Coach Me , Win ratio at 0%

By Zeno89, in General Discussion

Hello Guys,

Either are we doing something wrong or we are missing something because we literally are at 0% win rating 0 out of 10 Games. Although some were very close.

I own every expansion up to Dreamlands (cities in process)

We play with 3 investigators or 2 investigators. Every expansion is added in and we randomize investigators pick 10 out and from that the players can chose. When someone dies he chooses a new investigator from the previously selected ones.

Mythos cards are also randomized with all expansions.

Ancient ones : Azathot (7 games) Ithaqua(1 game) Rise of the elder things (1 Game) Shub niggurath (1 game)

Can someone help us what are we doing wrong? Or some helpful tips :D

Thank you in advance

Zeno

First tip: There is nowhere in the rules that say you SHOULD pick your investigators randomly. Choosing investigators that fill each other's gaps is essential to winning if you care about winning. depending on what these initial 10 investigators you select are, this could really inhibit your strategies.

Azathoth is not easy, though he is not brutal either depending on the mysteries you get. Try Yog and Elder Things. These guys are a bit easier.

In general, you want to focus on the mysteries when possible. Someone with high will/lore should be focused on gates, but pay attention to when the omen track will trigger doom. If you've got 3 turns to go before the comet doom triggers, don't prioritize those gates.

And ... uh... roll better?

:B

You are right there is no rule , we started this so that nobody uses the same investigator every time.

play with 2 or 4

try to have a clue creator in the party (like Daisy Walker), a gate closer (like Akachi Onyele), a Fighter (like Skids O'Toole) and 4th up to you - maybe a shop person (like Charlie Kane)

yog-sothoth, raise of the elder things or azathoth

if playing with sideboard remember you can go to city of elder things after other world encounter, from city of the elder things to any gate as local action and to outpost with 2 successes on a buy action (or debt on a bad roll) - cuts travel time

with elder things you can get allies by fighting cultists, so no need to look for them in the shop

hard monsters can be killed by tokio

artifact for mystery can be found on expedition and any wilderness space

Edited by kraftclub

can't delete double post

Edited by kraftclub

Keep in mind also that certain stats are more useful with certain encounters as they come up more frequently.

Influence = city encounters (generic, but also sometimes research, or other special encounters)

Will/Lore = Gates/Otherworld encounters

Str/Obs/Will = Wilderness/Expeditions

Obs = Research/Sea encounters

If you are using a character that is terrible at str, don't hang out in the wilderness. If you have great influence, you may want to stick to city encounters.

Edited by Soakman

Yeah. The big strategic considerations are basically these:

Investigator selection to cover the roles. We draw randomly too (three per person, choose one), but try to cover the basics.

Who to send where. Ideally, everyone will be doing their specialty, but that's not always possible. Sometimes, a gate just needs to go, now.

and

How long to spend strengthening characters before you get on the mysteries. You want to do some shopping and focusing early on, but you can't take too long. (That's why Charlie Kane is awesome. He can shop for other people, so they can get going right away.)

Thank you guys ,

Next time we will try a setup so that we have a specific fighter , closer, mythos solver. Until now everyone was doing everything and hopefully the rolls will be also better ;)

A few more questions :D: How do you prepare the mythos decks. Do you use preludes? What preludes do you guys enjoy the most :D

I just shuffle them and take either the top x cards or from top middle bottom.

Do you preselect mythos cards: Snowflakes or tentacles :D

preludes usually make the game harder

I go random with mythos

1 hour ago, Zeno89 said:

Thank you guys ,

Next time we will try a setup so that we have a specific fighter , closer, mythos solver. Until now everyone was doing everything and hopefully the rolls will be also better ;)

A few more questions :D: How do you prepare the mythos decks. Do you use preludes? What preludes do you guys enjoy the most :D

I just shuffle them and take either the top x cards or from top middle bottom.

Do you preselect mythos cards: Snowflakes or tentacles :D

Some preludes make the game harder, some easier, some just make it more interesting.

For the mythos deck I recently started customising it to the game I want. First I select all the cards relevant to the expansion I'm using... Eg, next game will be Syzygy with Cities in Ruin, so I select core, strange remnants and cities in ruin cards. Then I build and shuffle the deck from those. Sometimes I might layer difficulty, easier cards for the first third, hard cards for the last third. I will also remove cards we've seen too often (for some reason we always ended up with the Windwalker rumour, now we refuse to play with it).

if the game is too hard, go with easier mythos cards and work your way up from there, and consider picking investigators with the right strengths to what you want to do.

Hmmm... so, you've lost 10 times out of 10.

You're using 3 investigators, which provides you a pretty big disadvantage. You're also randomizing the investigators you get, which is another disadvantage.

