Arkham Horror Base Set: Guardians

So let's look at the cards...




Roland Banks is our first-up Guardian (who also dabbles a bit at Seeking). In the default campaign at normal difficulty, the Chaos Bag (CHAOS BAG!!!) averages basically around a -1 pull, so he's effectively a 2/2/3/1 without spending any cards, meaning he's really only not good at Agility and Evading monsters. Which is fine; finding clues and killing things is his job. 9/5 for durability rank is...not that great, because most foes are going to stress both sides of the attack, and 5 Sanity isn't much leeway for the poor guy in a big brawl. So he's not as tough as he looks in most fights except against the more mundane foes; more than most characters, Roland really wants to kill bad guys before they get a swing.

His Traits currently mean nothing, unless you enjoy trawling the old CoC LCG for Agency RPG hints. His power is situationally useful; nabbing a clue while killing a foe is great action compression, but as Roland's the best fighter right now, frequently he's got to go slugging it out where the front lines demand him -- which might not be anywhere near any clues. Elder Sign powers are so situational as to be effectively thematic flavor text; they're great fun and let you see what you can "critical" into, but you can't plan a strategy around them, and entire campaigns can come and go without you seeing one ever trigger (and, of course, you then can draw three Elder Signs in a row, thanks to CHAOS BAG!!!). While technically his two powers work against each other, the rarity of Elder Sign draws means that sometimes Roland can get a lucky hit against a big foe guarding a location full of tasty clues, perhaps thereby more quickly clearing the location for his more scholarly friends to quickly drain dry of cluey goodness.

On the flip we just learn he can buy into low-rank Seeker cards if he feels like it, which will be of more use after we look at Seeker stuff.

Overall, he's our best front-line fighter as the game begins, but his powers are very situational and pretty meh in application thereby. Mainly you want him for his Combat, and are happy he can investigate most locations without too much difficulty on his own as well. Remember: killing monsters is useful, pretty often vital, but investigation is how you advance the act.



Best weapon in the game? ...No? Probably not. Ammo limits the uses, obviously, but you get a great gun...until you realize that the clues are all gone, and thus it's actually a more limited-use Knife or something.

That being said, when the clues are still thick and tasty about Roland's feet, this is a great weapon, especially against tough-to-hit foes. It also has great icons to discard, but given the way clues work in the game, you'll probably want to try to play this if possible.

Item is an active keyword, but it's useless with Roland's cardpool. Firearm is much more useful: as Roland always has this, spending 2 XP for Extra Ammunition seems like a reasonable easy buy.



Roland's default Weakness is wonderfully thematic, and you'll really hate it when the brass forces you to cover up all those ghoul corpses you're leaving in your trail. Otherwise...he gets Trauma.

OK, if you're playing a one-shot adventure, this will do nothing, as Trauma only applies to campaign games. So this definitely ups Roland's applicability to some players when doing one-off adventures; being able to ignore your signature Weakness is one less Weakness you need worry about for a night's entertainment. For the rest of us? Very ouch.

Note that Roland doesn't have to do it. The reaction ability isn't forced, so if clues are much more needed for some other reason Roland doesn't have to work on the Cover Up. The native clues aren't wasted either, as the ones on Cover Up are spent (a small blessing; if he had to discard them from the location and Cover Up, it'd be horrifying indeed). This game being what it is, though, if things have gone south faster than normal, you may not have time for Roland to properly burn the abattoir your team has left behind them, and it's better to take the clues and solve the damn mystery than have Roland save some long-term Sanity.

And now, from our Words Have Meaning Department, a small reminder: encounter cards in a character's Threat Zone (typically Enemies and Treacheries) are considered to be at the same location as the character they are bedeviling. That means, when Roland has Cover Up in play...he actually has three clues he's carrying around near him. That's right, the clues on Cover Up mean there are clues AT Roland's location...but they're not ON the location. But before you get all excited and looking at cards that care about clues AT a location vs. clues ON a location (hint: Cover Up does not super-power Roland's .38 Special), make sure to read pages 6-7 on Clues in the Rules Reference: "A card ability that refers to clues “at a location” is referring to the undiscovered clues that are currently on that location."

