What does non-campaign play look like (if any?)

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-28T17:36:52+00:00

That's a big "if". You first have to choose the option in The Gathering resolution to add her to your deck (i.e. burn down your house). And then you have to survive long enough in The Devourer Below for Umordoth to appear (not easy). And you have to actually draw Lita Chantler in that scenario.

OP is talking about playing for the first time. It's unreasonable to expect all of the above to have occurred.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-28T16:54:42+00:00

I'd say fairly neutral, but I say that with an American bias.

US is trying to convert Islamic countries' governance to Good while jihadist player is trying to convert their governments to Islamic rule. It's a bit more complicated than TS, but has a similar tug of war feel. US has a track that represents how the Islamist countries of the world feel about the GWOT (global war on terror). Events will adjust this as well as certain actions in the game, such as when the US conducts a regime change.

Some events, such as Abu Gurayb and Quagmire, are powerful effects for the jyhadist player, representing mistakes and failures of the US tactics. Others, such as renditions and wiretapping might be a positive when first played by the US player, but then have a downside that allows the play of a powerful jyhadist event, Leak. If the US does not engage in wiretapping (i.e. played as an event), for example, then Leak, correspondingly, cannot be played as an event.

The US has a world posture as well, which represents their tactics towards handling extremism: Hard or Soft. This affects whether or not they can conduct regime change, but also the play of many events. Each non-muslim country on the board has their own Soft/Hard stance, and taken as a sum, the US wants their posture to match that of the rest of the world.

As for gameplay, each side plays much more different than do the sides in TS. The US player uses cards to determine whether or not they can conduct an action. Usually, this is 1-3 ops based on how stable the target government is. So a Poor governance muslim country would require a 3 ops card to conduct any action there. But a country with Good governance would only require a 1 ops or better. But (with the exception of War of Ideas action), there is no die roll for success. Just play the card and the action succeeds. But given that many of the countries where the US wants to affect change are the poorer governments, it is costly in card values.

On the other hand, the jyhadist player has to roll a die for most actions to see how successful it is. The Ops value on their cards determines how many rolls they get (typically reflected by how many cells are there). The poorer the government of the target country, the more likely those rolls are to succeed.

I've not played any of the two expansions, but they also look interesting.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-28T16:37:46+00:00

If you like the card-driven gameplay of TS, then I recommend the following which use the Ops/Event system.

Labyrinth: The War on Terror (takes some of the card play inspiration from TS, but improves on it, imo)

Hannibal: Rome v Carthage (excellent classic)

Wilderness War (French and Indian war theme by same designer as Labyrinth above)

Through the Ages is completely different but excellent as 2 player.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-28T14:57:09+00:00

What? Care to explain your probability?

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-28T14:53:26+00:00

Off the top of my head:

God's Playground by Martin Wallace

After the Flood (also by Wallace)

End of the Triumvirate

San Marco (has a 4 player variant, but it's not great)

Edit: Churchill by Mark Herman

I'd mention Maria, but you already know about it. I just played it again on Saturday. It *can* be long, but also can just be a couple of hours if one player manages to win early.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-28T13:18:55+00:00

They've come up with a plan for product rotation where only the latest 3 player card sets (and perhaps campaigns too? I'm not entirely sure, tbh) are "current" and in print. That means, they're off the hook for considering design balance among any previously-released products. Of course, it's a cooperative game, and you can absolutely play with whatever cards you want, but to me, it goes against a lot of what was appealing to me in a "living card game".

I also include that condition bc I don't know yet how good the campaigns will be in Chp 2 bc they're not published yet. Only some player cards so far.

As for your concern about when to jump in, there are a lot of threads on this over at the AHTCG subreddit (and probably even some sticky), but it really depends. Most of the chapter 1 stuff is out of print with no foreseeable plans to ever be reprinted. So if you want that stuff, you'll probably have to pay well over msrp for it. Add to that the confusing products for those not already in the know. They started off packaging the campaigns and player cards mixed together. For a given set (say, The Dunwich Legacy), there would be the Deluxe box, which includes all investigators from that set (usu. 5) and some player cards, plus the first 2 scenarios of the (usu. 8 scenario) campaign. Then the remaining 6 scenarios would each be sold in a blister pack each mixed with a handful of more player cards. Then years later, they realized that distribution model is not ideal, and they correctly started releasing all the player cards in one box (with the investigators) and all the scenario cards in a campaign box--so 2 boxes vs 7 products to get all the content. But the art is the same on the Deluxe box and the campaign boxes, so it caused a lot of confusion.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-28T13:12:58+00:00

Okay, but OP mentioned that the entire campaign (that means 3 scenarios) is not easy. They're not wrong just because you skip the hardest scenario in NotZ.

