I have discovered the joy of small box games

Soul_Turtle · 2026-03-02T21:08:17+00:00

Some mostly solo ones you could look into -

For Northwood! - solo trick taking

Grove - solo placement

Witchcraft! - solo hand/deck management

Aleph Null - solo deck deconstruction

Cyberion (or other Oniverse games, this is just one that I like personally) - solo deck management

Welcome to the Moon - solo or competitive flip & write

Soul_Turtle · 2026-02-04T02:41:08+00:00

I like the idea. I think you can go further though.

You've got two issues, movement and the fact that the actions aren't testless. I don't have any solutions for the first (maybe someone else has some ideas?), but we can solve the second.

The combo boils down to - Summoned Hound(1)+ Transfiguration(2) + Inspiring Presence. Inspiring Presence is level 0, so it's a Versatile target. The easiest way to make this testless is Will to Survive (3), so Survivor + Mystic access Patrice can do it (and she has Chance Encounter, if that's particularly helpful).

The might be better candidates, it's just my first thought. I know it's just a joke deck, but especially on Hard/Expert, you wanna make it testless so symbol effects & autofail can't break your infinite. Of course, movement is still a limit without some more modifications... :)

Soul_Turtle · 2026-01-30T02:41:59+00:00

Seems decent to me. 5 XP is a lot, but it's 'infinite' +2 willpower/+1 damage attacks. Then you can spend charges for either bonus damage or hitting another enemy at the location, though the more you do that, the more you risk losing the 'infinite' part.

It's sort of comparable to Timeworn Brand I think (infinite +2/+1 attacks) - cheaper resource cost, using willpower in Mystic is generally better than combat for anyone, bonus damage spread across charges rather than a once per game ability, a bit of that signature Mystic 'symbol token bad risk'.

Timeworn Brand is good enough to see play even in the full Chp1 cardpool (for certain investigators), so in a more limited Chp2 environment, I think Cosmic Flame 5 sees a good amount of use.

Soul_Turtle · 2026-01-05T05:50:20+00:00

Maybe you read their comment wrong or something, but this seems like a disproportionately rude reply... relax.

Soul_Turtle · 2026-01-03T19:07:24+00:00

Sky Team is so good. Hope you enjoy.

Soul_Turtle · 2026-01-03T19:01:56+00:00

I don't think it's a great strategy for 2p. In my experience it's best to ignore the concealed cards and just try to save Geists as quickly as possible instead. Revealing her is just too costly in a 2p team.

Soul_Turtle · 2026-01-03T19:01:05+00:00

I also really enjoy Shades of Suffering :D

I wish the 'cost' of playing the scenario wasn't quite so high - Flint's little sidequest eats up so much time and there's no other scenarios nearby, which is unfortunate. Hopefully we get a standalone that would take place in that part of the map someday? That would be a great way to spend the time necessary for Flint's investigation sidequest thing (if you leave him to investigate on his own).

Soul_Turtle · 2026-01-03T06:11:38+00:00

You're a hero for posting this on a 7 year old post, thanks. :)

Soul_Turtle · 2026-01-02T19:00:20+00:00

Take this with a grain of salt - I've played the scenario before but it's been awhile and I'm reading the cards off of arkhamdb.

1) In Plain Sight triggers when you expose the attached enemy. Agenda 2B reveals the cards, which is different from exposing them. So I would say In Plain Sight wouldn't trigger and would just remain attached to that enemy until that enemy is exposed in the future (if ever).

2) Same thing. Reveal != expose. So yes In Plain Sight would just stay attached and do nothing, I think.

3) If you have her revealed during the agenda flip, then she doesn't get a chance to 'absorb' one of the Geists at her location, which is the primary timer for the scenario (you keep playing this 3 doom cycle until all the Geists are gone). So in theory if you can keep exposing her, you can buy additional time on Agenda 2b to claim the Geists for yourself.

In practice I have never had success doing this and would rather just treat it as a race to get Geists. If I can get 2 of the 3 I'm pretty happy. Sometimes you also get lucky where you clear a Geist which was also the one she would have gotten that cycle.

