Hi

I have just ordered the original AH game for me and some friends to play.

I was wondering should we get any of the expansions straight away to merge in or should we play a few games before we consider getting an merging in any expansions?

Also is their any specific order in which I should get the expansions ?

Sorry if this has already been stated somewhere on the forums (I did have quick look but did not notice it).

Two answers :

1) I'm not really going to answer to you since my answer to that question has always been the same : catch 'em all ! I couldn't live without one. Do spend your money. Become a hobo.

or...

2) Catch all the topics !

- http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=5&efcid=1&efidt=164883

and if then you got them all

- http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=5&efcid=1&efidt=162861

Play the base game for a while, on its own. There are so many little rules to learn, and the expansions only add to that. So, play the base first, cycle through all 8 AOs, and then add whatever you like, bearing in mind that Innsmouth is really and truly best left til last when yu can make use of all its components.

You should really just start with whatever attracts you. That said, Id choose King in Yellow first becasue it is small and doesnt change too much of the base and is the best of the small boxes, then Dunwich, followed by Kingsport and Innsmouth, and the other small boxes when you feel like more. In general, in choosing which of the 2 big boxes to get before Innsmouth, if you want to make the game harder, choose Dunwich for the extra gates, and if you want to make it easier, Kingsport, because of the guardians.

Welcome to the asylum!

Based on the statistics report, Kingsport is actually harder than Dunwich Horror. I think the reason is that the monsters from the Kingsport set are really much stronger. Also interesting is the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, supposedly the easiest, is the hardest small expansion. Black Goat is the easiest expansion of all (which is probably is if you don't play the herald)!

• Expansion difficulty
The percent of games lost involving specific expansions:

IH 47.2%
KH 44.5%
DH 41.0%
CotDP 39.9%
KiY 38.4%
BGotW 37.6%
none 24.6%

mageith said:

The GOOs might tilt that balance as well toward KH.

Dam said:

Yep, the Old Ones are harder but they are not in every game of Kingsport, like the monsters are. On the other hand, every game after Kingsport has those same monsters too.

I personally don't find Kingsport very difficult but sometimes I over allocate investigators to reduce the rift effects. But whatever the reason, Kingsport is a bit more difficult for the reporters in the stats data.

Kingsport adds tougher monsters, tougher Old Ones, an additional timing mechanism that either takes up investigator turns and/or adds doom tokens and monsters, adds Epic Battle (optional), but also adds Guardians to help and a couple of over powered (and a couple of underpowered) investigators. Since guardians are optional and investigators are random, over all it still does ramp up the difficulty.

mageith said:

Actually, I know people who separate the monsters as well. One guy has added the expansion symbol to the monster chits just for that purpose..

I might be that guy. I did it to be sure I got enough aquatic monsters for Innsmouth Horror. But other than theme, it hardly made a difference on aquatic movement so all my monsters are back cavorting together again.

Thank you for all your help and feedback.

I will have a good think about it but from first impressions I might get either king in yellow or curse of the black dog first but which ever one I get I will probably end up getting the other shortly after as they are cheaper expansions. However I plan on getting through a few games of original AH first (which I am expecting to arrive today).

againt thank you.

AH arrives today? All is lost, all is lost!!!

have a great time

Curse of the Black Dog!

I don't know why that made me smile quite so enthusiastically, but it did. Once again:

Environment (Urban): Poop scoop shortage

Any player ending their turn in the street must pass a luck-1 check or step in unscooped poop and slide along a black arrow to the next street location. This check is repeated until an investigator passes or is no longer in a street location.

Three months of online debate later FFG clarify this card as: "yes under the influence of unscooped poop an invistigator may slip into a vortex. Any such investigator is LiTaS.

- Mariana the ex-nun cultist

Mariana, please man, don't make me burst into tears of laugh like this while I'm at work...

Duke ! Come back here you dirty little brat !

A significant part of why Kingsport is so hard is the Epic Battle variant. It makes all final combats more difficult, but you're more likely to see it paired up with Kingsport AOs than any other AO.

I think Kingsport becomes harder than Dunwich as you add more expansions to the mix. Dunwich becomes less active, and Kingsport never gets less active.

Tibs said:

A good point. I was thinking of KH as the easy option mostly because of the Guardians, which can make any game easier (you dont need the Kingsport board and can add them to base AH games). But I had forgotten about the difficulty cards in BGotW, two of which also scale the overall difficulty down. If new to the game and having trouble with the base level, black goat may be the best way to go.

How often do you all use these cards?

dj2.0 said:

Difficulty cards? I use them all the time as separators between sleeved decks to make picking out set easier .

I keep the big cards in the IH box, in this order: IH-DH-AH (minus 1 neighborhood)-Mythos-IH Look-DH combat-Acts. Above them are OW deck in 2 stacks and the remaining AH neighborhood deck.

In game? Never have, never will.

and why?

Ive only used the 2nd easiest to intro new players to the game, break them in, but only twice. Most times its deep end headfirst. But I might try a game with the two harder ones, someday, just to try them.

They just seem kinda silly that's all. If I win, ooh, I can add +2/+6 to score, woot, I'm so there. Also, they don't play well with Personal Stories, especially the hardest one, there are several Terror level related fail clauses. Or if you're against Glaaki and get +1 Terror as the starting Mythos, yay, final combat during setup . The 2nd hardest (everyone Cursed) might be okay as such, if you're finding the game too easy, but wouldn't make that big of a dent I don't think (dependant on draws of course, if against Yog-Sothoth or only get hard to Evade toughness 3 monsters, etc.). And they would eventually get tossed. "Ye Liveliest Awfulness" (the Curse one) + Dark Pharaoh Herald would be "fun" .

As for the easier, that's a big hell no. Deep end with cement shoes is the only way I roll. Luckily I don't have to break in n00bs, but if I did, I wouldn't change a thing, let them feel the terror.

Dam said:

agreed, who cares about the score, but its the extra challenge, the greater hopelessness..like you say, cement shoes, I like them too, but theyre better with a lead overcoat

I got the base game first. Just to get the basics down and all that. Then after checking out the expansions on boardgamegeek, I decided to do it this way:

1. Black Goat and Dunwich (a few weeks back)

2. Dark Pharaoh and kingsport. (just picked those up today)

3. King in Yelllow and insmouth.

I decided insmouth last because its really deadly and it has stuff for investigators from all expanstions in it.

Ken on Cape said:

Except for the Black Goat Herald, I found the Black Goat expansion kind of boring. I think you should do King in Yellow before Black Goat.

funny thing is, that for score-whoreing, you're actually better off going with the *second* hardest, than the hardest.. Because the addition of more terror at the start of the game offsets the addition in score! Basically there isn't any reason to play the final difficulty mode at all, unless you just wanna say you did..

BG thouroughly underwhelmed me. Pharoah is ok, don't have Kingsport. I really like Innsmouth (#1!), KiY (#2), and Dunwich (#3). Dunwich is generally fantastic, but there are only a few things about it that I find are must-haves. The Injury/Madness decks, and the Investigators (I really have an inordinate love for Marie Lambeau, and also Mark Harrigan).

Well I just ordered King in Yellow and Insomouth from Amazon, should be here by this time next week.

nice buys. Have fun with the sick Blights from KiY!

dj2.0 said:

Well, assuming you use the Herald AND Terror goes up. Charlie doesn't play well with KiY, that's for sure.

Terror ALWAYS rises WAY beyond its usual crawl when I play with the Herald...