Okay, so I've been averaging less than 1 Elder Sign from the UI deck so far in my 11 IH games. That still holds true, but somehow I feel the Mythos will slap me from here to Sunday in the next game, due the events of today's game.

GOO: Bokrug (who defeated me in our first encounter)

Investigators: Leo Anderson, Marie Lambeau (her first appearance since IH), Mark Harrigan and Monterey Jack

First gate opens at Historical Society and it's a R'lyeh gate. Naturally, Mark jumps right in (after disposing of the Proto-Shoggoth). Sadly he get one of my nemesis OW encounter cards, if in the 2nd area, move to the 1st, if in the first, LiTaS (always seem to get this against Yog and naturally in the first area). But that's pretty much only thing that goes wrong today. Marie passes her PS during the 2nd turn, leaving me a basically 14 doom track Bokrug. Everyone but Monty collect Clues enough for a seal and dives in (Mark returned to Unvisited Isle, picked up 2 and Mythos opened a gate there). Marie seals Hist. Society, Leo seals Graveyard and Mark seals Unvisited Isle. Mythos then gives chance for Exhibit Items, with the card that monster trophies surprise those in Arkham (Mark had at this point dived in at a gate at Hibb's, which BTW surged in this game). Monty beats his Goat Spawn again and picks an Parchment. Mark returns and Monty drops him the Parchment, that's 4 seals down, -3 doomers so far. Leo visits Science Building at trades his gate trophy for 2 Clues, putting him at 7. Good Work Undone hits during the Mythos phase, and even with Curfew Enforced in play, Leo passes it the next turn. Each investigator draws a Unique Item, with Marie and Mark getting an Elder Sign! Marie draws a gate and a monsters appears at Woods, but I don't really mind at this point. She's in the OWs and has an ES. Mark actually has to wait for a gate to open (Marsh Refinery had been open since the 2nd Mythos card of the game, another R'lyeh gate), but with no money to reach it (and no luck getting move to anywhere in Arkham encounters). Black Cave finally opens, with a Tcho-Tcho on it. Mark heads there, uses Molotov + Enchanted Knife to kill the monster, getting Dynamite as reward. Marie returns and seals, dropping Bokrug to 3 of 12 on the doom track, 5 seals down. Mark gets 2 delayed/stay here next turn encounters and I just chuckle. Devil's Reef opens, bumping Bokrug to a mighty 4 of 12. IH is quite heavily infested with monsters by now, but nobody is near a vortex or not moving. As Mark gets ready to return, Marie adds the final insult to injury. Using Lure Monster, she fishes Barnabas Marsh to her location and kills him (+1 Fight comes in handy), and then Mark seals with the ES, leaving Bokrug weeping at 2 of 12. Total # of doomers removed: 6 ! Several monster surges and a couple of bounces on sealed locations.

Nice story. As you are an experienced player by now you seem well aware that this was a distracting win from the game to lure you into comfort and by the next session will use one of the weaker GOO's and slap you sensless. BUT you seem to know this so maybe the game will trick you even further with another win so that you start to believe you have mastered this game by now and then you are beaten sensless... it's the golden rule of Arkham.. in the end the humans always loose.

I still have Chaugnar Faugn, Cthugha, Nyogtha and Rhan-Tegoth left in my second rotation of IH GOOs. Rhan already kicked my ass once. So if it's going to be an easy GOO, it would probably be Cthugha. Extra tension in drawing the GOO next game (random from those left in each rotation).

Also, the Mythos took it easy on me today, 0 gate bursts. Last time out got 2 bursts and 0 ES! Still managed to eek a seal win.

In exactly one week from now I will introduce this awesome game to four new brave souls. Maybe the anger of the Arkham gods have passed on to our session instead. Better to be safe than sorry and tell them they should expect a terrible loss without a single decent weapon, elder sign, closed gate or monster trophy.

Bokrug took sympathy on you and allowed you to win. It's happened to me too.

One time I played a game against Yibb-Tstll with the Ghroth herald (begins with 2 more doom tokens). I won by closing all gates, but Yibb had 0 doom tokens on her! Elder Signs, Witch Blood, and William Bain all played a part.

Another weird part of the game that I just recalled, I only shopped at Curiositie during turn 1 with Monterey, never again after that. All those games trying to shop for an ES and now I get two without shopping .

But the gods can be fickle. Several games back I had the unprecendented luck of having four investigators start with three ES in their starting equipment (yes, the deck was shuffled, and no, Wendy was not one of the investigators). Azathoth the ancient one, so there's lots of time to plant them and win ... or so I thought. The dice turned out to be cursed, double doom mythos kept showing up, and when the dust settled, Azothoth woke up before a single seal could be placed.

One game against Bokrug, I started with Akachi and William. That was fun, allowing me to cripple Bokrug almost immediately. I made the decision to fail Akachi's story early, sadly, because we were facing Bokrug awakening due to too many gates. He didn't though, and I managed to remove all of the beings before he woke up (on DOR, I believe).

That would have been my last win, six games ago, now that I think of it.

Both times I've had William, I've completed his PS on the first turn (5 and 8 toughness starting so far). Both times I've been disappointed with him. Most of the action tends to be at the other end of the board (or on another board), it takes forever to get William anywhere. Also, he seems to have bad luck with the dice, even when Blessed (not to mention the Blessing drops off after 2-3 turns for the most part).

In that case, why not try holding on to his monster trophies, then? Trading them in for clues isn't uncalled for, and the Deputy is actually really good with Innsmouth. It solves his movement problem for a bit, and he can't be arrested.

flamethrower49 said:

The debate is still ongoing on this issue . FAQ only mentions "Curfew Enforced" for the Deputy to be immune against. I saw an encounter at Hibb's today that also mentioned the Deputy (that is not arrested if you fail the check, if you're the Deputy). Nothing else has been clarified regarding Deputy vs arrested. ColtsFan has been lobbying this issue over on BGG.