https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/8/28/available-now-august-28/

Their is a typo on the investigator text on the August 28th available now article.Stella Clark and Jacqueline Fine have the same text in the article

Across the five cycles of Arkham Horror: The Card Game, you’ve encountered new investigators in each new deluxe expansion, giving you more and more options for building your decks and exploring the mythos. Now, you have the chance to invite a new face to your games with the Winifred Habbamock Investigator Starter Deck.

Clearly this is a typo.

I'm just happy to see the original Arkham character Harvey show up. From the start of the Call of Cthulhu RPG to now, he's the oldest guy out there - and looking pretty sexy for an old dude!

10 hours ago, Krysmopompas said:

I'm just happy to see the original Arkham character Harvey show up. From the start of the Call of Cthulhu RPG to now, he's the oldest guy out there - and looking pretty sexy for an old dude!

I know. As I was looking at investigators we don’t have yet, there seemed to be a lot of Seekers still. Harvey doesn’t lend himself to a dual class, so making him just a Seeker was great. He’s a little like Prof Trelawny’s hilarious description of Hermoine. To paraphrase; “a soul as old and dusty as the books to which he so desperately cleaves.”

The old-line investigator I'm aching for is Kate Winthrop.

I want my Gloria.

I just realized that Copycat works on Signature skills like Nautical Prowess and Neither Rain Nor Snow...

A Rogue with Copycat and Mark with Practice Makes Perfect could, with a bit of luck, collectively commit The Home Front six seven times before anyone cycles their deck.

That said, I'm not sure the rules here are crystal clear — The FAQ tells us "An investigator cannot control another investigator’s signature cards." I vaguely recall an argument or ruling that the Skill fetched by Copycat does not change controller, which would make this interaction legal (and make Copycat interact unfavorably with Wini's ability), but I don't have it to hand.

More than anything the cards in Stella and Winnie's decks make me real excited to try parallel Skids. As far as the prebuilts go I think Winnie seems like a real fun deck type to built do, but that deck needs tinkering. Jacqueline and Stella looks real cool out of the box. Harvey and Nathaniel feel real specialized. They might be best tried together as prebuilts I'm thinking. Nathaniel's deck looks real cool as a monster hunter/protector but boy he has so few ways to investigate in that prebuilt. I can't see playing that solo.

Winifred and Stella suffer from the issue that they lack for solid ways to contribute out of the box: They can both pull off crazy combos and bust out large numbers to apply to tests, but Stella has 4 bullets total in her starting deck and 4 charges of Old Keyring, plus "Look What I Found!" (and I guess Mysterious Raven), and Winifred has a little more staying power with 2x Mauser and 2x Lockpicks (0) plus Pilfer (and I guess Switchblade (0)) but has enormous resource problems (at least until Chuck Fergus enters the picture) so can't easily keep her board-state ready to go. Once they run out of steam, they're left evading or testing with their mediocre intellect to grab clues, or taking the Draw and Resource actions repeatedly to be able to get back into the swing of things. All of the decks have a few cards that aren't particularly good in them, and it's cool that they're not perfect out of the box and can help teach newer players about what kinds of cards work (both in general and for their own playstyle) but there's a few real duds - if we decide to revisit just using the Investigator packs without adding in all the other player cards out there, I think we'll be adding the option to take the fundamental neutral Core Set cards - neutral skills, Flashlight and Emergency Cache (and I guess Knife) - to fill gaps.

The higher level cards, on the other hand, are almost all excellent and provide a real range of options to choose from - restricting myself to just the upgrades included in the pack, I've found it really hard to decide where to put my exp for Stella, which is a really good sign.

Nathaniel and Norman are certainly very specialised - Nathaniel having a single clue-gathering option and Norman having two enemy-killing cards - but the upgrades they have give them a bit more room in that regard.

All in all they're great fun, and the sort of limited format of restricting oneself to the prebuilt decks and their included upgrades is quite refreshing - almost like the core set only days.

6 hours ago, Spritz Tea said:

I vaguely recall an argument or ruling that the Skill fetched by Copycat does not change controller, which would make this interaction legal (and make Copycat interact unfavorably with Wini's ability), but I don't have it to hand.

