Hey guys,

My wife and I just started playing and we were wondering if you more experienced players had and general, over-arching tips for a beginner?

For example, is card advantage as huge in this game as others?

Do you tend to rush stories or spread out your investigations?

How do you deal with your resource placement?

Granted, a lot of this is very dependent on your deck, but I was curious if there were are general go-to strategies.

Thanks much!

Well, like you said it's hard to generalize because a lot depends on the decks and the situation...

Card advantage is useful, but I would say it's not as common in this game as many others - there just aren't nearly as many ways to draw extra cards.

When I can get some good story points, and I feel I have a good shot at winning that story eventually, then I'll generally go for it - provided that it doesn't leave me in trouble. You almost always need to leave some characters for defense as well though, or else you'll be giving your opponent easy story points all over. In the beginning I think there's a tendency to commit everyone and not leave enough defense.

Plan your resources as you design your deck. You should know what size domains you'll eventually need, and have a good idea what order you want to build them for at least the first few turns. Are you going to go 3-1-1 or 2-2-1? Plans can change depending on what you draw, but you should know which one is the normal way you're planning to go.

Resourcing is a tough decision in the game. It's supposed to be. Anytime it's an easy choice you've either had a pretty bad draw or you've got lousy cards in your deck if they're that easy to part with. The tougher it gets, the better job you probably did on design. But, you've gotta do it, at least to an extent. Do try to be aware of when you've resourced enough - because no longer resourcing is a form of card advantage. If you've designed a rush deck where no card costs more than 3, you can probably get to 3-2-1 or maybe 3-2-2 and call it a day there. Some other guy has a Cthulhu Ancient Ones deck and is building all the way to 6-4-3 or whatever.

Keep in mind that normal play is more commonly 2-faction decks. But, to learn a faction it might be easier to try playing them by themselves.

If there's something you have trouble beating, try trading decks. This works well in most asymmetrical games I think.

dboeren covered most of your questions, so I'll offer up a different spin on "tips and strategies" - how to make Call of Cthulhu as fun as it can be (which is important to get my wife to play these kinds of games more than once).

To start out, know that like you I'm relatively new to this game, so my perspective might be different than the CoC veterans who frequently post on this board.

The heart of CoC is the Story Phase. This is where both players go head-to-head to vie for control of the story cards, kill off or drive opposing characters insane, and ultimately triumph over their opponent. Therefore, it stands to reason that the Story Phase should be the game's most tense, exciting part, but unfortunately this isn't always the case. Sometimes it's plainly obvious who will win at a story just by looking at the cards on the table, and this can give CoC a lackluster, perfunctory feeling. Playing CoC as a "numbers game" - where players are simply counting up the icons on their characters and then getting locked into a stalemate - doesn't do it justice, but from the reviews I've read on BGG it seems that a lot of people get stuck in that rut. Boo! Hiss!

To avoid things from becoming too predictable, my advice is to focus on two elements when building your decks - Event cards and character combos.

Events add the surprise element to CoC, and keep your opponent off-balance when deciding whether or not to commit their characters to a story. Basically, they are the random aspect that transforms CoC from being a simple counting game into a battle of potential yet unknown outcomes. In addition, after playing some unexpected Events on your opponent (with suitably nasty results), the game can include a bluffing element that keeps everyone on their toes.

For example, you've got a full hand of cards and an undrained domain. You commit only 1 character to a story card - a seemingly foolish move - while holding the rest back to block. Your opponent has to wonder... do you have something tricky up your sleeve? Or are you bluffing? Do they let you succeed at a story unopposed, or should they go for it and risk having their characters destroyed like last time? It's these situations that make CoC tons of fun. I recommend having no less than 10 Event cards in your deck, though I tend to run between 12-15.

Finding and combining the triggered abilities (both active and passive) of different characters in new, previously unseen combos is another great option to keep CoC exciting. Characters are the meat-and-potatoes of every deck. I've found you should include no less than 25, and really have closer to 30. But rather than simply stuffing your deck full of characters with a lot of icons, look for ways to synergize their abilities to create headaches for your opponent. In other words, search for ways to win that either change how the icon struggles at a story are resolved, or find ways to bypass the icon struggles altogether (such as killing off your opponent's characters directly, stealing their characters, discarding their deck, etc...). Personally, unlocking these combos and successfully playing them on my opponent is my favorite part of the game.

That's all I've got for now. If you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask. In the meantime, welcome to a great game!