Winning by closing gates

BellaDonna I am sorry for kinda taking over your post, I just wanted my brother and sister ARKHAM players to realize the games challenge rating can go so high it's way funner.

DAN: We found the gate close victory (Victory condition A page 12 of the rulebook) was far to easy and just seemed like a hallow victory for us so we dropped it, expecially with fewer players and a little luck (Like the find gate spell).

Memory tests RULE 4 and 5: This does make the games harder believe me, with all the location and gate cards (forgot to mention in rule 5 earlier) and monster tokens often you're often going in blind.

RULE 7 (Clarification): It's like this 3 players makes 6 monsters max (On ARKHAM board). We play that once the max 6 is hit monsters can still come out...sorta. Pretty much we play any monster brought out by a card without a gate (Ghost ship docks by itself, location cards) and flying monsters from DUNWICH and KINGSPORT stay on the board and don't go to the outskirts. This get weird because we play monsters coming through gates (A Gate and a monster Appears, Monster surges) still go to the outskirts if the limit is to high. Ya wild I know.

Victimizer: We went like this. ARKHAM (Cleared 8 GOO's) ARKHAM+DARK PHARAOH (Cleared 8 GOO's) ARKHAM+DUNWITH (Cleared 12 Goo's) ARKHAM+KING in YELLOW+DUNWITH (Cleared 12 GOO's finally after like 100 plus tries!) In the current set all of the GOO's we have cleared have been combat!

Haratzar: We use the epic battle cards also.

SPECIAL NOTE: I forgot these house rules!

8. No investigator can have more than one ALLY card at a time. We use a complicated ally switch out system if you want to switch ALLIES.

9. Spells produce blast like effects...sorta. We play spells cannot be kept going with hand dedication. Like Shrivelling, Wither, Red Sign, Dread Curse...ect, are one shot chances until refreshed. Once exhausted they produce their effect once!

Our group (usually 2 to 4 players) considers ourself pretty hardcore gamers. We house ruled DESCENT into the ground and the OL has 33 wins the heroes 0! I still play a game that is way to easy, it's called Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition (Monday night's gaming only).

Glau (Nightshade2099)

Nightshade2099 wrote:DAM: We found the gate close victory (Victory condition A page 12 of the rulebook) was far to easy and just seemed like a hallow victory for us so we dropped it, expecially with fewer players and a little luck (Like the find gate spell).

Glau (Nightshade2099)

First, had to correct my nick

! Second, too easy

? Man, in the games I play, there seems to always be a gate open somewhere, or then I've traded a trophy in, most likely at the SB for 2 Clue Tokens. Even when going against Tsathoggua, there are usually 1-3 gates open ALL the time. Only time I did manage a gate close victory, it was by happenstance. I sealed my 5th location, then looked around the board and saw that 0 gates were open, so win (yes, I had 4 gate trophies; I play 4 investigators). Another time I was close, an investigator returned from OW and if he closed the gate, gate close win would be mine. Naturally, he failed, and then a new gate opened in the Mythos Phase. Luckily, another investigator had just bought an Elder Sign, so the gate got sealed the next turn, giving me the 6th seal.

@Nightshade2099

Check out this forum link...

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffgforums/posts/list/7723.page

It gives a pretty good idea as to how difficult 'closing the last gate' is compared to the other win conditions. The only way it could be easy is if you were only playing the main game, with possibly one of the smaller expansions (KiY or CotDP).

I'm not saying you shouldn't leave it out. Everyone has their own style of play, and I respect that. As has been said many times in other forums: So long as everyone is having fun, that's all that matters.

Nightshade2099 wrote:RULE 7 (Clarification): It's like this 3 players makes 6 monsters max (On ARKHAM board). We play that once the max 6 is hit monsters can still come out...sorta. Pretty much we play any monster brought out by a card without a gate (Ghost ship docks by itself, location cards) and flying monsters from DUNWICH and KINGSPORT stay on the board and don't go to the outskirts. This get weird because we play monsters coming through gates (A Gate and a monster Appears, Monster surges) still go to the outskirts if the limit is to high. Ya wild I know.

Thanks! I assumed that would go like that, but wasn't sure. I guess I'll try that sometime, sounds funny!

Nightshade2099 wrote:Haratzar: We use the epic battle cards also.

Well, how could I even have asked!

BTW, call me HëllRÆZØR, Hellrazor, Hell, Razor or similar; the spelling "HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R" is just caused by an error of this stupid forum software.

(not that I'm offended, but it took me some time to realize that you probably meant me)

Just a thought on your house rule about not using the outskirts, if you dont put the monsters in the outskirts then the terror level doesn't go up as much as it should, and shops will stay open, allies don't leave town etc etc, so while you may seem to be making it tougher on the board, the game is much more easier and manageable overall because you don't have the rapidly rising terror level.

ninja dude

edit was grammatical

HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R wrote:
BTW, call me HëllRÆZØR, Hellrazor, Hell, Razor or similar; the spelling "HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R" is just caused by an error of this stupid forum software.
(not that I'm offended, but it took me some time to realize that you probably meant me)

Can I call you Spëllchëckër?

