... and I did it solo.

It should be painfully obvious to everyone that I would lose, and to be frank, I did not exceed anyone's expectations. But was it fun? How long did it take? What rules did I use? What investigators did I use? What Ancient One was involved? How badly was I whipped? All of these questions need answering before I engage in any sort of dialogue.

I've come to AH in my early forties (though depending upon the indexing system being used, it might be my early-mid forties), regardless of age however, my intrigue was tickled (am I mixing my metaphors here?) and due to my slightly obsessive nature I found myself getting my grubby mitts upon each of the expansions for the game. I figured, "why not?"

I've mixed in all of the common items, spells, skills, and unusual items from all of the expansions except The King in Yellow (this is because, disappointingly, all of the Ancient One cards in that expansion are larger than all of the other AO cards in my possession, naughty FFG! and I really wanted to include that stuff too), I've also mixed in all of the Ancient One cards, including Mythos and Other World cards (not withstanding the KiY issue detailed above!).

I randomly selected the Ancient One from ALL available from the base game and all expansions, as did I randomly select four characters from the forty-eight available.

The line up then for this opening adventure(?) in Arkham was as follows:

Wilson Richards ( the Handyman ), Gloria Goldberg ( the Author ), Ashcan Pete ( the Drifter ), and Bob Jenkins ( the Salesman )

vs

Yibb-Tstll ( All-Seeing )

and the setting was the base game board .

I managed to close and seal two gates, the terror level only rose as far as three (which was caused by the outskirts of town getting over-run by monsters), and the Ancient One awoke when she did due to some darned bad luck (I had a doom track filled to nine out of eleven and drew a Mythos which stated that "no gates open this turn, however the doom track is to advance by two").

During the final battle, we held our ground pretty well I think (I actually get the feeling that Yibb-Tstll is a rather easy AO to defeat in battle), removing seven doom tokens (remember that with Yibb-Tstll we have to have eight successes as opposed to four in order to remove each doom token) ... hmm I might have to modify my deduction concerning the ease battling of Yibb-Tstll, because her difficulty was really only tempered by the fact that I only had a single clue token on the board when she awoke.

The strongest in the final battle was Wilson Richards, holding out longer than most and right to the end. He had a fight strength of 4 and a +4 from his shotgun; this was a super handy weapon because also, all rolls of 6 count as 2 successes. He was the first player during the initial round of battle with Yibb-Tstll, and during her first attack (due to his focus of 4) he was able to become blessed, which then became a great boon for her following three attacks in the first round.

All characters survived the first round and first player moved to Bob Jenkins. Bob had the Elephant gun, and coupled with his fight score of 4 he had a total of 12 for his attack against Yibb-Tstll. Unfortunately, due to his poor (very poor) focus of one, he was devoured during Yibb Tstll's first attack of the second round. First player moved to Ashcan Pete. Again, due to a very poor level of focus (one again), he too was devoured.

First player moved on to Gloria Goldberg, who had also been performing surprisingly well during this final showdown. She had the .45 for a +4, she had Martial Arts for a +2 for her empty hand, and she had Wrestle skill which enabled her to re-roll all results of 1 during her attacks. Gloria Goldberg survived Yibb Tstll's attacks on both herself and Wilson Richards, but sadly did not become blessed.

I was then down to two characters and still the doom track was up to 8. A couple more rounds and Gloria was devoured (during her next round of being player one during the AO attack), Wilson hung on like a trooper, slowly but steadily removing tokens from the doom track until that last fateful roll when Yibb Tstll unleashed her most dire attack and devoured our lone hero

... Arkham is now only spoken about in myth and legend

It really was an enjoyable experience. In total I think it took me around four and a half to five hours to play. There was a lot of checking up on rules and clarifying the order of events, and how does each creature move, etc. But I can foresee that happening less and less the more I play the game. With regards to encounters and items that were pertinent only when expansions were in play were drawn, I discarded them and re-drew from the pile.

My intention is to understand the rules etc. without having to refer to them during the game before I play with anyone else. My experience of board games has been that it is a more enjoyable experience if at least one player knows the rules. I can foresee many many hours of fun ahead playing this game.

It's not a bad first playthrough! Welcome to the Carnival, my friend!

