Month: June 2020

My take on this set: One of the most used sets from the Core box. It speaks volumes that this whole set never lost any of its threat level and is still having a sizeable impact in current day releases. It’s also a flavor home run. If there weren’t the occasional problems with Wizard of the Order spawning in weird places, this set would be perfect.

What it does: Acolytes are enemies with fairly low stats, going down after being dealt even one damage. More important than their combat stats is their ability to enter play in an empty location and with a doom placed on them. This means they have to be actively sought out to be dealt with before they will cause the agenda to advance a turn earlier.

My take: The lowly Acolyte seems like an innocent little enemy at first, but does actually have enough punch to be a fairly big deal. Ignoring them usually equates them to a Ancient Evils, which is one of the most respected cards for good reasons. Thankfully, dispatching Acolytes is fairly easy, but that means spending actions to get to them and attacking. Depending on if you have to go out of your way to do so, this might just cost a turn or more in practice.

Threat level: Low to Mid. Adding a Doom to the board is a pretty big deal because it has potential to cost every player a full turn. However there are a good amount of ways to remove Acolytes before they get to contribute to advancing the agenda. They can be drawn at very inconvenient times where they only offer a turn to be dealt with, but on the other hand they can also be drawn during the “Witching Hour”, the turn before the agenda would advance anyways.

Dealing with it: Much of the impact of Acolytes comes from the location they spawn at. Looking at the board, it should usually be obvious if it’s worth seeking them out to discard them. Usually it is, but there are cases like an Acolyte appearing two wagons back in the Essex County Express or at a ‘locked’ location in Where the Gods Dwell that make going after them either not worth it or simply impossible.

What it does: One of the more impactful cards of the core set, this Cultist accumulates Doom over turns so he simply can not be ignored like it’s sometimes the case with Acolytes. At two health, one hit from most weapons is enough to take this enemy down, but the fight value of 4 means that it’s reasonable to expect not getting it done with the first attempt. Like the Acolytes, he doesn’t spawn engaged but in an empty location instead. So dealing with him usually involves spending actions to move to him.

My take: Wizard of the Order on a location that can not easily be reached is about the worst thing that can happen. As soon as this guy hits the table he should be declared the highest priority, otherwise he has the potential to cost everyone multiple turns. This is especially true on scenarios that have low threshold agendas.

Threat level: Very High. Anything that can cost multiple turns is almost in a league of its own. Get rid of him as soon as possible, it is very unlikely that there’s anything more pressing happening on the board.

Dealing with it: Pray that you still have an empty location somewhere reachable. And then kill him. He goes down fairly easy but the fight value and two health mean that its at least a job for a proper fighter with a weapon.

What it does: Two more Doom are added to a Cultist in play. If there is none, a Cultist appears from the encounter deck or discard pile. Players can choose from any of the available ones and it doesn’t have to be a Cultist from this encounter set. Many scenarios that are using the Dark Cult also use other Cultist enemies, either from other sets or from the scenario specific cards.

My take: Adding two doom to the board sounds scary, but in practice it often isn’t all that bad because most Cultists are fairly easy to get rid of. If the two doom are added to a Cultist that can not easily be reached, there was already a problem that now only got worse. If there is no Cultist already in play, this card can often be almost beneficial as it allows searching for Wizard of the Order to get him out of the way, some enemies with Victory points to secure the experience or certain scenario relevant enemies like the key carriers in For The Greater Good. If nothing else, adding an Acolyte to the board is usually not that big of a deal.

Threat level: Low to Mid. A card that adds two doom can not really get a Low rating in good conscience. But often, this card’s effect can be mitigated thanks to the player choice involved or even turned into a positive effect.

Dealing with it: If Doom is added to a Cultist that is out of reach, this card only increases the priority for a problem that was already there before. So deal with that, if you can. Otherwise, just kill whatever got the Doom added. It’ll cost some actions but so would any enemy drawn off the top. When the second half of the card is active, give a moment of thought towards what enemy to pull from the encounter deck, as there is usually some value to gain here.

Return to The Night of the Zealot: The Devourer’s Cult

My take on this set: This replacement set is notable because it is the only one (so far) that can not reasonably be used outside of the two scenarios it was tailored to. The Devourer’s Cult is a serious increase in power over the base set, with every card being much more threatening than its vanilla counterpart. As a result, it’s likely that the Doom generated here leads to an early advance of the agenda, putting this set on par with Ancient Evils.

What it does: Unlike the standard Acolytes who can be chosen to spawn at any empty location, the Disciples appear at the empty spot that is farthest away. During Agenda 1, this is offset by a clause that allows to defuse the doom acceleration by moving a clue to their location instead. Once past Agenda 1, they will both steal a clue and place a doom, though.

My take: Regular Acolytes can already pose a real threat, these advanced versions are more difficult in almost any way, needing more actions to seek out and at least another one to retrieve the clue. If these two things can not be done by the same investigator, this only compounds the problem. Personally i feel like these guys do a bit too much for being in the encounter deck three times and replacing such a basic enemy as the Acolyte.

Threat level: Mid to High. The Disciple of the Devourer is a serious step up from the Acolyte.

Dealing with it: The same notions as for the Acolyte still apply, it’s just more likely for a Disciple to spawn in a place that is a bit out of the way.

What it does: Mirroring the transition from Acolyte to Disciple, this updated version of the Wizard of the Order spawns in the farthest empty location instead of one of the players choice. It has higher stats, the three health mean that it will likely require two hits instead of one to be dealt with. It no longer has Retaliate, but if it gets to attack it deals two horror now. Additionally, the Corpse-Taker will move towards the central location of the scenario and if it is allowed to get there, it will add its accumulated Doom directly to the agenda.

