Arkham Horror Breakdowns

I played two more solitaire games of AH! Yesterday. This was mainly to say I'd played or seen played all the investigators and against all the ancient ones.

I lost both games, but I had 5 seals on the board, so pretty close to winning the game on oth counts. Gloria, the author investigator is pretty awesome despite looking ho-hum, while the flashy Drake the magician is nowhere near as cool as he looks.

I want to give some general ratings to these idiots who delve too deep and the creatures they strive to prevent eating reality. I'm going to break them down into some categories:

Bruisers:

All of these characters start the game with good stamina scores and guns. They kill cultists and zombies like nothing else, but struggle against top-end otherworld squiggle-heads because their maximum sanity and will aren't as good. They're min-maxed fighters. They are all lots of fun to play, with good starting equipment and money to burn.

Mike McGlen, the Gangster starts with a Tommy Gun and rarely loses stamina. He's a lot of fun to play because he gets to bully low-level mooks, but his game isn't too deep. Points for having the best Fight skill in the game. Rating 3.0.

Monterey Jack, the Archaeologist has a strong stamina, is good at finding relics, and begins the game with a .38 and a bullwhip. Awesome. One of my favorite games was with Monterey. Low sanity can be crippling. Rating 3.5.

Joe Diamond, the Private Eye begins with a .45 and a lot of clues, which is good. Joe's also got the best speed skill in the game which can be terribly important for evading monsters or getting to the right gate to close it. My game with Joe was short but he seems pretty strong. He also has the best maximum sanity of any of the Bruisers. Rating 3.0.

Explorers:

The explorer characters are good at choosing their fights more carefully than others, and when the stakes are as high as they are in Arkham and worlds beyond, choosing fights is way good. They tend to have some money, which is necessary at times for sanity and stamina regeneration, or for picking up a useful item. They're all fun to play.

Darrell Simmons, the Photographer doesn't start with much, but he has a steady if unstable income that can go a long way. He gets to draw two encounters at locations in town and choose the one he likes, which is amazing. Other than that he's a bit blah. Robb actually played him in a game we won, so I haven't had the pleasure but he looks good if not great. Rating 2.5.

Kate Winthrop, the Scientist actually possesses most of the tools to be a great spellcaster: starts with spells, a decent Lore skill, and a good maximum sanity. Gates can't open on a space she is at either, which can be an amazing ability in the late game. She starts the game off with a wide variety of items, some decent cash and 2 clues as well, so she's got a leg up on some. It's also nice that she can't be jumped by gates or monsters, which is a concern many investigators have to deal with. Rating 3.0.

Gloria Goldberg, the Author also has the tools to be a great spellcaster, but her Lore skill isn't as good as Kate's. She gets to draw two other world encounter cards while adventuring on other planes and choose her encounter, which is huge. H U G E. The other world encounters run the gamut from pointless to game-breaking (in a good or bad way), and getting a pick of two is nuts. In my game with her all my other world adventures had positive or nil outcomes, which is awesome when the possibilities include being Lose in Time and Space, Devoured, or Cursed. She's way good. Maybe the best in the game. Rating 4.0.

Wizards:

The three wizard characters excel at spellcasting in one or more ways, though I'm not too big on one of them. They all have some cash at the beginning of the game, and either start with lots of spells or have ways around the sanity loss good spells incur. They're fun to play, but spells are actually a bit random in their usefulness, so it can be challenging.

Dexter Drake, the Magician is a bit of a trap. He starts the game with a powerful attack spell, two random spells, and a good Lore skill. However, his maximum sanity is only 5. Unless he can mitigate the sanity loss of casting his awesome spells he's going to have trouble. Find a healing stone or some whiskey and you might be all right, but it's an uphill climb. And hope you get good spells or you're in trouble. Rating 1.5.

Carolyn Fern, the Psychologist doesn't seem to be a spellcaster on the surface: she doesn't start with any spells. However, she has an amazing sanity-restoring special ability and a Lore skill as good as Dexter's. Buy her some spells with her $7 and get 'casting. She's terribly slow, so try to get her a map or something ASAP as well. Rating 2.5.

Harvey Walters, The Professor has the best Lore skill in the game. He reduces all sanity loss by one. He starts with two random spells. If you want to play a wizard character, play Harvey. He's really good at it. He might be one of the best characters in the game, but for the randomness of bad spell draws. Rating 3.5.

Materialists:

These three characters all either manipulate items decks or have tons of cash to throw around, or both. All of them are fun to play because of how well equipped they can be, but being subject to the randomness of the items decks can sometimes suck.

Bob Jenkins the Salesman is pretty straightforward. He's got money and starts with a bunch of stuff. Depending on what he gets he can be pretty amazing, and since he starts in the store, with money and a common item special he can dial in some more goodies. Robb played as Bob and bought a gun straight away in one game, and it paid dividends. Points for having the highest possible Will skill in the game. Rating 3.5.


