So, after a huge amount of expectation built up over 2-3 years has at last broken and the hordes of Deep Ones are rising and FINALLY running around in the streets of Arkham, what do you all think and feel?

Im happy, but then I always knew that I would be, like some of us do, right jgt7771, etc?

In retrospect, I feel the Innsmouth tracks are a more balanced and sensitive solution to a perceived flaw that Arkham has had from the beginning and which all subsequent expansions have attempted to redress, in different ways and with different results, namely, that after 3-4 seals, the investigators ride a crest of elder signs to victory, because open gates and seals combine to bung up the Doom. Dunwich gave us more gates and the dreaded bursts, which were and still are a great idea but tend to leave a bitter taste in some players mouths and can drag the game on for mind numbing durations (also fine by me, I want my brain *at least* numbed by Arkham Horror, I play to escape the real horrors of the world, for a time). It gave us about a 1 in 3 chance of seeing the Dunwich Horror, which occasionally boosted the level of Doom, thereby bypassing the seals and gates. Kingsport expanded on this idea and gave us Rifts, which appeared more often and threatened to bring about a swift awakening from slumber, but were quite easily dealt with, and sometimes did not arrive soon enough to make a difference. But they were cool, and when they worked well, Arkham disappeared up its own vortex.

Now in Innsmouth there is a mechanic that awakens the Ancient One more quickly in the late stages of an attempt to seal it away, by working off the success of that investigation. It adds extra gates as well, so the 11 limit in Arkham does not become too much of a stranglehold on Doom when there are 3 signs down, and 3-4 gates open. And unlike Kingsport, Innsmouth is not easy for the Investigators to wander around in but only in the latter stages of the game, when it is likely some seals have gone down. It seems very much like the product of its forebears to me, and this in many respects, such as the lack of items.

Plenty more to talk about in a thread for initial thoughts/feelings, but I thought I should get the ball rolling.

Oh, I am soooo happy to be able to talk about this at last! Have fun people!

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dj2.0 said:

Right! Although I do admit paranoia got the better of me in the final stretch and I panicked in a spiral of second-guessing. Now utterly groundless, and Innsmouth is the most solid Board Expansion yet.

I've been on both ends of just about everything now. I've lost a few to the Innsmouth Look deck, and had someone else dodge it 4 times in one town visit. I've been to Devil's Reef and Y'ha-nthlei, and been successfully extracted from and devoured at the salty side of the board. I've been arrested by the Innsmouth cops and spent some time in their jail, only to be assisted by another who never failed an "Martial Law" Evade roll. I've sampled every Location, and even hit a couple of the RIDICULOUSLY COOL Innsmouth Gate Cards. (These cards are specifically TARGETED at those who have their "blind" Encounters read to them by another player.) I've faced just about everything except the Masks, and lost horribly to several. I've passed and failed Personal Stories, which scratch my roleplaying itch sooooo gooooood. I've been through about half the Investigators and Ancient Ones, and my "favorite" still keeps changing. (Well, almost...Ghatanothoa FOREVER!!!)

It is easily more than everything I'd hoped for.

1. ih ties with kh for investigators

2. ih goos beat all other expansions

3. ih best board

4. love the extras ( in look, small dust, zhar token!)

5. No items or other worlds? blah

6. HUGE deep one uprising track? couldnt be smaller and allow other worlds? blah

7. Lame heralds!!

8. i would say ih is the best big expansion ( overall tie between ih kiy bgotw)

9. ih worst for new players ( unplayable epic battle cards, high difficulty)

My playgroup considers it the best of the big box expansions.

I agree with them in terms of mechanics, but I find some of the specifics to be pretty weak. Firstly, this is the first set of ancient ones to be weaker than the last expansion. The Dunwich GOOs were much stronger than most of the base game's GOOs, and some of the Kingsport GOOs were positively ludicrous (Atlach-nacha causes actual insanity?). We've played two games with the Innsmouth Horror expansion against Bokrug and Ghatanothoa. Against Ghatanothoa, we were playing with new players, and we barely lost. I was obliterated when I took a pile of clues, but for the most part, the Annihlating Gaze had more bark than bite. We got unlucky with items and monsters, and had to face pretty tough stuff with truly mediocre weaponry (most of us were unarmed). Even still, we came close to winning, and had quite a few deep ones rising in a row to end the game, before we could respond to the threat.

Bokrug was pitifully easy. The Beings of Ib caused a few failed skill checks here and there, but otherwise had no effect on the game. One gate opened and was sealed after another, until the game ended. We did get lucky with a couple of elder signs, but it would not have made a difference, there were more than enough clues to spare when we sealed the last gate.

We plan on playing more games, because we like the mechanics, but so far, the GOOs are pretty bad. Some of the investigators are also pretty lame. Min Thi Phan for one sticks out as completely underwhelming, though there are some gems (the Butcher, the Gravedigger) and some real interesting ones (the Spy).

I suppose I was hoping for some really awesome and neat ancient ones, but for the most part, they seem pretty underwhelming. I suppose we'll see when we fight Quachil or the others.

