The good thing about Arkham horror is that its a coop game. Where every investigator (player) is doing their part in obtaining the main goal which is to stop or destroy the Ancient One. I think individual win is secondary to this game. I'm the only one in my family that has the patience to play this kind of game. So it was real relief when they allow it to be have single player game. Hey anyone that lives near LA or Orange county USA who likes to play can contact me.

Been reading through some of the posts here by all you guys & gals now and I am pleased to see that Arkham Horror is one game that is highly recommended to get hold of. Best thing is also that it is great fun to play as only 1 plr as well, as that is the only way I am ever gonna play it too. Now I know I will go get it ASAP. Now FFG will get some more cash in their pockets as yet another player will begin to explore the horrors of Arkham. So thx I guess is on it´s place.

Mar1nePlr said:

Indeed, by entereing our little family you'll certainly have great hours of gaming and fun. A warm community to share your experiences (and doubts) with. A lovely, little Carnival you won't be allowed to leave Come on, join our little cult...

Have decided to buy it, but a bit cheaper then brand new though. Found it used for sale on some very well known auction site. Maybe not the right link to ask this question in but here it goes anyway:

How many expansions is there to this Arkham Horror game exactly? Have seen 8 different expansions on FFG´s shop, and even a cpl I saw on that auction site which FFG here is not having. So how big can this game actually be or get/become?

Mar1nePlr said:

About 3 x 1.5 meters big.

Seriously, there are 4 big-box expansions (the size of the core game) and 4 little-box expansions. I've never counted all my cards and I'm missing only one small expansion, but I would judge them to be between 1000 and 1500. And a bazillion different tokens. And you can combine everything in every way you want.

I'm about ready to place our Card Holder and Component Tray Project on Kickstarter ~ we've had a few set-backs as of late, but we hope that we've created a beautiful combination of form and function!

Can't wait for that !

i only read a few posts, but many people said 1p games become easy when you get used to them. primary strategy: fight the GOO. but - how to survive until then??? [if i write Xp-game, then i assume X investigators, not caring about the number of physical players]

i tried yesterday twice and both times i got overrun without any chances, and the second time i even had great equipment at the beginning.

my problem is the following: each round a new portal opens up, bringing one monster. which by itself is not a problem. however, to close 1 you need three 3 rounds (at least! with shopping, collecting clues if you want to seal the portals, getting caught by monsters - causing delay due to fights - and regenerating stamina/sanity i would rather say that 4-5 is the minimum). you soon will thus encounter monster surges that fill up your outskirts. pretty fast. and since all the monsters are all over the map you can't just kill them to get rid of them, because even if you could kill them all in one round (that would be at most 4 of them), a single monster surge during a time of 4 open portals brings them all back, the only chance i see is to seal portals fast (without elder signs, as these work against your goal of advancing the doom track; which needs plenty of clues again) and hope for mythos cards to show sealed locations often enough to win some time….

i also see problems for too many players. 8 of them and 2 consecutive monster surges (not unlikely) will let your terror track explode. i miss some experience here, but i really assume that 3-5 players is ideal. in 1p games a monster surge usually is as terrible as in a 5p game, except that the terror counter advances faster in the latter; but splitting tasks is much easier.

anyway…. seems to be a nice game, i just think that the rules for monster limits, outskirts and maybe monster surges have a huge potential for balancing…. (e.g. let monster surges be (#portals + #players) / 2).

oh, i just re-read the rules on that part….. if the city is over-run, then the game is not over, the ancient one awakens. that changes a lot….

i also misinterpreted the outskirts rule SLIGHTLY: if there are 6 in the outskirts and 6 new ones would be released due to a monster surge, then i would have added 1, removed them all, increased the terror counter by one, and added 5=6-1. according to the FAQ the limit must be exceeded (not hit) and the monster that causes the excess will be removed as well. in the example above a total of 12 monsters would be in the outskirts, so (limit+1)=8 monsters are removed. 4 remain. doesn't change much, but a bit

unfortunately monsters in the outskirts can only be removed via gate closing, you can't hunt them down (something you CAN do in the city; at least with couple of investigators)

There are actually two spells which allow you to defeat monsters from the Outskirts. Greater Banishment removes monsters from across the entire board, while The Yellow Mist specifically targets the Outskirts .

Greater Banishment (Dunwich Horror Expansion)

Upkeep Phase: You may cast and discard to choose one dimensional symbol other than the moon. All monsters with that symbol are returned to the monster cup.

The Yellow Mist (The King in Yellow Expansion)

Effect: You may cast and exhaust. For each success on your Spell check, you may return one monster from the Outskirts to the monster cup.

those would surely help, but atm i only have the base game.

yesterday i tried again and made it solo, with dr fern. against azathoth, i.e., i could seal enough portals. doom level: 12, terror level: 9
i must confess, though, that i did redraw rumor cards. those are …horrible, at least in single player games!

Personally I think 2 or 3 players is best for learning, 1 is jus to boring wen ur learnin. make sure u read all instructions b4 tryin to convince anyone to play lol. But ud be surprised, once u get the hang Of it, it's pretty addicting. N once u do get the hang of it ur game time will lower as well. Wat I like to do is introduce ppl with practice sessions, 1-2 hr games I Play with no intent of finishing jus to get a feel for it. Which included my first game attempt. Anyways as far as one Player games, u might jus need more players 2 urself or a rule change like playin every other mythos turn. I've played with only one character and almost beat the easiest boss yig, but it feels like it definatly needs a rule change, it is very difficult, usin 2 isn't that bad thou, but trust me, if u can get someone to try it once, dispute the bored expression ppl get wen learnin the game, u will likely create a gamin buddy for life. It's like a real good rpg video game except u don't need multiple tvs for multiplayer. But even if it's jus u, buy urself this game, u won't regret it

My first game of Arkham Horror was on my own with two characters, I lost badly due to a rumor. Looking forward to trying it again soon with 3 characters instead, and hopefully a better understanding of the rules.

