Arkham Horror The Card Game 101: Playthrough and Tutorial (The Gathering)

Learn the game, or check out how it plays; this video is targeted at beginners or those curious about it.
I will be playing Wendy and Roland through The Gathering with mechanics explained as I go (along with a 20 minute intro explaining the structure o the game). For detailed discussion of the investigators, decks, deck building, cards, and card types, check out this other video from the same series: • Arkham Horror The Card...
Decks on ArkhamDB
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[@Ruben_BE_]

Best playthrough/tutorial video for Arkham Horror The Card Game out there! FFG should just put the video link in the rulebook, it would help so many new players. I've already been playing for years, but it is nice to see other people know all the intricacies of the game. I like that you even explain what could happen like Ancient Evils immediately advancing the agenda.

[@WingingItGaming]

Wow, thank you so much! I really hoped this would be helpful for the community, so it’s gratifying to see how well received it is :)

[@Turtlewax88]

Thanks for the 101 serie man. It's always nice to find some content for noobs like me who just bought the core set and will try to play with his girlfriend and see if we want to get more into the expensions after that. Great explanations, many things are not very clear in the rulebook and it's better because of you :-)

[@WingingItGaming]

I appreciate the kind words- thank so much for taking the time to watch and to comment! Hope you love the game- it’s a really good one and worth the investment. (But I am biased!)

[@RobKraut]

I’m having this exact experience right now! The learn to play guide doesn’t really explain how to play very clearly, but it does explain the mechics decently of individual components. But it doesn’t really explain how you put it all together. My girlfriend and I are currently trying to figure out how/when enemies come out... looking foreward to getting to that part of the video!

[@alexanderhummel927]

Wow, ~1 hour for the scenario. Yesterday I tried my (almost) first game and it took like 6 hours :D Unfortunately got no time to repeat this ;)) due to work. But really loved the game and will at least watch the gameplay tomorrow. - I’ve just watched the base deck video, not so much new though but...I’m an English teacher and try to combine learning the language with something I’m into. By the way, when we (Russian) come across any uncertainties the game is full with we refer to English sources. Russian localization is well done but from time to time there are debates about comprehension (lots of) nuances which sound clearer in English. Thanks for the videos!

[@seniledad6489]

Thanks on the video. I'm just learning to play right now with the extra time I have. Your video helped me with the game. I liked and subscribed.

[@WingingItGaming]

Great- thanks fo much for watching, and I’m glad you found my channel!

[@prjmayhem8323]

Thank you sooo much for this video! My wife and I were totally lost on how to play this

[@WingingItGaming]

Welcome to the madness- it’s such a great game, and a wonderful time to jump in!

[@prjmayhem8323]

@@WingingItGaming Also I would just like to add, your video is the longest KZbin video I have ever watched! (In a good way)

[@WingingItGaming]

@@prjmayhem8323 Haha- they are not short! I’m glad I was able to hold your attention! My kids have tried to watch this and last about 48 seconds.

[@dg9030]

What a great explanation. Thank you so much for this video, loved it!

[@WingingItGaming]

So glad it was helpful to you- love to hear this kind of feedback :)

[@RobKraut]

Question: At around 1:08:00 when you are attacking the Ghoul priest, you mention that Roland can attack him without worrying about retaliation, but in the Rules Ref it says the Retaliate happens whether engaged or not. Is there something happening here that’s is preventing retaliation that I’m not seeing? Answered my own question: Only READY enemies can retaliate, not exhausted ones. Got it.

[@petermobius]

Great playthrough, thanks!. But man that's super unintuitive that Roland could interact with a Weakness card that was in Wendys deck/ play area. I couldn't find any reference to this while looking up Treachery and Weakness in the Rules Book. Hmmmm.

[@WingingItGaming]

Yeah, it's not one that is immediately apparent. It's in the RR under "Triggered Abilities". ---- It states: "An investigator is permitted to use triggered abilities (, , and abilities) from the following sources . . . A scenario card that is in play and at the same location as the investigator. This includes the location itself, encounter cards placed at that location, and all encounter cards in the threat area of any investigator at that location. ----- Thanks so much for watching!

[@iordanisgrigoriou]

Great explanation! I got the game recently and beat the first scenario twice with Roland in solo mode. Your playthrough was the perfect way for me to verify that I didn't mess up any rules :)

[@WingingItGaming]

Great! I’m so glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful. Welcome to this great game- it’s a wonderful ride. Thanks for watching!

