Arkham Horror: TCG – Danger Await in ‘The Circle Undone’
The next Mythos Cycle for Arkham Horror: The Card Game is introducing some new mechanics and challenges for investigators to tackle. Check out a preview of what lies ahead in The Circle Undone Cycle.
As a Living Card Game (LCG) Arkham Horror: The Card Game has regular a different release model than your typical Collectible Card Game. Their sets are divided up by Mythos Cycle – typically starting with one Deluxe Expansion which kicks off the new cycle. Those are then followed by multiple Mythos Packs which add more cards to that cycle. On top of that, all those cards are fixed per pack so no need to hunt for that “one rare” that you need to finish your set.
Aside from that each new expansion also adds more to the narrative of the game which each deluxe expansion kicking off a new investigation to play through. Each additional Mythos Pack expands that story until the climax of the final pack in the cycle. The next Mythos Cycle will start up with the release of The Circle Undone and today Fantasy Flight Games has some previews for the challenges ahead.
In The Circle Undone, your team of investigators is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the disappearance of four people from a charity event hosted by the prestigious Silver Twilight Lodge. The vanishing act itself is disturbing, but the more you look into the case, the more impossible the facts become. The evidence points to supernatural forces just beneath the surface of the city’s façade of normalcy: covens of witches, monsters in the mists, shadows in the woods, and all linked to the tangled secrets of a past that Arkham does not wish to acknowledge.
One of the unique challenges that kicks off this cycle is that the players are getting to start as 4 other characters in a special playable prologue to the investigation. Players will get to experience the events that kick off this cycle through the eyes of these characters to help give them a unique perspective on the narrative. From what we can gather, based on what happens to those characters, the future events in the cycle will be shifted slightly to account for those strange happenings.
The Cycle also introduces some new mechanics and abilities to the game, too. The first of which we’re getting a look at is Haunted:
“Each time you fail a skill test while investigating a location, you must resolve that location’s Haunted abilities. “
As an example, we have Master Bedroom. It’s Haunted ability forces you to place 1 clue on the location when it is triggered. With 3 shroud and 1 clue per investigator it’s not impossible to get those clues back (and you’ll want to clear this location out anyway for the 1 VP at the end anyhow). However, the enemies that spawn (like Shadow Hound above) or treachery cards that you’ll face (like Shapes in the Mist below) can keep triggering those effects causing you to stick around in the Haunted location searching again and again.
These spectral terrors aren’t the only challenges you’ll face either. There is a new coven of witches that have moved into Arkham and they have plans of their own. There abilities and threat level varies as some of the witches are well practiced and some are new members. This translates into how their abilities function in game in a neat way.
Here we have the Coven Initiate. Her Revelation ability forces you to discard the top 2 cards of the encounter deck. For the most part, that really isn’t the worst thing. However, if that discard forces the encounter deck to be empty, it triggers the next part of the ability. The top most Hex card is also drawn by the player. So now you have a relatively weak enemy to deal with AND a Hex on you as well. Now you’ve got a problem. What do Hexes look like? Well Wracked is one example – so is Bedeviled:
While these checks do cause Willpower Tests to defeat the effect, you can also pass those checks if there is an exhausted Witch enemy in the location. You can exhaust enemies by doing an evade check – or by playing other cards that can cause enemies to become exhausted. I like this as it gives characters that have a low Willpower a chance to defeat these checks in a different way. But speaking of Willpower…
Centuries of Secrets is another challenge that investigators will face. It’s a massive 5 Willpower test to pass and for each point you fail by you discard a card from the encounter deck. If you discard any Curse cards, you get hit with 1 direct damage to your investigator AND each Ally asset you control. Brutal! Then again, that might not be as bad as some of the Curse cards, like Evil Past:
Evil Past is a hint at what the citizens of old Arkham were up to and this town has quite the history. This treachery sticks around and causes you to take 2 horror when the encounter deck runs out of cards. Then, you have to check Willpower 3 – if you pass you get to discard this card. Otherwise, you’ll have it looming over your head for another ticking-horror-bomb.
The Circle Undone is currently up for Pre-order from FFG or your FLGS now!
The Circle Undone $29.95
The Circle Undone is the fourth deluxe expansion for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Here, your team of investigators delve into the mysteries of Arkham’s past, uncovering its macabre history and the motives of those who dwell in its shadows. This expansion contains a playable prologue, first two scenarios of The Circle Undone campaign, as well as new investigator and player cards to further customize your investigations in the world of H. P. Lovecraft’s Mythos.
You can’t outrun the past…
