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By Matrim, in Arkham Horror: The Card Game

hi, I was wondering whether it is possible to get all the various pack from game start and how many core sets are needed. I am considering entering the game and am a bit of a completionist.

second question is how viable is the game solo as I am more likely to play that way.

cheers for any assistance..

If you want a complete collection, you'll need 2 core sets.

It's quite playable if you have 2 core sets, though some scenarios are harder than others. And it depends a lot on your investigator.

The game is fantastic for solo play!

i have 3 2 investigator campaigns going - I'm thinking of adding a single investigator campaign. And when all the packs are out, I'll do a 4 player campaign! ;) I,ve played this game more than any other ?

Well, what level of a completionist are you? Just full playset of each player card, or every scenario prebuilt so you can pull it out and play in seconds? Cause let me tell you, I'm that second one, and I'm over $400 already easy. Don't do what I'm doing. Please.

I don't know! I will be see in l5r when it releases and quite fancy this too. I would want all the cards so I could play everything but would be happy building decks to play something as opposed to having enough cards to have many combos pre-built.

would getting 2 base sets to try it out in single player be useful or not possible?

Some people are happy with one core set. You have to use prebuilt decks essentially as there are not enough cards for a lot of deck building. Two cores ups your consistency considerably, and makes Daisy and Agnes waaaay more playable out of the box (since one is so reliant on tomes and one is reliant on spells) I'd say if you KNOW you are getting in to it, two cores is a great place to start. While you won't get the variety you would get by expanding into the dunwich cycle, you do get a solid foundation for consistency.

With 2 cores (and 1 of each other box and pack), you can build any deck you want. You can also build a second deck, provided it doesn't share any class with the first.

You can include 2 of each card in your deck. The core only comes with one of each card so you'll want 2 cores for sure. All expansions contain 2 of each card so you only need one of them.

cheers guys, I have decided to just go all in with 2 cores and 1 of everything else costing me £174. Not cheap but I can afford it and if I like it worth the cash.

Have fun!

17 minutes ago, Matrim said:

cheers guys, I have decided to just go all in with 2 cores and 1 of everything else costing me £174. Not cheap but I can afford it and if I like it worth the cash.

You won't be sorry, it's a spectacular game.

I see you already settled on 2 cores and 1 of each of the expansions. With that you should be able to have 4 decks built simultaneously with very good consistency. I have 3 cores and every expansion and have 7 decks built that are all pretty solid. The game is a lot of fun, solo or with friends. I have gotten 6 other people hooked on it already, and they have each bought in with 2 cores and 1 of every expansion. FFG should give me a kick back for it!

30 minutes ago, AsahinaMaebure said:

I see you already settled on 2 cores and 1 of each of the expansions. With that you should be able to have 4 decks built simultaneously with very good consistency. I have 3 cores and every expansion and have 7 decks built that are all pretty solid. The game is a lot of fun, solo or with friends. I have gotten 6 other people hooked on it already, and they have each bought in with 2 cores and 1 of every expansion. FFG should give me a kick back for it!

Well heck, if you get something, I want something too. I've already bought 5 cores (soon to be 6) 3 dunwich legacy and 3 of each mythos pack. Soon I'll be getting 2 more Carnivale and another Curse, for really really really silly reasons.

Edited by Doma0997
16 minutes ago, Doma0997 said:

Well heck, if you get something, I want something too. I've already bought 5 cores (soon to be 6) 3 dunwich legacy and 3 of each mythos pack. Soon I'll be getting 2 more Carnivale and another Curse, for really really really silly reasons.

So you're the reason it's always sold out...

6 minutes ago, StormyWaters said:

So you're the reason it's always sold out...

Absolutely not. My FLGS is pretty well stocked. Last friday:

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18486302_10209142274411056_6533765749603987413_n.jpg?oh=bda01bbbe56ce5db940f402200ce3c91&oe=59A995AD

https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18424131_10209142274651062_7113244105478132779_n.jpg?oh=438983ad245caeae449a805869f1fe73&oe=59AC5C7E

I never really have to worry. I pre-order 2 copies of each mythos pack then I buy the third later. I buy core sets as I need them, since I'm keeping every single scenario pre-made. I'm buying extra's of the stand-alones because each player card binder (have 3 full binders now) is going to have a page with just story given cards so I don't need to take them out of a prebuilt scenario and remember to put them in later. I'm aiming for a 100% collection for the most part, but then again, the arkham files line is where my board game money goes to now, and the other games have been quiet lately..

So cool they make you buy the game twice in order to play it. And people think video game DLCs are bad.

13 minutes ago, Union said:

So cool they make you buy the game twice in order to play it. And people think video game DLCs are bad.

Not at all. You can play the game with just the core. Your deck building options are really good right now if you get one of everything. I just over-buy. I have every scenario pre-built, and that is a luxury. I just want to pull out a stack of cards, throw it down, and go. Some scenarios require the same encounter sets as others, so you can go the route of putting the encounter sets in a binder and build the scenario as you want to play them. I'm taking a hyper completionist route.

2 hours ago, Union said:

So cool they make you buy the game twice in order to play it. And people think video game DLCs are bad.

You and a friend can have a very good time with just 1 core set.

Ran through the training scenario just now (using the specified decks), and lost quite badly as me and my son both went mad. If I was a bitter man I would blame his amazing ability to draw the minus 4 though I suspect using a carrier bag as the draw bag didn't help. It was great fun though and we are looking forward to re-trying it as part of the rules learning experience at the weekend.

I expect lots of questions will start arising. First up is if you engage I presume you have to use a seperate action to attack.

7 minutes ago, Matrim said:

I expect lots of questions will start arising. First up is if you engage I presume you have to use a seperate action to attack.

Yes.

Also, if you decide you want to have multiple decks using the same cards, just proxy. It's co-op, nobody will care.

1 hour ago, Matrim said:

I expect lots of questions will start arising. First up is if you engage I presume you have to use a seperate action to attack.

Only if you have actively Engaged an enemy as an action. You only need to do this to ensure the safety of a weaker character already engaged with that monster, or when fighting Aloof monsters. In The Gathering, there are no Aloof monsters, so as soon as you enter their location (or vice versa) they engage you (if they're not exhausted from a previous Evade, or are already engaged with someone else) so you can get straight on with fighting actions.

There is an Android and iOS app for the Chaos bag. I find it to be less cumbersome sometimes. I also use the minis from Mansions of Madness (or the Arkham Horror Premium figures) instead of the mini cards. I want to use the monster minis but not all of mine are painted yet, and it would require me to get in Photoshop and create overlays for monster base chits - and that sounds too much like my day job as a graphic designer....

Edited by AsahinaMaebure
On 5/16/2017 at 4:58 PM, Matrim said:

I expect lots of questions will start arising. First up is if you engage I presume you have to use a seperate action to attack.

Also to note, you can attack enemies in your space that you are not engaged with or that are engaged with another investigator. It just gets riskier.

24 minutes ago, Jobu said:

Also to note, you can attack enemies in your space that you are not engaged with or that are engaged with another investigator. It just gets riskier.

Attacking an enemy that is engaged with another investigator is risky: if you fail, that investigator suffers the damage of the attack. Enemies that aren't engaged with any investigator are either Aloof (in which case you cannot attack them until they are engaged) or exhausted (in which case, it's less risky, because an exhausted enemy cannot retaliate).