One more Arkham game tonight to celebrate the 365 games played during 2015 (not all were Arkham, clearly). So, one big and nasty AO, Zhar (hypershort doom track and a special ability spawning extra gates), helped by the most brutal (official) Herald around, the Black Goat of the Woods, against a randomly selected party of special ops: Patrice (Agent Clues), Mandy (Agent Rerolls), Norman (Agent Find Gate) and Dexter and Mary. AH, DH, KH, BGotW and MH in play.

Starting equipment was bizarre. No weapons of eternal blasting, no elder sign, no weapons; but some very strong utilities: Call Friend (2x), Astral Travel and Bless. Plus a Warding of the Yellow Sign used to protect Independance Square.

First Mythos opened a gate at Gardner's Place. Patrice went for clues, Mandy followed at the Unvisited Isle, Norman used Astral Travel to move directly into the gate at Gardner's. Mandy's encounter had her entering Kadath. End of the turn another gate opened at the Histrorical Society (Kadath again). 3 gates on the board by the end of turn 1, Patrice swimming in clue tokens, two investigators in ready for sealing.

Norman returned via Find Gate and sealed Gardner's Place thanks to two of Patrice's clues; Mandy suffered from a certain delay factor, but the next Mythos resulted in nothing but a surge from Unvisited Isle. The main board started being overcrowded.

In the coming turn, Norman cleared the Child of the Goat at Gardner's, and then failed the Evade against the Night-gaunt, that was there as well, resulting in him entering Kadath as well.

The next Mythos had Cove-up arriving: hence, 6 doom tokens, one seal and two gates. Gates that were closed again by Norman and Mandy, just returned from Kadath. Too bad I didn't have the trophies to consider the game won by closing.

Dexter (who found a Sword of Glory and the Silver Key) started working on the monsters. A new gate opened at Wizard's Hill, with two more monsters appearing at Backwood County. Cover-up was kept under control, and then finally Mandy cleared the road for Mary, who entered Another Dimension from the Witch House, while Dexter, blessed by Mary's Bless, was able to clear partially the Backwood County and make his way up to the gate on Wizard's Hill. Finally, Norman headed to the last open gate at Independence Square.

9 doom tokens on the doom track, 3 seals on the board.

Next Mythos bounced on the seal at the Historical Society; Mary gained an Elder Sign during an OW encounter, and Norm returned to Independence Square to put the 4th seal.

Monster Surge from the Witch House, doom hit 10.

Mary (reduced to 1 Sta and 3 San) moved to the second area of Another Dimension, and Dexter (reduced to 1 Sta too) moved to the second area of the Dreamlands. Had a nice encounter, check Will or lose 1 Sta and 1 San (and the game); passed thanks to two clues.

Mythos bouncing on the Unvisited Isle seal. Cover-up to be failed in the next Mythos.

Mary returns and seals with the Elder Sign.

Dexter returns to Dunwich and closes the last gate on the board. 6 gate trophies, 0 open gates.

Victory by closing gates in 9 Mythos (doom track at 9)

No frickin way. Dagon is more brutal a herald than Black Goat

I see you didn't use Innsmouth. I still maintain that without Innsmouth, Dagon would be at least as brutal as Black Goat!

Dagon more terrifying than Black Goat? Possibly, but not in this game. I had two monster surges triggering a +2 doom on a doom track of 11 (+18% or something); Dagon's special ability would have triggered only once (at the end I had a +1 terror and stop), and everyone was rather loaded with clues, so, discarding one wouldn't have been a problem, considering Patrice had 13 at the end of the game to allow the others to put their seals down.

As for the Innsmouth board, I tend not to play with everything in; consider I'm doing a complete rotation of everything (all combinations of AOs and Heralds), and that my previous Herald rotation was against Dagon & Hydra, so, I was in need for a change in the board

But the next rotation will probably be Dagon, so, I'll report back on the game against Zhar

Julia,

So, Patrice is absolutely amazing (I've played only a few games with her), Clue tokens come exceptionally easy to your party, you Seal Gates with only 2-3 Clue tokens , or you've clearly made a pact with an Ancient One.

By the way, Dexter accepts your apology

Ciao,

Joe

LOL. My problem with Dexter is that they created him as a weak spellcaster, in a system where casting spells often is not the strongest option. I actually think that Dexter possibly never used any spell in the entire game... and as monster whacker / gate sealer he was absolute excellence

So, Patrice is absolutely amazing (I've played only a few games with her),...OR ...

Very much this. Julia is far beyond my Arkham Strategy abilities, but Patrice makes (nearly) every game a cakewalk. She gains clues as gates open (I think.. plus additional clues when the doom hits 8 or 10 or something) and anybody can use her clues for free, for anything, as many times per round as they want.

She is literally a clue font. Even if you didn't chase down clues with her, Patrice could park her butt in the streets for the entire game and be MORE useful than most other investigators in a normal game (or Vincent at his best! )

Knock Patrice's focus down to 1.

Take away her "five clues" ability.

Only allow other investigators to use her clues on skill checks.

That will make her fair.