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...
Guardian - Seeker - Rogue - Mystic - Survivor - Neutral
Note - this article covers previews up to and including the ones on December 19th.
Guardian
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Our first Investigator is Wilson Richards, the Handyman. With his stat line of all 3's, he truly is a jack-of-all-trades, while a master of none. We didn't used to see Investigators with a flat stat line that often, but it is something we've seen more of recently. These Investigators often intrigue me, as you're not getting a direction on how to build them from their stats, more from their card access - unlike many Mystics, for example, you can't just pile on Willpower icons and avoid using their other characteristics!
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Shockingly, both cards also interact with Tools. Ad Hoc allows you to
enhance one favoured Tool or Weapon, while Hasty Repairs makes it harder
for you to use actions on assets that required stat checks. Hasty
Repairs is definitely a card you want to be able to ditch quickly, as
stopping Wilson using his Tools is going to be a big handicap for the
handyman. At least it only takes a couple of actions to clear - and, if
you can't get rid of it, it doesn't generate Trauma if left in play.
Ad Hoc is the more interesting of the two, I think - being able to discard an asset to get a use out of its action ability without spending any additional resources or actions to do so could be very handy indeed, especially if you find yourself needing one more hit (or a couple more clues) to finish off an enemy or progress an Act. I'm not 100% certain that it'll always be worth the 2 resources to get in play, but getting a third copy of Unexpected Courage in a deck isn't terrible, either.
One of the big questions for Ad Hoc is what to attach it to - ideally,
you'd want it to be a Tool you're going to keep in play for the
remainder of the scenario. I'm currently thinking that, depending on how
you're planning on building Wilson, it might be an idea to attach it to
something like Dissection Tools, Hawk-Eye Folding Camera, Microscope or
possibly even Pocket Multi-Tool - none of those feature charges, and the
first three all benefit from being in play for longer periods of time,
while also getting you some static bonuses. Of course, you're tying up a
hand slot with them while you do so, which is also not ideal.
Update - As has been pointed out to me elsewhere, Dissection Tools, Hawk-Eye Folding Camera and Pocket Multi-Tool don't feature the action you need to trigger Ad Hoc. I still advocate for a Tool without charges/supplies/etc, to keep Ad Hoc in play as long as possible for maximum value, but those three cards are out of the running.
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Ancestral Token provides a useful option in the Accessory slot for any combat-focused Guardian (so, most of them) who is looking to harness Bless tokens. Being able to add up to five Bless tokens to the bag as a reaction to defeating an enemy is a great benefit to such a deck. Add in cards like First Watch or "Let me handle this!" to ensure that your Guardian is picking up the enemies from the encounter deck, and you stand a pretty good chance of keeping the bag topped up with Bless tokens throughout a scenario.
The value for this is going to shift depending on scenario and player count, of course - in a scenario that is light on enemies but has plenty of Willpower checks, you may find yourself wishing for Holy Rosary (2) instead, and either version of Hallowed Mirror will give this some competition in the Accessory slot.
The number of players in your group is going to be the other factor in how useful this ends up being - as a general rule, the higher the player count the more of the encounter deck you'll see, which tends to lean towards seeing more enemies. Will the Ancestral Token be as useful in a True Solo run as in a 4-player game? Almost certainly not - but, equally, you won't be having to deal with Bless tokens being removed from the chaos bag by other players, either.
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Like Ad Hoc, Hand-Eye Coordination is another way to squeeze that one additional action in you need to finish the job, so long as that job requires a Tool or a Weapon. Unlike Ad Hoc, you're limited to the assets you have in play, and there isn't a timing restriction that requires using an action on an asset. That change would allow you to still have two stabs at something after clearing a double action weakness, for example.
That gives it a bit more flexibility, and is probably part of why there's a 1XP cost to take this card - action compression not really being what Guardians are known for, after all. For most Guardians, this is going to be used with a Weapon, though Wilson (and others who can take it off-class) may well find use from the Tool side of things.
I do think we're going to see an entry in the FAQ for this in the next update, though - the Action cost reduction isn't as clear as it could be, especially with both versions of Sledgehammer being out there with abilities where multiple Actions are part of the cost. It isn't clear (to me, at least) as to whether this can only be used for single Action actions, whether it reduces the Action cost by one Action, or whether you could get the big hit from Sledgehammer (4) as a Fast ability. The last one sounds too good to be true, so I suspect that isn't the intent, but the wording is muddy enough that I expect we'll see it clarified down the line.
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Our first Skill card to look at here, and Purified is a bit of an odd duck - very thematic, but an odd duck nonetheless. For one thing, it is part of the quite exclusive club of skill cards that don't contribute any bonus to the test you are making, being purely there to try to trigger its ability. It's another tool for Bless decks, and one that can be quite an efficient way of getting more Bless tokens into the bag - or purging it of Curse tokens, if they're causing you problems.
