Hey, all.

I have been playing with Kingsport for a few months now (or at least all components other than the board itself ) and have been using the epic battle in all games since the purchase. However whenever the Ancient One wakes up and the epic battle happens, so far (and we play a lot) we have never used the red epic battle cards. We either win or are all devoured (Darn you Glaaki!) befour the green run out.

Has anyone else heve this happen? Is anyone getting into the red?

We do get to red once in a while, usually when neither side is far better than the other (it's never that we're FAR better than the AO though). I think the frequency at which we actually see the red cards is appropriate—the situation gets more dire and risky the longer you survive, if you stood a chance to win in the first place.

We always play with Epic Battle, and we very rarely get into the red. Usually it's all over well before then.

The red cards have to take a while to get to, because one of them just kills everyone. I think it's quite a clever game mechanic; it is incredibly suspenseful once you get to the red cards, since you don't know how long you've got left, but on the other hand only a few unusual games will actually end that way.

There are 8+8 EB cards right? Greens on top, you draw 1 each turn. So with no hanky-panky, you should see the first Red on the 9th turn of the final combat? Man, that sounds WAY longer than most combats take (or should take).

Dam said:

I think the red cards are a CYA for mistakes where the combination of investigators and AO end up in a stalement or automatic victory for the investigators. Nothing stops an outright devourment.

We too have never gotten into the red cards normally. I do have a house rule that can bring in the red cards earlier, so we've had the pleasure of sudden devourment. You don't know what you're missing.

mageith said:

That's what a friend of mine keeps telling me about alcohol .

Dam said:

It's about the same. Both will devour you.

mageith said:

What is the house rule? Sounds like soemthing I'd like to try...

Phibby said:

I do it through my little newspaper, the Arkham Advertiser. Many of the otherworldly investigators (Luke's Ledger, Gloria's Gory Details, Jacqueline's Jottings, etc.) write a column on the Opinion Page that the strength of the Old One's is getting stronger. That means that if an Epic Battle comes about we roll 1 dice, per report. If if any of the dice are a 1, then we use a red epic card instead of a green card. We've had up to four and that time every card was a red card. Usually we have no more than 1 and then often its of little or no effect.

To get the same ratio as I have, you could roll a two dice for each doom token. On a 2 or 3, you'll have to roll for a red card. If you like to live (die?) more on the edge, you can use any ratio you want.

Yes, you could be devoured on the first turn. Hasn't happened.

I use it to encourage the players NOT to go for the final battle. I have one member who always wants to fight the Old One. In fact, we've gone to fighting IT for the fun? when he plays of it even if we've sealed IT off.

mageith said:

We do that too, with a few exceptions. Whenever we win by seal, we declare victory, then if we have time we fight the Old One just to see how we would have done. It sometimes goes well...sometimes.

Phibby said:

Is that kinda like:

"They mostly come out at night. Mostly."

I made an Aliens referance...without noticing it. Maybe I watch too many movies.

It really depends on what GOOs your fight often. Certain GOOs (like Glaaki, Shudde, Cthulhu) are actually impossible to get into red (which a few very, very, rare occasions being the exceptions). With certain GOOs, its almost guaranteed that you won't make it out of the Green, but win (like Ithaqua). To get into the Reds you need to be suitable prepared for battle and against a GOO whose attack makes it likely you will stay around for a while. Off the top of my head, the only GOOs my group has ever fought that resulted in a victory in the red cards were Nyarlathotep and Shubb.

My group still hasn't seen all the Red epic battle cards (at least, we don't think so. We don't allow anyone to go through the sinister plots or the epic battle cards, so there is always an element of surprise).

Acebob said:

Harsh. I've went through all the plot and epic cards as soon as I bought Kingsport. I actually went through anything as soon as I'm buying an expansions. Items, monsters, etc. Only thing I don't go through are mythos, locations, and gates. I'm pretty sure there are some of these cards from the base game I haven't seen yet. Always fun to be surprised by encounters. Makes every game different. But I simply had to read the epic/plot cards to know what I'm up against.

kroen said:

I don't do that at all, so that everything is a surprise. I have no idea what most of the red epic battles and sinister plot cards are. Why would you want to know what you were up against...?

So I can prepare...? Epic Battle is too hard as it is. No reason of making it harder.

kroen said:

Well that's the thing. I don't consider not knowing what the cards are as "harder," but as "normal," ya know?

I'm just one of those guys who likes surprises. You bet your butt I'm going to mix EVERYTHING in without looking at it when I get Innsmouth

Uh except the heralds. I need to scan those and print them so they can have a "neutral back" like all my others.