Hi guys,

Just a weenie message from me, another huge fan of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. A friend and I have taken the plunge and started a podcast dedicated to the game. It's still early days for us doing it, but we wanted to plunge in with a detailed discussion of some cards, so our first episode is up, and it's about 'weapons', those things you resort to when the mythos is getting too rowdy for its own good. You can find out where to listen here: http://drawntotheflamepodcast.blogspot.co.uk/ and the podcast is on itunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/drawn-to-the-flame/id1204512900?mt=2 and subscribable for other non-fruit-related devices here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DrawnToTheFlame

We know we need to get better at recording and such, but I hope you like what you find, and more episodes are to come soon! Enjoy!

Just subscribed. Looking forward to listening to it.

Thanks kac - hope you enjoy it. More episodes to come.

OK, just listened to the episode. Here's my review:

It's perfect.

Alright, not perfect but darn near to it. What I look for in a good card-related game podcast (Netrunner, LOTR, Magic, whatever) is intelligent analysis of the cards and strategies by people who have obviously played the game sufficiently often to get the proper use, combinations, advantages and disadvantages, and that's exactly what you guys have come up with. I will definitely be listening fortnightly or thereabouts.

My only cavil at this time, and indeed it is minor, is that the second, "off-site" gentleman needs a new mike, or needs to be put directly into the recording app somehow. I believe there are a number of Blue microphones that I can recommend for podcasting, and you could do the double-recording trick if you like, which provides better sound and back-up as well. He is certainly audible, it's just a sound quality issue that detracts only slightly from the great content.

Eagerly looking forward to upcoming episodes.

Very nice podcast. I will definitely be on the lookout for more. I did want to mention a few things relevant to some of your reviews on cards.

Kukri: I think I like the Kukri a bit more than you do. I feel it is never the weapon that you want to have, but it is better than nothing. Particularly if you are running only 1 core set, the Kukri for now fills a nice role in having more weapons in your deck. You mentioned you may want to run 5 weapons which I think is a good amount, the Kukri fills that hole for those who aren't running a second copy of Machete and .45 Automatic. It's not a great card, but I have often found myself including it anyway in order to increase weapon density in my deck.

baseball bat: My biggest problem with this card is not that it can break, but that it takes 2 hands. Hand slots are very valuable. For a Survivor who has typically low combat, I think the baseball bat is a very weak card. Even with the +2 bonus you're only bringing Wendy or Pete up to a 4, which isn't going to be good enough against a lot of enemies, and it takes up a hand that you might want to use on a flashlight or other item. I do think the baseball bat is quite good on Zoey, or even Jenny. It is a little risky to rely on though, if you need to use it to fight a stronger enemy and you draw the skull, all of a sudden you're locked in combat with no weapon.

fire axe: Definitely one of my favorite cards as well. The absolute best person to use the fire axe with though IMO is not Zoey, it's Agnes. Agnes with the fire axe is absolutely amazing due to a particular combo. If you have the Fire Axe with Agnes and the mystic card Forbidden Knowledge, you can dump all of your resources into the axe and attack at maybe +6 or +4 for 2 damage. Then you can gain a resource off of Forbidden Knowledge, triggering Agnes ability when you take a Horror from Forbidden Knowledge, gain a resource, and then use that resource to attack again with the Fire Axe, getting +2 and dealing extra damage.

You can do this on any investigator who has access to both cards of course, but it's particularly nice on Agnes because of her ability when she takes a Horror. You certainly could include a Forbidden Knowledge or two in a Zoey deck if you wanted. It works nice on Jim too since he can heal horror.

17 hours ago, kac said:

Alright, not perfect but darn near to it. What I look for in a good card-related game podcast (Netrunner, LOTR, Magic, whatever) is intelligent analysis of the cards and strategies by people who have obviously played the game sufficiently often to get the proper use, combinations, advantages and disadvantages, and that's exactly what you guys have come up with. I will definitely be listening fortnightly or thereabouts.

My only cavil at this time, and indeed it is minor, is that the second, "off-site" gentleman needs a new mike, or needs to be put directly into the recording app somehow. I believe there are a number of Blue microphones that I can recommend for podcasting, and you could do the double-recording trick if you like, which provides better sound and back-up as well. He is certainly audible, it's just a sound quality issue that detracts only slightly from the great content.