This is definitely a card to be throwing in on a big check you - or another investigator at your location - are confident that you're going to clear by some distance. I don't tend to see Guardians as getting many checks with a big cushion, but I'm sure you might be able to find a Rogue/Seeker/Mystic who's going to do something flashy, and use this to get a benefit too. Of course, that's normally when the auto-fail token will appear, but there's not much we can do about that.
I suspect this is a card that's going to warrant a chat with your group before playing, and possibly before including in your deck at all - if someone else in your group wants to run a Curse-based deck, they're probably don't going to appreciate you getting rid of their tokens, but you'd probably be safe using the add Bless aspect, though.
If you're not playing with the Taboo list, this could definitely be
entertaining if thrown into a check that includes
Double or Nothing - who
wouldn't like a full Bless restock (or Curse purge) of the Chaos bag as
a side effect of a single check? Mind you, that just adds to the reasons
for Double or Nothing being banned...
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Another card to assist Wilson's Tool archetype, and one that Kymani won't be able to benefit from. In fact, this is a card that takes away a little from the need for Tool Belt in Wilson's deck - being able to reduce the number of hand slots a Tool needs makes it easy for Wilson to have several in play and usable, as well as a weapon.
I mentioned earlier how I like the idea of having a Tool in play that doesn't use charges but picks up benefits over time as a target for Ad Hoc - I'd definitely look at using Tinker to remove the hand slot requirement from such cards, so I can be using my actual hands for the assets with charges.
As an Insight event in Guardian, Tinker is also an option for Joe Diamond, who could put this into his Insight deck to help alleviate the potential hand congestion he can end up suffering with. Joe would also get the benefit of being able to play it without needing any resources - free and fast is a great combination.
It is worth noting that you need a free hand slot to play the asset you want to attach Tinker to into - there's no window in the middle of a Play action to allow you to sneak this in as a Fast action. This does mean you'll need to plan ahead a little regarding the order you need to drop your assets into play, but hopefully it won't cause anything to clog your hands up.
Seeker
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On the Seeker side of things, we'll open with Kate Winthrop's deckbuilding options. If you're wondering about the rest of the information about Kate, that's available as part of FFG's original announcement article for Hemlock Vale. Kate is in a similar position to Wilson, in that she doesn't get explicit access to a second class, but has two keywords to play with instead - though she does maintain full access to the Seeker card suite.
At the time of writing, her access to Science cards doesn't provide much - a grand total of three cards she can't normally access, all of which are Guardian healing cards. I suspect this is future-proofing, and I honestly don't see many - if any - more Science cards being added to other classes in Hemlock Vale. Do I see much benefit to taking those healing cards in a Kate deck? Well, she does only have 6 health to work with, so it might be worth it as a safety net, but I'm not convinced at the moment.
The other keyword Kate gains access to, Insight, offers up more to work with. Some cards in that pool, such as Evidence!, are unlikely to be used. Some may actually prove useful - I could see opportunities for "Fool me once...", Eavesdrop, Fortuitous Discovery, Scene of the Crime and Scout Ahead, depending on how you're wanting to use Kate. Different ways of getting clues, often while avoiding attacks of opportunity, or additional mobility seem to be things that could be advantageous.
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Exhausting an asset is a way of the designers saying that, by default, they only want you to be able to use that asset once per turn - that would be why it was the taboo change to Dr. Milan Christopher, for example. Being able to get around that restriction to use such an asset twice per turn sounds pretty handy, and that's exactly what Fine Tuning provides - if only for Tool or Science assets.
What sort of thing does that enable for Seekers, then? Well, as we don't know everything from Hemlock Vale yet, we have an incomplete picture, but there are some options out there where I can see a use for this. Chemistry Set, either Ice Pick, Microscope and Pocket Telescope are all Tools with an exhaust Action that don't feature an additional charge cost, allowing you to get full value of them twice a turn (even if Microscope will need someone defeating or evading enemies at your location for that to happen).
If you don't mind burning through charges faster, Cryptographic Cypher and either Fingerprint Kit can also be added to that list. For some reason, getting two Fast investigate actions out of Cryptographic Cypher appeals, though it does mean Fine Tuning won't be around for long, unless your deck is built to replenish secrets.
Moving to the Science side of the fence, there is some overlap with the Tools within Seeker. Ignoring those that overlap, one observation that springs out is that Fine Tuning can be applied to Science Ally cards - so Dr. Charles West III can get his damage on twice a turn, if that's your cup of tea.
