Rex Murphy: The Reporter

Rex’ story is one of the coolest backstories of all Arkham Files investigators. It has been made even more complete in the latest installment, which explains his analytical abilities are not just inherited in the gene pool, but more of a reaction he developed to deal with all the mishaps happening around him. 

Legacy: Rex’ design has been a nice balance of strong drawback caused by being cursed (in Eldritch Horror – for the entire game!) and an even stronger ability to counter this disadvantage. While in Eldritch you might consider him sort of an all-round investigator (who can be customized a bit with the starting upgrade of player’s choice), Arkham Horror’s design makes him a clue gathering gate closer (relying on sneaking into them past the monsters). His clue gathering side is once again brought back to live in AH:TCG, and he can also sneak quite well because…

 

Skill values: …due to his more balanced (compared to Daisy) skills, he can actually count on evading some monsters on his own more consistently. It comes at cost of 1 Intellect, which hurts a bit, as his special ability depends on passing the test with a wide margin (more about it in just a minute)¹. It is not the end of the world, however. He has access to plenty of intellect boosting cards, so manages to investigate very successfully. He is just not quite as great at using I’ve got a plan! or Mindover Matter. All in all, I believe Rex’ set of skills allows him to achieve his goals through slightly simpler means. As it’s often the case for me, I’d see more of a radical approach more efficient – Combat of 1 would allow to boost any of other 3 stats, and each one would have its benefits.

It is hard to comment on thematic value of his skills – he is sort of a bit fragile (though his Stamina is one higher than Daisy’s as he profits from Dunwich Legacy’s higher Sanity/Stamina total) non-fighting, clever dude. So I guess solid work here.

Strength

Theme

Special Ability: Oh my! Rex absolutely dominates here in all possible (sub)categories! First of all, the ability grants him an astonishing action-efficiency. It goes without saying, that doubling the result of a vast majority of actions he takes during a game creates a colossal advantage. As long as he spends most of the time investigating, he even dwarfs Daisy’s free action. Consider following example – if both he and Daisy spend one action on a tome and the rest investigating, Rex actually gets one clue more (provided he succeeds, obviously, both times triggering his ability). This is why he should spend as much time as possible investigating. It makes him a strong team player – his team members take care of all other threats, while he searches for evidence.

Rex' ability, while already superb has been made even stronger
by polish (miss)translation which omits "while investigating"

The ability also provides a very interesting gameplay experience – you balance the odds at each location, deciding if (usually it’s more of a question of “how?”) you want to aim for 2 clues. Since he’s almost destined to be built around Scavenging (more about it in 2-3 minutes)², it involves planning how to best use it and all the available icons in your hand. Therefore despite being just as one dimensional as Zoey, he feels so much more exciting to play.

Last, but not least, using this ability grants me great deal of nostalgia, as it is a very clever reimplementation of Rex’ original special ability from Arkham Horror. And they both make great sense thematically – he has a very analytic mind, thus adding things together quicker – drawing conclusions as well as linking one clue with whereabouts of the other³.

I am impressed and almost made speechless by Rex’ Elder Sign ability for so many reasons. Firstly, it introduces a choice. As you know, in my textbook choices in a game = good. And the choice is a very cool one. Sometimes it’s obvious you cannot afford to fail a test, but there are occasions, when you really feel torn between two options. Secondly, it adds to his theme of drawing cards (along with his signature card) and has a terrific interaction with his weakness (more about it in a minute)⁴. It is truly a blast!

Gameplay

Theme

Signature Cards: Seekers, as a class, do have some card-drawing capabilities (See: Old Book of Lore, Cryptic Research). Rex’ signature card fits this pattern nicely and creates a lovely interaction with his clue gathering ability. It also builds a clue gathering AND card drawing theme for the character (along with the Elder Sign effect). Its power is strongly correlated with the scenario clue-approach – in some scenarios you can reliably plan to use it, in other it’s very hard to make good use out of it. In this way it plays similarly to “I’ve got a plan” (more about it in a week)⁵. 