Kac, what a wonderfully nice thing to write - thank you so very much. I'm really touched, and I know Peter was too. It's early days for the cast, as it is for the game, and we'd like to get into more detail, but just glad to have made a start and for it to be received well. As for the audio - you're not the only person to say that! We're trying. It was my first time ever recording anything. We are probably going to try the double-recording trick you suggest. Episodes 2-4 are already recorded, so you'll have to put with poor audio for them (I've tried equalising the levels as best I can) but after that we'll get better. Or we'll can our hour-long discussion of allies and just give you something else for eps 3 and 4!

14 hours ago, awp832 said:

Very nice podcast. I will definitely be on the lookout for more. I did want to mention a few things relevant to some of your reviews on cards.

Kukri: I think I like the Kukri a bit more than you do. I feel it is never the weapon that you want to have, but it is better than nothing. Particularly if you are running only 1 core set, the Kukri for now fills a nice role in having more weapons in your deck. You mentioned you may want to run 5 weapons which I think is a good amount, the Kukri fills that hole for those who aren't running a second copy of Machete and .45 Automatic. It's not a great card, but I have often found myself including it anyway in order to increase weapon density in my deck.

baseball bat: My biggest problem with this card is not that it can break, but that it takes 2 hands. Hand slots are very valuable. For a Survivor who has typically low combat, I think the baseball bat is a very weak card. Even with the +2 bonus you're only bringing Wendy or Pete up to a 4, which isn't going to be good enough against a lot of enemies, and it takes up a hand that you might want to use on a flashlight or other item. I do think the baseball bat is quite good on Zoey, or even Jenny. It is a little risky to rely on though, if you need to use it to fight a stronger enemy and you draw the skull, all of a sudden you're locked in combat with no weapon.

fire axe: Definitely one of my favorite cards as well. The absolute best person to use the fire axe with though IMO is not Zoey, it's Agnes. Agnes with the fire axe is absolutely amazing due to a particular combo. If you have the Fire Axe with Agnes and the mystic card Forbidden Knowledge, you can dump all of your resources into the axe and attack at maybe +6 or +4 for 2 damage. Then you can gain a resource off of Forbidden Knowledge, triggering Agnes ability when you take a Horror from Forbidden Knowledge, gain a resource, and then use that resource to attack again with the Fire Axe, getting +2 and dealing extra damage.

Awp832, I love these points - thank you so much for taking the time to make them. I think we made a very brief distinction between 'good weapons for anyone' and 'good dedicated fighter weapons', and I'd be inclined to say kukri can fill a role in the former category. As for baseball bat - you're so right on the two hands. I think as I read the card out I made a bit of emphasis on that in my voice but then we dived in to talking about the risk of losing it and lost sight of the fact it's one of only three two-handed weapons currently available in the game, which puts it in a very strange spot indeed. Remember that if you draw that skull (but not tentacles), you still get the hit (for Agnes that could be a 3-damage whack!) but basically, yes: it's a tricky customer.

I've not yet run fire axe in Agnes. I'll have to give it a try. She has so many other options for damage (blinding light, shrivelling, forbidden knowledge, any test!) that I've never felt she was wanting for more. But Axey-Agnes could be super fun.

We'll have to find a way to incorporate your insightful comments into a future cast - maybe listener feedback or the like. But thank you for taking the time to write them, and for listening!

I was really happy to hear about another podcast about this fantastic game, can't get enough of it and much more prefer to listen to discussions rather than reading them. You guys was really great to listen to and I'm sure you'll get all the tech stuff going soon too keep on Shrievelling your brains on those cards!

My recommendation? Do NOT get rid of the episodes you already have in the can. The quality of conversation is too high, and in my experience sometimes you just capture some lightning in a bottle that can't be recapitulated when you re-hash a topic for the second time. Sometimes the freshness and spontaneity is lost.

Can't wait for the next one!

13 hours ago, vallandi said:

I was really happy to hear about another podcast about this fantastic game, can't get enough of it and much more prefer to listen to discussions rather than reading them. You guys was really great to listen to and I'm sure you'll get all the tech stuff going soon too keep on Shrievelling your brains on those cards!