Funnily enough the other day I was wondering how annoying it would be to try and get the spelling right to log in!

BTW, call me HëllRÆZØR, Hellrazor, Hell, Razor or similar; the spelling "HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R" is just caused by an error of this stupid forum software.

How do we know this "entity" is not a GOO?

Why do I catch the scent of brimstone every time I read one of his messages?

tamsyn wrote:Funnily enough the other day I was wondering how annoying it would be to try and get the spelling right to log in!

Well, I don't know how to generate "HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R", I always have to copy & paste (...and that's indeed annoying).

I thought about registering again with my old user name, but I fear that strange things may happen if the same bug shows up again, and a 2nd account with the name "HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R" would be created.

Victimizer: My bad, I told you something earlier that was not true. I was looking at my GOO's hit list today and I remembered telling you that the 6 GOO's we defeated we killed in combat. Well it's not extremely important, but the GOO Nyarlathotep my friend (playing Lola) and me (playing Jacqueline) were just beating him down when the Sinister Plot Card (JOIN ME!) came up. He declined, but I went to the dark side and joined. Although not technically a clearing of the GOO we play that an investigator won so it was a victory.

Dam: Your right it probably not as easy as I make it sound. I guess I just hate that winning condition.

Kaz Necro: Thank you friend I read the stats. We usually play with about 3 investigators. Now 3 investigators trying to seal 2 gates each under our harsh house rules is a nightmare. We draw random investigators also, you play who you get (NO redraws unless you played that investigator your last game).

Hellrazor: I try to remember to call you by this...cool? I hope my house rules make the game more fun for you and your group.

Ninja Dude: We do use the outskirts limit just not how it is in the ARKHAM game. Re-read the post directly above yours where Hellrazor highlighted my clarification. Monsters coming through gates still go to the outskirts if the limit is to high, and it almost always is. The monsters on the board are everywhere after a while, so moving around ARKHAM becomes so difficult. Not that it an important issue anyway, take care!

GLAU (Nightshade2099)

HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R wrote:
Well, I don't know how to generate "HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R", I always have to copy & paste (...and that's indeed annoying).

I thought about registering again with my old user name, but I fear that strange things may happen if the same bug shows up again, and a 2nd account with the name "HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R" would be created.

That's pretty funny.

If two accounts with the same name meet, one of them ends up getting trapped in a mirror, while the other one runs riot and ruins their life.

tamsyn wrote:

HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R wrote:
Well, I don't know how to generate "HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R", I always have to copy & paste (...and that's indeed annoying).

I thought about registering again with my old user name, but I fear that strange things may happen if the same bug shows up again, and a 2nd account with the name "HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R" would be created.

That's pretty funny.

If two accounts with the same name meet, one of them ends up getting trapped in a mirror, while the other one runs riot and ruins their life.

On a related note: The name "Cthulhu" is actually a result of an error due to a smudged carbon copy. HPL's original name for his tentacled creation was Ethel. Lovecraft discusses this with characteristic good humour in volume II of the collected letters. I can't recall which particular letter (I think it may have been to CAS of FBL) & don't have my books with me to check right now. But I can look up the relevant letter if anyone is interested.

- Mariana the ex-nun cultist

I'm interested! Also, the date and name of the correspondent would be of use, then I can look it up more easily in one of my books on HPL (sadly, I only have Selected Letters III).

Victimizer wrote:I'm interested! Also, the date and name of the correspondent would be of use, then I can look it up more easily in one of my books on HPL (sadly, I only have Selected Letters III).

Oops

Sorry Victimizer my post was intended as a joke.

"Ethel" is a very mundane, albeit old fashioned, female forname that perhaps isn't familiar in Germany. I didn't intend my post to be taken seriously or to trick anyone. I had initailly typed "Bob" which would perhaps have been a more obvious joke, but would have to be really rather smudged for a typist to change it to "Cthulhu", whereas "Ethel", well it would be just about possible...

I just liked the idea that HPL's most famous story should have been "the Call of Ethel".

Apologies - Mariana the ex-nun cultist

Awz. Though I suppose now I don't feel like I missed out on some important information about the Mythos (I try to find out everything I can about it). I did find it rather strange that I had never heard of this before, and I didn't know Ethel was an actual name either.

Well no matter, and I certainly didn'T think there was any malicious intention in your quip.

ninjadude wrote:
Walking the ley lines is an awesome card but i think you have to devote your entire strategy to it. has any one won this way?

We won a two-player game this way in our very first game of Kingsport (plus all other expansions), against the incredibly difficult Atlach-Nacha.

It was a fantastic game, and probably our most satisfying win ever. I doubt we'll ever beat Nacha with two again.

OK, I am a relatively new gamer and am shocked that most people seem to win by gathering weapons and going after the awakened GOO.

