Beginning - Difficulty Level

[Immanentized5 0]

My partner and I picked up this game last weekend, and love it... however - even playing on the easiest level, it seems to be prohibitively difficult to accomplish much of anything before the doom track advances.  We're going through the core set with the two starting characters as a test run, and keep getting creamed in the second scenario.  

 

General thoughts?  I understand it's meant to be thematically hard, and the narrative should be pretty dire, but I wonder if I'm missing something key.  Dealing with the rest of the challenges - the enemies, encounters, etc., is manageable with what we've got, but that doom track gets us every time.  

[Noaloha 25]

Familiarity with the scenarios goes an immensely long way to mitigating the game's difficulty.

 

A first run of chapter 2 for example, typically a player'll look at the act and think, Okay, six unique cultists, let's do this, then wander around town poking at things, the doom'll rush forward, you'll have 1, 2, maybe 3 of the cultists and you don't want to Resign and you get a Bad Thing from the agenda advancing fully. Your next few attempts, you have a feel for the scenario's mechanics, maybe you remember some of the cultist details, their locations, etc. You do a bit better, 4 cultists, say, and this time you make sure you use that Resign option before the clock ticks over. At some point, you know the abilities on the locations and you have one or two that you want to make an early beeline for (though perhaps there's a 50/50 chance it's even in play!), you're able to split up effectively when it's relatively safe to do so, take care of Acolytes, never allow them to advance an Agenda early. You know what to expect at certain points, you group back together for strength in numbers. You position yourself in the optimal spots to quickly reach the unique cultists that remain, pop them and see which shows up, and you have a plan to deal with them. Expectations for chapter 2 should be a healthy "aim for 4 or 5" and be happy with that result. All 6 is great, but shouldn't be considered any kind of failure if not achieved.

[awp832 447]

I am playing on "standard" difficulty so far, and I agree that it does seem hard to get things done "perfectly".    First I will remind you that you have multiple agendas to add Doom to before the mission is over.   Still, I kind of feel like the game is supposed to be about making those hard choices: do you try to get a few more mission objectives accomplished, or is it time to cut your losses and call it a day before things get out of hand?

And there isn't really a "losing" the mission most of the time, you just go on to the next mission even if you didn't necessarily get the result you wanted, and try to do better next time.

[Meretrix 98]

You need two cores.

[BD Flory 695]

Big thing to remember generally is you don't actually win or lose until the end of the campaign. Good results make later scenarios less difficult.

Even with experience and built decks, don't expect to get all six unique cultists in s2 -- that's unusual. Without spoiling anything, 4 or 5 and resigning before agenda 2 advances is a decent result.

[Starbreaker1 75]

Even 4 or 5 can be challenging so don't fret, the game is designed to be this difficult, it is part of the theme, my first 3 times through scenario 2 we (played with a group of 3 then 4 then 2) the cultist count we got was, in order: 1, 1, 2 so don't feel bad. 

[Immanentized5 0]

Thanks, everyone.  I should probably reread the resign mechanic - so resigning will allow us to (legally) restart the scenario and try again?  I can do that.  

 

I will add that the difficulty hasn't diminished the amount of fun we've had in any way.  I'm picking up the two stand alone expansions as soon as they show up at my FLGS next week.  

[Network57 561]

Nope. Resignation is just another resolution, meaning you have to continue to the next scenario. Of course, there's no rule preventing you from replaying a scenario until you get the result you like, and then moving on from there. Might not be in the spirit of a good RPG, but you do you.

[Gaffa 673]

Nope. Resignation is just another resolution, meaning you have to continue to the next scenario. Of course, there's no rule preventing you from replaying a scenario until you get the result you like, and then moving on from there. Might not be in the spirit of a good RPG, but you do you.

 

Actually, there is a rule that prevents you from replaying a scenario until you get the result you like -- it's right there under "Advancing to Next Scenario" (p. 6, RR), under Campaign Play.

 

Much like Diablo II or Path to Exile, if you want to try a new build, you start a new character from scratch and try again.

 

Of course, you can house rule anything (and I'm sure many people are). Just remember what you're changing in your home campaigns so people in other ones can compare notes properly if you want to share, that's all.

[evilidler 145]

My house rule is that it's a Groundhog Day situation.

[LozMac 6]

I feel your pain. In our first game (on easy difficulty, because I'm a wuss and like playing for fun), we 'won' the first scenario without much fuss. In the second scenario however, we well and truly failed. We didn't interrogate a single cultist - it really was a complete loss. Of course, this set us up very poorly for the final scenario and that was also a loss, though I must say considering we started it very much on the back foot, we came close. But still lost overall of course. xD

It was a great learning experience though and it was never going to be easy. It took several games for me and friends to beat Arkham Horror (board game) and I'm guessing this will be much the same. Onwards and upwards!

[lmartin91 73]

Just played Curse of the Rougarou, ridiculously hard.

[Doma0997 72]

Just played Curse of the Rougarou, ridiculously hard.

It feels very much like a pure multiplayer scenario if you want to stop the ball from bouncing all over the place with controlled placement. 

[lmartin91 73]

 

Just played Curse of the Rougarou, ridiculously hard.

It feels very much like a pure multiplayer scenario if you want to stop the ball from bouncing all over the place with controlled placement. 

 

 

I played with 2 investigators and managed to do 3 damage to the rougarou. Gonna try again today.  I have noticed the difficulty of the main campaign can be really hard for some investigators currently; at least until they get some better cards added to their pool.

[Starbreaker1 75]

in rougaroux IMO dynamite blast is by far the best way to damage it.

[TheFool 11]

My partner and I picked up this game last weekend, and love it... however - even playing on the easiest level, it seems to be prohibitively difficult to accomplish much of anything before the doom track advances.  We're going through the core set with the two starting characters as a test run, and keep getting creamed in the second scenario.  

 

General thoughts?  I understand it's meant to be thematically hard, and the narrative should be pretty dire, but I wonder if I'm missing something key.  Dealing with the rest of the challenges - the enemies, encounters, etc., is manageable with what we've got, but that doom track gets us every time.  

 

If it's the doom that's getting you, perhaps you are playing too carefully? Don't spend too long getting your perfect character setup, and don't be too afraid to take some damage/sanity if it means getting an objective faster. Play like your characters are in a hurry, 'cause they are

[pitchfork06 12]

I'm stumped, I'm about to start scenario 2 and I have 5 unique cultists in the cultist deck, where is the 6th one meant to be?

[Julia 2,809]

14 minutes ago, pitchfork06 said:

I'm stumped, I'm about to start scenario 2 and I have 5 unique cultists in the cultist deck, where is the 6th one meant to be?

No worries, it's correct. The 6th one arrives at some point in the game because it's hidden somewhere

[Khudzlin 734]

The act even says that not all unique cultists are in the cultist deck.

[StormyWaters 124]

I got smoked by the second and third scenarios the first time through, getting more familiar and optimizing your decks goes a LONG way towards doing well.