a post relating to all the previous posts i've posted

[doomtube 0]

 so.... is there actually any possible way AT ALL (  ) of winning the game?!?!?!?

[Julia 2,810]

doomtube said:

 so.... is there actually any possible way AT ALL (  ) of winning the game?!?!?!?

Yeah, sometimes it happens to beat the game...

Anyway, don't be afraid if you feel it's too difficult. It is not, in fact, you simply need to understand the basic mechanics of the game, and learn how to cohordinate properly the efforts of all your characters. There are strategies and hints on how to do it, but I don't want to spoil the game for you (in case, feel free to ask). I can give you a couple of suggestion, just to start in the easiest way. Play against Azathoth. Azathoth is the AO with the lowest impact on the game, and with a very long doom track, so you should have plenty of time to find out the best way to seal him out. Try to use a party of four investigator, so you can have at least one investigator in the OW, one dealing with monsters, and the other two gathering clues. Choose wisely the investigators you play with: don't go with characters with very low sanity, like sister Mary, and in general try to choose well balanced characters - with Sanity/ Stamina of 6/4, 5/5 or 4/6. Possibly, choose Carolyn (she can heal some Sanity each round), Darrell (double encounters in Arkham locations), Mandy (her special ability is one of the most helpfull in the whole game) and Ashcan Pete (or Amanda, or someone similar).

Try to understand correctly how Phases work. It seems to be easy, but in fact it is not. There are tons of strategies requiring a good comprehension of Phases.

Rember clues are vital. So, try to save them for sealing gates, and use them to add dice to failed skill checks only if that skill check implies something vital for your game. This at least until you have three seals on the board

And enjoy the game. It's really great ::smiling::

[zealot12 15]

 I could give you a tip on Other world exploration. This is not in the rulebook. The encounter colors, for instance, are not without meaning. Green encounters are generally safe and may give you some benefit(clues, items). Red encounters may result in a  loss of stamina(sometimes gain). Blue encounters may result in a loss of sanity(sometimes gain), yellow encounters-not sure.

So if your investigator is low on sanity and stamina, don't send him to the Abyss-it's very likely he won't make it through.

There are other strategies that may help you. Just familiarize yourself with the game and you'll probably figure some of them out.

[douggold 0]

 One of the reason I love the game so much is how difficult it is to win, because let's think about it a few guys in the 1920s running around with dynamite and pistols shouldn't be able to take down an ancient one.  The odds SHOULD be against the investigators.  WAY against.  Good for FFG for making the game that way.

[Julia 2,810]

zealot12 said:

 I could give you a tip on Other world exploration. This is not in the rulebook. The encounter colors, for instance, are not without meaning. Green encounters are generally safe and may give you some benefit(clues, items). Red encounters may result in a  loss of stamina(sometimes gain). Blue encounters may result in a loss of sanity(sometimes gain), yellow encounters-not sure.

Zealot touched an interesting point. How OW colours work was explained by Kevin here. This is the correct sequence of "matching" abilities:

Red - Red tends to be bad and attacks an investigator's Stamina.

 

Yellow - Yellow tends to be bad and attacks an investigator's Sanity.

Blue - Blue tends to be bad and attacks an investigator's possessions.

Green - Green tends to be good or neutral.
 

[doomtube 0]

 Hurray cheers for these responses... looks like were playing a long game today (due to the weather!) so i'll have these comments open as we play... Of course reading Lovecraft, his stories rarely have happy endings....

[doomtube 0]

 ...One thing though, we pick our players and 'great old ones' randomly and  always will. Although we may go for a weaker 'great old one' next time... are there any other good strategies you could point out? And I must say we do have a  good handle on 'how phases work' etc, we aren't struggling to comprehend and understand the rules, just make them work in our favour to have a victory! ...Also I think strategies on game play systems are very different from ideas such as  pitting the strongest Investigators against the weakest 'great old one' , and having knowledge about what type of encounters to expect, not that this is not highly useful information.... 

[Julia 2,810]

First hint: in the base game, there are only 11 unstable locations. Most of the AOs have a doom track of 12 doomers or more, so basically it's impossible to have them waking up if you're able to control the number of open gates on the board. This brings us to the

Second hint: it's more likely to draw a Mythos card opening gates in these locations: Independence Square, Unvisited Isle, The Witch-house, The Woods. So, do not close any gate appearing at these locations, unless you have the clues for sealing it OR you need desperately to close it because you're too near to the gate limit. As soon as you start sealing these locations, you'll see tons of Mythos card opening gates in sealed locations, thus no new gate, no new doomer to be added to the AO doom track, and condsequently much more time for gathering clues in order to seal other gates.

