Arkham Horror: The Card Game (2016)

How to Play Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The Arkham Horror card game aims to make it to the end of the scenario and complete the objective. Since this is a cooperative game, all the players will be working together. Like many RPG games, there is no one way to win. It will depend on your own strategy, luck, and teamwork.

Setup the Game

To begin play, simply choose which scenario you are playing and then choose your investigator. One player should be the lead investigator. This player will have the final authority on any decisions the team makes.

Then each player should take 5 cards from their deck. If you don’t like any of the cards you have, you can put them back in the deck and draw again. You shouldn’t have any weakness cards in your first 5 either.

Check the scenario instructions in your guidebook to ensure you set up the correct decks. Each player should also have 5 resource tokens with them. Once this is done, you will start with the investigation phase.

Investigation Phase

During the investigation phase, each player can take three actions. To make this simpler, we have listed all the actions you can take below.

1. Draw – You can draw 1 new card or resource token.
2. Play – You can play a card from your hand. Certain cards can be played without counting as an action as well.
3. Activate – This allows you to use an ability on one of your cards.
4. Move – You can move to a connected location.
5. Investigate – You can investigate a location. This could potentially help you get a clue token.
6. Fight – You can engage an enemy that is nearby in the hopes of defeating it.
7. Evade – If an enemy is attacking you, then you can attempt to evade it.

Enemy Phase

During this phase, the enemies will move around to attack. Not all enemies will move, but special ones like hunter-class monsters can move towards the closest player and attack them. Players that are hit are damaged using the damage and horror tokens.

At the end of this phase, players should draw one new card from their deck and collect a resource token. Some people call this the status or upkeep phase of the game. Finally, there is one last phase to go before the end of the round.

Mythos Phase

The mythos phase begins with a new doom token being added to the agenda deck. If the doom threshold is reached, then the card will be turned over. This will add new elements to the game; each player will then draw an encounter card. This will likely put them in a dangerous situation and make the game more difficult.

How to Win Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The game continues using this three-phase gameplay loop. You win the Arkham Horror card game when the scenario objective has been completed. This will require teamwork, strategy, and likely a little luck.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game Official Rulebook

Arkham Horror: The Card Game Review

“I have been immensely impressed with Arkham Horror: The Card Game. The rule books are some of the best that FFG has produced, and I would be the first to call them to task for such things. The cards and tokens are absolutely gorgeous. The designers have created a fascinating design space that they can now play with, and they are definitely having fun with that space.”

Iain McAllister, board-game.co.uk

“…Arkham Horror the Card Games is everything I was hoping and expecting it would be. It really does capture that RPG-lite element of the original board game and makes a game that is even more narrative and thematic. There’s some real innovation here in the way Fantasy Flight Games have created a living Card game that allows the player’s character to level up, gain skills and suffer from ongoing madness caused by the cosmic horror of the mythos but most importantly, tell a story.”

Steve, polyhedroncollider.com

“Arkham Horror: The Card Game takes the essence of what the board games are known for and condenses it down into a card game. What this means is that you’ll be getting a similar experience, just in a much shorter playtime. For those who have been wanting to experience an Arkham game but just didn’t have the time to sit through hours of play, this is a great starting point.”

Deville Louw, fortressofsolitude.co.za

The content of this article is originally from Board Game Geek and bargames101.com. For more information and a better understanding of the game, you can watch the videos below.