It feels like Gen Con usually has a warping effect of FFG's releases, which I guess is understandable. I'd assume they'll have some early arkham products at their booth in addition to the Blob scenario. This seems like a good guess since it was targeted for the same time frame for release. The other obvious choice would be Dream Eaters, but it feels real early for Dream Eaters. That said Dream Eaters would be an easier product for people to enjoy at the con. I would imagine a small subset of arkham players will be bringing Carcosa scenarios with them to the con.

The more I look at that upgraded .32 the more I like having a small gun that you can pop in and out of your hand. With Well Prepared on the board it's pretty much all you need for a whole scenario. Maybe not as flashy as spending that 4 xp on the BAR, but still it feels like a cool build. That said the BAR is also a nice gun for Well Prepared.

1 hour ago, phillos said:

The  more I look at that upgraded .32 the more I like having a small gun that you can pop in and out of your  hand. 

For the record, I am 100% imagining that as the gun just sliding off the screen, then sliding back on again, Goldeneye-style.

3 hours ago, phillos said:

The more I look at that upgraded .32 the more I like having a small gun that you can pop in and out of your hand. With Well Prepared on the board it's pretty much all you need for a whole scenario. Maybe not as flashy as spending that 4 xp on the BAR, but still it feels like a cool build. That said the BAR is also a nice gun for Well Prepared.

I think there's basically 3 ways to use the .32 Colt (2) - the first, as you say, is as a primary means of attack - shoot enemies, reload, shoot some more enemies. It's competitive with Machete for that application, especially with the Taboos, though 2 damage per attack and no inherent boost to combat makes it a lot less effective against stronger enemies or bosses; sure you could Well Prepared or play as Mark and punch yourself for boosts, but then you're using up more resources to compensate for the weaknesses of the card itself, and unlike Machete or Timeworn Brand it's not a very attractive target for Reliable ( Well-Maintained won't work on the .32 Colt (2) , though even if it did you're then using up even more cards and exp to compensate so it's a false economy).

The second is if you are relying on a specific weapon as your primary means of victory - a .45 Thompson (3) build, or a Flamethrower build, or a Leo Anderson 1918 BAR + Contraband build, or even a Machete + Blackjack (2) or Machete + Survival Knife build. With these builds, you still want to have more than 2 weapons in your deck so that you aren't reliant on the luck of the draw to contribute early on (even with Prepared for the Worst , your chances of finding a weapon with just 2 copies in your deck are nowhere near good enough to be considered reliable, and a primary combat investigator without a weapon is an investigator unable to pull their weight). The usual logic is to pack at least 4 weapons plus a copy of Prepared for the Worst to put under Stick to the Plan . If you use the .32 Colt (2) as your backup and you draw the Colt and not your Flamethrower (or whatever) in your opening hand, you can still get a bit of killing done, and then when you do get your big gun in hand, you can bounce the .32 Colt back to hand instead of having to discard it - that leaves it ready to be played again once your big gun runs out of ammo, or simply to be a card that you can commit to a test thanks to its decent icons, kind of like the extra benefit of Magnifying Glass (1) with a reload into the bargain.

The third is in a "spend ammo" deck. With Eat Lead and Warning Shot (and the new version of Eat Lead also coming out in Return to the Path to Carcosa) there's the beginnings of a deck archetype where you spend ammo for extra benefits. I hope we see more cards in this vein, and if we do, the .32 Colt (2) would fit right in; who cares that Eat Lead (2) is really ammo-inefficient if you can draw 6 tokens to guarantee a kill then spend an action to reload your Colt .32 by bouncing it and playing it again? These decks will also be excellent with the .45 Thompson (3) , so I think you'd again want to have those two cards as your main weapons.

1 hour ago, rsdockery said:

For the record, I am 100% imagining that as the gun just sliding off the screen, then sliding back on again, Goldeneye-style.

I'm imagining it a bit more like this ...

According to the pdf my FLGS's supplier puts out the last Circle Undone pack is out on Friday.

Yes, Asmodee's official release information (for the UK at least) says Before the Black Throne will release on the 26th (i.e. Friday). Some stores seem to have stock already. Interested to know what comes off the boat next: The Dream-Eaters, Return to The Path To Carcosa or Murder at the Excelsior Hotel. I'm hoping it is the Return to...I need the storage and dividers.

We asked Asmodee UK if they had a timeline and are awaiting a reply.

Here are the SKU numbers for the next few products, you can make of that what you will.

Before the Black Throne (AHC35)

Return to the Path to Carcosa (AHC36)

The Dream Eaters (AHC37)

Murder at the Excelsior Hotel (AHC38)

It is worth remembering that Path to Carcosa was originally released at Gen Con a few weeks before general release and before review copies were sent out.

The Arkham Chronicle Gang

I hadn't though about Murder at the Excelsior Hotel being the Gen Con release. That would be pretty cool and fit as a useful con release.

I agree with the majority of your points Allonym, but I disagree putting Well Prepared and Colt in the same deck is a false economy. Maybe if you are putting Well Prepared in the deck just to cover Colt's weakness then I can see the argument, but if they are both going into the deck because they both fit in the deck you are just capitalizing on another synergy. Guardians are starting to collect a reasonable number of cards with 2 or 3 identical icons which is what Well Prepared wants to see. I still look at Colt as a sidearm primarily. It's benefit is making room for other assets when needed like big weapons with limited ammo. So that's the deck it fits inside best.

