We have some confusion with regard to effectively using the time bomb.

My concept of this weapon is to druise through a location with -- hopefully -- several monsters therein and drop off the time bomb in transit. Next turn, if you have set it with no tokens - that is, shortest fuse -- it will detonate. If the monsters have not moved, you will kill them.

The problem is that you have to move out of the location with the bomb, or it kills you also. You cannot stop there and wait for the time bomb to go off.

There are problems with transiting through a location where you have done something. E.g., if you fight a monster or something, you end your turn when this occurs.

I suppose you could pass through a location with monsters, evade them all, and continue your move. But would "dropping off" the bomb while passing thrrough the location require you to end your turn in the location with the bomb?

We have in the past allowed ourselves to transit through a location with monsters and drop the bomb off en route, but I do not believe this conforms to the strict rules.

What is the explanation here? Any explanation has to allow for the player to get out of the square with the bomb. Thanks in advance--

Wish I could help but I have honestly never used it before. Seems like you would have to set it then move next turn and hope some monsters move into its range before it goes off.

Glasgow Scotland said:

TB doesn't require you to even spend movement points to use it, like Tomes, so you can use it for free at any point during your movement. And you don't need to stop there to drop it, you can drop it on the run.

If you have BGotW and from there Milk of Shub-Niggurath, you got yourself a combo. Place TB, drink Milk (summoning all monsters to your location), drinking it flips you insane, so you get a free ride to the Asylum. Of course, Mythos being what it is, would probably just whip out a move all monsters Mythos card on that turn (since TB goes off in the Upkeep Phase) and move all monsters away from the TB .

"Mythos being what it is, would probably just whip out a move all monsters Mythos card on that turn"

Except the yellow ones, which as they never move are the best targets for the TB, especially with the Milk.

dj2.0 said:

Dark Youngs + BGotW Herald . Witches and Warlocks have an Environment that makes them Stalkers, Dimensional Shambler can get returned to the cup with the one Mythos card for +1 Terror and there is also a return to cup Mythos card for DYs. Are Ghosts the only Yellow-border that don't have something special in this regard?

On the other hand, you only draw one Mythos card per turn, so you're not going to get hit with all those effects at once.

There's also Spectral Hunters, not to mention stationary green monsters.

A better combo than Time Bomb and Milk is the Flute of the Outer Gods and Milk. Of course, it requires two investigators to be on the same spot.

avec said:

Environment can already be in play, then you can draw a Headline that pops X back, leaving Ghost/Spectral Hunter (I mean Spectral Hunter with Dimensional Shambler, DS is Red of course).

I realize that, but there's still no way that all the effects you describe could happen at the same time. At the very least, I'm willing to bet that you can't have a headline that returns monsters to the cup during the same turn as an "all monsters move" mythos card. Come to think of it, monsters wouldn't move off of your location anyway.

avec said:

If you drank the milk, you'd be insane and not there. If you set time bomb, hopefully you set the clock with enough time to escape. However we did once use the milk and timebomb combo and deliberately left an investigator in situ to be sure none of the monsters wandered off.

mageith said:

Good point

avec said:

What if you fail the "Nightmare Pool" Rumor on the turn you drop the TB ? It has you draw and resolve 3 Mythos cards immediately.

All this time I have been misreading this card and putting 3 tokens on it every time. Being able to set a shorter fuse makes it much more useful :-)

Even if you get stuck with the monsters you can always whip out Call Friend

Gatha said:

No smiley? You play rough.

Movement Phase: Cast and exhaust to choose an investigator in Arkham who has not moved this turn. Move that investigator to your current space (even an Other World). The investigator may not move again this turn.

Somebody's going to the hospital.

mageith said:

I think he means Inv A drops TB, doesn't move, then Inv B zaps Call Friend. Call Friend can be IMO read one of two ways 1) has not moved, so stayed in the spot he started the turn in or 2) has not had his/her Phase 2 yet.

