5 TIPS FOR NEW PLAYERS | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

[@NorinnRichard]

Two tips for new players: 1) ArkhamDB is your best friend. It will give you great ideas for how to have a tuned deck for the character you want to play. 2) ArkhamDB is your worst enemy. If you just live by those decks and don't build your own, you are missing a major part of the game's fun.

[@anaphysik]

I think ArkhamDB can also be your worst enemy in that it trains you to think in "full collection" mode, as compared with being satisfied exploring the many options of your own much-more-likely smaller collection. A DB's discussion (understandably, as it is most player-neutral) generally assumes all cards are available (or for historic comments, all-cards-released-to-that-point), but a real person/group's collection is more likely to be a couple specific cycles. There are great cards in *every* cycle, which tend to get overlooked simply because there are marginally-more-optimal cards scattered across the total print pool that are talked about more frequently. And more than that, there are just *sooo many* cards in total, that it's a shame to regularly use only a tiny proportion of them. (Especially considering that it's a co-op game with adjustable difficulty, and so even for "playing seriously", 'optimization' is not a strict matter where only the best aren't outcompeted, but rather more a simple matter of sound/cohesive deck design.) Once upon a time Dunwich+Carcosa was literally the only two-campaign combination, but nowadays there's no reason why Innsmouth+Forgotten Age or whatever couldn't be a valid collection. It always disappoints me to see someone desiring to play "in release order" as if this was somehow 'proper playing' instead of simply an artifact of game development. Far more interesting, IMO, to simply play with whatever handful of campaigns are available and most interest you, and get a deckbuilding and gameplay experience that few other people have had. And to savor that.

[@kitsunin4690]

@@anaphysik and besides, the game's balance is good enough that every card is very usable and even great somewhere, with only scant exceptions. Use what you want and get creative. You can still win on Standard for sure.

[@Chiungalla79]

@@kitsunin4690 It`s actually quite an achievement that after more than 1,000 player cards Night of the Zealots is still a hard campaign. ;-)

[@jdrenwick57]

That last point is so important. First time I played the Essex County express scenario I won in like 4 turns because I simply moved my investigators 3 locations each turn. Then I read the cards which say "You cannot enter here until you have discovered all clues in the previous location" and suddenly it made a LOT more sense! So I reset and played it properly

[@noirmeitte]

For me, the most important thing to understand in AK lcg is that health, sanity and movement are ressources as well -- work with it.

[@michaelmelen9062]

I just ordered the Arkham Horror Core Set, and discovered through your videos that it is the Old Core Set, and not the new Core Set. Didn't know there was a new Core Set. I am guessing that you have already made a video on how to take the Old Core Set & bring it up to date. Could you give the link for that video please? Or.... what should I purchase to bring it up to a workable current Core Set. I don't need bling, but if there are important things that I am missing, I'd like to make sure I get them. Future purchases will be of the new Campaign/Investigator boxes. Thanks!

[@L0grak]

Yep a lot of good points here. What kinda turned the game in our group's favour was learning to use health as a resource (better to win on 1 health, than doom out on full health), and to evaluate what tests were worth committing to passing and which we could fail. Get a Rotting Remains with 1 Sanity left, you probably want to pass that, or cancel the card. Get a Rotting Remains with 8 Sanity left, you're probably fine to just tank it and are better off not spending resources on it that you might need for more important tests.

[@TheTinnman]

I agree with your comment about failing. My impression of Arkham Horror is that win or lose you are going to come away from the game play with some amazing stories of triumph and tragedy. I play games to have fun and sure it is generally more fun to win, but if you like the people you are playing with and enjoy their company then you can celebrate their victories even while you may have lost. I have to say I chuckled at your comment, "If you fail, it's not the end of the world." Not exactly entirely accurate when talking about Arkham Horror! :-)

[@MrThorne522]

"The Core Skill Cards Are Better Than You Think" Laughs/Cries in Norman Withers.

