Expansions used were KiY, BGotW, and IH. It... Was... Brutal... Although to be honest, I might've had a chance if I didn't lose *THREE* retainers (two on the first roll, one on the second roll) and have cursed dice. Not only was I not rolling successes, I was rolling loads of ones. I had one nine die roll where I ended up rolling one success ;'D and four ones. I also drew a one character blessed one character cursed card. The blessed character lost his on the first turn. The cursed character kept his for seven or eight turns... UUUUUUGH. The famer's an absolute brute though— he's really a great fighter. I had alot of fun playing the rookie cop and nearly accomplished his mission (it's the only one where you have to die to complete it— errr, nmind, there might be one other, although dying isn't the victory condition for the other, it's just a consequence).

I played against Ghatanothoa. Oh God... He is... *INTENSE* He has eight visage tokens and every time you have an investigator gain two or more clues simultaneously you flip one of his tokens randomly, seven are blank, and one has his face. If you see his face, he eats your investigator. When four are flipped, you flip them back over and mix them around so you don't know which is which. It's like playing Russian Roulette :') I think I have a strategy that would work decently against him (regular clue hunting is a *bad* idea) but I'll wait until a few more of you try the game out ;') oh, ::laughter:: and his worshipper effect is *really* annoying, he gives +2 toughness to Migos (bad) and +2 toughness to Lloigor's (the weapons immunity monsters— really bad). I had one squatting in Independence Square the entire game ;'D

Anyhoo, I'm going to play one more Innsmouth AO/investigators only game. Gah. That last game was painful, but very fun ;'D

Oh geeze... I just drew three IH investigators for the next game... Between the three of them they have eight dollars ;'D this might be a minor problem.

Heh... Nmind... The Fed has another way to get money. Still... The three of them must survive against... CHAUGNAR FAUGN! ::Evil laughter::

Ah, Avi, already well into the deep end and then the deep end lost its bottom .

Just finished three games of Innsmouth.

First game was against Cthulhu, Dagon, and Hydra. Team was the Sailor, Violinist, and Farm Hand. We played with personal stories, but ones where we didn't know what passing and failing gave or took from us. Second turn the Sailor is devoured and seals a gate. Replaced by the boot-legger. In general it went well. Things not a bit dicy at the end when the Deep One Uprising track was at 5. All-in-all it was managable thanks to the Violinist. She is amazing.

Second game was against Chaungar Faughn. Again it wasn't too bad. Drew the Fed, Grave Digger, and Rookie Cop. By the end of the game all three had been devoured. Innsmouth is a brutal town. The first two encounters we had there resulted in devourings.

Third game was against Rhen-Thagoth(sp?). Explorer and the Ex-Con. Explorer was devoured by an Innsmouth look card and relpaced with the Lawyer. We were soundly defeated in final combat. What I learned was that the Lawyer is not that great of an investigator.

Some things I've learned. 1) The new investigators are, for the most part, pretty solid. Some of them are even quite good. But there is disparagy between how good various ones are. 2) The new GOOs should not be fought under any circumstances. They are all much tougher in the final combat than they are during slumber. Plus the new investigators seem to be able to generate clues and seal better than many of the past investigators. 3) Innsmouth is not for the faint of heart. Its a rough town and should not be underestimated.

In general I really like the expansion. Much more devouring going on nowadays.

Just got mine today and that AO with 2+ clues you die looks evil.

MrsGamura said:

Oh god... I played it yesterday and lost... IT WAS SO FUN!

Dam said:

Deep one, not deep end ;') get your terminology right.

Acebob said:

I slightly disagree with what you've learned. First of all, Rhan-Tegoth is not an AO you should attempt to seal. In all likelihood his doom track will be 10 or 9 (because of his cultist effect). He's also probably going to have between 13 and 15 on his doom track (not to mention the life he drains. You should instead try to delay him as much as possible and blitz kill him on the first or second turn of final battle (which shouldn't be too easy since he's got a pretty tough attack and decent defences -4 and Phys immunity, and you won't have much time before you face him to stock up on skills anyways). I'm not sure about Zhar either. On one hand he seems somewhat vulnerable. On the other hand he kills an investigator every two turns and he has a 22 doom track. Bokrug's sort of a pushover provided you attack his Beings of Ibs prior to the final battle (that way he only has a -0 combat modifier with Mag/Phys res and 12 Doom). He should actually be easy if you try beating him that way.

Quachil is a bit crazy, and you'd have to be crazy to not try and seal him. -3 modifier. Mag/Phys immunity. No allies. Kills a player every turn. 12 doom. Good luck with that ;') (I'd say the only chance you have against him in combat is hording clues and bombing him on the first turn with a fight skill and a shotgun or something. But I'd say you'd be much better off trying to just seal him ;')

I think Ghatanothoa's fightable... In theory... Especially if you pick up stuff like motorcycles and the Ruby and perhaps a +2 speed ally ( you can then give all of those to one investigator who could survive for eight or nine turns against him). Still 13 doom track... You might be better off going for a sealing... But actually it's a bit misleading because his ability causes lots of slowdowns... Bleh... It only *appears* to be 13 ;'D but for Ghatanothoa appearance is everything.

