Introduction and Themes
This guide is a largely spoiler-free guide that talks about the general mechanics of the The Crown of Egil custom campaign made by analyzechris. If you're interested in learning what the campaign's unique mechanics are, and hearing suggestions for investigators and cards that are particularly well suited to the campaign, read on!
In The Crown of Egil, investigators are called to Iceland to help fight against a berserker cult that worships Egil, a mythological figure. The investigators will have to study and re-enact Egil's saga in order to having a chance of stopping the ancient warrior.
General Mechanics
Encounter Card Canceling
Some of the encounter cards in Crown of Egil are extremely nasty - in particular, there are some that do horrendous things to every investigator, or do something really bad if you've chosen to take a bonus from a previous encounter card. If you can, bring any ways to cancel encounter cards to protect yourself from these exceptionally bad pulls.
Saga Tests
A repeated mechanic through the campaign are Saga tests, which are actions on locations or enemies that require testing a specific skill at a high difficulty. Having some plan to deal with these helps - ways to increase your skills for tests with good commits or resource pumps can help you unlock more of these.
Soak. Lots of Soak.
Many of the encounter cards hit hard. Whatever soak you'd normally bring, consider bringing just a little bit extra.
Spells and Relics
Right from scenario 1, there are enemies that can only be damaged through Spells, Relics, or Parley tests. If you're a primary fighter, you might struggle with the parleys, so bringing whatever relic weapons are available can help.
Symbol Tokens and Big Negatives
The chaos bag can accumulate quite a few chaos tokens, far more than you'd expect in a normal campaign - especially as higher player counts! If you have ways to take advantage of them, you can negate how punishing they can be. Likewise, the chaos bag can accumulate large negative numbers you normally wouldn't see in standard difficulty that might require planning around.
Deckbuilding Advice
The suggestions below aren't by any means required, or even characters I've necessarily played the campaign through. Rather, these are just observations of characters who might be particularly well suited to the campaign, including things that might not be top tier, but have a very strong synergy with the campaign mechanics.
Suggested Investigators
Mark Harrigan: While he'll have to pack extra healing - a lot of extra healing - the fact that Mark can use Sophie to help him spike the Saga tests can help ensure he can complete any of them.
Tommy Muldoon: Survivor and Guardians both have a lot of cards that can help hit high skill tests, and Tommy has all the soak you'd ever need to survive the horrible things the encounter deck can throw at you.
Kate Winthrop: Kate's ability lets her get big bonuses to skill tests, which is needed to pass the Sagas here. You'll also find yourself collecting more clues than you strictly need to progress, meaning you'll always have fuel for her ability.
Minh Thi Phan: While many Seekers can be on the fragile side, Minh can play cheap survivor soak - as well as scavenge it. She also likes to run skills, and she can throw skills with extra icons to investigators anywhere on the map, which they'll need to help pass Saga tests.
Jenny Barnes: No, really. If you're going to have to pass a variety of tricky tests, Jenny can make good use of Streetwise or other money talents or Well Connected to get it done. Most scenarios have something she can be occupying her time with that see her average stats as a boon rather than a bane.
Winifred Habbamock: While that 1 Willpower can be a real burden, Wini's ability to do anything as long as she puts the right skill cards to it can pay off, and when she's rolling she's one of the most flexible investigators.
Diana Stanley: Some of the encounter cards in this campaign are horrific, and Diana is the queen of cancels - get prepared to recur those Wards of Protection, because you'll need them.
Lily Chen: Lily's Strength discipline can be used to give you +5 to any skill test. That's a lot! While it might not be good on many of the elite enemies with high skill tests due to the fact that it takes an action and provokes an attack of opportunity, she makes up for it by being a good fighter with above-average stats and the ability to take mystic protection events.
Calvin Wright: Calvin will need to be careful to bring enough soak, but cards like Trial by Fire and Rise to the Occasion will help him complete important Saga checks regardless of what they're testing.
Wendy Adams: Wendy has good defensive stats and the ability to re-draw tokens, which might prove crucial for clutch tests that you had to commit a lot of resources to.
Notable Player Cards
Breach the Door: Some locations have pretty nasty shrouds, especially later in the campaign. Being able to lower them down to reasonable levels might be a lifesaver - I would have lost without it!
Enchanted Blade: Fighters need to be prepared to deal with enemies who can only be hurt by spells and relics - and seeing as they only have two health, Enchanted Blade is a great solution.
Analysis: Spending a clue is a small price to pay to ensure you pass a difficulty 7 test that you're committing multiple skills too. Analysis ensures you can do anything with enough of a clue bank.
Dr. William T. Maleson: Maleson provides soak and the ability to avoid nasty treacheries, making him a great defensive card.
Sure Gamble: With some of the extreme negatives in the chaos bag, Sure Gamble can give you the security to not have to extremely overcommit to every test you can't afford to lose.
Well Connected: A repeatable way to ensure you can just pass any test as long as you're rich enough, Well Connected lets you act fairly independently and do whatever needs to be done.
Protective Incantation: Another good way to deal with nasty chaos tokens is just to remove them. While it can be resource intensive, it can save every player a lot of effort to not have to deal with an extreme token.
Ritual Candles: There can be so many symbol tokens in the bag, that Ritual Candles can easily end up adding a +1 more often than it doesn't.
Lucky!: I'm repeating myself at this point, but Lucky! Is another card that allows you to not have to overcommit to tests you need to pass.
Rise to the Occasion: With all the high difficulty tests, you'll be able to find uses for Rise to the Occasion, and the upgraded version even has some places to get its full use, putting you 2-up on any test.
More on The Crown of Egil
The Crown of Egil: Spoiler-Light Review