Boa Constrictor · ArkhamDB

This is the worst enemy in the entire The Forgotten Age campaign by design and one of the worst designed enemies in the entire game, who's text could as well read: Revalation: Restart the campaign, if you draw him early on in the pl.arkhamdb.com scenario. And the best part is that his forced ability does not matter at all, but his stupid hunter effect and even more stupid Vengeance 2.

He is a massive disproportion in comparison to pl.arkhamdb.com and completly changes the playthrough of the rest of the scenario, and perhaps the campaign.

When you draw him, unless you do not have pl.arkhamdb.com as your teammate, you have two options.

OPTION ONE: Kill him.

This itself is not the end of the world, even though it can be hard with his 4 attack, but in most cases it just takes two actions from your fighter. The real problem is his venegance effects which are:

The skull tokens now gain additional -2 which is quite a big deal, and if you also happen to kill a Pit Viper or two, then the effect is even worse. Lets also do not forget that there are not a lot of tokens in the chaos bag in the first scenario, so skull tokens are drawn often.
The pl.arkhamdb.com now gains +2 attack, and there are 3 of them. Killing one enemy with 4 attack is not a big deal, but 4 enemies in total who potentially can have even more attack from the Pit Vipers now can become a huge problem.
The pl.arkhamdb.com now gains his two shitty effects out of three, and if you so happen to gain another venegance point, he becomes almost unkillable and he also attacks for a LOT. Not only you will most likely not squeeze out one more Victory point, but this enemy can potentially ruin your playthrough, if you do not have an anwser for him.
The pl.arkhamdb.com now gains +2 extra shroud which is definitely not nice, if you are holding your testless clue getters such as pl.arkhamdb.com or pl.arkhamdb.com on pl.arkhamdb.com and of course pl.arkhamdb.com to prevent drawing more encounter cards.
2 points of Yig fury from one enemy is a lot. Not only if you kill this guy and two Pit Vipers or explore with the pl.arkhamdb.com , if you are playing the return, in the first scenario, and then one of you does not make it out of the pl.arkhamdb.com alive, they die. Also it limits the numer of agendas in the pl.arkhamdb.com which can also be deadly.

OPTION TWO: Evade him or/and ignore him.

He attacks for 1/1 which is not nice once it stacks up for a couple of times.
If you want to evade him continuously for the rest of the game you will either take hits from him, or waste one action every turn on evasion, or potentially more if you fail. This becomes less of an issue if you have pl.arkhamdb.com but it only has 4 uses, and even with +2 evasion it is possible to fail, especially if you happen to be Poisoned, then you have two auto-fails in the chaos bag. In total for the rest of the game you are forced to waste 33% of your turn for him until the end, which often is a cause of fail or unsatisfactory XP gain from the scenario.
Even if you have pl.arkhamdb.com you may fail the test, especially when you are Poisoned. And even if you succeed, there is no guarantee that he will not be shuffled on the top of the encounter deck to be drawn two phases later.
Having one enemy forever on you is a dangerous game to play, especially when you draw another one, and you have no more actions to evade him forever.

Both of those options absolutely suck. And whenever I draw him my eagerness to play the game drops to zero. I played the Untamed Wilds a lot of times and i noticed massive difference in how successful i am when Boa gets drawn and when he does not. I would risk a thesis that your success in the scenario is completly dependant from when will you draw him and how many pl.arkhamdb.com will you draw during the scenario.

Overall, this is a awful card that completly kills the fun from playing The Untamed Wilds alongside the 3 Ancient Evils, and i wish it was replaced in the Return.

6/10/26

Jaguaq_ · 3

I am a person very biased about Forgotten Age, and I expressed before, in multiple occasions, my complete undying hatred for the campaign and all of its design choices, including the nature of Vengeance, so people should absolutely take my words with a grain of salt. Even so, I do mean it, from an objective design standpoint, making an enemy with Vengeance also an Hunter is a complete failure in campaign design, because it defeats the whole point of what Vengeance exist for (punishing fighting, rewarding evasion). Having an enemy that will keep getting in the way and drain your actions in a campaign about avoid confrontation is beyond moronic. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 104 6/10/26

*avoiding — HeroesOfTomorrow · 104 6/10/26

Existential Riddle, I guess? — AlderSign · 470 6/10/26

@AlderSign That is a solution and it is like one ItToI away, but unless you knew about this enemy ahead, there is no guranteed you would have bought that card or would be playing as someone with access to it. Another option is Fend Off. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 104 6/10/26