My take: I am not really convinced that Wizard of the Order needed an upgrade, but here it is. At least this one can not sit forever in a location that is hard to reach and instead can be intercepted on its way towards the central location. As usual, the jump from two health to three health is a very significant one, especially on a creature that has a decent fight stat to go along with it.

Threat level: High. Corpse-Taker is just as much of a priority as Wizard of the Order is, but there are two things that keep him from being as much of a menace. One, it will move along a predictable path and can be caught there. Two, it is restricted to two specific scenarios, so you will never see this spawning in the Engine Car of the Essex Express or on a location in For the Greater Good that you don’t have a key for…

Dealing with it: Again, the same as for the core card applies. It should be your first priority while its one the board. It’s easier to reach, but more difficult to fight. Still, nothing that a dedicated fighter should fail to handle.

What it does: This alternate version of Mysterious Chanting only adds one doom to a Cultist instead of two, however it also enhances that enemy with two health and one of two keywords, either Aloof or Retaliate. Like the other two cards from this set, it removes the player choice of who to affect and instead will attach to the Cultist that is farthest away. The Mask still allows searching for any Cultist from the deck and discard pile if none is around, however it will then attach to that enemy and provide the extra health and keyword ability.

My take: Another significant upgrade on the core card. On non-uniques, the two health and Aloof translate into two extra actions required to defeat the enemy. On uniques, the two health and Retaliate make fighting the enemy a lot more risky. Thankfully, most of Umôrdhoth cultists have alternate ways to add them to the Victory display so the effect of the mask can be circumvented for them. Still, this can take the option of fighting the unique Cultist off the table. Mask of Umôrdhoth’s search effect has a lot less player utility to it – while it can be used to bait out the Corpse-Taker, enhancing it with another two life and Aloof is a tough choice to make.

Threat level: Medium to High. Turning the search effect into something to advance your own goals is a lot more difficult with this one. Even a Disciple needs a significant number of actions to be dispatched once it has three life and Aloof. Among the Cult of Umôrdhoth are many unique enemies like Billy Cooper or the Masked Hunter that get very threatening if powered up by this.

Dealing with it: The lack of choice of which enemy to enhance with the Mask takes most of the agency in mitigating the card out of the players hand. If not canceled, this will lead to a powered up enemy harboring at least one Doom, which means dealing with the aftermath is usually going to be the fighter’s job. The notable exception is Mask attaching to a unique enemy with a Parley action that allows to bypass the increased combat stats.

Return to The Forgotten Age: Cult of Pnakotus

My take on this set: This set consists of a mean upgrade to the already very dangerous Wizard of the Order and a few cards that can have their effect wildly swing around from “barely noticable” to “crippling”. The Acolytes from the set are reliant on other cultists on the field to do their thing and are themselves easier to take out than standard Acolytes. A bit of a weird combination. The doom treachery can either do a whole lot of nothing or it can singlehandedly advance the agenda several turns early. I am not a particularly big fan of encounter cards that are this unpredictable. What this set does is make sure that players have a vast interest in killing every cultist they see as soon as they see it. This is a welcome change from the otherwise evasion heavy Forgotten Age.
One thing that i find strange is that this is a replacement for an encounter set that most campaigns will only use twice and some will only use once. Threads of Fate will always use it, Boundary Beyond will only use it if the players aligned themselves with Ichtaca and Shattered Eons will only use it if the players either aligned with Ichtaca or forge their own path.

(Note: These pictures are cropped from the early leaks. My own cards are german, so i opted to re-use those pictures instead of making my own. Once ArkhamDB has these enemies listed, i will update the pictures to what we are used to)

What it does: Brotherhood Acolytes work quite differently from their fellow cultists from the Core set. Instead of carrying doom themselves, these Acolyte appear wherever there are already Cultists around and then place doom on all of those other enemies. They are also Aloof and if they attack, they deal horror instead of damage.

My take: The Acolyte for itself is a step back from the base version in my opinion. If no other cultists are on the board, players get to decide on where to spawn the Brotherhood Acolyte. This includes right on top of the group’s enemy handler. This is partially compensated by the inclusion of Aloof, but i feel like it does make dealing with these cultists a lot easier in total. However, there’s also their ability to add doom to other cultists at their location. In theory that could be used to enhance other enemies that key off of having doom on them stronger. However, all through the Forgotten Age there are only two cards around that can do so: The Stolen Mind from this set. And the Brotherhood Cultist from the Pnakotic Brotherhood set. Is that really enough to matter? I have my doubts, although i will admit that putting more doom on the Brotherhood Cultist is scary.

Threat level: Low to Mid. While there are some scenarios in which this Acolyte can add doom to an enemy that gets extra stats from it, it will mostly be weaker than the core version.

Dealing with it: As long as you can manage to keep the board free from cultists, the Acolyte won’t be an issue. It does become more problematic if it gets to add doom to someone else, but this just means you still only have to kill that other cultist. Something you probably did want to do anyways. Where a core Acolyte would have added another doom onto itself and lead to two creatures with doom on them, this new one leads to concentrating the doom on one card, therefore making it somewhat easier to wipe it of the board.

What it does: Stolen Mind is this set’s version of the Wizard of the Order and just like its core version it does add one doom to itself at the end of every Mythos phase. The differences then come in the stats and this is where things get scary. Stolen Mind has a strong four health, which is certainly relevant and will often allow it to live for another turn. It starts out with only one fight, but gets +1 for each doom on it. Like the cultists from the base set, it spawns at any empty location.

My take: This can get ugly really fast. During the first investigator phase it will usually be 2/4/3, requiring two attacks and of course moving to it first. This will not be possible in one turn every time, potentially making it a 3/4/3 on the next turn. Add an Acolyte that adds another doom to it and you are firmly in Elite enemy territory. As time passes that Retaliate will become more and more of a problem as well. This enemy terrifies me.