Moving past the rogue re-animator in the room, there are still some Science-related assets to consider. Big Hand decks might find triggering a copy of Dream-Enhancing Serum twice a round to be useful, in case they want to use their other Arcane slots for something other than card draw. Fine Tuning your Empirical Hypothesis to gain more evidence each round sounds very Seeker-y (whether Darrell wants it for his crazy evidence deck is another story). The final card that could be interesting with a spot of tuning is Lab Coat, though that depends on how many Seeker cards with built-in tests you're running.
The final point to consider here is that, as an Upgrade card, it is available for Wilson to take and add to the Tools at his disposal. Fine Tuning either version of Lockpicks to get two uses a turn? Seems solid. Doing the same with Mariner's Compass is probably less useful, but possible. Want extra uses from your Pocket Multi-Tool each round? Wilson's your man.
The combination that's amusing me, while not being that practical is putting a gun in a Quickdraw Holster, then Fine Tuning the holster - not only does the gun no longer use up any hand space, but you can now take two shots with it as Fast actions. Sure, you're burning through ammo pretty quickly, but that feels efficient - and when you empty one pistol you can always swap it out for another, while keeping the benefit of the upgraded holster.
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Our first card to support the Curse archetype from these previews, but I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. You're paying 2XP and 2 resources per copy to get an Investigate action into an item slot that doesn't normally include one. To use it, you need to add a Curse token to the Chaos bag in order to get a +2 skill check and maybe a second clue if you draw a Curse from the bag.
Firstly, that means if you're capped out with Curse tokens in the Chaos bag, you can't activate them, as you can't pay the cost. On top of that, if you want to reliably get a second clue - without using Favor of the Moon or some form of bag manipulation - you'll probably want 5 or more Curse tokens in the bag, which may put a dampener on things for the rest of your group in a multiplayer game.
On the other hand, we're looking at an asset that can give a semi-reliable 2 clues per action without burning charges, which feels unusual. Unfortunately, you can't apply Fine Tuning to the glasses to get the extra clue more than once per round, though if you are a Relic Hunter, you can double dip that way.
It feels like it may be overpriced, but I'm open to being convinced I'm wrong on that - I've not run a Seeker Curse deck, so I may be missing something important here. And we may well see more Curse support when we have the whole of Hemlock Vale to play with.
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Firstly, I love the art and flavour text on this one - you can tell exactly what's gone on here, and why Science may not always be the answer to the Mythos. Sometimes your experiments have an unexpected outcome, and sometimes that outcome is a Shoggoth turning into a parade float...
This looks like another fun card for those with Seeker access and a good Intellect stat. Giving some Evade game to those who aren't very agile is always appreciated, especially in a campaign like The Forgotten Age. And as the stat swap for this test is optional, Investigators with access who have a good Agility should consider it as well. Who might I consider taking this with that isn't a Seeker? Carolyn, Darrell, Monterey Jack and Trish all have suitable stats to take advantage of it, while also having the off-class access.
I really like the ability to use it to lock down non-Elite Hunter cards, neutering them for the remainder of the scenario even if you never bother using the reaction to pick up clues from their location. Ideally you want to be able to do this in a location you're not likely to need to double back through as the scenario progresses.
Rogue
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Now for our second full Investigator preview of this article, as Alessandra Zorzi joins the roster. She's got a good stat line, though she clearly prefers to talk her way out of trouble rather than fight her way out. Extra actions in a turn are always useful, even if there are limitations on what you can do with them. In order to maximise the benefit of that ability, you'll want plenty of cards with Parley actions on them, both events and assets. Prior to Hemlock Vale, that may have been a problem, but we're seeing the Parley suite of cards expand significantly in this expansion.
Alessandra's elder sign ability is nice, but not defining - +2 to the test you were making is a solid bonus, though the automatic evade is going to be a little situational, depending on what you've seen from the encounter deck and where any enemies are positioned. She is likely to want to be near an enemy, though, so I can see the value.
Speaking of enemies, one of the downsides of a Parley deck (at the time of writing) seems to be the need for enemies to exist in order for you to make use of your special set of skills. Having taken a quick look on ArkhamDB for Parley cards, I only see two which don't require an enemy at your location to function, with those being Motivational Speech and Speak to the Dead. The former is going to be generally useful - after all, who doesn't like a discounted Ally they can play outside of their turn? - while the latter seems somewhat more niche for Alessandra. There are other Spell or Ritual Parley cards, so you may have targets, but do you want the Curses in the Chaos bag you'll need to make it more reliable?
Alessandra's deckbuilding options are limited, as you might expect, but they keep her laser-focused on her archetype. Full access to Rogue cards? Check. Full access to Neutral cards? Check. Full access to cards with "parley" on them? Check.
