My wife & I are starting our first game this weekend. Instead of random picking Investigators and Ancient Ones I thought we might just pick them ourselves for the first few games to get used to rules etc. Does anyone have any suggestions for a few Investigators to start with and one or two Ancient Ones that are a little easier to kill if it comes to the final battle.

I appreciate your suggestions.

Hello Drakson,
I imagine you have just the base game, right? I you want to get into the mechanics of the game, probably the best AO to start with is Azathoth. His special abilities do not influence too much the game, and his long doom track allow investigator to explore with ease Arkham, which is pretty good, at least in terms of understanding what the game can offer. But obviously there won't be any final battle in case the AO awakens.
If you really want to try the final battle, then a good AO to go with is Nyarlathotep. Just remember to spare some clues for the final battle, and you should be able to win pretty easily (if you are intentioned to go for a final battle, then remember to look at the special abilities on the AO's sheet and then prepare for it; for example Nyarly has a magical resistence, so it's better when you have some phisical weapon with you; in case you don't, and see final battle is coming in a couple of round, go for some shopping at the General store)
As far as the investigator is concerned, depends heavily on how many investigators you want to play with. An investigator each for you and your wife could be ok, but the game with just two investigators can be a little tricky to beat, expecially if you're moving your first steps into this bizarre world; anyway, I'd probably go with Mandy Thompson (her ability of allowing people to reroll a skill check once every turn is a real boost to your chances of victory) and Carolyn Fern (being able to heal 1 Sanity every round can be very helpful, with tons of monsters swirling around kicking your brain ::laughing:. If you decide to play with 4 investigators, add Darrell (it's not a bad investigator and has the amazing ability to draw two Encounter cards and chose one: it's the best if you want to discover a little more of the locations and so on) and Kate Winthrop.
An welcome to the Carnival :-)

The above advice is really sound for learning the game.

Using Azathoth is pretty good since it gives you plenty of time (longer game) to sort out the basic rules and how to formulate a strategy to win via the usual method (sealing gates). Trying to win via closing ALL gates is much harder and winning via Final Battle isnt possible with Azatoth (and meant as a last resort in most cases against other AO´s).

Depending on how patient your partner is, it can be good to play the first game solo to have a grasp on basic rules first. First game will have ALOT of downtime for rule checking.

Otherwise for a couple I would really recomend two investigators against Azatoth and expect to lose the first time around and just enjoy the ride.

Thanks for the reply. I will use your suggestions. I think I will play one game solo just to get used to the rules tonight and then my wife and I will start a game this weekend. I know I am going to like this game, what expansions are best to start out with. I do just have the core game now. As far as the Arkham Horror dice, how many sets are needed. I am putting another order together soon. I guess this forum is the best place to get some ideas on strategy.

Thanks again for your answers.

The dice are pretty expensive (even if they look cool), I personally use a ton of tiny red dice (bought in a local gaming store). 10 dice per player is pretty good, or two stacks of 10 where people can reach them. I have 20-30 in that box I got them in and that seems to do. Many use the custom dice for special rolls only.

You will find ALOT of discussions on best expansion if you scroll down and read some of the threads on it below. In general then Dunwich is recomended as a good first big box (mostly due to the Madness-Injury cards). Small box suggestions vary, I favor DCoP myself.

I would also recomend using a flow chart of the game order during your first play, it really helps to pin down what order to do things in without having to recheck the rules to much.