Sinis said:

From looking at the GOOs on BGG (hopefully get my hands on IH this week), I'm inclined to sorta agree on the stirring bit. But IH GOOs are some of the most insane in final combat. "First player devoured", yeah, that's a nice attack. Give the investigator(s) something they can do, heck, make them sacrifice Max Stamina and/or Sanity in ever increasing number, something, no stupid straight up, "nyah, nyah, sucks to be you" attacks. Zhar is another one I doubt I'll ever get a draw against, playing 4 investigators, needing 88 successes, 1 investigator devoured every other turn, yeah, that'll happen.

Dam said:

You'd be surprised. The first time my group went up against Zhar we ended up having to fight him in final combat. We were generally unprepared but we managed to kill his first half in just a few turns and got half way through his second half before we were all devoured. It is in cases like his that the Sinister Plots are actually great (or atleast, the one we saw) as it isn't his normal attack and gives the first player a better chance.

The new GOOs are certainly much rougher in Final Combat, but many of them have less of an effect on the over-all game than the originals. Worshippers are now fewer and farther between. It is in final combat where they are truely difficult, but even then, the lack of Resistances or Immunities on many of them makes them simpler to kill than it may originally seem.

In out experience, Bokrug is a push-over. In both games against him we just made a joke of him. The first game we sealed and victory and the second (thanks to a combination of Call the Ancient One, Lilly's Personal Story, and no Beings of Ib left) had him down to 7 Doom Tokens before we attacked. He went down in two rounds against out 4 person team. Chaugnar Faughn was sealed, Zhar was sealed, Rhan Tegoth was sealed, Cthuga and Ghantanathoa were both defeated in epic combat. Quuachil Uttas and Nyogtha remain undefeated, but we gave them both tought fights, reducing them to below 20% of their starting Doom. .

So while they are certainly strong, I don't see any of the GOOs are undefeatable. Then again, we have been playing with all items, investigators, and just Innsmouth mythos, gates, encounters, and Innsmouth board. Perhaps they will prove more difficult with more boards.

Sinis said:

You've obviously not played against Ghatanohoa yet. I had a game against him yesterday and I never used Patrice's Press Pass because I was deeply afraid of her being devoured (she still collected a lot of clues and was ultimately responsible for our victory). It is hilarious to have an encounter that would give two clues and breathing a sigh of relief when you don't pass the check.

I agree about your assessment of Bokrug, he is one of my favorite GOOs but his in-game effects are mediocre. We lost a game against him but only because the friend I played with made a few bad decisions and I didn't want to interfere with every decision he made. I am quite sure had I played alone, I'd have sealed Bokrug away. We also had a bit of bad luck because all clues were removed from the board after the first round and we still managed to lay down five seals. This goes to show how weak Bokrug is.

Patrice is brutally strong. You'll always have enough clues to seal, a gate opening in you is no threat whatsoever. I also had the luck of playing her together with Jaqueline Fine, a powerful team if there ever was one.

edit:

Forgot to mention my game against Nyogtha that had me run out of clue tokens during setup. With both Dunwich and Innsmouth, you start with 20 clues, my investigators together had 9 and the Fed started with Professor Rice; another 20 clues on the board. I was swimming in clues and for obvious reasons, I didn't even read Minh Thi's King in Yellow at first.

However, in the end I had five seals and the last two gates were both in Innsmouth. I'd been hit with a rumor that reduced my Focus to 0 and had no hope of passing those evade checks. I became a run between the Deep One Rising Track and Mandy's Personal Story, with me praying each turn that no Gate Burst would be drawn. Fortunately, no monster entered a Vortex in Innsmouth and Mandy won out, sealing the sixth and final gate.

My group has only won 3 games out of the dozen or so we've played. We've won the two games we played against Quachil Uttaus, and the third was against Chaugnar Faugn; all three were seal victories. About 5 of the games we lost we were at 5 seals with an investigator in an OW traveling to the get last seal before the AO woke up, and another good chunk have been awoken via a double doom mythos which took us by surprise. We're playing with just Innsmouth and the base set, nothing at all from other expansions. Our first game was against Bokrug with 5ish investigators, and we weren't paying attention to the gates. He woke up with all four beings of Ib and wiped the floor with us. We've lost to Zhar 3 times already, his ability triggers on us alot more than it should. Two of the games we've had three gates on the board before the first turn. Innsmouth is soundly whipping my game group. Acebob, you must've had some serious spellcasting and some lucky rounds against the ancient one to beat Cthugha IMO. Our first round against him, we rolled a six for his attack, which took out all the investigators but one, who had the obsidian statue. But even if they weren't devoured, the rest of the party had already used their good weapons, which were now lost, and no one had any sanity for spell casting.

Morgaln said:

Um, we really did, read my account of it above. It just didn't matter regarding Annihilating Gaze. We actually risked it so many times that we had to turn the tokens face down twice (once for a successful gaze, and it was the third token, and once for four blank tokens).

