what are the features that make me buy this ?

By gmcc, in Arkham Horror

So what will this bring to table that may let me do buying it .

I heard the previews editions were complicated and eldritch was always the better option.

so what will this bring to table ?

new investigators ?

new mechanics ?

future expansions ?

compatibility with eldritch or preview editions / expansions ?

I believe this will be a tighter narritive experience than the previous edition was, or than even Eldritch Horror is.

It will all come down to the Codex mechanic, which they’ve hinted at but haven’t really discussed yet. It should tell more immersive stories. I’m expecting there will still be several options to randomize the missions, but they should still be able to make each Ancient One feel distinctly different.

More focus on narrative and from what little I've seen, faster, more balanced gameplay that allows you to get it on the table more often. You won't have to dedicate half the day to a playthrough.

If the Codex mechanic resembles Fallout's Quests and Encounters then the game will be a definite step up.

hum...i'll have to wait for reviews i guess

As long as the game isnt turned into a 1hour "quickfix".

1 hour sounds possible with experienced players... For new players they did say 4 hours in cen con video (opposed to 6 hours of 2nd edition)... So normal playing group 2 hours sounds normal... Because 3 hours is quite norm with 2nd edition to most croups.

6 hours 2nd edition sounds like players not knowing the game. I get that I'm fast (90 to 120 minutes to play 2nd edition), but 360 minutes is simply wrong. In a game you're supposed to win or lose in max 14 Mythos: 25 minutes to resolve one turn is insanity.

It sound that you could play the 3rd edition in less than one hour!

yep that 6 hours wan Also from the cen con video and for newbies playing 2nd edition. My own ques for 3 hours is to those people who play the game ones or twice a year, like the 2 hours to end edition. Most Gaming croups play the same game a ones or a couple of times in one year. So They don`t remember all the rules.

22 hours ago, Julia said:

6 hours 2nd edition sounds like players not knowing the game. I get that I'm fast (90 to 120 minutes to play 2nd edition), but 360 minutes is simply wrong. In a game you're supposed to win or lose in max 14 Mythos: 25 minutes to resolve one turn is insanity.

Sounds like you're looking at mechanics more than players.

I played Twilight Imperium 4e with in a group of 4 and it took 6 hours (it was the first time any of us had played 4th, and the first time 2 of us had played TI). We played Saturday with 6 players (all of whom had played TI3 or 4) and it took 14 hours. The 2 of us who played in both games agreed that it plays better with 4, but the killer wasn't the 2 extra players - it was that 3 of the players think/analyze the game too much, and mostly on their turns. AP (Analysis Paralysis) can slow down a game to a crawl. FYI, TI4 has a max of 10 rounds (we played 9 both times).

1 hour ago, Duciris said:

Sounds like you're looking at mechanics more than players.

I played Twilight Imperium 4e with in a group of 4 and it took 6 hours (it was the first time any of us had played 4th, and the first time 2 of us had played TI). We played Saturday with 6 players (all of whom had played TI3 or 4) and it took 14 hours. The 2 of us who played in both games agreed that it plays better with 4, but the killer wasn't the 2 extra players - it was that 3 of the players think/analyze the game too much, and mostly on their turns. AP (Analysis Paralysis) can slow down a game to a crawl. FYI, TI4 has a max of 10 rounds (we played 9 both times).

There is A LOT going on in any single turn of TI though :D

But I agree, I dont think beginner players is the only or even biggest problem for time, but experienced players that overthink everything they do. And in a game as wide as TI, there is so much you can do at every single moment that I would argue beginners probably are the fastest players at the table :)

On 8/20/2018 at 3:19 PM, Duciris said:

Sounds like you're looking at mechanics more than players.

I played Twilight Imperium 4e with in a group of 4 and it took 6 hours (it was the first time any of us had played 4th, and the first time 2 of us had played TI). We played Saturday with 6 players (all of whom had played TI3 or 4) and it took 14 hours. The 2 of us who played in both games agreed that it plays better with 4, but the killer wasn't the 2 extra players - it was that 3 of the players think/analyze the game too much, and mostly on their turns. AP (Analysis Paralysis) can slow down a game to a crawl. FYI, TI4 has a max of 10 rounds (we played 9 both times).

Yeah, but the point is that we can't blame Arkham 2nd for being uberlong if the mechanics work. The problem is the AP of players, and to that there's just this much that can be done to make the game more speedey. I remember a game of Castles of Burgundy lasting 2h40' that was an absolute agony. As for TI4, I'm more or less with you on the length: all the games we did were about 5 hours (all played 3p, but this included time to take notes since they were all done while testing the game)

Edited by Julia
14 hours ago, Julia said:

Yeah, but the point is that we can't blame Arkham 2nd for being uberlong if the mechanics work. The problem is the AP of players, and to that there's just this much that can be done to make the game more speedey. I remember a game of Castles of Burgundy lasting 2h40' that was an absolute agony. As for TI4, I'm more or less with you on the length: all the games we did were about 5 hours (all played 3p, but this included time to take notes since they were all done while testing the game)

Right. For mechanics, I felt that one of the best (and worst - in terms of feeling) things that they added for EH was that Doom Clock. It mandates a finite number of rounds for the game. I believe there are ways to adjust it - card effects - both positively and negatively, but it does keep the time manageable. It also adds the feeling of dread through pressure, which is the exact feeling that the investigators should have while fighting overwhelming evil.