Threat level: Very High. Carries doom, takes a full turn to deal with right out of the gate and can escalate into something much worse very easily.

Dealing with it: The Wizard was already a priority, this guy is one even more so. Thankfully, it needs a turn or three to grow its fight stat, killing it off before that happens is something that you just need to do. If it truely grows beyond reach, it will at least become vulnerable again once the agenda advances and the doom is removed from it.

What it does: Once again, the treachery in the cultist set adds doom to cultists on the board or, if it is unable to do so, will search for a cultist to spawn from the encounter deck and discard. This time, the doom scales by how much the player who drew the card fails an investigate test, though. The base difficulty is four, setting the potential for how many doom tokens could be added. Added tokens need to be spread across multiple cultists evenly, if possible.

My take: Draw a tentacle or the TFA-trademark (-5) token, then add four doom to the board? Sounds scary, but i suspect this card will rarely live up to its potential and mostly only shift some priorities around. This card is super scary though, because it has just such a wide span of how impacting it becomes. Not only does the scaling test mean that anywhere between zero and four doom can be added. It also matters a lot if this doom sticks to an Acolyte, a Stolen Mind or a Brotherhood Cultist. Or, if things go really wrong, to a combination of those because it just so happened that you had multiple cultists in play when botching the test on this card. This can easily lead to the threat of having the agenda advance two turns early unless you manage to fight your way through a 5/3/5 Brotherhood Cultist or something. Other times, it will just put a doom or two on an Acolyte which you then proceed to kill.

Threat level: High to Very High. A very situational card, but with a frankly insane ceiling for its effect.

Dealing with it: Being proactive pays off here. Kill Cultists wherever they pop up, basically act as if you were playing Echoes of Truth. During Threads and Boundary Beyond that shouldn’t be too hard, but especially in Shattered Eons this can mean going through the Formless Spawn… at least now only Stolen Mind can lead to spawning in such annoying to reach regions, largely the use of this replacement set in Shattered Eons should make the placement of the cultists a lot more controllable for the players.
Once the deed is done and doom is added to the board, dealing with it means killing of the cultists that are carrying the doom. So nothing too special there, but depending on the number of doom counters, the priority for this task can skyrocket. It’s hard to imagine a more important target than an Acolyte with four doom on it, unless you were already about to advance the agenda.

My take on this set: Frozen in Fear is clearly the most important card here, actually one of the standouts of the whole Core box. The other two cards shouldn’t be completely written off, though. Rotting Remains goes up in relevance once paired with other cards that deal horror and Dissonant Voices occasionally throws a wrench into coordinated efforts, making everyone have to adjust plans. With 5 out of 7 cards sporting Willpower tests, this is one of the sets that are often added to a scenario to cover this important part of the encounter deck’s role in the game.

What it does: A very simple and iconic treachery, dealing horror to an investigator if they fail a Willpower check. There are three of them in the encounter set, making them a constant presence in scenarios including it.

My take: Pretty simple, but that’s not a bad thing. The Willpower check of 3 is within reach of anyone and the scaling damage mechanic means it’s not a binary pass/fail. Most of the time,Rotting Remains is a card that you are somewhat glad to see coming off the top. For low sanity investigators like Roland some concern should be kept in mind that three of them are in the deck, so drawing multiples can become a problem.

Threat level: Low to Mid. It’s not direct horror, so the effect can be mitigated with soak on assets. The Willpower check is neither difficult nor easy, but it should be noted that low sanity often comes bundled with low Willpower. So anyone who would be hit harder by the card is often also the one who has a tougher time dealing with the test. Still, even partial success will lower the impact, so even someone like Skids isn’t always going to take the full 3 horror.

Dealing with it: The card comes with a Willpower check, so that’s the first line of defense against the effect. Other than that, allies and other assets can soak some of the horror if it becomes a problem.

What it does: Another fairly simple effect, but one that has interesting implications depending on the game state. It hinders a player from playing cards, then discards itself at the end of the round.

My take: This is another card that i am often glad to see coming from the encounter deck because it doesn’t actually cost me anything in terms of resources, cards or actions. When drawn at an inconvenient time, it can mess up some plans but these situations are rarely hard to deal with. Many investigators simply shrug this off as they keep on moving and investigating.

Threat level: Low. Conditionally it can become a bit annoying, but it doesn’t take anything away from the player except for some options.

Dealing with it: Just hang back for a turn or take actions using whatever assets you already have in play. The card discards itself at the end of the turn, so this will merely push back what you had planned by a turn.

What it does: Frozen in Fear latches onto a player and consumes up to an action per turn when moving, fighting or evading. To stop this card from costing actions every turn, the player is allowed one Willpower test at the end of each turn.

My take: This card is just terrifying for some investigators. A Guardian who draws this and can’t get rid of it will find himself taking multiple two-action-turns after another which just feels miserable. In my opinion, this is one of the most impactful encounter cards from the Core set and needs some special consideration for most Guardians, some Rogues and for example Joe Diamond who all do a lot of moving and fighting and have low Willpower.

Threat level: High to Very High. While there are some investigators who naturally have high Will that can shrug this off, there are a lot of investigators who are seriously impacted by this effect. The test happens at the end of turn, so the effect usually will last at least for a turn. Similar to Dissonant Voices, this can simply force a player to do something else than what they had planned to avoid the effect, but move and fight are exactly the actions that often can not be postponed.

