In the case with Mandy, her ability seems fair on paper. Once per turn seems totally fair. In practice it just seems to be completely awesome. Starting with 4 clues isn't bad either. Now, with Epic Battle and harder AOs, winning final combat isn't affected largely by Mandy's ability anymore, so it may now be considered fair. I'll bet if she was released in Kingsport or Innsmouth, nobody would make as big a deal about her.

Though I still wonder why they gave Joe Diamond a bonus focus point. His ability is very good; certainly not underpowered in any way. Maybe the designers considered clue spending for skill checks to be "last ditch" and something the investigators would really, really prefer not to do in lieu of using those same clues to seal gates. But sometimes, killing a big monster is its own reward

As soon as Daisy and her ability were revealed, I and many other forum members immediately recognized the problem. This is where I started wondering if the expansions were thoroughly tested. If her "reduce spell cost" was limited to one use per round, and maybe you couldn't both use it AND the tome ability in the same round, she would be fair. A free shrivelling is something to reckon with; TWO free Shrivellings is totally absurd. Nevermind that she can take ANY SPELL of her choice using her book, and she doesn't even lose two sanity for it! Though certain other 1-sanity spells like Arcane Insight and Alchemical Process are still exploitable.

When I read Patrice I almost cried. There appears to have been no thorough playtesting of this character. One clue per opening gate? Good. 5 clues when the doom track hits 9? Pushing it--but still good. Investigators can spend her clues?? I realize that that is her principal ability, but HOLD ON.

As long as she's accumulating clues for doing nothing, investigators can all enter gates and not worry too much about dipping below 5, because they can still spend her clues to seal! She will have a boatload of clues by the end of the game, and she NEVER even has to enter a gate! Now, if she had the "one clue per gate" OR "five clues at doom-9" and investigators could only spend clues to add to skill checks and not towards sealing gates, Patrice would be a well-rounded, fair character. You may have noticed in my last stats report that the majority of the Innsmouth investigators are clustered towards the middle-bottom of the list of "investigator usefulness," while Patrice is way the hell up in 3rd place, after only a month of Innsmouth submissions. This is no coincidence.

I understand that Kingsport and Innsmouth have some of the hardest AOs. That's fine. AOs can be of varying strength. But stronger invesigators to "make up" for the stronger AOs is not cool. All investigators should be equal.

The Personal Story cards had the potential to retroactively "fix" certain investigators: Mary's PS definitely makes up for her overall shortfalls; Mandy's PS is very, very hard to pass. Wendy's and Daisy's PS failure condition restricts them from being as strong as they're used to being. But Patrice is still a killer and Vincent isn't given any real boost by his PS.

Furthermore, I'm a little disappointed that Tulzscha is fundamentally incompatible with Abhoth and Rhan-Tegoth, but I've come up with simple solutions for that. And Rhan-Tegoth needed clarification so that Michael McGlen wasn't immune to his attack. AND now there appears to be an issue with Roland Banks being immune to Nyarlathotep. Nevermind the old Lily Chen issue with Yig. Epic Battle should not be the ultimate solution for these problems.

The entire Black Goat expansion seemed even less playtested and more full of exploits and vagueness than Kingsport; I was afraid Arkham expansions were going to go downhill. Call Ancient One + Ancient Language + Crystal of the Elder Things is still a combination that irks me (mostly CAO's fault though). Good thing Innsmouth is generally awesome (albeit unreasonably hard!).

I understand that FFG likes to keep a lot of new stuff in upcoming expansions a secret, and it really works well to generate hype and excitement, but there are tons of well-established, obsessive rules-lawyer-nerds on the forums who retain and remember important quirks in each of the expansions that should be tapped as a resource to catch certain inconsistencies. I implore FFG to bounce me a mail if they need an extra set of eyes to look over intricacies. (HINT HINT)

Love ya to death, Tibs...

In the case with Mandy, her ability seems fair on paper. Once per turn seems totally fair. In practice it just seems to be completely awesome. Starting with 4 clues isn't bad either. Now, with Epic Battle and harder AOs, winning final combat isn't affected largely by Mandy's ability anymore, so it may now be considered fair. I'll bet if she was released in Kingsport or Innsmouth, nobody would make as big a deal about her.

