What is, in your opinion, the best use of 2 gate trophies/10 toughness monster trophies/1 gate trophy and 5 toughness monster trophies?

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My take: Obvioulsy Changed is the best. +1 Maximum Sanity and Stamina, a free Clue token each turn AND a permanent seal? What more can you ask?! My second choice would be an Ally, third choice Deputy, and the very last would be the White Ship. Avoiding delay is nice, but the with the Patrol Wagon you can too travel to any other world. Via an open gate, but still. Rarely will you need to move to travel to other worlds with no pen gates. The only thing that pops to my mind is some of the mission, but that's about it. With the Deputy you also gain a weapon, 1$ per turn and can move to any street or location in Arkham. What about you?

Links for all the previous Great Debates can be found here.

Well, it's been a long time since we've bought an ally. Nowadays, I would not go out of my way to buy an ally unless it was for a very specific purpose (Professor Rice or William Bain, for example; or if we NEEDED to pass the Stars Are Right rumor. Nasty against Azathoth or Atlach-Nacha).

Deputy of Arkham is just as easy to get, and it's nice to have instant transport around towns. Hands down, this is my choice.

White Ship I've managed to get once or twice, but usually the person I have in Kingsport hasn't had the opportunity to collect the requirements. One time I got an offer to get the ship for half price--and took it, since that character was ready to seal the final gate and was having trouble leaving town.

Changed is TOO FAR out of the way to get. I don't want to send more than one person to Kingsport, and if the one person is busy trying to climb the Head, that could lead to too many rift tokens. Plus there are a lot of encounters along the way to delay you, or send you backwards. Plus, once you get the Great Seal, you have to then gather the material necessary to seal a gate in the first place--and there's no guarantee the Great Seal will even prevent a burst.

Also, we've NEVER gotten money from the River Docks in the 200+ games I've played.

The two main things we use two gates for: Deputy, or 4 clues.

What do you mean by "and there's no guarantee the Great Seal will even prevent a burst"? The Great Seal specificly says "That elder sign token cannot be removed by any game effects, including gate bursts".

He means that a gate burst might not even occur at the location in question. The seal does nothing to bolster other seals you have placed, so it's really pure luck if it even comes into play. Still great against Atlach-Nacha though.

"The two main things we use two gates for: Deputy, or 4 clues."

I'm surprised to hear that, actually. We always make sure to get as many Blessings as we can. It's not too hard to have everyone Blessed, then you just grab another if someone eventually loses it. And since they're so cheap this is pretty easy.

Blessings make the game SO much easier. No matter what investigator you have, and no matter what you're doing, you suddenly have an easy time of everything. Do you guys prefer other uses of trophies because Blessings can be lost, or why?

I usually prefer Deputy. The Patrol Wagon is so very handy when you have multiple boards. I've gotten the White Ship once or twice, and it has it's uses, I guess. Luke benefits nicely from it, at least.

Blessings are nice to have, but I don't like becoming too reliant on them since they have a nasty habit of evaporating when needed most. Or maybe that's just me and my luck.

I never spend trophies on blessings unless I'm cursed. Not on money, either.

Oh right, we do get blessings once in a while. That would be third most common expense.

We shoot for one everytime someone important is cursed (Rex) or if someone is cursed with the Dark Pharaoh herald kicking around.

And sure, Great Seal would be great for Atlach-Nacha, but usually I don't have time even to visit Kingsport, let alone undertake the silly mission to be Changed.

White Ship is great if you have Find Gate as well - very powerful combination but difficult to achieve. The others are all great options as well but, if I had to spend gate trophies/monster trophies, I'd get Blessed all time (although I understand that that's not the comparison being made in this topic).

Deputy is nice. Someone gets it in just about every game I am in. Its well worth the spent trophies.

Allies are also gotten every game. Whether or not someone gets a deputy or ally depends on a player-to-player and game-to-game basis.

Changed is obviously the best of the three, but spending three turns (if you're luckily, usually four or five after you get delayed or knocked back at the causewaty) usually isn't worth it. If we are playing with many players and actually have breathing room, I try to get changed. Or if that mythos card (Mists of Kingsport or something) happens and sends a player to the Strange High House in the Mist then I would definitely take advantage of that and get changed.

I think Captain of the White Ship is my favorite of all of them, flavor wise. I really liked the short story "The White Ship" and I try to get this if I can. I go out of my way to get it if I am the Dreamer (probably my favorite investigator) because the combination White Ship/Gate Box allows me to enter Great Hall of Celano, then sail through and exit through a much more difficult dimension.

Oh, I never actually answered, did I? Count me in for Deputy. I remember getting deputized in my very first game and thinking it was an insane power boost. I guess that shiny-factor never really wore off.

It's the same with me. The Deputy really shines because of the ideas still floating around in ones head from the first few games. There are games where we still get the deputy, but we only do it if it's a perfect fit: a low speed investigator with a free hand or lacking a physical weapon, not a lot of money floating around due to to bad luck with retainers. The first couple dozens of games it was the first thing everyone got as soon as he had two gate trophies.

Since we've only had enough time for league games in the last few months, I have to think back hard what we actually did with all those trophies back then. We definitely never got Changed - it's incredibly cheap in trophies, but terribly expensive in time - never got around to it. I've been championing the Captain, but so far no one of our group ever seemed that keen.

I think we mostly got allies, with the occasional blessing if needed (or when there are no good ally choices left).

Most often I use trophies to get clue markers.

If I have a lot of them, I may also get blessings, but usually I only do it if there's a lot of tough monsters around or I am preparing for a looming final combat.

I rarely get deputy or money and only once in over 50 games have I used them to get an ally.

I cannot say anything about changed/white ship since I don't have the Kingsport expansion (only because I'm waiting for the German translation!).

I would buy Allies as random draws from the deck for the price they are offerred. The fact that you can cherry pick them to get the awesome ones first is just icing on the cake. Colt is better than the Patrol Wagon. He gets you where you need to be, and he doesn't go away when you fight monsters.

-Frank

Frank said:

Neither does the Deputy Revolver go away. And with the patrol wagon, you don't have to make evade checks on all the monsters in between where you are and where you want to be. Even with Colt there's a limit on movement. With the Wagon you can set your speed slow to prepare to sneak monsters you get in encounters. Plus, how often does Eric's special ability come into play, really?

The Deputy salary comes into play every turn. Eh? Ehhh???

The GIT! said:

Oh, you like being the Gate Closinator?

Personally, I almost always go for allies if there's one that gives +2 to combat or will/horror, or allows some sort of continual healing, or gives speed an a regular basis, or is professor rice, or granny, or bain (you know, people with highly significant game effects). I think I've only gotten the deputy once or twice. I generally prefer not to spend 10 just for a bit of extra movement and a gun and slow cash— I'd much rather spend an extra turn in the river docks or take out a bank loan if I needed cash in a rush.

Btw, someone pointed out on a recent thread that you can get Changed with a Summoning Glass :')

It's hard to answer this one without context of what's happening in the game at the time. Despite a lot posts dismissing the White Ship, I rather like it. I've found that hopping around Other Worlds, especially with a Find Gate spell or Gate Box, can be pretty uber with a buffed investigator. I think it would be my first choice if I am also considering the difficulty in getting to and from the High House in the Mist to get Changed. Changed is the best of the bunch but is clearly hard to get for that very reason.

White ship + Luke + Find Gate + Gate Box = Win ?! ...I just spam the dream lands...its so unfair XD

Speaking of combos: Elephant Gun+Credit Rating=Win