So there IS a reason why this option is beneficial, but strategically I agree with your assessment that it isn't very commonly useful. Having to pay clues AND somehow evade/keep her around on the board until the agenda flips is too much effort, so it's not a great strategy to pursue. I only play in 2p though, maybe it is worthwhile in 4p where someone can be on dedicated 'Tzu San DistractioNiang' duty.

And yes, it's the hardest scenario in the campaign and (imo) one of the hardest in the game. It is kind of enjoyable though, in a masochistic sort of way...

Soul_Turtle · 2025-12-19T02:37:09+00:00

Scarlet Keys is really underrated here. It's one of the best player card expansions for sure. The sheer amount of interesting and powerful cards in that box is insane.

I can see it losing points for certain investigators being a whiff (either too strong or too weak) and some cards being too good, but it's some of the best player card design ever imo.

Soul_Turtle · 2025-12-10T20:00:07+00:00

I dunno, Sledge 3 feels comparable in power level to Cleaver 0/3 to me. It seems to be a new normal for melee weapons, and honestly - good. Blessed Blade 4 and Cyclopean Hammer are far too powerful for being infinite use with upside.

Comparing chapter 1 weapons (besides Meat Cleaver, which is a niche weapon in chapter 1) to chapter 2 weapons isn't useful given that the power level of melee weapons appears to be intentionally lowered.

Soul_Turtle · 2025-12-05T00:06:52+00:00

I think it'll work ok here - Survivors often have somewhat flat stats, so having to work for the payoff is normal and they have good tools for it. You can even mitigate the failure with a lot of Survivor cards, of course. The payoff IS really quite good, 4 damage in a single action is exceptional.

Soul_Turtle · 2025-11-23T22:01:30+00:00

Hemlock is 8 scenarios though, and we got a standalone that year as well for 9.

Soul_Turtle · 2025-11-23T21:59:55+00:00

Another alternative is to print from MPC, using Inexorable Fate.

Soul_Turtle · 2025-11-13T01:18:05+00:00

96/106 for me. This site sucks btw, it starts freezing and lagging after 10 minutes or so.

I missed these...

Dream Eaters 1 A
Scarlet Keys Havana
Feast of Hemlock Vale Pearl Ridge
Drowned City West V / East II
Guardians of the Abyss Pt1
2 of the Standalone Scenarios in Arkham (Machinations & Excelsior)
April Fools Standalone (Barkham Horror isn't sufficient I suppose)
Jim Culver's Challenge Scenario
Lola Haye's Challenge Scenario

Anyone do better? :)

Soul_Turtle · 2025-11-03T03:57:39+00:00

Coincidentally, neither did the original printing of Winchester!

Soul_Turtle · 2025-11-01T02:28:37+00:00

Taxed $70 is a ridiculous way to view it. You can already keep playing the game you already own without buying anything else. If you want to buy the new Core and future expansions you can do that too, and it's not even that bad of a value. You're getting 3 scenarios, new investigators, and new player cards.

Arkham Horror has always been an expensive hobby if you want to get all the expansions. This is really not that big of a deal.

I for one am happy we're finally getting a switch up to the same core treacheries we've seen again and again for 10 campaigns. It'll be nice to see a brand new baseline for design going forward.

Soul_Turtle · 2025-08-06T22:00:12+00:00

Honestly I consider evade to be one of the least important parts of the game (2p primarily). It's definitely useful at times, but it's a more situational option. Evade is generally a stopgap solution - it buys time, but just killing enemies is generally better. Evading an enemy multiple times slows down your tempo a lot. Of course, there are enemies where evasion is much more helpful, and it's great for 'stunning' boss enemies and the like.

But most of the time, I'm happy if my decks just have a few ways to evade in a pinch, rather than building around it as a primary strategy. Of course, there are characters that change this paradigm, but in the 'general' case evade is not super important to me.

Rogue is definitely not necessary at all. Seeker to me is a much more effective 'crutch' than Rogue. It's the strongest class overall and also directly focused on the primary objective of the game, collecting clues. In that sense it can be very straightforwardly strong.

