Just had my first game with the expansion today, and I have to say, I'm really impressed!

Eldritch Horror, despite its mammoth set-up time, remains one of my absolute favourite games, precisely because of the feeling of care and attention taken with all of the material for it. Under the Pyramids, at first impression, remains consistent with this.

Some of my jumbled thoughts include:

- great to finally see some of the AH base game investigators make it to this game;

- impairment tokens are a real pain;

- the new mythos cards can be really brutal;

- the new sideboard is wonderfully thematic, and

- the Museum Heist adventure is a lot of fun!

Has anyone else had a chance to try this out yet?

no dice yet. still looking for the opportunity to have a go. how is theme of the expansion shining through in the writing?

It definitely has the Egyptian theme come through when you play against Nephren-Ka. Abhoth is just like a core set AO, has a really great implementation of the children mechanic this time around. There are some nice nods to the source material such as Haunter in the Dark / The Outsider, but it doesn't really feel the same way Mountains of Madness has the cold theme.

It definitely has the Egyptian theme come through when you play against Nephren-Ka. Abhoth is just like a core set AO, has a really great implementation of the children mechanic this time around. There are some nice nods to the source material such as Haunter in the Dark / The Outsider, but it doesn't really feel the same way Mountains of Madness has the cold theme.

So much hypothermia!

I think the difference is in MoM, Antartica had its own research deck because it revolved around the story of Lake Camp. Under the Pyramids doesn't have a powerful, ever-present side story and lacks this sort of deck, but IMO, its still solid and the attention to detail is there.

Also, the Antartica Board/Rise of the Elder Things is much easier than Nephren-Ka; Some of the mysteries are turn drainers.

I did a game using all eight new investigators vs. Nephren-Ka, as a sort of test run to get a feel for the new stuff.

My first impression is that the Egypt sideboard works much better than the Antarctica one, simply because its much more centrally placed in the world, and easier to access, while still having a good chance to influence the rest of the game board.

It seems to me though, that the power level of things has been increased a little, from investigators to artefacts, spells and mythos cards, there are combo's out there that are ridiculously powerful, and mythos cards that are so brutal they just suck out all hope of success, but I guess that's the spirit of the game, huh? One of the new mythos cards makes every investigator impair their highest stat three times, making for an average stat score of 2, great... That was a real gamebreaker for me, it was just too hard to recover from.

Rex really impressed me. His special rules make him very unique and fun, especially when paired up with Sister Mary as pre-release articles on this site suggested. He is just the ultimate support character, but not very reliable on his own. Try getting him the Witch Doctor (I think thats what its called) asset card, and pair him up with Jacqueline Fine, awesomeness! Having Mandy Thompson on top of that is just extra nice for clue harvesting.

One minor complaint though. Joe Diamond, the private investigator, is always depicted wielding two pistols, but the game only lets him start off with a measly pocket gun. Its a great weapon but its just a little disappointing, especially considering the 45. automatics asset card is already in the game.

Overal I like this expansion a lot, probably my favourite expansion so far.

Absolutely agreed on Rex, he's great fun to use. I've really enjoyed all the new characters, even if Sister Mary was blessed for the whole game and barely passed a test, and Joe Diamond had one of the worst debuts of any character (cursed in the first round, then accumulated amnesia, despair, a leg injury, and a dark pact - which triggered after five or six rounds and devoured him).

Also agreed on how well the Egypt board works, but not so with some views on the Antarctica board. It's Antarctica, it should be less accessible than Egypt, and I think it's every bit as thematically strong. I think as we get more side-boards the uniqueness of each will compliment the others.

Speaking of which, has anyone tried using both side-boards simultaneously yet?

I would love to try it both boards. Ever since I heard about the arkham nights Eldritch horror cycle of eternity, I've been dying to try out them together in one epic game. I'm sure it would extend gameplay by at least an hour. But I'd hope it would be worth it.

This expansion is really good. I love the fact that the Egypt board can be entered from several different places. Antarctica is very travel oriented( what I mean is you are going to antarctica and staying a while). This map lets you ease out and take care of other things like gates and monsters or lets you visit a city to gain things.