Catchupalooza – Arkham Horror the Card Game
The Dice Tower
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Zee Garcia, Camilla Cleghorn, and Chris Yi take a look at Arkham Horror the Card Game, a game that two of them had not played until recently, and what they think about it now: buy it, bring it, or bury it.
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02.02.2023
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My biggest frustration with the game is the initial deck construction. I know a lot of people really get into it, but I definitely don't. I kind of enjoy upgrading the deck with XP between scenarios. But I really wish FFG had produced more individual starter decks. The ones they did build were nice but they're all 1-color decks so they could even contain the upgrades you might want. I don't need that. I just don't enjoy the slog of putting a deck together (and then helping the other players, who are all less enthusiastic about it than I am). But I really enjoy the game. Oh well.
Also I would mention that as a new player, one of the best things you can buy are the stand alone investigator packs. Each comes with an entire competent precon deck and all the cards you'd likely want to upgrade so it takes much of the analysis paralysis out of players who might feel overwhelmed on what changes they want to make as they progress.
Being that I no longer have anyone to game with, I'm even more thankful for this great game than I was initially!
I know it’s Catchupaluza… but my brain always reads Chopacabra… 🤷🏽♂️
I like using the Arkham Cards app since every scenario is on there and you can just setup the game and read the flavor text from your game instead of flipping through the pages. Great app. Some of the episodes are even narrated which just adds to the theme.
Easily my favorite game. Six years in and it’s amazing how much creativity the designers put into each scenario. Each one feels so distinct!
While I like the Lord of the Rings theme better than Lovecraftian themes in general, I feel that Arkham Horror the Card Game does a much better job at creating an atmosphere and capturing the theme than does the LOTR LCG. These multi-reviewer reviews are nicely formatted and very informative. Thank you.
Arkham always brings it for me my favorite game and always up to playing it!
I have a recommendation for Catchupalooza… The Red Dragon Inn games! HOW has The Dice Tower not made a review for any of them—they’re such a popular party game in our home!!!
Would love to see what people rank it!
Is it just me or do the "tokens" that Zee used look a lot like he repurposed the dams from Pandemic: Rising Tide?
Soooo jealous of people that play as a group. I've only ever been able to play solo and it stands alone as my favorite solo game 🙂
The only game I've sold and then bought back. Amazing game that's worth the commitment.
Thanks for covering this. I’ve always had some of the same trepidations around all the packs to but and what to get. This new core set and scenario boxes may actually get me to take the plunge on this one.
Highly recommend the Path of Carcosa campaign. So so good.
Absolutely my favorite board game ever. Thanks so much for recovering this great game! I highly recommend (for Camilla and Chris) if you're interested in trying a new campaign with Zee, playing The Path to Carcosa (the investigator and campaign expansion recently got rereleased in the new format.) By far my favorite campaign, and elevates the game to a whole new level, even better than The Dunwich Legacy. It really shows you what this amazing game can do. P.S. Remember, ALWAYS heed Daniel's warning…
Too many "story" games are just random shuffling of random events and they ask you to make your own story out of it. That's not a story to me. I love how this game has real stories, yet your characters still go on their own arc personal to you
My absolute favourite game. I play it almost daily. Every campaign is great. Not a dud among them.
I do think that this game has a ton of upfront "stuff" to understand in order to appreciate. I've found that its first time experiences are much more successful when you have someone that knows the game running the game to help present all the options and process the rules. I've taught this game multiple times to people with some level of gaming experience and it's usually gone over well (except the time we tried playing it 4 and 3 players, once each–way too long!), as long as I was either playing with them or overseeing the game. It's not for everyone, but I do think its campaign nature with a strong emphasis on story makes it particularly unique among card games and still recommend it to anyone who's able to endure the rules overhead or has someone to absorb that for them.