We're going to need to wait for the full set to be available to really evaluate how useful her out-of-class Parley access will end up being. It's a shame that Power Word was taken to the vets for a little operation, as she'd no doubt like to toy with her enemies even further using it. In-class, I can already see some potential with an Underworld Market deck to guarantee you being able to get access to certain Parley cards (Blackmail File, Dirty Fighting and Grift, so far) by the end of turn 5.
While Alessandra is definitely a lady who uses the gift of the gab, you'll need to build your deck so that's not the only string to her bow, due to one of the next two cards we'll look at...
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Beguile gives Alessandra three copies of her own Lesser Power Word, allowing her to puppet non-Elite enemies around the map. Mind you, after the Taboo on Power Word, is this truly the lesser version? At a bare minimum, this is a good way for Alessandra to get enemies off her and into other locations - a Fast action to apply it is safe from an Attack of Opportunity, as is the Parley action to tell the enemy to leave her sight.
Unlike Power Word, there isn't a location-based restriction on the Parley action, so you should be able to trigger it from wherever you feel like, and if you're just using it to move enemies around, there isn't a risk of them recovering from being beguiled by Alessandra's beauty and/or words.
Given Alessandra's stats, the remote Investigate option could be useful, but I'm less sure on how the remote Evade is meant to work, as there's nothing stating that the enemy is treated as an investigator, so in theory the Beguile'd enemy would only engage investigators, and I don't think you want to somehow be evading your allies. In addition, performing either test means there's a risk of failing and the enemy no longer being under the influence.
Zamarona prevents Alessandra from using her usual tools against him, and unless he is dealt with he accelerates the doom clock when she tries to do her thing. On top of that, he has the new Elusive keyword, which makes it tricky to pin him and kill him if he is ready (as, once the attack resolves, he gets to disengage, move next door, and exhaust). Of course, Alessandra is a Rogue with Agility 4, so there is always the option to evade him to lock him in place - and if you're doing that, Dirty Fighting will allow you to hurt him easier.
Zamarona means you'll need some tools in your deck to allow you to progress without Parley. In a multiplayer game, you might be able to rely on your Guardian to deal with him, but that will limit your options when it comes to positioning. After the first scenario, I'd lean towards Underworld Market feeding you Dirty Fighting and maybe a weapon, so you could evade him and strike him down before you can start causing Doom to accrue.
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Speaking of Alessandra, here's the first new Parley card for her arsenal - and it's one I quite like. Slotless assets are always useful, and this one gives Investigators a way to get themselves or their fellow investigators out of a sticky situation. While it is limited to non-Elite enemies, a Willpower test against enemy health means we're likely to be looking at a test of difficulty 2-4 most of the time.
If we look at the wider pool of Rogue Investigators, there is a bit of an issue - there's only one with a native Willpower of 4 (Sefina), and the most common Willpower for them currently is 1. So while I think Blackmail File is a pretty good card in terms of its effect, I'm not yet certain it is a good Rogue card.
If we look at the Investigators who have access to Rogue cards and have high Willpower (4-5 base skill), we actually have a reasonable pool of Investigators who can get mileage out of this Blackmail File without really changing how they approach their decks that much. They're probably already fielding cards with the additional Willpower icons to make this test more reliable, without needing Fine Clothes or the new Skill card I'll be discussing later. Who do I have in this pool? "Ashcan" Pete, Charlie, Dexter, Gloria, Jim, Leo, Wendy & Zoey.
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This is an interesting card, for sure. It's another way for a Rogue to Parley their way to clues, but it ignores the shroud of the location. Instead, the test for the Parley gets more difficult the more you've used it, and the first time you fail you face one of two unfortunate circumstances. In addition, due to the exhaust you're likely to get one shot at using it a turn, and you need an enemy at your location.
Fake Credentials seems tailored for dealing with high shroud locations where you've got an enemy - ideally one that you can Evade comfortably before you try to use this, or that is engaged with someone else. This isn't your Sixth Sense, where you want to be using it as your general clue-gathering tool - it's one you really only want to use in the right circumstances, but it ends up clogging up a hand while you wait for those circumstances.
If we're looking for Rogues with a high Intellect, as they should get the most out of this, we end up with four Rogues with Intellect 4 - Alessandra, Finn, Monterey Jack and Trish. Alessandra can use her bonus action to make use of these Credentials, while Trish could use her reaction to get an extra clue out of the action (or, if needed, evade the enemy). Lockpicks might be a better option for Trish, though.
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Who doesn't like a Die Hard reference, even in Arkham Horror? This is another card where I love the flavour and the art - and, with the right Weapon, the effect as well. Being able to take advantage or Parley to play your Weapon without an Attack of Opportunity would be useful in and of itself, but getting to do so and take an attack with it is a really nice package - safety and action compression, basically.