Dam said:

Yeah, actual difficulty in final combat isn't really a big deal. I mean, Azathoth automatically kills all players, do not pass go, do not collect $200, but that doesn't make him a difficult ancient one. Ancient ones that have strong abilities while they slumber, like Atlach-nacha, or have alternate wake up conditions (like Shudde-Mell) are the ones to worry about. So, I guess I'm committing to a stance that Tsathoggua's malaise while sleeping is far more dangerous than Azathoth's patent destruction of everything, should he wake up.

That was the feeling we had with Bokrug. Like, man I hope he doesn't wake up, and he's doing something , but it just doesn't feel like much. A failed check here and there doesn't really matter. It's true that we got lucky with a couple of items like the Blue Watcher in the Pyramid and a couple of Elder Signs (which really helped against the Rlyeh portals, with their -3 closing modifier, on top of the Being of Ib with the -1 penalty to the same thing). We would have had a much harder time winning if those portals were stuck with -4 penalties to close that we'd actually have to roll for.

Sinis said:

Azathoth is easy because of the 14 doom track. Tsathoggua (and Cthulhu) are easy because of 13 doom track. After that it gets tricky. Doom track length + slumber ability of course factors in. My main gripes are Quachil Uttaus (only -3 mod, but double immunity, 4 investigator team gets 10 attacks barring Unique items) and Zhar (11 doom track, need to kill it twice, 4 investigators get 8 rounds, half the attacks are one-handed). With say Bokrug, if you've managed the Ibs, you get 8 attacks for each investigator.

On a side note, I've never worried about Shudde, he's down (or up, depending on how want to look at it) there with Azathoth, Tsathoggua and Cthulhu as the easiest GOO (2nd easiest in fact) for me. And the only thing Tsathoggua does that bugs me is shut down Science Building, rest of the locations are insignificant.

ahhh, the love! Innsmouth has got us all talking again, for as long as we can tear ourselves away from it

As usual, Im savouring everything and have not looked through all the components. Ive checked out all the new investigators, but thats it, the rest I discover in play, the first time I play with it. I dont even read the pass and fail results of personal stories until I trigger them. Which led to the shaman almost dooming the *entire team* when she completed her Prof Rice trick 3 turns before Yibb-Tstll was going to wake up, with only 3 open gates in Arkham and Innsmouth, and a total of 5 clues already on Y'ha-Nthlei alone...I have never scooped up as many useless clues in my life. The final battle was at a sane -4 and the team scraped by by the skin of their teeth. Innsmouth is nasty for so many reasons.

In last nights game against Glaaki, a smooth going start in which Carolyn (the psychologist) completed her personal mission in the first upkeep (riddle me this - how? ), everyone was blessed, and 5 seals were down with an elder sign in the docs hands by the time martial law was declared quickly turned from sure thing to nightmare when a gate burst open, and the remaining seals, monsters on devil reef moving and servants swiping shotguns, enchanted blades and skills from the team left them defenceless and scrambling for the train station as the Deep Ones Rising swelled from 1 to 5 in the blink of an eye.

Shugoron showed up in the Nyarlathotep game the night before. New masks now mean the likelihood of seeing at least 1 (assuming all are used) are very good if you dont play with a full cup (I removed all Dunwich and Kinsport monsters so I get to see the Deep Ones and other Innsmouth critters more regularly). The Dark Pharoah herald is gloating.

And martial law? Mists Of Releh is much more useful now...though technically it refers to monsters awareness, we use the Innsmouth board awareness modifiers too.

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Love it.

Deep Ones Rising is wonderfully, fiendishly inspired.

The board is dangerous and you are forced to visit (unless you want to provoke an early Final Battle, which I never play for)

The Innsmouth elements continue to get more dangerous and require more resources as the game goes on.

Love the new GOOS, all very inventive. new ways to sue spawn monsters. (Favs Ghat & Nyogtha)

Huge variety in new invetsigators, ok I dislike a couple, but I love others. (favs William, Fen, and skids, on the basis that I thinbk they are fun, not utility).

Personal stories Yipee!

Plus: no more bleeding spells. Hurrah! I have been playing waith all the small cards from every expansion all mixed in, but just took out all the spells from CotDH & BGotW (even the good ones).

BTW. Hello again everyone, I've been away for a while, but have been given a new injection of enthusiasm.

Best - Marianna the ex-nun Cultist

BTW has anyone alreday asked about using Summon Shantack to access Devil's Reef or Y'n(etc)?

I've allowed travel by this route to Devil's Reef, but not the City of the Dep Ones, based on whetehr it felt right to me, rather than game rules rational. But I'd be interested in a ruling. (Also I'd suggested to my yound daughter that this might be a plan, then had my doubts but kept them to myself as I didn't want to udnermine her refound enthusiasm for playing AH :-))

- chris

Forget it. Just realised that travel to devil reef is specifically described as aquatic only in the rulesbook for Innsmouth.

I might contimue to ignore this for Shantak. At least when my daughter has the spell :-)

- chris

As mentioned already in a previous thread we played all the new GOO one after the other and lost six out of eight. Bokrug was by far the easiest because we managed to buy off all the beings of ib. I really like it. I think as a board expansion it has the most consistent effect on the game and definately ups the feel of not having enough time. Not sure what to make of all the new investigators though.