Never before have I experienced anything that offers greater proof of this game's sentience. I have been pounded into the dirt plenty of times, but never like this.

Specifically, I am referring to a game I played several hours ago. I don't think I've ever had a more promising state of affairs in the beginning of the game. We were assisted by Hypnos and Miskatonic University and were facing Zhar and the Lurker. The investigators were Akachi, Skids, and Patrice (cue cries of disgust). This meant a massive quantity of clues on the board that could be funneled to any investigator by Patrice. Akachi's personal story would only pile on more clues, and her excellent abilites meant that it would be easy to seal gates even with the Lurker's penalty.

I don't quite have the energy to write a full report, but doing a quick summary should serve to give you the idea of what happened. Oftentimes, it is impossible to pinpoint the exact reason why you lost a game, but I can do so for this one: luck (or, of course, malign intelligence). We got one monster surge. ONE. And we didn't get a single seal bounce or non-doom-token-adding Mythos (i.e. Strange Sightings, The Next Act Begins, double doomless gate). So we had precisely one Mythos card that did not add a doom token. And Zhar's ability triggered twice. We got to three seals before he woke up and annihilated us. Through a powerful combination of items, we managed to remove 12 of 22 doom tokens before we went down.

So...wow. I really can't believe it happened, but it did. We knew we stood an excellent chance of winning, and for our hubris, we were struck down. Can anyone beat our record? Ever had a game where the AO woke up because of the doom track and all of the Mythos cards added doom tokens?

Walk said:

Never underestimate Zhar of all Ancient Ones ;'D He only looks like he's sleeping.

Walk said:

Plenty of them! Believe me, your experience would not be considered uncommon in our play group. Incidentally for us it is Zhar and Glaaki who consistently exhibit the most clever and devastating card combinations, to the point where you really do begin to wonder about the game's sentience .

I had a similar unexpected loss to Zhar last week! And I, too, had Patrice on my side... at the beginning of the game. We were playing with the University, but no other Heralds or Guardians, and were playing with the Innsmouth and Dark Pharaoh expansions.

Our first gate opened, and we rolled doubles, for 2 doom tokens. On the second turn, we drew a double-doom Mythos card, and rolled doubles again, for 5 doom tokens on turn 2! Third turn... more doubles! In an effort to move quickly, we sent everyone into gates, including (though we know this is almost never wise...) Patrice herself, with a dozen or so clue tokens thanks to passing her Personal Story. Well-armed and bedecked in clue tokens, Patrice marched into Yuggoth... and promptly encountered Shub-Niggurath there, who devoured her.

Despite the inauspicious start, we thought we were going to pull it out anyway. Mandy replaced Patrice in another lucky draw, and we managed to get several Doom Tokens removed thanks to two Elder Signs and the death of Barnabas Marsh. We hadn't put any clues on the Innsmouth board, but we only had three Deep Ones Rising tokens on the board so we weren't too worried. With five seals in place, and two investigators in Other Worlds bedecked in clues and ready to place the sixth, we had almost won...

When we got three Deep Ones Rising tokens in a single mythos draw.

Vylanis said:

Sadly this is much too late to be of any help, but if you drew a double doom token Mythos card as your first card on your second turn, you did NOT have to roll for Zhar's power! You only have to roll when a new gate opens.

Oh, you're right that would have saved us a doom token! Though it still wouldn't have saved our lives; we had plenty of room on the doom track, it was those darned Deep Ones that awakened Zhar. Still, without so much doom right at the beginning of the game, we might have taken things at a slower pace and had some clues on the Feds Raid Innsmouth track earlier on.

Vylanis said:

on the other hand, you would've got patrice's extra clues later (if she still was alive by then), unless you of course didn't even reach 9th doom token..

it all evens out. evens out, or the game's favor. which is all good.

maglin intelligence or luck (the worst kind), one game we had i was playing mandy, she had 10 clue tokens and i went to close and seal a gate the last one we needed, a close game needed the seal or fight old one next turn or 2, so roll 4 dice to close gate 0 successes, spend 5 tokens inattempt to close gate and keep 5 for sealing 0 successes, use mandy's abillity, reroll all 9 dice for 0 succeses, spend 5 more clue tokens to just shut the gate 0 succeses.

so 23 dice rolled for total of 0 5or6's, needless to say the great old one won that day.