Jenny Barnes the Dilettante starts with the most money and gets more every turn. She also has a little of everything from the items decks, but aside from raw materials she's a bit bland. She can get a lot done with her cash but she's a bit slow and doesn't have a specialty. Rating 2.0.

Ashcan Pete the Drifter only has a dollar at the start, but he's the only investigator to start with an Ally, his dog Duke. Pete has a lot of clue tokens. He has a special that allows him to look at the bottom of several items decks and draw from them when he would draw. That's pretty amazing. He's got the best Sneak skill in the game. He's slow, and being poor isn't great in this game, but he's got some chops. Rating 3.0.

Jacks of All Trades/Support Characters:

The next two characters don't do much particularly well themselves but instead support awesome characters well. This can be important. These characters are great in a support role but aren't super great by themselves.

Vincent Lee, the Doctor regenerates his own or another character's stamina each turn. That's good but his own fight stat is so terrible that he's not a great combatant despite this advantage. He has some spellcaster traits with spells and a decent Lore, but his will is low and his maximum sanity is only average. He's rich, which is sweet. But overall he supports other characters better than running solo. Rating 2.0.

Mandy Thompson, the Researcher is an average investigator with middling skills who has an amazing special. Once per turn she can allow a reroll of all failed dice for a particular roll, whether her own or an ally's. That's nuts good. Aside from that she's not inspiring or particularly adept, though her basic stats allow her to succeed at many things. She is good, but not great. Rating 3.0.

The Masters of None:

These last two characters don't really have awesome special abilities, and in my experience they struggle a bit because of it. They aren't terrible, but they aren't particularly good either. One of their worst traits is that they are both poor, starting with $1 or $0, which can make sanity and stamina recovery difficult.

Amanda Sharpe, the Student is a skill monkey. She starts with 2 skills, which is more than many characters. Skills tend to give flat buffs to whole skill areas. They're good. In addition she draws extra skills when drawing from the skill deck (which rarely happens in-game unless you have the money for classes, which Amanda doesn't). Overall her special doesn't come into play often, and she's not particularly good at any skill trees without skill buffs. Rating 1.5.

Sister Mary, the Nun is an anomaly. She plays differently than all other characters. She can't get lost in time and space. She starts with a cross and holy water (the cross is best against undead and not great versus anything else). She has the best Luck skill in the game. She starts the game blessed. She has two spells, a decent Lore, and a high sanity.

Yet, she doesn't quite gel in my experience. Her awful will and fight stats hurt her abilities to thwart monsters. She's not fast or sneaky. And she's broke. So when things go south she can't pick herself up. Rating 1.5.

The mythos entities at work in the game range from tough to ridiculous, as any good CoC antagonist should be.

I'm going to rate them based on how tough they are to beat in AH!

Nyarlathotep is actually easy to deal with if you game for the final battle. A single investigator with a tommy gun and a dozen clue tokens practically can't lose in the final battle with him. He's flavorful and fun but he's a bit of a pushover. On the upside, playing against him allows for a lot of expiration not allowed against more stressful ancient ones. Rating 2.0.

Cthulhu is ridiculous. He makes cultists more difficult. He reduces all investigator sanity and stamina maximums by 1. He regenerates doom tokens during the final battle, meaning single investigators can't win. He's nuts. Rating 4.0.

Shub-niggurath is pretty nuts. All monsters are tougher. In the final battle investigators without monster trophies die. Not many investigators will have enough monsters to fight her for her 12 turns of doom tokens. Rating 3.5.

Yig is one of the lowest-doom ancient ones. Cultists are fierce. The final battle comes quicker but it's easier. Rating 2.0.

Ithaqua is middling. Cultists are tougher, and investigators need to be wary of their movement. High stamina investigators should win the final battle without much planning. Rating 2.0.

Yog-Sothoth makes gates harder to close and seal. Further, Yog eats gate trophies which are hard to accumulate in mass. It's an uphill battle for the good guys. Rating 3.5.

Azathoth is pretty straightforward. Not a lot of specials here. If the final battle begins the investigators simply lose. Nothing to game for there, but Azathoth sleeps deeper than the rest. Rating 2.5.

Hastur is off the chain. While the antagonist gates cost 8 clues to seal (which is A W F U L). During the final battle the difficulty of combat against him is equal to the terror level, which is bad. Cultists become harder to fight. He eats sanity during the final battle, so maybe Harvey could hang, but most everyone else is boned. Rating 4.0.

Arkham Horror is a fun game. I'm still enjoying it. Probably done with recaps. Maybe some house rules to follow. . .

-Merlin out


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