A couple of suggestions: core game AOs are a lot easier to deal with than expansions', so, possibly, a few plays against Azathoth will be helpful for understanding not only the rules, but also the strategy needed to win the game (it's not so linear, and the game has quite a learning curve)

Then: never close gates if you can't seal, unless you're desperate (gate limit approaching); hence, clue first, then gate, then seal. It's the only way

Hi Julia, thanks for your feedback ...

I did have the feeling at around the mid-point that I was being completely overwhelmed, seeming as though every turn of a Mythos card the doom track was advancing; my only saving grace was that I had two seemingly super unstable locations sealed. Had I been playing Dunwich rules however, even those seals would have been of not much use since both locations would have suffered a "gate burst". But, at the point Ybbs awoke, I did have enough clue tokens in hand and was making my way towards two more gates for the purpose of sealing.

For my next game I've decided to pull out all AO and Mythos cards except for the DH expansion, and actually give DH a go -I think I'm going to leave in all of the encounter cards and monsters though, and it might be a little foolish, but I'm also tempted to give it a go with just two investigators -keeping track of four was a little intense whilst attempting to fully grasp the rules etc.

I have watched a few games on you tube, and picked up a couple of handy hints (mostly about table space organisation). I noticed as well that I was not replacing my environment mythos cards during my game, but rather they were dishing out accumulative effects -so maybe I could have won after all: hehe, wishful thinking I know! I also noticed that I had treated all of the monsters as normal or flying, and I had drawn a Dark Young (stationary), a Cthonian (special), and a Hound of Tindalos (special), and only now am I reading the accompanying text!

Perhaps the very first thing that should be stated in the rule book ( in super heavy type ) are the words " read absolutely everything in this game ". I guess most people's learning experience will be pretty similar, there is just so much to remember and each game there is room for a little improvement (i.e. monsters behave differently for example).

There just aren't enough hours in the day for me because all I really want to do right now is play the different variations, with Heralds, Institutions, Guardians, each expansion on its own, different expansion combinations, etc. -darned is the need to pay the mortgage! And I cannot wait to embark upon some intense Arkham campaigning with my son, but he's only 7 y.o. so I think that our first few games will be abandoned an hour or so into things -maybe I should start him off on Elder Sign?; which, incidentally, was my entry point into the Mythos.

The game gains complexity and becomes more difficult with each expansion you add. The best way to go is playing with only the core set a complete rotation of AOs; this is fundamental to grab the basic strategy. Adding Dunwich and stuff will indeed grant a better game experience, but also make the game harder.

This said, if you want to give Dunwich a go, add the board but play Azathoth (or Cthulhu or Tsathogghua): and AO having a very long doom track so that even if you make a few strategic mistakes, there's space for recovery.

And indeed, environment stacking will make the game probably harder (not so sur ein terms of overall difficulty, but in terms of number of effects to keep in mind). And yes, read everything. And then read it again. The game's rather simple in its structure, but there's a lot of effects and interactions to keep in mind, especially during your first games. Then it'll come natural, I'm sure

As for your son... dunno, it depends on his average attention span. I'm pretty sure that as a kid I'd have been scared to death by a few encounters (like the Unnamable one where you wash your face in what seems to be water, but turns out being blood) and I'd have not endured a 3-hour game, so, yes, probably Elder Sign could be a best gateway into the Mythos

and so game number two has commenced ...

I (partially) followed your advice Julia, in as far as I plumbed for Azathoth as our AO, but we are using the DH expansion. I'm not looking forward to instant death upon Azathoth's awakening, so I sure hope we can do something to ensure his continued slumber.

"We" is my son and I, I have introduced him to Arkham; he's actually seven and a half (I'm sure you can appreciate how important that "and a half" is at such a young age!), and he enjoys games such as Camel Up, Dominion, Catan (the mini card game version for two players), Pandemic Contagion, and we've even had a couple of stabs at Conquest. I spent around fifteen minutes giving him a brief overview of what we have to do and explained that we would learn more rules as we go along, such as how to fight, what happens in a location, etc.

I dealt us three random investigators each and we chose one from those. He went for Joe Diamond (3 clues to start, and he had the .45 automatic along with a rifle ), and I took Hank Samson (who picked up the Holy Water to start with).

The first Mythos of the game gave us a gate opening at Independence Square and a normal monster which subsequently moved out into the streets, it was an environment Mythos which causes the Doom Track to advance when any investigator fails a spell check , and it gave us a clue at the Unnameable .