Dealing with it: Since the Willpower test is a trigger instead of an action to take, nobody else can clear this treachery for the one who drew it. So, outside of cards like Logical Reasoning (which seems tailor-made to deal with Frozen in Fear), the player will have to deal with it themselves. This is where cards like Guts and Unexpected Courage can help to get a burst of Willpower for otherwise vulnerable investigators.

Return to The Dunwich Legacy: Erratic Fear

My take on this set: This complete batch of cards seems like a huge miss to me. Intended to replace Striking Fear, it trades of the Willpower checks with Intellect checks, watering down the purpose of the set. 4 out of the 7 cards can be completely defused by spending two health, the other 3 are only relevant to about a third of investigators. One of the cards is even borderline beneficial. Sorry, but i think this one is a dud.

What it does: Replacing Rotting Remains, Need for Knowledge changes the Willpower check with an Intellect check. The difficulty scales with the number of clues and has a higher upper ceiling than the static 3 from the core card. Horror dealt by Need for Knowledge can be mitigated by putting clues back to the location.

My take: This card is a miss for me on several levels. Most importantly, i think that Willpower checks are not only an important part of the encounter deck, but also a very important part of the identity for this specific fear themed encounter set. Replacing it with an intellect check feels like a weird choice to me. Then there is the problem that this card is tailor made to hit the primary clue getter of the group while everyone else is mostly shrugging this off even more than Rotting Remains. I dislike the design of this card.

Threat level: Low. Often times it just whiffs as it hits someone with only one or two clues. When it does hit the Seeker of the group, it will also be the one who should have little trouble passing the intellect test.

Dealing with it: This card is not much to be concerned about. There are three of them in the deck, so if you’d want to play around it you could make everyone pick up at least one clue so it doesn’t gain Surge.

What it does: Violent Commands doesn’t directly replace one of the cards from Striking Fear, its mechanics are unrelated. While under effect of the Violent Commands, the player needs to take a Willpower test every turn and is dealt one horror on failing it. To get rid of the card the player has to spend an action and deal 2 damage to any investigator. Players are allowed to hurt themselves.

My take: On the surface it looks like this card has a lot going on, but in practice this usually only becomes “Lose one action and two health” as most investigators can just choose to get rid of it immediately. The damage isn’t direct so it can be soaked. High Willpower investigators like Mystics have the option of letting this sit in their threat area for the rest of the game, dealing with the occasional horror instead.

Threat level: Low. Losing two health and an action is about on par with most baseline encounter cards but there are several ways to mitigate it already built into the card. If taking the Willpower tests is a reasonable option for the investigator, it can become very low impact. Note that the damage can be dealt to anyone at your location, so it should be easy to set up a situation where the two damage hit someone that can deal with it. Even the action to activate the card can be used by anyone at the location, so you could even make that part of the effect hit whoever can spare the action most.

Dealing with it: Try not to fall into the trap of keeping this card around for too long if you can not pass the Will test consistently. Other than that, the card is fairly harmless.

What it does: Idle Hands presents another unique effect that doesn’t directly replace one of the cards from Striking Fear. At the end of each turn, it deals 1 horror to the player without allowing for a saving throw. To get rid of it, the player who drew the card (and only they) can choose to take 2 damage to discard the treachery. If they do, they get a bonus action this turn.

My take: I am very confused by this card. Most of the time when i drew it, i felt like it was actually an upside because trading 2 health for an action isn’t really all that unreasonable. Even when it’s not an upside, it’s just 2 damage.

Threat level: Very Low. Even without granting the additional action, this would be a weaker version of Violent Command.

Dealing with it: Just clear it immediately to cash in on the extra action and to never deal with the horror trigger.

Return to The Path to Carcosa: Neurotic Fear

My take on this set: Return to Path to Carcosa offers up another replacement set for Striking Fear and this one hits the mark a lot better than the one from Return to Dunwich. It lacks a standout threat like the Core set has, but between Painful Reflection and Melancholy there is enough raw power here to let these cards have a lasting impression. Personally, i am using these cards outside of Path to Carcosa, too. I replaced one of card from Striking Fear with one of each from Neurotic Fear for variety to create a hybrid set with 2 Rotting Remains and 1 of each of the other cards. They all play off each other well because they share their respective roles.

What it does: This set’s Rotting Remains variant keeps the Willpower check and instead varies the outcomes for failure. For each point that was missing from passing the test, the Voice of Tru’nembra will either deal a horror, eat up 2 resources or apply a penalty to the next skill check. The player can not choose the same option twice. Like so many cards in the Carcosa campaign, this one also gets the Peril keyword, stopping other players from commiting cards to help with the test.

My take: A much better replacement for Rotting Remains than Need for Knowledge, this one keeps the basic effect intact and only varies the punishment for failing. I think due to the player choice involved this card is a bit weaker than Rotting Remains in practice.

Threat level: Low. All things considered, the card isn’t really weaker or stronger than Rotten Remains, it’s just slightly different. When drawn early, the loss of 2 resources is probably the most worrying effect of the three.

Dealing with it: The player choice involved should buffer some of the impact of the card if not completely failed. Other than that, the usual ways to improve Willpower tests apply.

What it does: Painful Reflection is the replacement for Dissonant Voices, but instead of stopping events and assets, this one attacks only events. The player is not hindered from playing their events, however with every event they risk pulling a bad token and getting their event cancelled. If that happens, they have take 1 horror as an injury added to the insult. Then, and only then, is the Painful Reflection discarded.

My take: Nasty. I like this card so much. What a sadistic way to attack a specific set of player cards. This is one of the few encounter cards that feel much worse than they actually are, a feat that is in my opinion very appropriate for the Arkham LCG and specifically for Carcosa.

