Falcon Point

By Walk, in Arkham Horror Second Edition

Falcon Point's location ability states that "During the Movement Phase, you may spend $2 to move to any aquatic location and have an encounter there." Now, this would pretty clearly seem to mean that you have the encounter during the movement phase. Otherwise, mentioning having an encounter would be pointless. However, this...doesn't feel right. There doesn't seem to be any reason to have two encounters at a location just because you chartered a boat there. Is the ability just worded redundantly, and it means that you have an encounter during the Arkham Encounters Phase as normal?

If you do have an encounter during the Movement Phase, then the following exploit is possible: you move to Falcon Point, charter a boat to an aquatic location with a gate, have an encounter there (entering the gate's other world), cast Find Gate to immediately return to Arkham, and then close the gate during Arkham Encounters.

The Boat Charter ability can be used only during the Movement Phase, thus yes, it's possible for you to reach FP, pay 2 dollars and move to Devil Reef to have an encounter there. In case there is a gate, you enter the gate during AEncounters, as for any other gate, but no, you cannot do all the things you say in the same round. You can cast Find Gate only during movement, so you have to survive at least to one OW encounter before being able to return to Arkham during next turn.

Anyway, in my opinion, Boat Charter is not very well worded. It seems like you are not asked to spend movement to move from Falcon Point, which is not very logical (and it's not the way I play, anyway)

Don't forget it also says "Investigators may not move any further after moving with this location ability." So basically your movement ends after using the ability (ie no moving farther and no find gate)

Falcon Point is the only location that has a printed special ability that's triggered during some phase other than Arkham Encounters. My guess is that it was an accident; that you won't have two encounters at your new location during the same round. It may have intended to be a "instead of an encounter, pay $2..." that was later changed but not fully corrected.

Likewise, though it says "aquatic location ," it most likely means " street or location "—why wouldn't it?

The full wording is

" Boat Charter : During the Movement Phase, you may spend $2 to move to any aquatic location and have an encounter there (if applicable), or move any other investigator in an aquatic location to Falcon Point. Investigators may not move any further after moving with this location ability."

Yet another example of inconsistent wording and meaning. "Have an encounter there"? This does seem to be superfluous comment. What if you move from Falcon Point to the Innsmouth Shore, that's a street area so you do not (or could not) have Encounters there under normal conditions.

At least they seemed to have nailed down the loophole where player A moves player B's investigator to Falcon Point (during player A's turn) and then player B moves his investigator from Falcon Point to another aquatic location during his turn.

@Tibs
" Likewise, though it says "aquatic location," it most likely means "street or location"—why wouldn't it? "

While I agree in principle with what you said it should be pointed out that there is a decent get-out clause for this. The term "Aquatic location" is defined in the Kingsport Horror rules, from page 7 "Aquatic locations are marked with a wave icon". If you look then you will find that both locations and street areas have this wave icon, so in this particular case "location" means "location or street area". Sigh.

Right. Players can remember thematically that you can charter to a street. You rented the boat, and there's nothing preventing the boat from docking next to a street rather than, say, The Causeway (which, as forum members might remember from this gallery , is itself a street!).

Tibs said:

Falcon Point is the only location that has a printed special ability that's triggered during some phase other than Arkham Encounters. My guess is that it was an accident; that you won't have two encounters at your new location during the same round. It may have intended to be a "instead of an encounter, pay $2..." that was later changed but not fully corrected.

Likewise, though it says "aquatic location ," it most likely means " street or location "—why wouldn't it?

Tibs said:

Falcon Point is the only location that has a printed special ability that's triggered during some phase other than Arkham Encounters. My guess is that it was an accident; that you won't have two encounters at your new location during the same round. It may have intended to be a "instead of an encounter, pay $2..." that was later changed but not fully corrected.

Yes, with AH you very often have to interpret text into "what is intended" rather than take it literally.So the intention is for you to use the special ability of the location during movement phase but that the character who is affected ends their movement in whatever aquatic location they arrive into and then by default have an encounter during the encounters phase (if applicable)

Tibs said:



Likewise, though it says "aquatic location," it most likely means "street or location"—why wouldn't it?

The very issue of Aquatic location came up in my last game.

As Xris said, there is a definition of aquatic location in the rule book (the exact same one is in the Innsmouth Horror book).

However.... I always understood Location means a place where you would (or may) have an encounter and a Street is a place connecting locations, but there are no encounters (except for mythos/rumour card events).

There are Headline Mythos cards along the lines of "All monsters in Locations are returned to the cup", "All monsters in the streets are returned to the cup", or "All monsters in the downtown streets or locations are returned to the cup". So for me this clearly separates a location from a street area, yet aquatic location as defined by the rule book includes street areas.

I had a mythos environment that meant a skill check had to be performed every time an investigator entered an aquatic location. So according to the rule book if you wanted to move from say Marsh Refinery to Falcon Point you would be entering 3 aquatic locations. On the night we decided just to apply it to where you ended your movement.

The problem is, you're comparing the stringent application of terminology in the base game to that used post-King-in-Yellow. In the instances listed, "aquatic location" almost definitely includes aquatic streets. Tonight I got a MH Mythos card that was nice enough to specify the effect occured on both aquatic streets and locations.

Also, turns out that single card ultimately made me lose the game too, even though the AO was at only 3 doom tokens and the TL at the time was at 0. Maybe I'll think twice about retaining any hope when I'm up against my least favorite AO and least favorite Herald.

Krawhitham said:

However.... I always understood Location means a place where you would (or may) have an encounter and a Street is a place connecting locations, but there are no encounters (except for mythos/rumour card events).



lot

Tibs said:

Right. Players can remember thematically that you can charter to a street. You rented the boat, and there's nothing preventing the boat from docking next to a street rather than, say, The Causeway (which, as forum members might remember from this gallery , is itself a street!).

My reading of the rules about The Kingsport Head would indicate that you cannot, in fact, charter a boat (from Falcon Point) to get to The Causeway. (Although I was planning to allow it as a house rule). How do you interpret the intersection of investigator aquatic movement (via Falcon Point power, or Silas Marsh) and the Kingsport Head limitation on movement to the Causeway?

From KH rulebook, page 7:

The Causeway, Wireless Station, and Strange High House in the Mist locations are all part of the mysterious Kingsport Head. This area is very difficult to enter and travel in. Investigators who enter the Causeway or Wireless Station must immediately end their movement and players may not move there through the use of any cards or other unusual game rules - such as returning from "Lost in Time and Space".

I would think that other "unusual game rules" would include investigator aquatic movement. (But of course aquatic monsters have no trouble swimming there). Certainly discussion about Y'ha-nathlei's similar limitations would indicate that.

That said, given that Boat Charter ends your move at the arrival location, having to charter a boat to the Harborside streets and stop, then move to The Causeway next turn and stop, and on from there, would be slower than watching paint dry. So I would be fine with letting players get to The Causeway directly via Boat Charter. The "end your move after boat charter" and "end your move upon arrival at The Causeway" both accomplish the same thing; doing both (ending a turn at Harborside, then at The Causeway) seems like overkill.

Would others agree?

Yep, I guess you can't go there.

I just wanted to pick an aquatic location for use as an example to illustrate why it's silly to assume you can't charter to a street .