I just got this game for my birthday yesterday and played it with my wife and another couple. It was really hard! But we still had tons of fun. We missed one really important rule: advance the doom track for every investigator devoured. We were basically losing 1-2 investigators every round and had only one left in the investigator stack when Cthulhu finally awakened. Miraculously, we were able to defeat the Ancient One.

I hear a lot of people say this game is easy, but it was downright brutal for us. We started off with three Midnight effects: two of them dealt damage and one added a monster. Combined with Cthulhu's ability to decrease maximum stamina and sanity, we lost investigators very quickly. Do you think it was our setup, or do we just need to play more?

I can't wait to play again!

I think maybe you got unlucky. Cthulhu is the easiest AO and the game in general a bit easy. Try it again!

Ha ha! I just realized that we did another rule wrong. We were putting a doom token on the doom track every time the clock struck midnight. I just checked the rules and evidently we weren't supposed to be doing that.

Your misread rule is actually one of the most common fixes many use to boost the difficulty of the game.

Glad you liked your present

Okay. I played it a second time tonight, this time solo with a single investigator. It felt completely different. It is definitely more fun with more people.

There was a lot less tension this time, so things felt easier in general. I had 5 Elder Signs before I even got one doom token on the doom track. But then things started picking up and I started losing investigators. I lost 3 total. In the end, I completed an outer world adventure that gave me the last Elder Sign and the last doom token at the same time, so I won just by hair and was able to seal Azathoth away before the world was utterly annihilated. I suppose it doesn't get more tense than that!

It's funny because I read in the rule book about how if the last doom token gets placed at the same time as the investigators collect the last Elder Sign, the players win the game, but I thought to myself, "Yeah, right! Like that will ever happen!" And then it happened in my second game!

When the game starts being too easy, just expand it with Unseen Forces. After that, there's Tibs option called Skill Dice. After that... who knows. But I do hope something new and more difficult arrives, the game system is good and the setting awesome

Budgernaut,

Yes, it's a great birthday gift ~ congrats on your first few adventures. Almost in a similar way to Arkham Horror, if you're familiar with that game, playing 4-Investigators works exceptionally well. Having a few Midnight Effect cards at one time can prove devastating if you can't resolve them fast enough. Once you have a number of games under your belt, check-out the expansion...it adds quite a bit to the base game and may prove the best expansion, should the line grow, in time.

Cheers,

Joe

Hi, and welcome to the forums and the game!

I have to know: how did you get an elder sign and a doom token at the same time? Do you mean in the same turn? I play the game linearly, because that's how we think and process time, and I don't see how you could get both at once. I could see you finishing a turn, collecting an elder sign reward, and then moving the clock to end your turn, triggering midnight and Mythos or At Midnight effects that spawn a doom token - but that's not at the same time, is it? That rule always confused me, 'cause I just don't see how it can happen if you approach the game, as I said, in a linear fashion. Is there really any other way to do anything?

It was an Other World card whose reward gave you both a Doom Token and an Elder Sign (and two other things as well).

Beware that Celeano and Leng both give you an Elder Sign AND ask you to remove one doomer, not to add one.

(not so sure if this is the case you're mentioning, tho, and I don't have the game with me right now)

It's possible Budger has the first printing of the game, where some Other Worlds did give both an elder sign and a doom. They corrected that in the 2nd printing (and with the Unseen Forces expansion).

Uh, thanks, didn't remember that!

Yep. I didn't realize it before, but I've checked the revised rule book from the Support page and the copyright date is 2012. My rule book says 2011. So I guess I have a copy from the first print run.

Ok, good to know. Then consider that some of the rules received a significant change in the revised edition (for instance, now you can cast spells after rolling the dice).

Sorry you have not the revised cards either! But those were reprinted with Unseen forces

My birthday was the 15th and i got this the wekend before from my in-laws. I bouht myself unseen forces and it rally does change the game for the better. Theres also the extra red doom cards which can be added to make it mkre difficult too. Well worth getting it if you think that the game is too easy!