I meant to say if the two cards come out early they can be enough such that you don't really need to draw into anything else that game to be effective at fighting high combat foes. I didn't mean to say that you should consider Well Prepared and Colt to be your entire game plan for fighting in the deck. I agree that it would be inconsistent and there are other probably more XP economic solutions.

Murder at the Excelsior seems like the Arkham Nights/Invocation event scenario.

10 hours ago, phillos said:

I agree with the majority of your points Allonym, but I disagree putting Well Prepared and Colt in the same deck is a false economy.

It's not Well Prepared that I think is the false economy (after all, it's a flexible card); it's the use of Upgrade cards and Well-Maintained, if things were different and Well-Maintained could work alongside the bouncing effect of the Colt .32 (2). Bit of a shame really, I've really enjoyed Well-Maintained + Custom Ammunition!

17 hours ago, C2K said:

Murder at the Excelsior seems like the Arkham Nights/Invocation event scenario.

You don’t think it will be The Blob that Ate Everything then?

Care to make a small wager…

On 7/20/2019 at 10:41 AM, C2K said:

Murder at the Excelsior seems like the Arkham Nights/Invocation event scenario.

I'd agree except it's already going up for preorder. To me that means that it's going straight to retail and is not saved for an event like Blob. Blob in it's announcement clearly calls it out as a gen con event and doesn't give preorder options.

As long as we're talking about it: a new announcement !

I think that card art is going to keep me up at night.

I think I'm going to call that set "Die, Calvin, Die."

Ouch - you have to sacrifice actions to avoid the damage? That's going to chafe, especially if you have the misfortune to draw into two or three different ones.

I really like the design of that set of Hidden cards, and hopefully there are more like it. While the "I have a card that prevents me from helping you" is nice twist, the card that is "I am forced to do this routine to prevent bad things from happening" is harder to work around and changes the game.

I have found Path to Carcosa to be the easiest of the campaigns, so I am really looking forward to some increased difficulty.

13 minutes ago, C2K said:

I have found Path to Carcosa to be the easiest of the campaigns, so I am really looking forward to some increased difficulty.

I had a different experience - Carcosa is the only campaign where my investigators have lost in the final scenario!

I haven't gone back and replayed it, so a return to box seems like a good opportunity for me to avenge that defeat.

3 hours ago, CaffeineAddict said:

I had a different experience - Carcosa is the only campaign where my investigators have lost in the final scenario!

I haven't gone back and replayed it, so a return to box seems like a good opportunity for me to avenge that defeat.

We definitely found Carcosa harder than Dunwich, but I think our team wasn't as strong (Zoey + Daisy for Dunwich, Lola + Jenny for Carcosa). In Dunwich, I wouldn't say Where Doom Awaits or Lost in Time and Space were comfortable but we didn't feel that we won them by the skin of out teeth. In Carcosa, we survived The Unspeakable Oath with our last actions, just scraped through Black Stars Rise (with Lola defeated) and lost about three quarters of the way through Dim Carcosa.

I've been back and soloed Dunwich but we haven't gone back to Carcosa yet. When we had a quick look at the other cards in Dim Carcosa our impression was that the Doubt route that we took looked quite a bit harder than the Conviction route for the investigator decks that we had.

20 hours ago, rsdockery said:

I think I'm going to call that set "Die, Calvin, Die."

I read them, in Calvin's voice, as "Oh, dear, I have to boost ALL of my stats? PLEASE don't make me do THAT!"

7 hours ago, CaffeineAddict said:

I had a different experience - Carcosa is the only campaign where my investigators have lost in the final scenario!

In four plays, I haven't even reached it. But I still want this.

We've got more new information !

The weakness isn't a basic weakness, it belongs to one of the scenarios. It appears to just be an action (and 1 resource) cost, if you play it right away.

Man, if only they could get some good, creepy, evocative art. Oh well.

37 minutes ago, Duciris said:

The weakness isn't a basic weakness, it belongs to one of the scenarios. It appears to just be an action (and 1 resource) cost, if you play it right away.

That's from the original Echoes of the Past.

Looks like we will get the Return to the Path To Carcosa next week. It is on Asmodee's list of products to release next week.

On 8/17/2019 at 5:07 PM, Dr Dee said:

Looks like we will get the Return to the Path To Carcosa next week. It is on Asmodee's list of products to release next week.

Confirmed! My copy was despatched yesterday, so I’ll probably get it tomorrow. Much excite!

Awesome. I just finished up a Return to Dunwich Campaign with Zoey and Preston. Just in time to start a new campaign. Brave Preston was an all star. Turns out if you want to build a deck where Preston just auto passes most of his checks you can do it even while respecting the Taboo List. Zoey unfortunately didn't make it back to reality.

i had the shipping notice a couple of days ago, but it didn't arrive before i went away for a short break. Shame, as i'd probably have taken some decks to play in the hotel in the evenings! At least it will be waiting for me when i get home.