Greetings, fellow investigators and spying cultists. I have just the original game right now, and I'm just wondering which expansions I should get. Something that doesn't unbalance the game too much in favor of the Investigators or the "Bad Guyz".

Any recommendations?

Curse of the Dark Pharaoh adds a tiny bit of difficulty, and is my first recommendation for what you're seeking.

King in Yellow adds a bit more, but not too much. Black Goat adds more than both. Each board expansion adds more difficulty than any of these.

None of the expansions really favor the investigators, unless you consider the few "broken" investigators, or if you use the guardians from Kingsport and not the AOs or heralds.

Of course you can always buy Kingsport, Dunwich, or Innsmouth, and not use the boards or AOs until you're comfortable, instead using just the new investigators and items and whatnot.

All of them?

If you're looking just to add one box, you have to ask yourself if you want an extra board, new investigators, Old ones Etc? Or do you just want a cheaper more flavor added small box?

If you're looking for a big box most people are going to reccomend Dunwich probably, though Innsmouth just came out and people are saying its pretty awesome. I've heard some people say it should also be saved for last, but you do what you want !

Small box wise, even though I have every expansion but Innsmouth I've only played the base + CotDP so far. Dark Phaeroah isnt a bad expansion, I'm actually quite enjoying it, but if you're only going to buy one for now I would say King in Yellow or Black Goat. If I could have only bought one it would have been King in Yellow because Hastur / Yellow sign is one of my favorite parts of the Mythos.

I think you would be happy though, and have fun with whatever you decide to pick up

Gate burst are an important part of the game and they don't appear in the base set. Perhaps surprisingly, the Innsmouth Horror expansion doesn't include any gate bursts for Arkham locations. For that reason, I'd say Dunwich is still the first expansion to get. Dunwich also has more Arkham encounter cards than any other expansion, which IMO is important when you only have the seven cards per location that are included in the base set. Just my $.02.

Dunwhich is good but there are times when you won't need to pay attention to it. We've had games where we had bigger things to worry about than the Dunwhich Horror and only stayed long enough to deal with gates. Same goes for Kingsport from what I hear only w/out gates and monsters. People sounded less enthusiastic with the encounters there as well. Innsmouth is looking like you're going to need an investigator, possible several, running around to keep things under control. Otherwise, the small boxes add some difficulty with the focus remaining in Arkham and making IT more dangerous rather than trying to convince you to run somewhere else.

If you are limited to a single expansion, I agree that Dunwich Horror is the best choice. I can't imagine a game without injury/madness cards or gate bursts.

I've only played twice with the Innsmouth expansion, but so far what I've played, I love. The personal stories are great, the Deep One Rising track is an ever present threat that must be dealt with.

That being said, the Epic Battle Variant from Kingsport Horror really ups the danger level of AO battles. Even battles with AOs that used to be pushovers are now extremely challenging.

For me, I will be playing with all the big box expansions.

I also own KiY, but when I play it, I put the encounter and mythos cards from this expansion on top of their respective decks. (I use the variant where these cards are not shuffled in with the other cards.)

A little more information about your play group will help--do you play often? How many games have you played and to what level of success? How many investigators and players do you and you group usually have?

I ask these questions because much of the advice you get here will be subjective, though I think most of us will agree that Dunwich offers excellent value and Kingsport should generally be avoided if money is an issue. I've only played Innsmouth once, but I'm loving it so far and it has 16 investigators. Since you asked, I will give my personal top 6 list, but again, any information you supply will allow me to tailor this list to your needs (for example, Black Goat is pretty **** difficult because most of the mechanics are irrelevant without the incredibly difficult herald, making it a bad choice for small groups)

From Best to Worst:

1) Dunwich Horror

2) Innsmouth Horror

3) King in Yellow

4) Kingsport Horror (this is not last only because it adds GOOs and investigators--the board is pretty boring in my opinion)

5) Curse of the Dark Pharaoh

6) Black Goat of the Woods

If FFG had included in the Innsmouth expansion about a dozen extra mythos cards that had gate bursts at Arkham locations, then I might recommend Innsmouth just as much as Dunwich. As it is, I think the base game plus Innsmouth (and no other expansions) would be lacking. Also, Innsmouth has no items. Come to think of it, maybe Innsmouth wasn't even meant to be played on its own.

avec said:

Innsmouth also doesn't have any new Other Worlds. It's definitely not an expansion I would buy first.

Unless your looking for difficulty. Missing out on spell combos, flamethrowers, magic swords, etc. can make the monsters much harder. No new OWs isn't that bad either, especially if this is your first expansion and your working your way up, and they've got more customized encounters for them.

Tibs has a point. Smaller boxes may be a good start.

Which big expansion got the Molotovs? It could be the next expansion I'm getting after the small box

Knuckles Eki said:

Molotov Cocktail is a common item in the Dunwich expansion (Mark Harrigan starts with one—and a flamethrower!)

Dunwich was my second expansion. The difficulty level took a major upturn then, but make sure you're using at least 3 investigators, as I had been using only 2.

Dobralov said:

I agree with this, for the most part. I don't find Kingsport "boring", but I like its Encounters and Mythos cards. I'm not a big fan of the last two at all, but I like the Allies and some of the Spells from Dark Pharaoh, and I like the Dark Druid, some Items, and some of the Encounter/Mythos cards from Black Goat.

I want to like Corruption cards, but they require either a House Rule or a nasty Herald to happen at all, and unless I'm playing Shub, it all feels out of place.

Dunwich it is then.

my 2 cents:

top 5:

1. Innsmouth

2. King in Yellow

3. Black Goat

4. Dunwich

5. Kingsport

6. Dark Phar

top 5 for new player:

1. Dunwich

2. King in Yellow

3. Kingsport.

4. Black Goat

5. Innsmouth

6. Dark Phar

the only reason to get dark phar is to have all of them.

pittplayer said:

Interesting. I feel that way about BGofW: most of the added uniques/spells were just slight tweaks on existing cards, and I found the mechanics too restricted to the herald. Dark Pharoah is hardly amazing, but the items were decent (although the exhibits are fairly unexciting).

bgofw has the awsome corruption mechanic!!!! right up there with blight cards!

The problem with the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh is that it still has more unclear and strangely worded cards than all the other expansions combined, and FFG doesn't seem to be interested in answering our questions about them in the foreseeable future. I certainly don't recommend getting that expansion, unless you have all the others already.

-Villain

When Roxas opened up the "Comprehensive FAQ Project," I was one of the first to reply, with a blizzard of Dark Pharaoh questions. I don't expect most of them to be answered, but it would be a pleasant surprise

avec said:

Actually I think it makes complete sense that Innsmouth doesn't have those gate bursts. The deep ones rising track is based on having seals on the board, and a gate burst will actually cause less activity with that track. Since that track is the new feature in Innsmouth, it's no surprise they would want to keep the activity on that track active.

johnwatersfan said:

Then why do they have gate bursts at Innsmouth locations?

avec said:

I'd say for two reasons. First, to make it harder fo the Investigators to win with six seals. Second, because gate bursts in Innsmouth, unlike those in Arkham, CAN still add to the Deep One track by allowing monsters to show up there and pass through the vortices.

...and a third likely reason, to make you go back there after you thought you'd got it under control and face the various Innsmouth hazards again.