I'm not sure there was an inherent clock in TI3, but there is TI4: max of 10 rounds. I find that helpful. We haven't "gone to time," but I'm sure there are times where it happens. That tells me that the game's VPs are weighted well.

How is TI4 with 3-players? We find in our other games that 3 yields to a 2-player-tug-of-war allowing the third player to sweep up.

I haven't parsed a max-round-doom-clock in AH3, but it wouldn't surprise me to find one. I think one of the "mechanics" that 3e has employed is the reduction of locations. I think that will remove a chunk of the time waste: less running across the board for monster management; less options for players to seek out skill/item boosts; keeps the focus on the core objectives. This will also solve the multiple-expansion-boards problem.

I haven't seen anything to deal with scaling the game for lower player counts, but assume that it will lie within the Monster & Encounter Phases. The reduced landmass of Arkham, though, should do a lot to enable scalability.

True, but for some reasons the inability to actually control the doom clock in Eldritch was one of the reasons we disliked the game (there are many others) but one of the things we loved the most about Eldritch was Syzygy because you could actually trick the timer in many ways and "play" the game. But anyway, I'm digressing.

TI4 played 3p was real fun. We had a blast every time we played it, and we actually tried to meta the game in different ways (blitzkrieg on Mecatol, slow burn of resources, military vs political) and every time the game took unexpected yet interesting turns. Can't add much more than that, but yes, we had a lot of fun.

As for AH 3rd, I think the map extension reduction is a good idea: AH 2nd was boring with a single board, and too easy with all three in play, so, finding balance was difficult. Monster management in 2nd ed is actually never a problem: it's gate management the real issue (monsters can be bypassed / removed by closing the proper gates; I rarely have more than 10 monster trophies at game end). Having a modular board with fixed dimension is a winning move of 3rd ed. Can't talk much more about it either tho.

AH 2nd edition is really old in 2018. I understand the old players who invested money and had a lot of fun with it over the last 13 years, but...

We played it with a group of 4 a few weeks ago and while 2 of us were really hardcore fans it did not convince me really, nor another player who never played AH or EH. A few days later I invited the new player to a 2 player game of EH ... and since then he continued playing EH.

I hope AH 3rd edition will upgrade a few mechanics like the too fiddly sliding of skills (oops my slider moved), the lack of specific individual end boss stories (as in EH) and frankly including the kind of stories told in AH the card game would be excellent.

The AH LCG also showed that these stories certainly do NOT hamper repeated play at all. It is odd we forget these sessions rather quickly after a few other plays/months.

Edited by MMOfan

The story based ideas with monsters fitting to the case, the lovely artwork and board... and its got space to place my MOM figures on it.....

The doom track in EH could be slowed by closing the right gates and killing the right monsters, but the fact it could never be stopped was a fun and thematic feature. Similiar to the doom in the AH LCG.

I hope the new AH has some kind of clock or track to give this same sense of impending doom.

And to answer the question of what feature would make me buy this, anything Arkham Horror is a must-buy.

From one of the Gen-Con demo videos that were posted, it was using something like AH LCG, you were placing clues on one page, on other doom tokens. Both doom and clue "timelines" (I don't remember how it was called) were advancing separately.

On 9/13/2018 at 10:24 PM, cheapmate said:

The doom track in EH could be slowed by closing the right gates and killing the right monsters, but the fact it could never be stopped was a fun and thematic feature. Similiar to the doom in the AH LCG.

I hope the new AH has some kind of clock or track to give this same sense of impending doom.

And to answer the question of what feature would make me buy this, anything Arkham Horror is a must-buy.

Not entirely true that it couldn't be stopped. I remember one game where we played against the Elder Things (the easiest GOO by far) where we ended with a higher doom clock than we started at.

The real unstoppable timer in EH is the Mythos deck.

On ‎9‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 3:31 PM, Mortalo said:

From one of the Gen-Con demo videos that were posted, it was using something like AH LCG, you were placing clues on one page, on other doom tokens. Both doom and clue "timelines" (I don't remember how it was called) were advancing separately.

That tracks. In AH:LCH you have the Agenda deck (propelled by doom) and the Act deck (advanced by clues). The former is working against you and the latter is what you're attempting to finish before the game ends. The end is brought about most commonly by the Agenda or Act deck running out, but death, insanity, and other narrative triggers can also finish the game.

Really, it's a whole new game that's a spiritual successor to Arkham Horror. It desrves the name more in the scope of the investigation (local, rather than global) and scale of action (the same), as well as some of the fundamental game mechanisms. It also draws plenty of inspiration from other sources, including other arkham files games, other FFG lines, as well as games produced by other companies.

It doesn't supersede Arkham 2nd edition necessarily, any more than, say, Eldritch Horror supersedes Elder Sign. I would say it's much more of a departure from 2nd edition than even Eldritch Horror is.