I feel like cultists make Skeletons EVERY ROUND

[Too Many Cooks]

We did 3 scenarios with cultists in them tonight. The cultists got a total 21 rounds in all the scenarios combined. They summoned skeletons in 16 of them. I feel like there is something wrong with the random generator.

[Slow Dog]

There are two summon cards. They're also the deck reshuffle cards, so they appear 3/9 times on average rather than the 2/8 you would expect. I calculated 16 summons in 21 draws would happen about 2.5% of the time, though I'm not confident about that.

[Stelas]

Remember that you can only have 10 of a given enemy type on the board, and that summons require an empty space around the caster. Even if you can't kill a cultist or an ooze before it summons, moving up to restrict the amount of space around them can help defend against them.

[pitiflauticus]

I carry stun potions mostly to prevent summonings :) Those actions tend to take place late in the round, so it's usually possibly to act first and stun the summoner. Totally worth it.

Also, I tend to bring juicy AoE cards to scenarios in which cultists or oozes are present.

As recommended above, you can also try to block as many adjacent spaces as possible, so the summoning action cannot be completed.

Last but not least, some times you can jump or fly over the "army of darkness" of skeletons and just focus on completing the scenario win conditions... some times you can leave someone behind and "sacrifice" that character to block a door for example. Getting exhausted carries no penalties, after all.

[Too Many Cooks]

Yea, so when there are no skeletons on the board. you open a door and there are 4 cultists. They summon the shuffle summon skeletons twice in a row to wipe the scenario. You go into the same scenario as a test and it literally happens 2 more times.

Once is freak fluke, it happens. but 3 times in a row? It's either scripted, or the RNG isn't correct.

[Slow Dog]

Which scenario? We can run a distributed test.
<looks elsewhere>
Crypt of the Dammed. Take a Spellweaver, hit "Ride the Wind" first turn to open the door to the second room. Report what the Cultists draw that turn, and the next.
"Retry Scenario" shuffles the decks these days, so have another go or two.

[Too Many Cooks]

It happened in 2 Scenario's Forgotten Crypt in the Swamp. Shadows Within in Gloomhaven (Bridge in the middle)

[pitiflauticus]

Originally posted by Too Many Cooks:

Yea, so when there are no skeletons on the board. you open a door and there are 4 cultists. They summon the shuffle summon skeletons twice in a row to wipe the scenario. You go into the same scenario as a test and it literally happens 2 more times.

Once is freak fluke, it happens. but 3 times in a row? It's either scripted, or the RNG isn't correct.

So now you know that behind that door, there are cultists. And you know that, if they summon (a chance of 2/8 or higher, depending on what actions they have drawn so far), they will act on initiative count 60-something.

Therefore, if you try the scenario again, come prepared to open that door and plan around the worst case scenario (the summoning).

If you have enough damage or stuns to neutralize the cultist, go with fast initiatives for everyone and hammer them hard before they can summon.

If you don't have enough damage nor crowd control, open the door with a fast initiative character and retreat, let the cultists (potentially) summon by acting on your slowest initiatives with all the other characters, and once you see the result of the cultists' turns, do your best with the "slow" characters (have some AoE ready just in case), then the following turn act on a fast initiative with all the characters to kill as many of the cultists and skeletons before they act.

The planning around opening a door to a new room is one of the most important decisions in each scenario. That decision will often make you lose the scenario if not planned well enough.

[Slow Dog]

Crypt of the Dammed Cultist report. Played the first two rooms of the scenario for two rounds 9 times. If everything were even, you'd expect to see Cultists summon 6 times, with one pair of those being a double summon.

Initiatives of the cultist cards drawn, with an added S for summoning

R! R2
27 31
39 10
63S 27
39 10
10 27
39 27
39 63S
39 27
27 63S

Less summoning than you'd expect, no double summons.

I feel like cultists make Skeletons HARDLY EVER

[Too Many Cooks]

I must have been unlucky as all hell then, we did complete the scenario. We did a total of 368 damage between the three of us and killed almost 15 extra mobs.

[Jo]

Originally posted by Too Many Cooks:

I must have been unlucky as all hell then, we did complete the scenario. We did a total of 368 damage between the three of us and killed almost 15 extra mobs.

You should consider changing your pseudo to "Too Many Skels"