In his spare time, Rex enjoys painting graffiti

Generally speaking, card drawing abilities are very strong in card games, as they simply give you more options. AH:TCG does not differ from  the standard card game. In fact, drawing 3 cards with Search for the Truth is already a decent result and a fairly achievable one. Even if for some reasons (full hand?) you decide not to use it, its massive icons for sure will come in handy to help Rex trigger his ability

Rex’ Curse seemed to me to be a very clever design choice. It’ supposed to create an ever-reoccurring jinx, haunting Rex and nullifying his efforts. In the practice, however, it does not do much. Unless you’re very *khem* unlucky or playing a long scenario, your chances of seeing it more than once are rather slim. Even with some added draw potential of Rex you might easily not see the card at all.⁶ Secondly, quite often it doesn’t impact chances of passing the test too heavily. It can even help a bit, sometimes allowing you to pass by 2 or more (I admit, it’s a rare case). To be honest one of most impactful effects of the curse is an increased chance of triggering nasty Chaos Token effects (adding doom to the enemies etc.) as effects of both drawn tokens apply. Even so, some chance for extra negative results on top of causing you to fail one test is rather not something to be overly concerned about.

Dear Lord, my 'stache DOES look fabulous

The card extends the gameplay in an annoying way, adding to the most important drawback of the chaos bag – time it takes to perform the physical act of randomizing the bag and drawing a token. It’s even more frustrating if you’re pulling one token after another.

Just to be on the safer side, should you expect a crucial (and rather hard) skill check coming soon, strongly consider using a choice to fail a skill check with the Elder Sign effect (provided you happen to draw it during the re-draw procedure), as it allows to both get rid of the curse and draw 3 cards.

The curse originally promises to deliver a very thematic experience, but seems to fail a bit in this regards (again – unless the scenario is one of the long ones).

 

Strength

Theme

Deckbuilding/Class: As one can easily predict, Rex has been designed as a Seeker. And this class definitely fits him very much. So much, that in fact I even somehow accept him as a pure Seeker. A Survivor subclass would fit him, too – even more so due to the Scavenging build – if not for so many Fortune cards which would still be unavailable for him due to his deckbuilding restriction (a super thematic one, by the way). While one can toy with different sub-variants of his Seeker/Neutral set of cards (Mind over Matter is, for instance not as a straightforward choice as for Daisy, while Manual Dexterity and Hyperawareness make much more sense), he seems to be designed with (ab)using Scavenging in mind, which almost forces to include 2 copies of Scavenging and at least one of Rabbit’s Foot. It definitely provides a powerful synergy, it limits reasonable variants (at least for now) available for Rex’ deck, though. 

Strength

Theme

Like his Dunwich friend, Zoey, Rex is designed with one job in mind. For Zoey it’s putting an end to the existence of wicked monsters. For Rex it’s discovering the horrible truth about sacrilege forces bringing doom to mankind. His power lies mostly within his ability, a clearly superb one (possibly the strongest special ability so far). He is yet another great Seeker character with a clear purpose and strong design. He definitely does best work in a team – the bigger the team, the better, as he can vacuum clean all the clues from a location in no time.

You can kill some giant vampire with this stake

Strength

Theme

All images are courtesy of cardgamedb.com and fantasyflightgames.com

¹Or more if you’re a slow reader.

²Again more if you’re a slow reader.

³Sometimes clues represent more of facts, information; sometimes they are more of concrete pieces of evidence you need to find or even objects you will use, or locate.

⁴I believe you’ve noticed the pattern already, haven’t you?

⁵Regardles of your reading pace.

⁶It is the case for all the personal weaknesses, I know. However Rex’ curse seem to require bit more in this regards – maybe it should start the game in play? Or would it be too harsh?

Zoey Samaras: The Chef

There is a variety of motives, causing the investigators to stand against the seemingly unbeatable powers of the otherworldly forces. Revenge, curiosity, or simply will to survive when faced with monstrous being trying to hunt you down. Zoey, however, is different. She is on a God-given mission. While technically a Chef, most of her life is spent following God’s orders. He speaks to her and she fulfills His instructions, killing the wicked abominations and guarding our world.

