https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/11/15/no-ones-perfect/
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Ah, thanks! Had seen that page, but missed her card. Bad investigator 
I would say she is a pretty decent investigator ;). A 3 in everything is pretty okay.
I meant me!
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Jenny looks like the Spirit Glorfindel of Arkham, meaning that she is really powerful, but boring. With three in every stat, she can do okay at every test, and then with access to all spheres, she can legitimately boost every stat.
Have you found Shotgun to be good? Seems pretty lame to me.
Derringer is quite good IMO, but yeah, switchblade is garbage.
Super interested to get the final spoilers on all of their signature cards and weaknesses. All 3 of the new investigators previewed here can be anywhere from bad to amazing once we know their signature cards.
Itâs looking like Jennyâs gun has X cost with potentially X ammo? And the musicianâs trumpet appears to have a healing effect. Depending on how strong it is, he could be a great support or just sort of blah.
Not to mention they all have 15 between Health/Sanity as opposed to the core set investigators 14.
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No, not really. 2 for 2 the solo games I have invested in it have been total washes. Its great for bosses but pretty much useless on higher difficulties.
I played through scenario 1 and 2 with Skids + Daisy last night with a buddy who just got the game. Skids deck was built for just handling enemies while Daisy grabs clues. First scenario was ok, but I lacked the punch to finish off the Ghoul Priest so we had to flee. Second scenario started off really strong. Daisy had Dr. Milan and a Level 1 Magnifying Glass in her opening hand, and I managed to get Hard Knocks, Burglary and a Derringer out very early. Hell, I got a Hot Streak a few turns later and felt like we could take on the world.
But we made a few play mistakes that ground our actions to a halt. We forgot Daisy could take 1 horror off Necronomicon for free each turn, since itâs a tome, and then we also made the wrong strategic choice in not spawning the cultists every time we got to 4 clue. We managed to get the first agenda to take the full 6 turns, but once the Hunter came out we drew all of the +2 doom cards and lost really quickly afterwards. Despite discovering something like 12-14 clues we didnât slay a single cultist.
Scenario 2 is brutal! If you only get 1 doom per turn you end up with 14 turns. Every Acolyte that comes into play reduces that by 1 if you canât deal with them in time, every Cultist token you draw reduces it further, and the Hunter is wicked hard, so heâs the last person you want those +2 doom tokens going on from the encounter deck.
So general question: how are people handling scenario 2? The most unique cultists Iâve managed to wrangle so far is a pathetic 1.
I have done 3 unique cultists twice. One in solo on Hard mode and the other with a buddy. But I was packing Roland and managed to top deck the Shotgun on my solo play⌠It made a world of difference being able to one shot them.
It also helps that many of the unique cultists can be parleyed.
But I donât know if we will see a deck or group of decks in the core that can reliably take on 5 or 6 and win. You really, really want to bugger out before it goes to after midnight.
I think the deck is supposed to be stacked against you for scenario 2. It dictates the pace of scenario 3.
By the way, scenario 3 is way, way harder on hard mode. The unique symbols are all terrible.
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Iâm playing Agnes on normal solo, and have been replaying / optimizing the deck a bit, so thatâs what this experience is based on.
I feel like you must plan on killing (at DMV, so names might be off) the elite stalker cultist. Otherwise, as you noted, you are just going to be stacking doom tokens and youâll be spending too much time / cards avoiding him. I feel like the regular cultists are pretty easy to play around, just keep dumping them on your path to the next named cultist. I think that parlay is almost always the right choice whenever possible, so you can save the kill cards for the above. This plan is likely warped with her excellent kill options (bat+forbidden knowledge for small monsters, shrivel / flash for bigs), but I donât know how else you can hang around for long. The tokens will just stack too fast otherwise. Out of around 4 runs, Iâm getting 3-4 pretty comfortably.
