Agents of Yog-Sothoth

My take on this set: The Agents of Yog-Sothoth is a spicy little set that has two high impact cards and revolves around applying pressure to the player’s hand size. Suprisingly, it is only used twice during Dunwich Legacy despite that being the Yog-Sothoth campaign, but in both scenarios these are potent additions. Especially in Extracurricular Activity, the Observers are a decent challenge for the investigators that are still on their level 0 decks (or close to it). I think this is a great set and sadly a bit underused. I am a big fan of the treachery that comes with the set, as it puts a choice into the player’s hands and tries to tempt them into doing something that might bite them later. That’s just a lot more interesting than the usual “Revelation: Do a test, gain some horror”.

What it does: The Yithian Observer has four fight and four health, the classic stat line where an enemy starts to become a pain to take down. It has three agility and no Hunter, so evading it and leaving it behind is an option, but players will also leave behind the victory point they could earn for killing the monster…
Whenever attacked by an Observer, the player has to discard a random card from their hand. Should they not be able to do so, they are dealt an additional damage and horror instead.

My take: Yithian Observer (and the special ghouls from The Gathering) are my benchmark for the typical victory point enemy. The jump from 3 to 4 in fight is very significant, the same is true for the health. They do not hit terribly hard, but the loss of a random card is always something that can be at least annoying. Very solid enemy, fills an important role in the scenarios that it is in.

Threat level: Mid to High. They are difficult enough to fight that they pose a problem sometimes, but at least you are able to engage them on your own terms.

Dealing with it: Four health means that the enemy is unlikely to go down in one hit, so most burst damage cards (Vicious Blow, etc) don’t really apply to fighting this enemy. What’s left is usually a rather fair fight, but one that you should handily win as long as your fighter can go to a modified fight value of 6+ reliably. All of the scenarios they appear in lend themselves well to evading them, so that’s a notable option too. Devourer Below and Lost in Time and Space are campaign finales, so the loss of the victory point isn’t even relevant. Just be aware that Observers gain Hunter eventually during City of Archives, however the map in that scenario is so big that you should be able to run circles around them if you want to go the evasion route.

What it does: The Offer of Power forces the player who drew it (and only that player, thanks to Peril) to make a choice: Either they refuse the offer and take 2 horror. Or they accept it, drawing 2 cards but also putting 2 doom on the agenda, potentially immediately advancing it.

My take: I’ve accepted the deal more often than i would’ve expected from just reading the card. Double Ancient Evils sounds horrible, as it makes everyone lose two full turns before the scenario ends… and all you get are the two cards you would’ve drawn in those turns. But while on paper it’s certainly a bad deal, it sometimes just works out to be better that way. If you have no cards in hand but are facing some threat, the extra cards could help you immediately – while the two horror could just pose more problems. Especially when its near the end of the scenario and it’s pretty easy to estimate how much time is still needed to finish up, the Offer can become tempting for sure.
You’d really need to be sure, though. Otherwise, just take the horror instead of gambling everything on this card.

Threat level: Low to Mid. If you want to, you can just accept this card as straight up 2 horror which isn’t too bad. Everything beyond that is your own choice.

Dealing with it: Don’t screw over your group. Accepting this offer should only be done if you are sure you know what you are doing. Two horror can be mitigated in many ways or even healed. Doing the same with two doom is much less of an option.

Return to The Dunwich Legacy: Yog-Sothoth’s Emissaries

My take on this set: I am lukewarm on this replacement set as i think that it mostly weakened the cards in it. Giving Hunter to the creature certainly makes sense, but the rest of the Vassal feels like a watered down version of the original Observer. Eldritch Accord is really cool in its mechanics, but lacks some of the impact that Offer has. The Emissaries set isn’t a complete miss, but it just doesn’t feel as streamlined as the original set to me. They mix well enough, though. When playing Dunwich, i usually put one of each of the four cards into the encounter deck for variety’s sake.

What it does: Vassal trades one point of fight and evade that the Observer had to gain the Hunter keyword. This makes a lot of sense, as it allows the monster to follow players around the map in Extracurricular Activity and Lost in Time and Space. It also trades its Forced effect for a new one more suited for the special mechanics of Dunwich Legacy. Instead of discarding cards from the hand like the Observer does, the Vassal discards cards from the top of the deck of everyone at its location.

My take: That new Forced effect is a huge letdown. Even though it ties into the whole Dunwich theme of stripping the player deck down, one card per turn is just not enough to matter. What is left is a Hunter enemy that only has 3 fight and doesn’t do enough on attacks to be scary. All that would be needed to make Vassal on par with Observer would’ve been another point of damage or horror, similar to the Screeching Banshee from Agents of Hastur.

Threat level: Mid. While Hunter does help to force players to defeat the Vassal, it just doesn’t have the same bite to it that Observer has.

Dealing with it: In a way, Hunter even works for the investigators as the Vassal will deliver its victory point straight to them. Killing this creature shouldn’t be too much of a challenge, the only way it can become threatening would be if it teams up with any of the other Hunters in Lost in Time and Space.

What it does: The player has to test their willpower and, should they fail, take 2 horror. The difficulty of this test is determined by their cards in hand, however before taking their test, they may first draw up to one card and then discard up to 2 cards. The treachery has Peril, so they do not only have to make those decisions on their own, but other players can also not contribute any icons to the test.

My take: Oh look, it’s “Revelation: Do a test, gain some horror.” again, but at least the difficulty is determined in an interesting way. Although I don’t really see many scenarios in which i wouldn’t want to draw that extra card. Either i expect to fail the test in which case i may as well get a card out of it. Or i am confident in the test in which case one extra difficulty is not going to make or break the test. I might even just draw a card that i want to commit. The only scenario where i would want to skip drawing the card and possibly ditch some cards from my hand is if the horror would defeat me.

Threat level: Low. Two horror and drawing a card is the base line effect for Accord, discarding extra cards would only come into play if you really want to make sure you pass … and then draw an auto-fail. But that’s the auto-fail screwing you over, the treachery only gives you tools to deal with itself.

Dealing with it: Having a test on this card immediately makes it a lot less scary than the original Offer of Power. Furthermore, the baseline effect on failing is better (2 horror and a card vs 2 horror). What is left is a card that deals some horror that needs to be mitigated, something that any deck should have a plan for.