So, I decided to give Patrice a whirl to see what all the fuss was about. Despite her ability being abuse-able on paper, I needed to see it in action for myself. So, I put her in a team along with Luke and two custom Investigators I wanted to try out. Just start, we faced Dusty-the-Gray, Quatchil and sealed him in 9 rounds, with a Doom marker of six. I didn't count gate bursts and only used the base board game.

Anyway, I started playing according to the rules (that is, uses Phases appropriately and yes it made a HUGE difference) Patrice got lucky and managed to get a hold of some choice skills and spells at the start, with a lovely Speed Skill and the Dread Curse. Luke was the First Player, so most of his clue tokens went to not being turned into dust--which in turn meant most of Patrice's went to that as well. That meant the job of sealing was left to the customized guys--but one of which was built to fight monsters (and now after a playthrough I realized he does it very poorly). The other customized guy was just getting all the luck, managing to ****** up clues in several Locations before his first gate run. Made it through and sealed.

Monsters started descending from the skies--it seemed all I drew were flying types, especially Mi-Go and Patrice, who could have taken the little buggers, was too busy keeping up her clue count to keep Luke alive to fight them. She got lucky and was sent from the Historical Society while they were on a field trip up to Independence Square. There, she had a chance encounter with Anna Kaslov, giving her the next two tokens she needed to keep Luke from drying up into so much powder.

In the meantime, Luke was busy trekking through gates to just keep his own clue count high and to close the gates. He had an meeting with a strange woman that gave him five clue tokens in exchange for discarding two spells--they weren't very good (Yellow Mist and Dread Curse) so he happily removed them and took the five clue tokens, using them to seal the gate and having two left over to keep himself from having to draw from the Dust deck that round.

While this was going on, two gate openings were blocked because of the Sealed location and some really good Mythos cards (and by 'Good' I mean, didn't hurt or help me). I was getting nervous due to a monster surge, but Patrice went through, closed the gate and was on her way to trade in the gate token for the Unique Item from 'Eccentric Opens Home' when I realized I only had one gate left on the board and the Investigator was about to pop through to seal.

It all came down to that moment. If I drew well, it would mean the end of the game in a victory--if I drew poorly, it meant we'd have to find some other way to deal with it since all of the clues were dried up.

I drew.

And a Seal saved my bacon. No gate opened and I victoriously slammed shut the final gate--no seal needed!

So, in the end, I learned that yes, Patrice is very good--but someone like Quatchil is there to keep her in check since it was mostly her token generation that kept the Dust deck from having any real effect,

Faust,

first of all, congrats for the victory Second point: you played Patrice against a clue-drainer like Quachil. Play Patrice in a Cthulhu game, for instance, and you'll see the difference. Or with Atlach. I remember this incredible game I had with Atlach and Black Goat against Patrice and Patrice was enough to win the game.

Last note on your strategy: thumbs up for you following the phases! I'm happy you tried! And... really, Quachil is a lot of fuss, you can easily spare clues for some rounds, then transfer items to someone else and have the first devouring. I'm 4-0 against Quachil, and I had only one investigator devoured (Patrice :whistle: )

Gotta go, sorry that the message is shooooooooooort!

No bigige! LoL I know about needing to dash.

The thing is, I don't like seeing folks get devoured. It cuts me when it happens, even though I know it's only a game, I still love (almost) all the characters in the game and the thought of one of them being turned into dust because I was holding out on clues would depress me! :'D

Still, thanks for the input! Makes me feel good to know I did it right and didn't (mostly) fudge anything. It is hard to keep track of four investigators, so I'm sure at some point someone got missed on something they should have, but in the end, I had a lot of fun.

Now I'm playing Y'Glonac against two customs (different ones this time) as well as Finn and Kate!

The other customized guy was just getting all the luck, managing to ****** up clues in several Locations before his first gate run.

Ha! It looks like the new forums have a particularly aggressive profanity filter...if I'm not mistaken, it censored the word " s natch."

Anyways, good report, and congratulations; any win against Quachil is something to be happy about.