In short, all that means is don't try to do cool combo stuff with Cover Up if there are no native clues at Roland's location. However, if there are, you can clear up the Cover Up a lot faster. For instance, Roland's base power can totally drain a clue from Cover Up if he kills a bad guy in that location. Blood for the Agency God! And down the road, as the card set expands, just remember that Roland under strict orders to Cover Up the massacre he's knee deep in will have the strange status of having clues at his location but not on it. Weird, but perhaps future cards will care about that.

*****

And now the Guardian cards themselves. There's two Guardians in the base set: Roland, all in blue, and this Skids guy, who I am thinking will be happy to borrow a few applicable items of mass destruction from Roland's supply chest while Roland's out burning cultist bodies.



A strictly worse .38 Special for those people who are not Roland. A strictly worse .38 Special for Roland when he sees no clues to lure him on. Basically, a strictly worse .38 Special. More expensive, worse ability, worse icons. That being said, you'll need some weapons to get through a case, so I'm not saying it's a bad gun. Just that it's not Roland's .38 Special.

Item is a keyword with meaning now, but it's worthless in any cardpool that can play a .45 Automatic. Firearm has meaning, if only for Extra Ammunition. A great backup for Roland when he doesn't want to waste the .38, and probably Skid's best weapon.



What a great guy. The cost is high, but you get what you pay for. +1 Fighting is the main attraction for Skids, and Roland is happy to get it. The discard ability can be clutch now and then. Roland's main interest, though, is as a Sanity sink, something he desperately needs.



And at Level 2 the Beat Cop goes from being great to being amazing. If you were running Beat Cop in Roland or Skids, there's no reason not to upgrade them both to this level if you've got the XP. Heck, it can even soak damage for your character even after he's shot a bullet.



For 1 dollar, you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. This effectively turns this card and 1 resource into a clutch 3-4 durability soak, which is well worth it for most boss fights (or just to keep your team fresh and rested for the upcoming boss fight). It negates an entire attack (plus any attendant triggers that might happen on that attack), it can enable multiple engagement shenanigans, it can save someone who is not Roland or Skids, it's just solid, and one of the best Guardian cards right now. And 2 icons if you need it.



OK, 5 resources is punishing. You have to plan up to using this; occasionally you'll luck into having 5+ dollars sitting around without particularly trying to, but this is definitely a Tactic, and plan your game around it if you're playing it.

I'll note that Roland is typically beefy enough to stand in his own blast radius to take out many enemies chewing on his face at once if needed. Skids can play this, but probably doesn't want to drop it at his own feet. And, yes, your own Allies and gear can soak this damage if you need to.



A combo piece for Roland's base power (kill one enemy, get two clues! or three, if you have both of these in your hand!). Skids is perfectly capable of killing lesser foes without trouble, and can also run this if you think he needs to pick up the slouch on the investigative end of things.

Do note that to play this you need to 1) be at a location with a clue; 2) the location needs to have an enemy there; 3) you need to be able to reasonably defeat said enemy; 4) you need a resource hanging around. It's a fine card, but it is situational, and you shouldn't run too many highly situational cards without a good reason. That being said, the natural combo Roland has with this and his good Intellect means I wouldn't be shy about running this in Roland regardless; remember, you can always discard it for +2 Intellect, which usually means you can use it to near-guarantee a clue gain from investigation if there's no ghouls loitering about to kindly be cashed into more clues.



As Roland's signature weapon is his gun, I'd say investing in at least one of these is probably very wise once he gets some XP; the .38 Special is a demanding mistress. Skids might want this, or he might not; the .45 Automatic is arguably his best weapon, so he might want to go hardcore into that for when he has to fight. Do note you can kindly reload other player's guns near you if you feel generous.



A great card. Reusable healing in Health or Sanity is something both Roland and Skids will probably love having around (weird that Skids can easily pick up a Talent with Science). It's cheap! And it doesn't take a location slot! Its main weakness is how slow it is to use; one action per heal can sometimes be time you cannot spend if the case is getting out of control.



