Hey folks

Innsmouth just arrived in the mail and had me thinking - has anyone ever had the Ancient One trigger by running out of monsters (this possibility seemed low to me initially and now looks like a 'never gonna happen')?

In a long-running Terrible Experiment game we had to take time away from fighting the rumour and sealing gates to spend monster trophies (it was vs Shub, so we were trying not to). We would have run out of the base game cup otherwise, and it was only in the last few turns anyway.

With all the various expansion monsters thrown in it's probably not a risk.

I guess the following setup will work:

• 5+ investigators (2 monsters per gate, #investigators monsters per monster surge)
• No expansions (=> no double doom cards / additional unstable locations / rift tokens)
• Azathoth (13 doom tokens can be placed, but there are only 11 unstable locations)

In addition, some investigators are more useful than others for that task:

• Marie Lambeau can remove a Doom token
• Charlie Kane can prevent the Terror Track from rising (especially useful with 8 investigators)
• Jacqueline Fine can discard inconvenient rumors etc. (Terrible Experiment should be fine, though ^^)
• Mark Harrigan starts with 3 clues, so he probably has 5 after the first turn, and maybe he's even sucked into a gate which wouldn't delay him, so he's great for a first seal (you know, max open gates condition). In addition, he's a good brawler and he starts with a flame thrower (sadly, its exhausted after use)

With these, you should be able to to hold out for some aeons. Add brawlers, shoppers and spell casters for more efficiency.

Tsathogghua should be GOO not Azathoth. No spending of Monster tokens (unless you are the Gravedigger) and a DT just 1 shorter.

-Mariana the ex-nun cultist

I don't recall that we have ever run out of monsters, but we have come pretty close though. 8 player game and we only had about 10 monsters left in the cup and a terror level of 10. Back to back monster surges would have killed us.

If I did my quick math correct, in a normal game (excluding GOO ability that adds/removes monsters), there are 107 monsters in my cup (all-in, minus KH). Can't see those running out. Heck, could probably play 5 games in row where I'd start game 1 with a full cup and then remove monsters instead of returning them to the cup at the end of a game or when discarding them for stuff.

Dam said:

5 player game will use about 20-24 monsters on gates plus another 15-25 on surges plus maybe another 5-10 or so from encounters. So that's about 45-50+ per game pulled from the inventory. I actually do play the monsters come out before I take them from the monster cup. I've never come close to running out, however. It could probably happen in a base game under certain circumstances or to prevent a running up of the score (as if that makes any difference).

Also the game was probably playtested only one expansion at a time so the likelyhood of depletion is more likely.

I play 4 investigators (counting as 3 due to 2 boards). I'm currently averaging under 2 monster surges per game (4 games only with IH so far). Which would mean BGotW Herald would've added less doomers than Ghroth. Also the longest game so far has been 17 Mythos cards, with 2 surges (haven't had any surges bigger than 3 so far), that's slightly over 20 monsters if all Mythos cards open a gate. Few more for those place monsters at X.

Dam said:

Oh, I see now. You're playing the easy version!

mageith said:

To get the 5-player rule in, I'd have to run 6 investigators (those with everything would have to run 7). I'll pass, esp. when playing solo. Also having read that jgt session report, disinclined to even think about adding more (not that there is really room, unless I move stuff around).

Dam said:

Yeah, that's too many to run at once, but when one player runs all the investigators, cooperation is way too high, IMO. That makes the game easier. In addition, unless you use antidilution methods, then Dunwich is often too quiet as well as King in Yellow. The Act cards are clue gifts. That's what I'm talkin' about--the easy version.

mageith said:

What kind of group are you playing with ?

mageith said:

Depends of what too quiet means. IH and DH both see action, IH bit more. Even back in the day of AH + DH, there were numerous games where you just didn't need to bother with DH.

Emily never wants to share. Her main goal is to be deputy and for that you need an array of weapons. No trading there.

One player, when he plays an Arkham "local", and will only trade with "locals". His own personal house rule.

Another player feels its not a real game unless we face the GOO in final battle (which we've always lost when he plays). So he resists anything that makes sealing easier.

Quite a crew, no?

mageith said:

So how does he even know who's a "local"? Jenny, for example, is not from Arkham, and she doesn't even like the town if you read her background story. I don't even know if you even can find out if an investigator is a local or not just by reading their story. Apart from that, Lovecraft didn't like strangers, too, so maybe he really plays the game very "Lovecraftian". ^^

mageith said:

Well, tell him it's not a real mythos game if the players look forward to confronting the AO (and use the darn Epic Battle cards).

... hard to argue against Emily's point, though - being deputy is a cool thing.

HëllRÆZØR said:

Hank Samson, in our last game, was not an Arkham Local, for example. Jenny would not be local for sure. The stories usually indicate where you're from. If he were Jenny, he probably wouldn't trade with anyone because no one would be local to her.

The "real mythos" has cultists. Kubla Khan is a natural-born cultist. I have a traitor variant that is completely voluntary and hard to come by even then. (1/16th chance) He got it in his first game on the second to last turn. Had he gone first in the last turn of the game we recently played, the Old One would have won with the help of his Cultist. He's probably the most fun to play with of anyone I've ever met. If you've been the Kubla Con, you've seen him and probably met him.

For Emily, being the deputy means you have a Patrol Wagon full of weapons at all times.

mageith said:

Yeah, Cultists and desperate people who try to be eaten first by the AO are an exception, of course. ^^