So, first of all, I absolutely love this game. Since I first played it about probably three years ago, I've been passionate about it. Ive played dozens and dozens of games, and several months ago I finally purchased the game with all the expansions from my friend, and never looked back. I even made my own custom gaming table for it.

But, recently, our games have been suffering from utter boredom, and many sessions have been quite frankly, tedious. We seldomly lose nowadays, and most of the time seals are all over the place, and about nine out of ten times, winning by closing all the gates. We've also played league scenarios (7 of them) and have lost just once, and that was an test-game with only two players. But with the scenario's special rules and the limited investigator pool did make the game more challenging.

I think that the biggest thing that makes the game feel easier is the fact, that the number of players has increased from 4 to 6 or 7 quite regularly. It really takes away from the game, as it feels the Mythos just can't handle so many players. The gates close and the clues pile up way too fast, and the more powerful IH investigators just make things easier as monsters seems to get destroyed almost instantaneously. And now we do use the one draw system for the investigators (sometimes 1 out of three) and AOs.

With four players, the game feels much more balanced. Of course, we haven't played a lot of games with all the expansions, because it tends to get diluted and drags on for ages. But at the same time, I'm not so keen to use all these great and elaborate anti-dilution systems you guys have created, because it feels in a certain sense "cheating", if you understand what I mean...And I like to think that with consentrating to 1-2 expansion at a time, you get more out of them both thematically and game-tech-wise. But it feels that it seems to be necessary with so many players to just pile it all up, so everybody has something to do.

I was hoping that Innsmouth would provide the necessary boost, but after four sessions, (only, thus far) IH hasn't made any impact. At least not in the magnitude I was hoping for. Not to say I still think it's absolutely a great expansion, right beside DH. In the first game with IH, the Deep One track did rise to five before being raided, and then stopped at three when all gates closed. Since then it has been stuck with one or two tokens for the duration of the game, which is not at all threathening...

I know there's "you are devoured" in almost every other card in IH, and all the Mythos and OW cards are tough, but we haven't seen them! It' seems that the game gets diluted too much already with only one expansion...In last night's lackluster and tiresome session, where we beat Quachil Uttaus, once again by closing all the gates, Innsmouth stood absolutely still, one gate, no monsters. And even QU's dust cards didn't devour the first player until the last turn, so no excitement there. And we got three Innsmouth Mythos cards in the whole game and out of what, 23...I just feel that to get the game going, and get those Innsmouth cards, I would have to discard half of the cards in the base game...

So is this just pure bad luck on our part, or has anybody else had similar feelings? I really want to get our asses kicked by the game bad, beacuse losing in this game is half the fun

It could be luck, but have you considered using the Black goat difficulty level cards? If you aren't looking for unofficial tweaks, those might do well to up the ante a bit. One of them starts everyone off as cursed, whereas the other has two mythos cards being resolved after...I think it was the first turn.

Also, if you aren't doing so already, use a herald. You did mention using all the expansions, but that means different things to different people.

*edit*

You could even combine both cards for utter horrendousness.

Yes, if you want to stick to official rules, heralds and the difficulty levels from BGotW are definitely the way to go with more than four players.

We haven't run into this problem, because we usually play with 4-5 people, but it's what I'd do as well. I can't stand games with more than 1-2 expansions, it's just far too tedious and draining to think of everything.

I realise this is probably a tech support style question but. you are taking account of the reduced outskirts and open gates rules of the larger player base I presume a well as the double monsters? (Just thought |'d check )

Apart from that , I agree that the expansions suffer from watering down way too much when you try to include them, (I actually would prefer it if expansions came with an alternative mythos deck rather than a shuffle in), Insmouth is better intergrated than the other two board expansions imo but still it doesn't change the game as much as I'd like.

Then again I think this might be true in most games, for instance the terror track is mostly irrelivent in most games and that can occur even with no expansions. Arkham (as much as I enjoy it) certaintly suffers from having too many different potentially threatening mechanics most of which don't get to be a threat in any given game because of other features.

The monster cup is the same, it can be incredibly deadly but some games all you get is cultists and other weak enemies that are mostly pointless.

