I bought Black Goat of the Woods in preparation for Chapter Three. Figuring we should try out the components rather than diving in, we played a game to see what would happen. We used BGotW, of course, and some random pieces from our other expansions - we didn't bother to root out the skills or Other World Encounters, and we used the Injury and Madness cards because they're just so helpful. We had five players, and selected Yog-Sototh as the Ancient One. Since we're gluttons for punishment, (and have some among us who have only lost to Act III) we decided to play against the Black Goat Herald as well. This is our experience.

We had Jenny, Carolyn, Bob, Leo and Rita. We all had pretty good stuff - we dove into combat in our usual reckless way. This resulted in both Bob and Rita getting Downward Spiral and Jealous Guardian quickly. Then, we kept having monster surges. In fact, the whole game, only 6 gates opened up - not the gates we wanted to get rid of the really harsh corruption cards. We had 6 monster surges, assuaged by 2 elder signs. I eventually realized we had to hope for a close victory, but I was the only one who could get into the gates. Burdened as I was with Uncontrollable Rage and Fate and Fortune, Rita was not in great shape to close against Yog-Sototh. It worked out, though, after committing a garrison to bless me after ending up on the wayward side of Fate and Fortune. We ended up with 25 points, with 10 doom, 3 terror, 6 gates, a ton of monsters, and only 3 corruption cards left in the deck. Carolyn was devoured on the last Mythos phase by becoming a Vessel of the Mythos with 8 corruption cards. She was slated to come back in as Sister Mary, but we just rolled to see if I successfully closed, and I did, so we didn't bother.

The set, with its focus on tough and mobile monsters, was an interesting one. We didn't get a whole lot out of the investigator cards that game, but they seem mostly focused on streamlining the game in little ways - Student Newspaper = hard to get clue token. Magnum is a good weapon, especially for Jenny. The Cult Membership seems like it will be helpful, particularly in a game where corruption doesn't get out of hand so quickly.

The herald is a different beast. We agreed we liked what he did to the game, except for the Pagan Rites ability. The reason is, it seems like it's generally hard to stop the AO from waking in that situation. We did, but we had a unique game with very few gates. We're not as much fans of waking up the AO, even if we beat him. We're not above it, if it's the best way to win. But it's not as fun as sealing the Ancient One out, never to be seen until the next time we draw him. We'll still play with the herald, but probably not as much as the King in Yellow.

One last thing, for clarification. For the Black Goat Herald's first ability, where he places an extra hex monster onto every opening gate, does that mean each gate opening in a 5+ player game has three monsters? Two from the regular cup and one from the hex cup? That's how we played it, but we wondered if it was supposed to be something different.

Overall, I had a great time. And that's how it's supposed to be!

Gotta say that the ch3 league game was the first time we'd played it! Too many games too little time I guess.

Another little oddity about our game was that we drew only one sealed gate, despite sealing Unvisited Isle really early in the game, and Witch House not too long after that. And the only gate deflection we drew was on the final turn. We also had to deal with 3 rumors, and defeated 2 of them.

My question from the game is, if there is a card that references 'the monster cup' , to what does it refer? The first turn, Leo got a graveyard encounter that let him 'draw a monster from the cup' as a trophy. Wasn't sure if that was the normal cup, the hex cup, or Investigators choice.

Also, if some, but not all, monsters will go to the Outskirts, is there any rule as to which ones? In other words, can I place Hex monsters in the outskirts in that situation to avoid placing them on the board? Should I try for generally even placement?

Final question (keep thinking of more), if the hex cup is depleted, the instructions say to 'keep drawing from the regular cup as normal'. Does that mean as *normal*? Or, as normal for the BG herald, with the whole drawing of an extra monster thing?

One more thought on BG Herald, IMO it really discouraged a big part of it's own expansion: cult encounters. In a game where you threaten to wake up the AO by running out of Corruption cards, the last thing you want to do is have a cult encounter. By the time our party got Cult Memberships (via Speak to your friend), we already had this on our minds. We ended the game without having taken a single cult encounter, and a good thing too... as flamethrower49 said, we had only 3 Corruption cards left at the end of the game. In a game with a different Herald, it would be more appealing to do Cult encounters, since you wouln't gain corruption by defeating Hex monsters, and thereby wouldn't deplete the deck nearly as fast, allowing more wiggle room for memberships.

awp832 said:

Well, since the hexagon cup is called the hexagon cup, I'd assume any reference to the monster cup means the monster cup

You have to draw the monsters in order, i.e. every other monster (starting with the second) will come from the hex cup. So, if you have to draw five monsters, and three of them will end up in the outskirts it will be the last two from the monster cup and the last one from the hexagon cup.

That's a bit ambigous, as written. I'd assume it just means that the game will not end when the hexagon cup has been depleted. So you'd just stop drawing a second monster from the hexagon cup, you wouldn't start drawing a second monster from the monster cup, imho.

1. Actually, since it's an AH original encounter, I believe the graveyard card just says "the cup" and not "the monster cup"

2. reference please? Where does it say that you alternate?

awp832 said:

"When a gate opens, draw a monster from the cup as normal, then draw a second monster from the hexagon cup and place both monsters on the gate's location." This is only for the open gate and the rules don't really say they are placed in the order of drawing. For a surge "draw half the monsters from the hexagon cup (round down)." It's just assumed the other half are drawn from the normal cup. Where else?

I always do placement of monsters randomly so I never really paid much attention to the rules in that detail and it doesn't seem to me that they are written to really mean alternatively. On the other hand, its as good a method as any as long as its done consistently.

I suppose literally, when an open gate is under question, the normal monster is first. When a surge is in question, the hex monsters are first.

awp832 said:

1. Well, obviously only encounters from BGotW can refer to the hexagon cup. Unless there's been a templating error all encounters from BGotW should either use the term 'monster cup' or 'hexagon cup'.

2. Well, I was extrapolating the drawing rules for surges from the drawing rules for opening gates. So, technically it doesn't say so anywhere. It just seemed the most logical conclusion to me.

If you ignore the special rules from BGotW for a moment, when drawing monsters for a surge you aren't allowed to first look at them and then decide where they go. Before drawing a monster you have to decide where it should go.

I guess any drawing order would be fine as long as it's applied consistently. Maybe just let the first player decide.