Hi everyone-

I got CoC starter set about 2 months ago and I've had a chance to play it 6 times. Four games against one person and 2 against another. I'm 0-6. I think I might be doing something very wrong.

I've tried different faction combos every time, trying to find a magic balance of icons to get an edge. I definitely have a better grasp of what the factions do than my opponents. I also know the rules a bit better than them. In two of the games, I do think bad draws had something to do with it, which will happen with the starter's deck.

So, beyond general advice, here are some specific questions:

How does one balance approaching the three different story cards. Do people often focus on a single story at a time, or do people tend to spread their resources out.

Do you have a starter combo of two factions I might want to focus on before branching out?

Could my background playing magic be twisting how I approach CoC? As in, could some Magic resource management strategy or combat tactics be causing me to do boneheaded things in CoC?

Thanks. I'd prefer to not lose this game over and over again.

lownote said:

I'm sure dboeren will soon chime in with some excellent advice. In the meantime, regarding the above questions:

Unless you currently face (almost) no opposition, you usually cannot afford to engage more than one story at a time. This is because you'll want to make sure you safely succeed at the story without overextending yourself leaving you without defense when it's your opponent's turn to attack. Sometimes, particularly in the late game it might be better to engage two stories, making it difficult for your opponent to prevent you from winning at least one of them.

In my core set games the best faction combos were Cthulhu/Syndicate and Agency/Syndicate. Two of the most powerful cards in the core set that you should look out for are the Ravager from the Deep (Cthulhu) and Shotgun (Agency). Both can be devastating because not all factions in the core set have ways to effectively deal with them.

With Y'golonac Shub-Niggurath also has one of the best cards in the core set, but it requires some experience and a good grasp on the rules to play him well. I found Yog-Sothoth to be the weakest faction in the core set. When trying different faction combos, it's generally better to combine a monster faction with a human faction.

Thanks!

I'm now 0-7, but I felt a lot more in control with Cthulhu/Syndicate. I got two turns worth of draws in a row with low cost cards and ended up losing a turn away from winning myself. So... I was close!

Hopefully this weekend I'll be 1-7.

Thanks!

I'm now 0-7, but I felt a lot more in control with Cthulhu/Syndicate. I got two turns worth of draws in a row with low cost cards and ended up losing a turn away from winning myself. So... I was close!

Hopefully this weekend I'll be 1-7.

Excellent! Good luck for your next game

Sorry I'm late

Knowing when/where/how much to commit is a skill you will develop over time. You generally want to hold a little back for defense if you can - but there are times where going all-out is a good idea, often when you'll be finishing one or more stories or ending the game.

Basically, your goal is to win stories, which largely happens through winning skill and investigation. Most of the time when you go to a story you want to get at least one token (hopefully more) while not suffering too badly from Terror and Combat. It's not necessarily the end of the world to have a guy go crazy once in a while or even die, so long as you're getting fair compensation. Look at your characters as resources. You want to reuse them when you can, but at some point you may need to spend them for a greater gain (winning a story). What you don't want to do is invest heavily in a story and then let your opponent win it, so if it's too far gone to save you may as well stop spending resources at it.

The guys you're playing against, what's their experience level and what sort of card pool are they building from? It's not unusual to lose a lot if you're new and they're not - and if they have more cards that gives them an advantage as well. But even if you're both playing Core decks a veteran player will have a big advantage, I had occasion to teach some new guys a while back and I was kind of surprised how hard I could punish them if I wanted to. Some of the most important decisions in the game are what to resource (and where) and how, when, and where to commit to stories. Lacking the experience to make consistently good choices, each error just put them a bit more behind.

So while it's hard to come up with a universal answer due to differences in board situations and decks I guess I'd say you want to grab what you can at stories while not over-extending yourself. It helps a lot if you have some nice events in hand that you can play to tip stories in your favor too.

lownote said:

How does one balance approaching the three different story cards. Do people often focus on a single story at a time, or do people tend to spread their resources out.

Do you have a starter combo of two factions I might want to focus on before branching out?

I'm sure dboeren will soon chime in with some excellent advice.