When I first showed Arkham to my brother, he loved it. We played numerous games in a row. Later, Dunwich was released, and the game became significantly more difficult. Then heralds were released, making the game significantly more difficult. He rapidly started to dislike the game.

It's not at all that he's not up for a challenge, he just seemed frustrated by the huge number of things that screwed you over, and that the game's smooth flow began to get bogged down by all the new stuff, most which screwed you over. Also, this was probably back when we were playing 1 investigator per player, which explains why the game was out-of-control hard.

Anyway, he hadn't seen any of Black Goat or Innsmouth. But since our last (distant) game, in which TWO investigators miraculously sealed Cthulhu with EVERY EXPANSION THROUGH KINGSPORT, he picked up a complete works of Lovecraft and had been reading through it, so I figured I'd offer a game with the two new expansions knowing that he was at least interested in the topic of Lovecraft's work.

I had him pick through all 24 ancient ones, and he picked the one that I knew he would: Bokrug. I'd been reading my own copy of the complete works, and Bokrug was the first of Arkham's AOs that played a significant role in a story: The Doom That Came to Sarnath. Plus the story was great, and I knew he adored any story about vengeance (he once did a "book report" on Ninja Gaiden for the X-box, claiming that it was a classical Japanese tale of revenge. Got away with it too).

Aaaanyway, we rolled into a 3-investigator game (my GF was there too), excited about the new Personal Story feature. I don't remember everyone we started with (he picked Wilson Richards—typical) but I do remember that Amanda Sharpe met an untimely end WITHOUT HER SKIN in Y'ha-N'thlei and that George Barnaby lept off a cliff in Rl'yeh to avoid a monster and died from the fall.

We were having trouble keeping things under control, to say the least. Eventually we managed to lay one seal, but then I noticed that we were one gate away form hitting gate limit—a pile of monsters had obscured from my vision one gate at the unlikely Historical Society! Next thing I knew, we were in a rush to close as many gates as possible. No luck. The 7th gate opened and Bokrug awoke, with all four Ibs on him. I explained to my brother that (with the obvious exception of Azathoth), Bokrug with all four Ibs was the most difficult AO to battle. But I said, "wait! It's not over yet... I've heard a rumor about this guy."

We entered battle.

I used Kevin's new seal-clue-limit rule, which meant that the investigators were allowed a whopping total of 3 dice each round to attack with (one per investigator), assuming they had the clue to spend. In our first round we hit Bokrug for one success. It was the damage equivalent of hitting a charging bull with a chair leg.

Then, Bokrug looked around and sniffed the air, completely ignoring the small pests desparately striking him with their puny guns. He seemed confused for a moment, then turned around and sank back into the ocean.

SUCCESS WAS OURS!

Undue success, but at least Arkham got to sit comfy for another millennia. Or until our next game, at least.

__________________

Just to let everyone know, I've added a "departed" checkbox to the "Special Events" section of the stats site. If anyone wants me to add that bit to any of their games, email me: [email protected] and tell me which entry to add it to. I know Solan has been bailed out by this miraculous turn of events at least once.

Twice, actually*grin*. Please add that to both of my reports which show a victory in final combat against Bokrug. Last game with him we not only had the Departure, but ran into a Dreamlands encounter that involved encountering the ghosts of SARNATH! I never remember seeing it before and I was pleased to have it come up during a game against Bokrug. I suppose, like the Beings of Ib, the inhabitants of Sarnath rested uneasily after their violent destruction . . .

A nice report, Tibs. Still, it's what you said at the beginning that struck me (and what I'll be commenting on).

As part of flamethrower49's old gaming group, my wife and I have played a *lot* of Arkham Horror. The base game got too easy for us, a few of the expansions added in some needed and enjoyable difficulty.

However, as we added expansions that raised the difficulty beyond Dunwich (our first expansion), beginning at first with KiY -because of the Herald-, I started to get the feeling that my wife was enjoying the game less. I know she really likes Innsmouth because of the investigators and new AOs, but I don't think she's too big on the Innsmouth Heralds, especially Dagon (the harder one).

Even *I* don't generally like playing with the BG herald, because it's just too rediculous, which is why I haven't bought the BGOTW expansion.

Do you think f-f has gone too far in ramping up the difficulty? What about heralds, specifically (which seems to be my wife's main sticking point) ? I like most of them, I don't like Bg. What is the appropirate difficulty level?

• A nice report, Tibs. Still, it's what you said at the beginning that struck me (and what I'll be commenting on).

Hah. Not surprised. Thanks.

• As part of flamethrower49's old gaming group, my wife and I have played a *lot* of Arkham Horror. The base game got too easy for us, a few of the expansions added in some needed and enjoyable difficulty.

I love the difficulty. And like I said, my brother loved it too. I think part of the problem was that "screwed beyond control" feeling, but it was every game. I think we were playing with just 2 investigators total, and adding in Dunwich killed the fun because winning was taken out of the players' control (with 2 investigators).

Another problem was apparently how I played. Dan (a friend) I and I would play in such a fashion that it was extremely obvious that we'd played a billion times before. We knew each card, its repercussions, and exactly what potential scenarios and routes to victory might arise. Brad (brother) on the other hand, felt completely out of the loop. I think he wanted to experience consequences on his own. And part of that involved stepping up the difficulty between game gradually, instead of in large leaps. Also, I would blaze through combat rules so fast that he wasn't sure why his will/fight was set to a specific value. I really needed to allow him to think on his own.

When heralds were first announced, Brad designed this one:

• However, as we added expansions that raised the difficulty beyond Dunwich (our first expansion), beginning at first with KiY -because of the Herald-, I started to get the feeling that my wife was enjoying the game less. I know she really likes Innsmouth because of the investigators and new AOs, but I don't think she's too big on the Innsmouth Heralds, especially Dagon (the harder one).

Yeah, Dagon is a piece of work all right. What I should have done is taught Brad the game, adding one expansion at a time. Plus using at least 4 investigators total should have been mandatory.

• Even *I* don't generally like playing with the BG herald, because it's just too rediculous, which is why I haven't bought the BGOTW expansion.
• Do you think f-f has gone too far in ramping up the difficulty? What about heralds, specifically (which seems to be my wife's main sticking point) ? I like most of them, I don't like Bg. What is the appropirate difficulty level?

I don't think FF has gone too far. Although I think Innsmouth is a good representative of what could be considered an upper-limit of difficulty. I wouldn't mind getting more threats and more dangers. More heralds and AOs of all difficulties are welcome.

That's not to say that I don't think that there have been some boo-boos in difficulty. Black Goat herald is one of them. Patrice Hathaway is another. But every expansion since Dunwich has put the game at a comfortable difficulty: challenging, but possible to win using strategy.

Awful, Tibs

Still, I don't quite get how three of you did beat Bokrug ? Explain to the rookie please ! Nice story anyway.

Hem said:

One of Bokrug's Plot cards is basically: "Investigators Win". Your score gets a "nasty" -4 modifier, oh my, that's terrible, especially when you possibly went up against -8 modifier, Magical + Physical Immunity and had 4 attack in which to kill his 18 doomers !

Thanks Dam.

Although I love Kingsport as you already know, I could only recently make my players-fellows accept to use the Epic cards, that's why I do'nt know them at all...