Ok, after about a month with just the base game, I want to start by getting one of the smaller expansions. What one is the best one to get first? What one adds more to the base game?

Hey Ken I remember just a week or two ago you wanted us to convince you to buy the base game, I take it then you're enjoying it hah !

I am going through serious withdrawls as I've been busy the last week and a half and havent managed to log a single game.

I have finally succumbed to the preassure and opened up all of the expansions except Innsmouth to look inside, although I've only played with Curse of the Dark Phaeroah so far.

CotDP does not really impress me, King in Yellow looks and seems as if it would be the most thematic and fun. Black Goat, however, looks like it adds the most to the base game.

I would go with King in yellow but from what I've seen of Black Goat, you would not be disappointed.

Just stay away from CotDP for your first box unless Egypt and its relics are some theme you just are dying to put into your game. It is not a bad box really, just pales in comparison to the offerings of KIY and Black Goat.

first small you buy should be kiy, it is like playing a different game, then bgotw, which is mad fun but the theme doesnt hot you as hard as kiy (but the dark young do lol), ph only if you own all the rest big and small and then also if you have extra money cause ph isnt really worth it besides to won them all.

King in Yellow is usually considered the best first small-box expansion to get. Its got a little mix of everything, plus a great mechanic that works quite well with the game. I would suggest the Black Goat of the Woods after that.

If you want a big-box expansion you might want to go with Dunwich or Innsmouth (both if it popular with your group).

KiY is a very good expansion. Very interesting elements and new items in that one. The herald however ranges from being completly game controling and a huge challange to not doing anything at all.

CotDP suffers from being released first before the problems with expansion mixing came into effect.

Both KiY and CotDP lose A LOT of their "danger"/ mechanics if you mix a few more expansions in because of the diluting effect. CotDP adds a new type of item only drawable with cards from CotDP which of course means the likely hood of getting such items falls to rock bottom levels with more expansions in. KiY has 6 really deadly mythos cards but you need to draw 3 /6 in a game for them to be really relavent. With more than one expansion the likely hood of drawing any is about 1 per game.

BGotW on the other hand adds one more or less pointless game mechanic but its herald is very good (save one of its abilities but we don't usually play with that one). It does not suffer from the dilution effect and seems to have a constant impact on the game.

I would suggest getting KiY first however because you don't seem to have any other expansions so you won't suiffer from dilution just yet.

For me CotDP > BGotW > KiY. Just the 3 OW GOO fight cards and Clothing Drive are worth the price . KiY I still feel needs you to fiddle with decks or play with the Visiting/Temporary manner to get the most out of it. Herald + Blights are nice, but if the terror isn't going up, you've just played a non-Herald game. BGotW works well with any combo of expansions IF you use the Herald (and has gate bursts ).

Speaking of the BGotW Herald, people do flame him for being too hard, mainly because of the doomer for monster surge I think. Realistically though, unless you're getting 3+ surges each game, he's on the level of Ghroth (?) who adds 2 doomers right off the bat (definately making some of the Personal Stories harder to Pass than the BGotW), and I don't think I've ever read people say Ghroth is too powerful.

Hi everyone. Thanks for the info. I also wanted to know what i should buy next after the core box.

My question is: does buying any Arkham expansion make the game last longer? I am wondering because my friends and I really like the fact that we can play a game in a relatively short amount of time, about 3 hours or so (compared to when we play Descent).

Generally they don't affect the game length that much (and can make it slightly shorter since they add more things that can go catastrophically wrong on you)

The exception is Gate Bursts if you play with them in the absence of any other effective clock. I once went through a game vs Hastur where we had 4 gate bursts on seals and they woke up after the terror level hit 10 and Arkham got overrun just before we could get a 6th (10th) seal. That game lasted several hours (and our attempts to win had left us holding half the good equipment and +combat/fight allies in the game and a good pile of clues we were trying to get through gates with, so we did somehow win despite the -10 modifier). That game just had the base game board, and the gate burst cards from Dunwich, though, so it didn't have an effective clock. Effective clocks include:

- terror track, if you play with enough expansions that the outskirts overloading isn't the major way it rises or have few enough investigators that monster control is difficult

- monster surges if you have a surge-dependent herald or Ancient One

- double-doom cards and other hard-to-avoid events that add random doom tokens.

- Innsmouth uprising

- Dunwich and/or Innsmouth boards (the extra gate locations mean that the doom track will eventually rise too high)

If you don't have an effective clock then Gate Bursts add to the length but not the tension. If you do, then they don't add to the length much and can really raise the tension.

small then kiy

big box? dunwich

The most popular small expansion is King in Yellow. The most popular big one is Dunwich.

I like Dark Pharaoh a lot because the encounters carry the theme quite well. However, it adds little difficulty overall, so if you're more into that, then you should get King in Yellow.

I like Black Goat the least. It has a lot of confusing items, the herald is unfairly nasty, and the Corruption cards, while a neat idea, only really come into effect if you use said herald. And sometimes it can be a pain to keep track of activating them.

got to disagree Tibs, i think the most popular big is Innsmouth, but its no good unless you have the other ones esp Kingsport

Tibs said:

Not for long...

Dunwich should be the first big-box IMO. IH doesn't add items and Elder Sign fishing is just too easy with the base Unique Item deck. In my current configuration of everything but KH, getting 1 Elder Sign in a game is a truly a moment to be cherished.

I was speaking while in the "pre-Innsmouth" mindset. But I have a feeling that after a few months, Dunwich will still be the most popular big expansion. I love Innsmouth so far and all, but it is the worst expansion to buy first. It has no new items, no new other worlds, AOs whose worshipers don't even exist in the base game or in Innsmouth, and by far the most difficulty.

Innsmouth is great, but if someone had to limit himself to one big and one small expansion, I think in the end "Dunwich and King in Yellow" would receive the most recommendation.

Interesting. You have a point. I would never play a game without the Injury/Madness decks, the Dunwich cards are pretty much defaults in any Investigator deck, and you pretty much HAVE to play with the Dunwich monsters. All of that stuff might as well be called "the rest of Arkham Horror that couldn't fit in the first box."

On the other hand, I rarely touch the rest of Dunwich anymore. Innsmouth and Kingsport mix well--often even great--but Dunwich does not, unless it's the only Expansion I'm playing with (without House Rules, of course, Tibs ). Over much time, I think more people will realize that, and keep the parts of Dunwich that work, and abandon the rest.

But I suppose that could technically qualify as "most popular", so I take it back.

After reading the rules on the small expanstions. I decided to go with Black Goat. Looks like it adds the most of the small box sets. I had some extra money this week, so I pick up Dunwich as well.

Can I add the monsters from the expansion to the base game? Do expansions add any special monster rules or can I just throw them in the cup and just use them in the base game without the other stuff from that expansion?

Ken on Cape said:

Have fun with Gate Bursts !

I think Dunwich has a few special spawn monsters that are unique to one of the AO's that comes with that set but I can't quite remember off the top of my head. Skim through the Dunwich rules and I don't see any reason why you cant add all but the special spawn monsters, and I think black goat adds stalker or elusive monsters.

Have fun Ken, I think I'm going to play some Dunwich today myself.