Hello all,

Spoilers incoming obviously.

My friends and I have the absolute most difficult time with this scenario, but we have no idea how to complete it. We ran it as our 3rd scenario in the FA campaign hoping we could get Calvin Monstrous Transformation, and no dice. Not even close and we play on easy. We can usually collect a few of the components in the scenario needed for the resolution in which you don't kill the Rougarou, but we always die before we can engage him. Mostly because someone randomly draws the encounter where he attacks everyone in connecting locations, and usually because we have to stand right next to him in order to prepare for an assault that will make use of our limited 3 actions the best. In a 3 player game, a mythos card that drops everyone by 2 health and 2 sanity is very scary, and we always have bad timing with it.

How do you guys handle this scenario? Between the locations that force you to lose resources and skills, monsters that force you to either take damage or have a very high combat value, and tests of every stat (the willpower treacheries are also very harsh), how do you make it through? Do you outright kill the Rougarou? Do you go for the alternate route by finding the doll/traps/binding stone and a crud-ton of clues?

I can't get a handle on how to approach the scenario. Everything in it is awful and often devestating. Do you just try to get lucky? Who do you take with you? In this most recent run, we used Calvin, Finn, and Ursula. Is it simply because we need to have more damage up-time? Do we need to have more access to treachery canceling cards?

Hay-elp!

Yeah, CotR is an extremely punishing scenario, and I think a lot of it does depend on how lucky you are with treacheries that manipulate the Rougarou. I've only ever gotten the resolution you describe in solo, and that was with me resetting turns to try different strategies (and using Roland w/ replacement cards).

In regards to the location difficulties you mention, there's always one of the three (cause the locations are in groups of three) that does the opposite of the other two; the Wilderness one gives you resources, the riverside one gives you a skill bonus, the New Orleans one makes assets cheaper, i think, and i forget what the last one does. These always have a cost, like taking horror for resources or damage for the skill boost, but Calvin should be loving that. Even then, it's still really difficult to play around, but exploring is great in this scenario.

As for your team comp, i agree with your theory that you don't have enough damage. The encounter deck has about a million enemies in it, especially once the agenda advances, and it's easy for even a team with a really dedicated monster hunter to get overwhelmed.

Even with those things in mind, the scenario does seem to take quite a lot of luck, especially if you're going for the hard ending. My friends and i recently tried it on hard after TFA just like you did but with Leo, Ursula and Carolyn, and it was an absolute massacre. The scenario is just very hard.

This scenario more than most benefits from testless damage. Beat Cop, Beat Cop(2), Dynamite Blast, sneak attack(2), and Agnes Baker can all deal damage to the Rougarou with out having to test for the damage or even engage the thing which will save you 1 clue per investigator. Ambush is also an option early on if you can get it set up in a non-bayou location before the Rougarou spawns.

Both test for the traps and the test for the doll would benefit from streetwise and having lots of resources on hands to cover their costs. Higher Education will help with the boding stone and one of the traps. You should have the spread of collectibles you need between the two of those.

The net is the worst of the two traps because you have to exhaust the Rougarou to use it on him. The only card that can evade him without engaging him is Cunning Distraction.

If you can afford Stick to the Plan, that will remove the RNG of having to draw both Cunning Distraction and Dynamite Blast to hurt him and try to get the net on him assuming you get stuck with the net as your only option.

From this pull of cards we can see that we need a character who is not Lola Hayes with access to level 3 Guardian, another with access to level 3 seeker cards, and a final one with access to level three Rogue cards in a party that has earned at least 7 xp so they can pick up the necessary permanents to guarantee they'll have the cards to deal with the mandatory tests and challenges in the scenario while eliminating any possibility of having to engage the Rougarou more than once.

Having the guaranteed dynamite blast to attack the Rougarou will also let you keep your distance from the rougarou and avoid that Treachery that keeps acing you.

7 hours ago, Donel said:

The net is the worst of the two traps because you have to exhaust the Rougarou to use it on him. The only card that can evade him without engaging him is Cunning Distraction.

