So we've played maybe a half dozen games using just the core set, and I've had my entire board wiped in 3 of those (living Mummy, etc.)Followed by my opponent winning all the stories unchallenged.

I haven't sorted out my strategies yet, but as a veteran ccg player, I was surprised how brutal the starter games could be.

Is this typical of the game? Also, it seems like when just learning, Terror and Toughness are pretty big factors for or against.

Any recommendations? I don't want to add cards until I grasp what each faction can do, so that's just getting familiar at this point.

Thx for any input - liking it, just not liking losing so violently, so often

Yeah, when I first started playing, I was uncertain how I was ever going to overcome the large number of terror icons available to the monster factions. Willpower is a godsend.

One thing I also noticed in our early games that might have an impact on yours as well is defending. When we first started out very little defending was done, so games flew by at an incredible pace, which could make even one or two smaller things feel even more brutal in the larger scheme because you had so little time to correct for it.

So we've played maybe a half dozen games using just the core set, and I've had my entire board wiped in 3 of those (living Mummy, etc.)Followed by my opponent winning all the stories unchallenged.

I haven't sorted out my strategies yet, but as a veteran ccg player, I was surprised how brutal the starter games could be.

Is this typical of the game? Also, it seems like when just learning, Terror and Toughness are pretty big factors for or against.

It is typical of the game when you start, but this doesn't last as players develop strategies.

Any recommendations?

Play the game more. It takes time to realize that terror and combat are not normally game breaking deals, they are normally a relatively minor part of each story phase.

Once all players involved know rudimentary strategies beyond driving a character insane and winning combat, the deeper parts of the game become illuminated.

For instance, sometimes you just have to defend at a story knowing that a character will be driven insane and a character will take a wound, in order to avoid lots of free success tokens being thrown at a story. There is a lot of back and forth in the game like this.

For deckbuilding suggestions, I recommend that each person take one mythos faction (Hastur, Yog, Shub or Cthulhu) and one Investigator faction (Syndicate, Miskatonic or Agency) and build a deck. A beginner playing all Mythos against all investigators will have a very rough time since the investigators are much cheaper (and thus, quicker) to get out, beating you to the punch at stories.

Side note to FFG: I still think FFG made a huge mistake by not including a few deck lists in the box for new players to try out rather than just "Take 2 factions and a couple neutrals and shuffle". While the hands on approach to deckbuilding through tough love like that works to help players build their own strategies through understanding what cards do, it doesn't serve to coax more players into the game.

Back on topic with that said, I know you just spent 40 bucks on this game, but really the best way for new players to get a taste of what the game is like is to buy one of the old Eldritch edition starters made during this game's CCG era.

They are not really legal for use in the LCG format, but the CCG starters are for all intents and purposes the same game with a higher power level. They can still be found quite cheap (around 10 bucks) at many retailers, online and on the street. Plus you get some domains markers which were not made available in the core set (Or any other LCG release) and can be used for the LCG.

Good stuff, big thx for the insights.

I think part of the choppiness of the first games also came from decks with only one card of each type, so you had something different happen every game. But that also has helped show some of the strengths and weaknesses quicker, so I'm looking forward to plugging in some deck work to shape the game more.

carbonmatter said:

Wipes can be brutal, but there are some ways to get around this. Performance Artist (Core Set F87) can render a Mummy or Rift useless. Power Drain (Core Set F100) fills a similar role, and can even stop Catastrophic Explosions should they happen.

Alternatively, if they wipe the board, you can try to give them a taste of their own medicine by removing whatever they have left, so they can't commit unopposed. Just look for a couple of cards that can give you the opportunity to respond out-of-turn, and try to predict when a wipe would be beneficial for an opponent, so you'll keep a domain open.