Donât get greedy and hang around too longâŚ
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Yeah, I think our inability to kill off the Hunter is the biggest problem every time I try Scenario 2. In a 2-player game 8 health is pretty significant if only one player is able to dole out damage. Same reason we couldnât finish off the Ghoul Priest (10 hp I think?)
I donât think Jennyâs going to be very good, actually. Iâve played the campaign 7 times now, just so itâs clear that this is based off some experience and not pure theorycraft. Iâve come to the conclusion that a 3 in a stat is a bit of a trap: you really want to be at least 2 over the difficulty of a test in order to optimize your chances of success (because there are only ever a couple -3 or -4 results in the bag, so with 2 over you can hit a -2 and still make the check), which means youâre only ever optimized for difficulty 1 tests without committing cards. Given the number of tests youâll have to make, some involuntarily, thatâs not great. I would much rather have a 4/2/4/2 split than 3/3/3/3, because at least I can count on my 4s succeeding a good amount of the time without committing or otherwise boosting my stats. Iâd rather succeed at some things most of the time than succeed at everything some of the time.
This math is also why Switchblade and Derringer are awful. To succeed by 2 most of the time, youâve got to be 4 over the target number. Skids should just use Machete and .45, and Wendy should use the Baseball Bat if sheâs going to bother (but with Combat 1, why would she bother?). This math is also why I think âjust put out Hard Knocks/Dig Deep/Physical Training and be richâ is a bad strategy: youâre going to be spending 1-2 resources all the time, and thatâs not a good use of them, IMO. Iâd rather just lean on high stats and asset bonuses (+Combat from weapons and Beat Cop, +Int from Dr. Christopher and Magnifying Glass) and commit cards where necessary.
Itâs not hard to routinely get 3-4 cultists on scenario 2. 5 is tricky but doable, and 6 is quite a challenge but you can manage if youâre lucky.
I think Arkham is a game where you live and die on your action efficiency. If youâre spending actions evading hordes of enemies or plinking them for 1 damage per test, youâre not spending those actions investigating and getting clues, so youâre not progressing, while the Agenda deck is still ticking away. Daisyâs Tome bonus action and Rolandâs âdiscover a clue for defeating enemiesâ ability are the HB: EtF and Kate of this game, I think.
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Jenny suffers from the classic weakness of generalists and yeah I agree you need a 4 or higher base to be successful at tasks.
She does have some nice strengths that set her apart. Mainly the fact that she can import 5 of any other classes cards.
We also do not know what her derringers do yet. If it is something that creates action economy it might be a little better.
I think the archetype of money up and spend resources is under developed, but is certainly possible.
After all, you wonât need them for much else after a time.
Sadness: that moment when you YOLO a Drawn to the Flame, draw a Wizard, which advances you into a Masked Hunter, and then draw two straight Nightgaunts, then proceed to draw two straight Hunting ShadowsâŚ
âWhat did you learn?â says the game. Well, I learned to not Drawn to the Flame when close to advancing the agenda. And to find and use my god damn scrys. This game does a nice job of punishing misplays.
Also, dat tentacle token on hard. Eegads. Had a âtake 5 horrorâ moment after barely living through the prior scenario.
Typically drawing the cultist will not trigger an advance immediately, even if it meets the threat threshold as this happens during the player step and you do not check the advance until the mythos step.
So play drawn first action and you might be able to solve this problem. Otherwise scry like hell.
Bah, I always immediately advanced the agenda if the requisite doom tokens were present on the board. Rules are clear, now that Iâve checked (and remember that some cards explicitly say otherwise) - thanks.
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I made the same mistake first run through. Made the last scenario impossible.
Managed 3 cultists (incl. Hunter) with Agnes solo. Definitely just a matter of putting cultists wherever youâre about to go next, and dealing with them immediately. That being said, Forbidden Knowledge with Agnes is the easiest way to hand out damage. Its sort of ridiculous
So long as you can get a trigger once per round reliably she is a beast.