Is this true? Cunning Distraction is still a bold Evade action, which I thought still requires a valid engaged enemy to target. I didn't think you could play it without at least one engaged enemy.

36 minutes ago, Network57 said:

Is this true? Cunning Distraction is still a bold Evade action, which I thought still requires a valid engaged enemy to target. I didn't think you could play it without at least one engaged enemy. 

It is true. Check the FAQ.

Getting the transformation is somewhat of an undertaking, and only rather specific builds can actually make it useful enough to warrant the continued curse.

I find that Ashcan Pete is the hands, down, best investigator for this thing, all he sacrifices is his willpower.

Just try not to waste any time in this scenario, get ahead of the Rougarou and manage where he leaves clues and manage where he is about to run to. Every-other non-Bayou location isn't a victory spot but still picking up those clues can be invaluable to control his moves.

2 hours ago, Network57 said:

Is this true? Cunning Distraction is still a bold Evade action, which I thought still requires a valid engaged enemy to target. I didn't think you could play it without at least one engaged enemy.

Only the rulebook Evade action requires you to be engaged with the enemy you're evading.

1 hour ago, tsuruki said:

Getting the transformation is somewhat of an undertaking, and only rather specific builds can actually make it useful enough to warrant the continued curse.

I find that Ashcan Pete is the hands, down, best investigator for this thing, all he sacrifices is his willpower.

Just try not to waste any time in this scenario, get ahead of the Rougarou and manage where he leaves clues and manage where he is about to run to. Every-other non-Bayou location isn't a victory spot but still picking up those clues can be invaluable to control his moves. 

Calvin is the best for this.

He goes from zeros in all stats with a bonus equal to the amount of damage/horror on him to a 2/2/5/5 with the same bonus on him based on the damage/horror on him. Its kind of insane.

22 minutes ago, Jobu said:

Calvin is the best for this.

He goes from zeros in all stats with a bonus equal to the amount of damage/horror on him to a 2/2/5/5 with the same bonus on him based on the damage/horror on him. Its kind of insane.

Youre right. Holy ****.

We ran it with Ursula, Leo, & Mateo, also as our 3rd FA scenario. Once Mateo gained the curse, he mostly hung around Lady Esprit (to remove horror) as he was unable to do damage most turns.

Ursula is amazing at evasion (for a seeker), so she mostly moved around the board clue-hunting. When she encountered monsters she couldn't evade (Swamp Leech), Leo would bail her out. She used The Chthonian Stone to seal the Tablet token and prevent its power, "Reveal another token. If you fail, until the end of the round, you cannot move." No one draws the Auto-Fail token as much as a person who plays Chthonian Stone.

Leo's first XP purchase was Charisma, and he was able to get out Leo de Luca & Mitch Brown before too long. After that, he got his Beat Cop [2] out, and was able to deal damage as a free trigger. He used a Machete and a Survival Knife in conjunction with Beat Cop [2] to cut his way through our enemies as they emerged. Just before Beat Cop [2] would use his last health, Leo would Calling In Favors to take him back into hand, playing him using Leo's special at the start of his next turn. Devastatingly useful.

Our biggest, lasting hurdle was that we only had access to the Bear Trap. Mateo sat, with Lady Esprit, to gain enough resources to move through the Forgotten Marsh (losing 2), get to the Trapper's Cabin, and pay 5 to test Knowledge in one turn. He dropped in enough skills to ensure that he'd get it, baring the Auto-Fail.

We didn't do a great job of clue acquisition after Mateo started get low on Sanity, so all of the locations had clues on them. After he got the trap, Ursula regrouped with him (possibly at the cabin) and cleared the area of clues. They laid the trap and waited for the rougarou to move.

Leo with Leo & a level 2 Beat Cop really took care of our monster problems; 4 actions & bonus damage will do that. Ursula, doubly when she gets Pathfinder out, is a neigh unstoppable. (Still waiting for Jake Williams to make an appearance.) Not sure how I feel about Father Mateo.