Legacy: I have a revelation to make in the very beginning of this article. Zoey has been pretty much my favorite character so far, when taking into account both Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror. She was always a very proficient fighter with added layer of other capabilities and neat skills. In AH, she had high Lore/Luck value on top of her fighting competence and due to her Killer Instinct only needed one weapon to wreak havoc on all monsters. In Eldritch Horror she got even better! While still bearing her Cross to aid her during fights, she was also able to get additional missions straight from the Creator. And due to her well-spread stats she was also a proficient gate closer! A “killer” combination! (if you pardon this unintended punchline)

So when I learned, Zoey will be included as one of Dunwich Legacy investigators, I was beyond excited. And my excitement grew even further upon reading all Zoey-related cards. I was a bit conscious about her skill seemingly being inferior to Jenny’s, still was very much looking forward to playing her.

SPOILER ALERT!

I was disappointed

Zoey I love. This is how I will remember her!

Skill values: Zoey’s skill values shape her as a very evident killer with one job – slaying the wicked foes. Combat of 4 allows her to rip through them with a great efficiency, whereas Will of 4 protects her from all kinds of negative effects (while also inviting to take advantage of some of the Mystic options). However, one can wonder, since she’s to be a fighter and only a fighter, why wouldn’t she have lower Agility? One point less wouldn’t make a noticeable difference, but could help her to either do a decent job at investigating or boost her Combat to crazy levels (there are characters with a skill value of 5 in the end). 

I don’t really find any thematic explanation for this choice, either. In the end she just seems like a worse version of Roland (another spoiler alert – you’re going to read this phrase again).

Strength 

Theme 

Special Ability: Getting a resource for engaging an enemy is a decent skill. It comes even more handy for a Guardian – their cards are expensive and they do not have any cards to gather extra resources (so far). However, if you compare Zoey’s ability with Jenny’s you have a nasty impression, it’s a slightly weaker variant, really. On an average you do not engage one enemy per turn. The difference is not that big and the ability provides a cool synergy with Zoey’s Cross, nevertheless one can easily see it’s on the weaker side of thing. 

 I am not too sure how to thematically interpret her ability, unless on a quite abstract level. Is it the killer instinct that enables her to be very ehm… resourceful when faced with monsters?

I have mixed feelings about Zoey’s Elder Sign effect. On one hand it’s very thematic. On top of that, many of Zoey’s tests are, in fact, Combat skill checks, so there are decent chances it will get triggered during a fight. On the other hand – it annoyingly often gets drawn during other kinds of skill checks. Moreover, quite often an extra damage doesn’t matter at all – it just leads to an unnecessary overkill – mostly because you can’t really plan to draw an Elder Sing or make reasonable strategy based on an assumption you will get one of 16 (or more!) tokens.

Strength

 Theme

Signature cards: Here we go! Zoey starts to shine for a difference. Her Cross is my favorite signature card so far. It provides alternative means of doing extra damage, while not being a weapon. Beat Cop style, if you allow me such a comparison. It does not require any actions and the resource cost is pretty much negligible, since Zoey gets one when engaging an enemy.

All points one can raise about an upgraded Beat Cop apply to her Crucifix too – you can snipe out single health enemies with a great efficiency (this is definitely my favorite use). If your partner did some damage to the enemy you might finish it off, just by engaging it – no risk, no nasty chaos tokens). When facing a major guy (Ghoul Priest level or so), one additional damage for the start of the fight might also save you one attack in the end.

Giving Zoey a Cross was an obvious design choice – it’s her starting gear in Arkham Files since its beginning and naturally fits a believer (a God’s warrior, one could say). I am just slightly skeptical about a connection between the holy jewelry and suddenly striking the monsters.¹

This would be such a cool graphic if not for the dinosaur-like creature
making a come back from Unexpected Courage

Zoey’s weakness might vary in impact, depending on few factors. The obvious one is the strength of the drawn enemy. The second one is its type – is it a hunter enemy or not? If it is, Zoey most probably won’t have to >>hunt<< (haha!) it down, though it might stalk some of her teammates. The timing (and size of the map) is also crucial. If there’s nothing very urgent to do, Zoey (or one of her friends) might as well go and smite the wicked. In this sense it’s just one extra monster added to the adventure, possibly even less impactful for a bigger team. If it’s drawn towards the end of a tense scenario… oh well, then it’s Cover Up all over again (these seem to affect Guardians so badly!). And unlike all the task weaknesses it still matters in the last scenario. All in all, it’s slightly more damaging than a typical weakness, while not being Roland’s level.

