I must say, after almost winning our first game and playing poorly our second game, my hopes were not as high last night. Our 3 person group used the core set and the Mountains and Madness expansion and had a great time. I was surprised that the Rise of the Elder Things seemed so easy. Granted we had an amazing run of Mythos cards and for once my rolls were on point with closing gates. I was the handyman? The guy with the hat and the shotgun in his pic who came with the Madness set, My fiancé was the librarian and we had the actress as well. We really didn't seem to encounter too many combats and aside from the first mystery taking forever, I think we were at Doom 7 when we won. It almost felt anti-climatic after all the previous games, to kind of slide in with an easier win. The Focus mechanic was a nice touch and I am glad to have it. The librarian became pretty powerful by the end as she stayed on the sideboard and was closing gates and gaining clues to solves mysteries. I was bummed that we apparently chose the wrong AO to do the Antarctic Adventure as those seemed interesting.
So does anybody play with just the core and one expansion at a time, or is it always a matter of continuing to add to the game with each expansion? Oh I also recommend the wooden inserts made specifically for the Eldritch horror box, as they really have helped keep things better sorted.