I think fighting Cthugha is a *really* bad idea... Although you could go for a first turn blitz... Still 13 doom track... Better off sealing him.

Anyways... In conclusion... You can fight at least two of these and have high probabilities of winning (maybe even three— I need to actually see what it's like fighting Zhar). Oh crap... I just noticed he *does* have immunities Mag Immunity for the 1st Zhar, Phys Immunity for the 2nd Zhar. Ugh. He's going to be a pain in the ass ;'D still theoretically defeatable... Although I'm not sure if I wouldn't prefer to go for a sealing victory. ::Shrug:: not sure... Arg. :') I guess it would depend on starting investigators and equipment. Maybe.

Also, the Lawyer is a bit weak, but he's not *that* bad (although, admitedly my team that got him lost— but it was also a very unlucky game). He can essentially dodge curse effects with clue tokens (change a five into a six). Mostly he's useful for being able to prevent arrests of investigators in Innsmouth. His starting equipment and cash is pretty good too (too bad he lost his retainer on turn one in my game and both the other investigators were broke).

Has anyone else noticed the wording on Zhar. "If an investigator already the Zhar token, he is devoured."

MrsGamura said:

Yeah, basically what that means is the first turn you have the token, he breaks your hand, the second turn he eats you.

Avi_dreader said:

Quit promoting gearing for final combat from the start !

Avi_dreader said:

I posted about this on BGG. Assuming that kill an investigator is his attack, you could use those "cancel GOO attack" items to stay alive, right?

Quit promoting armageddon ;'D

Yeah, you could also use cancel attack items or Basel to slow him down. That's not enough though because he's phys/mag immune. I think the only way of beating him is being loaded with clue tokens and having appropriate skills (and blessing).

Won my first game yesterday, but it was against the new AO who adds cultists to his sheet when drawn. He would have slaughtered me in final combat, but his slumbering ability wasn't oo bad. I had Marie Lambeau, Silas Marsh, Jim Culver and the Astronomer. Just used Innsmouth and the base set. I only have AH and the 3 big box expansions. It was a near thing, but we won by seals. We had 4 seals down and the doom track was two away from being maxed out. Marie had failed her personal story condition, so I only got to use witch blood once.

Marsh used his aquatic movement to go straight to Innsmouth to deal with a gate at the Marsh Factory. Didn't have enough clues to seal, and got himself cursed. While the other investigators closed and sealed gates in Arkham, he roamed Innsmouth just trying to stay alive. By the time martial law was declared, he finally managed to get rid of his curse and tumble into a gate at the Order of Dagon. Where he was delayed, over and over until nearly the end of the game. He popped out just in time to close but not seal his gate. In the meantime a gate had appeared at Yghnadsstril (or whatever it is called.) He had the pass condition to his personal story, so he sacrificed himself and sealed the gate at Yungsrabl.

His replacement...Little Wendy with her elder sign! We had a couple of lucky turns where gates didn't open due to seals, and the deep ones track was clear thanks to Silas earlier activity. That gave Wendy enough time to jump into a gate at the Graveyard, get a lucky encounter that brought her out after one turn, and whompa, gate sealed and an eked out win.

I set up and started another game. I have a great team (Mandy, Daisy, Ming Phan and Justnie Fine-drawn at random.) First gate at Yngthadrisl (I'm going to spell this at random and eventually I'll get it right.) Second gate came at Order of Dagon. By then Mandy had taken the train to Arkham. Third turn found Mandy at Devils Reef, the other players in Arkham. Daisy already completed her pass condition on the personal story. She grabbed the KiY from Ming, plus an ancient amulet (I think that is the Unique item) and she is running around with about 12 clues. Then came the third turn monster surge. Eke, not good, but manageable. Fourth turn and Mandy sits tight because she can't handle the monsters on the gate. The other investigators are milling about smartly. Mythos card: No gate appears. No clue appears. Monster surge and all monsters move. They swarm into the vortexes and I'm now 1 token away from having the Deep ones track full. Only a single clue on the Feds track. Several other monsters are poised to move into vortexes. This is looking like a bad day for the home team! Oh the AO is the dude who has Gnopf Keh as followers.

I'm really liking IH so far. The Astronomer's ability to decide what symbol is on the gate when he closes it is game changing. He cleared monsters from the board at a couple of critical times in the first game. Marsh's aquatic movement ability is a real force multiplier when it comes to keeping a lid on Innsmouth. Ming seems pretty blah so far, but if I can pass her personal story, I can see some real value added. Personal stories are awesome. For the time being, I am drawing AOs and investigators at random, but am redrawing if I don't get at least one IH investigator or an AO that I've played in the past 5 games. Unless my kids are playing, I play solo with 4 investigators. After each game the AO and all the investigators drawn (including those drawn as replacements for devoured characters) go into a discard stack and don't get played again until I go through everyone once.