Don`t ask Ansver from the elves because They ansver Yes and no

i would say that this game is better than EH without expansions, but expansion would definitely make more variance...

Disclaimer: I've never played any previous edition, nor any other Arkham Files game. (I only discovered Lovecraft this year!)

Played it three player last night, really enjoyed it but holy hells was it difficult. So difficult in fact (we got absolutely nowhere near winning... not even close) that I wondered if it's even possible ; so as I still had it set up, I played the same scenario again tonight, this time solo. I won, though only just (one more Doom away from losing; and only managed the "is it even a win" win condition, not the "best" win condition).

Setup took ages... about an hour and a half, to play a three hour game. Might be quicker from now on though, now I know how the game components interact. First game was a bit of a chore trying to get our heads round the rules (as usual for FFG board games), but we all expect to have a much better grasp of it in future games (and indeed I barely needed to look at the rulebook when I played tonight).

Found it very atmospheric and Cthulhu-y. Artwork is luscious, and the little bits of text on the cards are pretty evocative (though the stories in the limited edition rulebook are... yeah... huh... they're not great).

I'm really not sure how well the scaling works. The difference between playing solo and playing with three players was enormous, and it basically all comes down to the Mythos Tokens. Playing solo, it might easily be a few turns between a Gate Burst or Spawn Monster, while with three players bad things happen most turns (and I don't just mean Spawn Doom... I mean Spawn Doom somewhere that causes an Anomaly in a location that no investigator can reach without getting engaged by a monster, so it's going to be four turns before that Anomaly is cleared, minimum, during which time you're probably going to Spawn more Doom, which will either go straight to the scenario sheet or cause the same problem in a different neighbourhood - Anomaly whack-a-mole). In a six player game you'll draw Gate Burst almost every turn . That's just... I mean... there's no way you're winning with that happening, even with six investigators to try and Ward away the Doom. No way.

But, wouldn't it be boring if we'd figured out how to reliably win the first time we played it? I'm not sure when the next time we'll play it will be (so many games, so little time) but I'm looking forward to trying one of the other scenarios. I doubt I'll play it solo again (much more fun with friends) though it's nice that the option exists I suppose.

If you have troubles playing the game, add the spare blank mythos token to the bag. It's a quick but effective way to adjust difficulty a bit.

If you start winning nonstop, remove one of the blank tokens.

Yeah, Xelto gave a good suggestion.

Some parameters (16 games played so far): a 3p game should last from 90 to 120 minutes. The more you're familiar with the game, the shorter it will be. The game is rich in mental traps: warding is key, but you don't need to ward constantly: you can meta on the Mythos bag composition (which is deterministic by choice) to select your best move. Keep in mind the reckoning effects can have disastrous consequences (spawning doom on an anomaly will quickly make you lose the game). Do not spend clues for anything different than placing them on the scenario sheet, unless you're really desperate (a rumor nuking the city for example). Think about the distribution of clues on the board: if you have 3 in one location and 1 in another one, better have 2 investigator in the 3-clue location than in the other one. Use your cards and abilities at max: if you are not good at using the cards and coordinating your efforts, the game will crash you, eat you, and burp you.

With four investigators, it was a very difficult game. Out of five games this weekend, we only won once. Our first game against Azathoth resulted in complete utter loss. It wasn't even close. We switched out investigators as we realized we didn't get nearly enough clues and lacked someone to research them well. The second game, we also lost badly. We decided to focus solely on clue gathering our third attempt since the monsters and warding wasn't proving to be a problem. We lost again, but it was much closer. Our fourth try we finally won! Deciding we had finally found good team synergy and a proper balance of abilities, we took on the second and just barely lost. The big baddie only had 2 health left on it when an unlucky gate burst hit a neighborhood with a lot of doom and caused a chain reaction that was just enough to end the game for us.

Overall it's a very fun experience. I think I'm going to shelve it a bit though. There aren't nearly enough headlines, so we keep getting the same ones over and over. Also we're waiting for our favorite investigators to get included. Until then, we're going to stick with the LCG, but we are definitely coming back to AH3!

On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 9:01 AM, Julia said:

(16 games played so far)

Hi Julia, I am wondering how your win/loss record is, and the player counts if you have anything?

My friend and I played three scenarios, all two investigators, and won all three:

Approach of Azathoth with Agnes and Calvin,
Echoes of the Deep with Tommy and Marie
Feast for Umordhoth with Harvey and Michael.

That said, we are well versed in Arkham 2e, Eldritch, Mansions, Elder Sign, and the card game, so the mechanics are old hat for us.

We really like the game, but are going to try to use Rex as an investigator, or someone else without Guardian or Mystic traits to see if it gets harder.
We are so used to losing Arkham Files games, We reread the rules before the third game to make sure we were not missing anything!

Sure, no probs in sharing. All games were 3p. Results:

Azathoth: 8 plays, 5 victories and 3 defeats (first 2 defeats were really early into the testing of the game, and things were rather different then, so, they are not particularly impactful statistically speaking)

Yog-Sothoth: 4 plays, 4 victories

Umordhoth: 2 plays, 2 victories

Cthulhu: 2 plays, 2 victories

Wow, great record as well!

I know from the boards that you are also familiar with the Arkham Files games (even more than us as you got to test!)

I am wondering if two or three investigators gives an advantage to the players. With that count, we can cover a couple areas, and the mythos bag is not too damaging. Perhaps with one, travel can become an issue, and with four, the bag may strike harder.

We love the game, it cannibalizes some of our favorite elements from the other games in the universe, adds the pandemic doom management, and my favorite mechanic is the seeding of cards into the neighborhood decks. That aspect is new to me, but may have been in a different game.

I think I will solo Yog later in the week and see how it goes.

It is interesting seeing many speaking of difficulty or ease of the game. For someone new to the universe, it likely is a challenge. For those of us that have tried a few other games, it may seem a bit easier. I am looking forward to expansions for more everything!!!

Hockeyabe,

I think 3p is the sweet spot: you have enough investigators to cover properly the board, and also to grant enough role variability so that the key aspects of the game (warding, researching, fighting) are covered. It's not an advantage tho, because in the end if you don't play properly, or if the board's ******* around, doing everything's a stretch.

I am looking forward to trying three next weekend. I think six from the mythos cup per turn will help increase the difficulty a bit. As an experienced investigator across the Arkham Files, I was surprised at the lack of hopelessness with two.

On the other hand, the game tells a story more like the LCG, and compared to Eldritch and Arkham 2E, it really stands out. I remember the details of what we had to do on each scenario, and it stands in memory more like a well spun tale from Mansions of Madness.

If you want a harder challenge with 2, consider removing one or two blank mythos tokens from the cup. This will boost difficulty quite in an insane way