Round one was pretty mundane, he moved from the Police Station to the Unnameable and picked up both clue tokens (giving him five clue tokens even before the first turn had ended), and a hideous monster appeared . So he was immediately introduced to the notion of "fight or flight". He chose to take an evade check with success and his monster returned to the cup. I moved from the General Store to the Silver Twilight Lodge , and was immediately able to take membership for $3 (or get beat up, guess which option I took?).

I should note at this point (just for the sake of clarification) that although my commentary might sound as though we each took our entire turn, we did in fact take it in turns to complete each phase, it just seems to have a bit more continuity to the story when describing each investigator's entire turn.

The headline Mythos at the end of turn one had a gate opening at Independence Square again, and so we were blessed with a monster surge . I might have gotten it slightly wrong here but: because there was only a single open gate and there were two investigators we spawned two monsters, both of which were placed on the open gate (this is where I'm not certain of our adherence to the rules). No monsters moved, a clue was left at the Unnameable and all monsters (none) in the Merchant District were returned to the cup.

Round Two saw my son move to the Science Building to collect another clue, where he gained an Ally in the form of Sir William Brinton . Whilst I moved down to the Woods where I saw off some muggers making $3 from their failed robbery! The turn ended with another fortuitous Headline Mythos, which only affected investigators in either the Train Station or a depot location ; a clue appeared at the Unnameable and a gate was due to open once more at Independence Square ! We had another monster surge . Two more monsters (a Ghost , and a Nightgaunt ) appeared at the gate and none moved.

Our monster limit had been reached and we had not even completed round two yet! But at least we still only had one open gate (with enough clues in hand to seal it) and the Doom Track was still on one. The only problem really being that we had four monsters (one of whom is stationary) standing guard at the open gate.

In round three I wandered over to the Historical Society to collect another clue where I picked up a spell from an old book which I discovered; my son went back to the Unnameable to collect the two clues waiting there, whereupon he was forced to fight a Rat Thing . He was successful, but unfortunately had to relinquish an item (he discarded his Student Newspaper ).

... it was twenty minutes gone bed-time for a seven and a half year old.

So what did he make of his first Arkham experience?

I think we had just about reached the limits of his powers of concentration (which is odd because he appears to have the ability to play Minecraft all day long, given the opportunity!), but he said that it is a "good game" (those were his words). He thinks it is great that we can play with up to six other people. He likes rolling dice. He said that he would like to play it again.

I think it is clear that it will be a while until he is ready to play a game in its entirety, but maybe we can play a game over several days -I'm not sure if this will have much effect on game play since continuity will be lost. He is eager to play the game again with me and my girlfriend (though I get the distinct impression that she is not over eager to play it herself, hehe). He is totally accepting of the facts of which he is unaware ... i.e. he is okay knowing that he will learn more things about how to play and what to do as we progress though the game.

I am really impressed with his performance (even if it was only over three turns), and his understanding of the dynamics of skill checks, and the randomness of encounters, and the choices we have to make.

I like the fact that he enjoyed it and wants to play again ...

I'm now off to finish the game with these two investigators ... I'll let you know how I get on.

Sounds like you had a great time with your family, and this is the best you can ask from any boardgame experience. Go for that

One final piece of advice: it's better following the "rule of 1/3s" when playing Arkham. This means that you need to have in play one investigator for each third of the main board that is in play. I.e., core set means 3 investigators, with Dunwich 4. It's the best to have a balanced experience, and play an actually cooperative game. Fewer investigators means very often final battle. Clearly this could be a problem conidering the age of your son (hey, you said CONQUEST?????? Kudos to him!!!!), but you can multiassign the investigators to yourself and then debate all together of what each of them should do

In any case, many here plays over few days. There's a good friend of mine, Joe a.k.a. The Professor - not so much present on these boards lately, but I'm sure he'll support my point - who's been playing a game over one week, a couple of rounds / day for a very long time.

Enjoy your time in Arkham

Again, thanks for the advice

I never considered the idea of just creating a pool of investigators, that's a great idea. It will make the game feel much more co-operative like that rather than taking ownership of any given investigator, and I can certainly see how it might make management of multiple investigators less burdensome.

I guess we could line up our four investigators on the table and move the first player marker along the line at the end of each round. Brilliant. This I think might also have the added effect of less personal attachment to any given investigator which might make it an easier pill to swallow should we find ourselves needing to make a sacrifice etc. It could also have the negative effect of less personal attachment to all investigators ...

