CoC - Perilous Trials

[fatolaf]

"We're a very special group," Garfield said. "A very old society. Extremely selective. We stand for knowledge and for the authority it confers. The Arkham Lodge of the Order of Silver Twilight stands assembled before you."
     - From An Initiate of the Order, part two of The Rituals of the Order, by Jeff Tidball

2nd AP in the new cycle has been announced

Lucy Jennings, society debutante, is drawn further into a shadowy world of power and intrigue, there to be tried, tested, and initiated into the Order of the Silver Twilight. Can she grasp the power and knowledge that initiation confers without losing her soul?

Fantasy Flight Games is pleased to announce the latest Asylum Pack for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game! Perilous Trials is the second chapter of the exciting new expansion cycle The Rituals of the Order, and it's hitting tabletops this winter. For more on the design direction behind this anticipated new cycle (as well as the new faction it builds upon), check out Rituals of Power, James Hata's introduction to the series.

Deepening the Silver Twilight faction, Perilous Trials develops the Order's power further through its Master Artificer and his collection of dangerous artifacts. Perilous Trials simultaneously expands and strengthens the game's existing factions, introducing the Twisted Choreographer, Predator of the Night, Deep One Stowaway, and more.

The tale of Lucy Jennings continues in the serial tale by Jeff Tidball included in this Asylum Pack. Follow Lucy's descent - or possibly ascent - into the circles of influence of the Order of the Silver Twilight.

Perilous Trials is a fixed 60 card Asylum Pack that contains three copies each of 20 different, never-before-seen cards based on the dark mythos of master horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, designed to augment existing decks and add variety to the Call of Cthulhu metagame.

The dark and mysterious Order of the Silver Twilight both tests and tempts its initiates. This winter, can you survive the ordeals and join the inner circle?

[fatolaf]

Nice Shub card in this deck...

Witchcraft

Since the core set came out, the Shub-Niggurath faction has the one most efficient cost reducers in the game: Priestess of Bubastis (Core Set, F123.) Being able to dynamically assign a virtual resource to play your characters means Shub-Niggurath can get out more and bigger characters, madly spawning A Thousand Young when other factions have barely started playing. A turn one Hungry Dark Young (Core Set, F131) is certainly a possibility, and only the beginning of an unstoppable swarm of monsters and cultist.

If you plan to take advantage of this slightly higher curve to swarm so very early in the game, you might run into some consistency problems. You are only allowed to play three Priestess of Bubastises in your deck, meaning that instead of exploding onto the table, you get a little behind because you'll actually need to play resources to get the slightly higher costing characters out. The solution? More Priestesses, of course! Perilous Trials gives you some backup in the form of One of the Thousand (Perilous Trials, F32.) Even while they serve a similar purpose, there are some notable differences though.

You won't often be inclined to send a Priestess to a story. Especially when it comes to opposing a counter-investigation.  The lack of icons means that the only reason to do so is if there is an opening, or you need a fall-girl for lost terror and combat struggles. One of the Thousand is different that way. While she doesn't have the base skill to actually score you success tokens, she can knock opposing characters insane, hopefully before success is determined. Even when there is nothing practical to do with resource acceleration, that should slow down the game a little and buy you some time to bring out the big guns.

Yog-Sothothry

She also serves a more obscure purpose. Yog-Sothoth doesn't put his blasphemous eggs in one basket. Aside from also prowling stories, the Gate and the Key are determined to attack your deck itself. As an alternate win condition Yog-Sothoth has the ability to deplete it so they can win without ever claiming one token.  One of a Thousand increases your chances by artificially giving you more cards. In fact, she can theoretically make your deck endless by shuffling back repeatedly so you'll never run out of cards to draw.

While it is not her primary purpose, in case things run into a stalemate you are less likely to be decked. The downside is that you might draw some cards later than you would without an endless stream of cultists above it but that hardly should matter if the early game advantage is yours already. How many opponents can answer a regular first-turn Y'Golonac (Core Set, F122)?

[fatolaf]

Nice card for the Syndicate...

Panic

I have to be honest about this. Syndicate is my personal favorite faction. While it may have something to do with the number of criminal anti-heroes that have their operations on the periphery of society (where the dark mythos forces also lurk), or the speakeasies where deals are done under the enjoyment of bootleg liquor, the main reason is just one card: Panic (Core Set, F77.)

When I started playing, this is the card that drew my immediate attention. I always like quick, straightforward strategies and even though Panic doesn't have a permanent effect on the board, often it's enough to commit to three stories, resolve them unopposed and win the game before there ever is another chance for characters to restore. There are some inconveniences though: When going up against high skill, it can cost a lot for Panic to be effective, and the Loyal keyword means that you'll have to be very invested in Syndicate to make it work consistently.

That, and you can only carry three copies of Panic. Fortunately, the upcoming Perilous Trials Asylum Pack brings you another option, in a do-or-die package called Gang Warfare (Perilous Trials, F38) that gets rid of Loyal but introduces a few challenges of its own.

Gang Warfare

First of all, it asks you to sacrifice a criminal character, preferably one with high skill. Those are few and far between. Your only real options are Tyler Scindere (Whispers in the Dark, F15) or Elite Hit Squad (Secrets of Arkham, F13). Aside from those you can take a random criminal and urge him to Get On Yer Feet! (Core Set, F78) – and promptly kick him down again by sacrificing him in the Gang Warfare. Life just isn't fair sometimes.

Another trick is to take a character with natural high skill, then frame him using False Papers (The Path to Y'ha-nthlei, F106). It wasn't like you were planning to keep that Basilisk (Sleep of the Dead, F96) around for long anyway, so, that's a win/win situation, right?

Or you can use the standard ability of Syndicate to lower the skill of other characters, and use a criminal with medium skill as bait in your evil plan. Syndicate Liaison (Core Set, F68) is a good example. After exhausting the highest skilled opposing character, he pretty much outlives his usefulness, so no one will miss him.

Your final challenge is timing. While Panic can be played at your convenience, you have to play Gang Warfare during your operations phase. Since Syndicate isn't quite known for high skill, this means most of your characters will be exhausted before you can enter the story phase to capitalize on an empty field. Freelance Photographer (Core Set, F72) is easy to ready and Legacy of Ramses (Core Set, F80) most certainly works, but the best trick is just to play a few characters after you used Gang Warfare.

When things start to stagnate, and two opposing forces just stare angrily at each other, this is your chance to break through and score the final tokens, by running unopposed. Just be very careful: If you fail, it's likely you'll get the short end of the stick. But if you're true to the ideals of the Syndicate, you aren't afraid of a little high stakes gamble. Time to go all in.