I picked up some cards on the sale and am hungry for info about the differant factions, what they do well and not so well etc. Are then any articles on the matter out there? It would be handy to have to explain to other new players what the factions are like so they can have an idea what factions they'd like to make decks around. cheers

Mark

ill give this a shot but its only my opinion.

agency. seems good with wounding and stuff, combat. weakness, not sure never really played them, maybe terror, insanity.

miskatonic. draw effects kinda and investigation. weakness.......you name it they are just plan weak.

syn. awesome events, rush. weakness cant go toe-to-toe well against most other creatures.

cthulhu. destroy. characters support whatever, its dead. weakness. kinda costly???

hastur. insanity, and on that its weakness is willpower.

yog. bringing back stuff. weakness......well ive always used it as a support faction to make sure my good stuff can come back so i dont know.

shub. bringing out big things quickly. weakness anything faster???

im sure someone will have a better more in depth listing, but thats how i see them.

Hello there and welcome!

Cannon wrote an excellent article on this back in 2005. Though plenty of cards have been released since then, his overview of the broad strengths and weaknesses of each faction remains as perceptive now as it was then. I enclose the link below.

http://hem.bredband.net/xedric/CoC/Articles/factionguide1.html

Come to think of it, there is a whole bunch of good articles you might enjoy from that era, again the link is below.

http://hem.bredband.net/xedric/CoC/Articles/index.html

Hope this proves useful,

Andrew

Thanks very much for the replies and links, quite helpful

If we had our old sites, you'd be so informed it would be ridiculous. But noooooo. We'll scratch together watered down abbreviations of what was articulated brilliantly by all over the years. Yes, I'm still totally furious at losing the old sites. Why can't they be part of the permanent archive? Instead new folks will not get the benefit of wisdom. Who wants to rehash what was built. Sorry, we welcome you. But in the most superfluous way, thanks to the eradication of our oral history. You could be so ingrained with the feel of the game, but instead, welcome to three weeks of wisdom.

Newbie here. I have a quick question regarding the Gods Not Mentioned: How is FFG handling all those *other* dieties? Are they just being shoehorned into factions that they might not necessarily have any kind of tie to?

I can see Cthulhu mingling with Dagon, or Yog-Sothoth having some kind of tie to Azathoth (just making a statement -- I don't know how CoC actually handles this). So how does the game tie in Nyarlathotep, Glaaki, Abhoth, Bokrug, Atlach-Nacha, etc? Are there "independent gods", or do they have to be included in factions? Just trying to make sense of it all...

well nyarl and azathoth are neutral. but im not sure how they decide who goes where. it seems that fishy-snakey-lizard types go to cthulhu. thats about the only pattern ive noticed. like it seems chaugnar would be more fitting of a shub creature but oh well, his card ability fits hastur's game theme perfectly though. i would have made atlach-nacha a yog character...but thats my opinion.

Bokrug said:

There are attempts to bring the other GOO's to the closest possible factions. While it not always makes sense from a larger Mythos perspective, factions aren't that tightly knit groups as the term implies. The GOO's in the game are mere reflections of some aspects of the GOO's; After all; If the game had cards for the real deal, the game would end there and then... So, approach with an open mind, because flavour and game mechanics sometimes meet at non-euclidian angles...

Oh, so the actual gods aren't showing up like they do in, say, Mythos or Arkham horror? It's just a grouping of people, events and such that lend themselves to a certain theme that is depicted by the GOO who is the leader, forefront, or most recognizable of that theme?

Bokrug said:

Well, the Gods do peer through the spheres a little, and meddle a bit, stomp some insects, bend the laws of physics a little. -or sometimes a lot. You'll be in trouble when they show up in the game, but they're not an instant death most of the time. The flavour and themes aren't rigid, more fluid than that. So, you're mostly correct on the grouping/theme thing.

The GOO's are still dangerous, but they are not as much a focus as in Arkham Horror.

PearlJamaholic said:

I would suspect that Chagnar Faughn would be associated with Hastur and his connections with the Platue of Leng and Tcho-Tcho people. Just my two cents.

I totally agree Johnny Shoes. The old forums were a wealth of info now lost to the "raveges of time". I miss them and I'm playing again so I wish they were still there so I can look up various rule questions.

My play experience is pretty limited, but I've been building mono-decks in preparation for the league I'm running in August. The reason for doing so is to see where the factions are strong and where they're not so great. Granted I've got a limited card pool. So far I've only been able to test three of them.

The Syndicate seems to do well with combat and putting out a lot of characters. With a few support cards you can make them tougher to help them stick around longer.

Shub-Niggurath looks to have some good effects that allow you to gain resources and thus drop bigger characters early. While they have a lot of terror icons they look pretty light on combat...so don't be sad when your big scary monster gets shot in the face and dies.

Shog-Sothoth...I've only played these guys once on their own and I'd say that they are strongest in Arcane. This is helpful for responding on your opponent's turn when he commits character's to story cards. I liked the one character who can also be treated like a story card.