My concerns about your team are Enemy mitigation & the ability to split your party. Ursula, with her agility, can really leave the safety of damage-dealers and investigate. I haven't played as Finn yet, but his static ability looks good for this mission; his ES ability, less so.

We have yet to beat this so I'm not sure, do you get access to monstrous transformation regardless if you kill the rougarou or 'trap'/talk to him? Or do you have to do one or the other?

Ursula is definitely a boon in this scenario, and so was Finn (but his will of 1 became an issue). Honestly our biggest issue was that when we got close to the Rougarou, we pulled the treachery cards that slaughtered us all. Perhaps the key is to always be where he is going next (when he moves, I don't think he attacks or anything). So instead of pursuing him, we probably should let him come to us maybe?

3 minutes ago, Soakman said:

We have yet to beat this so I'm not sure, do you get access to monstrous transformation regardless if you kill the rougarou or 'trap'/talk to him? Or do you have to do one or the other? 

Ursula is definitely a boon in this scenario, and so was Finn (but his will of 1 became an issue). Honestly our biggest issue was that when we got close to the Rougarou, we pulled the treachery cards that slaughtered us all. Perhaps the key is to always be where he is going next (when he moves, I don't think he attacks or anything). So instead of pursuing him, we probably should let him come to us maybe? 

I think spreading out is viable strategy. But besides inflicting players worth of damage and attaching a trap, there is little reason to be near the Rogarou after that. Depending on how the game is flowing you may want to get those two out of the way early or late. There is also a temptation for everyone to get in, engage him, attach a trap and do the damage in one go. That may be a tall order and it may be best to do a bit at a time.

You don't want to kill it if you want the asset.

We found out that it was easiest to stay far away from the Rougarou until we had all the parts we needed. Like, never even go into the same section of the map. That was four players, though, so we had specialized roles for everything, plus quite a few XP already. Zoey to take care of monsters, Rex to hover up clues, Skids to break into the house in New Orleans... then we rushed him all in the same turn once we had about 10 clues.

Did you remember that he runs away after you deal four damage?

1 hour ago, rsdockery said:

Did you remember that he runs away after you deal four damage?

It would be 3 damage in their case no? Isn't it 1-per-Investigator damage to make him run?

It is 3 in our case, but we were just about to go do damage to him and were all at a connecting location and the encounter deck made him attack everyone for 2 health and sanity. Dropped Finn to unstable, and we felt it was highly unlikely we would be able to finish with just Ursula and Calvin, so we ended up retreating. Finn also didn't want to take a trauma since he has the most so far in our campaign and with a will of 1, some of those encounters are nigh unavoidable horror for him.

Rougarou isn't all that bad.

Priority 1: Clue manage! Control where the beast runs next by keeping locations clue free. -Investigating a non victory location is absolutely worth it for the sake of affecting the monster's movement.

Priority 2: Spawn manage! Someone needs to be killing all the Dholes and Gugs, you have lots of control over them so scatter them and spread the load as evenly as is viable.

Priority 3: Chip it down! Work together to put damage on the beast so that it mustn't be killed in just 1 round, if you can drop it by 50+% in one round in the middle of the scenario somewhere really go for it!

Tricks:

The Rougarou is aloof, but once engaged with any one investigator everybody can chip in the damage on it, this means that a non-combatant can get the beasts's attention and let everybody else wail on it with their full assortment of actions.

Don't waste Ward of Protection and the like on damage mitigation unless it's imperative, use it for the Treachery attack and to manage how the beast moves.

Do remove those Bayou curse cards when they show up, if you're lucky you'll draw them again, they are very manageable treacheries to draw and worth the action to buff up the treachery deck if you can manage the test. The same goes for leeches if you have someone like Mark who can take the health on the chin and kill them with movement.

Finally: Manage the chaos bag. Depending on your campaign you need to commit to Rougarou before or after certain points, the rule is basically just: No Elder Thing token! Especially on hard! This thing will fail the test and KILL you! Seal it, avoid it, wait for the campaign to modify your bag! You may need to tackle this scenario early to avoid this **** thing.