My group always tries to get the six seals in place and has never decided from the start to spend the game preparing for Final Combat. Consequently there are a large number of AO's we've never beaten in battle and probably never will

I always counted Yog-Sothoth among that number, yet I noticed from Tibs' statistics that his current Final Battle win percentage is identical to Cthulhu's, whom we have come very close to beating twice (Curse that Flabby Maw of his!). So my question is this: For those of you who have beaten Yog-Sothoth in final combat, how did you do it? Did you clue shotgun him? Did you jump in and close a lot of gates quickly when it looked like he was going to wake up? How did you handle the horrible conflict between your Will and Fight scores during the battle? What characters and weapons did you use?

Randomly drawn team was Michael McGlen (so fixed Tommy Gun), Ashcan Pete, Monterey Jack (.38), Joe Diamond (his .45 + he drew Tommy Gun). I know an encounter handed out another .45, Deputy was taken, so that gave everyone at least +6 in physical weapons. Sealing the Beast's Power Mission was completed, dropping Yog to -3, that much I recall. I was well on my way to sealing Yog off, but Graveyard gate bursted not once but TWICE on the same turn I had just sealed it . Ultimate key though was passing Terrible Experiment. Not in itself, but Joe Diamond started with +1 Will, got +1 Will from TTE and got +1 Fight skill from an encounter, to boot he met John Legrasse at Unvisited Isle. So Joe Diamond, maxing his Fight (to 6 thanks to the skill) still had Will 4 and should he fail, each Clue would earn him a neat 4 dice for the Will check. Michael was rolling 9 dice, Ashcan 8, Monterey 8 and Joe 11 (even before any Clues). As usual, everyone had at least one gate trophy (since I jack-of-all-trade my investigators), Joe had three I think. I was content to blast away at Yog with maxed Fight, I knew Joe wouldn't be failing his Will checks anytime soon and his 11 dice per turn would eventually take out Yog, even if he had been the only investigator with gate trophies.

Pretty much everything that could've given an edge to the investigators in final combat came about in this game, either right during setup with the weapons (and Mission) or from encounters. I'm 1-3 vs Yog in final combats and don't expect to defeat him in the future.

Bob Jenkins. High Will, decent Fight, likely to have a huge pile of good physical weapons, and a decent gate-closer. The one time we beat Yog in a fight it was Bob and someone else decent, and they woke up when we both had a pile of clues we were trying to seal gates with. I don't expect that to happen again...

My thanks to both Dam and Cim. One more question, though: Were your Investigators Blessed at the time?

Nope. I don't buy Blessings. Might for a critical stage when an investigator is in the OWs looking to slap down seal #6 should he get out, but never for final combat (won't complain if an early-game Blessing like Sister Mary's sticks around until final combat). Furthermore, encounters handing them out are rare and my quartet didn't have the brains for spells.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is that I haven't beaten Yog-Sothoth in final combat since:

• Playing with more than 2 investigators
• Adding the Epic Battle deck
• Using Kevin Wilson's suggested limit to spending clues

But yeah, buying blessings right before he awakens is one of the best ways to survive. Juggling your Fight versus your Will is one of the coolest conundrums regarding final combat with Yog.