The attack being set to use Agility as the base skill can cause complications, especially with weapons from other classes. The majority of weapons will be providing a bonus to Combat, which won't work with this particular attack. At the time of writing, a search of ArkhamDB for cards with the Weapon keyword returns 94 entries, with some of those being duplicates or character-specific. Having taken a quick look through the list (plus the newly previewed cards on here) only returned four options which would use Agility instead of Combat to attack with - Enchanted Bow, Hyperphysical Shotcaster (Railshooter), Ornate Bow, Trusty Bullwhip - and of those, only the two bows give a bonus by default.
A new card we'll be looking at later, Hatchet, would use Combat by default, but adds your Agility as a bonus to the test. I'm not 100% sure that adding your Agility to your Agility would work here - I've got something buzzing around the back of my head saying that doesn't work, but a look through the rules reference and FAQ didn't show me anything obvious preventing it. If you've seen anything either way about that sort of interaction, please let me know in the comments.
Given you're unlikely to be gaining any accuracy bonus from the weapon you play with this card, it's likely to be best-suited to Investigators with a high (4-5) base Agility stat. Fortunately, within the Rogue class, that covers the majority of the Investigator pool - out of 11 Rogues, only 4 have a base Agility of 3 or lower (Jenny, Preston, Sefina and Tony).
Looking outside of Rogue for those who can take this card with a high Agility, I think we're doing to Rita and Wendy. Mark is close, but would need the boost from Sophie to be reasonably accurate without the icons from the weapon, while Charlie could probably make such an attack work with the right Ally support.
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Completing our new Rogue Parley set of tools we have Vamp. This is the Swiss army knife of Parley events, with a whole host of options depending on which stat you can use to pass the difficulty 3 test. I do find it interesting that the test is a flat difficulty, and not based on one of the stats of the enemy at your location - I'd tend to expect a difficulty (X) check, though I'm not sure what would be a fitting stat to use to set the difficulty.
The Willpower option is situational, but can be handy for Doom management in certain scenarios. I wouldn't be including it in a deck for that as the primary purposes. The Intellect option allows you to grab a clue from under someone's nose without getting smacked for it, though I'll agree that a resource and a card for one clue isn't the most efficient course of action, but it might be worth it to clear the last clue out of a Victory location.
The Agility and Combat options are more generally applicable if you happen to be sharing a location with an enemy. Using Agility to automatically evade and enemy - and move them away from you if they're not Elite - makes sense, and gives an easier option against enemies that might have an evade of 4 or 5. Alternatively, being able to do 2 damage via a Combat Parley could finish off an enemy quite handily, or at least soften them up for another Investigator to finish off. Being a Parley rather than a Fight, it also avoids triggering certain keywords, as an additional bonus.
I like this as a toolbox card - I wouldn't necessarily include it if it only did one of these effects, but giving you a range of options makes it much more palatable. Combine it with the new Neutral skill card for a decent bonus, and most Rogues should be able to have a stab at any of the options, at least on Easy or Normal difficulty.
Mystic
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Having known from the announcement article that the Bless and Curse mechanics were making a return in Hemlock Vale, Kohaku represents the only Investigator whose theme directly interacts with those tokens. A bit like Sister Mary, Kohaku keeps the Chaos bag topped up with tokens, though you only have limited control over what tokens get added to the bag.
And why do we want both Bless and Curse tokens being added to the bag? Besides being useful for powering cards that require them, of course. Well, I've heard that while being able to take additional actions for a specific type of action is good, being able to take an additional action to do what you please is better, and Kohaku can clear two Bless and two Curse tokens from the bag to do just that. Heck, be part of a group with Carson Sinclair and Kohaku can effectively get a 5 action turn without needing to jump through too many hoops.
Kohaku has a good stat line for a clue-focused Mystic Investigator, with 4's in Willpower and Intellect. The 3 in Combat is interesting, though I'm not sure I'd be using it that often. The 1 in agility is concerning, more for the Encounter deck than for evading enemies - Mists of R'lyeh, either level 0 or level 2, provide cover for evasion if required, among other Spell-based options.
Kohaku's deckbuilding options are interesting - full access to Blessed and Cursed cards, level 0 Occult cards, but limited access to his class cards. He loses some of the biggest hitters available to a Mystic, but gets an array of options in return. The Occult access will, I imagine, mainly be used to get Cryptic Grimoire into the deck (if it is wanted), as the version you need to research isn't included in the Blessed/Cursed access, unlike the level 4 versions.
