So I have recently aquired through an esoteric rite, the complete Arkham Horror collection...minus obviously the upcoming Innsmouth expansion. I will be embarking on a solo playthrough tomorrow night, during the witching hour. I have read through the rulebook PDF for the base game several times and hope I am prepared to defend my psyche against all the Mythos has to throw at me. I really like how open FFG seems to be with their products, and I have to say I would not have probably picked up the whole enchilada if not for the fantastic quality of the downloadable rulebooks and the great community and fan base for AH. Whoever decided to have the rules fully downloadable in PDF is a genius. I look forward to interacting with all of you and striving to make our gaming experiences the best they can be. See you in Arkham !

I hope you are too. Facing the Mtyhos is like having a baby. Everybody thinks they're ready. They're not ready. Good Luck and have fun.

This might be your plan already, but I would really recommend starting with the core game only and adding the expansions as you go. Even the base game is a lot to keep track of for a new player.

mageith said:

You're right I'm probably not prepared...

@Flory, I am not even going to crack the boxes on the 5 expansions until I've played 20 or 30 base games just to keep the excitement and anticipation factor high. I got a killer deal purchasing them all at once and I could not pass it up.

Good plan. Unfortunately, you WILL make mistakes...but then, we ALL did. It's part of the "rite".

Welcome to the Carnival, Vaxsythrakul, and congratulations on your deal! I wish you the best, and worst, of games, because it's just as fun either way!

jgt7771 said:

That is what really intrigues me about Arkham Horror, that I'm looking forward to losing as much if not more so than I am looking forward to winning

Vaxsythrakul said:

Man, 20-30 base only games ? I added Dunwich after 7 base games only. Actually, I think I ordered it even earlier, it just didn't arrive fast enough . Even though I'd lost more than won at that point, I was seeing the way things were starting to head with just the base board. Not to mention, having only 1 GOO left to play and having seen most (all?) investigators, needed new things to keep things fresh . Plus, having read about gate bursts, how could I NOT want them? After experiencing gate bursts, can't believe I once played without them. They are a kick in the pantaloons for sure.

Dam said:

Yeah I see where you're coming from and I've skimmed a few of the other expansion rulebooks and the new cards / rules and features all look very enticing. I am just trying to extend the life of the product for myself (and possibly my wife) by "teasing" myself with expansions. I want to almost be sick of the base game before I bust into Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, as I plan to introduce the expacs in chronological order.

Don't play 20-30 base games. Play 8--one with each Ancient One! By then you'll know the game well enough to crave the expansions without having to wait for 12-22 more games, and will have seen what each AO has to offer.

Chronological order is good, if you're going to add them one by one and not remove the ones that're already mixed in. But if you want to go one expansion at a time each (without other expansions), I recommend:

1. Curse of the Dark Pharaoh (easiest)
2. King in Yellow (a little tough)
3. Black Goat (tough)
4. Kingsport (tough, but also somewhat complicated--extra board and all!)
5. Dunwich (very tough AND and extra board!)

Also, I recommend cracking open Dunwich for the Injury/Madness cards, and Kingsport for the Epic Battle cards. They both improve EVERY game by a lot

There's really no rule about how many times you should play the base game only. Play it as many times as you want. You'll know when it's time to add an expansion!

Vaxsythrakul said:

I just don't see that as a problem. There's just a whole lot of stuff in these games, some of which is seldom if ever happening.

My wife and my daughter Little Emily player 2 games every weekend. They've both probably played over 100 games by now. It's still a treat. If you like the game, and it looks like you are planning to, no extra extending is necessary. I agree that you should play until you start winning regularly with the base game, which I imagine will be a lot sooner than 20 or 30 games.

Little Emily's favorite expansion is Curse of the Dark Pharaoh and she just loves the Exhibit items, especially the masks. Also, it doesn't really appear to make the game very much harder, but a little. We usually play the touring mode where half the cards are from the CotDP.

I think you are going about playing this game in a right way. I just think your timeline will turn out to be a little long. But as the Curry Chef said. You'll know.

Dark Pharaoh is the most confusing and poorly worded expansion. I would save it until last. Some of the cards still hurt my head after 100+ games.

Kobold Curry Chef said:

Agreed. Play the base game until it starts to feel a bit easy or boring. Then you toss in an expansion :')

All very good advice, thanks for your input everybody...nice to have the perspectives of more seasoned investiagors.

I guess I won't put any artifical limits on when I introduce expacs, and just go with my gut.

We actually played our first game last night ahead of schedule as I just couldnt resist any longer, I am going to post a bit of a write up in another thread if anybody is interested in hearing about it.

UPDATE: Only four games in and I'm already looking at the stack of expac boxes longingly. It looks like 10-15 base games is a more realisitc timeframe to introduce some new content. It is not that the base game is in any way boring, it is just more...more is always better right? Right?? RIGHT?!?

Right!

