Agents of Atlach-Nacha

My take on this set: After Agents of Yig, Agents of Azathoth and Agents of Nyarlathothep all breaking the mold, the Agents of Atlach-Nacha set returns to the “classic” format of having four cards in the set, with two big enemies and two impactful treacheries. The enemy is frankly nothing special in terms of gameplay mechanics, it’s just a big spider with lots of health. It’s dangerous on behalf of its stats, but holds few surprises otherwise. The treachery is more interesting, with an effect we have not seen on treacheries before. It also has a potential to create memorable “Oh crap” moments, which i certainly appreciate. It’s a fine set of cards.

What it does: Grey Weaver is a big chunky spider enemy. Thanks to its high health and respectable fight stats it’s not going down fast and the Hunter keyword lets it keep come after any players that opted to evade it. While the Weaver is ready, investigators can not leave its location, so it can tie down multiple investigators at once. Defeating it awards a victory point.

My take: Even more than most of the other victory point enemies from the Agents sets, this one makes you work a bit for it. It’ll take a turn to take down and it deals a good amount of damage and horror to punish any missteps. Its ability to snare players in place isn’t terribly relevant.

Threat level: High. Non-Elites don’t get a whole lot more combat stats than this.

Dealing with it: There’s nothing particularly subtle about the Grey Weaver. It’s a big block of health with just enough fight to make you miss the occasional attack, so killing it may require the investment of some additional resources like a Vicous Blow, Spectral Razor or similar burst damage. Evading it is a bit of a problem in Waking Nightmare and Weaver of the Cosmos because you will be revisiting previous locations often in those scenarios. In Point of No Return, evading and running from the spider is more feasible.

What it does: If the investigator fails a Willpower test, they are unable to attack or investigate for the round. Should they share a location with a Spider enemy, this test gets harder as no cards can be committed to the test.

My take: A powerful effect that can mess with a lot of plans. Getting your investigation delayed isn’t too bad, at least you are not losing the actual actions and can use them to draw cards, play stuff or whatever. But if this hits a fighter while they are engaged with a Spider, things can get rough as that player will now see themselves being unable to fight back. Will of the Spider-Mother is often irrelevant when its drawn, but when it hurts, it hurts a lot.

Threat level: Mid to High. Potentially crippling, but stars need to align a bit for that to happen.

Dealing with it: A will test of three is surprisingly difficult if you aren’t allowed to pitch any cards to secure a good result. When dealing with the fallout of this card’s effects, remember that you can at least try to evade the enemies that you are staring down. If that enemy happens to be the Spider-Mother herself (or one of her legs) you can also still use the action on the act card that allows spending clues for damage. While that will provoke attacks of opportunity, it will at least go towards dealing with the enemy. When playing multiplayer, the person who got hit by Will of the Spider-Mother should often go last to give the other players a chance to bail them out.