Essential Roles

By ishinken, in General Discussion

I'd say, any game pretty much need a fighter. Someone that has high Strenght, and everyone drop their best fight items to him.

Also a support, but I am not sure what the role should fill really. Most games support turns out to be someone with high influence and more dedicated to buying necessary items early.

Secondary, the importance of having a spell user! Supportive spells are a HUGE deal! And since there are so many things giving bonuses to spell casting, I feel there is a need to have your support being good at lore.

Then a gate closer/objective hunter. Someone usually good at lore+observation+will. Since it seems lore+observation are the most common in completing clue encounters and lore+will for gate closing. And it always seem that someone need to be 100% focused on gate closing unless you want to drop 3 on the doom track at a bad time.

I was thinking something like:

3 players: Fighter + gate closer + support

4 players: 2 Fighters + gate closer + support

5 players: 2 Fighters + 2 gate closers + support

What are your thoughts on this, I haven't figured out much about optimal role distribution. But it sure sucks when you don't have someone that can pretty much guarantee any item at any time when they show up, and having expensive items rack up is pretty bad, and discarding to cycle them is time consuming and you don't progress for your spent actions doing so.

Edited by ishinken

our six player games usually have 2 fighters, 2 gate closers and the rest as support. I usually play influence support or a gate closer.

41 minutes ago, Daisu said:

our six player games usually have 2 fighters, 2 gate closers and the rest as support. I usually play influence support or a gate closer.

How do you feel 6 player games work out? Can you compare to any other games with less/more players? I'm thinking of the "sweet spot" number of players combined with what expansions and mythos card combinations to create the absolutely most nail biting and close and exciting matches.

Essential role is effectively closing Gates and be mobile. Pretty much anything else can be "cheesed" somehow or avoided completely.

8 hours ago, ishinken said:

How do you feel 6 player games work out? Can you compare to any other games with less/more players? I'm thinking of the "sweet spot" number of players combined with what expansions and mythos card combinations to create the absolutely most nail biting and close and exciting matches.

I was completely against 6 players games until successfully running multiple games with 6 players. Even with 1 or 2 new players, it can go quite fast when everyone knows what they are doing. I personally feel it tells more of an epic tale and gives you that total map coverage and all bases covered feel while still being incredibly challenging and fun. It leads to much more instances of players meeting up and being a team than in a 4 player game. This allows characters to really shine where they wouldn't in lesser player count games, such as Minh, Tommy, Harvey, Jim, and others as well. Nothing feels quite as good as when you toot your trumpet as Jim and heal 3 or 4 players.

Still, it's about you're looking at three and a half to four and a half hours for gameplay.

7 hours ago, Runko said:

Essential role is effectively closing Gates and be mobile. Pretty much anything else can be "cheesed" somehow or avoided completely.

I see what you mean. Gate closing seem to be the absolute priority.

2 hours ago, iGniGhted said:

I was completely against 6 players games until successfully running multiple games with 6 players. Even with 1 or 2 new players, it can go quite fast when everyone knows what they are doing. I personally feel it tells more of an epic tale and gives you that total map coverage and all bases covered feel while still being incredibly challenging and fun. It leads to much more instances of players meeting up and being a team than in a 4 player game. This allows characters to really shine where they wouldn't in lesser player count games, such as Minh, Tommy, Harvey, Jim, and others as well. Nothing feels quite as good as when you toot your trumpet as Jim and heal 3 or 4 players.

Still, it's about you're looking at three and a half to four and a half hours for gameplay.

I don't mind if a game take 3 hours. 4 is stretching it though. We played a game of 3 players with the rise of the elder things GoO and the sideboard and it took well over 5 hours!!! But yeah, we did it sorta story heavy, reading events to eachother.

I can see what you mean with having more co-op in more player numbers. I have a feeling you are quite experienced with the game, what setup have you found out is the most exciting (to the last turn) so far? What combinations of expansions, mythos setup and player numbers do you recommend?

I've usually played 8 players, it usually works out pretty well.

2 hours ago, Matt620 said:

I've usually played 8 players, it usually works out pretty well.

Really? I find that very hard to believe tho. How long does an average game take?

We have only played two games with 8 players so far, I'd say it was about 5-6 hours each time.

7 hours ago, Lorinor said:

We have only played two games with 8 players so far, I'd say it was about 5-6 hours each time.