Blessed cards mainly arise from the Guardian and Survivor pools, while Rogue and Seeker provide Cursed cards. Mystic itself seems to possess a mix of these keywords inherently, and the additional pools from the keywords look to offset the number of cards lost by the limited Mystic access. Cards like A Watchful Peace, Eucatastrophe, Hallowed Mirror, Nephthys and Spirit of Humanity become options via Blessed, while Cursed opens up options like Justify the Means, Nightmare Bauble, Ríastrad and The Stygian Eye. If nothing else, you get access to all five of the Covenant cards, allowing you to pick the one you prefer.
Kohaku is definitely someone I'm looking forwards to building once we know all the cards from Hemlock Vale - there are going to be options I'm not aware of yet that will sparkle, I'm sure. As noted, I lean towards building Kohaku to pick up clues, but a flex build may also be an option.
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Kohaku's signature cards intrigue me. His weakness, Weeping Yurei, has been built with the majority of the annoying keywords, pretty much just missing Alert and Retaliate to complete the set. Elusive combined with Aloof is going to make the Yurei irritating to deal with - while it only has a fight value of 2, you need to one-shot the blighter if you're going to attack it or it'll run away, and you'll need to use an action to engage it regardless.
The Forced ability on the Yurei is where things get nasty - given Kohaku's nature is to feed the Chaos bag with Bless and Curse tokens, having the Yurei attack someone for two Sanity if they draw either token while making a test at its location is going to sting. The fact it'll do that, then move away thanks to Elusive is even more irritating.
There are tools that can be used to address the Yurei, fortunately. Evading it will take the Elusive keyword offline, as well as disabling its Forced response, so long as you don't draw a Bless or Curse token. If you can engage it and hit it for 2 damage, it won't be much of a problem - though it might hit back first. As it isn't Elite, the next Mystic card we'll be looking at could take it out without engaging it, as could Vamp, which we looked at earlier. There are solutions, but it will be a bit of a puzzle to get used to solving.
Kohaku's signature asset, the Book of Living Myths, is really handy for making sure certain triggers are met. Being able to guarantee a pull of a Bless or Curse token, even if only once per turn, can increase the efficacy of the various Covenants at a bare minimum. Knowing that Beloved is going to work when you use it makes a huge difference to how useful it is, for example, or using a Curse token to force a trigger for Eucatastrophe.
The Book of Living Myths seems to be a very important tool to get Kohaku firing on all cylinders. Given it is only one card out of your deck, though, I'd ideally want most of the rest of the deck to function without the security it provides.
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Drain Essence could've been a simple Fight Spell Event, but making it a Parley Event has some advantages. For one thing, it gets around the Aloof, Elusive and Retaliate keywords, meaning you don't need to engage an enemy to target them, while avoiding those two negative effects. On the other hand, you don't end up getting the base damage you'd get from a Fight action, and you can't use triggers that would increase the damage of an attack.
There's a positive and negative for this next point - you need to have taken damage in order to use Drain Essence, but using it provides 1-2 points of "healing" when you do so, without actually being healing. Given how many people use In The Thick of It, they're likely to have enough damage to use this once, but you may need to make sure you're getting hurt reliably to use it to full capacity, or to use a second copy. It's a bit of a shame that Hank Samson can't run it, as he'll be taking damage over a game and can't be healed once he moves into his second form during a game.
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| Previewed by Arkham Chronicle |
I'll be honest, I didn't have an upgrade to Olive McBride on my bingo card for Hemlock Vale, but here we are. In terms of an upgrade, for 2XP you gain one Willpower icon if you need to commit a copy of her to a test, and her ability allows you to draw a fourth token from the chaos bag before determining which two you keep. Interestingly, her health and sanity haven't changed compared to her 0XP version, which is something we see happen on quite a few allies.
While I've not run the numbers, in principle we can say that by drawing an extra token, but still discarding two, odds are that the two tokens that remain should be better for that test than they are on a 0XP Olive draw. You can still use her to filter out the autofail, but you might now also be able to discard a -5, say, or a symbol token with a particularly unpleasant side effect. Not to mention the fact that the more tokens you draw, the more likely you are to find the Elder Sign lurking in your options.
If you're already running Olive, and you have the spare XP, then upgrading her i certainly not a bad shout - she'll do what she was already doing, but a bit more effectively. I do think she might be about half an XP too expensive, but we'll see on that one - and I reserve the right to change my mind when someone has run the numbers.
I like the touch of flavour in the change to Olive's subtitle - she's gone from "Will Try Anything Once" to "Tried Everything Once", which probably explains her improved connection to the Chaos bag - and the Mythos as a whole...
