Time to face Ithaqua's chilly winds and see whether the winter had cometh or not. Not an easy task: only 11 slots on the doom track, and with the Black Goat Herald as doom accelerator (+1 doom on surge) I knew I had to be quick. The party was *awesome*: Joe, Silas, Wendy, Ashcan and Wilson. Wilson is kinda meh, mostly for his PS (you lose all his clues when doom hits 6, so that he is no good gate sealer), but having Silas implies you need to seal 5 in stead of 6 gates to win (aye, the guy's doom is more or less always decided in my games), Wendy starts with an Elder Sign and 3 clues, Joe and Ashcan have 3 clues each too, so, we're good on resources. The only thing needed is some sort of good coordination among the investigators and that the Mythos deck is not too harsh on you.

Needless to say, the first three gate opening were: Woods, Witch House, Independence Square. 3 high freq locations opened immediately, making the advent of the first surge inevitable. What was Mythos n.5 you asked? Wizard Hill, the high freq in Dunwich. Oh, boy, what a pain.

The game was the classic game where the board is listening and ready to hit you with all its malevolence. When I had 1 seal on the board, the doom track was at 8. Then, Wendy used her ES, Barnabas Marsh was killed and doom retreated by 2. Not enough to win, clearly, not even with Ashcan sealing Kadath after a triple delay while OWing. Sealer Joe went to the Black Cave, strong of the three clues that lied there and his Press Pass (clearly, he had zero clues at the moment), but stomped into a pit and fell into Another Time (a gentle encounter instructing you to reshuffle the just drawn gate), so that he spent two rounds in Another Time only to go LiTaS. Ashcan was given the opportunity to take a ruby while in the OWs, and then choose a UI of his choice and lose 3 San: going insane it's a fair price for an Elder Sign. The idea was having him returning to Arkham after LiTaS to pass it the ES to someone, in order to virtually lengthen the doom track of the AO. Not working either: by the time he returned to Arkham, no one was in an eligible place for him to reach; he tried to go on a gate to meet Silas returning, but monsters there sent him to the Asylum (after the most incredible bad luck ever had while resolving horror checks); from the Asylum he had to go to the Train Station and hope for the right encounter (too crowded the board with monsters) but sadly no good luck; Wilson was there as well and guess what? A Mythos card popped out, forcing those who had 2 or less Stamina or an Injury to move to the Dreamlands. Both Ashcan and Wilson were forced there, with the idea of suffering a LiTaS destiny. In the meantime, a rift opened.

Nonetheless, with three seals on the board, I had Wendy entering a gate in Dunwich (unwanted: she had only four clues, but gaining one while in the OW could have been possible - needless to say, it was the Another Time gate Joe wanted so bad) and Silas closing the fourth gate. So that, with Wendy possibly going for the 5th seal, I just needed Silas grabbing two more clues (easy peasy, cash the gate trophy at the Science Building and you're served) and suicide to seal the sixth.

Mythos: the Witch House seal bursted under Silas' bum, and at the same time the second rift opened. ARGH.

Still, I could have done that: 3 seals remaining on the board, but Wendy just gained 2 clues more thanks to the "lose 2 San and gain 2 clues" corruption card that was activated by the last Mythos; if only Ashcan were able to retunr to Silas with the Elder Sign it would have meant 5 on the board, one round more to kill Silas for the 6th. Joe went to the South Church, fearing the worst was about to happen and started blessing people by spending his few monster trophies.

Next Mythos: Strange Sightings. +1 doom for open rift moving according to the proper symbol / color pattern, +1 doom for resolving the surge, doom track at 10.

Silas returning on the Unnamable, Ashcan returning from LiTaS, ES exchanged, +1 seal, -1 doom (9). Some more space for hope. Wendy returned and started squatting on the explorer marker: I didn't want to blow the clues if Final Battle was about to start.

Next Mythos: Paazoologist visits Miskatonic University, bursting the seal at the Woods and activating everything, including an open rift who added the 10th doomer (again).

Joe dived into Kadath, in a desperate attempt to draw some lucky cards and return soonish to Arkham, but nothing to do at this point: the next Mythos saw the inevitable, and we went into Final Battle, with 2 investigtors Blessed (Joe and Wendy), one Cursed (Wilson), countless corruptions (we went through the deck up to pull the Red Ones) and only one goal: explain the bad guy something about global warming and sent him back to his frozen reign.

Start of battle: Joe managed to keep his shotgun (gently rented by Wilson some turns before the end) and you know, 11-clue Joe Diamond with a shotgun is the reason why some AOs are now compared to forms of Emmental cheese: Ithaqua tried his best, killing Wendy and Pete but in the end the other three investigators were able to send him back into his frozen wastes and save Arkham one more time.

Victory by Final Battle in 17 Mythos

Julia do you ever consider doing a youtube on your sessions? I know there are some out there, and I'm watching them on and off in between 'working from home' but even if someone as knowledgeable as you did 3 or 4 half hour 'basics of the game' or 'things to watch out for' they could prove worth their weight in gold.

Even show how you play through a sample 3 or 4 turns and show your thought process would be a huge insight for us solo noobs?

The way you describe your sessions they come alive, like mini books instead of 'roll a dice, now do a skill check, now look at page 5 table 3'....

Thanks again

I have considered doing that, but it'd be rather time demanding and I don't know really if I can handle doing that as well (time is a major constraint; I had a 45 days of "Arkham madness" lately, but I know it won't last, too many games to work on, too many other stuff to organize).

I can suggest to give a look at my blog (it's actually a GeekList, but I use it like a blog to talk in-depth about many games, not only FFG ones - you could be interested in it, since there's quite a long section about basic Lord of the Rings LCG).

And finally, it's an offer I always make (but so far no one actually accepted): start a game. Post on the forum some details (who are you playing with, the equipment you have, the setting of the board, the first Mythos) and let's have a talk about strategy. You say "I'll do that" and I'll try to help. Clearly, this requires some time, and possibly leaving the game open for a couple of days, but it'd be like playing together I think it's better than watching a tutorial because in stead of following the adventure of someone else, you're forced to reason on strategy yourself. It doesn't need to actually be a real game: just a hypothetical one, like "I have these three guys here with these items. What can we do?"