Arkham Horror: Harvey Walters

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 5 out of 10

   Mozzik

   The Investigator Starter Decks, as a whole, are a brilliant product (and long overdue) making it easier to introduce new people to the game while also enticing long time players to buy them for the large influx of new cards. Or at least that's the idea. So how does Harvey's deck do? Harvey - The Investigator Harvey is bland, but functional (Five intellect goes a long ways), with a clear focus on drawing lots of cards, presumably to create a big hand - though that's immediately smacked down by his signature weakness (in an extraordinarily punishing way). That does create a clear identity and focus for new players, but it's also one that opens up a ton of decision space (due to managing that huge hand) which may be overwhelming and has the potential for a negative experience with his signature weakness. Unfortunately, he also doesn't really explore any new space for a Seeker, even if he has raw power, and if Big Hand is supposed to be his thing, other Seekers already do that as well if not better - making me think it might be more interesting to build him as a sort of supporting character (Encouraging others to draw lots) which rapidly churning through his own hand instead of amassing a giant one? Harvey - The Deck The deck is functional, at best (See again: five intellect). It tends to be a little resource starved, and there are few terrible cards, but it feels like everything Seekers do crammed into one deck which causes it to lose focus. It's very easy to durdle around while not really doing anything productive. It has a ton of tomes, but no pay off for it (and you'll never have time to play and use them all anyhow), support to get a huge hand of card, but not a lot of pay-off there either, and even some academic army stuff with no real ally play. It even has a side quest (Which, admittedly, is a cool thing unique to Seekers). I would also be concerned about trying to play it solo due to the relative lack of enemy management. The upgrades don't really fix this as they also lack focus, with still no pay off or support for going heavy tomes and the higher level xp cards require a big hand to work, but aren't that interesting (at least not in this deck). The New Cards There are only three reprints in the deck (And 11 that are new levels of old cards - the most of any Starters) which is tied for the highest number of new cards in these decks. For an experienced player there's lower level versions of old cards that may largely replace the old versions, but are still kind of niche (Disc of Itzamna(2), Encyclopedia(0), Feed the Mind(0), Glimpse the Unthinkable(1)) and a few of the upgrades somewhat redeem previously rarely played cards (Esoteric Atlas(2), Seeking Answers(2)) and finally provide upgrades to I've Got a Plan and Mind over Matter. None of the cards are outright terrible (Though Forbidden Tome is... not very good, unfortunately). There's also a few new cards with a lot of potential (Whitton Greene, Burning the Midnight Oil, Occult Invocation and Library Docent). However, the elephant in the room, is that Seekers have been really pushed in the last few cycles, and there's an open question on if they needed two strong new economy cards (Cryptic Writings is particularly pushed) that, effectively, give them more action-less resources, if they needed more enemy management instead of reprinting something (Occult Invocation) and The Necronomicon - a 5 xp card not really worth playing if you play it fairly, but screaming to be broken. Maybe this wouldn't be such a hot topic if most of the cards circling the potential taboo list right now weren't already all fitting into Big Hand Mandy decks that are eager to break the heck out of these cards... but that's the environment these are being released into.

2. HiveGod

   Is Harvey Walters old because he just got started in the cosmic horror game? Or is he really only 28 and looks that way because of some form of gnosis-progeria? "Yawning-gulfitis", if you will. Regardless, prostitutes go missing when he sleepwalks.* [size=7]*Cosmic horror protagonists only last for a single short story, or a novella at the most. Just sayin'.[/size]

3. 8 out of 10

   Qumpelblase

   Was erhoffe ich mir von den Ermittlerdecks? Ich wünsche mir ein Deck, dass seine eigene Spielweise hat, mir diese aber nicht ins Gesicht drückt. Das macht Harvey, der sehr mit seinem Handkartenlimit und einer großen Auswahl an Karten spielt. Außerdem möchte ich ausgewogenes Deck, das ein bisschen was von allem hat und mir in keinem Szenario zu schwach vorkommt- und selbst das schafft Harvey Walters, da er seine Schwächen (Kampf und Entkommen) durch starke Karten ausgleicht und trotzdem den ein oder anderen Kampf zerficken kann. Am besten wäre jetzt noch eine coole Hintergrundgeschichte; aber Harvey ist leider nur ein langweiliger Professor. Spielerisch trotzdem ein tolles Deck, weil es stark ist und mit dem Boxer zusammen am leichtesten spielbar ist.