That's really weird, because I'm pretty sure Wini's pamphlet specifically calls out Copycat as singlehandedly triggering her ability. Regrettably, this would make it impossible to Copycat The Home Front and Neither Rain Nor Snow.

19 hours ago, Carthoris said:

The old-line investigator I'm aching for is Kate Winthrop.

I occasionally like the cheesy side. We've had the Dreamlands now, for high fantasy, and Innsmouth is going to get back to a bit more classical Lovecraft horror, so I think it's time after that for another globe trotting pulp campaign.

What I'm saying is, I'd like to see Monterey Jack.

18 hours ago, Allonym said:

Winifred and Stella suffer from the issue that they lack for solid ways to contribute out of the box: They can both pull off crazy combos and bust out large numbers to apply to tests, but Stella has 4 bullets total in her starting deck and 4 charges of Old Keyring, plus "Look What I Found!" (and I guess Mysterious Raven), and Winifred has a little more staying power with 2x Mauser and 2x Lockpicks (0) plus Pilfer (and I guess Switchblade (0)) but has enormous resource problems (at least until Chuck Fergus enters the picture) so can't easily keep her board-state ready to go. Once they run out of steam, they're left evading or testing with their mediocre intellect to grab clues, or taking the Draw and Resource actions repeatedly to be able to get back into the swing of things. All of the decks have a few cards that aren't particularly good in them, and it's cool that they're not perfect out of the box and can help teach newer players about what kinds of cards work (both in general and for their own playstyle) but there's a few real duds - if we decide to revisit just using the Investigator packs without adding in all the other player cards out there, I think we'll be adding the option to take the fundamental neutral Core Set cards - neutral skills, Flashlight and Emergency Cache (and I guess Knife) - to fill gaps.

The higher level cards, on the other hand, are almost all excellent and provide a real range of options to choose from - restricting myself to just the upgrades included in the pack, I've found it really hard to decide where to put my exp for Stella, which is a really good sign.

Nathaniel and Norman are certainly very specialised - Nathaniel having a single clue-gathering option and Norman having two - but the upgrades they have give them a bit more room in that regard.

All in all they're great fun, and the sort of limited format of restricting oneself to the prebuilt decks and their included upgrades is quite refreshing - almost like the core set only days.

Yeah I was debating last night if I wanted to leave them built and play with them for a while as a limited format or throw the cards back into my binder. I think I'm gonna keep them built till the Innsmouth cycle drops and really give them a work out since it does give me an interesting challenge and it also forces me to really exercise these new cards.

I haven't tried Stella yet, but yes I echo the issue Winnie has in that deck build. She is definitely built for big moments (Which is a Rogue feature) and I would have built her with a more consistent floor. I get why Switchblade is in there, but it's a frustrating include. Level 0 Lockpicks are way more fleeting. I might tweak it a bit and throw some more consistent stuff in there. I feel like just replacing Streetwise and Switchblade with Flashlight and 41. Derringer might give her a more reliable floor. Derringer is more spend-y than Switchblade but Flashlight is less spend-y than Streetwise so the cost curve change might wash out. Derringer gives her a better success rate at hitting the success threshold and it means if you go Sharpshooter early that card gets more utility. Streetwise just feels too expensive in the deck. Maybe after spending some XP it gets easier to use. I like Switchblade for other investigators like Tony and Dex, but Winnie has almost no combat icons in this deck so the times where Switchblade does anything is extremely rare. Maybe Winnie's deck is built to be played with the Jacqueline deck rigging the chaos bag for her. That might be an interesting pairing.

The investigator decks are up on www.cardgamedb.com

Just the investigator cards and the "rabdom" weakness, not the other crads (?) .

Seems to be most of it?

37 minutes ago, Seam said:

Just the investigator cards and the "rabdom" weakness, not the other crads (?) .

cardgamedb.com, not arkhamdb.com. They'll follow suit now that they're up on the former.

Was curious what people thought of the basic weaknesses included in these packs? Will you be including them in your basic weakness pool or leaving them out? Some of them seem too specific to the investigators to include (such as the Harvey Walters one) while others seem more general in nature.