Thanks Vallandi - very kind of you to write. As said above, next few are same level of tech stuff, but more soon!

7 hours ago, kac said:

My recommendation? Do NOT get rid of the episodes you already have in the can. The quality of conversation is too high, and in my experience sometimes you just capture some lightning in a bottle that can't be recapitulated when you re-hash a topic for the second time. Sometimes the freshness and spontaneity is lost.

Can't wait for the next one!

Thanks Kac, really appreciate it.

fire axe: Definitely one of my favorite cards as well. The absolute best person to use the fire axe with though IMO is not Zoey, it's Agnes. Agnes with the fire axe is absolutely amazing due to a particular combo. If you have the Fire Axe with Agnes and the mystic card Forbidden Knowledge, you can dump all of your resources into the axe and attack at maybe +6 or +4 for 2 damage. Then you can gain a resource off of Forbidden Knowledge, triggering Agnes ability when you take a Horror from Forbidden Knowledge, gain a resource, and then use that resource to attack again with the Fire Axe, getting +2 and dealing extra damage.

I haven't thought about it! Absolutely perfect stuff, gonna try in my next Agnes deck!

New episode just up. PHEW. That was fun. http://drawntotheflamepodcast.blogspot.co.uk/

Excellent podcast fellas, keep it up. I didn't realize I'd been missing something like that since I stopped playing Conquest many moons ago, but this scratches a certain itch in just the right way.

I have really tried to use and like the Shotgun, but right now.... it is really hard.

The problem with the shotgun is it's variable damage. Each enemy has a difficulty, if you succeed by breaking even, or by +1, you really didn't get your money's worth. You spend 4 xp and 5 resources and your shot did only 1 damage, which is quite easy to get a lot more cheaply.

If you succeed by +2, you only break even with most of the other Guardian specific weapons. I hardly feel I have gotten a good deal even out of 2 damage, when I could have just dealt the 2 damage with a .45 Automatic as easily. Shotgun adds 2 more combat skill to the attack than .45 automatic, but has to succeed by at least 2 points to get 2 damage, where as .45 Automatic only has to break even. So they are exactly equivalent in this case, only .45 Automatic is cheaper, has more ammo, doesn't cost XP, and takes only 1 hand.

So really, when you use the shotgun you absolutely need to land both hits in the 3+ damage range, which can be very difficult to do. For anything you want to use the shotgun on the combat difficulty is probably at least 4, chaos bag will likely give you a -2 or -3, so you really need to commit about a total fight score of 10 or higher to make the shots worth it.

As you pointed out toward the end of this podcast, I would be a lot more inclined to run the Shotgun if I could have a card that gave me extra hand slots, like a holster or a shotgun sling or something, so I could pull out the Shotgun if it was an emergency. But right now... it's just too much to ask to commit both hands to a weapon that is only marginally better than a .45 Automatic, and comes such a hefty price tag in resource and xp, for only 2 ammo.

Keep up the good work with your podcast though, I really enjoy listening to it.

Fantastic podcast, thanks for posting it. Agree that the sound quality of Peter isn't the best but it's more than listenable and it'd good to hear you're working on a solution. Keep it up!

Don't have much else to add, other than its nice to hear a podcast on one of my hobbies by fellow brits

Just got around to listening to these, and they are excellent! A great complement to the free-form and less heady Mythos Busters. You guys mentioned a few combos that I'd love to try out. Can't wait for more!

On 2/17/2017 at 1:52 PM, IronNerd said:

Excellent podcast fellas, keep it up. I didn't realize I'd been missing something like that since I stopped playing Conquest many moons ago, but this scratches a certain itch in just the right way.

Ah thanks IronNerd, always really gratifying to read a comment like this!

On 2/17/2017 at 6:13 PM, awp832 said:

I have really tried to use and like the Shotgun, but right now.... it is really hard.

The problem with the shotgun is it's variable damage. Each enemy has a difficulty, if you succeed by breaking even, or by +1, you really didn't get your money's worth. You spend 4 xp and 5 resources and your shot did only 1 damage, which is quite easy to get a lot more cheaply.

