After selling an abundance of stuff I never use, I've got a wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket. I've decided to spend it on Arkham expansions. Now, I've played with all the big box expansions and the Black Goat of the Woods mini-box. However, all I actually own myself is the Innsmouth expansion, and I want to round out my roster. I'm doing a bit of research so that I can get the most bang for my buck.

Kingsport makes a great companion for Innsmouth, so that one is definitely at the top of my list, and I also want to get Dunwich for the Injury/Madness cards, as well as the rest of the investigators and Ancient Ones. As for the board itself, eh, I'm not too crazy about the Dunwich board.

After shelling out for those two, I should also have some cash left for a small box. Like I said, I've gotten a taste of the BGotW box, and I really liked some of the unique options it gives you, like the Call Ancient One spell and the Milk of Shub-Niggurath. Due to familiarity, I'm most likely to go for that one, but I want to gather some opinions on Curse of the Dark Pharaoh and the King in Yellow. And then of course, there's also Lurker at the Threshold lingering on the horizon. I might even wait to purchase a small box until more info on that one becomes available.

Anyways, what I ask is this: What's your favorite small box expansion? Why is it your favorite? And what other expansions do you find it mixes best with, if any?

If I was bying the expansions now, I'd probably get them in order of release, so I'd get Curse of the Dark Pharaoh. All in all, though, my favourite is definitely the King in Yellow: it has a great theme, and makes good use of the Terror Track. It doesn't combine massively well with other expansions, but then I think that's true of all the small boxes.

I can tell you my least favorite small-box is Black Goat. There are only a few items, and many have poor wording. The mythos and gate cards are good, but they don't tie in to the expansion's theme too well. The corruption cards are rare unless you use the herald, and if you use the herald the game is over pretty quick. Joining the cult is a crapshoot, but there isn't much of a net benefit if you do.

My favorite is... well... read my sig

King in Yellow is probably a better expansion than Dark Pharaoh, but DP has an amazing pervasive theme element. Plus, if you plan on using all the large box expansions, King in Yellow's Next Act mechanic won't work well at all, as it is dependent on six specific mythos cards being drawn with relative frequency. Clearly, with all the expansions mixed up, those cards will be too rare to pose a risk.

I'm sorry but I must disagree. Cult encounters are AWESOME. Not only because you can NEVER have "a gate and a monster appears" on locations you normally would, but the encounters themselves have some deep flavor to them (especially if you read the flavor texts) and most of them are actually beneficial if you're willing to take a corruption (e.g. gain spells, unique items, common items, money, clues, and even a blessing...) it's sad that I almost NEVER get a cult membership even when playing with the herald. The few times I did got a membership I remember fondly. That being said, KiY is probably the best (current) small box expansion so I'd go with that.

Where are you planning on buying from? Don't know where you live, so shipping could be a problem, but this place has some great pricing for their games, this link goes right to their Arkham Horror page. You can even get the dice for $4.00.

http://www.gameoutfitter.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=arkham+horror&Search.x=7&Search.y=7

They have a bundle which would work for you since you already have Innsmouth. You get the other 5 expansions for only $107 (plus shipping). I just recently got Dunwich and some dice from them, so they are legit. If you have enough to get that bundle, then you'll end up saving money in the long run.

Tibs said:

Heheh, but of course I didn't need to ask you what YOUR favorite was. Question about CotDP: How often does the opportunity to draw Exhibit items come up? I probably won't ever be playing with every expansion at once, in order to avoid mechanic dilution, but I'd still like to know which ones stand up best to the task. Kingsport doesn't have that problem at all, since it's entirely reliant on monster movement symbols, and Innsmouth isn't too bad either, since blocked gates fills up the Deep Rising track as well as monsters entering a vortex. I've seen how BGotW handles dilution: very very poorly. Not a single cult encounter or corruption card was drawn. And I've heard from many people about how slowly KiY progresses, if at all. So CotDP is probably the expansion I know the least about.

DoomTurtle said:

I was looking at Amazon.com. They're fairly cheap, but not quite as cheap as this site you just linked me to. The remaining 5 expansions for $107? ****, that's quite a deal. Of course, I'll have to look at shipping costs. The only problem though is that it says they're currently out of stock for that big bundle pack. However, I've got a little over a week before I settle on a final purchase, so maybe they'll stock back up before then. Thanks for bringing this site to my attention.

Mighty Maltim said:

With only CotDP: Exhibits are pretty common.

With all expansions: Exhibits are very rare. However, this works in a positive way: many Dark Pharaoh obstacles become lessened or easily overcome for investigators with even one Exhibit item. When they are so rare, many of these effects (one Rumor in particular) become formidable. But KiY is the only small box expansion that has a crucial mechanic that suffers from dilution (Three Acts). The Black Goat cult and the Dark Pharaoh exhibits are not crucial mechanics, but as I mentioned above the Dark Pharaoh mechanics get better in a way when they are diluted.

Innsmouth isn't TOO bad, right, but it isn't quite as deadly with all the expansions mixed in. Also note that with so many unique gate locations, gate bounces aren't even all too common with all expansions. It's likely that Martial Law helps to counter dilution slightly by making the Deep One track harder to control or reset as the game goes on. But Dunwich definitely suffers the worst from dilution. One gate a per game isn't uncommon, but even with double the monsters coming out of gates there the Horror doesn't often awaken.

Tibs said:

My mix is probably going to go something like this: Any single game will either be Dunwich paired with a small-box, most likely either KiY or BGotW, or Innsmouth and Kingsport paired with CotDP. I'll likely keep all the items, spells etc. from every expansion in the mix, but as far as mythos and encounter cards go, I'll limit those to only the sets being used.