[@Onlyjustme1]

Great playtrough. I was just wondering, how does it work with multiple ghouls in one room? Do the both attach to the person in that room? How does defeating work when you have multiple ghouls in one room? Do you defeat the lowest first? And while fighting, does the other attack you? Thanks for anwsering the questions, I really like the game but I want to learn to play it correctly!

[@WingingItGaming]

Thanks for watching! Multiple ghouls can attach to a single player, depending on their prey rules and such. If you draw a ghoul without spawn instructions and you already have a ghoul, you’ll have two ghouls! For attacking, you declare which one you are attacking, and do all of the damage to that enemy. You don’t get attacked while doing this because fight is one of the 4 actions (others are evade, parlay, and resign) which do not provoke attacks of opportunity. Hope that helps!

[@XHuntinatorX]

So you can attack an enemy that is exhausted? I thought you had to first take an engage action to attack. If this is correct, does the enemy untap when attacked. This would make evading a much more attractive option being that you could evade and then attack and avoid the counter attack since the enemy is exhausted. Crap, I may have been playing wrong.

[@WingingItGaming]

Yes! And indeed, turning off retaliate before attacking is one of the excellent reasons to evade an enemy. When you evade an enemy, what normally happens (sometimes there are card effects that would change this) is the enemy exhausts and disengages. It does not ready until upkeep (or some other effect readies it). You can whack at such an enemy without worry at that point! One notable exception to this is "aloof" enemies (there are none in the core, but there are aloof enemies in Dunwich). Someone MUST be engaged with an aloof enemy in order to attack it. Now if Wendy is engaged with an aloof enemy, Roland can attack it. But he could not attack it if she evaded it and it disengaged from her. Finally, you can actually engage an exhausted enemy and then attack it. This might be important if you want to get the +1 damage from a Machete, which you would not get from attacking a disengaged enemy. When you do this, the enemy does not unexhaust. You are engaged with it, but it does not retaliate, and it will not hit you during the enemy phase. Hopefully, all that is clear and makes sense!

[@CountingGardens]

@@WingingItGaming So you can always attack an enemy whether you are engaged with it or not as long as it is in your location?

[@WingingItGaming]

@@CountingGardens Correct, unless it is aloof (there is always an exception to every rule!) Remember, if you attack an enemy engaged with someone else and miss, you damage them instead :)

[@XHuntinatorX]

WingingIt ... Ok... I got it now. This was a HUGE help to me... thnx. I have watched a lot of videos and have never seen this addressed. I have been trying to get through the core campaign solo with Roland and it’s not going well. I did get two core sets BTW. After watching your play through, I think I’ll start over and grab Wendy to distract some baddies so I can focus Rolands deck on fighting instead of trying to up his other stats. This may be my favorite game now. Thanx again.. I’m looking forward to sifting through your other vids.

[@WingingItGaming]

XHuntinatorX Awesome- I’m so glad this was helpful- that’s why I made it. This game only gets better, so welcome aboard! Make sure to check out the MythosBusters Discord/Podcast and the Drawn To The Flame podcast. The community around this game is amazing :)

[@TheForbiddenFatty]

When you draw Dissonant Voices from the Encounter Deck, how are you able to use Roland's assets when the card text says you cannot play an asset or event. Does that mean you can use the ones in your asset slots but just not put new ones down?

[@WingingItGaming]

Yes- that is exactly correct. You can use assets, you cannot play then (put them into play from your hand, in the case of assets).

[@TheForbiddenFatty]

@@WingingItGaming thanks!

[@WingingItGaming]

@@TheForbiddenFatty Of course! It’s a great game, so please don’t hesitate to ask- you can also find me on FB or Discord, and I cannot recommend the Mythos Busters Discord enough for getting engaged with a wonderful community around this game :) discord.com/invite/mythosbusters

[@alexalansmith14]

thank you very much, this video is great

[@WingingItGaming]

I am glad you found it helpful- thanks iso much for watching!

[@sarge8585]

If Ghoul Priest is engaged wiith ROland, why does Wendy have to take the engatement and evade?

[@WingingItGaming]

In order to take an evade action, you have to be engaged with the enemy you are attempting to evade. Some effects (like Stray Cat) can do it without being engaged, but normally you have to engage. This is different from attacking, which doesn’t require engagement, but carries the risk of hitting the engaged investigator if you miss. And to be clear, the reason Wendy wanted to evade was to turn off the retaliate and the enemy attack during the enemy phase.

[@skarnl]

45:00 Wendy attacks the Swarm of Rats - but it was still the Mythos-phase, right? And Roland would have a turn before hers, right? Maybe you skipped it for demonstration purposes ... or you maybe forgot it, since there was a lot explanation done between drawing the cards ^^ But just checking, to see if I understand it correctly.