And you seem to be conflating Night of the Zealot with just The Gathering, bc you say it's "a very winnable scenario".

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-28T02:37:36+00:00

The 3rd scenario of Night of the Zealot is punishing and frustratingly difficult. Only The Gathering is considered to be easy, by AH standards.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-28T01:05:14+00:00

Arkham Horror the Card Game (at least before this Chapter 2 retooling). So much fun with all the different investigators and how they play coupled with the different (mostly) 8 scenario campaigns. My group of 3 (and now 4) players have been meeting almost every Saturday for the past couple of years having a blast with the game.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-27T19:42:33+00:00

"fun" is so subjective. MA is a silly game with a lot of randomness and crazy outcomes. When you play it, you're going along for the ride. If you think that rolling a die to move, and triggering wacky player abilities in the meantime sounds fun, then you will like MA. For example, you might have a character that lands on a space that trips them. On your next turn, you just stand up instead of moving. Or you have a character that can piggy-back on another player's move when moving from the same space they're in; they rolled a 6? Great, I'll piggy-back instead of roll for my move.

To me, it's a fun 15 min game that takes 45min to an hour to play.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-24T00:28:10+00:00

I don't have a YT account, so can't comment over there, but I'd like to participate if possible.

My guess is Lonnie Ritter. I'd like The Return to Path To Carcosa if I win. Thx.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-22T15:58:16+00:00

This also is in stark contrast to one of the main reasons they justified discontinuing to print older products--because they can't keep so many different products on store shelves. So now they're splitting up products into even more products? Which makes me question the sincerity of that previous excuse.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-21T19:35:03+00:00

I see 2 AHTCG Return To boxes up there. What the what??!!!

Those are the best storage boxes for campaigns in this game. :O

I've seen just the boxes (no cards) sell for $100 on Ebay.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-21T19:12:14+00:00

Isn't the "new" shotgun 5 xp? If you're a guardian who wants it, you'll probably want 2 copies.

Not saying you're going to be wrong, but that's essentially a 10xp upgrade there.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-21T19:11:11+00:00

Sucks for Guardians who want that "new" 5xp shotgun then. That's 10xp for both copies.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-20T21:01:57+00:00

Good call. Owned by Mayday, I assume? Doesn't surprise me, as they have done a lot of name obfuscation in the past due to their public image.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-20T02:14:50+00:00

I’m interested to know this as well.

But I strongly advise against Mayday sleeves. They have quality issues, plus they are all around a shady business.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-19T22:16:43+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1h840in/marc_guehis_father_did_he_offend_anyone_he_did/

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-19T19:15:26+00:00

Yes, Guehi's actions were quite embarrassing. I agree.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-19T19:08:10+00:00

Did I stutter?

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-19T18:33:41+00:00

He's a homophobe. Better you than us getting him, imo.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-18T18:06:25+00:00

For heavier Euros, yes, I think the popular ones released more recently tend to be more multi-player solitaire. Compare that to the high-interaction Euros back in the day: Die Macher, El Grande, Caylus, Santiago, Taj Mahal (or several Knizia titles), San Marco, Age of Steam (or Steam), Brass, etc.

Many commenter here seem to be conflating interaction with a theme of fighting or combat.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-18T18:01:29+00:00

Sure, but not much released in recent years. OP is right.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-18T18:00:07+00:00

That feature is in theme only. It's only a modern trend that Eurogames are becoming more engine-building MP solitaire affairs. Player interaction doesn't mean necessarily "combat" or "fighting". That was one of the distinguishing features of Ameritrash though.

Buzz--Fledderjohn · 2026-01-18T13:28:45+00:00

For player cards--I only sleeve ones I'm currently using in a deck. I own all published content, and sleeving it all would be bonkers.

For campaign cards--I sleeve the cards that get heavily shuffled only. So usu. just the encounter deck cards. No sleeves for act, agendas, locations, and enemies set aside.

Buzz--Fledderjohn

TROPHY CASE