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| Previewed by Card Game Cooperative |
A card that allows a Mystic to recycle Spell or Ritual events from the discard pile? And you can use it safely due to it being Parley? In this economy? Well, that's Speak to the Dead for you. If you were already thinking of running an Event-heavy build, then this is bound to be useful to you - there are quite a few Spell Events to choose from, after all, and being able to play one and scoop it back into your hand definitely appeals. An extra Ward of Protection in your hand, for example, or being able to play double Storm of Spirits or String of Curses to clear groups of enemies or single targets out of the way, without needing to draw your second copy from your deck.
If you happen to be running a Curse-based build, it is more efficient than normal, without only being functional in a Curse build. When it comes to Bless or Curse cards, that can be a tricky line to walk - you want to support the archetype, but not lock usage of the card to only happening in that archetype. Of course, you can tip too far the other way, and end up with Promise of Power, which is easily added to any deck with Mystic access without any significant downside.
The big question with Speak to the Dead will end up being how many offerings you need to draw to reliably hit a skull or a Curse, and that's a variable that's going to change depending on the campaign you're running and the group you're playing with. Some campaigns see more skull tokens in the bag, while different groups will be comfortable with different numbers of Curse tokens in the Chaos bag. Given there are only six offerings, I'd probably be considering two attempts at three draws apiece, unless there was an event that was absolutely critical to be replayed, in which case I might go so far as to dump all six offerings on one attempt.
There are ways to rig the game to make this more valuable, of course. Kohaku's signature asset allows you to replace a token you draw with a Bless or a Curse, so if he sees his book, he could get six uses out of this spell. In a similar vein, bearing the Favor of the Moon gives you a similar ability, though with more limited uses per copy.
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| Previewed by Bradley Galbraith |
The Key of Solomon is expensive in terms of XP, and requires a build that will add Bless and/or Curse tokens to the bag to do anything at all. Both of its abilities being free triggered abilities is nice, as you're not losing any actions to do them and you won't get walloped by an enemy for using them if you're engaged. It also means that if the bag isn't in a suitable position during your turn, you can always trigger the Key once that has changed during a turn.
Both options you get are nice, but I don't know as I'd be wanting to drop 4 XP (or 8, for two copies) for what just one aspect provides. The Curse side of things is more reliably useful, as who doesn't need more resources, especially given how pricey Mystic cards can be. The healing from the Bless side of things is pretty flexible, allowing you to heal damage and/or sanity, and even patch up Ally cards if needed. I doubt your friendly neighbourhood Guardian would object to more uses of a Beat Cop (2) or Agency Backup, for example.
If you're running a build that uses both types of token - or your group includes decks that use Bless and Curse - it is worth noting that if the Chaos bag is in balance then you can't trigger either ability. You need there to be a disparity between the two types to be able to use either trigger. If you're running Kohaku, and the bag is balanced at the start of your turn, you can always pick which ability you want to trigger by dropping the right token into the bag with your ability.
Final thought on it for now, and it is a bit of a niche one. There are certain Investigators who can combine The Key of Solomon with Well-Prepared, which would give one of the most flexible skill bonuses in your play area I've seen for a while - being able to add three icons to Intellect or Willpower tests, or two icons to Agility or Combat is a big boost without committing a card to the test. Who can pull this combination off? At the moment, the only one I can see is Diana Stanley.
Survivor
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| Previewed by Ancient Evils |
Fire Axe, Meat Cleaver, and now Hatchet - who knew Survivors were such a fan of big choppers? And Hatchet is a bit of an unusual option for a Weapon, given you want to soften enemies up with it, rather than kill them. Mind you, given the Survivor recursion tools, getting the Hatchet back from the discard pile won't be the biggest handicap in the world.
A weapon that takes advantages of two stats to generate your skill value means that most of the time this opening salvo will be pretty accurate. If we ignore Calvin for the moment, the worst base Combat + Agility score among Survivor Investigators is Patrice with 4, while at the top end both Rita and Silas end up rocking a total of 8. Static bonuses can see those totals go even higher. For those characters who have a low Combat but high Agility, this could be a good time to Rise to the Occasion or prepare their Signum Crucis to trigger some benefits, given Combat will usually be the base skill for this check.
As an opening attack, I quite like how Hatchet works, but you do only get one shot with it per enemy. Reading the wording, it looks like even if you miss your attack, the Hatchet gets stuck in the enemy, so I'd never recommend having it as your only weapon. You're definitely softening up a target, either before you finish it off with a different weapon, or before your Guardian or Mystic comes in with their weapons or spells to administer the coup de grâce.
Two of the traits are worth flagging, too - as the Hatchet is a Tool, Wilson will be able to make use of it (and/or stick it on his Tool Belt until he needs it), but his trait looks to only give +1 to the test, not +2, despite two stats being involved. If I'm reading things right, you could also Tinker with your Hatchet, so whoever picks it up off an enemy's corpse can do so without needing a spare Hand.
