A couple of questions.

Is this playable with two players?

The site indicates the base game is unavailable. Has it been out of print long? Will it be reprinted?

It is playable with anywhere from 1 to 8 players. If you use all three board expansions, the rules can even support up to 10.

Since the game is cooperative, you can play the game as just one player, controlling however many characters you want. Having more people over to play with you makes the game a social game and quasi-RPG adventure game where everyone rides the suspense rollercoaster.

Can't say about any reprints though. If you're having trouble getting a copy, try Ebay. Someone might be offering an absurdly economic deal for all the expansions and the base game. Could save you lots of money in the long run.

Have you checked any stores for it, or just looked online? I've seen quite a few copies in stores when I've been there.

When my local game store doesn't have it, I can often find things Arkham at Thewarstore.com or Uncles games on the internet. The war store in particular has prices far below retail.

rickert said:

Arkham Horror is playable with two players, definitely. You might want to take more than one investigator each, however.

According to the Upcoming page, AH is currently being reprinted. There is no ETA for arrival at stores yet, however. Given that AH is one of the games FFG is still consistently cranking out expansions for, I don't think anyone needs to worry about it being gone for a while yet.

Can anyone tell me about any of their experiences with the expansions? What do they add? In what order should I purchase them? Any help would be appreciated. I've always liked Lovecraft and the idea of a cooperative game is enticing. So if you're playing a two-player game either both players win or both lose, right?

Thank you.

right both win or both lose...but you WILL lose welcome to Bedlam!

Dunwich adds more unstable locations and gate bursts which makes winning by seals potentially more of a nightmare and increases your odds of losing from too many open gates. Its a badass expansion in many ways for ex it gives you injury and madness cards which are a must.

Kingsport adds a new way to waken the ancient one, but no unstable locations. The monsters of kingsport are among the worst with quite a few that dish out devourings if you fail checks. It also adds heralds (which boost the Great Old One) and Guardians (which assist the investigators).

Innsmouth, I would say leave it til last, as many components (i.e. personal stories) are not usable unless you have the other 2 expansions. It is also by far the most difficult expansion. Moreunstable gates and a way to waken the Ancient One which really makes sealing a strategy and not just a race.

The little boxes - KiY first. Its the best, but the herald is very very nasty. Especially with that slug Glaaki from Dunwich. Then, Black Goat, for the herald, and then Dark Pharaoh. I wont say why, ill likely choke. But Dark P has some very nice Otherworld cards even if they are a little confusing...

In essence: my advice is Dunwich, Kingsport, Innsmouth, as they were published. The little ones, King first, then the other 2.

dj2.0 said:

Doom tokens is a new way to waken the GOO ?

lol, good, gooooood, I can feel the hate flowing through you, hehehe...

Like dj2.0 says, start with Dunwich. After that, whatever takes your interest. A lot of players find Kingport and Black Goat to be underwhelming, though some people love Kingsport. I haven't heard of too many people that love Black Goat.

Depends on what you're looking for in an expansion.

Difficulty: any of them except Curse of the Dark Pharaoh (Innsmouth is extremely difficult)

Stuff/investigators/AOs/monsters: any of the three "board" expansions

Theme: the small "card" expansions supplement their lack of new "stuff" with encounters and mythos/gate cards that are loaded with theme (especially Curse of the Dark Pharaoh)

Yes, playable with 2 players. Though with the expansions you sometimes have to have more investigators, which 2 people can do if they control more than 1. Some of the newer ancient ones are statistically impossible with only 2 investigators (Atlach).

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of a lot of the expansion boards. They kind of make it feel like one person has to be sent to time out for the game while the rest of the people play the "real" game. The Kingsport board is especially bad this way since one person spends the entire game just running location encounters (kind of curious looking at the stats page why anyone would bother going through the trouble to get "Changed"). The old characters with speeds of 3 just weren't made for anything larger than the base board.

BUT boards aside there's a lot of good stuff in the expansions:

Dunwich: Adds the injury and madness cards. A great alternative to losing all your stuff when you die. I'd say a must have.