I wonder what is the statistical improvement that Mandy brings over time. It's a powerful reroll to be sure, but which reroll, which phase, how many dice? Over time, Mandy's assist fails just as much as it succeeds. The only thing that makes Mandy so awesome is our overhyped collective impression of her. And "shotgunning Clues" or any other strategy that depends on Mandy to pound an AO cannot be done without complete awareness of what is being done...and those people have their own consciences.

Though I still wonder why they gave Joe Diamond a bonus focus point. His ability is very good; certainly not underpowered in any way. Maybe the designers considered clue spending for skill checks to be "last ditch" and something the investigators would really, really prefer not to do in lieu of using those same clues to seal gates. But sometimes, killing a big monster is its own reward

I'm not sure if this is a beef or not. Joe has crappy lower stats. If you take away 1 of his Focus and add it to his Will...you get Rita. Joe has the same overhyped collection perception...and "shotgunning Clues" still applies here.

As soon as Daisy and her ability were revealed, I and many other forum members immediately recognized the problem. This is where I started wondering if the expansions were thoroughly tested. If her "reduce spell cost" was limited to one use per round, and maybe you couldn't both use it AND the tome ability in the same round, she would be fair. A free shrivelling is something to reckon with; TWO free Shrivellings is totally absurd. Nevermind that she can take ANY SPELL of her choice using her book, and she doesn't even lose two sanity for it! Though certain other 1-sanity spells like Arcane Insight and Alchemical Process are still exploitable.

A good chunk of this is Backwards Compatibility. Storm of Spirits and Arcane Insight are KY, Alchemical Process is DH. Does FFG playtest all expansions together? I don't think so either. She can only use the Livre d'Ivon once (Scroungers know precisely what they're doing). I'm not saying Daisy isn't a great Investigator, but my experience differs so greatly from those who claim "broken". So what am I not doing with my exact copy of Daisy that they are?

When I read Patrice I almost cried. There appears to have been no thorough playtesting of this character. One clue per opening gate? Good. 5 clues when the doom track hits 9? Pushing it--but still good. Investigators can spend her clues?? I realize that that is her principal ability, but HOLD ON.

As long as she's accumulating clues for doing nothing, investigators can all enter gates and not worry too much about dipping below 5, because they can still spend her clues to seal! She will have a boatload of clues by the end of the game, and she NEVER even has to enter a gate! Now, if she had the "one clue per gate" OR "five clues at doom-9" and investigators could only spend clues to add to skill checks and not towards sealing gates, Patrice would be a well-rounded, fair character. You may have noticed in my last stats report that the majority of the Innsmouth investigators are clustered towards the middle-bottom of the list of "investigator usefulness," while Patrice is way the hell up in 3rd place, after only a month of Innsmouth submissions. This is no coincidence.

I would like to know how many PLAYERS were in those Investigator games that jacked Patrice so high. I once had Dexter, the Necronomicon, and a Healing Stone locked up in the Asylum for almost an entire game, finding all the best Spells for everyone else. Do these ranking games involve three players telling the fourth that her job is to find Clues for them and stay out of trouble, or is it one player who just sits one of his "tools" out of the action in order to win a game of solitaire? Again, not saying Patrice isn't powerful, but I'm once again failing to match up to such an experience with her.

I understand that Kingsport and Innsmouth have some of the hardest AOs. That's fine. AOs can be of varying strength. But stronger invesigators to "make up" for the stronger AOs is not cool. All investigators should be equal.

I don't know what to say to that. I think you're not being fair with such a forceful blanket opinion.

The Personal Story cards had the potential to retroactively "fix" certain investigators: Mary's PS definitely makes up for her overall shortfalls; Mandy's PS is very, very hard to pass. Wendy's and Daisy's PS failure condition restricts them from being as strong as they're used to being. But Patrice is still a killer and Vincent isn't given any real boost by his PS.

I don't really have a defense here, except to say that the Personal Stories are trying to continue the theme on the back, not the stats on the front. Again, I think it's a little unfair to be using the PS mechanic as either angel's wings or a bat to the kneecaps in order to fulfill your version of balance.

Furthermore, I'm a little disappointed that Tulzscha is fundamentally incompatible with Abhoth and Rhan-Tegoth, but I've come up with simple solutions for that. And Rhan-Tegoth needed clarification so that Michael McGlen wasn't immune to his attack. AND now there appears to be an issue with Roland Banks being immune to Nyarlathotep. Nevermind the old Lily Chen issue with Yig. Epic Battle should not be the ultimate solution for these problems.

