Arkham Horror - Strategy and Tips Part #5

I'm back from vacations and WBC. So this weeks topic is about Arkham Horror investigators. lj1983 trash mailed me this question a few weeks back.

I've got a question for the Arkham strategies line...
mostly its about Sister Mary and how the heck you use her effectively, but probably just a general question on "weak" or "subtle" characters and how to use them.

The main way I pick characters is for each player to randomly pick 3 than to select 1. When I played with Thaad in Minnesota she also adds one additional idea. Everyone reveals their characters at the same time. This way one you could end up with a heavy fighting party or a heavy will and spell party.

When I play with my wife or daughter I let them pick anyone. They always want to be be Lily Chen.

When I solo a game or pick my own character. I tend to pick characters I've rarely or never played. I don't worry about stats. So I have played a solo game with Sister Mary but she's unlikely to end up in a multiplayer game.

Innsmouth may have added a couple of unbalanced characters. The violist can give away clues even if she's not in the same location. I'm probably throwing her out of most games unless the GOO and game set up is really difficult.

Any other thoughts about investigators? How do you pick them? How do you balance them?

we normally play two characters each, two players (me and the wife) so that when one of your characters is LiTaS or stuck in the freakin asylum for two or three turns in a row you are still doing something.

I e-mailed that to you after we recently had two games introducing AH to some new players. in the two games we had one player playing the musician (I've got a Golden trumpet!) and Sister Mary.

Both players had pretty awful times and blamed alot of it on their character. since then I've made it a point to play with characters I haven't played with [much]. I'm not sure what happened with the musician that last time, as when I played him he turned into a monster killing machine. his power is sweet, but his starting equipment isn't great.

Sister Mary has turned up a couple times now. She turned into a pretty good gate grabber, pretty good stats and her ability helps protect her in those Outer worlds. I guess it might take alittle play with her to appreciate.

alittle planning with newbies probably will help in the future...as some characters are more 'obvious' in what they do.

Yeah, I like the way Thaadd does the character choice. Everybody has a limited choice, then reveals simultaneously. If the group ends up unbalanced, that just adds a level of challenge to the game. In general, it seems like each big box expansion added improved investigators, except that a few characters seemed overly specialized, like the mariner (aquatic movement) or the waif with the elder sign (evasion).