Mind blank or Kymani solves this guy. — MrGoldbee · 1573 6/10/26

Transmogrify, for all your Non-elite enemy solving needs ! They Cannot beat CANNOT ! — aurchen · 480 6/11/26

@HeroesOfTomorrow Yeah sure. I was gonna say there are always solutions to the problems this game presents you, but at the heart of it you need to account for it to screw you over without mercy. That is what separates this particular game from others. It is meant to be unfair at times. Otherwise, why would they put an auto-fail into the bag? I also often don't like it but keep remembering that's part of the design. — AlderSign · 470 6/11/26

Kymani and Transmogrify are better solutions, as they have immediate availability, but even then Kymani has to deal with potentially drawing this guy multiple times, because the stupid ass encounter discard pile shuffles into the encounter deck THREE TIMES in the first scenario. Also keep in mind, Kymani is from Scarlet Keys and Transmogrify is from FoHV, which are late expansion in the lifetime of LCG. Those WEREN'T options on FA release, nor were Riddle of Fend Off — HeroesOfTomorrow · 104 6/11/26

Like I hate with a passion the argument "oh you can use this card to trivialise this enemy/treachery/part of the scenario" because 1) usually the card discussed wasn't part of the cycle the criticized aspect of the campaign is, in fact it almost always come from a later one, which you can make an argument for power-creeping 2) Using those cards means you are not engaging with the intended mechanic, but getting around to avoid dealing with it. If the best strategy to counter Boa Constrictor is to make it a non-factor that can't hassle you, then that means it is mechanically a disaster. Those cards should be tools at the player disposal, not requirement to avoid getting screwed by bad RNG, especially because the likelihood anyone has access to stuff that can neutralise the Boa significantly decreases the less Investigator there are in the game, and forces you to play as someone JUST to have answer to what FA throws at you. Like, what a Guardian can do to this guy? The best ideas that come to my mind are Bola and Sweeping Kick (which again, are cards that came much later). — HeroesOfTomorrow · 104 6/11/26

I know that Kymani is a solution yall, i said it, this is why around 70% of my playthrough in the Forgotten Age was playing Kymani, as evasion is very rewarding in this campaign. I also know about Transmogrify, but just as Persuasion it's a card you have to find, and a test you can fail. — Jaguaq_ · 3 6/11/26

@Alder Sign Auto Fail is a balance token to what otherwise would be a certain rng. Also autofail token affects one test and the chance to draw it are slim. This enemy if you choose not to kill him, which is what i always do, requires an anwser every single turn. Also speaking of autofail the player cards mentioned in our discussion could be very easily tarnished by Autofail, especially that they are potentially two of them in the Untamed Wilds. You can like the unfair design of the game and this enemy, but in my point of viev, if I am playing two games of the Untamed wilds and in one of them i wasted 10 actions on dealing with Boa and won the scenario with 6xp and in the second one i didnt draw Boa and won the scenario with 11exp, then something is very wrong here. Just as if the scenario's result was dependant on dumb luck, and not the actual ability to properly play the game. This is why i feel this enemy is such a spit to the face. It's just a restart factor. — Jaguaq_ · 3 6/11/26

@HeroesOfTomorrow It wasn't more of an argument than the other card/solution suggestions. Regarding the availability of these options: The game was way better at communicating its ruthless nature (pun not intended) when it started. Nowadays it strongly suggests the pulp heroism genre via player cards, which is in turn often not reflected in the scenario design. — AlderSign · 470 6/11/26

@Jaguaq_ Okay, I honestly cannot follow your logic about the auto-fail and its application here, but in the end its up to you how to play the game. TFA is known to be a harsh campaign, but I am certain it is not impossible to win it without avoiding Vengeance all the time. It's a pick-your-poison mechanic, and it's not the only one in this game. — AlderSign · 470 6/11/26