Technically, most of this is Backwards Compatibility, FFG's greatest failure. Frankly, I think Epic Battle is precisely the ultimate solution for these, because anything else involves reprinting a AO or Investigator sheet that is excellent under most conditions. (And this from a guy who has to eat a hard-fought victory against Rhan-Tegoth because of Michael, who wasn't even THERE!!!)

The entire Black Goat expansion seemed even less playtested and more full of exploits and vagueness than Kingsport; I was afraid Arkham expansions were going to go downhill. Call Ancient One + Ancient Language + Crystal of the Elder Things is still a combination that irks me (mostly CAO's fault though). Good thing Innsmouth is generally awesome (albeit unreasonably hard!).

No defense for Black Goat, a collection of great cards that just do not work well together. BG only works when selectively mixed with other expansions, or with the most brutal Herald available. I do not believe that wacky combination is possible, but interpretation without FAQ is in the eye of the beholder. I delight in the Innsmouth characterization of "unreasonably hard": is this not what we've all been asking for? With all the exploits and slides and cheats, and all the gripes and whines and pouts, FFG finally worked up something that, when played absolutely by the manual, and even with dozens of extra untested cards, will still kick our collective butts. Innsmouth is untouchable by the "lawyers", and I am both shocked and impressed that FFG pulled it off.

I understand that FFG likes to keep a lot of new stuff in upcoming expansions a secret, and it really works well to generate hype and excitement, but there are tons of well-established, obsessive rules-lawyer-nerds on the forums who retain and remember important quirks in each of the expansions that should be tapped as a resource to catch certain inconsistencies. I implore FFG to bounce me a mail if they need an extra set of eyes to look over intricacies. (HINT HINT)

Tibs, as one of the experts in such universal-mixing matters, you have my second. Don't let up until they let you proofread the squirming life out of Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, because Nyarlathotep deserves no less.

jgt7771 said:

I have to say I'm with Tibs on almost all of this discussion.

Mandy is like having 2-4 re-rolling clue tokens each turn. In my evaluation of characters, the good ones return about 2 points per turn every turn. 2 points is equal to a clue, stamina or sanity. Or they return a gate per game--Either sealing one or taking away a doom token. All characters don't fall easily under this, but many do. Mandy returns up to 4 clues per turn--but only the re-roll portion. Patrice returns two full clues per turn and to anyone who needs them. She's probably twice as good as Mandy, who's twice as good as nearly anyone else in the base game. Daisy, if you pick the right spells can be and do anything she wants. My favorite combo is Summon Shantauk. With that she'll easily seal three gates in a four player game and probably have her original Sanity intact unless a colour out of space is in the game.

At least with Daisy and Wendy (the fourth angel), their awesome abilities weren't completely self-evident. I've seen plenty of players waste their attributes on petty missions. Mandy and Patrice's ability are so self-evident, that doesn't really happen.

On the other end, Vincent is lucky to return 5 stamina tokens per game and usually none to anyone else. Until Dexter was fixed, he'd come up with maybe two spell choices (not actual spells). Later on with free casting spells, he's sometimes viable and now that he's more than fixed with his personal story, he even contributes most of the time.

Mandy's re-rolls may not always work but they work as much as 4 dice or so of re-rolls would work, which is most of the time.

Backwards compatibility is a failure, but it might really be failure on the player's parts, not FFG. There's really no recommendation that all or more than one expansion be played at the same time. Neither is there a warning against it, which is FFG's failure, IMO. I don't think FFG probably expected AH to be so popular and so weren't so worried about safeguarding the balance of the game for prying minds. It's not like AH is a tournament game or anything anyway. The game belongs the players and they can make any modifications they want to make the game more fun and or realistic or balanced and believe me, I do.

Ooh. I love debate and discussion.

I wonder what is the statistical improvement that Mandy brings over time. It's a powerful reroll to be sure, but which reroll, which phase, how many dice? Over time, Mandy's assist fails just as much as it succeeds. The only thing that makes Mandy so awesome is our overhyped collective impression of her. And "shotgunning Clues" or any other strategy that depends on Mandy to pound an AO cannot be done without complete awareness of what is being done...and those people have their own consciences.

Basically, fighting is what's so great about her ability. It allows an investigator to re-roll all failed dice, not merely all dice... and what's that good for? Checks that require multiple successes--that is, tougher monsters. Mandy's been #1 on the stats site for some time now, and it can't all be because of hype.

