Ok, first post on the board. Me and my friends are loving arkham horror. A few months ago I bought the dunwhich horror expasion and its a blast to play. But we've played a fair share of games since then, so I decided I wanted to buy another expansion. So basically I would like some advice on which expansion to get next.

We loved the dunwhich horror mechanic. Sadly he seemed to enter play a tad too seldom for my taste, but then again maybe we were lucky with portal draws. And Im assuming that when we add another expansion, it will enter play even less since we water down the mythos deck with other gate locations. So what Im looking for is new game mechanics. New ancient ones and/or investigators are nice and all, but not really a factor because we havent even gone through all our current ones yet.

Im leaning towards king in yellow or kingsport because I hear that heralds are cool. Is there something else that you guys feel like is a "must have" expansion when you play?

Well, Kingsport Horror gives you the rift mechanic that is never diluted no matter how many expansions you use. You also get the most new equipment, investigators, GOOs, heralds and guardians in it. I'd probably pick Kingsport myself.

If you want a small expansion, I'd pick King in Yellow, followed by Curse of the Dark Pharaoh and Black Goat of the Woods last.

Then again, Innsmouth Horror is right around the corner (one to two weeks) so you might want to wait until it gets released and read some reviews to see if it's the one you want.

If you're looking for new tricks and surprises, get a big box expansion. clearly, I can't speak for Innsmouth, but Kingsport does give everything DeePee said, AND the superb Epic Battle deck.

The problem with getting the Big expansions early is that the Small ones have little game impact by comparison. You may want to consider just playing with only one Big and one Small expansion once you get everything. Or you could just get everything, and use my variant to reduce Dunwich and King in Yellow dilution:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/409096

Good luck, have fun, and welcome!

I would shoot for the King in Yellow especially since you have not tired of the investigators you already have. You also get:

• A timer mechanic (the ACT cards) that is not diluted with combined with the base game alone
• New items (big fan of the Galdius of Carcosa)
• New Arkham Encounters, Mythos and Outer World Encounters
• Like Kingsport, a Hearld that works really well
• The difficulty of the game is increased without too much being added or "new" rules to learn (not so with Dunwich and Kingsport, but only because they add alot more stuff)

I'm with Bioball. If you're still getting great mileage out of the Arkham/Dunwich box mix, then I see no need for you to plop down the cash on another Board Expansion like Kingsport yet. (Jury's still WAY out on Innsmouth, and you shouldn't consider it until the veteran grognards around here report on it over the next several weeks.) And of the three smaller Card Expansions, I agree that King in Yellow in the best. The cards are loaded with Hasturian theme, fun and/or brutal enough to be felt even when mixed in with all that you already have, and (most importantly) proofread properly (there isn't a lot of arguing about how a KY card is to be played).

Welcome to the Carnival, Malodorous.

First of all, I would really, really, suggest playing with the Dunwich Horror printout herald, fount here (for free) :

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=6&esem=4

You mentioned that the DH doesnt wake up often enough, and this herald really goes a long way towards fixing that problem. Of the heralds I've played with (KiY, DH, BG), I think DH is my favorite. It's pretty sweet to have the option to go up and kick the herald's ass if he's causing you problems.

As far as expansions, I have played with DH, BG, and KiY. IMO KiY surpasses BG by leaps and bounds. BG has some interesting stuff in it, but overall the herald is kind of annoying, and makes me always want to gear up for final combat instead of actually trying to seal out AOs. Corruption mechanic also less than stellar, with the exception of if you use BG as herald. If you use BG expansion with another herald, Corruption is boring and pointless.

KiY also adds a host of helpful spells and items. The spells specifically. I love magic, and if you love it too, then you won't be dissapointed with KiY. Black Goat adds sucky magic.

