Introduction and Themes
This guide is a largely spoiler-free guide that talks about the general mechanics of the Alice in Wonderland custom campaign made by The Beard. 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!
Alice in Wonderland has the investigators come across Alice as she arrives at Arkham - only to see her collapse. Wonderland is leaking into Arkham, and worse, it's under attack by dark shadows seeking to consume it. The investigators have to enter into Wonderland and save it from the shadows - choosing if they wish to sacrifice Wonderland to protect Arkham.
General Mechanics
Enemies deal more than damage
Enemies in the campaign tend to deal other bad effects in addition to their damage and horror, which is both good and bad. Your soak will go further, but you'll be losing out in other ways. This is particularly notable for characters who want to use cards that trigger on being attacked or damaged.
Evasion is good
Many of the enemies in the campaign have low evade values and lack hunter, allowing investigators to just run from them inside. There are also a number of elites that are useful to evade, especially if you can do so without attacking or being engaged with them. You'll still want to make sure you have plenty of combat options - that baseline level doesn't change. But having weird evade tech might help in ways you might not expect, especially against aloof, unkillable elite enemies or scenarios that can cause multiple enemies to appear at once.
Pinging at the shadows
The shadowy enemies of the campaign announce their presence before becoming a threat. They can be a pain to fight directly, but automatic damage effects can make short work of them - and you're given time to set up those effects, be your focus on attacking or clues. Taking some cards that deal automatic damage can be a big help.
Shrouds are out to get you
As you might expect for a campaign against a shadowy monster, you can expect encounter cards to increase the shrouds of locations. While these can be cleared, that takes time - having ways to automatically get clues can help save a lot of time.
Solid, reliable testing
Locations in the campaign often ask you to make skill tests of various types, including for some optional objectives you'll want to pursue. Having a well balanced party who can use skills and other effects to increase their stats to solid values will help things go a lot smoother.
Surging encounter cards
The encounter deck will eventually be filled with surging encounter cards with minor effects - good, bad, and neutral. There's not a lot that can be done to control this, but it's worth noting that it makes any attempt to search, control, stack the encounter deck much less useful.
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
Roland Banks: Roland can get around high shrouds just by killing enemies and grabbing clues. He works great with someone who can just evade enemies, allowing Roland to deal with them whenever - or if he feels like it at all.
Mark Harrigan: With better than average stats and the ability to use Sophie to help buff himself on willpower and agility tests, Mark can handle most non-investigation things. He also has a weakness he wants to draw early, which some encounter cards will help him do!
Kate Winthrop: Kate's four evasion lets her evade enemies and leave them behind easily. She'll have to do a bit extra work to make sure she can push past high shrouds, but it shouldn't be a problem with a little set-up.
Mandy Thompson: 5 intellect means Mandy can conquer the toughest shrouds, and Rogue or Survivor access can help give her the evasion tools she needs to avoid all sorts of danger.
Alessandra Zorzi: Alessandra knows how to handle herself at a tea party, and enemies who lack Hunter make perfect targets for her Beguile - she doesn't have to spend as many actions evading them or moving them away!
Sefina Rousseau: Events that evade enemies or gather clues are some of the best ways to handle Wonderland's biggest threats, and Sefina can play them over and over.
Agnes Baker: Agnes's passive power is always good, but it feels especially strong against the shadow enemies in the campaign who have low life and stick around before being a threat - letting Agnes investigate and poke away at them.
Luke Robinson: Luke's ability to just run away from enemies lets him neutralize many of them, and he can even serve as helpful bait in a few scenarios. Just be sure to have a plan to deal with some of the higher shrouds.
Rita Young: With evasion being so useful, Rita really has a chance to shine. She can take care of most enemies just by moving away from them, and having the rest of the group move around them.
Stella Clark: Stella has strong evasion potential, and can deal with high shrouds through fail-forward cards and Quick Learner. If you're not adding to Strength of Wonderlands in the interludes, there will also be cases where there are tokens that can force failure in the bag, which Stella doesn't mind as much.
Notable Player Cards
Alice Luxley: Alice is good in Wonderland, who would have expected it? If you're a clue focused character, there will be lots of chances for Alice to ping at your enemies and she helps neutralize some annoying enemies.
Blackjack (2): You won't want to rely on it as your primary weapon, but the Blackjack is good against many of the shadow enemies and can be a reliable back-up.
Dr. Charles West III: Essentially a worse version of Alice Luxley, what made her good still makes him good. You'll want to make sure you're making use of your hand slots, but this is a campaign that will reward having two magnifying glasses and another item out.
Hiking Boots: Even just +1 Agility is a strong effect if evasion if your primary defensive goal, and the extra movement is a nice benefit.
Breaking and Entering: The ability to evade enemies who aren't engaged with you is hugely helpful, especially as this can target elite enemies. It's always a good card, but has a lot of chances to shine here.
Think on Your Feet: Getting away from enemies is as often as good as getting rid of them, and the movement is useful in scenarios where you need to stay one step ahead of some of the story foes.
Drawn to the Flame: Sure, the encounter deck can do all sorts of wild and goofy things here - but that's what makes it fun. And free clues ignoring shroud is useful, right?
Sword Cane: It's not just the evasion (although that does help), but a reliable 1 damage attack can be better than you'd expect here, able to chip away at some 1 health enemies.
Cunning Distraction: Yes, it's ridiculously expensive. But it can get you out of a lot of messes, and deal with a lot of different enemies, including elite ones that are normally a major pain to evade.
Expeditious Retreat: Evading an extra enemy is rarely worth it, but when some scenarios have an elite enemy who's always around and has some annoying effect if they're ready, this actually has a use!