I'm not sure if this is a beef or not. Joe has crappy lower stats. If you take away 1 of his Focus and add it to his Will...you get Rita. Joe has the same overhyped collection perception...and "shotgunning Clues" still applies here.

Well, Rita has a bonus point, but deserves it. Her ability only comes into play if she gets messed up; kind of a contingency plan ability. I can see why they threw a bonus on her. Joe, however, has average stats overall. Even though he is below average in (I think) three stats, he is good in the others. Aside from Amanda, he's the only character in the base game with a bonus stat point. Amanda needed hers because her ability is used only rarely. Joe's is used pretty commonly.

A good chunk of this is Backwards Compatibility. Storm of Spirits and Arcane Insight are KY, Alchemical Process is DH. Does FFG playtest all expansions together? I don't think so either. She can only use the Livre d'Ivon once (Scroungers know precisely what they're doing). I'm not saying Daisy isn't a great Investigator, but my experience differs so greatly from those who claim "broken". So what am I not doing with my exact copy of Daisy that they are?

Honestly I'm less concerned about her access to every spell than I am her reduced spell cost. One reduction per turn would be fair, to avoid free double-Shrivelling. Even Arcane Insight and Alchemical Process fail to cast from time to time.

I would like to know how many PLAYERS were in those Investigator games that jacked Patrice so high. I once had Dexter, the Necronomicon, and a Healing Stone locked up in the Asylum for almost an entire game, finding all the best Spells for everyone else. Do these ranking games involve three players telling the fourth that her job is to find Clues for them and stay out of trouble, or is it one player who just sits one of his "tools" out of the action in order to win a game of solitaire? Again, not saying Patrice isn't powerful, but I'm once again failing to match up to such an experience with her.

Not sure. But the only times I've run out of clues is with Patrice, and though she has by far most of them, she never needs to go into a gate. There's just something wrong about that. Whenever I see her used, the game is mostly a cakewalk.

I don't know what to say to that. I think you're not being fair with such a forceful blanket opinion.

Okay. Well I never bothered to learn the names of all the logical fallacies, and there probably was one in there somewhere, but I admit it is my opinion that KH and IH have generally the hardest AOs. When someone says to me "broken investigator" my mind speeds to Patrice and then to Daisy, who are from IH/KH. I kind of feel like the designers knew that the new AOs were hard and might have just pushed character creation a bit too far.

I don't really have a defense here, except to say that the Personal Stories are trying to continue the theme on the back, not the stats on the front. Again, I think it's a little unfair to be using the PS mechanic as either angel's wings or a bat to the kneecaps in order to fulfill your version of balance.

See I'm a math guy. I really thrive on stats, math, numbers, and (most of all) balance. The characters in the base game managed to have the distribution of all their stats perfectly balanced. The only real issues were the imbalance of males/females and Joe's extra mystery point. It was just kind of sad to see the expansion characters stray away from that balance (IH made the male/female thing worse! ha..). I'm actually working on a set of 16 characters designed to "patch up" these stats holes, including the Male/Female thing. I can live without them, but the slight lack of perfection from a game that seemed to care enough to maintain statistical balance on their investigators just hurts a little.

Technically, most of this is Backwards Compatibility, FFG's greatest failure. Frankly, I think Epic Battle is precisely the ultimate solution for these, because anything else involves reprinting a AO or Investigator sheet that is excellent under most conditions. (And this from a guy who has to eat a hard-fought victory against Rhan-Tegoth because of Michael, who wasn't even THERE!!!)

Epic Battle shouldn't HAVE to be, though. Not everyone has Kingsport. You can certainly choose not to use EB if you do. All three of the "immunity" scenarios involved a component from the base game. I know that it's impractical for the designers to think of EVERY situation between all the expansions, but these were base game related. It's all right if the designer uses a FAQ to fix up these issues later but it would be nice if the issues were never there.

No defense for Black Goat, a collection of great cards that just do not work well together. BG only works when selectively mixed with other expansions, or with the most brutal Herald available. I do not believe that wacky combination is possible, but interpretation without FAQ is in the eye of the beholder. I delight in the Innsmouth characterization of "unreasonably hard": is this not what we've all been asking for? With all the exploits and slides and cheats, and all the gripes and whines and pouts, FFG finally worked up something that, when played absolutely by the manual, and even with dozens of extra untested cards, will still kick our collective butts. Innsmouth is untouchable by the "lawyers", and I am both shocked and impressed that FFG pulled it off.