Yep, exactly. After all, you're playing together, and n this way you can actually have your son involved a lot more because he'd be part of "everything". Additionally, the game's narrative, so that you can imagine telling the story of these four guys who one day... (and every time the magic's done, darn it, I'm back 10 years in time. Wanna plaaaaaaay!!!!!)

I too had my first solo games these past few days , although I lost them all ( didn't. Look for strategies or anything, want to learn all the quirks by myself ) had a blast. The game is crazy fun!

When I read some reviews about saying "the game knows " I didn't exactly knew what they were talking about, until I played ! It was funny to see how the game was dismantling in a systematic way my most powerful character . I also bought 3 expansions but haven't even open them, first I want to know the core game then go to the expansions.

This is my first board game in years , the last one I had as risk about 15 years ago . For some reason I got the itch for playing board games , and as a gamer I can say that the fact the you can touch the pieces the cards , feeling of freedom that you can tweak any rule any time , makes the experience different in a good way .

Some people aren't very fond of the randomness of the game , in my opinion that is nice. Why, because it makes you feel th adventure and the desperation that everything can go wrong any time .it just goes with the theme.

And finally with the right music the game is even more amazing ( if anyone has any suggestions feel free to do it !)

Sorry for the long post I just wanted to spread some love for the game ! It deserves it

I too had my first solo games these past few days , although I lost them all ( didn't. Look for strategies or anything, want to learn all the quirks by myself ) had a blast. The game is crazy fun!

When I read some reviews about saying "the game knows " I didn't exactly knew what they were talking about, until I played ! It was funny to see how the game was dismantling in a systematic way my most powerful character . I also bought 3 expansions but haven't even open them, first I want to know the core game then go to the expansions.

This is my first board game in years , the last one I had as risk about 15 years ago . For some reason I got the itch for playing board games , and as a gamer I can say that the fact the you can touch the pieces the cards , feeling of freedom that you can tweak any rule any time , makes the experience different in a good way .

Some people aren't very fond of the randomness of the game , in my opinion that is nice. Why, because it makes you feel th adventure and the desperation that everything can go wrong any time .it just goes with the theme.

And finally with the right music the game is even more amazing ( if anyone has any suggestions feel free to do it !)

Sorry for the long post I just wanted to spread some love for the game ! It deserves it

Feeling the same here, the game deserves to be loved! And feared!

I too had my first solo games these past few days , although I lost them all ( didn't. Look for strategies or anything, want to learn all the quirks by myself ) had a blast. The game is crazy fun!

When I read some reviews about saying "the game knows " I didn't exactly knew what they were talking about, until I played ! It was funny to see how the game was dismantling in a systematic way my most powerful character . I also bought 3 expansions but haven't even open them, first I want to know the core game then go to the expansions.

This is my first board game in years , the last one I had as risk about 15 years ago . For some reason I got the itch for playing board games , and as a gamer I can say that the fact the you can touch the pieces the cards , feeling of freedom that you can tweak any rule any time , makes the experience different in a good way .

Some people aren't very fond of the randomness of the game , in my opinion that is nice. Why, because it makes you feel th adventure and the desperation that everything can go wrong any time .it just goes with the theme.

And finally with the right music the game is even more amazing ( if anyone has any suggestions feel free to do it !)

Sorry for the long post I just wanted to spread some love for the game ! It deserves it

Welcome to the Carnival, and never be sorry for long meaningful posts!

You've done wisely in choosing to play a few times the core game before adding expansions. It's important grasping the basic strategy of the game, and being able to win against all AOs before moving on

Just one point: those who say the game's totally random are those who don't understand there's a strategy beneath. The game is a perfect example of superior game design, nothing is done at random, there are specific patterns beneath every choice, every encounter, every game effect, and they are wanted for specific reasons. True, they are *not* evident, you need to study the game, understand the non-linear distribution of clues, gates, effects in OWs and so on, but after that, heck, you'll be able to win basically all of your games (my win-loss ratio is 94% or so, after 350 games played, so, I hardly think it's a lucky streak)

Love that you love the game! Happy gaming!

I suppose it's good design when I keep losing ( but gettin better ) and still want to play more , even though there are strategies there's still this feeling that the game sometimes "knows" and kick ur ass, and sometimes I just do dumb things like going into a fight without knowing I didn't had enough sanity ,

. I read on some forums that some people made playlist for the game , but everything is in google docs, or Dropbox and they are blocked in China , where I am now any way to get them in tower Way?