Threat level: Medium to High. Painful Reflection has some serious implications for investigators trying to plan out their turn. Even something simple like not knowing if you get to collect the resources from an Emergency Cache can throw off whole turns. Painful Reflections will stick around until it finally triggers at which point it will cost at least a card, the resources spent to play it and one point of sanity.

Dealing with it: Once it’s in the threat area, it will trigger eventually which makes this a must counter for Mystics. Otherwise they’d risk having this trigger on a crucial Ward or Deny Existence down the line. As long as this card is in the threat area, playing big expensive events should be avoided, while trying to bait out that bad token with cheap events.

What it does: Melancholy replaces Frozen in Fear and works in a very similar way. Like the iconic core card, it sits in the threat area, bogging the player down until they manage to pass a willpower test. Instead of costing an action per turn, it increases the cost for all cards played by one, taking a different approach at slowing down the player.

My take: It’s very hard to appropriately replace a card like Frozen in Fear, but Melancholy almost manages to do it. It acts like a bit of a cross-breed between Frozen in Fear and Dissonant Voices in that it hinders the playing of cards, but sticks around. It has a sizeable impact on the investigator that is stuck with it, but not to the same level that Frozen in Fear does.

Threat level: Mid to High. Drawn early or by an investigator that heavily relies on events, this can cost a serious amount of resources if stays for long. All things considered, it is easier to mitigate by playing around it than Frozen in Fear, though. A high Will investigator can even treat this as a weaker Dissonant Voices.

Dealing with it: The same ways that work for Frozen in Fear apply here as well. Depending on how confident the player is about passing their Will test, playing more cards from the hand can often just be delayed by a turn.

My take on this set: This set is part of the deck discard engine that runs throughout the Dunwich Legacy. As a result, it’s dependent on the interaction with the rest of the encounter deck and has to be evaluated on a case by case base. Generally speaking, if it’s the only set that deals in discarding from the deck, then those parts of the card effects can almost be ignored. Once paired with the Sorcery set, its stock goes up drastically, though. Terror from Beyond is a swingy card, but an experienced player should be able to keep its impact minimal. Push into the Beyond is a card to always respect.

What it does: Arcane Barrier comes with a somewhat difficult Willpower test. Failing these tests will either waste actions or discard cards from the player deck. Instead of just doing its effect once, it attaches to the location and can hit multiple times, potentially causing a lot of cards to be discarded.

Discarding cards in itself doesn’t do a whole lot to the board state, the horror penalty for eventually reshuffling the deck isn’t all that threatening either. It can become a problem once other cards care about the cards in your discard or of course if the encounter deck also uses The Dunwich Legacy’s public enemy number one: Beyond the Veil from the Sorcery encounter set.

My take: This is a very swingy card and its power is almost completely dependent on the presence of Beyond the Veil. There are some investigators who are bothered by this card a bit more than others, for example Mandy Thompson really doesn’t appreciate having one of her Segments of Onyx being dumped in the discard. Also, it can be an annoyance if it attaches to a very central location that players plan on crossing multiple times. Those are all situations that require burning an action or three on passing the Willpower test. But many times, the actual impact of the card itself is fairly low.

Threat level: Low. Medium when the Sorcery set is also used. It has no immediate board impact, allowing investigators to catch up to whatever else is happening. Negative repercussions, if any, are pushed back to a later point when either the deck runs out or some other encounter card triggers off of the discard piles contents.

Dealing with it: A Willpower test of 4 is a notable test even for Mystics. Still, if Beyond the Veil (or similar circumstances) is in play, then it is worth to burn a card or two from the hand to make sure this card is dealt with permanently.

What it does: One of the early Peril cards in the game’s life cycle, Terror from Beyond puts the player that draws it into a position that can potentially cost everyone else a lot of cards. Having to decide on either asset, event or skill, every player will have to discard all cards of that type. Obviously this can lead to a whole lot of cards being discarded and this encounter card scales particularly well with 3 or 4 players.

My take: I really like the tension this card creates as everyone clutches their hand of cards and starts praying that it won’t get too bad. Look, just don’t say “Asset” in the first couple turns, okay? I’ve seen this card devastate player hands as we were discarding our Leo de Lucas and .45 Thompsons with a tear in our eye. Of course, there rarely is a good choice here. My suggestion would be deciding between Event and Skill by what of the two hurts yourself the least. Unless its already late game, in which case events and skills may just be more valuable than assets.

Threat level: Medium to High. The ceiling for this card is very high, but can usually be mitigated a lot if the player makes their choice carefully.

Dealing with it: Not much you can do except thinking hard about what is likely still relevant. Early in the game, people will have assets in their hand that they still need to get into play. The characters being played are relevant, too. If someone is playing Diana Stanley, calling “Event” should be off the table, for example.

What it does: This card does a whole lot and attacks from three angles at the same time. First, it wipes one of your assets of the board. Then, it discards three cards from the top of the deck, adding to the deck discard already present from the Arcane Barrier. Finally, it can conditionally deal horror to the player.

My take: Unlike Arcane Barrier which wildly fluctuates in powerlevel depending on the context, Pushed into the Beyond is always relevant because it costs you an asset. While the asset goes back into the deck to (probably) be drawn again, it still wastes the draw, the action and all of the resources that were spent on it. Getting hit for 2 horror is a sizeable chunk considering its tacked on to an already strong main effect. I found i would often pick the card to reshuffle based on which ones are still left in the deck, trying to minimize the chance of discarding a copy of the card.

Threat level: High. This is one of the cards to actively play around on the first turns to avoid losing something valuable to it. It’s relevant at all stages of the game and even contributes to the deck discard theme that is running through the Dunwich campaign.

Dealing with it: Play around this card while setting up by making sure you can feed one of your permanents into this card if it comes to it. Don’t be the guy that spends the first turn generating a resource, playing Leo de Luca and no other asset to accompany him.