If you succeed by +2, you only break even with most of the other Guardian specific weapons. I hardly feel I have gotten a good deal even out of 2 damage, when I could have just dealt the 2 damage with a .45 Automatic as easily. Shotgun adds 2 more combat skill to the attack than .45 automatic, but has to succeed by at least 2 points to get 2 damage, where as .45 Automatic only has to break even. So they are exactly equivalent in this case, only .45 Automatic is cheaper, has more ammo, doesn't cost XP, and takes only 1 hand.

So really, when you use the shotgun you absolutely need to land both hits in the 3+ damage range, which can be very difficult to do. For anything you want to use the shotgun on the combat difficulty is probably at least 4, chaos bag will likely give you a -2 or -3, so you really need to commit about a total fight score of 10 or higher to make the shots worth it.

As you pointed out toward the end of this podcast, I would be a lot more inclined to run the Shotgun if I could have a card that gave me extra hand slots, like a holster or a shotgun sling or something, so I could pull out the Shotgun if it was an emergency. But right now... it's just too much to ask to commit both hands to a weapon that is only marginally better than a .45 Automatic, and comes such a hefty price tag in resource and xp, for only 2 ammo.

Glad to see you agreeing on shotgun, awp832. I'm mid-campaign with a friend who's playing Zoey and he is basically avoiding buying it, getting everything else instead. He loves the .45 & machete two-hand set-up, and the thought of shotgun fills him with fear... if anyone's rich enough to run it though, it's probably her.

On 2/18/2017 at 0:57 PM, Goseki1 said:

Fantastic podcast, thanks for posting it. Agree that the sound quality of Peter isn't the best but it's more than listenable and it'd good to hear you're working on a solution. Keep it up!

Don't have much else to add, other than its nice to hear a podcast on one of my hobbies by fellow brits

Next two episodes (3 and 4) are the same quality. We actually sound-tested yesterday for a different way of doing it and it was *much* worse... so hang on in there! But thank you, too. All the comments are liquid courage to us, keeping us cracking on.

6 hours ago, Network57 said:

Just got around to listening to these, and they are excellent! A great complement to the free-form and less heady Mythos Busters. You guys mentioned a few combos that I'd love to try out. Can't wait for more!

Thanks Network57! I recognise your name from the Discord, too. What combos have taken your fancy? Do share!

5 hours ago, zooeyglass said:

Thanks Network57! I recognise your name from the Discord, too. What combos have taken your fancy? Do share!

As I have a deathly aversion to Survivor cards, I never considered anything with the Fire Axe... the Keen Eye turn-boost for the persistent combat + damage bonus; plus Aschan using Duke then the Axe to get a more reliable +1 damage on multiple attacks.

When are you planning to release episode 2 and 3? Really looking forward to them.

11 minutes ago, Goseki1 said:

When are you planning to release episode 2 and 3? Really looking forward to them.

Hey hey! Episode 2 (second half of weapons) is out (came out last week!) and episode 3, hopefully tomorrow!

33 minutes ago, zooeyglass said:

Hey hey! Episode 2 (second half of weapons) is out (came out last week!) and episode 3, hopefully tomorrow!

No, today! I need something to listen to at the gym!

1 hour ago, Network57 said:

No, today! I need something to listen to at the gym!

It won't be ready in time! So sorry. I could record myself singing excruciatingly for you?

The true Arkham Horror...

Listened to 1 and 2, tapping foot waiting for 3 - 11!

Like the format and card analysis. The audio quality needs improving but you already now that.

Please continue!

J--

Well episode 3 is up: http://drawntotheflamepodcast.blogspot.co.uk/ (should be in podcast apps now, and will appear on iTunes in about 24 hours). Tell a friend!

PS thanks jsalyers - one we go!

PPS the less, goseki1, we say about that, the better

PPPS get ye to the gym again, network57

I had a seekerish Jenny deck that I built that featured Laboratory Assistant, it worked pretty well, Jenny always has resources to spend but often doesnt have much to spend them on, so playing a Lab Assistant gives you some extra cards, which is welcome. LotR LCG has taught me to prize card draw very highly.