Dam said:

Two ways huh? Never occured to me. The word "again" seems to refer to the called investigator. The wording seems only to refer to the called investigator. Though I guess it's not perfectly clear. Oh well. Is it to be FAQed? It is a better spell read the alternate way, however and actually makes more "realistic" sense. That way both investigators still can get one full move but not more than one (unless you count teleporting to another town a move.)

I was the guy who began this thread.

It appears to me that some of the "solutions" are not very sensible.

One fellow writes, 'someone is going to the hospital."

This seems contrary to common sense. There should be a way to use time bomb to kill monsters, without taking yourself out with it.

It seems to me that the best way to use time bomb is to cruise through a location with one or more monsters, evade the monsters, and then tcontinue your movement out of the area. You have to be allowed to drop the time bomb off when passing through the location. If you are forced to stop when dropping off the bomb, you get it along with any monsters. Or---- picture the irony. You blow yourself up, but the next mythos card moves the monsters out of the location to safety.

If the only way to use time bomb is to count on another player to have "call friend" -- it's a long shot that another player would even have this particular spell.

I can't imagine that the game designers intended that the only way to use this card was to blow yourself up along with the monsters.

This may call for a common-sense "house rule." Any other opinions?

If there's no better way to use time bomb, I suggest we toss this card in the wastebasket.

How about the moderator? Any ideas?

Harold Square said:

I think the Time Bomb works just like you describe. In fact it pretty clearly works that way. But just like a real time bomb, you may not get all the monsters you intend. They will have at least one opportunity to walk away. Of course, another monster might even wander into the bomb too!

I think you missed the context on "someone's going to the hospital". The others of us were speculating on ways to maximize damage. The only way to insure no monsters walk away is to leave an investigator behind (and even that won't work with elusive monsters). Even then, there are numerous ways for the monsters to escape (but as long as they get out of town, who really cares?)

I thought I wasn't going to have to chip in on this one, but the message got muddled somewhere.

Yes, you can drop time bomb off anywhere you choose. You do not have to stop to activate it, although you do have to pass any evade checks for monsters you may want to move through. End of story. It would be quite silly otherwise, as you state. There's nothing on the card that leads me to believe anything else.

The card is not the most effective card out there. It can be devastating (to both the players and the monsters) if used in conjunction with a "calling" card (like Milk of Shub-Niggurath). You can get lucky, or meticulously plot the deaths of some monsters. Overall, it is really cool, and I'm always looking for the chance to use it to clear a path. It doesn't always work out.

My favorite is to use it when entering a gate to clear the gate guardians (Dark Young) the next turn. Then, in the other world, I draw "Return to Arkham". BOOM!

flamethrower49 said:

Well, should've picked an OW that has 2 gates open (or brought the Gate Box with ya).

If you really want to avoid staying with your bomb then you should either give it to Wendy or someone with high sneak so they can drop it and run. Other than that, you'll have to rely on those unlikely events like having Call Friend (or hope you get an "a gate appears" encounter, but that seems less likely)

I used time bomb last evening and had very poor luck.

I was passing through the Northside streets, where there was a Fire Vampire. I evaded the FV, then dropped off the bomb in passing with no tokens on it, so it would detonate the next turn.

Next mythos draw, the FV moved out the location. The bomb went off to no effect, and had to be returned to the deck. Murphy's Law ? ?

Bad luck this time, but I have known it to work on other occasions.. As someone just said, far from an ideal weapon. I would grade it about C+.

Thanks for all the comments and advice.

Implant Suggestion is a great spell to use in combo with a time bomb, especially on monsters guarding gates. Just drop it off in the streets outside, move to the gate, implant your suggestion, and enjoy the fireworks.

Has anyone mentioned the Mi-Go Brain Case yet? Drop the bomb, then swap with any monster you dislike. I prefer to take out the big stationary ones, like Dark Young, Cthonians, Colours, or Lloigors, to guarantee a successful hit.

I'd say the worst thing that could happen is an encounter moves you to that street then the FV moves, but then I can't make laws like Murph