Return to The Dunwich Legacy: Beyond the Threshold

My take on this set: All things considered, i think Beyond the Threshold is a bit easier on the players than The Beyond, which it is intended to replace. The exception is Infinite Doorways which can conditionally turn out to be ridiculously punishing. This set of cards is interesting and synergize well with the original cards from The Beyond. I usually swap out a Barrier and a Terror for a Doorway and Welcome now when constructing an encounter deck that has The Beyond. I keep both of the Pushed into Beyonds because the two instances of asset hate are something that i’d want to keep around.

What it does: Replacing Arcane Barrier, Infinite Doorways attaches to the location in a similar manner and also deals with discarding cards from the deck. Instead of discarding a chunk of 5 cards with each trigger, Infinite Doorways only discards one. However, weaknesses discarded by this will go into play. And if something is discarded that the player already has in hand it also attacks those hand cards, making the player choose to either take a horror or discard the card in hand as well. Unlike Arcane Barrier, this doesn’t offer any kind of saving throw to avoid the effect or discard the attachment.

My take: This card can really screw you over if it attaches to a very central location like for example the Museum Halls in The Miscatonic Museum. If everyone only has to cross this card once, it’s perfectly fine but repeated triggers quickly add up. Not being able to defuse it with a Willpower check is quite annoying and personally i really wish it had such a clause…

Threat level: Medium to High. It’s much less dependent on context from other encounter cards thanks to the secondary effects attached. If it attaches to a particularly inconvenient location, it can warp the game around it as players will have to minimize it’s impact.

Dealing with it: There’s not a whole lot to be done about this card specifically. If it gets drawn on a bad spot, it can be very much worth a cancel effect or an Alter Fate.

What it does: The Peril card that replaces Terror from Beyond. It works similar in that the player has to choose something without input from the others and then the effect is applied to everyone. Where Terror from Beyond made everyone discard, this one blocks two chosen types of actions instead.

My take: I feel like this card is a lot tamer than Terror from Beyond. While the effect is certainly impactful, it doesn’t have the high ceiling that TfB has and it is also a lot easier to predict for the player that drew it. As an interesting twist, while often the order in which the encounter cards are revealed during the Mythos phase is irrelevant, this becomes a lot more predictable if its drawn last.

Threat level: Low. It’s rare that pressure on the board is high enough that there aren’t two types of actions to chose that don’t completely screw everyone over. After all, this card doesn’t actually cost actions, it only limits them in what they can do.

Dealing with it: Usually, the board state should make the correct picks fairly obvious. If no enemies are around, fight and evade are easy to pass on. Even with enemies around, evasion can often be called. And if the board is really calling for some enemy management, then stopping everyone from moving and investigating for one turn isn’t the end of the world.

What it does: Replacing Pushed into the Beyond, Haunting Recollections removes the asset hate completely. It’s primarily a card that deals horror, based on how many cards in hand and discard pile are matching. Thankfully, it’s capped at 3 horror dealt. Should no horror be dealt, 3 cards are instead discarded from the deck.

My take: This card also seems weaker to me than the card it replaces. 3 horror without a check to defend against it is certainly harsh, but the whole package of effects from Pushed into the Beyond just has a bigger overall impact. Something to note here is that PitB is particularly strong in the early game while this card gets stronger as the game goes on.

Threat level: Low. There is some danger presented by a card that can just deal 3 horror, but by the time the discard pile is full enough for this to happen, investigators should be able to buffer this hit with some soak from an ally or just by having enough sanity left. If drawn early, this only discards 3 cards from the deck, which is about as much as a breather as it gets in the Arkham LCG.

Dealing with it: Keep in mind that there are two cards in the deck that can potentially deal 3 horror and be prepared for that, either by keeping a sanity buffer or by having allies or assets around that can soak the damage. If you are particularly worried about this card ending you near the end of the game, consider getting rid of cards in your hand that are also already in your discard, for example by pitching them to a test for their icons.

Other encounter sets in this scenario: The Beyond, Striking Fear, Ancient Evils, Dark Cult

My take on this encounter deck: This deck is very light on enemies and more than half of the ones that are present aren’t actually all that dangerous in terms of combat stats. Instead, Essex County Express turns the scenario into a race against the doom clock, with one in four cards adding doom counters to the board. To pile onto this theme, a good amount of cards are designed to stall movement. Willpower checks are a big part of the deck as well while agility tests are completely absent. Something of note is the surprisingly high amount of asset hate in this deck – between Rails, Claws and Pushed some concern should be spent when trying to keep expensive allies in play.
Cancel these: Ancient Evils, Frozen in Fear. Ancient Evils being a priority should require little explanation. This scenario is a race against time and few cards cost more time than Evils. Frozen in Fear can ruin a player’s day if they aren’t able to pass the Willpower test. Someone vulnerable like Joe or Finn will deeply appreciate having this card prevented.

What it does: The Emergent Monstrosity is a large roadblock. It has enough life that it will likely require three strikes to go down. A decent fight value means that there is a reasonable chance to miss your attacks, consuming further actions. It will spawn ahead of the player exhausted, so unless the players can use this turn to advance two wagons, they will be forced to deal with the Monstrosity. The massive amount of damage means it can not be ignored or tanked for a long period either. You can evade it, but then you will miss out on the Victory 1 in a campaign that is notorious for being stingy with experience.

My take: The big decision here is whether you can afford to kill it or if you need to evade. This will usually be dictated by how well you are currently doing. Especially drawn early this enemy can be a large threat and will have the fighter of the group scramble to somehow get rid of it. Making use of its clause to come into play exhausted to completely bypass it is rarely possible. It’s more useful as a way to get the first hits in without immediately being hit back.