I just looked over all the investigator cards that come with CotDP and KiY and I'm seeing more stuff I like in KiY. The Herald looks pretty interesting as well. I'm leaning more towards KiY at this point, but if that site DoomTurtle showed me restocks by the time I'm ready to purchase, then I'll be able to just get everything.

Mighty Maltim said:

That's weird that it is showing as not in stock for you, because I can add it to my cart and get all the way to the order screen where I put in credit card information and it doesn't say anything. I am in Michigan, and shipping is about $15, so it would be $122 altogether. With Amazon's free shipping, you may have to add up all 5 expansions and see if that is the better deal.

I found a game store near me that I really like, but their prices are just awful. I want to support local businesses and all that, but their small boxes are $25 and large boxes are $50. Basically list price. I could easily save $100 over all 7 expansions by buying online. It's a shame, but I need to look over my own wallet too.

Quick and dirty...and easily disputed by others. Mileage always varies, especially in Arkham.

Dark Pharaoh
Pros: Loaded with theme. Exhibits and Allies are nifty.
Cons: Too few Benefits/Detriments. Barred from Neighborhood is a wretched mechanic.
Personal Thoughts: My interest in the first new stuff added to the game wore off very quickly. Even though the theme is cool, the end result is often the same B/D cards or being Barred again. I just picked out the 7 Allies and combined them with the 5 Dunwich Allies, did the same with half of the DP Spells, and put the three dual-color Gate cards in the AH Gate deck.

King in Yellow
Pros: Also loaded with theme. Investigator cards are terrific. Very potent at moving the Terror Track. Most enjoyable Herald (even now, of those available).
Cons: The Three Acts mechanic is devastatingly prone to dilution.
Personal Thoughts: King in Yellow is the only small box I haven’t retired. Except for the 6 Act cards, the KY Mythos mixes adequately with any one of the big boxes. Probably best with Innsmouth for some real Terror Track acceleration.

Black Goat
Pros: Mythos Gate Burst cards only dependent on Arkham being in play (and they’re great Mythos cards anyway). Vicious Herald. Dark Druid and Investigator cards are cool.
Cons: The Cult mechanic is diluted, period. (Even within just its own expansion!) Corruptions rarely see action unless you’re playing with the Herald.
Personal Thoughts: The Innsmouth Mythos Deck benefits tremendously by having Black Goat Mythos permanently mixed in. I tend to play with all Investigator cards available, and Black Goat mixes just fine with that. But I don’t care what you mix it with: even with just AH and BG, the Cult mechanic is just...missing. (Have you ever tried to find a Sheldon Gang Membership? This is just as bad!)

As torn as I appear, I would really buy Black Goat just for the Mythos, Dark Druid, and other fun cards. But King in Yellow will give you the most value (and useful stuff) for your dollar.

To expand on what jgt7771 said, from what I've noticed, the general attitude about the expansions seems to be

Dunwich, King in Yellow, Innsmouth: Good

Pharaoh, Kingsport, Black Goat: Controversial

For the "controversial" expansions, you'll find a lot of diversity of opinion. Some people love them, some people hate them. But for the "good" expansions, there seems to be much more of a consensus that they are quality products.

All the products FFG make are quality products.

Quality products, no doubt. But DH, IH, and KiY are the best ones definitely. KH, DP, and BG all have issues here and there that makes them less appealing than the others. Odd wording and balance issues (and expansion dilution) are evident once in a while.

Quality in theory, but not always in practice ;'D

Avi_dreader said:

You should be hanged for your blasphemous words of heresy.

It's funny, I seem to dislike Dark Pharaoh mainly for the reason that Tibs likes it so much. The theme is so strong that I only ever play it on its own, and in Visiting Exhibit mode. Whenever we try mixing in other expansions, the effect is thematically jarring...it'll be a generically Lovecraftian day in Arkham, and then periodically some random Egyptian thing suddenly pops up out of nowhere. Conversely, the nice thing about Black Goat's relatively weak theme is that it blends pretty seamlessly with the base set and big boxes, providing more variety in encounter and mythos cards for your small-box buck. (King in Yellow falls somewhere between the other two sets in that regard, and it definitely has the best Herald.)

(And apropos of nothing, while I'm definitely in the minority here, I've never been much of a fan of Dunwich. Yes, injury and madness are good, and the AOs and investigators are welcome additions, but, as you say, the board is pretty disappointing.)

Actually, burning is a more traditional method of "correcting" heretics. You better watch out, hanging is a very unorthodox method, if you ask me.

---

A bit more on topic, I was never too crazy about King in Yellow :' but that's mostly because I didn't like the herald too much I guess (I hate when it makes you lose your allies, I love allies!) And I was disappointed about the dilution of the act cards ::shrug:: but regarding all the small boxes, if you don't mind using custom heralds or ancient ones, there are plenty of fixes for their dysfunctional components in the fan creations section.

Avi_dreader said:

What about skinning.

kroen said:

Also unorthodox.

::Prepares kindling::

subochre said:

I can almost see that argument as being valid ;') but there's one thing that people who "aren't" Dunwich fans often overlook. The monsters. Not having the Dunwich monsters *really* detracts from the toughness of the monster cup.

"while I'm definitely in the minority here, I've never been much of a fan of Dunwich"

"I was never too crazy about King in Yellow"

Heh, that's what I get for generalizing

As it stands, I think I'm gonna put KiY on the top of my mini-box shopping list, followed by BGotW. It seems I'll have the least to gain from adding CotDP in the mix, but if things add up right, I'll likely be picking that one up as well, if only to complete the collection. Besides, they do say that variety is the spice of life.

Anyways, thanks for all the feedback everyone, I appreciate it.

Mighty Maltim said:

And Egyptians sure had their handle on spices. A sign, perhaps?

Iä! Nyatlathotep!

Tibs said:

Hahaa, I suppose you've got me there.