When I say "unreasonably" I mean "so much more difficult than previous expansions," and that's certainly not a complaint. Maybe I should have said "dauntingly" difficult. I'm not sure though what you mean by the "untouchable by lawyers" part, because there have been inconsistencies and FAQ-related issues. But the expansion is definitely very solid.

Tibs, as one of the experts in such universal-mixing matters, you have my second. Don't let up until they let you proofread the squirming life out of Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, because Nyarlathotep deserves no less.

Check my sig, brah!

I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't address all the issues. After all, a FAQ does have to be neat and readable. A doctorate thesis on the oddities of Dark Pharaoh probably won't be the direction of the upcoming FAQ. Nonetheless, I really look forward to it.

Poor Nyarlathotep. It may take a while before his awesome Sinister Plots begin to bump him up from last place.

Basically, fighting is what's so great about her ability. It allows an investigator to re-roll all failed dice, not merely all dice... and what's that good for? Checks that require multiple successes--that is, tougher monsters. Mandy's been #1 on the stats site for some time now, and it can't all be because of hype.

I get that, and you have a point. But sometimes the fighter can handle things all by themselves, and then Mandy doesn't have to do anything that turn. Yes, any team with Mandy on it is going to tend to be braver than a team without her, but faith does not affect dice rolls. Our memories tend to blot out all the times Mandy didn't work, and only focus on the times she does. (Like anyone is going to ever forget the first time the Joe/Mandy combo vaporized Yig. That was a watershed moment.) As for #1...of course it's not ALL hype, but when I said "our" memories, I meant EVERY AH player. Your stat sheet is based on reports from players who have all encountered the Mandy Hype Cloud. She was the "best" Investigator until Daisy and Wendy diverted the grognards. That's Marketing 101: repeat something often enough, and it sinks in, whether the brain consciously believes it or not. Mandy is absolutely a great Investigator, but it is our collective belief in her that makes her that goddess.

Well, Rita has a bonus point, but deserves it. Her ability only comes into play if she gets messed up; kind of a contingency plan ability. I can see why they threw a bonus on her. Joe, however, has average stats overall. Even though he is below average in (I think) three stats, he is good in the others. Aside from Amanda, he's the only character in the base game with a bonus stat point. Amanda needed hers because her ability is used only rarely. Joe's is used pretty commonly.

Just in case that bonus point is like a burr under your mathematics, I will repeat what Squashua said in his Reverse-Engineering Investigator Creation Document (that was quickly lost to memory after the much prettier Strange Aeons came out): Joe was the only Investigator whose lower four stats (the "Combat" ones) add up to 8 or less. (And this remained true for two years until Finn appeared.) Stat-wise, Joe is a MOVEMENT character, and they probably did it that way because they started him with a great gun and a great ability. Back when there were only 16 Investigators, I bet Kevin probably thought Joe was gonna go insane a lot more than even Michael, and tossed him the extra Focus Point. (And for anyone else who doesn't know, Amanda gets her extra Focus point by being the only one of the base 16 that has no Stat higher than 4.)

The other part of this is again that collective memory thing. On average, no one remember the time Joe blew all his dice. No one remembers the times Joe had no Clues and blew a Horror Check. But everyone remembers Joe vs. Yig. Or Joe vs. the Dunwich Horror. It's just how the human brain works. Joe is awesome because we take his great ability and we blow it up into fantasmic.

Honestly I'm less concerned about her access to every spell than I am her reduced spell cost. One reduction per turn would be fair, to avoid free double-Shrivelling. Even Arcane Insight and Alchemical Process fail to cast from time to time.

I suppose you have me on this one. I've never really been able to defend Daisy, because the Spell Deck has too much awesome in it. Even if Daisy is armed with the weird ones, like Call Friend, Foresee, and The Yellow Mist, she can make a difference. If nothing else, I'm glad Daisy made everyone take a second look at Spells. (I wonder what the Spell-crushing Millmaster would have thought of Daisy.)

Not sure. But the only times I've run out of clues is with Patrice, and though she has by far most of them, she never needs to go into a gate. There's just something wrong about that. Whenever I see her used, the game is mostly a cakewalk.

I got nuthin'. My Patrice is just not your Patrice...but I must admit I kinda like the "skill checks only; no gate-seal borrows" patch that's floating around the boards.