Threat level: High. This is the strongest enemy in the encounter deck for this scenario and requires a good deal of effort to get rid off without losing too much momentum.

What it does: A medium sized threat intended to slow down the player. While engaged, you cannot move, so you need to deal with it right away. It’s easy to evade, but can try to catch up later on with the Hunter keyword. The health value of three means it will usually go down in two attacks.

My take: Not terribly challenging, this is a fairly standard monster. I like the design here, how it gives a choice between evading or killing it and how that interacts with the rest of the scenario. The Hunter keyword gets a lot of power in a scenario that is focused on stopping the players from moving.

Threat level: Low. Every investigator is able to deal with this creature in some way and it’s easy enough to dispatch.

What it does: Appearing in a wagon you already crossed, the Helpless Passenger asks the players to get back and come to their rescue. This equals to using a whole 3 actions (move, parley, move) to deal with it. Should a Passenger leave play, usually due to the agenda advancing, it will deal 1 horror to each investigator. This card has Surge, so this always comes in addition to another encounter card on top.

My take: I have a confession to make. As far as i am concerned, this card might as well read “Each investigator takes 1 horror. Surge.” I am not going to spend a whole turn on saving these guys. Surge usually means i have other pressing matters to attend to and need to advance the race to the engine car.

Threat level: Medium. Obviously this is going to depend a lot on how much horror the investigators already have on them. Unless someone already had a run-in with an Emergent Monstrosity go bad, it shouldn’t be unbearable, though. The Surge keyword means that you will never be happy to see this coming off the top of the deck.

What it does: If you fail the Willpower check, it stops you dead in your tracks. Not being able to move at all is a huge downside in this scenario, god forbid you get hit by two of these in succession. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it also deals damage and comes with a clause that is designed to kill your allies. Or to kill the Helpless Passenger you spent a turn on saving.

My take: This is a nasty one. Luckily the Willpower check isn’t unreasonably high, but if it hits you are screwed in at least two ways. This is one of the cards i would always pitch some icons from the hand for to make sure it misses.

Threat level: Mid to High. The only thing keeping this from getting a straight up High here is the somewhat restrained Willpower check. If you are playing an investigator like Skids or Preston with low Willpower, make sure to be an extra step ahead of the agenda so you don’t fold to these.

What it does: Not quite as rough as Claws of Steam, this will still always cost an action. Potentially it can also cause you to lose an asset, but at least that part is conditional and can be mitigated by having disposable assets in play. Broken Rails can become more impactful if it manages to hit multiple investigators, something that is very possible in the cramped confines of the Essex County Express.

My take: It’s fine. I usually expect a treachery card to cost me about 2 actions and this is in line with that expectation. Investigators will often be in the same place during the Mythos phase, so that clause about hitting multiple players is very relevant. If you do have a Helpless Passenger around, note that they can be discarded to protect a more important asset.

Threat level: Low to Medium. In three or four player games this could potentially cost a lot of actions and assets. Since there are three of them in the deck, the possibility to draw multiples in the same turn becomes threatening at high player counts as well. Outside of those cases, this is in line what you would usually expect from a treachery.

Return to the Essex County Express

My take on the modified scenario: The “Return to” box does not add any scenario specific encounter cards to the encounter deck. It does however make the investigators deal with the Conductor, who adds a whole new mechanical layer to the scenario. It also removes the Striking Fear, The Beyond and Ancient Evils and replaces them with their counterparts Erratic Fear, Beyond the Threshold and Resurgent Evils. These card swaps actually make the encounter deck lose a good deal of its power, as all of these are a bit weaker than the original ones. Notably, the lack of asset hate in Beyond the Threshold makes that particular set have little actual role to play in this scenario as deck discard is mostly irrelevant. The swap to Resurgent Evils is a good one however as the unmodified Essex County Express is notorious for being able to create unwinnable game states in the early turns of games with 3 to 4 investigators when everyone draws doom acceleration.

What it does: The Conductor follows the player through the train relentlessly, respawning in the leftmost wagon whenever the agenda advances. It will go down with two hits of most weapons and has fight and evade values that are perfectly reasonable. But players will need to deal with it multiple times throughout the scenario.

My take: I like what it adds to the scenario. The encounter deck is very light on enemies and this gives fighters something to do other than failing investigate checks. It’s not outrageously strong, but provides enough of a punch that it needs to be dealt with.

Threat level: Medium to High. The threat comes less from the actual enemy itself, as a draw from the encounter deck it would be weaker than the Emergent Monstrosity. However, it doesn’t cost encounter draws, so it’s on top of everything else going on and thus becomes a very credible threat.

Surge

Continue reading here:

• Previous scenario: The Miskatonic Museum
• Next scenario: Blood on the Altar
• Dunwich campaign hub

What it does: Ancient Evils is one of the most iconic – and feared – encounter cards from the Core Set. It’s deceptively impactful. Its effect is pretty straight-forward: one doom is added to the current agenda, effectively robbing every investigator of one turn. While having no immediate effect on the board state, this does mean that the scenario will be over more quickly.

Additionally, Ancient Evils can immediately cause the agenda to advance. This is relevant because it means that it doesn’t become a dead draw during the turn where the agenda would’ve advanced anyways.