[@konstantinstepanov5461]

One more tip id give and that probably is more applicable to games where everyone is a new player, always read through the Phases card. I had so many turns where i forgot to do the enemy movement when I was starting up because having a clear table from enemies (especially hunters) was common and more often than not you would just skip that phase and then when you actually need to move them you forget as move on as per usual inertia. I guess Im just gonna say - its best to get the good habbit of always checking if there are any hunters trained every turn so it becomes almost unconscious than get used to cutting corners and just going - yep skip.

[@PlayingBoardGames]

That's great advice and something I still do today when we're playing in recording. I'll say all the phases outloud when they begin, even if there are no enemies just so it's not missed.

[@Thebrad11984]

Hahaha the last one hit me way too hard. There are so many times where I get near the end of scenario and realize I’ve been playing something wrong (usually to my detriment. I miss scenario set up way too often too. Played the devourer below and I freaking shuffled umordhoth into the mythos deck. Dude came up in our like second draw from the encounter deck. We were scrambling so hard and after we got decimated I was like oh he was supposed to he set aside. My wife just stared at me dumbfounded. Your videos on this game are an amazing tour as I become more and more obsessed. Watching your playthroughs and seeing that you should resign was eye opening. It is all about threat assessment. It’s ok to draw even sometimes. It’s ok to fail. And sometimes it’s not so that’s when you spend those tools to try to assure your success

[@carcosa_tyrant9444]

i'm 2 years late, but one thing i'd say really helps is not only to not be afraid of failure, but to embrace the moments where things go tits-up and enjoy the chaos of the story. just the other night, i was showing some friends the game, one of my players was excited to get to use a card in a really dire situation to give me a 'search 3 draw 1' action in the hopes that i could pull something helpful, and i look down at 3 awful cards and go 'oh, these are terrible!' and we all had a nice laugh. we still managed to win in the end, but attitude is a huge aspect of fun in this game. we could have been salty that things didn't work out well in that situation, or we could laugh that we blundered and keep trucking forward. so embrace the suck!

[@sedlak87]

"Don't be afraid of failing" The hardest part I try to explain to new players is failing the scenario cause of doom or all characters defeated it's not end of the story.

[@madcatsden]

I love you guys, always a great source of information. This game is difficult to pick up and really understand but after a year of playing, I'm still finding myself looking up your vids to refresh or see where I messed something up along the way.

[@clunette]

Just got the base game, Dunwich, Return to Dunwich(for storage if anything) and an investigator pack and Mythos pack for Dunwich. Going to try to 3 player with this set. My friends hate losing. Hope that this game will give them a sense of accomplishment as the story unfolds. Avoiding spoilers but I will probably solo a game to get the basic rules down. Gonna watch more of your videos as we progress. Thank you!

[@GTandalfM5]

Sadly, they burnt the game, right?

[@Cartkun]

All weaknesses are not equal. It's okay sometime to leave a weakness on your threat area and not waste a turn to remove it.

[@davidkm]

In multiplayer plan each investigators turn. You.might.need the monster hunter to go first to free up a location. You don't need to advance right away when you have the ckues. You may want to wait a turn to prepare what is coming.

[@alexandertate2762]

What I like to do if I draw acolyte for example is spawn him somewhere I plan to go soon. Somewhere that still has clues. In a gave where I have a fighter and a clue getter, I take the fighter there first to make sure it’s safe so the clue getter can search for clues without taking attack of opportunity

[@Halcyon00]

“Don’t be afraid of failing” Another point here is: if you committed really hard to pass the skill test, did you really “win”?

[@blinxy511]

It depends on what you got from passing the test.

[@Halcyon00]

@@blinxy511 of course, but my point was that if someone expends so much out of fear of failing, then it isn’t really worth the “success”, especially in terms of the mythos phase. Sometimes it’s best to accept the failed skill test and move on.

[@MatheusVenti]

There is always a possibility that you get a auto fail on a test that you commited 3 cards and 4 resources to pass too. My pessimism almost always saves me from that experience! lol

[@DrMcFly28]

I'd put "play on Easy" somewhere in there. Pretty much all newcomers default to Standard, for obvious reasons, making one core NotZ even more needlessly punishing.