On a side note I'm becoming fan of Gloria , in almost all my games she was a badass

I suppose it's good design when I keep losing ( but gettin better ) and still want to play more , even though there are strategies there's still this feeling that the game sometimes "knows" and kick ur ass, and sometimes I just do dumb things like going into a fight without knowing I didn't had enough sanity ,

. I read on some forums that some people made playlist for the game , but everything is in google docs, or Dropbox and they are blocked in China , where I am now any way to get them in tower Way?

On a side note I'm becoming fan of Gloria , in almost all my games she was a badass

Do you have acess there to BoardgameGeek, they have there a lot of helpful files for Arkham Horror

Yeah , sorry I wasn't specific enough , I was referring to a music playlist

Yeah , sorry I wasn't specific enough , I was referring to a music playlist

If you can get youtube (I can't remember if that's the case or not) you should look up Cryo Chamber they have some really great music for playing this game to.

I've been away (from the PC) for a bit, and to be honest, I've not played Arkham since my last post. At my games night, with a few work colleagues, we have been playing Pandemic (more on this in a moment). My girlfriend, my son, and I have played Relic a couple of times, we've tried our hands at Doomtown, and I have played a couple of solo games of Elder Sign.

Elder sign I won one using the first expansion pack -Unseen Forces- (I've corresponded about this with you Julia), it felt a little easy and so I tried my hand with the second expansion -Gates of Arkham- and I must confess to having had a new one ripped for me!

Oh em gee! I've just seen on the products page here that there is a new expansion pack called Grave Consequences ( is this what you have been working on Julia? ): I am looking for a reputable (or not, I wouldn't say I'm a man of high standing!) trader from whence to purchase as I type.

Relic has been good fun, but prior to playing I did not realize how long the games can be -maybe they have been prolonged a little by the fact that we are still learning the mechanics (I hope!), and it is true that one of our games had to span several days due to my son only having an hour or so for games in the evenings after school and before bed.

A friend of mine as it turns out is familiar with Talisman -familiar to the extent that he played the game about twenty years ago!- and since we enjoyed Relic we have also recently picked up Talisman, which might just get played this weekend.

Now back to Pandemic ...

The first time I played it I fell head over heels in love with it. Really. I mean, if it were sentient I would whisk it off and marry it and live happily ever after; in a little house with a white picket fence and we'd have lots of little pandemicy children between us.

We won our first game, but felt a bit of a challenge. It felt a bit of a let down at the end when we won pretty much on the luck of a particular card being drawn. So the next time we played, we introduced some components from the On the Brink expansion. I played a couple more games with different people and we continued winning, but again adding more components from the expansions. Finally last week, we were beaten by the game, and I have to admit that it was in fact the best game we had had to date. I think that we will still need to dial things up a notch for our next game -this is something I love about these "boutique" games, not the fact that you have to pay (sometimes almost) full price for expansions, because that bit sucks, but rather that the games are organic and can be shaped and molded to suit the players and their abilities- but we have plenty of components still to add into the mix ...

Should I be talking about this on here?

I feel a little "dirty" now. hehe.

So I'll end by getting back on topic ... I think that my next game of Arkham will be played with the core game. I'll let y'all know

... and now I realize that I did not actually report on my last game. And the details elude me now

I played with the Dunwich Horror expansion, with two characters and got whipped into next week! I'm still reeling from it, to be honest. I had maxed out my monster limit within a couple of turns, none of the monsters were moving and were mostly congregated around two (highly active) gates. I managed to close and seal a few portals, only to have two of them burst on me; and then things went from bad to worse ... you can imagine what I went through, and you will have to because it was far too harrowing for me to put into words.

... and now I realize that I did not actually report on my last game. And the details elude me now

I played with the Dunwich Horror expansion, with two characters and got whipped into next week! I'm still reeling from it, to be honest. I had maxed out my monster limit within a couple of turns, none of the monsters were moving and were mostly congregated around two (highly active) gates. I managed to close and seal a few portals, only to have two of them burst on me; and then things went from bad to worse ... you can imagine what I went through, and you will have to because it was far too harrowing for me to put into words.

Playing with just two investigators is asking to get a new one made into you!

Try (it´s hard in the beginning) using 4 investigators when playing also.

On another note! I love Relic (have all expansions) and also have Talisman (won a epic game with all expansions on it in Tabletop Day!)

Love this thread!!! As a solo gamer who is considering getting AH in June, this thread is great y of read thanks