RM

2 minutes ago, OC Architect said:

Was curious what people thought of the basic weaknesses included in these packs? Will you be including them in your basic weakness pool or leaving them out? Some of them seem too specific to the investigators to include (such as the Harvey Walters one) while others seem more general in nature.

RM

They are basic weaknesses so yes, I will be including them with my other basic weaknesses

1 minute ago, OC Architect said:

Was curious what people thought of the basic weaknesses included in these packs? Will you be including them in your basic weakness pool or leaving them out? Some of them seem too specific to the investigators to include (such as the Harvey Walters one) while others seem more general in nature.

RM

They are all basic weaknesses and so intended to be "generic" weaknesses, so I'll certainly be including them in the general pool. I don't see how Obsessive is too specific to Harvey Walters to include for other investigators - it's in the same broad design space as Amnesia which has been around since the core set. Certainly it could be more of a problem for big-hand seeker decks (or less of a problem for them depending on the situation) but it's always been the case that certain weaknesses hit certain investigators harder than others or interact with investigator gimmicks in specific ways - Stubborn Detective ruins Calvin, Drawing The Sign and The Tower wreck Patrice, Paranoia hits big money decks, Unspeakable Oath (Cowardice) is awful for Leo, Hypochondria is bad for Mark, and so on.

The only weaknesses I ever exclude are those with a strong thematic link to one of the campaigns.

16 minutes ago, Allonym said:

They are all basic weaknesses and so intended to be "generic" weaknesses, so I'll certainly be including them in the general pool. I don't see how Obsessive is too specific to Harvey Walters to include for other investigators - it's in the same broad design space as Amnesia which has been around since the core set. Certainly it could be more of a problem for big-hand seeker decks (or less of a problem for them depending on the situation) but it's always been the case that certain weaknesses hit certain investigators harder than others or interact with investigator gimmicks in specific ways - Stubborn Detective ruins Calvin, Drawing The Sign and The Tower wreck Patrice, Paranoia hits big money decks, Unspeakable Oath (Cowardice) is awful for Leo, Hypochondria is bad for Mark, and so on.

Has anybody run Doomed with Patrice? Does she make it more than 2 scenarios?

I was really looking forward to the investigator decks, but after several games with Jacqueline, Winifred and Stella, I gotta say I'm disappointed. They just seem to lack any decent capability out of the box. I really want to like them and their new cards, but I'm struggling.

6 minutes ago, CaffeineAddict said:

I was really looking forward to the investigator decks, but after several games with Jacqueline, Winifred and Stella, I gotta say I'm disappointed. They just seem to lack any decent capability out of the box. I really want to like them and their new cards, but I'm struggling.

How many hands are you playing? I doubt any of them would be decent solo, but in a 3/4 player game they all have the tools to fill in n the gaps and make the ends meet, so to speak. The problem is that they're all built as all-rounders instead of with any focus, which you kind of need in this game.

I certainly don't think the problem is their cards; lvl 0 lockpicks, alternatives to Rite of Seeking and Shriveling, and decent level 0 survivor weapons are all interesting and valuable additions to the game, to name a few. It just seems like their decks are not the best places for those things to shine.

1 hour ago, SGPrometheus said:

How many hands are you playing? I doubt any of them would be decent solo, but in a 3/4 player game they all have the tools to fill in n the gaps and make the ends meet, so to speak. The problem is that they're all built as all-rounders instead of with any focus, which you kind of need in this game.

I certainly don't think the problem is their cards; lvl 0 lockpicks, alternatives to Rite of Seeking and Shriveling, and decent level 0 survivor weapons are all interesting and valuable additions to the game, to name a few. It just seems like their decks are not the best places for those things to shine.

Two handed with Jacqueline and Winnifred, and solo with Stella. 3 handed seems a bit much to manage solo (No one else i know is interested in the game, so all my games are solo or 2-handed solo).

I do like a lot of their new cards, the decks themselves just feel like they're missing something to make them work. Which isn't great for a product intended to give a playable deck.

As someone who wants to get second copies of one-of cards in the core set, but not have to buy a second core set if not needed do theses have reprints of those one- cards in them?

Was looking to see if any sites had the deck lists but couldn’t fine any yet.