[@konstantinstepanov5461]

Get Arkham Cards app (for rules/setup, campaign logging and chaos bag. Also Narration if you wish to pay for it and ArkhamDB integration) and get or make directional arrows for locations, i messed up so many games making illegal moves and going - oh this scenario was easy, when I probably cut back 2-3 game turns on taking shortcuts.

[@markusschmidt9260]

Regarding the neutral cards: Unexpected Courage is great, but it is the one, which likely gets cut in my decks, now that I have a bigger collection, because most colours have cards, like Inquiring Mind or Promise of Power that replace it for me. The cantrip skills in my experience are particular great, because they replace themselves. So I use them normally to max out the probability on important tests. Let's say, it's a standard bag with -4 the worst modifier. Then in my experience, it's a great use of these cards to commit them, while at +2. Sure, it might help you only on 2 or 3 tokens to actually succeed on the test, but it thins your deck and you get more likely to the cards you need. An Unexpected Courage on the other hand would be wasted on that same test. This card is more about making a more significant amount of tokens passable, or in some cases, to cover the modifier of some special tokens with particular nasty penalty on failing.

[@Wupkor]

Great video! So excited whenever you return to review the standalone scenarios

[@MatheusVenti]

Interesting, I always had a lot of bias about Unexpected Courage, and always have Guts as a no brain inclusion, because I always thougth that a 0 cost/1draw card basically does not occupy space in a deck. There was only after seeing some of your videos talking about Unexpected Courage that I started to use it as a filler. (I still think isn't better than a filler, but at least I started to consider the card lol).

[@jorisweges2559]

@Justin teaching life lessons here: "We are taught that failing is bad thing, but when you're given so many tests..." 😉

[@charlesvalentine9638]

If you play solo or two handed solo, what is the minimum fist and book (on the top investigator for that skill) that you can play without being crippled?

[@SlebenGates]

By the way, I'm expecting the Forgotten Age videos with Wendy true solo =D It is going so bad that I want to see the outcome.

[@Coffeemaker1978]

From LotR lcg I learned that YOU WILL makes mistakes. Accept that 🙂

[@PlayingBoardGames]

Great advice.

[@seileen1234]

I think i've never played a Lotr scenario without making a single mistake. An obscure rule, a misunderstanding in ruling, missing a token, not keeping a timer on a card, forgetting to advance the doom track, forgetting a trigger on an enemy, ect... one of those things WILL happen. I've accepted the fact that is so rare in our 4player group to play perfectly, it's so easy to forget something. But when it happens, when we know we do not mess anything, it feels GODLY

[@azncisg]

I'm pretty sure those where like 7-8 Tipps. Like, I'm not gonna go back and count them, but I don't think you did either.

[@MatheusVenti]

Do you prefer to use Guts/Perception/Overpower/MD to ensure a easy test and a card draw, or do you prefer to use it to try to pass a hard test, risking to lose the card draw? I am always more inclined to the first, but I don't know if I am right, valuing more the card draw aspect, or I am just being pessimist.

[@PlayingBoardGames]

I personally use my double neutral skill cards most often on hard tests where I need that extra boost or tests with a penalty I'd rather not suffer. I'd rather pass that test and have the skill replace itself than use that skill just for the draw.

[@blinxy511]

For me it depends why the card is in my deck. Guts usually gets saved for the mythos phase, whereas cards like Overpower and Perception are sometimes used to difficult tests, but also occasionally for draw power to supplement my economy. Manuel Dexterity doesn't get much love from me, but when it does show up it's usually to succeed by 2 "for free".

[@MatheusVenti]

@@blinxy511 Your explanation really makes sense! Usually mines are in the deck only for the card draw, sometimes Guts is also in the deck for that irritating treacheries like frozen in fear and rotting remains against low determination chars.

[@SlebenGates]

Thank you!