Thanks! I have no one to praise for my success but our goddess of the violin for her bang up job of keeping us all integrated.

Also, Rex--he's nearly as broken as Patrice. Just ran him, Daisy and two other customs against Glaaki. Never once had an issue and actually started to run out of clue tokens because of Rex. Got 'Find Gate' for Daisy and the rest was a cakewalk. What Rex couldn't get to fast enough to seal, Daisy went and closed up while the customs ran monster detail! XD

Daisy can be even more game-breaking if you use her to get some other spells (Arcane Insight or Alchemical Process, depending on your games)

Playing with only the base board is really not challenging after some games. Sorry you don't have the physical space to add extra boards

Nah, it's alright. I can still, at the very least, use the various heralds and AOs in combination. The thing was that when I was playing as Dairy and Co., I was using the Dark Pharaoh who, once I handed out everyone's starting gear, his abilities never came up anyway.

Daisy can be even more game-breaking if you use her to get some other spells (Arcane Insight or Alchemical Process, depending on your games)

Another spell can be very powerful (that would otherwise be really hard to get). I'm not trying to give you guys ideas how to break the game, but I managed to remove 13(!) doom tokens from the AO before he could do anything. Came and gone. Daisy did half of that damage. It was a crazy ritual when the stars were wrong, the sky split open like an overly ripe watermelon and the Great One fell to Earth... in pieces. I imagine that the KiY spell and Kate can be a gamebreaker as well.

Oh and - there is nothing quite like holding back the imminent doom of Q.U.! The Lurker can do that very nicely as well ('You won't get me!' *energy crackling around the investigator*)! Still, I'd have left Luke get turned to dust, clues are just too **** important (and it's sad really, lol). Plus the next first player can likely hold out without problem for a long time! Rex is amazing too, just make sure you remove that nasty curse early on. His PS may not be worth to complete - 10 clue = 2 seal and you likely won't get it back until end - and even if you do, it's going to be spread out.

I didn't use PS during the game with Luke, actually. The two customs didn't have personal stories written up so I always play all or nothing.

But yeah, I didn't know if Lurker power points counted as Clue tokens in regards to Qu--though that would /definitely/ be game breaking then! XD

They can be used as clue tokens but are not actually clue tokens. So if your PS says: 'Spend X at location Y to pass.', you can do it. If you have to gain/have X clue tokens however, power won't suffice.

Indeed, you can't trick the Lurker to pass Skids PS, for example

So, I decided to give Patrice a whirl to see what all the fuss was about. Despite her ability being abuse-able on paper, I needed to see it in action for myself. So, I put her in a team along with Luke and two custom Investigators I wanted to try out. Just start, we faced Dusty-the-Gray, Quatchil and sealed him in 9 rounds, with a Doom marker of six. I didn't count gate bursts and only used the base board game.

Anyway, I started playing according to the rules (that is, uses Phases appropriately and yes it made a HUGE difference) Patrice got lucky and managed to get a hold of some choice skills and spells at the start, with a lovely Speed Skill and the Dread Curse. Luke was the First Player, so most of his clue tokens went to not being turned into dust--which in turn meant most of Patrice's went to that as well. That meant the job of sealing was left to the customized guys--but one of which was built to fight monsters (and now after a playthrough I realized he does it very poorly). The other customized guy was just getting all the luck, managing to ****** up clues in several Locations before his first gate run. Made it through and sealed.

Monsters started descending from the skies--it seemed all I drew were flying types, especially Mi-Go and Patrice, who could have taken the little buggers, was too busy keeping up her clue count to keep Luke alive to fight them. She got lucky and was sent from the Historical Society while they were on a field trip up to Independence Square. There, she had a chance encounter with Anna Kaslov, giving her the next two tokens she needed to keep Luke from drying up into so much powder.

In the meantime, Luke was busy trekking through gates to just keep his own clue count high and to close the gates. He had an meeting with a strange woman that gave him five clue tokens in exchange for discarding two spells--they weren't very good (Yellow Mist and Dread Curse) so he happily removed them and took the five clue tokens, using them to seal the gate and having two left over to keep himself from having to draw from the Dust deck that round.