Vaxsythrakul said:

I'd say one more is always better. Two more might be better, but beyond that you have diminishing returns. Anyway that's my opinion. Whether to use the whole enchilada at once or to limit your decks/playing to one or 2 thematic expansions is a constant debate on this forum.

By four games, there's a good chance you have the majority of stuff figured out and if you're feeling like you want more, do a little more. Dunwich and Kingsport are major steps up in difficulty. While the small box expansions, without their heralds, are just minor steps but give more variety.

When I first purchased Arkham Horror, I opened the box, punched the bits, and read the rules. Then I said, "Huh?" and packed everything back in the box. There, unfortunately, it sat on the shelf for a couple of months.

I got my first taste of AH at a con. The person teaching it included all the expansions with KiY being the newest expansion at the time. All those expansions would have been overwhelming if someone wasn't there to teach me.

I returned to the con the following day with my copy of AH and played several sessions of the base game. I introduced it to my gaming group. After 5 or so plays with the just the base game, we now play regularly with AH, DH, KH, and KiY. Though we'll definitely be adding IH as soon as it is released.

The beauty is, you can add as much or as little as you want.

Am up to 6 games played so far, 3 losses / 3 wins. 3 solo games, 3 with the wife.

Had the first loss while playing with my wife last night...it wasnt pretty. She was playing Dexter Drake and just couldnt seem to catch a break all night...she closed a gate at the woods and was drawn in again the same mythos phase she closed it, not once...but twice....second time being sucked into Ry'leh with Yog Sothoth as herald...-4 to gate closeure check makes wives unhappy. She had no problems letting me know just how unhappy she was lol !

I love my wife to death she is just great...but god I don't want to play another losing game of AH with her ever again (which sucks because she seems to really be getting into it)

Oh the point of this post was to say 6 games played and willpower is starting to waiver, I look at the stack of expansions on my desk more frequently (need to put them out of sight). I don't know how many more games I can go without just peeking into the other boxes. I want to make it at least 10 games....

Vaxsythrakul said:

First off, Dexter sucks ! Second, I think you misread/-interpreted/-played Yog Sothoth. As you're still in base game mode, Yog was GOO, no Heralds yet . His ability add 1 difficulty to the close check, so R'lyeh (normal modifier -3) doesn't become -4, instead it becomes -3 [2], where you need 2 successes to close the gate (with R'lyeh Rising Mythos in play, R'lyeh gates become -3 [3] ).

Heh... What Dam said ;') should've said it shorter though by just defining difficulty.

P.S. Why would you close a gate in the Woods without sealing it?

Avi_dreader said:

I'm at work atm and didn't carry my AH rulebooks with me . Also was way too lazy to download the online rulebook(s) to this comp. Of course, the powers-that-be would probably not look too kindly on that either, given that these comps seem to bounce around from user to user.

Dam said:

You guys are a great resource and catch stuff that I'd probably play wrong for years otherwise !

We actually had Ry'leh rising out for a few turns, but there were no gates to there open at the time.

@Avid we didnt have any clue tokens left between us and were just trying to snag some gate trophies before Yog woke up in 4 or so doom tokens because thats how he does his "damage".

Alright well I have 10 games under my belt now, I am quite proud of my willpower for not touching any expansion box yet...and its been a lot harder than I anticipated. I may try to go to 15 or crack open Curse of the Dark Pharaoh this afternoon and play one with my wife, we'll see how it goes.

Games breakdown went like this

Azathoth (2) 1 win : 1 loss

Cthulhu (1) 1 loss

Hastur (1) 1 very brutal loss

Ithaqua (1) 1 win

Nyarlathotep (1) 1 win

Shub-Niggurath (2) 1 win : 1 loss

Yig (1) 1 win

Yog-Sothoth (1) 1 loss

10 games total 5 wins : 5 losses

So I'm 50% or so for games played so far. Hastur was my last game and that GOO is freaking brutal on a small team of investigators. I got extremely lucky and managed to seal 4 gates with Gloria Goldberg (at one time she had like 18 clue tokens going into the other world) I was just praying she wouldnt go insane / unconciouss. The other investigator was Michael McGlen and that guy is a total badass, he started with the tommy and explosives and I drew the enchanted blade as his unique item. He was the best monster killer I have ever seen, he just went around Arkham shooting everything full of holes and playing slice and dice with whatever monsters had physical resistances. The guy must have bagged over 20 monsters, and for a bit of comedy the two elder things he had been carrying as trophies revived the turn after he killed them. I had started doing so well early on and got so lucky with card draws and just everything going my way I thought for sure I would triumph but even with INSANE ammounts of luck in the end it was not enough to overcome Hastur. When he awoke with terror level 10 I was basicly screwed, Mike could do some damage but with his low sanity 2 hits from Hastur and it was all over. Probably the best game I've played yet, just the sheer fact that I could have won, and thought I should have but the old ones had other ideas...

Vaxsythrakul said:

How many of the wins came via final combat? Or should I say "draws", which is how I count them .