Absolutely love this game. Got multiple cores, all the standalones, return tos, custom tokens, play mats, books…. But I totally get where you're comming from. Its not for everyone. What I would recommend to anyone wanting to try it is find someone who plays it and skip the core box campaign. It doesn't really shine until Dunwich. Dunwich isn't even the "best" campaign but probably the best for first timers since it doesn't have extra rules and mechanics. Also don't be tempted by the standalone scenarios as a one-off introduction to the game. They are really punshing and not fun for beginners. Learned that the hard way.
Oh, and speaking of what Camilla mentioned about the locations, I totally agree, the game by itself can almost suffer from its modularity, especially with the location connections and deckbuilding. That being said, there are a lot of external components/websites/apps that have been developed that really make this game shine. To just name a few: ArkhamDB is the de-factor site people go to when building decks. Every card is on there, you can create all the decks with whatever investigators you want, you can filter the cards by what expansions you own, and it can handle and manage upgrading decks and spending xp. There is also an app called ArkhamCards, which effectively is a structured Campaign Guide, which also keeps track of xp/trauma/earned story assets/campaign log entries.
My dudes, I love this format. Just talking about games sometimes is all I am looking for. I don't really like playthroughs much and demos are good for when you are learning but I just love cool folks having conversations about a good game.
Zee sold me on this game as a solo game, and it is not! That’s my biggest complaint. This plays best with 4. 3 is Ok. 2 is a different game. Solo is just bad.
This game offers so much. Every chapter has 2-5 endings. And your ending changes how and where you start the next chapter. There are now about 70+ different investigators. Replay value is unlimited.
This is one of my favourites as well. Why not review one of the new repackaged campaigns, like Path to Carcosa? Or some of the remaining one shots?
What i have to add is, that the new storage boxes are excessively huge.
I hope they continue the 'return' boxes, so i can trash them
This is one game I originally had no interest in and only grabbed on a bargain sale to "try once and resell". My absolute favorite game now. I'm just sad that FFG didn't improve the haphazard core game experience – the combination of horrible pre-made starter decks and pretty underwhelming campaign will be enough to turn plenty of people off before they have a chance to get to the good stuff.
Really enjoyed this game but I couldn't get a group to play it consistently. Only played the first two scenarios and sold it. Marvel Champions replaced this game for me
Love catchapoluza- would love to know which investigator they each played, I know Camilia mentioned Roland.
I loved both that I can play it solo and play it with my kids. I've easily put more hours into this physical game than any other… it's not even close.
I would love to see a Dice Tower group play through the latest campaign (Edge of the Earth) to really see how the game has evolved.
Rewatch this one and focus on the BOX… it moves by itself!!! Scary stuff.
Probably my favorite game. Bust out a campaign ever now and then and prepare for the beat down 😂
For all the card games that I missed out on, I'm so happy I got into this one almost from the start.
Favorite game. Easy. Each campaign brinca something new and exciting. The investigators feel distinct and the story really pulls you in
Love this game, great video. Would love if you guys did more Arkham Horror LCG content.
I think Zee is right that the game itself is a bit divisive. There are a lot of rules to learn and learning to survive through failure is the name of the game. Then there's the cost. Getting one campaign is more than most board games. Getting all of them–well, you shouldn't want to get all of them. Just the ones that seem neat to you. With it's difficulty, it's not everyone's cup of tea. But, if it /might/ be your cup of tea, I cannot recommend it enough. Even as someone with very little interest in deck building, the game is just an absolute masterclass in design, mechanics, and theme. Every time they show a new investigator, I immediately want to make a deck for them and see how their mechanics change up the game.
It might be for you. It almost wasn't for me, but with a little effort getting into it, it's grown into one of my favorite games.
This catch up thing would be much more entertaining if you would show some of the actual gameplay.
This video does a great job of summarizing public sentiment about Arkham Horror the Card Game. Thanks!
So easily the best game I’ve played. It’s so much fun by yourself and with friends. It’s got solid mechanics and every campaign always does something interesting. Highly recommend if you’re looking for a board game to sink time into!!
One OF. I can't figure out how OFF became popular.