Ok, now we are done gushing about all the new stuff, (innsmouth is very cool) lets talk about some strategy. How do we use these characters to their fullest? How do they rate to the other older investigators? How do we fight the old ones? How best to control the innsmouth board? It seems Innsmouth is more about the AO's then the investigators ( no items for us instead the AO's get cards.) so how do we fight back? How are the new heralds affecting combat? ( i think its kind of lame they made them both cthulhu heralds, one is fine but both? come on FF!! ) How do the new AO's rate compared to the old (no pun) ones? I think some of the new characters outdate the old characters ( violinist vs. scientist, urchin vs. bootlegger, waitress vs. magician). What do you all think?

pittplayer said:

Have you been reading the personal stories cards? How can you even compare the Waitress vs. Dexter? One has spell power bonuses and can reroll spell checks, the other doesn't lose sanity for spells and can search for spells quicker. I don't see how Wendy and the Bootlegger, or Kate and the Violinist are even comparable. And the violinist is arguably the best character in the game now.

The investigators got a major boost (well, sometimes). The personal stories shore up alot of the original characters who had serious balance problems and were relatively backwards compared to some of the DH and Kingsport investigators. They also further personalized some of the characters who were previously somewhat lacking in character (or power).

One thing I noticed about the new investigators is alot of them seem to be low on cash. I'm quite fond of several of them, and I think that with the exception of the Violinist, none are *too* overpowered (although quite a few of them are powerful).

pittplayer said:

Good Lord, man, has your Sanity dropped to zero?!? Innsmouth just came out last FRIDAY! You really think four days with it is enough to answer any of your questions, let alone all of them? We need time to expererience and think about the expansion before we can offer any insights of worth. Ask again in a few weeks; by then we should have at least a little to go on. Right now all I can say for sure is trust no one! Two games so far, and both times one of my Investigators succumbed to the Innsmouth Look.

a little stratetgy:

I think 4 investigators

Urchin

Bootlegger

Violinist

Astronomer

Send the two sneaks into innsmouth

Have the violinist gather all kinds of clues

Sneaks shut down innsmouth

Astro shuts gates down in arkham and keeps monsters in check.

Send bootlegger back into arkham

Have him get weapons for the others

Seal gates!

Win.

I just bought game never played but i can come up with ideas, i dont think it will take weeks and i am sure i will have better ideas when i play it more but i come to the boards to read good ideas, i really like reading stratetgy. ( and i am a long time AH player so i am indeed insane!)

The best strategy that I can think of is....

pray.

There are many theoretical combos that will be broken. One that comes to mind is Akachi + Leo + Patrice. But "UBER INVESTIGATOR COMBOS" aren't what I call strategy, since many times we pick either randomly or through "I wanna try this one today."

On to real strategy. Innsmouth provides a threat, but it's a very different threat from say Dunwich or Kingsport. Dunwich's threat is constantly present as it's dependant on when monsters show up. Kingsport threat is sporadic depending on what monster movement symbols show up. Innsmouth is both constantly present and sporadic. Monsters may emerge through portals...but sealing is probably what's going to trigger the track on a more regular basis. It might be tempting to "prime the track" but I don't really think that's necessary until about halfway through the game. Statistically speaking, you're more likely to draw gates elsewhere and seals in the first half of the game don't really exist. (Say up until about 3 seals). Unfortunately, the longer you wait, the more problems come with Innsmouth as Martial Law makes traveling a hassle. However, any decent Sneak character should be able to handle things just fine.

This however changes if a gate opens in Innsmouth. Like Dunwich, Monster Surge and Innsmouth DO NOT MIX!

So in terms of the new board, yes it's a threat...however I think you don't want to invest too heavily into countering it until it actually manifests, considering the relatively heavy cost of dealing with it.

Secondly...DO NOT BE AFRAID TO GET INVESTIGATORS DEVOURED! With so many instant devour monsters/mechanics...as well as mooks as Tommy and Silas running around, it seems that investigators themselves are turning into a resource. Push them as far as they will go...some might make it to the end of the game, others may not. But I'm growing less attached to the investigators. Plus it's great thematically to watch a bunch of heroes sacrifice themselves in a futile attempt to stop Cthulhu from eating the town....and then the town getting eaten.

That's what I got so far.

Yes. I sacrifice them in an "attempt" to prevent Cthulhu from awakening. Yes. That's why I do it. :'D

Hmm, would I be correct in assuming that Atlach-Nacha + IH = Deep One Track only gets tokens from actual monsters hitting Vortices? Are there any encounters/Mythos cards that add them? Hypothetical for me of course , but just curious.

Dam said:

Dagon and Hydra add them also.

A variation on some Atlach-Nacha strategies might work. If you leave some of your "hotter" Arkham Locations with open gates, any surges don't add to the Deep One Rising Track OR the Martial-Law-inducing Doom Track. This requires heavy combat, but I think we're all used to that. If you can manage to seal Innsmouth Gates and the "colder" Arkham Locations first, you should have a slightly easier time lurking around Innsmouth and keeping the Deep Ones underwater.

The Gilman Hotel is not a bad place to gamble a safe encounter. (As in Walter Gilman? The poor schlub "hero" from "Dreams in the Witch House"?)

And I agree with the devourings: the Investigators themselves are now a disposable resource. "Take the Nun! TAKE THE NUN!!!"

jgt7771 said:

Wait? What? Mary leveled up. She's awesome now (tier two).

Dam said:

There are encounters that add to the Deep One track. Also, if you draw the card that turns you into a deep one from the Innsmouth deck, a token is added to the track.

That's what happened to my investigator on her first encounter of our first game with IH.

Avi_dreader said:

Sorry, I don't read ahead. But I suppose that was rude of me to assume the past of Mary (I remember what happened to Yig after months of "the Littlest GOO").

So...give me a name. Who's on the bottom now?

jgt7771 said:

I'm not sure... Vincent's new mission's still left him fairly shafted ;')

Amanda hasn't improved much either.

playing this weekend hope to have some strat for you all!

I believe that sealing Devil´s Reef is a priority. Leaving a gate open there is a gret risk to a quick Uprising, specially if a Monster Surge occurs there.

Ursula the explorer is helpful. Start her in innsmouth, and drop all her clues, then get her out of there and onto something else.

Question: if you start Ursula on an unstable location, does she get the clue?

What if the first gate to open is Devil Reef? Would you use Ursula to seal it right away (starting her in Y'ha-nthlei) or would you have her put four or five clues in the FRI track?

dj2.0 said:

I think this is in the FAQ questions. When the FAQ comes out is another matter . So far I haven't started her in an unstable location, mostly started her on a street, but I wouldn't give her the Clue. Unless FAQ'd of course.

dj2.0 said:

Kate starts in the Science Building and she gets the clue there, so does that imply that Ursula gets the clue from the unstable location if she were to start at one?

It says on Kate's sheet not to put a clue token there. As for Ursula, she's an explorer (and a much better one than Monty at that) so I see no reason she can't start wherever she wants, especially when her sheet says ANY location. Thematically you could go either way with clues but I just have her stay a turn to pick 'em up,

Gatha said:

Yes, when I said Kate gets the token, I mean one of the two she starts with is a replacement for the one that would be on the Science Building..just to make that clear

Thanks