Played a 2 player game, Joe Diamond and Ashcan Pete, against Yig.

Very tense game, we abandoned hope of sealing and closing after we are delayed a lot of times, so we just decided to prepare for the final combat.

Pete's dog died (in game terms used to recharge sanity) to a monster, so the Ashcan is greatly furious.

Yig, finally, awoke, and our band of heroes face its wrath, since it lost 2 cultists in the hands of Joe Diamond.

Using his shotgun, Joe managed to roll 5 6s in one attack, then proceeded to roll even more 6s in the next rounds, until Yig only has 1 life left.

Then this is where Pete stepped in, shouting "THIS IS FOR DUKE!" he stabbed the tip of his enchanted blade into Yig's heart, killing it and avenging the death of Duke.

Knuckles Eki said:

Knuckles Eki said:

Of course, Pete's a total hypocrite. I mean, he is the one that sacrificed Duke, probably through some nasty ritual involving skinning, etc. and he's blaming Yig?

Knuckles Eki said:

Enough with the loaded dice . Also, you guys seem to use Pete, Joe, Mandy, etc a lot. Guess no random investigators for you?

We don't like the idea of randomized investigators, we want what we're good at using.

The one using Joe all the time is me.

I use random for two reasons. One, I want to mix things up, try to beat the game with crappiest of the crap, see crazy investigator combos, instead of just picking Mandy, Joe, Patrice and co every game. Which brings up reason two, I can't really even see myself playing the same char 2 games in a row, I'd just get bored with the game (even when playing Mary or Trish).

Heh, this is the first game where we randomized the ancient one. But my group would never be caught dead playing random investigators.

We split it about 50 random, 50 choose your own. Best of both worlds, imo.

Also, I kind of think it is more like he lets the dog go free, and sees it escape the horror of arkham, and that is what refreshes his sanity. Not so much the skinning of him.

Now Sir William Brinton. There you are clearly eating his heart and gaining his strength.

Then of course is the Glaaki scenario.

With a tear in his eye, Pete frees Duke so that he can escape the horrors. Goodbye, old friend. Pete's sanity is restored to maximum.

Then Glaaki captures Duke and kills him, turning him into a Servant. HIYO

Graksnor said:

Ah, the Disney version of AH !

Dam said:

Agreed, I like switching things up. My group's standard set-up now is that everyone gets one investigator from each expansion...so maybe a lot of choice, but still restrictive. One fun option is then picking one investigator out of your four -- for someone else to use. The problem with this latter approach is that it results in some teams that are destined to fail in one respect or another, barring lucky item draws.

Even if we just used Joe, Mandy, and someone else each game, it would take a hell of a bad game to bring us down. With just those two, you're pretty much guaranteed a good chance in the final battle against most AOs.

My group wants to play each base-game ancient one with their own chosen investigators, so they know how it feels to fight the ancient one and still be confident enough since they're using their preferred investigator.

We'll be randomizing the stuff once we're confident enough of our skills against each ancient one.

Knuckles Eki said:

See, that's totally the wrong approach. You should never get confident against any GOO ! Okay, I'll admit there are those that I feel I'll have an easier game against (Azzy, Tsat, Cthulhu, Shudde) and those that make me sigh/cringe (Glaaki/Yog). But all of them have been beaten with random investigators, including my first ever seal-win against Glaaki featuring 3 of my least wanteds: Amanda, Gloria and Vincent. Jacqueline was the only saving grace. You can bet I was sighing deeply after drawing the investigators and even more when I then drew Glaaki. Didn't expect to make much headway in the game, but plodded on and things started going my way. In the end, I got to sacrifice Vincent for the 6th seal thanks to an OW encounter, so it was all good .

Y'see, Dam... there is no right or wrong approaches in learning how to beat each ancient one. So ye can't say our method is wrong, since we all have our own methods, see?

He meant that being confident is the wrong approach. Cosmic horrors are not a thing to take lightly! (Except maybe Azathoth).

Graksnor said:

Yeah, "discarding" means Duke is free, and you can find it in the Woods or at Ma's again.

BTW, does anyone know if JtWT reads "discard", or "return to the box"? It would seem a little strange if your "allies" don't actually decease after being sacrificed ...

HëllRÆZØR said:

The card itself doesn't say, but the rule regarding missions is that you have to "sacrifice" the printed item at that location during Upkeep. "Sacrifice" usually means "discard."

Sure, it doesn't make that much thematic sense that your sacrifice remains alive, but neither does your discard sacrifice when you pass The Great Ritual (is that the rumor?).

Tibs said:

The Stars are Right, specifically.

My favorite use of the thematic discards goes as follows. Darrell went to the Silver Twilight Lodge looking for a membership, and found Ruby Standish instead. On the next turn, he had an encounter that allowed him to discard an ally to get a membership, a unique, and a curse, which he did immediately.

So, Darrell rats out Ruby for stealing from the Lodge, and Ruby curses him for his betrayal. Carl Sanford comforts Darrell, saying that the Lodge takes care of their own. Next turn, he blessed Darrell. That was the end of that...

... Until we drew Lynch Mob. Guess who they killed?

We laughed over that one for a long time.