Play Strip Arkham Horror + Add Alcohol = Exciting

House Rule : Everytime a gate opens or the terror level increases, you must take a shot of Vodka (or whatever your chosen poison is ) and remove one piece of clothing, OR GO INSANE.

Rapier said:

Yep, last game with IH and 6 players, and we didn't manage to raise the terror at all, despite the tighter outskirts limit...But when Jim Culver of all people takes down five monsters all at once, including a Dhole, how can it Sometimes the goods the investigators get at are just to cheesy. On the other hand, I didn't manage to do much anything with my Zoey, but lower my max sanity to 2...

I'm just aching to get Martial Law in Innsmouth, but that's seems really a longshot right now.

Just have to keep playing and hope for some bad luck

Vaxsythrakul said:

Well, that would more than exciting...Actually, that would be gross, imagining our gaming party stripping...I think we''ll better settle for the alcohol part

Yikes, I've played the game a whole bunch myself, and I find Innsmouth to be the hardest expansion yet ('cept I haven't played Kingsport).

This is what I've done to lose some games. 1 Strip out all the mythos cards except IH and AH. Gate frequency in IH adds difficulty. Play with Dagon as the Herald. Hydra can get annoying, but is ultimately allright. Dagon is a beast. It might not seem like it at first, but plans in motion can be absolutely unforgiving. If you want more challenge yet, play with Dagon and Hydra both.

Very little time right now, so I migh comment more later. But suffice it to say, 6p game, 1st gate Devil's reef, second gate Innsmouth plague (all monsters move). Dagon rips apart your clues, It's turn one, you have 4 doom, a rumor going on, and the DOR track is at four. Start.

If you want difficulty, try playing with all the boards and 10 players against Cthulhu, Dagon, and Hyrda. My team lasted 7 turns before we were trounced in final combat.

But apart from that, if you feel like your group is benefitting from good item draws, incorporate all items. It may seem silly, but if you want to make it tougher you can just water down the decks with all the crap that is included in all expansions. Play with more expansions. Even if its just the card expansions, each expansion will add more difficulty. Play with Heralds with all of your GOOs. Use the difficulty cards from BGotW. Always select investigators randomly. Never pick them after knowing who the GOO is. That makes the game far too easy. You could play with the variant that places gate markers facedown and you can flip it over until you go in it.

Those are just a few of the things that you can do to make Arkham harder

Rapier said:

I realise this is probably a tech support style question but. you are taking account of the reduced outskirts and open gates rules of the larger player base I presume a well as the double monsters? (Just thought |'d check )

To OP:

During my recent vacation I didn't take my AH game since we'd be in motels with no big tables. We missed it so much we bought another base set. We played 6 games and won them so easily, I was amazed (3 players). I even a added cultist to every gate opening and said that if there were two cultists on the board, the terror level went up. I haven't had a problem losing with Innsmouth however 1 win, 5 losses and one draw.

According to the statistics report 5 players (not 4) is the sweet spot for victories. Remember at 5 another monster is added to each gate and the outskirts limit is reduced and the monster limit is increased and still 5 players is easier than 4. It stands to reason hat 6 and 7 would even be easier.

I'd say add a monster to each opening for each player over 5. That will add about 9-11 player turns as somone is going to have to defeat those monsters. But that's only about half a player's turn for the whole, so that might not be enough. That's why 5 players is really easier than 4. If it's not add an extra monster to the surges in addition. For example if you are playing 7 players, a surge would bring out 9 monsters (7 + (7-5))

Maybe monster killing isn't all that fun? The standard way to make the game tougher is to add doomers. Ghroth adds 2 at least. Not very elegant. Black Goat adds one with each monster surge.

How do you pick your investigators? There are several supermen and superwomen in the game. Avoid Mandy, Daisy, Wendy, Patrice and Maybe Hank. Maybe Darrell, Kate and Leo, too. Apparently Jacqueline is awesome too.

Maybe your guys are just too cooperative. Ban trading or make trading on a cost basis. If you want my Tommy Gun fork over $6.

Forget the personal stories. They just make the game easier.

For my last few games I've required Injury and Madness cards when unconscious or insane in addition to normal penalties. That's been rougher than I anticpated. I'm staving off a revolt right now.

If all else fails, reveal your method of playing. Either you are doing something wrong or I am.

Add all the expansions to the game at the same time.