While this was going on, two gate openings were blocked because of the Sealed location and some really good Mythos cards (and by 'Good' I mean, didn't hurt or help me). I was getting nervous due to a monster surge, but Patrice went through, closed the gate and was on her way to trade in the gate token for the Unique Item from 'Eccentric Opens Home' when I realized I only had one gate left on the board and the Investigator was about to pop through to seal.

It all came down to that moment. If I drew well, it would mean the end of the game in a victory--if I drew poorly, it meant we'd have to find some other way to deal with it since all of the clues were dried up.

I drew.

And a Seal saved my bacon. No gate opened and I victoriously slammed shut the final gate--no seal needed!

So, in the end, I learned that yes, Patrice is very good--but someone like Quatchil is there to keep her in check since it was mostly her token generation that kept the Dust deck from having any real effect,

Oh, well, one of the main tricks while fighting Quachil is treating the victims of his stalkings like the leper pariahs they are. You drain them of their resources and have them perform easy tasks like shopping, money raising, and monster killing (unless for some reason they are nearly at five clues and probably have time, in which case, go for a gate). Also, taking a bank loan out when you are essentially terminally ill is a great idea.

While I won't play with Patrice, if I would, vs Quachil, I'd just let targetted investigators die, while funnelling her clues to other investigators who are sealing. The trick to succeeding in Arkham is focusing on the essential tasks, while putting non-essential tasks and distractions, and there are many, in their proper place.

So, I decided to give Patrice a whirl to see what all the fuss was about. Despite her ability being abuse-able on paper, I needed to see it in action for myself. So, I put her in a team along with Luke and two custom Investigators I wanted to try out. Just start, we faced Dusty-the-Gray, Quatchil and sealed him in 9 rounds, with a Doom marker of six. I didn't count gate bursts and only used the base board game.

Anyway, I started playing according to the rules (that is, uses Phases appropriately and yes it made a HUGE difference) Patrice got lucky and managed to get a hold of some choice skills and spells at the start, with a lovely Speed Skill and the Dread Curse. Luke was the First Player, so most of his clue tokens went to not being turned into dust--which in turn meant most of Patrice's went to that as well. That meant the job of sealing was left to the customized guys--but one of which was built to fight monsters (and now after a playthrough I realized he does it very poorly). The other customized guy was just getting all the luck, managing to ****** up clues in several Locations before his first gate run. Made it through and sealed.

Monsters started descending from the skies--it seemed all I drew were flying types, especially Mi-Go and Patrice, who could have taken the little buggers, was too busy keeping up her clue count to keep Luke alive to fight them. She got lucky and was sent from the Historical Society while they were on a field trip up to Independence Square. There, she had a chance encounter with Anna Kaslov, giving her the next two tokens she needed to keep Luke from drying up into so much powder.

In the meantime, Luke was busy trekking through gates to just keep his own clue count high and to close the gates. He had an meeting with a strange woman that gave him five clue tokens in exchange for discarding two spells--they weren't very good (Yellow Mist and Dread Curse) so he happily removed them and took the five clue tokens, using them to seal the gate and having two left over to keep himself from having to draw from the Dust deck that round.

While this was going on, two gate openings were blocked because of the Sealed location and some really good Mythos cards (and by 'Good' I mean, didn't hurt or help me). I was getting nervous due to a monster surge, but Patrice went through, closed the gate and was on her way to trade in the gate token for the Unique Item from 'Eccentric Opens Home' when I realized I only had one gate left on the board and the Investigator was about to pop through to seal.

It all came down to that moment. If I drew well, it would mean the end of the game in a victory--if I drew poorly, it meant we'd have to find some other way to deal with it since all of the clues were dried up.

I drew.

And a Seal saved my bacon. No gate opened and I victoriously slammed shut the final gate--no seal needed!

So, in the end, I learned that yes, Patrice is very good--but someone like Quatchil is there to keep her in check since it was mostly her token generation that kept the Dust deck from having any real effect,

Oh, well, one of the main tricks while fighting Quachil is treating the victims of his stalkings like the leper pariahs they are. You drain them of their resources and have them perform easy tasks like shopping, money raising, and monster killing (unless for some reason they are nearly at five clues and probably have time, in which case, go for a gate). Also, taking a bank loan out when you are essentially terminally ill is a great idea.

