Playing against Nyarlathotep tonight. A party of four, Leo, Wilson, Diana and Vincent. Unseen Forces in, Master Mythos out. First Mythos: Lost and Found & Chapel closed for the rest of the game. Ugh. Then a marvellous adventure card popping monsters at midnight. Needless to say, no one was able to score the three Terror results required to pass it. Next Mythos: Souvenir Shop closed for the rest of the game. A couple of rounds trying to deal with the nightmare, with Wraith locking dice and Wizard Whatley red-locking some more and the doom track stuck at four. Nonetheless, I managed to gather 9 Elder Signs, so that I thought it'd have been a cakewalk finishing the guy off. HA. Diana won a story card, the new one entering play stated "At Midnight: add three doom tokens to the doom track if there are monsters in play" and the lingering effect of the last Mythos drawn was add two doom tokens the next time the clock strikes midnight. Guess WHEN midnight was to strike? Immediately after Diana's turn. So, in an eyeblick, +5 doomers and Nyarly was up, asking for some food (read: intrepid humans). Went to final battle, and we managed to wipe only 5 doomers off his doom track. (I did the math, there was something like 1.25% chance of rolling so low tentacles. Lovely.

On the one hand, I'm happy the game had its revenge (it's the first time I lose out of 21 games); on the other hand, I'm a little upset for the INCREDIBLY bad luck :laughter: Anyway, I'll have my revenge. Now, time to play Doom

I have been destroyed by the Slithering Shadows adventure on 2 occasions, my last one (against Abhoth) in a very similar fashion. I was playing solo with 1 character, had 2 elder signs to go and 3 doom left, and was pretty sure I'd be able to get the elder signs the next day. At midnight I pulled Slithering, and immediately woke the eyeball/teeth oozing blasphemy up. Managed to remove 6 doom over roughly 5 days before he gobbled me up. Don't know how many times I rolled 2 terror and 1 peril (if I had been playing with Michael the gangster, I would have beaten him).

The worst part of it was, I had the Foresee spell sitting in my arsenal- if I had used it in my last few turns, I would have removed Slithering and sealed him in. I have yet to beat Abhoth, but that time was tantalizingly close, and I got too cocky.

If you get the wrong combination of adventures and/or mythos, the game is so much harder than it was without Unseen Forces. I would get frustrated if I lost that way every time, but it's definitely more fun to play knowing a real chance of losing exists.

If you get the wrong combination of adventures and/or mythos, the game is so much harder than it was without Unseen Forces. I would get frustrated if I lost that way every time, but it's definitely more fun to play knowing a real chance of losing exists.

I totally agree. The game is so much better now! I got bored after few games with the core set, and now I enjoy every game more!

Still have to fight against Abhoth, though, but he's one of the next in line (playing a complete rotation of all AOs from ES and UF without Master Mythos for now; as soon as I finish this rotation, I'll start a new one adding the Master Mythos in the deck)

Sounds like though luck.

So, the expansion is DEFINITELY A, if not THE, thing to get in the near future. Sounds intriguing to test out.

I already gathered from this forum that not allowing players to buy Elder Signs increases the difficulty as well.

Cheers,

CaptnM,

Sorry if this is an exceedingly stupid question....but how can players "buy" Elder Signs? I must have missed something (huge)..I thought Elder Signs were acquired by defeating adventure cards. Is there another way to acquire them? How could I have missed that? Sigh..

I would add that, yes, you should definitely purchase the expansion.

Hi Julia,

Since it is so widely considered (including by you..) that the game is too easy without the expansion, I'm curious as to what is your rationale for not including the Master Mythos cards. At first glance, that seems like a contradiction. It's probably not, but I'm just so curious...

CaptnM,

Sorry if this is an exceedingly stupid question....but how can players "buy" Elder Signs? I must have missed something (huge)..I thought Elder Signs were acquired by defeating adventure cards. Is there another way to acquire them? How could I have missed that? Sigh..

I would add that, yes, you should definitely purchase the expansion.