Greetings My first post and I am very new to the game

I have attempted the game on my own with one investigator and no I can't see how you can play the game out of the box. I did discard a couple of cards which clearly finished the game for me because I simply couldn't do it alone, and I managed ok but the game took some time to play

I've played with a family member, one investigatorm each and it's still extremely hard. Next time I'll suggest 2 investigators each and I think it might be more interesting

So yes, as long as you play multiple investigators then I don't see any problem with single player, as it's a co-operative game not competitive

That's new player talk, once you get used to the game and how it work's, the game always feels like you are going to lose but very rarely does it happen. One of the main reasons I liked the game initially was that sense of hopeless, foreboding doom, but soon enough you will be trying to find ways to up the difficulty. IMO; if you get a few games out of this, single or multi those games will 1) make you want to play more 2) make you feel certain that this was money well spent. I would put this on my best board games of all time list easly. Though fair warning a lot of those games are FFG and/or co-op.

Surprised no one came up with this simple variant that allows a single investigator to take on Arkham with all expansions:

You have 8 turns before a mythos card is drawn. Easy, elegant, simple.
Rules: You set gate/monster/outskirts limit and monsters drawn per gate as if there were 8 investigators in the game (with more than one expansion board it counts as less, etc.)
Gate surges: Spawn monsters equal to the number of open gates+2.
Rumors: 1 investigator.
Relationships: Disables.
Close win: Disabled.
Final battle: 1 investigator and 1 turn before AO attack.

I've playtested it several times with all expansions and it feels quite balanced.

anonymous said:

I'm still fairly new to the game--what exactly do you mean by this? I, thankfully, haven't come across many Rumors in-game.

Some Rumors require you to "place 3 Clue tokens" or "place three Sanity " for each Investigator. In this Variant, you would reduce the amount to one Investigator. When I play, my variant always reduces the number by as many expansion boards (instead of the standard, "reduce after the first board'), as I'm an "all-in" player, having started a scenario recently with every expansion.

The Professor said:

Joe,

this was clarified in the FAQ (pag 24):

This modified number of players […] does not apply to various card effects (such as Rumor mythos cards), to the number of successes needed to remove a doom token in the Final Battle, nor to the number of gate trophies the investigators must have for a victory by closing all the gates on the board.

Ah, thanks for clarifying! I hate Rumors and wish there was maybe one magic card or--something to knock a rumor out instantly, even if it's a one-time deal. Mostly because, while I have good luck with most every kind of check, Rumors always seem immune to my typical good fortune…especially that one where you've got Monsters in the Miskatonic U. streets and you have to kill them all before they reach a total of 8. Trying to solo THAT rumor was grueling, especially since I got The Beast and Wilbur Whateley as two of the monsters in question.

Aye, the Terrible Experiment is probably the worst rumor from the base game. Don't worry, as soon as you start adding expansions, you'll find many other nightmarish challenges

Julia,

Thank you for pointing that out ~ the Rumor change is one of my House Rules …I shouldn't have included it in that example as it's not FAQ-approved.

Cheers, Joe

Julia said:

To be fair, I house-ruled that the monsters on the card were removed via effects like a gate closing or another Mythos card stating that their Dimensional symbols/Monster Type etc were removed back tothe cup. It cost me a Terror level increase but saved me a fight with a Cthonian~

Any advice on introducing some challenge to solo games, using the base set only? So far I don't see how there's any challenge unless I choose to go up against Azathoth every time. The other Old Ones in the base game are just so incredibly easy to fight, in many cases. Azathoth forces you to play for a victory by seals, which is interesting. I think I would have had it, except that The Terrible Experiment came up while I was in another world and insta-killed me. Hastur is interesting and a little weird -- the trick is to awaken him without letting the terror rise, so you repeatedly close-not-seal the Woods and the Unvisited Isle and street sweepwhen possible.

The rest are jokes. One player hording clues will never, ever die to Nyarlathotep. Yig and Ithaqua actually die to a lot fo starting investigators with no power-ups at all. My Amanda started play with Fight, Marksman, and Wither, and killed Yig with just that, not even a gun. She didn't take a single scratch, although she would have taken one or two hits were it not for Eric Colt and a pile of clues. Ithaqua just requires you to hoard weapons. If you have 5 or 6 guns when he awakens, you win. Cthulhu is probably the hardest. You have to deal 19 damage to him on 7 attacks, which requires putting out 15 combat dice turn after turn. That's out of reach for beginning investigators, but it's incredibly deterministic. As soon as you find two .45s, you're good to go. Shub-Niggurath requires that you kill 3 or 4 monsters and buy 2 hands worth of enchanted weapons. Yog-Sothoth requires that you close a couple of gates and find a decent gun. It's all so easy and so deterministic I don't know what to do.

If the answer is "buy an expansion," what would be the best one to add some challegne to 1-investigator play? Black Goat of the Woods looks troubling.

Hi!

yeah, final battle against the AOs from the base game is often very easy. I suggest you to use the Arkham Wiki to check out the epic battle cards from the Kingsport Horror set to see your pain quickly increasing. Or you can use the "revised" Ancient Ones released at Arkham Nights. The new Yig is brutal, and so many of the others.

Plus, consider adding some investigators (play solo with three investigators) and try to score a sealing victory each time. The game is much better if you go for sealing instead of gearing up for final battle