The weakness is an obvious thematic choice for Zoey. Even though the design is bit simplistic (and surprisingly similar to Jenny’s weakness) one cannot deny its thematic quality. She’s on a God given quest and once he points to another target, she feels compelled to fulfill his commands to the point at which failing does permanent damage to her mental stability. 

Strength

Theme

Class/Deckbuilding options: Zoey is a Dunwich Style Guardian. The class choice is obvious both mechanically and thematically. She can have some options on what to take from the different classes depending on your needs and approach. Regardless of exact direction, you can always use Double or Nothing for devastating blows (combined with a weapon and a Vicious Blow it does 6 damage in one go!), all round strong Lucky! (nicely supporting Double or Nothing, as well). If you’re looking for an extra fighting edge (and more chances to draw a weapon), Baseball Bats come in very handy. If you decide to help a bit with Zoey’s investigating capabilities, Rite of Seeking and Drawn to the Flame both seem to be a very good option. Finally, if you’re looking at some support alternatives (also helping with Zoey’s low Sanity), Liquid Courage does the job.

A Chef by day, a monster slayer by night.
Let's hope she does not use any of the gained monster bits in her day job...

 I have already mentioned how the Dunwich characters’ deckbuilding requirements are on the weaker side of things for me. Zoey is less affected, as there are tons of strong level 0 Guardian cards. However, I could picture her with a Mystic subclass so well! High Will would allow her to use multiple spells, Fearless to heal Sanity… That would not only make Zoey stronger, it would also fit her legacy image. In Arkham Files games her Lore stat (which is the spellcasting attribute in the previous 2 games) is on the higher end. Such a wasted opportunity! Not to mention, I feel slightly uneasy with some of the cards Zoey can theoretically access when it comes to the theme side of things (all Dunwich guys are affected, I guess).

Strength

Theme

All in all Zoey seems to be a bit bland. She does lots of fighting and that’s pretty much it. Even spiced up a tiny bit with a selection of 5 cards from different classes, she’s still extremely one-dimensional. In fact, in the post about Roland I criticized him for being rather dull. I am taking my words back – he’s so actually quite fun and even more so, compared to the killer chef.

While I do appreciate a specialized approach, it makes playing her bit on the boring side. To make matters worse, she is only slightly more of an efficient killer, than Roland is, while the latter can do so much more! We even tried her in a 4-player game, hoping her highly specialized profile would fit a bigger party more. Still she was a minor disappointment. Unfortunately the final verdict is not favorable to Zoey.

Strength

Theme

¹I am a Christian myself, however I can see no place for God in the universe of Lovercraft and definitely not the Judeo-Christian one. The cold, uncaring universe in which humanity is part of thin layer of a biosphere in a Necro-cosmos faced with unhuman powers beyond their understanding, Idiot-God Azathoth, destroying worlds at will and just all the lack of purpose do not fit with the concept of the all-loving God. It begs a question – who speaks to Zoey? 

All images are courtesy of cardgamedb.com and fantasyflightgames.com

Deckbuilding options Dunwich vs Core Set

At this point every investigator from the core set has been reviewed already. As you have probably noticed, a major part of investigators theme and capability is their deck-building options.

We have been presented with 2 patterns so far. Core Set investigators can include cards from 2 classes - all the cards from their "main" class and cards up to level 2 from their "secondary" class. They can also use all the neutral cards. Dunwich investigators can include all the cards from their class as well as all the neutral ones. On top of that, they can include up to 5 cards of ANY other class, albeit only 0 level.