Another great little Guardian ally. You may want to feed your puppy some more standard food, though, as it's looking like it's a bit starving and going scavenging. It's a great damage soak, and does ablative damage to enemies. Skids might arguably like this more than Roland, as he has a tougher time hitting things.

Don't forget that you can totally assign 1 point of Health and 1 point of Sanity damage on the poor dog and still have it bite back for 1 damage to the enemy before it dies. Arf arf!

Having a combat icon is arguably a penalty for Roland; he usually won't need it. But it's such a slight downside you shouldn't even count it.



This is just a great weapon until you look down and realize there's more than one ghoul trying to eat you. Then you are sad. That being said, it's a great backup weapon for Roland, and perhaps the main weapon for Skids if you're not feeling like the .45 Automatic. If it is your only weapon, and you are facing 3+ foes, you will be very, very sad. I may or may not be speaking from experience here.

Skids, with his superior evasion ability, can actually use this a lot better than Roland; being able to stun-lock a ghoul or two, and then still get in a swing at 2 damage because he's down to only one engaged foe, is a battle tactic that Skids could pull off very reliably. But that's still action intensive, and if you need to drop enemies ASAP then once again Skids will wish he's packing instead.

Again, has the Item trait, but that is currently meaningless for Roland or Skids.



All of the Skill-booster Talents are pretty darn good investments in all of the factions. They don't take up a slot, and they help you turn a resource glut into a sudden surprise clutch win if needed. And, yes, you can use this multiple times on the same check if you have the money. At Arkham Nights I saw someone pour 8 resources into one skill test with Physical Training (only to draw the Tentacle of Auto-Suck tile, of course, but it was quite awesome seeing Roland with 12 Fighting).

Now, yes, you won't always have 8 resources hanging around. But even a 2 dollar buy-in can give you a comfortable near-win buffer. And once your board is developed, you usually don't have a lot to spend your resources on, so this is a resource sink for the late game. Strong card.

I think this is slightly better for Roland than Skids, as Roland needs the Willpower (and Sanity) protection better, and Skids has better combos by playing Hard Knocks to get the Agility boost (while keeping the Fighting boost).

If you're running one, run two. You can discard the other if you draw it; two icons on a card is nice.



A very good card (as a level 2 card should be), even though we might wonder on the provenance of the copies Skids might be running. +1 Willpower is solid (if not reliably needed for either Guardian), it has a great oh-crap emergency button that might just win an impossible situation if you're clever about things, it uses a slot that Guardian doesn't typically care about, and it has a wild card icon.

All of the higher-level cards in this game are good (except...well, see later), so knowing what to invest in with your precious XP is tough, but I love open-ended cards like this. 2 more actions that can be anything allows for a lot of great and hopefully degenerate combo turns to solve an otherwise hopeless case. If nothing else, if there's a boss that HAS to be defeated, and you missed on your first attacks, this gives you two more swings.



And here's the best weapon in the game, balanced by a huge cost, a high XP requirement, and low ammo. It's also the only card in the game right now that only Roland can play, so he can lord it over the lesser non-Guardians if he wishes.

The side effect of hurting your allies if you miss is pretty situational; Roland is usually the tank anyway, Wendy and Skids can evade most of their foes, and Agnes can usually handle herself, leaving Daisy as the most possible accidental target, and Daisy has good luck, right, so we don't have to worry about it! There, dilemma solved! Roland thinks these things, late at night, pouring gasoline over ghouls. A man's mind does tend to wander.

Again, a meaningless Item trait (for now), but Firearm (and only 2 base shots) says to me if you're investing in a Shotgun, you should get you some Extra Ammunition. You didn't need that XP anyway, did you?



Skill cards are cards that are only useful when discarded on a particular skill test. In this case, obviously, that's Combat. However, if you're in the same location as another player, you're allowed to discard 1 card to help their tests. So Roland or Skids can help anyone else at their location to do +1 damage on a fight, as well as boosting their Combat. All for free.

Sounds pretty good to me! Do remember that while you have a very generous 8 hand size in the game, Skill cards can't otherwise be played until you discard them for an appropriate test, so there's a small amount of potential wasted draw here, but that doesn't reduce a great card's worth.

Up next, the Waitress.