On a positive note, given your win/loss ratio, I believe you probably haven't made any rule mistakes. :-)

Yes, we use 3 investigators because usually we are 3 players. Although i have given some thought that at next game I will use 2 investigators or all of us use 3 investigators (which is then 6). We are randomizing the pool yes from all of the investigators (core+every expansion is a hefty stack) we usually select 10 investigators from that everyone can chose. Regarding rules we don't usually make mistakes downside of it the game takes a bit longer :D .

But we often forget or are unable to take care of gates and that is a killer.

  • Play with an even amount of investigators (2, 4, 6...). Game is more imbalanced at odd numbered groups.
  • Do not randomize your starting investigators. I always choose my starting investigators. If an investigator is killed during the game, I will usually randomize their replacement.
  • Make sure you cover these general roles when playing: A Gate Closer, Clue Gatherer, Monster Fighter and/or a Spell Caster or Asset Gatherer (Charlie Kane or Bob Jenkins).
  • Try a game with easier (snowflakes) and neutral Mythos cards only.
  • Elder Things and Syzygy are on the easier side as far as Ancient Ones go.
Edited by Wyndam

If you have three players and want four investigators, I'd suggest getting Charlie Kane and deciding as a group what he's going to do. He's pretty ideal for that role.

I have played EH for hundreds of hours and own every expansion. I currently have around a 70% win rate when I solo play (I control 4 investigators). This is even with choosing fully random investigators. Here are some tips:

- Pick an even number of investigators (4 or 6 is best). You can control multiple investigators per player since there is no hidden knowledge between players and it's cooperative.

- Focus tokens. Try to have at least one on each character at all times. Know when to use a focus token and when to hang on to it. Don't use focus tokens on tests where there's no fail penalty or the stakes are low. Blowing a focus token or two on trying to get an extra success during an acquire assets action is almost always counterproductive. When you fail encounter tests, you not only lose a reward, you often eat a penalty, which is why you should use focus tokens on these sorts of tests. There are also some events that require focus tokens to pass.

- Clues. Try to hoard clues but don't waste encounters picking them up off the board unless you really need to do it to solve the mystery or rumours. There are ways to get clues during the game outside of spending an encounter on it. Closing gates, acquiring assets, performing tasks, and investigator special abilities all can generate clues or spend other stats in place of clues. Don't waste clues on rerolls unless in some sort of dire circumstances or you're at the end of the game sitting on 10 spare clues or something.

- Tasks. Tasks can be a time sink or super useful depending on the task. Don't waste 6 actions on a courier run or treasure map if you can help it. Try to flip/spend them when you've supplied them three times if possible, that will give you the most benefit. In general, I avoid tasks or ignore them unless they're easy to complete.

- Acquire assets. It's an art form in and of itself. With the expansions added, debt can be a real game loser sometimes. Use debt sparingly and if you have a 3-4 influence character, it is usually worth it to spend an action clearing the debt before the next reckoning. Avoid performing acquire assets actions on your 1 or 2 influence characters unless you have a dire need of a specific item. Make sure the right items get to the right characters. Allies with stat boosts and re-rolls are extremely useful on investigators with weaknesses in those stats. Try to get everyone at least one decent weapon in case of ambushes.

- Dark pacts. In general, don't take them if you can help it. If you do have to take one and can't get it removed by 'Sanctuary' or some other means, be ready for that character or another character to be crippled or devoured. Dying before the dark pact comes due is often a good strategy. Don't waste actions to rest or improve stats on a doomed soul. Same goes for agreements. Agreements are almost worse because they are likely to kill your investigator and have double the chance to come due per reckoning.

- Buff your investigators. Work on patching weaknesses on your investigators via improvements and assets. You should be buffing up as much as possible the first several turns. Do not attempt difficult encounters such as strong monsters, sealing gates, or expeditions without first being prepared with nice equipment, spells, focus tokens, and clues if possible. Trinkets that help you pass any tests via re-rolls, adding one to a test result, or granting additional dice are incredibly useful. I believe the best item in the game is the lucky cigarette case. Spread nice items around. Weak investigators are a liability to the team.

- Know when to die. Sometimes an investigator will hit a patch of nasty luck. Failure after failure, tons of negative status conditions, weak items, lots of damage and sanity loss. Don't be afraid to send investigators like this into danger and get them killed. Wasting rest actions on a doomed investigator is usually a bad move. Keep the 'lead investigator' token on the weakest investigator, as mythos cards can frequently harm the leader. You don't want your most effective investigator taking needless damage or getting cursed during a critical moment in the game.

- Keep gates closed. Close gates when you can, as long as it's safe and you're prepared. If the monster's too strong for you, you'll just take damage and lose an encounter. Having more than three gates open is a bad sign. Having more than 5 gates open at a time is a very bad sign.

I want to emphasize know when to die. Spending multiple turns trying to come back from something on a character that is otherwise not accomplishing anything is extremely counter-productive, and will usually end up with the investigator dying anyway so you're not really preventing a doom by dragging it out.