That's… good :-) Love the picture :-) Not so sure it's perfect Arkham, but it could be a lot of fun to play

MNT's herald made me think a lot and… that's Julia's version of a possible Eihort Herald. Comments and feedbacks are really welcome, as always.

Clearly, it's intended to be challenging and *nasty*

Are Cultists stalkers when the terror level reaches 6 or from the beginning ? The way it's written, I first thought it was when it reaches 6. But then have doubts.

I'm not playing enough to evaluate that guy correctly, but brood tokens seem spreading fast :) Just hope there are enough token in the box ;)

 

Hugues said:

 

Well… yeah, I hope there are enough tokens in the box. Anyway, tokens are not supply limited, so, in case, you can use proxies. Buuuut… I guess that if you ever run out of Eihort's brood tokens, is more or less 100% game over. Anyway, you're right, it's a nasty bastard ::devil::

And cultists are stalkers from the beginning of the game. Otherwise I'd have worded it something like "when the doom track reaches 6, cultists gain Stalker. Place a brood token and a cultist on any gate in Arkham". I'm sorry if this is confusing!

 If stalker from the beginning, i would assume to see that information at the beginning of the sheet, or at least with an empty line between the paragraph about rising terror. But maybe i'm just confused somewhere there is no reason to be.

What happen if a gate is closed with Brood Token on it ? They disappear or stay in that location ? Is there any mean to safely remove some brood token from the board ? Sounds really nasty :)

Hugues said:

Re: stalker. Yes, you're right, I came to the same conclusion, I'll upload a newer version starting with the "cultists are stalker" sentence, to avoid confusion. Thanks for pointing this out :-)

Re: closing gates. Gates are not related to Brood tokens in any way excpept for spreading the disease. Hence, once a token appears on the board, it stays there until somebody picks it up. And the picking is related to the end of the movement phase. So, an investigator closing a gate (if nothing strange - read OW encounters or Science building encounters) normally has to spend a movement phase on that gate before attempting to close the check. Hence, if there is a token on the gate, he takes it and must check for Eihort's brood before attempting to close the gate.

If somebody closes the gate thanks to encounters or De vermis mysteriis, the token remains on the board, triggering further nasty things. So, no way of removing brood from the board ::devil:: it's the only way to make Eihort a little less exploitable (it's one of the easiest AOs around because of a loophole as big as the whole universe. Suggestion for an incredibly tough game: play Eihort, my Herald and Avi's Arbiter of reality)

Ok, Ive modified slightly the layout so that it's definitely clear that "cultists are stalker" is a different paragraph. Hope this clarifies the doubts!

Looks very interesting!  I like the way the Black Infestation forces you to chose between picking up brood tokens early or letting them grow and grow…

With the Black Infestation, the roll to see if they spread, is that before or after the Mythos card is drawn?  If the Mythos card is a monster surge that places a new brood token, it could matter.

Adelphophage said:

Thanks for the appreciation and the feedback! Yes, you're right, it certainly does matter. I'll reword it in "at the end of the Mythos phase"! Thx!

Julia said:

After thinking carefully about this, the best thing is "at the beginning of the Mythos Phase". Otherwise bad luck can make the brood appearing at doom 3 and 6 too dangerous (rolling at the end of the phase, a '1' implies two broods arriving on doom 3.

More or less 18 months ago, I had a little brainstorming session with Avi about a possible Ghatanothoa Herald. Now, after some reworking, here we have the final result (which is the second installment in the nefarious series opened by The Shapeless Mouths).

Any feedback is, as usual, really appreciated

Uploading the revised (by Avi) version of Avi's Galaxy of R'lyeh:

Regarding the Ayrman'thai herald:

So, basically the first two Lloigors are just completely unstoppable in almost every regard, right?  You kill them and they both get returned?  I suppose having two absolutely horrible monsters that can't ever be removed is probably acceptable since the special movement happens before normal movement, the monsters don't move every turn, and Lloigors have an awareness of +0.

What exactly do you mean by "investigators cannot retire"?  Do you mean that if one gets devoured, you just start up the same character, or do you actually mean that once the game starts people aren't allowed to leave until the game is finished? 

Last I checked, standard Mummys are one of the worst monsters ever created, and this herald seems to take cultists, easily the most common monster in the game, and makes them all mummies.  What are you even supposed to do against that? Not to mention, you are further punishing players for even trying to deal with them by forcing Visage flips.  Difficult is great, but this just seems brutal.

None of the individual elements are too harsh (though some are ridiculous), but all the elements in tandem create an environment that literally seems impossible to win against.

 

Regarding The Galaxy of R'yleh:

So, what exactly constitutes a "stack"?  Is it only when R'yleh gate activity occurs, or is it any time two or more monsters happen to be in the same area?  I'm assuming the former since otherwise this just gets out of hand waaaaay too easily.

I love the first clause of "Interdimensional Invasion", making other world encounters a bit more exciting overall while introducing a neat danger element.  The reshuffling of R'yleh gates is a little rude, but it makes sense for the sake of this setup.  The last clause that involves making Cthulhu harder is not something I feel so great about.  In order to replicate a -8 Cthulhu, you need to be playing with both Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, and even that combination doesn't cause Cthulhu to recover 2 doom tokens a turn instead of 1.  I feel the last clause needs to be tuned down a tad.

Does a stack always remain a stack?  Like, what if there's only one monster left in a stack; it doesn't really seem like a "stack" by that point.

The Aquatic expansion on the main board is a nice addition to this scenario.  It doesn't really add a whole lot to the game, but it's a nice touch.

What is the winning strategy to a scenario like this?  You've made it incredibly hard to even close gates let alone seal them, and you definitely won't win against a -8 Cthulhu with double recovery.