See I'm a math guy. I really thrive on stats, math, numbers, and (most of all) balance. The characters in the base game managed to have the distribution of all their stats perfectly balanced. The only real issues were the imbalance of males/females and Joe's extra mystery point. It was just kind of sad to see the expansion characters stray away from that balance (IH made the male/female thing worse! ha..). I'm actually working on a set of 16 characters designed to "patch up" these stats holes, including the Male/Female thing. I can live without them, but the slight lack of perfection from a game that seemed to care enough to maintain statistical balance on their investigators just hurts a little.

If I recall correctly, it wasn't just Joe and Amanda; the expansions break "the old rules" all over the place, don't they? But I understand what you mean. I'm an engineer, and I understand balance. I just don't seem to quite share your particular craving for it, and I wonder if FFG wanders a bit too much into the right side of the brain for you.

But the Male/Female thing? Well, if Arkham Horror has taught us anything, it's that everyone can be OCD about something. Recently, when we were cleaning up the game at Pizza's place, I was directing everything going back into its proper box, all the way down to making sure the Kingsport Cultist and Formless Spawn got back into the Kingsport box. Pizza's girlfriend observed the whole affair, and then commented, "And the people at work think I'M anal-retentive. You should take a picture of your boxes...but you already know where everything goes, don't you?"

Epic Battle shouldn't HAVE to be, though. Not everyone has Kingsport. You can certainly choose not to use EB if you do. All three of the "immunity" scenarios involved a component from the base game. I know that it's impractical for the designers to think of EVERY situation between all the expansions, but these were base game related. It's all right if the designer uses a FAQ to fix up these issues later but it would be nice if the issues were never there.

Agreed. But that's an issue you can't do a whole lot about. You can patch YOUR game, and make suggestions to everyone else, but your real problem is with FFG's Quality Control and Game-Testing. And I have to wonder how thin those guys are stretched now, with the economy in the toilet. What if a tester is playing a different game every day? Unlike us, who play Arkham Horror exclusively for weeks at a time? (Hell, Dam has a SCHEDULE.) Frankly, if FFG got it completely right once, we'd end up burning the materials to powder from the friction burns as we shuffled and shuffled and shuffled looking for that ONE THING THAT WE CAN CHASTISE THEM WITH ON THE BOARDS THE NEXT DAY WHERE IS IT WHERE IS IT WHERE IS IT?!?!?!?!?!?!

This is not to say that I wouldn't dig a hole to China if it would get me an updated FAQ sooner. Rhan-Tegoth still tastes like ashes to me right now...

When I say "unreasonably" I mean "so much more difficult than previous expansions," and that's certainly not a complaint. Maybe I should have said "dauntingly" difficult. I'm not sure though what you mean by the "untouchable by lawyers" part, because there have been inconsistencies and FAQ-related issues. But the expansion is definitely very solid.

Agreed, and I think HPL would like the word "daunting". Uh...I'm not sure WHAT I meant by "untouchable". Let's just chalk that up to "emotional brain burp", and ignore it until it goes away (like Serpent People).

Poor Nyarlathotep. It may take a while before his awesome Sinister Plots begin to bump him up from last place.

Amen! The One that wiped its feet on my character's sanity way back in Masks of Nyarlathotep needs SOMETHING more.

Amen! The One that wiped its feet on my character's sanity way back in Masks of Nyarlathotep needs SOMETHING more.

We use lots of extra Mask monsters, like these. We also give him cultists that work undercover. It makes Nyar much more challenging.

I got nuthin'. My Patrice is just not your Patrice...but I must admit I kinda like the "skill checks only; no gate-seal borrows" patch that's floating around the boards.

[blushes]

jgt7771 said:

It's not a strict schedule as such (at least not with game days planned), more of a guideline. Before getting IH, I mulled over how I was going to play the GOOs (I tend to play a full rotations). So came up with this plan:

2x each IH GOO, no Herald (total # of games 16)

4x each IH GOO, random Herald from the 6 I have (total # 32)

this puts the IH GOOs at 6 games each, where my AH + DH GOOs are.

2x each AH + DH + IH GOO, using those Herald that haven't been used with that GOO yet, so Dagon or Hydra for the AH + DH ones (total # 40)

2x each AH + DH + IH GOO, once with Dagon+Hydra for each GOO, the tenth rotation will fill in any blanks in the GOO + Herald scheme I have left (I got the DH and DP Heralds in the middle of my third rotation) (total # 40)

Which gives me a schedule of sorts for the next 128 games of AH . 13 down, 115 to go.