Hemlock Heads to Switzerland

The latest cycle for Arkham Horror is now out in the wild, so it is time to take a look at the Investigator cards from the full set. I'm going to be taking a look at the out-of-class cards that existing Investigators gained access to in the near future, but before then I thought it'd be worth taking a quick look at the new Neutral cards, as well as the four new Basic Weakness cards we now have access to.

Neutral cards sit in an interesting spot, given that every Investigator currently in print has Neutral 0-5 in their Deckbuilding Options, and I'm only aware of two Investigators where their Deckbuilding Restrictions prohibit some Neutral cards from being taken (Rex Murphy with Tempt Fate, and Carolyn Fern with Ornate Bow and Timeworn Brand). I know that Unexpected Courage is almost always one of the first cards I'll put in a deck, and - unfortunately - In the Thick of It seems to be sat in a similar spot for a lot of other people. The design team need to be careful with Neutral card designs to leave them as a valid option for a subset of Investigators, without hitting the point where they're nearly an auto-include.

Basic Weakness cards almost go the other way - unless you're using a house rule, you don't have a say in what your Random Basic Weakness ends up being, but they ideally want to have some impact on how you're going to play your deck. There are quite a few of these that I've seen described as a "double action soak", where the only concern is when you'll have two spare actions to get rid of them, but they're not doing much else. At the other extreme, you have something like the Doomed chain which can kill you outright - and surprisingly quickly, if you're unlucky with what you draw.

Anyway, let's see what new options have cropped up in Hemlock Vale.

Spawn of the Old Ones, Preying on Your Mind

If there's one area of Arkham Horror that I've seen questions about many a time over in r/arkhamhorrorlcg on reddit, it's the interactions between the Spawn and Prey mechanics when someone draws a card from the encounter deck.

Both of these keywords are explained in the rules reference document, but even when you sit down and read through the reference, it isn't clear on how an Acolyte behaves compared to Conspicuous Staff or to Beings of Ib.

What I've done below is generate a flowchart for players which takes into account Spawn, Prey and Aloof, and will help you determine just where that latest enemy should appear once your Seeker has drawn it...

Hemlock Vale Spoiler Season - Part 2

Spoiler season for Hemlock Vale has now come to an end, and we're now waiting for stores to confirm when they'll get their stock in of the new expansion. We've seen a whole host of new cards, including all five new Investigators, and I'm sure everyone out there has decks they're going to be looking to build and try out once the release has happened. There will, of course, still be surprises to come, as not every card has been spoiled before the set has arrived - which is a good thing, as who wants there to be nothing to look forward to when you buy the new box?

Before we look at the new cards, a couple of the questions I had regarding cards in part 1 have been resolved. While I haven't been provided with sources, it appears that Hand-Eye Coordination has been confirmed to only pay for a single action's cost if an ability - such as Sledgehammer - would use multiple actions to resolve something. That seems far more reasonable that making its major strike a completely free action. Also, adding Agility to Agility when using False Surrender on a Hatchet has been confirmed to work, which I'm sure is a relief for Rita.

I maintain that adding something to the FAQ to document these would be a good idea, but we'll see what does get covered in the next update.

Now we've gotten the admin out of the way, now to look at the remaining cards from Hemlock Vale's spoiler season and see what we think...

Hemlock Vale Spoiler Season - Part 1

We're halfway through that time of year again - it is the spoiler season for the upcoming Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion. As we're about halfway through the announced spoilers for this expansion, I figured I'd take a look at what's been shown so far through channels outside of Fantasy Flight Games' own site, and offer some thoughts on what we know so far.

So, let's take a look at what's been shown, class by class, and see where it takes us...