Hi everyone, I have had played about ten or so games in the past weeks and I foresee a lifelong relationship!

My first question: I still only have the base game. My aim is to get all of the expansions, but I want to buy them one at a time, learning every aspect of the expansion before I buy the next one. I want to start with one of the small ones, which one should I pick?

My second question: What have happened to the Arkham Horror Wiki? It doesn't seem really updated (last update feb 2011) and I find a lot of things to improve (for example MH cards in the small cards list, other world encounters in a list rather than just as an image, pictures missing, links going wrong etc). What if we could open it up again and together form the perfect wiki? Just a thought

Hi! And welcome to the Carnival Indeed, Arkham is something that after you say "I do", remains for you forever

First question: there are a myriad of similar threads asking for opinions on what to get next. And the usual answer is "it depends on what you are searching for". I suggest to search a little the fora (here and BGG) to find out some threads where this is debated. This is said not to not answer to your query, but simply because years of suggestions cannot be condensed in just one answer For me, the suggestion is: get King in Yellow, if you want a small one. Lots of theme, a nice Herald, and Blight allies which are always fun for the way the screw your games If you can afford a big one, go with Dunwich, which is probably the best complement to the core game ever (once you learn the basics, it's impossible to lose a game with core Arkham only, so Dunwich is what you need to boost difficulty)

As for the wiki question.. you know, the wiki is mantained by volunteer. Hence, it's not automatic that new cards and stuff are immediately added (or will be added at all). If you have time and notice something missing, feel free to implement it

Thanks for the replies! I was also thinking in the way of King in Yellow, but I definitely will buy DH when I get too bored of the base game!

Of course I understand that the wiki is volunteer, it's just that you have to log in to contribute and to become a member someone has to approve, and since there hasn't been activity for three years, I guess it will be hard for me to contribute in any way. I mainly asked if there was a clear purpose to why the activity marker had been removed from the site

I like this forum, I think I will ask more questions and contribute in other threads. Again, thanks for the replies!

Aye, that's very true. I think the guys who worked in the past on the wiki moved on with life or something like that (many old timers of this forum quit during the years, or started posting a lot less due to real life). It's somehow a pity, since 90% of Arkham is on-line and it's an incredible tool to use.

And sure, you're more than welcome to post any additional question you may have There's always someone watching over the forum and ready to help

I know that poeple rag on it all the time, but i think CotDP is actually a really good small box, especially as first one because the it becomes a lot less diluted, and CotDP gets me going on it's egypt theme. If that is not your style, no biggie. The first one I got was the lurker at the threshold. I liked it because it changed the gates up and brought in my favorite herald to date.

BGotW gets ragged on a lot as well (and is definitely not the best small box), but suffers horribly from dilution. It is actually best used with as few expansions as possible or else many of the mechanisms are pretty much obsolete. Julia created a Herald that helps deal with this problem (and I love it).

If you know you are going to get them all, you may want to start with less impressive small boxes such as BGotW so that you can appreciate the content ideas that went into them. A lot of players have made custom content that takes these mechanics and runs with them.

Also, everyone suggests Dunwich as the first "big box" to get. For core experience, I can understand where they are coming from, but I strongly advise considering Innsmouth Horror for the investigator Personal Stories. The personal stories really make the game more of a character-driven experience. And for me, it enhanced the game much more than probably any other component.

That being said, I also tend to play with Kingsport and Innsmouth more for some reason. I hardly ever play with Innsmouth and Dunwich in the same game. That is just asking for hurt and a lot of fiddly-bits to watch.

(Just a final note: My suggestions are probably somewhat atypical and are attributed to idiosyncracies in the game that I love. For a core upgrade experience, definitely defer to the other experienced posters here.)

Dadel,

Welcome to the madness!

I agree with Julia about starting with King in Yellow if you're going for the small expansion first. Also, Dunwich is fantastic - it includes my favourite mechanic in the game: madness and injury cards!

I was actually looking for some opinions or reviews of Innsmouth Horror, since I'm debating between that and Kingsport.

I've played with Kingsport + base once, and "all the expansions" up until Kingsport once. I like it a great deal. I've never looked at Board Game Geek for anything, really. Especially not anything Fantasy Flight makes, since I know all the craziest people who have looked the old ones in the eye and lived to tell the tale frequent here. (Sorry to piggyback your thread... Somehow it feels more appropriate than starting a new one, though? Mods and/or Dadel if you disagree, I'll edit this and do so.)

