Having played the board game a few times, I decided to buy the ios version of ES:O last week before leaving for my vacation. As it turns out, 5 straight days of lousy weather have both made that purchase the best 20$ (or so) I've spent this summer and also... Jenny Barnes is just awesome!!!

To make a long story short, I've managed to solo Cthulhu, Ithaqua and the Dark Pharaoh with the Dilletante and no one else. Granted, I've been quite lucky during my Ithaqua playthrough (that son of a 8*7¢h is hard as nails!), but still... I really think playing with a single investigator makes the game that much easier (hoarding your inventory, turn sequence management, etc.). I'd even go so far as to suggest newbies to learn the game by going solo a few times. Feel free to disagree or comment!

Anyway, I just thought I should stop by, say hello, cry over my wasted vacation... and then gloat over my ES:O achievement with all of you!

I try to force myself to always play with 4 (usually random) just for the challenge, but I'd have to agree that Ithaqua is near impossible to beat that way. I've had the Ithaqua campaign since it came out, and I probably attempted it 25 times with 2-4 investigators (I had 2 'wins' where I lost Wendy) before finally giving in and beating him 'perfectly' with Jenny solo just last week. It was worth it, as Wendy is a great character to play, and I was so pleased with myself to finally unlock her.

One of these days I will beat Ithy perfectly with 4, but he is a bit of a chore to play, and painfully frustrating when you think you have the win in the bag, only to lose due to disastrous 'rolls' at the very end (or that damned 'your horses fall off a cliff and you lose all your supplies' event at the 9 elder sign mark, which hits me just about every other game). I had 2 games where I lost on the final task in the 3rd battle (one of those using the gangster, with 2 clues and 3 glyphs left for the final task).

I've beaten the non-campaign GOOs many times with a random 4 (Azathoth is still the hardest, with that 3-doom mythos popping up at least twice just about every game). My last 2 games with Cthulhu with 4 were successes, with both making my top 10, well over 5000 points.

I've probably played Dark Pharaoh about 8 times, and managed to make it to the DP battle 6 of those tries (and 5 to the final battle), with 3 solid wins (though never breaking the 5000 point mark!) You don't get very many monsters or OWs in that campaign, so I haven't quite figured out how to boost my score there. His doom track is small, so it usually doesn't pay to linger.

One of these days I will beat Ithy perfectly with 4...

That, right there, is what I'm enjoying the most about this game: it is uncompromising.

After beating every GOO and finishing every campaign, you just keep coming back precisely because the game can be so friggin' tough. You challenge yourself with new investigators, you challenge your best scores, you want to find the perfect team for every abomination the mythos can throw at you... you're not just content when you overcome Ithaqua, you want to nail that sucker to the floor and then get to work on him.

You played the board, now you want to play the game.

But, yeah... Just to achieve those critical first victories and unlock all those investigators I'll say it again: go solo!

Yeah, I always see complaints in the iOS reviews that Omens is a waste of time because it artificially gives you losing glyph results, and it's 'impossible' to beat. That is utter hogwash- how anyone who has played Yig a few times could not figure out how to beat him I don't understand- I've played him a hundred times, at least, and I've lost exactly 3 times (and one of those was deliberate, because I wanted to see what the losing cutscene looked like). Played Hastur about 15-20 times, and have lost once (although I find him particularly fun to play, what with having your characters occasionally turned into 'lunatics' and all the dice-locking that comes up- I had one game where I lost 2 characters out of 4 and still managed to crack 5000 points). My win perentage with the other non-campaign GOOs probably falls into the 60-75% range, and Cthulhu is probably 40% (he is a good challenge with 4, fun to play, and far from impossible if you keep at it).

Ithaqua, on the other hand, is incredibly difficult unless you go solo with Jenny. Even using the gangster, with his ability to turn terror into peril, his low sanity is often an issue. Now that I beat him the easy way, I will probably only play him with 4, because I just have to beat him that way. I always play my games out, even if they look hopeless (I had an excellent win against Tsathoggua where I came back from a 9 doom- 3 elder sign deficiency), but when things go bad with Ithy, they usually go really bad. As you say, BlueBeat, the fact that he is that challenging keeps you coming back, and the day that I finally beat him the hard way will be a happy one, indeed. My score had better make my top 10, or I will be peeved, though!

Having played the board game a few times, I decided to buy the ios version of ES:O last week before leaving for my vacation. As it turns out, 5 straight days of lousy weather have both made that purchase the best 20$ (or so) I've spent this summer and also... Jenny Barnes is just awesome!!!

To make a long story short, I've managed to solo Cthulhu, Ithaqua and the Dark Pharaoh with the Dilletante and no one else. Granted, I've been quite lucky during my Ithaqua playthrough (that son of a 8*7¢h is hard as nails!), but still... I really think playing with a single investigator makes the game that much easier (hoarding your inventory, turn sequence management, etc.). I'd even go so far as to suggest newbies to learn the game by going solo a few times. Feel free to disagree or comment!

Got the game earlier today and have spent a rainy afternoon getting my butt kicked by it...until I followed your advise and played solo with Jenny Barnes...finally a win!