If you play with the base game, you can shop for ES by paying 10 trophies at the entrance (IIRC)

CaptnM,

Sorry if this is an exceedingly stupid question....but how can players "buy" Elder Signs? I must have missed something (huge)..I thought Elder Signs were acquired by defeating adventure cards. Is there another way to acquire them? How could I have missed that? Sigh..

I would add that, yes, you should definitely purchase the expansion.

You used to be able to purhase Elder Signs for 10 trophies at the entrance, but the expansion took away that ability with the entrance redesign. That was definitely a flaw in the game- since most trophies are worth 2, it was very easy to build up 10 trophies- I finished a solo game with 1 investigator one time with over 40 of them in hand. With the expansion, that doesn't happen to me anymore.

Hi Schmiegel

Nice to read you again in the forum The rationale is very simple: I want to study the expansion a little. So first I'll do a complete rotation of AO without Master Mythos in, and then another one with Master Mythos in. In this way, I double the fun, and have 24 brand new challenges instead of only 12 And then I'll find some way to have Heralds even with ES

Ok, I see, that makes sense. Thanks for the responses! I had played Elder Sign a couple of years ago and then put it away, purchased the expansion and hauled it out again. It's so much better now. In the process, I totally forgot about purchasing Elder Signs for 10 trophies (in the base game, since I no longer play it). Lately I've been playing a series of solo investigator games with Michael McGlen. He's one tough son-of-a-gun.. (I wonder if there is an investigator who is better than he is.) He's on a roll, having defeated something like four AO's consecutively, the latest victim being Hastur. I really should be recording these stats for purposes such as this conversation, but it's s-o-o-o much work.

Michael is good. Amanda is impressive, and also Joe is really, really good. Still, I must say I enjoy almost all investigators a lot. Even poor Vincent is not as bad as he is in Arkham

I think all of the current investigators are useful, compared to Charlie Kane and Rex Murphy from the last ES:Omens expansion. I hope they'll never arrive in ES with the abilities they have there.

Oops. McGlen challenged Abhoth and may have been overly confident and boastful. He was unceremoniously devoured either by Abhoth or one of his children....it was unclear as both were reported to have been lurking in the immediate area. Dexter Drake then arrived on the grisly scene, but wasn't of much help. Abhoth devoured him on what apparently was a surprise attack. Only three elder signs had been placed. So McGlen's streak ends at I think, 4. (Interestingly, Slithering Shadows came into play early and at an awkward time....immediately before midnight on the first turn.)

(Interestingly, Slithering Shadows came into play early and at an awkward time....immediately before midnight on the first turn.)

Slithering Shadows ALWAYS comes into play immediately before Midnight or so... :laughter:

The card is awesome, though. Very often while playing ES you spot out some adventure cards that could be difficult and totally useless for your game (no ES, no Allies, no OW granted, and maybe some horrible penality like adding a doomer) and you put there a monster sayin' "I'll never do this adventure, so screw it, let's make it even worse". And Slithering Shadow punishes this tactic and I love it

I think all of the current investigators are useful, compared to Charlie Kane and Rex Murphy from the last ES:Omens expansion. I hope they'll never arrive in ES with the abilities they have there.

I don't understand why these two get bashed so much. I've used Rex in many Omens games, and it's not like I pass every adventure. I've had a few where he turned into a machine and my most successful investigator, with a seemingly endless supply of clues. I think he's quite useful, and I'd rank him well above many other investigators. He'd be a fine addition to the tabletop roster.

(Interestingly, Slithering Shadows came into play early and at an awkward time....immediately before midnight on the first turn.)

Slithering Shadows ALWAYS comes into play immediately before Midnight or so... :laughter:

The card is awesome, though. Very often while playing ES you spot out some adventure cards that could be difficult and totally useless for your game (no ES, no Allies, no OW granted, and maybe some horrible penality like adding a doomer) and you put there a monster sayin' "I'll never do this adventure, so screw it, let's make it even worse". And Slithering Shadow punishes this tactic and I love it

Actually. that could be a sound risk management strategy.

If you have something better to do at 9 o'clock( on the game clock) ,or if there are Other World cards in play that you think you can resolve, it's better to try and resolve them rather than a regular Adventure upon completing which you risk to pull out a new one with a nasty Midnight effect which will then activate immeditately.