My husband and I have been playing for over a year now, and our consistent strategy is to seal the required number of gates. After the first couple of times, we started playing 2 characters each, and we do stick with the random draw for characters. I'd say we win 40% - 50% of the time with a <5% win by fighting the GOO ending.

The league thing is fun, though we haven't sent in our results yet. This last challenge was a doozy. We thought we had it licked last weekend, but when we finished and we were scoring, my husband pointed out our 4 characters had 7 gates open at the same time. Oops. We redid it 2 more times, and finally finally finally did well - sealed 6 gates, closed an additional few. I think we ended with 24 points, which is pretty good.

It was an incredible bummer that the 7 gate thing happened. We'd had the "Terrible Experiment" rumor in that game, and everyone had a ton of monster trophies.

Are we nuts, completely missing the "Blast the GOO out of existence" strategy?

sylvan_eve wrote:
Are we nuts, completely missing the "Blast the GOO out of existence" strategy?

I don't think so at all.

People are free to play as they like, of course, but that strategy drains all the fun out of the game for me. Also, many of the Ancient Ones are laughably easy if you just prepare to beat them in the endgame--even if you're using Epic Combat cards.

le_cygne wrote:

sylvan_eve wrote:
Are we nuts, completely missing the "Blast the GOO out of existence" strategy?

I don't think so at all.

People are free to play as they like, of course, but that strategy drains all the fun out of the game for me. Also, many of the Ancient Ones are laughably easy if you just prepare to beat them in the endgame--even if you're using Epic Combat cards.

I'm with le_cygne excpet I've only ever fought out 1 final battle and that was without the epic cards. It is my impression that a lot of folks here appear to try to avoid the final battle, whilst many others treat tooling up for the big fight as an option (with varying degrees of reluctance). I suspect it is only a small minority that prioritise tooling up for the big fight (and personally I can't understand how anyone would want to play in such a manner, I just can't see the fun in it).

Cheers - Maraina the ex-nun cultist

I don't tool up from the very beginning but by the time you get to the last row on the doom track, if there doesn't seem to be a way to win by sealing/closing gates then I certainly get prepared.

sylvan_eve wrote:OK, I am a relatively new gamer and am shocked that most people seem to win by gathering weapons and going after the awakened GOO.

I could be wrong, but I don't think that most people gear up for the final battle without even trying to win by sealing / closing gates.

Personally, I try to avoid the final battle at all costs first, and only prepare when it's clear that the final battle is unavoidable.

Maybe "most" was a bad choice of words.

My husband has been surfing the forums and describing the power-gamer methods that involve things like planting 2 characters in a shop, one of whom has a bank loan, but has handed everything he has to the second character so that he can shop and the carrier (the one without the bank loan) hands him the cash he needs to buy stuff when he needs to buy it- after the transaction, the loanee hands everything back to the carrier, and when the loanee defaults on his loan, (and is arrested?)- no worries, it's just a sacrifice of a character to get the game's most powerful items.

It's even more effective if the carrier is the dilettante who starts with so much money and who can shop herself. He described power-gamers being able to turn over the first 12 cards or so in the unique item deck and scoop up a good amount of the powerful stuff in order to prep for fighting the GOO.

I don't get that. I guess I get more kicks out of saving the world from being eaten by GOOs than by racking up scores. I have no idea why I like this game so much.

(And, I love the acronym GOO)

sylvan_eve wrote:Maybe "most" was a bad choice of words.

My husband has been surfing the forums and describing the power-gamer methods that involve things like planting 2 characters in a shop, one of whom has a bank loan, but has handed everything he has to the second character so that he can shop and the carrier (the one without the bank loan) hands him the cash he needs to buy stuff when he needs to buy it- after the transaction, the loanee hands everything back to the carrier, and when the loanee defaults on his loan, (and is arrested?)- no worries, it's just a sacrifice of a character to get the game's most powerful items.

It's even more effective if the carrier is the dilettante who starts with so much money and who can shop herself. He described power-gamers being able to turn over the first 12 cards or so in the unique item deck and scoop up a good amount of the powerful stuff in order to prep for fighting the GOO.

I don't get that. I guess I get more kicks out of saving the world from being eaten by GOOs than by racking up scores. I have no idea why I like this game so much.

(And, I love the acronym GOO)

Don't worry; most players are with you in this, it's just that 'tactical' play needs more discussion to find the best method than 'normal' play, so it's over-represented on the forums.

Not that I have a problem with that; to each his (or her) own.

Dr. Rudolf von Richten wrote:

Not that I have a problem with that; to each his (or her) own.

Ditto on that! Didn't mean to sound whiny, just wanted to understand.

sylvan_eve wrote:Ditto on that! Didn't mean to sound whiny, just wanted to understand.

*Hands you a block of cheese to go with the whine* J/K

I do agree that 'Power Gaming' is discussed alot on these various forums, but even if you don't subscribe to such a viewpoint (I don't either), you CAN get a couple of good nuggets of info from them, and apply them to your own gaming style. So long as we're all playing the game in the name of fun, than that's cool by me.

They say that love is all that matters... WRONG... FUN is all that matters!!