As the Hatchet has Ranged rather than Melee - reflecting you throwing it like a tomahawk, rather than hacking away - anything that might trigger off a Melee attack won't do so. So, those of you who enjoy playing the The Blob That Ate Everything can use it without losing the weapon to certain enemies who enjoy a snack mid-scenario.
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| Previewed by Arkham Horror LCG – Russia |
Providential gives Survivors another level 2 Skill card that provides Bless support, following in the footsteps of Signum Crucis (which, of course, was changed via Taboo to not cost any XP any more). If we compare the two cards, Providential provides greater support to Combat and Willpower tests from an icon perspective, and doesn't have a restriction on when it can be used.
Both cards have conditions on whether you add tokens to the Chaos bag, and how many you get to add. Should you be able to meet the condition to play Signum Crucis, you're guaranteed to be adding tokens to the bag - the problem, I tend to find, is getting checks where the difficulty is high enough to warrant throwing the card in to the test.
Providential, on the other hand, is restricted by how much damage and horror you've taken - and by the lower of the two, no less. While many decks are taking In The Thick of It - unfortunately - and may well be starting with one of each trauma, getting more out of the card requires actually having taken more damage and horror. Without using your own cards to damage yourself - Spirit of Humanity, I'm looking at you - it'll be difficult to keep damage and horror balanced to get much benefit from it.
This might be a good card for a Calvin deck, given how much he wants to hurt himself, and the new Survivor, Hank, might get some mileage from it, but I don't think I'd be recommending it in many other places.
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| Previewed by Ancient Evils |
I think this our second XP version of a card from another set we've seen this spoiler season - Token of Faith was originally released in The Innsmouth Conspiracy, and I think I can safely say it didn't set the world on fire back then. While the autofail is an ever-present threat, Curse tokens are less so, especially in Survivor. The fact that there isn't an "at your location" restriction on the reaction is nice, but without someone using Curse tokens, you weren't going to be getting that much out of the original version of the card.
This new version costs 3XP, adds a Willpower icon, but comes with a significant benefit - the ability to re-take a failed test. Of course, this is Arkham, so you're not getting off scot-free - if there are effects for failing the test, you're going to have to deal with them before you get your second attempt, and with a Survivor deck that good be a good thing as much as a bad one.
It's a handy safety net, as we've all had that auto-fail moment on a vital check. Hemlock Vale is adding more cards that generate Curse and Bless tokens, so with the right deck composition you might get the reaction to trigger more often, but I'm not sure it is going to be worth the Accessory slot in the general case - I'd much prefer to be running Mr. Pawterson, Moonstone or Rabbit's Foot, depending on the deck.
Neutral
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| Previewed by some_where_else |
Nice to see support in Neutral for Parley decks, as that implies to me that the design team will continue to look to add new cards with Parley actions as the game continues to develop. Eldritch Tongue lets you get an additional use out of the Parley Events you're running, over and above any ways you may have to shuffle them back into your deck.
In a way, as with other discard pile archetypes, your hand gets bigger as the game goes on while this is in play, as you have access to any Parley Event in the discard pile one more time. Already used String of Curses to evade an enemy and put some doom on it? Re-use the same copy from the discard pile to discard the enemy so it definitely won't be causing you any more problems. Maybe you need to get a weapon out but you're engaged? Time for a False Surrender from the grave.
I like the flexibility this card offers, but how good it ends up being is going to be determined by the width of the Parley Event pool - and, outside of Alessandra, how wide that pool ends up being within a single class.
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| Previewed by PlayingBoardGames |
Skill support for the Parley deck archetype is interesting to see. Providing the same level of support as a Promise of Power or a Desperate skill to a test on a Parley action is a big boost, but the question will generally be whether a deck is carrying enough Parley actions for this level of support to be warranted. Hemlock Vale as been introducing quite a few new Parley actions, but the pool is still quite small - at the time of writing, a search on ArkhamDB for the word Parley only returns 24 cards, including Alessandra Zorzi.
What do I think is going to be a reasonable number of Parley cards to consider Well-Dressed? I'd lean towards 8-10 that require checks, as at that point you're likely to have a Parley cards and the skill card in your hand at some point. Providing a single icon for non-Parley tests means the card is never entirely useless, but the benefit is much smaller if used outside its specialty, as you'd expect.
In multiplayer, the value will go up a bit if you know other decks are including Parley cards, as you could assist one of those checks with it. The difficulty you're playing on will be the other factor as to whether such a big skill boost is needed - the higher the difficulty, the more valuable four wild icons become.
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