[@WingingItGaming]

While the order of drawing cards in the Mythos phase is set, players may take their turns in any order (they can discuss and decide who goes first). In this case, the voices in my head decided to have Wendy act first- so, after I resolved her draw (the rats), which ended the Mythos phase, I went ahead and had her take her turn. Thanks for watching!

[@skarnl]

@@WingingItGaming thanks for the explanation!

[@WingingItGaming]

Oskar van Velden Absolutely- I’m glad to have cleared it up and hope it helps!

[@AdrianLaw]

Attack the swarm of rats Investigate Move to the hallway Get a resource That were 4 actions in total, am I right?

[@pierrenielsen7619]

Is the attack on the rats a free action sine you do 4 actions and you are just allowed 3?🙂

[@VIVlt]

1:12:30 why Vendy have to spend two resources on dig deep? Car is is play already and +1 evade cost 1 resource? Thanks for answering.

[@WingingItGaming]

You can spend multiple resources to get multiple boosts- so I spent 2 to get +2 to her evade. Thanks for watching!

[@rkoman1]

hi .. so isnt the tutorial chaos bag different from the one u call "standard" at this video? and isnt beat cop a upgrade to the deck wich should only happen after gaining XP? Sorry im noob and trying to learn the game and since i saw this playthrough from tutorial i thought it was the one in the core box :s sorry if im saying something wrong . good video anyway

[@WingingItGaming]

Ask away! That’s what this is for :) This is the chaos bag as listed on “Standard” for The Night of the Zealot. There are two versions of the Beat Cop. The version in this deck does not require any XP. The higher level one requires 2 XP per copy.

[@joeinoc]

Where in the rules does it say you can trade in the first five cards?

[@markc8401]

Thanks for the explanation! When Roland helped Wendy out with that Haunting treachery card, my jaw hit the floor! You can do that???? I had no idea....the rules should really be explicit with that. Thanks for showing it.

[@WingingItGaming]

Yeah- that is a neat rule that is obscure enough a lot of people don’t realize it early on, and it really helps with the feeling of teamwork and working together. Thanks so much for watching!

[@seniledad6489]

After you commit with a card (wendy fighting the rats). Did (do) you discard that card? Thanks in advance.

[@WingingItGaming]

Yes- after the test resolves, committed cards go to the discard pile.

[@karammelkon]

This helped me a lot in my first play through! Thanks!

[@WingingItGaming]

I’m so glad- this is the feedback I love to hear!

[@MF-jx9xb]

Enjoyed the play through, have just recently picked up this game and learnt a few rules through watching. Health per player for some enemies hadn't noticed that before and interacting with other players' card in their threat area. Thank you.

[@rasmusrosechristensen3592]

Thanks for the videos! What is the name of the dark game mat, you are using?

[@WingingItGaming]

You are very welcome! This is a custom playmat with the "Eager For Death" artwork- I contacted the artist for permission and he said it was fine, so I had InkedGaming do one up for me. I absolutely love it (hence the reason I use it in all my videos) :D I discuss this and other components I use in the Midnight Masks playthrough, if that is of interest.

[@rasmusrosechristensen3592]

@@WingingItGaming thanks! It looks great :)

[@RobKraut]

What are the card sleeves you are using? (Also, I haven’t made it all the way through, nor have I explored it in the booklet yet, but do you also explain how to build the other characters’ decks or custom decks?)

[@WingingItGaming]

Sorry that I missed this comment- I use DragonShield for the investigator decks, and TitanShield for encounter cards. All of my new two handed videos have deck building videos to accompany them to discuss how the decks are built.

[@JamaicanWhitey1]

@@WingingItGaming Hi there, firstly thanks for a great video! This may be a silly question but what made you choose 2 different brands for the sleeves? Ive recently started the core set and wanted to colour co-ordinate the different decks and card types. Thanks!

[@WingingItGaming]

@@JamaicanWhitey1 TitanShield are cheaper and a snugger fit, but only come in black and clear. It’s a lot more economical to use them for the encounter cards. I wanted to color coordinate for the player card decks, so DragonShield made the most sense at the time, however, I have now switched to Katana for the player decks, as they have a similar snug fit as the TitanShields do, but give me the color options.

[@WingingItGaming]

@@JamaicanWhitey1 I JUST realized TotanShield has started making other colors :)

[@Southerndevilsfan]

You, sir, are a scholar and a gentleman! Thanks so much!

[@WingingItGaming]

Thanks so much for watching!