Week in Review
Moving on to Carcosa, this week had the reviews for Evil Portents and for the opener of the campaign, Curtain Call. People always talk about how much they dread having to start TFA with Untamed Wilds, but for me Curtain Call is that first scenario that keeps kicking me. There’s just a whole lot going on there and none of it is particularly forgiving. Evil Portents is a nasty set focused on doom mechanics. Those are always fun, right?
Soapbox
I finished my current campaign yesterday and am now finally also in the camp of people that played each of the investigator starters at least once. Let me take this opportunity to look back at them and give a few cliffnotes on what i thought about them. I will start with the investigator that impressed me the least and end with the one i liked best.
Jacqueline Fine: My least favorite of the bunch, but certainly powerful. Her ability to cheat the chaos bag is really great, even before you start adding token synergies. The biggest problem i have with her (and her deck) is that she’s just another 5 Will mystic that uses spells to do her things. Seen that before many times and the limited deck building options the starter investigators have leave her little room to break out of it. This is an investigator that i would hand to someone new to the game who wants to play a spell character. So… mission accomplished, i guess?
Harvey Walters: Drawing cards is fun. And having an ability that rewards you for drawing cards by making you draw another card is just my kind of humor. I genuinely enjoyed playing him and i don’t agree with the common opinion that he is crippled by his weakness. That stops you from cycling your deck twice per turn, but that’s not what i want to do anyways. For every “normal” application having Bulletproof Vest and Rook (or Maleson) around for soak is easily enough. I was usually drawing around 4 to 5 cards per turn, committing cards liberally or throwing them around for other effects. Good stuff. As an aside, i actually played Harvey as a Highlander deck. There are so many good Seeker cards around these days, that was no issue at all. And with all that card draw you find what you want anyways, might as well go all in on having options.
Stella Clark: My first real brush with the fail forward archetype, i have been avoiding going too much for that so far aside from the obligatory Look What i Found here and there. So this was new and this was very powerful. Getting extra actions for failing becomes insane as soon as you can gain value out of that fail. And sometimes that value just means triggering three other effects and playing Live and Learn to pass after all and then have another three actions. Also… holy crap, she might just have the best signature cards ever. Having three of those monstrous skill cards is huge. I played her together with Harvey, so she had to go the fighter route, Chainsaw and everything. Very nice.
Nathaniel Cho: I really like that Nate plays completely different cards than any of the other Guardians. I have a soft spot for event based investigators like Preston, Sefina or Diana anyways, so having an event based Guardian all of a sudden was something i was looking forward to. And he didn’t disappoint. The amount of damage that he can put out is truely extraordinary, i managed to wipe the floor with the entirety of party goers in The Last King. Killed everyone, including both Party Guests and Diane Devine. Glorious. He also has tons of upgrades to spend XP on. I went with a build that uses Bandolier to have two Boxing Gloves out at the same time and cycle through the whole deck twice per scenario. This deck was so well oiled, i felt the need to put it on ArkhamDB and do a little write-up for it.
Winifred Habbamock: Ha, i wasn’t prepared for how well this works. Often you end up throwing a bunch of cards into a test only to pass by 5 and end up with more cards in hand than before the test. The thing i like here is again how different it feels playing Wini instead of another rogue. Cards come and go at a breakneck pace. And you once again cycle through the deck fast, meaning you get to see all the things you spent your hard earned XP on. Paired up with Mark Harrigan, i played her as a clue getter through the first two Innsmouth scenarios and the Dream Eaters B-side. Pilfer is a ridiculous card for her, all you need to figure out is how to pay for it and you can clear locations using one Pilfer per turn, substituting with Lola and Lockpicks here and there to pick up the odd clue.
I’d like to make clear that while the above is a ranking of sorts, these are all very close. Basically, Jackie is a 6/10, Harvey a 7/10, Stella and Nate an 8/10, Wini is a 9/10. The thing holding back most of them from joining Diana, Sefina and Daisy at the 10/10 peak is their deck building. I am a bit worried about how many directions their decks can go. Especially Nate is a bit onedimensional – so while he’s great, i will likely end up playing investigators more that can be taken in various directions with each replay.
Looking back at all five, these are a great investment to make. So many good cards for the card pool and five excellent investigators, what more could you possibly want?
Well, next up for me is checking out the Innsmouth investigators. Silas i played before, but the other four are completely new to me. Right now, i have already set up Untamed Wilds on my table and built the decks for Trish and Mary. Sending the Spy and the Nun into the (Return to) Forgotten Age sounds like it should be good fun :>