My take: I like that this card exists. A big piece of Arkham LCG’s story telling deals with uncertainty and unreliability. Things simply don’t go as planned. It is fitting then that a card exists to apply this to the doom threshold, especially as players are actually gaming this mechanic with concepts like the “Witching Hour”, the turn where you can use effects that apply doom freely because the agenda is going to advance anyways. An untimely Ancient Evils can throw a wrench in any such plans.
While Ancient Evils is absolutely a terrifying effect that accelerates the game towards a bad ending from having the agenda turn over, this card is still vastly overestimated. The good news is that Evils doesn’t influence the board state in any way, so players don’t lose any sort of momentum by having to deal with an enemy or a disabling treachery. Usually we expect an encounter card to cost us between one or two actions and/or cut into our resources, sanity or life. Evils does none of those things and as long as you usually still have doom on the doom clock left at the end of the scenario you could even argue that Evils did nothing. But it’s not quite as simple, of course. The mere presence of Evils in the deck forces players to be quick about getting to their goals, without being able to afford too much of setup time. Many players feel that this card is unfair and has no counterplay, but that isn’t really the case. The counterplay is being efficient about your actions and using the momentum from not drawing an immediately impactful encounter card to your advantage.
I am less of a fan when it comes to scenarios where these are frequently reshuffled. The scenarios in which Ancient Evils feels bad are the exception, though. Mostly you can just assume that the presence of Ancient Evils in the encounter deck has been factored in by the developers and that you are getting an extra two to three turns on the agenda to compensate.

Threat level: Very high. Usually an encounter card will take somewhere between 1 and 3 investigator actions to deal with. Ancient Evils will remove a full turn from each investigator, so it even scales a lot with number of investigators and can not be offset by gaining extra actions.

Dealing with it: The presence of the Ancient Evils in the encounter set means that there is some unreliability to the doom clock represented by the agenda cards. For example, instead of having 15 turns to finish a scenario, it suddenly becomes 12-15. This isn’t much of a problem in itself, after all the developers of the scenario very likely factored this into their balancing. Where it becomes more threatening however are scenarios that frequently reshuffle the encounter discard back into the encounter deck, introducing a much higher variance in the number of Ancient Evil cards seen over the course of a scenario.

Aside from manipulating the encounter deck itself, the only thing that can be done to directly counter them is neutralizing them with a card like Ward of Protection or Test of Will. But really, the presence of this card in the encounter deck means that investigators need to be proactive in achieving the scenario goals and moving towards the resolution without wasting time.

Return to The Dunwich Legacy: Resurgent Evils

What it does: Resurgent Evils is a replacement for Ancient Evils that comes with the Return to Dunwich box. Instead of straight up adding a doom to the current agenda, it offers a cruel choice to the player who drew it: Either do the standard Ancient Evils effect or draw the two next encounter cards instead. Offering this choice is balanced by the addition of the Peril keyword. Peril severely limits the chance of being able to neutralize this card.

My take: A suitable replacement for Ancient Evils for those who feel that the original card is too punishing or too random. I recommend using these in scenarios with lots of encounter deck reshuffles or with high player count. Just be aware that it is possible to draw another Resurgent Evils off the revelation effect of the first.

Return to The Path to Carcosa: Delusory Evils

What it does: This is the replacement Evil from the Return to Carcosa box. Like Resurgent Evils before it, the player who draws the card has to decide if they take it as a straight doom advance or if they go for an alternative effect. In this case, the card uses the Hidden mechanic to stay in hand until the player does especially well on a test. That test then automatically fails instead. Like all hidden cards it has Peril, so again there are precious few ways of just dealing with the card without consequences.

My take: I think this is a very weak card, especially when i compare it to what it replaces. Instead of affecting everyone at the table, it now affects only one person. Instead of costing three actions (or more) per investigator, it only thwarts a single test. On the surface, this means that the card has a much lower impact than the other two Evils. Granted, a test that is succeeded by 3 or more is often one that was important enough to ditch skill icons to and invest. But it might as well be an investigation check on a low shroud location which incidentally is also a good way to get rid of the card. I would not consider swapping this card in outside of the Return to Carcosa campaign itself because the power differential between this card and what it replaces is just too large.

Return to Circle Undone: Impending Evils

What it does: Impending Evils deals 1 damage and 1 horror to the player that drew it, unless they choose to attach Impending Evils to the agenda deck. If they do, the card gains surge.
Once all 3 copies are attached, they are discarded and the current agenda immediately advances, no matter how much doom is on it currently.

My take: That “advance the agenda” effect looks scary at first glance, but it will never happen accidentally since the player can always choose to take a damage and horror instead. Attaching the card makes it surge into another encounter card, which to me means that i will usually want to take the damage and horror unless i am pretty beat up already.
So how threatening would an encounter card be that simply deals 1 damage and 1 horror and has Peril? I’d argue it’d be about on par with Rotting Remains or Grasping Hands. Compared to that fictional card, all the extra bells and whistles on Impending Evils are strictly in favor of the player since they are free to ignore it at their leisure. So, in conclusion we have a card here that is less threatening than Rotting Remains.
That being said, this is certainly not a softball like Delusory Evils is, this card does have some teeth in the context of the TCU campaign. Especially Before the Black Throne already hammers the players with horror and damage from one side and doom effects from the other. Choosing the correct mode for Impending Evils could end up being trickier than the card suggests at first. The card also fits very well into Union and Disillusion where it can trigger both Psychopomp’s Song and Death Approaches, keeping that little circle of hurt the encounter deck is built around going.
I would not use this replacement outside of the TCU campaign, though. The relevance of the damage/horror is dependent on the scenarios adding more pressure on top of it, something that many other campaigns don’t necessarily do. Eh, i suppose Shattered Aeons and Horror in High Gear could be good fits for using Impending Evils.

Threat level: Medium. Not as bad as it looks at first glance, but contextually relevant.

Dealing with it: Whenever possible, i would try to take the damage and horror, since there is no guarantee that surging the card would not just pull up something worse. That special effect to advance the agenda immediately should never come into play at all, as far as i am concerned that is just flavor text that makes the card look cool.