So far, Miskatonic, Innsmouth, and Lurker on the Doorstep (the purple card expansion, I might have the name wrong?) are the only ones I haven't played with. I am yet to own all of them (as a friend does) myself, however.

Merry Christmas, Dadel, and many more happy games!

Kingsport vs Innsmouth is a long debate

My two cents: get Kingsport first.

Some reasons: Innsmouth is a great expansion, but it's also a "limited" expansion: there are no new Other Worlds, there are no small cards enriching the existing investigator decks. It's true that it come with Personal Stories, but Personal Stories are given for all the characters (including those arriving with Kingsport) and they do not boost the other decks (so, you can also easily proxy those). Hence, in some way Kingsport "completes" the Arkham experience by boosting all the small card decks and introducing the last two Other Worlds (Underworld & Unknown Kadath).

Additionally, playing together Innsmouth and Dunwich will result in the so called "speed Arkham" which is, imho, not the best way to truly enjoy an Arkham game: you have far too many unstable locations so that the game is skewed towards a "one gate / round" doom progress. Which can be overwhelming if you're still learning the game, but in any case it makes the game short. So, no time to explore, no time to enjoy the environment, it's just a "grab the clues / hit the gates / pray / repeat".

Kingsport on the other hand grants you a different experience: not having unstable locations, it makes the board bigger providing more options but without boosting so much the doom increase ratio.

Furthermore, Kingsport adds Epic Cards for Final Battle, which are a totally awesome addition to the game.

Finally, Innsmouth is also an extremely difficult expansion. Not only because of the Mythos, but because of the board per se. I guess everyone here that played Innsmouth at least 30 times had a game lost during the setup (Dagon as Herald, double opening Mythos, gate 1: Devil Reef, gate 2: Devil Reef). So, if you get Innsmouth before Kingsport, you won't be discovering Arkham in difficulty order, being Innsmouth a greater challenge than Kingsport.

Hope this helps

Here is the expansions in the order they came out as well. I plan to start with Dark Pharaoh first, and go from there. Any in the list that are just utterly useless?

Curse of the Dark Pharaoh (2011 revised)

Dunwich Horror 2006

The King in Yellow 2007

Kingsport Horror 2008

The Black Goat of the Woods 2008

Innsmouth Horror 2009

The Lurker at the Threshold 2010

Miskatonic Horror 2011

Useless: none. Not so good: The Black Goat. Items are difficult to use, the Herald is great but it's really brutal (so, it's not a favourite of the majority) and the cult mechanics, even if clever, were badly developed. Still, some content is good, new monsters are a pleasant addition, and so on. But if you have to leave one out of the mix, then it's the Black Goat.

(kinda sad reading that MH was released in 2011. It's A LOT of time ago)

Thanks everyone for your help! I finally went with Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, and after three games I can say that I like the mechanics one by one, but the herald just completely takes away the fun with the Ancient Whispers marker. The Exhibit Items are great and well developed but there is no way that I would take one if it meant that I would become cursed and lose one stamina each upkeep. I really like the benefits/detriments though, it would be cool if they came up more often

If you want to house rule it (like I have) you only get cursed on a 1 or 2 when picking up an exhibit item. Not much better, but still makes it so that you don't feel like you are about to shoot yourself in the foot by taking a cool item.

I can only reiterate the advice given above. Get DH as your first big box and I'd suggest CotDP as the first small box, although a good case can be made for KiY.

Don't make the mistake of overlooking the vast wealth of quality custom content out there either. The Arkham Nightmare ( https://neilscuriosityshop.wordpress.com/board-games/arkham-horror/the-arkham-nightmare/ ), Lovecraft Country Horror ( https://neilscuriosityshop.wordpress.com/board-games/arkham-horror/lovecraft-country-horror/ ) and Door to Saturn ( https://sites.google.com/site/doortosaturn/ ) will take some time to construct, but they are definitely worth it.

If you want something a little smaller 16 Custom Investigators ( https://neilscuriosityshop.wordpress.com/arkham-other-material/investigators/#_Anchor16CustomInvestigators ), 8 Thematic Investigators ( https://neilscuriosityshop.wordpress.com/arkham-other-material/investigators/#_Anchor8ThematicInvestigators ) or The Antarctic Voyage ( https://neilscuriosityshop.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/atmom-pdf.pdf ) make good additions to your game.