Deck and an Act deck that typically consist of 3-6 cards. You lay them out and the card art makes it look like a book. You the investigators you control (if you’re playing solo) try to advance the Act deck. The game is trying to advance the Agenda deck. Pretty basic, but effective.

Your first scenario in a campaign can be a bit of a setup, as you build your investigator decks – especially if you’re playing two investigators as a solo game. For the first playthrough of the scenario in the box, go ahead and take the recommended starter decks they give you. They’re not perfect decks, but they work OK…and as a bonus, help to give you ideas about how you’d build BETTER decks the next time.

From there, the scenario setup is basically pulling cards. Having a good way to keep the various cards sorted when you store them is essential to making this easy. Basically you pull out certain cards to build a mythos deck (which is how the game fights back at you each turn) that’s unique to each scenario. You also pull a handful of location cards to lay out on the board. Some get put out immediately, some have to be revealed.

The last part of setup is throwing some chaos tokens into a bag, depending on how difficult you want your playthrough to be.

I’ve got a pretty good system for organizing my cards, and can get a game to set up and ready for turn one in 10 minutes or so, if I’ve already got my investigator decks built from a previous scenario.

Finally, there are a bunch of good learn-to-play videos online.

Here’s the official Fantasy Flight tutorial, which doesn’t cover everything, but is well done and will get you close:

And here’s the video for the very first scenario in the core box I linked up-thread. It’s a really basic, tutorial scenario that holds your hand a lot, but even so, that first time you play it can feel like “OK, so…whatnow?” I love this video because the players are learning the game with one experienced player who absolutely has the rules down cold (I LOVE it when a video playthrough of a board game has no rules flubs.) It’s just a terrific way to grok how the game works, and while it’s obviously spoilery…it’s the first scenario of three. Things get a LOT more involved in the next two!

62

Thanks all! I will stop badgering with random questions in two threads here now!

I did watch the BoardGameGeek YouTube crew play over a 3.5hr video, so have a good sense of how the game flows. Ive just mainly been confused at the over arching concepts of how the game handles solo and how scenarios work from game to game

Thanks again for all the responses

63

Ha! Ask away! I’m on a total Arkham Files game binge of late, and love talking about them. In fact, tonight I did the LCG night at the local games store and we played an Arkham Horror LCG scenario that was a standalone I wasn’t familiar with, and had a blast.

64

I’m also happy to answer questions! I really love this game.

That said, it did take me a while to set up and play my first (solo) game. It just took a little getting used to. But now that I’ve got my cards organized, I can get going a lot faster – for a new campaign, maybe 10-15 minutes to build a new deck, 15 minutes to set up.

One question with solo play is whether to play single-handed or two-handed. So far I’ve played only two-handed, as this way I can get to know more investigators and more cards, and I can have a clue-getter and a monster-beater. But soon I’d like to try single-handed.

Also, the suggested starter decks are fine, but they do have a couple iffy choices. Even in my first game, I wasn’t thrilled seeing Roland draw “Mind Over Matter,” a card that lets you use intelligence instead of combat for your attacks, as Roland is already good at combat (and no Einstein). But I suppose it was good for me to think about the card.

Anyway, enjoy! It’s a great game. :)

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I think you’re going to be disappointed. The game is only half as rich with a single character. It’s simple math. :) I like to think of Arkham Horror as a party-based RPG that relies on different characters playing different roles.

-Tom

66

I find it pretty tough to fit decent fighting skills and a halfway-decent clue-finder into a single deck with a single character ability. That’s not even including some sort of card draw and resource generation.

Apparently, it can be done, but then it becomes more of a deckbuilding puzzle game, and that’s not really where my interest lies.

67

So I’ve played the first scenario a couple of times with the suggested starting decks for the Fed and the Orphan (?) characters. It’s felt pretty much impossible to win. I understand that the campaign is meant to carry on even if you fail. What I’m curious to know–without serious spoilers–is whether you think that scenario was specifically designed to defeat newbies to get them accustomed to the idea of carrying on with the adventure after losing one scenario? Or do I just suck?

68

The starter decks can be pretty inconsistent, but I’ve been able to win the first scenario more often than not.