While I won't play with Patrice, if I would, vs Quachil, I'd just let targetted investigators die, while funnelling her clues to other investigators who are sealing. The trick to succeeding in Arkham is focusing on the essential tasks, while putting non-essential tasks and distractions, and there are many, in their proper place.

See, I understand the logic of it, but I see Arkham Horror as not just a game but a mini-story. Seeing characters die, even when they aren't actually 'characters' in the sense of roleplay, is hard for me, and just letting them die for the sake of winning makes me feel bad. I know it sounds silly, but Luke was the first of Quachil's victims, and beyond my need to just not let anyone get devoured, his ability for making clue tokens himself was just too good to let shrivel up like dust.

If things got desperate, I might have let him go but it really didn't. I guess that's why I don't play with the harder AOs. I just can't stand the thought of someone being devoured.

Aye, that's an old debate coming up. Faust, Avi is an extreme strategist (gonna get an advantage in using the Patrol Wagon to run over Gloria and gain her stuff? DO IT!!), while other players enjoy the Arkham experience more for the roleplayish part. You won't clearly kill your character in an RPG, even if he has a Broken Hand and suffer from Amnesia; in Arkham, a good strategist will say "retire the character and get a new one". Avi just reflected on the nature of Quachil: he's just a good way to get useless characters out of the game and gain new resources (and this makes him quite an easy guy to defeat), and he's right in what he says; in the same way you're right while saying you don't want to have your investigators killed. These are the two faces of the Arkham coin; just enjoy the way you like the game the most

Thanks for the support, Julia, and I know he meant no harm, but I've always been this way ever since I was a kid! XD If a character is there, I instantly empathize--it's why I can't watch movies where lots of people die (Titanic, 2012, Day After Tomorrow etc). Mostly because I know every person has a story, and even when I play Arkham Horror, like I may have mentioned elsewhere, I wonder what goes on between the Investigators. What do they discuss? How do they relate?

Like, Wendy, for instance. How do they feel having a little kid running around trying to fight Shoggoths?

Thanks for the support, Julia, and I know he meant no harm, but I've always been this way ever since I was a kid! XD If a character is there, I instantly empathize--it's why I can't watch movies where lots of people die (Titanic, 2012, Day After Tomorrow etc). Mostly because I know every person has a story, and even when I play Arkham Horror, like I may have mentioned elsewhere, I wonder what goes on between the Investigators. What do they discuss? How do they relate?

Like, Wendy, for instance. How do they feel having a little kid running around trying to fight Shoggoths?

And more so, why do they let her run around with a Tommy gun, every-single-time?

Wendy is the kind of kid who doesn't take no for an answer. They dont want me to have the tommy gun? Who cares, I'm sneaky enough to find my own...

Once that poor kid was ambushed by the God of the Bloody tongue. Wasted the 5 clue tokens after failing a 5 dice roll and still she was brutalized and sent to LiTaS. I hate when that happens, ever since then I usually just take an injury/madness and keep my clues. It just likes to happen to me (clue drainage) for some reason... I'm completely on Avi's side in the 'debate'. This is Cthulhu RPG (in a board game format, but still), which is nearly worse than Game of Thrones. Investigators are supposed to go mad, suffer crippling injuries and ultimately - die a lot. You are facing eldritch creatures from beyond time and space after all! That is what keeps the horror in AH. :-)

Well, let's be fair here--how many of Lovecraft's protagonists died in their own story? Gone mad, maybe, but none of them were killed.

My Lovecraft knowledge is far from comprehensive, but I remember that Walter Gilman definitely died, and I think the protagonist of Dagon did too. But probably all it means is that none of the player characters are the narrators of their story :dangitwheresthedevilemoticon:

That is true--I think poor Walter was one of the few, and he died pretty gruesomely at that. I wonder how I forgot about him--the Witch House is one of my favorite stories!