Hi there!

thanks for the comments! First of all, you're quite new to the forum, so let me precise a point: all my creations and all Avi's are destined to advanced players. With this, I intend players who win most of the time with normal Arkham and play the game absolutely strategically (hit it, hit it hard, and win in 10 Mythos). So all the Heralds I and Avi have created over the years appear to be insanely difficult to "normal" Arkham players, and challenging to the advanced players. Among those, there are a few recorded as "Avi's & Julia's Heralds" (the Gath one and the Shapeless Mouths) destined to be used only by *high* level gamers (otherwise it's a slaughterhouse).

Now, as for your feedback:

- yeah Lloigor are unstoppable. You must play in order to avoid them, as long as you can. Plus, clearly you've problems if you play only core Arkham. Adding expansion boards make this easier

- investigators cannot retire means exactly that they cannot retire, as per rules in the DH rulebook, pag 6: you're allowed normally to retire if you have 2 Madnesses / Injuries. Now you cannot. Similar to Avi's Arbiter of Reality ability, if you're familiar with that Herald

- yes, mummies are difficult (not the worse monster ever, Colours, Servitor of the Outer Gods and some others are much worse), but they are thematically correct, Gathanothoa's gaze transformed people into mummies

Anyway, I usually tend to playtest the Heralds I create before posting them here. I played two games with this one, won both of them for sealing, so, trust me, it's not impossible to win against this dude. Plus, it's intended to be used with Gath, and Gath is really an easy AO, with a long doom track, so you have some free turns to study how to move properly on the board.

Galaxy: as told in the original post, this is not a Herald I created. It was created by Avi a long time ago, but he needed to reword some points so that it could be used for Scenario 21 of his League (here). If you follow the hyperlink, you'll notice that the Scenario is much more brutal than the Herald, but still, I passed, on the first try. And played several times with this Herald here, losing some games and winning more often (I'm 4 - 1, IIRC). I'll point out your questions to Avi so that he can answer you directly; in case he cannot, I'll answer you here.

Chat soon

JULIA

Shining Aquas said:

Hi Shining, I'm officially retired, buuut, Julia asked me to respond, so…

If I were doing this on my own, I probably would have just kept it short and said, "You are wrong." ;'D But, I'm pretty sure a more detailed response was asked for from me…  Try not to take any of this as curt.  It's just how I write.  And my hands are cold (I'd like to get this done as fast as possible).

I don't know how long you've been playing this game, or if your playstyle is strategic or thematic.  Theme players tend to find the things I've made and the things Julia's made to be too difficult.  However these things have been considered in the context of deep understanding of the game structure (it's not just that I've played an enormous number of games, I've also studied the decks and types of cards to try to understand the game structure better).  There's also been years worth of strategy discussion on this site, and the site that came before…  Anyway, that's somewhat besides the point (except that I suspect that you're somewhat new to this game, since you did not recognize the term "retire" which has been around since Dunwich, 2007, IIRC).

Now…  More specifically.

Julia's herald: one error new players (and by that I mean people who haven't been coached, or haven't been trying to play the game strategically at least for a couple years) frequently make is treating combat as important.  It's not really.  I mean, it can be.  Sometimes.  But it is a side dish.  A potentially fatal distraction.  The Lloigors are things to mostly avoid (sneak check vs them is very passible, also), they are obstacles in your path, they are *not* the point of the game.  And if they are a serious obstacle, well, that's what the magic shop's for, pushing them out of the way (although given the visage penalty, that may not be the best idea).  One thing you seem to be unaware of is killing the lloigors technically is also potentially a benefit (since you can do it with a stripped down weak character to deliberately draw visage tokens and get around the no retirement rule through strategic devouring). That's an  incidental tactic however.  Mummies are not that strong.  You just need to do a bit of shopping the first turn or two of the game.  Given that the original one is stationary, I'm not really sure what your difficulty is (besides being new to the game).  There are considerably worse monsters (and they are also capable of being dealt with).

http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Basic_Strategy

My herald: A) many experienced players consider final battle wins an inferior sort of win (they're fairly easy to get), unless the AO has been significantly modified.  Still.  A minus 8 2x regen Cthulhu is *VERY* beatable with some proper gearing up.  You are unlikely to accidentally win against him as you would an unmodified version though.  B) New stacks only happen when there is a monster surge at Rlyeh (or when a Rlyeh gate opens).  As it states on the herald.  C)Making the board aquatic makes it more fun for dealing with aquatic monsters that are not normally threatening, usually this isn't a big deal in terms of difficulty, unless you use a herald that allows herald pairing (e.g. Janus or the Crevice of Chaos, and stick it with Baastan or one of the other massive aquatic monster boosting heralds or Ancient Ones). D)Several of your questions would have been answered by a careful reading of the herald, I realize it's a dense chunk of text, but still, it is what it is.  And the answers were there (including what happens if only one monster is left in a stack).

In conclusion: I agree with Julia.  You seem like you're somewhat new to the game.  I didn't design this stuff for new players.  If you are having trouble with the basic game, by all means, increase your skill level against it.  My stuff and variants I made (that are not on photobucket, but are buried in various places on this site) are for people who have a good understanding of the fundamental game structure and need a challenge that the game can not provide anymore once it is understood.  If you feel the need to unwrap your presents before Armageddon Christmas, feel free to modify some of my stuff (or Julia's) so it's easier, but I wouldn't.  Everything I designed is very beatable, although some are more difficult than others, everything can be beaten most of the time with four or more investigators (personally I like playing 3 so the game stays challenging).

Anyway, good luck.  I'd probably advise trying to master basic Arkham before moving on to custom stuff.  Although I could see why it might be tempting not to, apparently people who do and try to bite off more than they can chew often feel like they're having a hitting a brick wall effect.

Aaaand, I'm gone again.  Bye.