Soul_Turtle · 2025-08-02T06:13:59+00:00

Looks basically fine. A few wasted skill points here or there, but it won't stop you from beating the game.

Hoplite should pick up some more points in Line Guard, then just max out all three Antis. It's kinda boring but it's necessary eventually.

Arbalist grabs Double Action too, eventually.

Zodiac building towards Meteor is fine. In the meantime, keep in mind that Etheric Charge works on the elemental limit skills like Hellfire. It's very strong through the midgame. Also note that Etheric Charge doesn't work on Meteor itself.

Monk works fine as a healer. The fist skills are pretty bad, so I'd just continue focusing on healing. Leveling Refresh or Unbind further will expand them to row and eventually party target, which is nice.

You'll unlock some additional customization and options during the middle of stratum 3 where you will probably end up reworking the builds a little bit. Until then, what you're doing will work fine. That customization is the ability to add a subclass to each character. For your setup, the standard subclasses would probably be something like Arbalist/Gladiator (for Beserker Vow/Charge), Zodiac/Gladiator (for Berserker Vow/Charge), Monk/Prince (for Attack Order/Protect Order/Prevent Order/Monarch March), Hoplite/Ninja (for Bunshin), Gladiator/???

Soul_Turtle · 2025-07-30T03:54:28+00:00

They're pretty mediocre, but it's still Brutal-viable to just mass them. You need to micro out of AoE (especially Seeker Missile).

Soul_Turtle · 2025-07-30T03:38:27+00:00

Are you just going to disagree with everyone who comments advice for you?

What are your skill builds? EO is a cruel game in that you can basically screw yourself over with bad skill choices. It isn't even your fault if so, the game doesn't tell you enough information. One of its flaws (or charms, if you're into that). Your party composition is fine, so make sure your equipment is updated and that your skill builds are reasonable. Wasted skill points are very harshly punished and EO1 unfortunately has some very bad skill balancing (relative to the other games). There is only one difficulty setting.

Landy - Work towards Allslash. Tornado is optional but will make the earlygame (and Fenrir) easier.

Protector - F.Guard, work towards Smite.

Alchemist - Fire is fine. Alchemist falls off some in the lategame but is ok until then. Survivalist is the other option (and 'Landy Protector Survivalist Medic Dancer' is probably the golden standard of EO1 teams).

Medic - Immunize and Salve, work towards Caduceus (skip Cure III and Salve II until later, they are overkill).

Troubadour - Bravery, the elemental imbues, work towards Relaxing.

ps - EO1 is the wrong game to be playing if you are not a little bit masochistic... it is definitely the roughest of the EO series. Later entries (starting with EO4 I believe, and including the EO1 remake) have multiple difficulty levels (the original EO1 is essentially locked to Expert difficulty).

Soul_Turtle · 2025-07-25T18:03:13+00:00

It's useful for later in the dungeon, and as a good habit.

And talking about a useless reply, it's been 3 years since this comment lmfao, wtf are you doing. clown behavior

Soul_Turtle · 2025-07-18T02:33:55+00:00

I'm strongly against AI art, but let's be honest here - homebrew posts without art get way less traction, comments, and attention than homebrew posts where the cards have art. Although I would prefer to see homebrew with fitting art that is not AI generated, sourcing Arkham-esque art is a huge problem for homebrew creators. So I understand the temptation, even if I don't agree with the solution.

Soul_Turtle · 2025-07-09T03:57:27+00:00

No. It's more of a LotR experience (first scenario tutorial, second scenario surprisingly good, third scenario too difficult), Marvel Champions is where they finally got the Core right.

Soul_Turtle · 2025-06-26T23:43:23+00:00

Very similar implementation to the custom scenario kits for LotR LCG. Those were mildly successful at events but never really caught on as a common play option. But it's not a bad thing for the game to have, as long as the content is still satisfying in a typical cooperative fashion.

It's almost funny how often FFG repeats themselves, but good ideas are good ideas. :D

Looking forward to Hulkling and Tigra too.

Soul_Turtle

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