I am about to start Carcosa (just waiting on phantom of truth ugh), and I was wondering what investigator team would be good. It'll be 2 players and we were thinking about doing Agnes and Jenny, I was thinking about using Charon's Obol with Jenny. Without spoilers will we get destroyed? Any advice would be appreciated.

Well, as with any campaign there's always the risk of getting killed on a scenario if the deck is not well built... I usually never take Charon's Obol on my first playthrough, because I don't know what to expect. The only advice is to choose investigators with high levels of sanity (Carcosa plays heavily with your mind)

definitely pick investigators with high sanity and/or multiple allies to soak it up and/or cards that heal horror.

and yes, you're going to get pulverized, but it's going to be awesome fun. : D

47 minutes ago, Henryillusion said:

Well, as with any campaign there's always the risk of getting killed on a scenario if the deck is not well built... I usually never take Charon's Obol on my first playthrough, because I don't know what to expect. The only advice is to choose investigators with high levels of sanity (Carcosa plays heavily with your mind)

Yeah that's probably a good idea about the obol, Agnes+Peter should be able to soak some horror, so I'm hoping that'll be enough for the 2 of us.

30 minutes ago, happy_ythogtha said:

definitely pick investigators with high sanity and/or multiple allies to soak it up and/or cards that heal horror.

and yes, you're going to get pulverized, but it's going to be awesome fun. : D

I feel like in Arkham, unlike most other games the worse I do the more fun it is. : )

Quote

I feel like in Arkham, unlike most other games the worse I do the more fun it is. : )

+1 😆

We're doing OK on our current run with William and Caroline, who we chose in part b/c they seemed thematically appropriate. We were doing great until the 4th Scenario. No spoilers, but just - be very, very aggressive about getting into the basement quickly. William I've found to be a little dull, if effective. He mostly is beating things to death with his baseball bat while Caroline does the interesting stuff. Survivor may just not be for me though.

47 minutes ago, Sarre said:

We're doing OK on our current run with William and Caroline, who we chose in part b/c they seemed thematically appropriate. We were doing great until the 4th Scenario. No spoilers, but just - be very, very aggressive about getting into the basement quickly. William I've found to be a little dull, if effective. He mostly is beating things to death with his baseball bat while Caroline does the interesting stuff. Survivor may just not be for me though.

I will take that into advisement. ; ) Yeah I also like the more interesting gators rather than the only clue/fight ones.

x2 for Carolyn Fern here. Her ability (and some strategically-loaded Ancient Stones) are huge strengths in Carcosa and yes she is thematically appropriate!

As for her partner, you could go with a classic bit of muscle like Boxer Nate, or a performer like one of the Mystics, but since Fine Clothes are important a couple of times you might want a beefy Rogue instead like Tommy, and you can Adaptable them in and out.

I played Patrice a bit and you can totally load her up with fight options, she's also interesting.

Agnes and Jenny would do fine. Jenny is usually a pretty strong all rounder pick. If you are opposed to losing an investigator mid campaign (or just retrying a scenario if that happens) then I'd caution that going insane in this cycle as a resolution is pretty likely unless you've got a really good sanity score. Jenny has a 7 which is not the highest but is respectable. If you are worried about Agnes since her deck builds like to spend her sanity like a resource then she always has the option to take the Pete S. ally, who is stupid good in this cycle.

As far as who is thematically appropriate for Carcosa then Mark, Minh, Yorick, Carolyn and and Lola all have thematic ties to stuff that happens in the cycle. Carolyn because of her job. Lola and Yorick since they are both trained actors. Lola in particular is set to star in The King In Yellow so she has the strongest thematic tie probably. Her or Minh who has an actual copy of the script for The King In Yellow.

For who I played in the cycle, I've run Ashcan, Wendy and Carolyn decks. Investigators that were paired with me included Zoey, Mark, Akachi and Agnes.

I'm gonna add to the universal opinion of Carolyn being great in Carcosa. Not only is she great at keeping everyone's sanity managed, she helps generate resources and makes a decent clue gatherer. Helping to generate resources means you might want to pick a more resource intensive class like Guardian or Mystic, or certain Rogues. The one thing Carolyn doesn't do too well is fight, so if you pick her, you'll likely want a heavy hitter. Either a more traditional Guardian, like Mark or Zoey, or a more Fight oriented Mystic/Rogue, like Diana or Tony. Of course that's just assuming you pick Carolyn at all. There aren't really very many bad options.

Except maybe Patrice. I ran Return to Carcosa recently with Calvin and Patrice, and she was constantly being crippled by all the hidden weaknesses. It's a bad time. I do not recommend Patrice for Carcosa. Ever.

Interesting, I’d have thought Patrice with wards of protection and 2x a test of will (level 0 or 2) and 2x Alter Fare would be well protected in Carcosa

Carolyn is a good choice, but I find that her ability is less useful with fewer investigators. At least the way we play. If there are only two of us, we rarely stick together for long. We kind of play the “divide and conquer” approach. If you don’t have a Seeker, I suggest Norman Withers. He has strong Seeker skills, a high Will, which is needed in Carcosa, becomes a full-on Mystic the more he goes on and has a very useful ability.

14 hours ago, Mimi61 said:

Carolyn is a good choice, but I find that her ability is less useful with fewer investigators. At least the way we play. If there are only two of us, we rarely stick together for long. We kind of play the “divide and conquer” approach. If you don’t have a Seeker, I suggest Norman Withers. He has strong Seeker skills, a high Will, which is needed in Carcosa, becomes a full-on Mystic the more he goes on and has a very useful ability.

she's been good for me so far for this purpose playing through Carnevale and now starting Forgotten Age. i let Wini and Father Mat forge ahead and meet all the ghoulies and she hangs back and cleans up the clues. i do think i leaned too hard into her guardian fight/defense abilities in building her deck (especially for a character i routinely keep out of combat), so i may do some tweaking between scenarios.

On 10/31/2020 at 6:00 PM, Krysmopompas said:

Interesting, I’d have thought Patrice with wards of protection and 2x a test of will (level 0 or 2) and 2x Alter Fare would be well protected in Carcosa

It might be a little less painful on vanilla Carcosa, but we were doing the Return To version, which has much nastier hidden weaknesses. Sure, we could've brought along more treachery cancellation effects, but you're a little at the mercy of the draw with Patrice. I know we didn't include all of those. I wasn't the one playing Patrice specifically, so I don't know the exact deck composition. But in general, the Return To hidden cards are especially nasty on Patrice. For any other investigator, they're annoying. But for the most part, you don't think about them unless you're running close to your hand size. But Patrice? That's one fewer card she draws every turn. Especially (Horrors), because on Patrice, well. That little bastard's gonna sit there in her hand for basically the entire game. The rest of em, well. Patrice needs her card draw. Which means getting rid of those Hidden cards ASAP. Which means racking up a LOT of damage over the course of a scenario.

On 10/31/2020 at 1:01 AM, Annette Soleil said:

I'm gonna add to the universal opinion of Carolyn being great in Carcosa.

I don't have Carolyn right now, but once I get her I'll definitely take her through Carcosa. Maybe paired with Yorrick or Mark.