We have never played anything other than standard. But i am considering to switch to "semi-hard" as described by Buhallin

On 1/22/2018 at 7:46 PM, Buhallin said:

We play a mixed Standard/Hard, using the standard bag but hard token effects. Adds a bit more difficulty than standard without being quite so punishing, and gets the more interesting special token effects.

Hard all the way. We might go back to Standard at some point to play with some gimmicky decks or a team of weaker investigators (we're considering random investigators, or all one class) for a change, but Hard is definitely the sweet spot where we enjoy playing.

After both our Hard playthroughs of Carcosa resulted in victory with no investigators defeated at any point, we gave Expert a try, and then ran right back to Hard...

We played Dunwich on normal, and it was too easy. Part of it was luck (llike finding the key and hidden chamber on the first and second try). So we'll probably try Hard for Carcosa.

My girlfriend and I are playing through Dunwhich on Normal. We're about ready to play Undimensioned and Unseen. And while I think we're doing pretty well (No one has suffered trauma yet) she thinks we're just barely scraping by.

Just barely scraping by is my favorite way to do pretty well. So tense! That was certainly how my first Dunwich campaign went (on Standard). We succeeded, but I think I finished two scenarios with 1 card in my deck and Beyond the Veil on me, among other close calls.

We have a group of 4 that play once a month. Standard. It is great when you play a scenario nobody played or played too long ago to remember the details. In solo mode I played Standard for everything up to the end of Dunwhich cycle, including the stand alone adventures. I have played 46 times now and almost every session was super. I have all expansions but try to enjoy the game in spread quantities. For instance the Carcossa solo cycle will start in August at one adventure per week. By October I will restart the Dunwich cycle with another investigator etc...

3 remarks:

1. Playing with more players is as fun as playing solo for me. The only problem is that with 4 players you really need 3+ hours to finish it. In solo mode the adventure is over in 1 hour, which is perfect

2. The scenarios are very replayable. I never thought this was possible when I first started playing.

3. Standard mode is more than challenging enough. In harder modes (my thoughts) luck plays a major role.

On 7/25/2018 at 7:00 PM, Soakman said:

It's a great game; if the difficulty is hampering your fun, there's no shame in house-ruling it. It also probably lets you experiment more with your decks, using strategies that may be more fun, but not as reliable.

Absolutely! The only issue is I play with my partner and he's not for it! So easy it is for the time being.

Although I've had the game for ages, I've not played it a great deal so to be honest I think we're still learning the game. I'm flabbergasted at all these claims of standard being too easy...we keep getting trounced on easy. ? ? Obviously we need to practice strategy and alter our decks then hopefully we'll start doing better. Playing through Dunwich now. Essex County Express next...we're still hoping for our first "scenario win"... ?