In this article I'd like to convince you, that the "Dunwich approach" is slightly inferior. And in fact it seems, game designers agree with this notion. How comes? Well, the investigators from the expansion have higher total Sanity/Stamina and their special abilities also seem to be slightly stronger (the latter notion is debatable, I agree).

I might have spoiled the surprise a bit, by jumping to the conclusion. However, I'd like to take a fair approach here and still consider all the advantages and disadvantages of both options.

Marie's Deckbuilding options - bit too fancy for my taste

What is the biggest advantage of the Dunwich deck-building? Access to numerous alternative builds. You can try combining all sort of different cards for cool and strong combo effects or at a great synergy.

You can choose a card that matches the investigator, but does not belong to his class. Wouldn't you, after all, wish to equip Wendy with Shrivelling? That would solve her fight-related issues, or at least help with them by far. Daisy would benefit from Elusive tremendously - too bad, not her class.

You can decide to emphasise character's strengths (adding costly Assets to Jenny's deck, for instance) or mitigate their weakness (Rite of Seeking for Zoey), depending on the team (or lack of one) you're in and your personal preferences. You can also take assets, filling slots that are left free (often arcane or accessory) It all adds up to a great deal of customisation.

Regardless of the deck restrictions, pretty much an auto-include

Or does it?

Because in fact, you can only use 5 cards! To help Skids slay his foes you might use all the available Guardian arsenal. And you most definitely want to, as there are so many useful cards there! You can easily end up with 10 or more of them. In fact, I sometimes wish to just take multiple Guardian or Seeker (depending on the build I'm into) cards for Jenny, instead of having choice of 5 among all classes. And it's an open question, what constitutes more customisation - choosing up to 5 (most probably, exactly 5) out of circa 50 (100 if we consider 2 copies, although obviously card base will grow) or up to 25 from 25?

In other words, you are forced to take 25 cards out of one class and neutrals, once again damaging the possible customisation. Once we have access to more level 0 cards per class it will extend the deck-building window. However level 0 base will, hopefully, not grow that much - I'd strongly prefer to see more high level cards. And even once it does, it also increases options for Core Set guys in both classes they have access too, doesn't it?

While The Aficionado prefers Machete, I like GUNS

You also surprisingly often (or is it just me?) end up with using same cards over and over again, just because they are the strongest from their class. Cards like Machete, Lucky, Drawn to the Flame, Leo, Dr Milan etc. are used almost exclusively (see a very good post about staple cards to consider on Delve Too Deep). On top of it, some builds seem obviously superior and take almost all fun out of customisation away, anyway (Scavenging Rex is the best example).

 Dunwich characters take the biggest hit to their adjustability, once they gain some experience. They can only take upgraded cards from one class! Jenny won't ever include upgraded Beat Cop, nor will Pete take benefit of stronger Blinding Light (which is a solid card unlike its level 0 brother). This is the most painful disadvantage for me - in the long run (and it starts to show in core set campaign already at 3 scenarios!) core set characters' decks are stronger.

As I've already confessed in my previous post I favour the "playing" part of the game over the deck-building one. With this in mind, the old investigators also feel bit more comfortable for me - instead of looking at all the level 0 cards, I just take 2 sets of cards (or 3, if counting neutrals), having more time to run the same scenario for the 20th time (still fun!). I can easily understand, however, if someone enjoys looking at all the possible interactions between cards more.¹  

Despite my slight bias towards core set deck-building approach I enjoy playing (most of) the new investigators and building decks for all of them. In the end, deck is just a part of all the character's capabilities. As always, I am very keen to learn your opinion!

¹ I hope game designers will manage the most dreaded part of card games - avoiding creating cards that together create absurd combos. Most of the card games introduces rotation to avoid such interactions - not allowing to mix some card sets with others. Another solution is banning cards, that create too many combos (or are too strong on their own). I would be upset, if I couldn't mix all the cards (yes I know, I could o it at home, since it's a cooperative game... would still feel like cheating!) between the sets, just because an interaction or two slipped designers' attention. And having a card in collection, that ultimately will turn out game breaking would also be a negative experience.

All images are courtesy of cardgamedb.com and fantasyflightgames.com