Bishop’s Thralls

My take on this set: This is a set of cards that are all fine for themselves, but aren’t all that well connected with each other. While Thrall and the Wizard of Yog-Sothoth share a clear thematical link with each other and the campaign at large, the mention of Aforgomon comes out of left field.
That being said, this is a set that does some important things for the scenarios it is a part of. Thralls are a generic low threat creature, similar to ghouls or various cultists in other campaigns. The Wizard provides a sizeable enemy and the chance to earn another victory point. And Light of Afargomon is a very unique threat that has the potential to warp how players act around it. All of these are things that you’d usually want to see somewhere in a scenario and it’s interesting to have them all together in one encounter set here.

What it does: Thralls are basic enemies that spawn at the location with the most clues and hold little challenge as far as fighting goes. They do have retaliate, but at two fight that will only rarely come into play.

My take: Cannon fodder. The only way for them to get dangerous is if they are allowed to stack up on one location.

Threat level: Low. They simply don’t do much except ask that someone with a weapon takes them out before a pure clue seeker can enter their location.

Dealing with it: Nothing special to see here. If your investigator holds a weapon, he will be able to defeat this guy without any problems. If the auto-fail shows up, it will punish you with an extra attack from the thrall, but that’s the auto-fail for you. If you do not want to deal with them in the first place, Extracurricular Activity offers the opportunity to leave unneeded clues on the Humanities Building. This will cause the Thralls to spawn in a place that you have no intention of visiting again.

What it does: Wizard of Yog-Sothoth is this sets victory point laden enemy. He has Hunter, a high fight value and gets extra attacks whenever an engaged player draws a Hex or Pact. All of these things combine to make him (or it, the artwork is a bit inconclusive here!) a formidable enemy. At three health, he’s still in range of being killed in one blow by many prepared investigators, but it will usually require extra resources in form of cards or charges to do that.

My take: Three health isn’t what it used to be, the recent additions to the card pool made dealing with enemies like this one a lot easier than it used to be. But still, the Wizard hits hard and that alone has the potential to become an issue on a Hunter enemy. There are certainly victory points around that are harder to earn (right in the cellar of The Gathering, for example), but Wizard of Yog-Sothoth can certainly be a bit of a pain if he shows up at a less opportune time or under time constraints.

Threat level: Mid to High. If you fail to take out this guy and have to end your turn engaged with him, you could be in a lot of hurt as getting a Pact or Hex from the encounter deck could lead to a quick one-two punch by the Wizard. Luckily, the difference between three and four health is large enough that he feels a lot more squishy than other victory point enemies.

Dealing with it: As he’s a Hunter that hits hard, you want to move into him and attack first. That means spending an action to move, typically leaving you with two actions to take him down. Having a three damage attack available gives some leeway in case the first attack is botched, leaving you with another action to try and prevent the dreadful double attack from the Wizard. If a three point attack is not available, there’s little room for error. Having the option to evade on your third action can prevent worse from happening. But make sure to ultimately take him out, you can’t afford to leave victory points behind in the Dunwich campaign.

What it does: Light of Aforgomon has Peril, allowing only one player to cancel it before it attaches to the agenda or the act. After that it will affect every player until that act or agenda advances. While Light of Aforgomon is active, all damage and horror is treated as if it was direct, thus removing the option to use assets for soak.

My take: This card straight up invalidates some investigators way of playing the game which can be a bit of a pain. There are only few horror cards in the two scenarios (one has Rotting Remains, the other one has Eager for Death) and even fewer damage cards (both have Beyond the Veil), but not being able to soak hits can be a severe issue for fighting investigators. Where Doom Awaits has some particularly nasty enemies around from the Beast Thralls set while Extracurricular Activity of course has at least The Experiment that gets much harder to deal with Light of Aforgomon in the mix. My reaction to this card changes a lot depending on the investigator i am playing and on how lucky i am with regards to how far either act or agenda are on their way to advance.

Threat level: High. While this card is active, it shuts off a lot of player assets and for some characters even large parts of their whole strategy.

Dealing with it: Much of the card’s potential can be semi-randomly reined in if it’s possible to attach it to a scenario card that is just about to advance. Apart from that, the card itself can not really be dealt with, and Peril makes it at least hard to cancel right away. Once in effect, the players will need to avoid sources of damage and horror just a bit more than usual. How much that impacts them, will differ greatly from one investigator to the next.