Hey everyone. Hejin here again.

Quick question. Since I've opened AH, I've been playing a few two-player games with my bro. Now, we're newbies and all, but we seem to have problems sealing all the gates before the Great Old One awakens. Now, I don't know if we're just doing something wrong, or the game is just hard with 2 people, but I realize we'll automatically lose against GOO like Azathoth.

We close gates left and right, but usually we only get about a total of 5 trophies between us before the GOO is released. So far, we barely beat Shub-Niggurath and Yig, but lost against Nyarlhotep because of the fact his modifier was so low I couldn't roll. Any help on my gate problem/question?

Hejin57 said: Hey everyone. Hejin here again.

Quick question. Since I've opened AH, I've been playing a few two-player games with my bro. Now, we're newbies and all, but we seem to have problems sealing all the gates before the Great Old One awakens. Now, I don't know if we're just doing something wrong, or the game is just hard with 2 people, but I realize we'll automatically lose against GOO like Azathoth.

There's nothing wrong. You will have trouble sealing gates with 2 players. One of my games lasts about 15 or so turns. That means each investigator has 15 turns to do his stuff. With two players, that's 30 investigator turns. It will take 18 turns just to go through six gates. It will take 30 turns just to gather enough clue tokens. Of course, other things like Tomes, beginning clues and Spells may shorten some of these, but not always. Then you may be using/wasting them on fighting monsters.

Sealing with 2 can be done, but it's not easy. Your best chance is with Azathoth because he doesn't interfere with you much and he has 14 Doom Tokens. Sometimes you can seal a gate or three and close the rest. Still it's tough.

Hejin57 said: We close gates left and right, but usually we only get about a total of 5 trophies between us before the GOO is released. So far, we barely beat Shub-Niggurath and Yig, but lost against Nyarlhotep because of the fact his modifier was so low I couldn't roll. Any help on my gate problem/question?

Play 2 investigators each. And remember there are 3 victory conditions. Sealing's not the only one.

2 players should be perfectly playable in my experience as long as you do not add additional boards. I have about 95% win percentage in that circumstance.
So the problem is more likely the tactic. Hejin57 doesn't say much about his tactic, but "we are closing gates left and right" is certainly a bad decision. Note that closing gates HARMS the investigators as it allows the GOO to gain more doom tokens in the long run. One should only close if there is a reason for it (winning the game, desperately needing gate tokens, loosing the game because of too many open gates,...)

kilrah said: 2 players should be perfectly playable in my experience as long as you do not add additional boards. I have about 95% win percentage in that circumstance.

You SEAL 95% of the time with 2 investigators? The poster is asking about sealing. Even winning 95% of the time is impressive. OTOH, why play a game of despair and horror if you win so much of the time? It looks like its time to add some difficulty.

kilrah said: So the problem is more likely the tactic. Hejin57 doesn't say much about his tactic, but "we are closing gates left and right" is certainly a bad decision. Note that closing gates HARMS the investigators as it allows the GOO to gain more doom tokens in the long run. One should only close if there is a reason for it (winning the game, desperately needing gate tokens, loosing the game because of too many open gates,...)

Closing gates indiscriminately harms the investigators, but closing gates may or not harm the investigator in that it gives him the chance to trade them for other things or gain additional game points. We generally go for a closing victory and always close the minor gates as soon as they open.

kilrah said:

Agreed... I'm even able to beat the basic board with a single investigator, provided the GOO isn't too difficult. I usually don't go for sealing victories with one player, but I have done it against Azathoth before.

If you guys are having trouble, I think the first thing you need to learn is gate frequencies.

High Frequency: Woods, Independence Square, Unvisited Isle, and The Witch House

Low Frequency (you can just close these if you're under pressure, there's a decent chance they won't reopen if you don't play slowly): Science Building, Silver Twilight Lodge, Historical Society, and Hibb's Road House

The other gates are all medium frequency... You should try to seal the high frequency gates first if possible. That should give you the breathing room you need to win.

Hejin57 said:

Uhhh.... First of all, don't close gates unless you absolutely have to (and then try to only close low frequency gates— as I said before).

Second, low modifier? I think you should reread the rules... Nyarlathotep's fairly easy to beat in combat, I think his modifier is what, -4? Shub's is higher (negative five I think) and he's immune to physical weapons, whereas Nyarlathotep only has magical resistance...

When I meant his modifier, I meant the modifier that lowers whatever roll you roll to save yourself when he attacks you. I don't remember which skill it was, but it got to -4 and I got devoured.

Hejin57 said:

Nyarly only takes a Clue Token each time you fail against his attack, which is laughably easy. Take bleeping Yog Sothoth, Will check (need adjusting on the Fight/Will axis) and gate trophy, that's nasty.

Well, I've unfortuantely only owned this game for a few days, unlike Doom, which I've had for a year. It takes practice, I guess.

Hejin57 said:

Heh... You'll get used to it ;'D and then you'll need to buy expansions to re-up the difficulty.