Arkham Horror LCG Battle Report: The Gathering (Night of the Zealot Part 1)

Disclaimer: If you haven't heard about Arhkam Horror: The Card Game, you probably might have trouble with this post. Also, potential spoilers ahead.  

I have been a longtime fan of Arkham Horror: The Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games. It's been in my Top 10 Games of all time lists both times that I've done them. The game incorporates several things I enjoy in games: story bits, customizable decks, and some small roleplaying elements. However, the problem with the game has always been finding people to play it with. I have all of the first 2 campaigns, The Dunwich Legacy & The Path to Carcosa. I even have most of the stand alone scenarios. Every chance I get to play the game at Gen Con or other events I try. Yet I have never finished any of the longer campaigns because I could not get a group together to play regularly. 

Until Now. 

On previous episodes of Boards & Swords, I've mentioned that I have a regular "Campaign night" on Mondays with a couple of people. It started with us playing through Seafall, and when that crashed and burned we switched to other campaign/legacy games such as T.I.M.E Stories, Gen7, and Charterstone. Recently, we needed to find a new game to play next, and I suggested the Arkham Horror LCG (AHLCG for the rest of this article). Fortunately for me, everyone decided to appease me and try out the core box.  

Previously, when I've shown people AHLCG, I usually make up 4 of the sample decks listed in the rulebooks. However, those decks only have 1 copy of the character class-specific cards, so you really don't get a feel for how each character works. Looking on arkhamdb.com, which is a GREAT website for looking at deck combinations, I found a series of decks made up from the cards available in 2 core sets. 

So Monday came and the group picked their characters: 

Myself: Skids O'Toole 

Jimmy: Agnes Baker 

Cory: Daisy Walker 

Mike: Roland Banks 

Then we started off with the first scenario: The Gathering. Or rather, we would have, except Jimmy stopped me and wanted to read out the flavor text on his character card. Afterwards, we all went around reading out the flavor text. When I read out the scenario text for The Gathering, about how we all gathered at the Lead Investigator's (Me) house, Jimmy then wanted to set up why we were at my house. Apparently we decided that Agnes and I have been next door neighbors for years? 

Okay, I think I might have found the right group for this game. No one else I've shown the game to cared about the flavor text on the character/location cards.  In case you have never played AHLCG, to which I'm surprised you are still reading, or you've forgotten, in The Gathering, the players start off in the study of a house. The house starts warping around, to which you have to investigate a couple of other rooms and defeat monsters to unlock a specific room that has a forcefield around it. 

First of all, I played my character, Skids, horribly in this first game. I completely forgot about my special ability, where I could spend 2 resources to get an extra action. So many times in the game I had plenty of resources and could have used the extra action, but didn't. Also, I drew my weakness card, Hospital Debts, midway through the game and got super concerned about completing it since I could do so without impeding the main goal. Those were resources that I could have used for extra actions, but didn't. Afterwards, I got to thinking – why was I so concerned about it? All it does is give me 2 fewer experience at the end of the scenario. With only 3 scenarios in the core box, there really isn't a big deal about upgrading my deck using said experience. 

Everyone else, however, picked up their characters real quick. With the decks/investigators that I picked, Mike and Jimmy were really good at fighting, Cory was good at investigating, and I was kinda the jack of all trades, helping out everyone else where I can. I wasn't really helpful with fighting until later in the game when I got a more asset cards. Early in the game, I had mostly skill and neutral cards and would stick around everyone else helping them out with their skill checks. Halfway through the game, I did draw one of my Dynamite Blast cards, and I kept joking about using it throughout the rest of the game. 

Normally, when I've played The Gathering in the past, we are able to unlock the sealed room and talk to the Lita character inside to add her to our decks. Around then, the big bad Ghoul Priest comes out and starts smashing and we quit the scenario before things get too horrible. This time, we got Lita and the Ghoul Priest came out, but the gang decided to stick it out and try and take out this bad dude. There were a couple of times that we got close to death, but we managed to work together and get the Ghoul Priest down to 1 point of damage left. Then, Mike discarded his Beat Cop card, which allows him to deal 1 damage to an enemy. We all had a moment for the Beat Cop, as we described his sacrifice in taking out the priest. Faced with the horrors that came from inside the house, we ended the scenario by me choosing to burn the house to the ground (another choice I haven't made before in this game). 

So did they like the game? Mike, with whom I've played several Arkham files games with, said it was very similar to the other games we had played (story wise at least). Cory and Jimmy, who haven't been interested in LCGs in the past, both enjoyed the game and were willing to continue playing. I think the fact that it’s a co-op with a developing story that has everyone interested in the game. Not sure if I can get them to play everything AHLCG, but hopefully I'll be able to get more plays in the future. 

Did you like this "battle report"? Would you like to see future writeups as we continue the campaign (or other games)? Let me know in the comments or on twitter/facebook! Next up is The Midnight Masks, which we've already played but will write up soon!