So, girlfriend and I didn't have anything to do today, so we played three back to back games of Arkham horror, two investigators each. We're both intermediate players, but these were three just really strange games. A couple of rules questions came up, so I'm hoping any kind older ones can help out.

Okay, first game was Yibb Still and Dunwhich Horror, using Dunwhich Horror board. We barely managed to eke out a final combat victory (with two investigators in epic combat vs. Yibb, no less) by constantly succeeding on focus checks. We didn't fail one in like seven or eight rounds of combat. (It didn't hurt that we were blessed). Also, I defeated the Dunwhich Horror not once, but twice in combat (once with a flute, once with petrifying powder).

So, question one: Do blessings count towards Yibb-Still focus rolls?

Second game was vs. Atlach Nacha. Weird, weird cards came up. Basically three gates opened, then constant monster surge as we closed two gates simultaneously. Next turn, monster surge on the open gate, so she uses De Vermiis Mysteris to close the third. Total, took 15-20 minutes. We had two gate trophies, and all gates were closed.

Question Two: This was way too easy a victory, for two people vs. Atlach Nacha, which is impossible. Yes, we had extreme luck with constant monster surges pumping out easily evaded monsters, but I just know I did something wrong. Was this really a victory? Can you win with that book? It just felt... weird.

Third game was vs. Yog-Sothoth and Dark Pharoah. Only weird part about this was I actually managed to get Favored of Bast, which is wild. We ended up losing. Only question: Are monsters spawned by opening gates in the Mythos phase prevented by bast tokens? I mean, it is in the Mythos phase, but it says the monster stays where it is, which in my mind implies only moving monsters.

Sorry about the noob questions, the answers are probably somewhere in that huge faq, but I haven't read it for awhile. Really just wanted to post these three wild, back to back games.

Don't have it in front of me, but it is my understanding that Bast tokens only prevent monsters from "moving" to your location. They don't prevent them from appearing.

1. Yibb makes each investigator roll dice equal to their focus. If no successes are rolled, you are devoured. Since it's only looking for successes, a blessing would help. It makes fours into successes.

2. The situation you described does meet the qualifications for a closing victory. Congratulations!

3. Agreed with gerald. It does not appear as if Bast's Favor prevents monsters from appearing on you.

This might be nitpicking, but when we play with two players (but four investigators) we count the required trophies and gates closed based on the investigator number instead of number of players. But that's just two make the game a little bit more challenging. Two seemed to get the job done too easily.

Not that I want to take anything away from your victory, though

Graksnor said:

Wait, so which is it? 2 players, 2 investigators each or 2 players 1 invetigator each. First sentence seems to say 4 investigators total, the second paragraph seems to indicate 2 investigators.

Graksnor said:

Did you remember to roll for Blessings?

Graksnor said:

As another poster mentioned, it's down to # of investigators, not players. I've won by closing thanks to De Vermiis. Also, you get the trophy when you use it (just can't seal, unless you're Akachi).

Hmm, I didn't catch that part of the description. Yeah, four investigators would need four gate trophies to win the game under those circumstances. I thought you had two investigators, in which case two trophies would be sufficient. Which is it?

Oh whoops, I have no idea why I put two investigators each. We were only playing with one each. We usually play with two each, so I could've just been in reflex mode. We were lame and chose (before knowing old one) and I chose McGlen for first, Leo for second and third. She chose Daisy for both (she loves that game breaking librarian).

Graksnor said:

In Italy we got a different way to deal with boredom. I'll let you guess, kids might be reading this post

Graksnor said:

This happened to us too.

Well, nothing forbids that. Also, using it on places where gates open frequently (like the Witch house, Wizard's Hill or the Woods) would often result in a quick re-opening, which would quickly increase the AO's Doom Track.

That book is very useful only in the situation you described, or if there are so many gates open that you can't afford having one more... In those cases, you just close those less-frequent locations (like Hibb's or the Science building) and pray

Gott said:

A friend of mine once put that as a reason why Germans are better collectable card game players than Italians. During free time, Germans screw with their deck, Italians screw with ... Well, you get the message.