Ok I got AH about 4 weeks ago had my first game solo to learn the rules with one investigator lost big time :-)

Then 3 weeks ago we had our first game (1 Friend, my brother and myself) we won won our first game against azathoth , We lost our second game against cthulu. Then two weeks ago we played 2 more games and won them both (easy I think) they where against Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth.

So now I am thoroughly loving the game want it to be abit harder (going to re read the rules on that front incase we are playing anything wrong).

I have just ordered every expansion apart from innsmouth as it was out of stock ouch the money. I even ordered kingsport horror which seems to be unpopular (but to be honest only ordered this as it was halve price @ £19.99 just £3 more than the small expansions).

Cant wait till we play again.

the only rules I am not 100% certain we are playing right are listed below.

1 - Flyers - we have flyers spawn at location in normal way but we leave them their until their symble comes up on mythos card and then we move them into the street (if their is an investigator in a street area) if not we move them to flying above city, and only move them from here if their symble comes up on mythos card and we have an investigator in the street.

2 - one of the other monsters with green border (sorry cant remember name) haunts the dark corners of rooms and states something like moves to character in nearest location. when the relevent symble comes up we just move/teleport him from one location directly to the other ignoring streets etc.

3 - arcane seal - once we have investigated a portal (normally 3 turns of the game - turn 1 move through portal and encounter turn 2 move to 2nd area encounter turn 3 leave) we have then just been using the seal to close and seal the gate. is this correct or should we do a normal fight/lore check to close the gate then use the seal. (also when using seal we remover a token from doom track). also to finnish off we discard seal from game once used.

Sorry for long post. (was just originally to show you all how sad I was buying nearly all the expansions in one go).

Yog-Sothoth is actually considered one of the most difficult AOs to play against from the base set. Perhaps you got lucky, but in any case, good job. You are doing everything correctly as far as I can tell (handling flyers is correct, handling the Hound of Tindalos is also correct). I think in your third question you are referencing the "elder sign" card, if so, then yes, you are doing this correctly as well. If you're interested in a tougher game, adding expansions will do that pretty easily =). Otherwise, try giving Yog-Sothoth another go, Shub-Niggaruth is also a very difficult ancient one.

awp832 said:

Really? I was under the impression that Shub-Niggurath was one of the easier base game AOs. Agree that Yog-Sothoth is one of the more difficult, but in our group Shubby's ability tends to boil down to increasing the value of monsters, making it easier to get clues and allies in return.

Yeah, Yog-Sothoth is a total douchebag . Of course, IMO any game where you get 2+ Elder Signs should be a win, they make things that much easier. Normally closing/sealing a gate with Clues when Yog is GOO is a heavy task. Needing 2 success to close a gate makes even -1 modifier gates very respectable.

morpheus673 said:

Aaaarg ! What's with that contamination these days in these forums !? Dam !!!! You won't take that to paradise !!!!!!! Long life to kingsport and to EVERY SINGLE EXP of this BLESSED GAME !!! "To proove you love AH, pass a Love Check : every 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 you roll is a success". Ooooh, gimme many dice !

morpheus673 said:

Don't be sad : I did the same, was never disappointed, me crazy about the darn game !

Sounds like everything was done right.

Ways to increase the difficulty without changing the rules or adding expansions:
Play with more then 4 Investigators (personally I have found it harder to win with more then 4 Investigators without serious micromanaging of resources)
Try out all the Ancient Ones from the base game (Hastur is the one I have the greatest trouble against)
Try using Investigators that are at a disadvantage against a certain Ancient One (although that means choosing Investigators after Ancient One)

But, in my experience, the Base Game is pretty easy once you have the Rules and Basic Strategy done.

Shub-Niggurath is a big deal when the Terrible Experiment is in play, unless you get a bunch of weak monsters or have someone who can take 3+ monsters a turn.

Keeping monsters from other expansions helps too since the ratio of tough-to-pansy monsters is fairly high

I didn't see if it was clarified by OP anywhere...

You know that Yog-Sothoth requires 2 successes in a check to close a gate? A lot of new players think his environmental ability is that you get a -1 penalty to a check to close a gate, but that's not the case.

Same situation with Shub and monster trophies.

Tibs said:

I've been playing for a year or more and was making that mistake until just a couple months ago when a post on this forum made me smack myself in the head and go "OOPS!" Before that, I couldn't figure out why anyone thought Yoggie was tough. Now I know and have been properly chastised by him in several games.

Man I would love to have that amount of wins on my belt.... Last game just got pimped by the rumor that eats your clue tokens. 10 tokens on the rumor awakened the GOO (The stars are right card I believe). Came so close winning my first game... 2 investigators and 5 gates sealed then the rumorl that I couldn't fulfill. Dammit!! So close....

Tibs said:

Ok thanks for response everyone and yes I admit it I played Yog-Sothoth wrong and was treating it as a -1. but thank you for the information.

At the moment I am removing the AO's after I played them then selecting a random AO from what is left just so I can make sure I dont end up playing any two or three times before I have played some of the others. but once I have played the remainder I will give Yog - Sothoth another go, along with any others I have lost to. before going back to random...(however by then I think I will be including some of the expansions.

morpheus673 said:

Yay, another rotation-Arkhamite! I play the GOOs in rotations, random draw, re-draw if that GOO has been used in the current rotation (or was used in the previous game; can happen when the rotation changes). Each GOO gets played once, before moving on the next rotation.

Get Kingsport Horror! If anything, the extra Investigators alone make it worth it. Plus I really like the effect that KH has, if you don't keep it in check, it affects Arkham directly (as opposed to just making the game in general tougher). Plus, the added end-game cards for the GOO are pretty cool. And everyone love more Location cards for the base set

I've got all 6 expansions, and every time we play, we play with all cards. It's quite the impressive game...

-shnar

shnar said:

Of course, if you want more of those, DH comes first, with 7 per neighborhood, then CotDP with 5 per, everything else adds just 4 per.