I had Azathoth as the AO and was playing with 3 investigators. In an ironic twist of fate Michael McGlen, notorious gangster ended up not only First Citizen of Arkham but also Deputy of Arkham.

I ended up with 12 points and won by sealing 6 gates.

Surges through Independence Square were a constant pain in the ass....that's one gate that will get sealed immediately as soon as it appears.

Some questions that this play through has raised :

(1) If I defeat a monster in another world as a result of a 'monster appears' encounter do I still claim it as a trophy?

(2) If I evade a monster in another world via a sneak check does it immediately go back to the pool?

(3) If there's a monster surge does the doom track not advance?

(4) If I choose to make a *fight* check to close a gate am I right in saying that I can't use any combat modifiers like weapons to alter the outcome as this is a pure role on my fight skill and not a *combat* check?

I think for my next play through I'll integrate the madness and injury cards from the Dunwich Horror expansion...I'm awaiting delivery of the King in Yellow expansion but won't do anything with that just yet in case I get overwhelmed with more confusion.

Congrats for the victory As for the questions:

01: defeated monsters are always collected as trophies, unless a) they have the Endless ability or b) there's some sort of game effect forbidding you to do so. In absence of any of these, yes, you gain the trophy (hence, most of the times)

02. yes. And I'd like to add: anytime you evade (not sneak!) a monster appearing as result of a "a monster appears" encounter, that monster goes back to the cup. Monsters that stay on the board are those appearing a) by spawning during the Mythos phase or b) by effects of "a gate and a monster appear" encounters

03. indeed, monster surges do not advance doom. Doom advance only when a new gate opens or when a game effect intructs you to do so (but these are very rare)

04. indeed, fight check are no combat checks (but combat checks are fight checks) so the only modifiers you can apply to your fight skill are those elements that enchance "fight" (such as skills or allies)

As a final note: agreed, keep on playing core until you have all the rules down properly. But adding Madnesses and Injuries immediately is a great idea, since they spice up the game and allow not to waste hours recollecting the lost resources

Cool Julia thanks - I feel a lot better knowing I made 'minimal mistakes' (I think lol!).

I did notice the doom track slowed down...especially with so many **** surges on that Independence Square. The upside was the slowing of the doom track, but the downside was the speeding of the terror track and the closing of a couple of the shops.

Yeah, need to work a little more on that then, core game can be easily won with a very low terror track.

You figured out Independence Square is a place to seal as soon as possible. There are other places similar to Independence Square in terms of frequency of gates appearing there. And there's a clever mechanism on distrbuting the clues that is linked to this one, so that there are places where clues are most likely to appear during the Mythos phase. Just work on these details, and you'll soon have a firm grasp of both the rules and the game

Congratulations!

Now that you are getting the hang of how the game plays out, remember to have another look at the investigators' special abilities as well. I know some like to play with Kate Winthrop, for instance, and simply park her where gates often appear. Which ones you pick will have a huge effect on your chances to win. My gaming group usually pick investigators and great old ones at random, but we are also often crushed by the hardest foes. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that there are lots of different ways to play this game which can make it easier or harder depending on what you are looking for.

Hope you will have many hours of fun!

I remember when I discovered the horrors of how frequently Independence square gates appeared. I had a game where I closed independence square three or more times... only to have a gate pop the very next mythos. I eventually just let it stay there so that doom wouldn't advance and only surges would occur. The surges, I could handle.

Looks like you're making great strides!

I remember when I discovered the horrors of how frequently Independence square gates appeared.

.....that pretty much sums up how I was feeling about 1am this morning.....as I drew another Mythos card or as I started to call them in my head 'ffs cards'......

I remember when I discovered the horrors of how frequently Independence square gates appeared.

.....that pretty much sums up how I was feeling about 1am this morning.....as I drew another Mythos card or as I started to call them in my head 'ffs cards'......

After a few encounters there, I began to blame the gypsies. I know they've been falsely accused of a lot in the past... but I can think of no other reason.

If there is a reason that anyone is aware of, feel free to let me know. I don't really recall if Independence Square is from the Lovecraft Mythos or not. If it is, I either haven't read it or can't remember it.

Ezuna,

I'll bet that within your next four-to-five games, you'll swear the board is sentient, in that everything looks well under control, as you have an Investigator ready to seal, another one or two in an Other World , and someone recovering at St. Mary's Hospital . As long as a Gate doesn't open at...Arghhhhhhh, the Witch House !!! It knows, it kno-ow-ow-ows!

OMG The Professor... the WORST was when I had Wendy taking her elder sign that she starts with to a R'yleh gate for the last seal of the game. I was sure I had it in the bag... and then, lo and behold... she had to solo Cthulhu... The eight year-old vs. Cthulhu. I think she had a knife? lol

OMG The Professor... the WORST was when I had Wendy taking her elder sign that she starts with to a R'yleh gate for the last seal of the game. I was sure I had it in the bag... and then, lo and behold... she had to solo Cthulhu... The eight year-old vs. Cthulhu. I think she had a knife? lol

Houserule R'lyeh has streets, so that Wendy can autoevade the Octopus and seal everything nonetheless *devil*

Soakman,

Wow, that's a story!

Cheers,

Joe