What problem are you having specifically? Are you timing out from the time it takes to get clues/kill enemies, or are you losing investigators to damage?

69

I had trouble with that scenario my first couple times. But you don’t have to “win” it to win the campaign; it might just mean that an extra bad guy will persist into the later stages, say. That won’t necessarily doom you. A few tips:

  1. Roland should mulligan hard for a weapon before the game starts. I don’t remember Wendy’s highest-priority cards.

  2. On turn 1, there won’t be any enemies out yet, so it’s a good time to play assets – especially weapons for Roland, clue-gathering enhancements for either, and maybe an ally for either. Maybe action 1 is play an asset, then actions 2-3 are investigate. Or first two actions are to play stuff. Once monsters start appearing, it’s hard to get assets down, as monsters get an Attack of Opportunity if you don’t choose a Fight or Evade (or Resign) action.

  3. Wendy often can help more by evading (and thereby exhausting) the enemy than fighting it. If she successfully evades, she can then investigate or equip stuff or draw a card or whatnot. And the exhausted monster won’t attack in its enemy phase.

  4. My first time, I completely forgot Wendy’s special ability – a free re-roll at the cost of a discard. It’s not always a good idea to use it, but if the game’s on the line, go for it.

  5. Likewise, I forgot Roland’s special ability.

  6. You don’t always have to kill monsters to win the game, though in the first scenario, it helps, lol.

  7. The first scenario can be beat with the starter decks, but those decks do have their flaws. As I mentioned, for example, “Mind over Matter” doesn’t seem like a good card for Roland. If you had two core sets, I’d give Roland a second Machete or gun, too. (Yes, it’s annoying that you need two core sets to double up on some cards.) But even without two core sets, I’d spend a little time thinking about whether you’d be happy to draw the cards in your decks. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing this; there are relatively few choices in the core set.

Hope this helps some.

70

This is important. There are scenarios where a “defeat” in one scenario actually takes you down a more interesting adventure path in later scenarios.

It’s hard to let go of the gamer’s “I must beat this” instinct, but it doesn’t necessarily apply to this game.

71

Wendy with the Baseball Bat, the Hard Knocks skill, and some cash can do some major damage too, if you need some extra punch.

72

There’s a YouTuber playing through the NotZ campaign using every investigator (solo) and with their suggested starting deck. I’d imagine you can pick up a few tips by watching the Roland and Wendy ones.


73

I watched some of that Wendy video and enjoyed it. Could be useful for a new player, but maybe after you’ve played the first campaign once, so as to avoid spoilers.

Tonight I played this game with my son, and we had a great time. I like not knowing what’s in the other investigator’s hand. Also I was delighted how easy it was to teach. After one round, my son had the basic rules down; after a second round, featuring a monster, he understood the basics of combat too. We also had some good luck and managed a good outcome for the first scenario of “Night of the Zealot.” He eagerly upgraded his cards, and we’ll be back at it later this week.

74

Yep, the guy is going into it with full knowledge of (and a lot of experience with) the first scenario of NotZ, so you’ll see him playing (or holding) cards based on what he’s seen (or not) from the encounter deck.

How old is your son? Mine is turning 11 later this year but I don’t think he’s ready for this game yet! 🙂

75

My son is a young adult, and a smart one at that! So yeah, it’s a different calculation for an 11-year-old. I think the mechanics would still be teachable, but the theme is pretty gnarly.

Still and all, I was pleasantly surprised how little “teaching” I had to do.

76

Ah, fair enough. Him and his younger sister will play Arkham Horror 3rd edition if we split it into two sessions, but the LCG is probably still a few years off…

That said, I’m going to try them out on the Marvel Champions card game next month when it releases. It’s coop (which they seem to like), but less complex than AHLCG (and the theme appeals more).

77

Marvel Champions sounds like a good next step for your kids! Have fun with it. :)

78

A buddy and I are going to try and play this long distance using Tabletop Simulator, does anyone here have any experience using that? How simple is it to get everything set up? Anything I should know?

79

I don’t have experience actually doing multi on TTS, BUT I have found that the popular mod for Arkham is just fantastic. So much of the tedious stuff is automated!

80

I think the degree of automation depends on the mod. In my experience it’s mainly about simplifying set-up with very little if any rules automation.