Hi all,

AH Newbie posting for the first time here (I just recently completed my collection of the board game and all expansions, so I am steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the forthcoming 3rd Edition ? ).

Firstly, I absolutely love this game. I've been playing it constantly whenever I get free time. I play solo but control 4 investigators and I always play with all expansions with complete random selection of investigators, AO, Herald, Guardian and Institution at Mind-Damaging difficulty level. Since I have acquired all the expansions, I've played 8 games with only 2 wins so far. Not a problem for me - I play for the experience and the story and if I happen to win at the end then that's a bonus! ?

Anyway, the last two games have left me shaking my head and wondering whether the Mythos is actually real with the ancient ones are looking down on me and laughing at my expense! ? Here are the 'unbelievable' moments:

- Game started with me drawing William Yorick amongst my starting investigators. I also drew Rhan-Tegoth as the AO and Ghroth as the Herald. Well, you can guess what happened; 2 of William's starting trophies were cultists (a Dark Druid and a Cultist) and the first monster draw for the first gate that opened was also a Cultist. So there's 5 doom tokens on the AO sheet before the game even starts! Then despite my best and most frantic efforts, I was not able to acquire even one Magical Weapon or offensive Spell before Rhan-Tegoth woke up. You can guess the rest. ?

- Last game was against Tsathoggua and two of my investigators had acquired Elephant Guns. However, the game had opened with the 'Evidence Destroyed!' Mythos card, so there were no starting clues on the board at all. I knew I wasn't going to stop the AO from waking but I felt that because I had a few gate trophies and monster trophies amongst the investigators and because I had acquired a large amount of cash, I should stand a decent chance against Tsathoggua by blasting him with the Elephant Guns. However, due to a run of poor card draws and dice rolls he woke up a lot quicker than expected .... and I had lost all my money and all weapons except for the Elephant Guns. ?

I can't be the only one experiencing these ironic twists of fate when playing. I'd love to read about similar experiences of others whilst I lick my wounds and prepare for my next bout. Let's share! ?

Cheers!