Yeah, I've played at every player count from 1-8 (and twice with 16 at Arkham Nights), and the few games we've played with a full 8 were a lot of fun. We just made sure everyone knew they were in for a 5+ hour game.

23 hours ago, ishinken said:

Really? I find that very hard to believe tho. How long does an average game take?

It's not like you have a Mythos Phase after each player...

Length? Usually a few hours. I host our sessions, so I'm usually busy cleaning up, doing dishes, and stuff

On 5/31/2017 at 3:44 PM, Matt620 said:

I've usually played 8 players, it usually works out pretty well.

Yea I agree! I only play 8 character games now (with me and my friend each playing 4 characters) it just adds so much depth with the added character interactions and all the other extra stuff. Games tend to take 7-9 hours, but are always fun and rewarding ( occasionally we descend into madness during the last hour, we start to make stupid mistakes and it becomes a fun slog )

also there are so many investigators that are near unplayable in 4 player games. Like Minh is not playable at 4 but at 8 investigators she becomes a top 3 investigator in the game.

As far as fighters are concerned, I've only played around 30 games so far but on many occasions fighters become obsolete too easily. So many spell casters can get combat related spells or monster avoidance spells that they become much more effective at what the fighters are trying to do with the added flexibility of other abilities. (Wither, Poision Mist, Azure Flame, Wrack, Banishment, along with Mists of Releh, Shroud of Shadow) whereas most combat related fighters can never become spellcasters.

And if you can improve Lore for your spell casters you can reach the 3+ success consistently and get added bonuses from spells.

Although they nerfed Tokyo's ability to damage monsters its much more valuable to have someone permanently stationed there ( Never spending actions on tickets or traveling ) than to have a fighter traveling around to fight monsters.

When we run 8 investigators we usually do 1 maybe 2 fighters and at least 3 spellcasters (2 heavy spellcasters like Daisy [the best investigator, the love of my life] Dexter, Agnes, Jackie, Diana and one mid tier/support spellcaster Patrice, Mandy, Marie) we focus heavily on improvement the first third of the game and they can become super powerful when combined with the best support investigators

charlie

harvey (Harvey starts two spaces from Joe Diamond and within 3-4 turns can turn Joe into a god)

Minh (starts with dexter! And has the best passive in the game with one of the best actions. Saving someone else from spending an action to give them and herself a ticket can give someone more powerful 7-10 actions over the course of the game)

sister mary

vincent lee

Hank is probably the only player with 4 sanity I would play because he can avoid the will test during combat

Edited by Shoshalla

Nicole: Hey Shoshalla, my husband and I play with 8 investigators too. We each play four characters. We play the game over the span of a few days and just leave the board up on our kitchen table and then eat dinner at the coffee table. ^_^ Sounds like we have similar play styles. 8 investigators is so much fun because, like you said, you can have more diversity and investigators that wouldn't normally be good in a lower investigator game do really well in an 8 player game and there is much more depth in their interaction. It works out well because I love playing the support roles such as Charlie and Jenny Barnes. Ian likes the fighter characters and spell casters (His favorite spellcasters are Daisy and Agnes).

Ian: 8 investigators is the only way to play for us. We have played with different numbers, but 8 is the most fun. You really have to think hard about how you will coordinate them or you will fall flat. There is also so much diversity and possibility for each turn. My overall favorite investigators are: Leo, Ashcan, Ursula, Mandy and Rita. After that, I love Hank and McGlen and Daisy and Agnes. Three token rumors are much more challenging when you have to scrounge up 4 to 8 clues. In an 8 investigator game you definitely need to have someone designated to clue hunting, such as Mandy Thompson (IMO, she is THE researcher of choice).

You can easily get away from the strength fighter role if you take someone like Agnes or Diana or Dexter. Most essential roles, imo, are Clue getter and Gate closer. Next comes monster remover. And lastly someone who is at least mobile. Usually the gate closer or clue getter will also be a support caster.

I appreciate Daisy and Jacqueline as clue getters. The issue here, obviously, are the mysteries requiring clues to be gotten from research. Anyone with decent will/lore can close gates. I pull in Akachi or Luke if someone dies and things look out of control.

Asset acquiring is fantastic, but only if you can get what you need to the right people.