Another thing I do not fully understand about AH is "keeping the tally of successes against an AO" and "resetting the count if it is equal / above the number of players"... Sounds easy enough? There is my example. (btw I play AH + Dunwich expansion)

I am playing with 3 investigators against shub-niggurath and he awakens:

after an upkeep phase my first investigator is Mandy Thompson:

fight 3 on the sliding scales

Thomas Malone as an ally (+1 fight)

two unique items: enchanted blade (+4) and golden sword of Y'ha-Talla (+5)

So overall my combat ability is +13

AO has -5 combat rating which leaves me with 8 dices to roll

I roll 5 successes

And here come my questions:

1. does it mean that i can take one doom token off the doom track as my tally of successes is equal / above 3 and reset the tally after that - i.e. remove one doom token and automatically move to next investigator?

2. What if I want to use Mandy Thompson's special ability which is the ability to re-roll the dices that were not successes once per turn? What if out of 3 dices that did not roll a success, one of them does as a result of this special ability - bringing the whole tally of successes to 6 - do I remove 2 doom tokens from the tract?

3. What if on top of that I want to use all my clue tokens (5 in my case) and add on 5 dices to my combat check? for example what if on top of my 6 successes after using amanda's special ability i rolled 3 more as a result of using my clue tokens = tally is 9 now, do I remove 3 doom tokens from the doom tract or only one?

4. Loosing will to live? what about this: to recap the above, Mandy has +13 combat ability and I wanna use all my clue tokes (5 of them) straight away - that gives me +18 for a combat check, -5 for AO combat rating, which leaves me with 13 dices to roll. I then roll 6 successes. Can I use Mandy's skill now an re-roll the failures? - ie can I use her skill after I used my clue tokens to boost up my skill check?

5. Getting tired? :D If indeed I have to strictly adhere to the rule of resetting the tally of successes that would mean that every investigator can remove only one token from the doom tract per their attack - once they roll 3 or more successes in a combat check in my game, no matter how many successes they actually have above number 3, the tally gets reset i.e. next investigator goes on to make a combat check

5. Snoring? :D:D What happens if in one combat check an investigator rolls a multiplicity of required successes - i.e. in my game MAndy rolls 6 successes in first combat check instead of 5 - can she remove 2 doom tokens or only one and then reset the tally and move on to next investigator?

I m tired myself now but I still love AH

In short, the reality is far easier than the rulebook makes it seem. If Yig is your AO (10 doom tokens), and you have a 3-investigator game, then Yig requires (3*10) = 30 successes to defeat. It does not matter who deals them, in what order, or in what clustering. "Keep tally" means that if you've hit Yig for one success, it'll take two more to remove one of his doom tokens, and that carries between rounds. Note, of course, that Cthulhu regains an entire doom token after he attacks.

In your example:

1. With 5 successes, you remove one doom token, and then have two hits invested into removing the next token.
2. This answer follows from my above explanation. 2 doom tokens are removed.
3. Nine successes means remove 3. Eight successes means remove 2 or 3 depending on if there is already a success "invested" into the next token.
4. Yes, you can use her ability at ANY TIME during a SKILL CHECK to re-roll the failures. If you use it after you've spent clues, then it will be more potent, because in general there will be more dice to reroll! This is an interesting risk-management tactic: save clues and use the re-roll now, or spend clues to improve the potency of the re-roll, on the risk that the clue will give you the success you needed all along?
5. Nope, as stated above, any single investigator can remove an arbitrary number of doom tokens. Successes are never "lost." If an investigator could only remove one per attack, then a 1-investigator battle against Cthulhu would be BIG TROUBLE.
6. A non-issue, as stated above.

Glad you like AH. And I empathize with your confusion over final combat. Welcome to the carnival!

thanx for the answer

I still do not get what they mean by resetting the tally then?

It's bookkeeping.

