Hard Core Campaign Solo - Minh Thi Phan [SPOILERS]

I did it :)

With the new 'gators of Mark and Minh Thi I decided I'll finally check the Hard difficulty level. I thought the core campaign will be the best way to learn it, since I'd be really unhappy to go through 6 scenarios, just to lose the 7th. 3 scenarios is just about right for hard then :) Mark wen't quite well through Arkham but very low sanity was a big obstacle, forcing me to spend XPs on Elder Sign Amulet.

So Minh Thi then.

Some strategy concepts:

• I'll need A lot of ? skill I to bypass the signature The King in Yellow weakness
• Tempo is always king and on hard it's even more important. Therefore cheap deck, not to loose time on playing Emergency Cache. Every action counts. That strategy payed me twice, since my random weakness was Indebted. That means that I've Got a Plan was pretty much never used as an event.
• A lone seeker means a standard strategy of going the poison way by upgrading Strange Solution
• That will be the first deck ever to use Rise to the Occasion effectively :)
• Resourceful to dig for Lucky! or Stray Cat or Hiding Spot should pay it's due

How it really went:

Before I'll tell you how the successful attempt went, let me share a story how unforgiviving hard level can be. One time I was done with the first scenario after 2 turns. That was 2 x Rotting Remains on which I pulled -5 and tentacles on the next turn. That was 6 sanity right there. Oh yes, you need one more to go to the Attic :)

But let's get down to the real report.

GATHERING

That's actually quite hard on hard for a seeker. Midnight Masks bears almost no danger since you can quit it any way you like of your strategy is simply to avoid the cultist parachute unit. It seems that it's more safe to go downtown hunting cultists then to stay at home and just... do nothing. My own house killed me ... I think 3 times before finally making it with this build. I had to fight bare handed this last time. Rise to the Occasion and Lucky! along with Lita Chantler we're my only weapon. The chance was really thin. Surrounded by 3 enemies during the last turn I had to pull 0 or -1 to slay the Ghoul Priest. And I did. I've ended the scenario with standard 4XP in the victory display.

Now decission time, kids. Shall we take Lita Chantler along or not? Of course we do, right?! No, we don't. 1 mental trauma is A LOT. 1 XP is no less. And you could never see Lita the whole time. You don't really plan to be a fighter here. You're a secretary. And even more importantly, you get to keep Your House. Which means a handy 1 resource + 1 card draw on a first turn and equally handy quite simple clue right under your nose on a 2 shroud. Pair that with Rivertown 1 shroud and you're at the best junction in town on second turn with 2 clues. And that's VERY BIG on hard.

7 XP. Upgrading Strange Solution and Magnifying Glass. Indebted forces me to. 1 XP left

MIDNIGHT MASKS

Scenario 2 starts just as I planned while leaving Lita Chantler behind baffled. My first cultist appears to be Herman Collins. There's this thing about Graveyard scaring the crap out of investigators. An unlucky Willpower pull can take you back to Rivertown or make you pay 2 sanity. Never go for the sanity option. If Herman is already there, he will follow you to Rivertown, even if you ran away screaming. In the meantime a lone Acolyte showed up about which I did not even bother. The plan for Midnight Mask was just to get 3 XP. Enough to get me a second poison. So one turn here or there... whatever. Herman Collins anyway was eager enough to talk when I stuffed his pocket with my 4 cards. I just needed The Masked Hunter dead and I'm done. I managed to luckily find my Strange Solution v.2 before he arrived. Any other action I had was spent on getting cards that might help with the fight. So when he came I was armed up to teeth. Still it took me 3 charges because you know... tentacles. Afterwards I'm cleaning the Graveyard for another XP and because I have some time left I decided to go for another cultist. It appeared to be Victoria Devereux. That's lucky since I have some money to spare. I also left the Wizard of the Order in Rivertown. I'm bypassing his doom generating butt with the Stray Cat and helping myself with Shortcut I managed to parley with yet another cultist. I do have enough time to slay him with a Fire Axe but that does not matter at all. I'm not succesfull with anything else till the end and resign with 3 cultists interrogated for a total of 5 XP.

6 XP left. 4 of them for the obvious poison but what to do with the other 2? Lucky!? Could be. Pathfinder? Nope. Indebted turned this off efficiently. I finally decided to go with Survival Instinct. Maybe to avoid cultists? Maybe to help myself once The King in Yellow appears.

DEVOURER BELOW

There's nothing as devastating as tentacles on Umôrdhoth's Wrath or Rotting Remains. At these times you'll appreciate Lucky!. Tentacles are first bringing your skill down to zero. And then you can up it for +2, limiting the damage. It works even better with let's say -5 on Rotting Remains. So that's the trick that allowed me to survive I think. Power move of the scenario was getting rid of the Ravenous Ghoul with Frozen in Fear on me. Go in (2 actions) - engage - Shortcut to forest (no action) - Stray Cat (no action) - move back to Main Path (1 action). And stay there! :) When cultists made their parachute to Main Path I was holding on to 2 x Resourceful and upgraded Survival Instinct. Never a better moment to take tentacles, right? :) The escape though was successful and I took back my 2 x Lucky! which were a MAJOR difference in making it before the main boss appeared. Working a Hunch was also important there and I really managed to stop the ritual with the very last action. That was not the only time when Working a Hunch appeared to be ace. On hard whatever works without a test - it works twice as good as on standard.

All in all it was a GREAT experience and I recommend it to anyone. It's like a different game. But you should really first play a campaign at least a few times to know each and every tiny little bit of it to stand a chance. Then you can play with little decissions like taking Lita or not. I was lucky seeing The King in Yellow only once and during a time when I was planning to overcommit anyway. That's a really strong weakness right there. Beware of tentacles when getting rid of it :)

Great, great game...

Thank you FFG!