Hi,

Me and a friend has started to play this game extensively from the core set. However, we bought 2 packs in the Dreamlands pack expansion and added those to the core faction decks. Now, what about all the neutral cards? How to add/split those between two players to get a balanced game? Are neutral cards also subjected to normal deck building rules, i. e one chooses as many as one thinks is profitable?

Moreover, anyone with experience from playing Cthulhu/Miskatonic deck? I am having BIG trouble winning with it against my friend who plays Hastur/Syndicate. The problem seems to be that one needs to feed the play area with decent Cthulhu characters to block the opponents combat force, but then not having the resources or timing to get any investigation characters out from Miskatonic. Result: oppponent too often grabs 3 clues at one time, due to inefficient competition. A real great card from the Cthulhu deck seems to be the 'Ravager', which can stall the opponent.

Any good tips? Also, please give your opinion on Asylum packs that just adds flavour and thematic width and can go straight into the core set's decks and keep the balance for two players.

Thanks in advance,love the game

I don't think you need to worry so much about who gets how many Neutral cards - just assign them according to the wants of the players. As you grow your collection by getting more Asylum packs, you will have more choices and may be using less Neutrals, etc.

As for Cthulhu/Miskatonic - that's a challenging pairing. Miskatonic should probably be your lower cost characters that come out early and Cthulhu being used for destruction and big hitters.

Thanks for the input. I have no earlier experience from ccg or lcg, so the finer aspects of these mechanics will have to show themselves to me as I go, but it is a bit confusing for a total newbie at first. Saw somewhere that the sort of proper way to go if serious about it, seems to be getting three copies of the core set and build decks with triples (I guess?). For someone not so much into it, that sounds a bit sterile and calculating on the verge of too raw mechanics/tactics. I was thinking about a deck with 50 singular cards, that conveys the Lovecraftian cosmology in a nice way but also works together well. Would that be very unconventional and disadvantageous?

Anyhow, how about starting with the core decks, and just add stand alone cards from Asylum packs? Dreamlands doesn´t seem so good in this respect, since it relies heavy on the day/night mechanic. How about Mountains Of Madness?

You should have three copies of the core set, as it contains some very good cards. Decide your strategy and buy asylum packs accordingly. Look for decks on the net and build accordingly. And have fun. If you have a friend who plays as well, you can buy asylum packs together and borrow cards.

Three copies of the core set allows you maximum flexibility in building decks. However it is certainly far from necessary. More Asylum packs will give you more choices and variety quickly. I played for about a year before I bought my 2nd and 3rd copies of the core set.

As for having a deck of 50 unique cards, well it minimizes your strategic choices. I will say that we occasionally play that way in our regular gaming group: bring a "Highlander" ("There can only be one...") deck and play. It is tough to play Highlander style, but it can be fun.

If you want to be competitive against the high level players you'll want 3 copies of every card in the game, because that's what they have. It gives you the most options in how to build your deck and the most consistency. But, that only really matters at a handful of events each year worldwide so I'm not sure I'd worry too much about it. But, among your friends you can play however you like. Allow just one copy per card, two copies, or whatever. Two may be a good compromise and the Core set is the only thing you'll need to buy more than one of.

First, figure out what you want to spend. I'd say the best start is to get a Core set and the Secrets of Arkham expansion. After that look at picking up some different Asylum packs that you want, maybe the Silver Twilight expansion, and later on possibly a second Core. I'd probably save the 3rd Core until I'd already gotten most of the Asylum packs.

Here's the problem with the Core set. It's got a lot of useful cards in it that you'll want. But, it's expensive and you're paying for a lot of junk you don't need in the duplicate copies. That's extra rulebooks, extra tokens, extra Cthulhu statues, etc... I really wish that FF would acknowledge this problem and release some sort of "Core Booster" set containing two copies of all the Core cards and nothing else. While they're at it, maybe also include one more copy of all the Secrets of Arkham cards. This would be a HUGE benefit for players getting into the game and I'm willing to bet that nearly all the money saved would immediately go to buying more Asylum Packs. I know it would in my case. Plus making it easier to get into the game would boost the popularity which is sorely needed I think.

On Neutral cards... I'm still pretty new, but I don't like to include too many Neutral cards as they seem to sometimes cause resourcing problems, particularly if you get them in your initial hand. i would be less concerned about taking some Neutral cards in a mono-faction deck though. Maybe about 6 Neutrals total is what I'd consider a limit.

Great input. I see. Freedom within the limits of the competitive. I think I will hold off another copy of the core set for awhile, and soon go for Secrets Of Arkham. Is it out of print for the moment though? Not a single retailer here in Sweden is stocked at the moment.

Asylum pack clarification:

Is it correct that older Ap's like MoM includes 60 cards of which most are doubles, while newer all consist of 40 cards of which most are triples?

plus

which packs emphasizes on Miskatonic and Chtulhu?

thanks again

Oh, and one more thing: is there a good general tactics/strategy primer out somewhere?

Konoster said:

The original printing of the APs had 40 cards in them. There are 20 distinct cards, some of which came a triples, some of which came as singles.

Then the approach changed to simply providing 3 of each card, so the new packs include 60 cards (triples of the 20 distinct cards).

Many of the original APs have been reprinted with 3 of each card.

So basically, when you are looking for an AP, if you can get the one with 60 cards you will have a full play set. Again, many of the APs were originally published with 40 cards and then reprinted with 60 cards (same name to the AP - just different number of cards).

As for which is best for Miskatonic/Cthulhu, well that depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your deck. Every AP has 2 or 3 cards for each faction in it - I find it difficult to say which AP is "best". It all depends on what your overall deck goal is.

Konoster said:

For AP's I'd suggest looking at the Yuggoth Contract cycle and Summons of the Deep cycle. The Yuggoth Contract contains a new version of Cthulhu who's far more useful than the one in the core set along with new copies of other core set ancient ones like Hastur and Yog-Sothoth. The Summons of the Deep contain the Chess Prodigy for Miskatonic and after being on the recieving end of that card, I despise it.

I'd also try looking here if you want to see what cards are in what cycle in order to determine which is best for you,

http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/CoC/CoCCards.html

I've found the carddb deckbuilder to be very useful as a reference, and I can even pull it up on my iPhone which is nice.

I have never heard of any general strategy guide, I think it is too dependent on what sort of deck you have. What I have seen is general suggestions such as "about 60% of your deck should be characters", "take more cost 1-2 cards and not as many 3+ cost cards", "don't take too many Neutrals", etc...

Just basic rule of thumb sort of stuff.

dboeren said:

Well, we're in the middle of a series of new general strategy articles right on this site! I think we're up to four now. Here's the latest:

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp

Ah...wonderful. I will delve right in. Thanks a lot!

jhaelen said:

You're right of course. I've seen and found value in those articles but somehow didn't really think of them as strategy articles. Probably because they focus on the cards you *don't* play rather than those you do (being mainly about resourcing). Still good information though and I'm looking forward to more of them.