Kingsport: Boring board, but the final battle cards add some flavor to the ancient one fights (they really need to have more of them though). The idea behind guardians and heralds is great but they can be a little lopsided balance wise (Hypnos: super awesome, Bast: worthless).

King in Yellow is a great mini-expansion. Really adds teeth to the terror level.

Innsmouth I'd say hold off on or don't bother. It seems like it was pretty much made solely for hardcore tournament players. It adds a ton of new investigators (16!) and ancient ones, but no unique mechanics or cards.

I'd say avoid Dark Pharoah and Black Goat of the Woods. Dark Pharoah doesn't add much besides exhibit items which are just like unique items only they're almost never used. Black Goat adds corruption which is fun but also never gets used. The herald that comes with Black Goat is off the charts insanely difficult, for hardcore tournament players only.

GrooveChamp, where are these tournaments for hardcore tournament players held? Would I be welcome at them? After submitting 170+ games, I was wondering where to go next.

To the OP: This is one of the most common queries we get on this forum. Turn back a few pages on the main screen and look at a few threads, and you'll find a lot more opinions than the ones that get posted here. To recap, however:

Dunwich is great. Investigators, Ancient Ones, Injury and Madness, and plenty of stuff that just could have come with the base game. It also adds a board that brings plenty of challenge, as long as you don't have too many other expansions shuffled into the Mythos deck.

Kingsport is good, but non-essential. The board is less challenging than Dunwich, but the Ancient Ones are harder, and the Epic Battle deck makes final combat much harder.

Innsmouth is, to my mind, very essential. It's also difficult. Lots of investigators and Ancient Ones, and the neat Personal Story mechanic. No new items, so if that's what you want, you should probably go with Dunwich.

King in Yellow really ups the investigator game with great new items. A great addition, even without the Mythos cards (which are very good themselves - Act Deck can be very severe).

Curse of the Dark Pharoah is a personal favorite of mine. I can't fathom playing without it, really, but the confusing or picky cards aren't for everyone.

Black Goat of the Woods is probably the least essential. Rough herald, and the corruption mechanic is hard to get going. However, this may pique your interest anyway. Like house rules? This is a great place to start.

While I use Dunwich cards every game, the Dunwich board is less used these days. It mostly sits and gathers some dust in the box. I simply find that the Innsmouth board is vastly superior in terms of game design. Nevertheless, I would still regard Dunwich as an essential, Investigator cards, injury/madness and characters are worth the price of admission, even if you don't use the board or mythos.

I disagree that Innsmouth is a bad expansion to get first though. Sure, it amps the difficulty considerably. Rather, the Innsmouth board does. But if you're just getting used to the game, simply don't use the Innsmouth board/mythos. The added characters increase variety considerably, stories are *very* fun (at least as fun as new items, IMO). And if you are having difficulty, there are some very powerful investigators included that can give you a huge boost (Patrice, Roland, Silas -yes, even without the IH board Silas is top notch. His story gives you such an easy seal it catapults him into the creme de la creme).

largely agree with flamethrower when it comes to small-box expansions. Except I don't see CotDP as quite as critical. It's cool. But there isn't anything there that I would miss so terribly much if I didn't have it.

The opinions on which expansions to get and which are best seem to be as many and varied as the guises of Nyarlathotep, so get yourself a quality shovel and start digging. As always BGG is a good place to go for info, but personally I got them all and made my own mind up (I like them all for different reasons, they each have a different mood and with some tinkering you can adapt them to play however you like) and bought them all anyway. Of course if cash flow is an issue then like most people, I would go with Dunwich or Innsmouth for a first big box expansion or Dark Pharaoh out of the small ones. Even better, if there is a gaming group nearby (maybe your local gaming store runs a night, most seem to) you could go try them out before you buy. But be quick before the oil runs out, the singularity overtakes us, the eco-system collapses, a planet killing rock causes mass extinctions or burns off the atmosphere, etc, etc, etc.... and have fun!!! heh heh

The game is currently available from Amazon.