As far as the rules things is concerned... I'm happy if everything's clear ::smiling:: I said to look carefully at some rules simply because it's very likely to happen not to get some points connected with them (like having 3 OW encounters whenever a gate opens under your feet during the AE phase, or the fact that you're drawn through an open gate ONLY during the AE Phase, and so your pals can reach you on an open gate, toss you elder signs or clues generating items - like the king in yellow, for instance - and going away from the gate before getting sucked in, or how the "dealing with monsters on an open gate when I return to Arkham" exactly works). This kind of stuff generally creates some confusion (I think most of us made a lot of similar mistakes while learning how to play), so I wrote that sentence in my previous post just to highlight this!

As far as my suggestions regarding investigators are concerned.. The characters I mentioned weren't the strongest, but simply the ones allowing you some more liberty of action during the game. You can obviously play with whichever character you want (drawning it randomly or choosing it, as you like it)!

Bring home the victory! (and let us know how the game went!)

[dj2.0 75]

Julias advice is sound, so follow that. I also suggest you look at getting someone deputised asap - especially when you cant cope with monsters because there are too many or you have no weapons. The wagon has saved me more times than any other card, including elder signs. Its mainly the time it saves that makes such a difference, especially if the driver has a Find Gate spell...

[doomtube 0]

 cheers for all the help... baby bath time has stopped play however we seem to be very close to closing all the gates , 3 investigators are in the OW, if they return and close there 3 gates we will have no open gates and 4 gate trophies!!!!  ....we did have 2 investigators devoured on the way though but figures crossed later today we may win our firsy ever ever ever game (having played for nearly a year!!!) HURRAY and up yours nyarlathotep HAHAHAHAH!!!!

[The Old Man 1]

doomtube said:

  And I must say we do have a  good handle on 'how phases work' etc, we aren't struggling to comprehend and understand the rules, just make them work in our favour to have a victory!

I'm sorry to say this, but since this thread is about your other posts, I don't think you really do have a good handle on the rules.  I've read a number of your other posts that make this clear.  And this after you've been playing the game for a year.  Do not complain about winning the game if you're lacking basic rule understanding.  Also as the stats make clear, the majority of games ARE won.

[doomtube 0]

 brilliant!! we finally killed a 'ancient one'!!! and got a total of 18 points... 

 

Which post is it specifically that you are referring to 'The Old Man' which gives you the impression we are 'lacking basic rule understanding' was it the one about which monster do you fight first? ... i don't actually remember any of the others   ...and I don't remember any post containing a complaint? 

[The Old Man 1]

I deleted my reply to you.  I don't want to appear to be attacking.  I hope that your play goes well.  It is a very clever and interesting game of which I'm only scratching the surface.

[AVEC2 2]

Julia said:

Zealot touched an interesting point. How OW colours work was explained by Kevin here. This is the correct sequence of "matching" abilities:

Red - Red tends to be bad and attacks an investigator's Stamina.

 

Yellow - Yellow tends to be bad and attacks an investigator's Sanity.

Blue - Blue tends to be bad and attacks an investigator's possessions.

Green - Green tends to be good or neutral.
 

I've also noticed that, while Blue tends to be bad, it's bad less often than yellow and red.  That's probably part of the reason why Celeano is the safest of the other worlds (and R'lyeh the most dangerous).    

[doomtube 0]

 well it seems we finally have a %95 knowledge of the rules (does anyone ever get to %100?) and just finnished another game beating Ithaqua and got 22 points!! ... it was bloomin blooming close... the doom track was up to 10, but we suddenly had 6 elder signs on the board WHOOP-WHHOP!! so i think we are finally doing it properly !!! .... mind you we picked the monster for the next game (randomly) ....and it's the dreaded yog sothoth   EEEK!! ....wish us luck!! 

 

Oh and hey old man no worries i think i'd do the same in your position, if some twit came on a forum asking obvious questions about something i knew all about... 

 

[Avi_dreader 64]

doomtube said:

 

 well it seems we finally have a %95 knowledge of the rules (does anyone ever get to %100?) and just finnished another game beating Ithaqua and got 22 points!! ... it was bloomin blooming close... the doom track was up to 10, but we suddenly had 6 elder signs on the board WHOOP-WHHOP!! so i think we are finally doing it properly !!! .... mind you we picked the monster for the next game (randomly) ....and it's the dreaded yog sothoth   EEEK!! ....wish us luck!! 

 

Oh and hey old man no worries i think i'd do the same in your position, if some twit came on a forum asking obvious questions about something i knew all about... 

 

 

 

You'll see that once you understand the base game mechanics the game becomes horrifically easy :'/ Until you get Dunwich :') If you need some difficulty boosters in the meanwhile, send me a message (or just check near the end of the Ancient Ones section in Fan Creation, I left a number of posts there a few weeks ago on this subject).