Boa Constrictor

Boa Constrictor

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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  1. He attacks for 1/1 which is not nice once it stacks up for a couple of times.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

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 · 103
*avoiding — HeroesOfTomorrow · 103
Existential Riddle, I guess? — AlderSign · 470
@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 · 103
Mind blank or Kymani solves this guy. — MrGoldbee · 1572
Transmogrify, for all your Non-elite enemy solving needs ! They Cannot beat CANNOT ! — aurchen · 480
@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
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 · 103
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 · 103
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
@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
@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
@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
@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 · 103
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
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 · 103
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 · 103

Luger P08

Luger P08

Now that we've had plenty of time to digest, I can confirm that the Luger is one of my favorite weapons. Even if it doesn't have raw damage output, a fast Fight option is pretty amazing in allowing you to polish off a low health enemy or attack at unusual timing points. A Luger in one hand along with a 'primary' weapon in another means you can often hit a 3 HP enemy without needing to spend an extra action or waste an ammo on your primary weapon, and you can frequently handle a little more fighting through a Luger-Reload-Luger sequence if one of multiple enemies isn't engaged to you. It's very effective on lower difficulty enemies or low-health aloof enemies, and even if you only have a Luger, you always have the option of squeezing out a couple of damage using it and basic fight actions.

The fact that it's Illicit only helps when it comes to things like Underworld Market and Fence. It may not be as good at spiking damage as some of the other weapons around, but I find it's more than good enough to earn its hand slot on both primary fighters and flexes.

Ruduen · 1067
Also don't forget the hidden pocket, which also works fine with this illicit weapon — Tharzax · 2

Hand-Eye Coordination

Hand-Eye Coordination

TABOO-ONLY REVIEW

I love that, with the latest taboo, this cards gets you 1 clue or damage from Lantern/Gravedigger's Shovel, circumventing an otherwise very limiting cost.

Yes, the clue option is only 1 resource better than Working a Hunch, but the 1 experience that costs you is more than compensated for by the flexibility of Hand-Eye Coordination.

The damage option has a similar comparison with Quick Shot, although a bit more complex.

Bonus points if you use Hand-Eye Coordination on Anchor Chain, Hand Hook, or Nautical Charts while they are in your hand. (This would allow you to actually discard the card itself for the "if you succeed" clause.)

Something else I noticed: While you cannot ignore the costs for extra clues on Microscope you still save 2 actions and can benefit from the skill bonus if it is fully charged with evidence.

AlderSign · 470

Fedora

Fedora

FFG's f**king with us by giving it Apparel and not Clothing, ensuring that you can't keep a gun in your hat with Hidden Pocket. I'd consider this a canon offense against Michael McGlen, who is exactly the kind of guy who'd have a gun hidden in his (visibly present!) fedora. Give me the Colt Hat Pocket, MJ. >:x

emmy_starlight · 13
Especially since guns can be pulled from boots or even straitjackets. But the two cards are from different chapters, so I personally wouldn't start arguing there. — AlderSign · 470
"Colt Hat Pocket - attach to Fedora only..." — HungryColquhoun · 17894

Doomed

Doomed

I feel like people criticize and complain about aspects of the "Doomed Chain" that are pretty tame. Yes you will have to start with another lvl 0 investigator mid-way through the campaign. Yes most of the time there isn't really anything you can do to deal with Doomed and Accursed Fate, as not drawing isn't a viable option, removing any agency from the player. But in exchange, you get a weakness that is never very dangerous or hard to deal with in gameplay.

The actual bad thing making this the worst basic weakness to me, is that when you draw The Bell Tolls, it means you don't get to play the game anymore. If you find yourself drawing it early in a scenario, you're left spending the next, depending on player count and which specific scenario, 2 to 6 hours not playing the game. That I assume you enjoy playing. Maybe some people will like that a weakness can hurt you in real life, but I feel like this is pushing it a little too far. It isn't much fun to simply not be allowed to play. It's actually even worse if you happened to get lucky and only get The Bell Tolls added for the last scenario. You're then robbed of the big final if you draw it early. Like if a coop video game decided in the last 5 hours to lock you out of playing, now you only get to watch your friends finish it.

To me the whole thing could be fixed if the effect of The Bell Tolls was something like "Revelation - The hour of your demise is arriving. In seven rounds or when this scenario ends, you are killed." Because the "Doomed Chain" can be pretty fun, at least before the very end. Being scared of finding your weakness because drawing it will have actual big repercussions, is a very different feel than playing with any other weakness. I just think the repercussions should stick to gameplay ones (killing your investigator), rather than the chance of making a specific session (or sessions, I only play in 4 players, and we usually take our time) of Arkham boring.

Pinktar · 45
Yet another reason why Doomed is the worst thing ever: literally does nothing until he kills you and your drive to play. Absolute abysmal garbage design. — HeroesOfTomorrow · 103