@AlderSign No: Vengeance is not a pick you poison mechanic, Vengeance is just poison. There is no reason or benefit to gain Vengeance at all, it is strictly negative, unlike other Arkham expansions where such mechanics are to either catch up with a group that is doing exceptionally well while easing up on people that are failing scenarios and falling behind. Alternatively it takes the form of choosing your disadvantage as you move forward, and what is easier to stomach depends on your group. Vengeance is not like that at all: it just makes everything permanetly worse as you move forward if you accumulate too much f it, which you are likely if you are not prepared to deal with it, and only makes everything worse and creates a downward spiral that is really not fun to play with. And the best way to deal with Vengeance is avoiding it completely: again, the same issue I mentioned before of mechanics that are so annoying and crippling, it is just better not engage with them period. FA does that A LOT, where to even get the best ending you need to pass up on getting two story allies, which is so dumb. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 104 6/11/26

Perhaps my phrasing was sloppy. Vengeance is indeed one of the poisons to pick. The other one being, in this case, "wasting 10 actions on dealing with Boa". It's not unique for a tradeoff between short- and long-term benefits to exist. Victory fulfills a very similar purpose - that might be why Vengeance is layouted in the same way. You trade resource investment in the scope of a scenario for campaign benefits. In a way - although agreeably balanced to be less punishing - Apocalyptic Presage is similar to our Boa Constrictor here. — AlderSign · 470 6/11/26

I think a better comparison to the Boa is a much better designed enemy in my opinion from a far more enjoyable campaign: the Deep One Bull from Innsmouth Conspiracy. Another chunky enemy with high health and fight, but low evade. In fact their stats are identical beside the fact Deep One Bull trades one horror to deal an extra damage and has 1 more health point. That is another enemy a lot of the methods you can disable the Boa with you would like to use on the Bull as well. The key difference here, is that if you don't have those tools, you can still evade and leave it behind because it isn't a hunter: he can follow you if you defeat other Deep Ones and if he engages you, he makes you discard a card, but you can play around that by not killing any other Deep Ones that aren't hunters and wouldn't get in the way. Or you can defeat him if you have the firepower to do that. What I am getting here is that you have OPTIONS on how to deal with this enemy and you can handle the situation in different ways, unlike Boa "Have one of these cards or be this Investigator or eat crap" Constrictor. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 104 6/11/26

Another Investigator can even slay a Deep One to lure Deep One Bull away from an Investigator they are engaged with. It's brilliantly designed, because you can engage with the game with different strategies and on different levels. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 104 6/11/26

@HeroesOfToomorow It's an interesting comparison and i can surely agree how the Deep One Bull is a way better designed enemy, because as you said yourself you actually have options for a positive outcome, because he actually does not punish you in such a pathetic way as Boa for doing what you are actually supposed to do in the game, which is to overcome the challenges of it. And even if the Deep One had hunter instead of the movement after another deep one dies, he would still be so much more reasonable then Boa, because you are not punished for eliminating the threat. The Basilisk from the Heart of Elders in the forgotten Age is the exact same shit as Boa, and even worse as he Has 4 evade. But for example The Snakes of Technotichlan from the 4th scenario, who also have hunter and venegance 1 also have victory 1, which gives player an option to recieve something for something. With Boa and Basilisks its nothing, but pure frustration. And even though i do not despise TFA as you do, in fact really enjoy it, but Boa is such a terrible way to utlize Venegance, because it brings pure frustration, out of a forced terrible way to deal with him. — Jaguaq_ · 3 6/11/26

Besides Kymani and Transmogrify, there are also Rod of Carnamagos (Abyssal Rot and Virescent Rot), Wayley, and Finn and Trish (for not losing tempo). But the best way to beat TFA would still be powering through it with 50+ Vengeance, haha. — liwl0115 · 57 6/11/26

Also Ward of Protection (lv. 5) comes handy. — liwl0115 · 57 6/11/26

I played TfA only once and we didn't make it past with, but I think this enemy is proper designed. The hunter keyword ensures this enemy stays a threat the group needs to take care of. The stats of this enemy offers you the option to spend a part of your resources/actions every round or to handle the problem in exchange for vengeance. So back the days we need to discuss how to handle it. I like, that it's not a enemy you simply spend an action and a card and it's done. If you know the campaign complaining you don't get full xp or have to take care of an angry yig is a luxury problem. If you don't know what lies before you in the depth of the jungle survival is your goal. — Tharzax · 2 6/12/26

So we have two opposing opinions. That's fine, we're humans. Good points were raised on both sides. The winner is Yig. Man, this discussion makes me really wanna play TFA again. — AlderSign · 470 6/12/26

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