King in Yellow can make things very tense and be very fun, and I find it comes into play a lot even when "watered down". Kingsport is great fun even when mixed in, but is REALLY a blast when played on its own. Curse of the Dark Pharoah has some cool elements and they tend to sneak into games nicely, but come in a little too seldom. Black Goat is my favourite expansion aside from Dunwich. Id shoot for Black Goat or King in Yellow if I were you.

jgt7771 said:

::Laughter:: c'mon do you really think we're going to dislike Innsmouth? I've been waiting for this for *years* and I love the idea of investigator stories, a town that will make Kingsport more threatening (due to aquatic movement), not to mention loads of new investigators and ancient ones and monsters (DEEP ONES!) ;'D am I excited? Hell yes. If I am disappointed, will I begin a doomsday cult? Hell yes!

Avi_dreader said:

Wait, what? I thought you already had several of those sca...,er, things going on .

Avi_dreader said:

Stranger things have happened. There are still people--some of them veteran grognards--that love Curse of the Dark Pharaoh or despise Kingsport, and I don't understand either of those. Let's see how all these STRONG personalities feel after a few weeks, Deep Ones and Dagon notwithstanding.

jgt7771 said:

I take offense to that, sir. My love for Dark Pharaoh is forever waxing; never waning.

And I reserve the right to defend Dam's dislike of Kingsport, because he does have good points about its shortcomings.

(I also reserve the right to tease him about not owning it yet, however.)

I shouldI change my signature to say like,

*~~ DARK PHARO 4 EVA!!!1 <3 <3 <3 ~~*

LOL; myspace girls.

Tibs said:

Acknowledged. Totally your prerogative.

Agreed. Totally his prerogative.

(Me too. Someday, Dam, if just for the Epic Final Battle cards.)

. . . ? ? ? . . .

Nyarlathotep? Is that you?

I'm just messing with ya. I didn't really take offense. But I like to flaunt my love of Dark Pharaoh whenever possible.

Dam said:

Yeah, but I meant another one ;')

jgt7771 said:

Arg! Epic Battles. New monsters, new Ancient Ones, new investigators (okay, granted, the latter might not be a selling point for him). Seriously though, do you realize how insane this game is going to be with all three expansion board? ::laughter::

Kingsport isn't going to seem boring anymore because A)Aquatic movement threats B)people are going to have alot less time to waste their (so a rift opening is almost definitely going to happen) and C)GOBUYKINGSPORTYOUNONEPICBATTLEPLAYINGFREAK! ;') I say that with love of course. Although I also say I love good food ;') so you may want to keep my love far away, especially when it's holding a steak knife.

Malodorous said:

Kingsport and Innsmouth add the highest amount of monsters and game features. I'd suggest you buy Kingsport first (because after Innsmouth it will seem anticlimactic).

Ended up buying kingsport yesterday. Sorry, pharaoh and king in yellow fans! Will get these next! The epic battle mechanic was what made up my mind.

Me and a buddy ended up playing it in the evening. We even sorted out the dunwhich stuff just to be able to experience as much of the new kingsport content as possible. We only used 1 investigator each, so we had some issues keeping the rifts in check at first, but it eventually worked out. The game dragged on abit too long, so we are going to finish that play tonight. Terror level currently at 8

Malodorous said:

No, you did the right thing. Small box expansions are "charming," but big box expansions are "awesome"! Now you have access to all the new AOs and investigators. Not to mention Epic Battle (excellent deal breaer) and a wealth of new items.

Two investigators is a bit low for a game with Kingsport. I recommend at least three. So with two of you, controlling two investigators each should do the trick. In fact, in my opinion, the bare minimum number of investigators for a game that won't tend to go completely out of hand is 2, plus 1 for each board expansion. So if you start playing with Kingsport AND Dunwich, I'd recommend taking no fewer than four into the fray.

What AO are you up against?

Malodorous said:

;') don't forget Innsmouth. The greatest expansion of all?

Tibs said:

Every upkeep Im casting voice of ra, the forgetful mind or whatever it is called (the one that heals you for 1 sanity at the cost of 1 stamina) and then uses heal.

But yes, I think you are right about controling 2 investigators each. Usually we are more players and we just wanted to try it out since I had just bought it.

My friends has an exam tomorrow so he changed his mind about playing it tonight, so we will probably have to finish that session tomorrow or in the next few days instead