The whole idea is that (for 3 investigators) it'll take 3 successes to remove one of the AO's doom tokens. If one of the investigators scores two successes, keep tally of them. Then, if another investigator scores three more successes, remove a doom token, reset the tally, and then keep tally of the two leftover hits.

It's basically saying "remember your leftover successes," since there aren't any tokens that keep track of that. The doom track roughly shows your progress toward defeating the AO.

Note that, with just two investigators, all you have to do is flip a doom token when you score one success, and remove it if you score another. Of course, 2-investigator games aren't all that great, but it serves as an example of what's going on.

When playing four Investigators (which I usually do), I've finally found another good use for the '1' '2' and '3' markers...as they become the 'left over' hit points from a removed Doom Token.

Wow, I just looked at the rulebook again, and this really is badly explained! game No wonder no-one gets it.

I agree. It's not very clear at all

"These successes are
cumulative, and each successive player adds to them
with his own attack. When the players accumulate a
total number of successes equal to the number of players
(including any players that were eliminated from the
game), remove one doom token from the Ancient One’s
doom track and reset their cumulative successes to zero."

They should have mentioned that you can keep adding successes after resetting.

We play with three investigators so to track cumulative successes, we just alter the position of the doom tokens. A single success is indicated by the doom token shifting slightly from its space, two successes: the doom token is flipped to its elder sign side.

We each use our own differently-colored dice, so we leave any "excess" success rolls in the middle of the board for the next person to use. (If anyone has the shotgun, we modify sixes rolled by anyone who doesn't to be fives instead - if there's a six on the board and it isn't your die or you have the shotgun, it's 2 hits. Similarly, we modify blessed fours to be fives. Cursed fives are just removed from the board when rolled; fives that aren't your die are still hits even if you're cursed.)

Ideally, there won't be any of your own dice still on the board when your turn comes back around, but if there are you just substitute someone else's dice before rolling.

Seems complicated, but works regardless of the number of players.

We just use our fingers.

thecorinthian said:

>old scratchy voice< "We were there...the Great Final Battle Debates of '06. Player versus Player...neither giving an inch to their position. There were many legendary melees back in those dark days...before the First FAQ of Peace...but this one...oh, this one was the bloodiest."

"The more passionate side...they believed that all successes that didn't result in the removal of a doom token...those remaining successes were discarded, forgotten, ignored. They believed in pain, and that those that didn't were cowardly. We believe that the descendents of that fire were the ones that founded Arkham's Razor...but trying to prove that is folly. Still, the philosophies from those long ago remain to this day, but comfortably suited within the rules, fighting for Their Way within the regulations..."

"The diplomatic side...I dare not say level-headed, because they were just as quick to enrage when provoked...believed as the First FAQ eventually decreed: that those remaining successes were 'banked', as it were, until the following turn when the First Player could add to them again. It was generally observed that those on this side were the first to state that it was 'right there in the rulebook', even though there were many Devil's Advocates who could see how the rulebook could indeed be interpreted towards the darker side. The Lawyers and the Mediators...there was a Rift between the two, and the infighting fed the brutality of the other side."

"It went on for months...one skirmish would exhaust, just to have another take its place...often by younger, fresher warriors, whom had unknowingly already chosen a side by their naive decipherings of the texts, requesting confirmation of their assessments from those that came before...hungry for new recruits, or maybe just seeking their own justification of their side...ranks swelled...the conflict escalated...the universe wept..."

"To this day, newer travelers such as yourselves that never saw the carnage that came before, still approach the texts with a concerned brow, and ask the same innocent questions that started the wars. It angers so many of us that survived that the texts persist in spreading the same confusions...often we think that such chaos still may be an intended dark design of the authors...at least today we can stop the greatest of those arguments by using the First FAQ."

"But we will never forget those first days..."

Aaaaaand scene.

jgt7771 said:

Sting figured it out.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sting/historywillteachusnothing.html

jgt7771 said: