I have only played with the Curse of the Dark Pharoah expansion for 3 games and then Black Goat in the Woods for 3 games, 2 with the Herald. My wife and I started playing with 2 investigators each also. All this added a lot to the game, increased tension, and increased playing time because of so much more to take care of each turn playing 2 investigators each. However, I think we will always play 2 investigator from now on.

Curse of the Dark Pharoah really made the Terror Track go up fast for us, something we were not used to with base game. Black Goat made the Ancient One awaken faster because of Double Doom Mythos even without the Herald and with it the Doom Track went up even faster. The last game with the Black Goat we didn't think we would get 6 gates closed, only had 2 because of clues tokens being scarce, and was awaiting the AO but then kind a lull happened with the Mythos and we sent in 3 investigators at once and closed 3 gates without any delay. Then luckily closed the last one a few turns later. I can't say the Black Goat expansion with the Curruption Cards hurt us much. In fact in 3 games we have not even drawn one or taken a membership. The Location cards however don't let you get the items the location icons say you might get, like clues, commom items etc. Then the OW cards you get delayed quite a bit. This is what made the game more difficult for us with that expansion, plus more monsters with the Herald. Again Curse of the Dark Pharoah the Terror track went up quickly.

I have used dice to keep track of how many monsters are allowed in the outer limits. I just put a die on there with 4 to remind me, another one next to it with 7 for the amount of monsters I am allowed on the board. I also used dice on the first player marker and turn it 1, 2, 3, or 4 for whoever goes first each turn. Seems for me that was easier than passing the first player marker around and forgetting to do it a lot of the time. I put a die on the AO to remind me how may gates open it takes to awaken him. Also during final combat, we usually count up what we can use and keep track of that number with a die for combat as well as the Skill check the AO uses when it attacks where it goes from plus 1 to 1 less each turn. It so easy to lose track when you are fighting so I just slow down, change the dice etc and then go for it.

I was fortunate enough to have some extra cash and bought all the expansions online at a good price. I read the rules, cards and get acquainted with them so when I do play with them I am not looking up rules or having too many questions about how cards work. (although once I start playing there is still a lot of head scratching).

Anyway I am going to start TIBS league now that I have all expansions just to learn the ropes better. I cannot see my enthusiasm dimishing any for this game. I bought a nice green felt to put on the table when I play. I ordered some 20's music from Amazon along with some Horror music CDs from Amazon and the mood is pretty good. It is sometimes amazing how the music will fit the mood of the game.

Drakson said:

This sounds a little odd to me. I mean, in a Herald-variant game, every time you defeat a hexagon monster, you have to draw one Corruption, and considering the fact that every time a new gate opens you have to add an hexagon monster on the board, you should have tons of chances of being corrupted.

Wow...thanks for the detailed response. I guess most of that stuff that makes it more of a mechanical win comes with playing it often. I'm not sure if I'll get to play it that much, but over time I can see your point. One question : if Nyarlathotep gets magical AND physical immunity, what can hurt it?

jgt7771 said:

The Researcher's ability seemed to be the most useful in a 2-player game when you need to save as many clue tokens as possible for sealing.

I liked the Gangster at first when my plan was to have him out there keeping the monster population down while other player went through gates. But you NEED magic weapons or spells in order to effectively exterminate the streets. Since his low sanity makes spells ineffective you need to rely on acquiring a magic weapon. If you can get one, you have a very effective player, otherwise you end up spinning your wheels with him a bit.

I also tried the Psychologist and had great success, but as I said before that had as much to do with the initial draw of Elder Sign and Sword of Glory than it did my play. I do like the free Sanity recharge though, as I have tended to lose sanity more frequently than stamina through random encounters.

I wasn't crazy about the Archeologist because of his low sanity and low will. The Nun was spoiled for me because I rolled a 1 on the first upkeep check for her Blessing, which was one of her greatest starting assests but I will try her again.

Until I learn the rules and play a bit more I can basically see myself needing to try all the characters multiple times before I have a really good feel for them.

The Ancient Ones all seem tough to me right now.

I have probably pulled the most encounters from Green (unvisted isle and unnamable) and Purple (graveyard and black cave). They seem to be higher risk/reward locations. In a 2 player game you don't have tons of time to visit stable locations and not use their optional encounter to shop or heal so I need make it a point to see what they are like to Arkham Encounter.

Curator said:

(1) The goal of the game is to seal gates. Players with 5+ clue tokens should proceed to the nearest gate. Players with 3-4 clue tokens should be collecting the 1-2 clues they need to seal a gate. Anyone with money should be in the Curiosities Shop looking for an Elder Sign.

(2) You need roughly 2 players to be good at fighting monsters. They don't need to spend every single round fighting monsters (and probably shouldn't), but their job is to keep the monster population under control so that (a) the board can be navigated quickly and (b) the terror track is kept under control.

That's pretty much the whole game right there. I've played the game 24 times now. I have yet to lose.

What keeps the game fresh and exciting is the fact that the actual solution for these goals at any given point in time is highly variable and depends on the current mix of resources, abilities, and board situation.

ADDENDUM: Closing a gate without sealing it is virtually never a good idea. Rarely are you actually accomplishing anything, which means that, at best, you're wasting time (and time is a precious resource in this or any game). But in most cases you're actually hurting yourself by closing a gate without sealing it (because it allows a doom token to be added to the AO's track when a new gate opens there). (I've only done it three times: Once when I couldn't convince another player it was a bad idea. Once when we were in danger of having too many gates open and somebody lost the clue tokens they needed to seal in transit. Once to win the game by closing all gates.)

Zozimus said:

Clues. Fight skill. Allies. Base fight stat. It would be very difficult to beat him in final combat though (not quite as hard as Quachil Uttaus, but difficult). On second thought I'd say he shouldn't have a double difficulty doom track. Keep it at normal. He'll still be very hard (though not Quachil Uttaus hard). If you feel like you're not getting the masks often enough, make it so that they don't count against the monster limit, and that every time a Cultist is placed in Arkham, search the monster cup for a random mask and place it on that location as well.

Also, instead of having the variable beginning doom token amounts for the base game, you can just make it so that the four low frequency locations (Science Building, Historical Society, Hibbs Roadhouse, and Silver Twilight Lodge) produce 2 doom when opening instead of 1 .

That's what happens when I throw together a game variant in 15 minutes after my bedtime :')

"That's pretty much the whole game right there. I've played the game 24 times now. I have yet to lose."

....

Seriously? You should either try some of my variants or get some expansions.

Avi_dreader said:

That total includes games with BGotW, Dunwich Horror, Innsmouth, Dark Pharoah, and Lurker in various combinations.

Closest games have been:

BGotW - Doom tokens on monster surges really turns the game into a time crunch. Combined with a random draw of investigators which included no decent fighters (allowing the board to become overrun with monsters) and a late gate burst that nearly scuttled us completely, we were lucky to (a) avoid a "too many gates open" awakening and (b) pull out a victory by sealed gates when the AO only had one space left on its doom track.

2 Player Game - Went to final combat, which we won. (This is the only time I've entered final combat with an AO.) With only 2 investigators it can be impossible to close gates fast enough. (Even if both investigators jump into separate gates, it takes 3 turns to move through the Other World. Which means that 3 more gates can open before you get back.)

The first dozen games were played without the errata requiring 2 monsters to be drawn when a gate opens in games with 5+ players. That errata did increase the game's difficulty.

Having finished purchasing all the board expansions, we had our first 3 expansion game last night. Went really well our Old One we draw at random was the fireorb (at work so not certain about his name). Played with four payers and surprisingly easy. Even with the included area it seems that the number of mythos cards increases to such a number that the probability of a gate opening in Dunwhich or Innsmouth is extremely low. In fact there was only one gate in Dunwhich and we promptly closed it after the summoned monster was removed by closing a seperate gate.

I guess the rambling paragraph should sum up by saying is anyone else facing this challenge and how do you combat it? I know we could just stack the expo cards on top of the mythos deck, but our players want a intergrated game, not a expo specific game.

Finally we have only lost two games thus far, one to the tome eating old one and the other to the spider old one that turns all gates into bursts. Which herald should we add first to add some difficulty but not make it impossible? The only card expos we dont have are lurker and yellow...

Any help would be huge.

Cheers,

Mike

(sorry for any spelling errors, when at work I can only post quickly and dont have time to review it. haha)

Justin Alexander said:

It sounds like you have a large group of gamers who know what they're doing (personally, I think five investigator games are really easy). You really ought to customize the game to add to the difficulty (by careful selection of investigators and Ancient Ones), or throw in some game variants.

I was able to net a win last night. Played a solo game w/ 2 investigators: the Author and the Photographer against Azathoth. Their abilities to draw 2 encounters in their respective fields really helps you (although occasionally its a choice of the lesser evil rather than a good result on an encounter). I lucked out with some beginning/early item draws which netted me a tommy gun, a sword of glory and an encounter that netted an ally.

I tried my best to leave gates open until I had the clue tokens to seal them which becomes difficult when A. 6/7 gates are open so new clues are less likely to appear and B. when there is a gate on the science lab. I eventually had to close that gate without sealing just to build up my clue tokens.

Defeated Azathoth by sealing 6 gates with 12 of 14 on the Doom Track and 9 of 10 on Terror track (that many open gates means lots of gate bursts and lots of monsters getting sent to the Outskirts.

Quick question regarding Science Lab: When you use your encounter to trade trophies for clues: can you only make 1 such transaction per turn or if you have, say, 3 gate trophies can you turn those in to 6 clues? (if you can't I won by breaking the rules)

A location's special ability can only be used one time per turn. In the case of the Science Building, this means trading ONE gate for TWO clues. To trade any more you have to use the ability multiple rounds.

Sorry...

Thats ok. It makes sense. Still would have been pretty darn close to winning anyways. Thanks for the correction.

msmithamp said:

I've heard some people separating out the mythos deck for the expansions and rolling dice to pick from them. Mixing the Dunwich mythos cards gives you a deck ratio of 2:1 where you draw Dunwich cards a third of the time. So based on a 1d6 roll, you'd only pick from the Dunwich mythos deck on a roll of a 1 or a 2, picking from the the base deck otherwise.

Anyone else do this to get more Dunwich encounters as opposed to playing with a more diluted deck?

meanmunkee said:

I don't tweak my decks at all. But curious, do you mean encounters as in drawing from the neighborhood decks or just going to town X? Even when DH and IH are hot(sea)beds of activity, I rarely take encounters. It's mostly into the gate, seal, on to the next gate. Ideally I want to reach Train Station on the way back as well as on the way in, said investigator should have enough Speed to reach the gate from the TS next turn, if he doesn't get lucky and draw a "move" encounter there. Point is that if you want encounters for encounters sake, you could always hike up to DH and collect the Clues from there, getting encounters, even if no gates are open there.

Dam said:

Sorry, I meant to say, draw from the Dunwich MYTHOS deck on a roll of a 1 or 2...

I haven't had any trouble shuffling "well enough" to have DH and IH both see action (read 1-3 gates) during games, despite using base + DH + IH + CotDP + BGotW + KiY Mythos cards all mixed in.

A couple quick questions that arose during my latest playthrough:

1. The Heal spell allows you to target other investigators in your "Area". Is that the same as your "Location" or "Neighborhood"?

2. Is an encounter that directs you to "Stay here next turn" the exact same effect as "Delayed"?

3. Do you have to roll upkeep on a Blessing during the refresh phase during an the course of an Ancient Old One final battle?

4. Is your Investigator's base fight stat considered a Physical attack? (and therefor holding a Cross turns it into a magic attack)

(Scored a win tonight against Shub-Niggurath in a 2 player game. It went down the final battle with Joe Diamond leading the charge. He had Shriveling and Wither, plus a Blessing. Made sure to save 6 monster trophies for him during the battle.)

miles601 said:

#1: Area is just a bigger canvas than location, including street, location and OW areas.

#2: Yes (in the FAQ)

#3: Yes, it's a normal Upkeep phase.

#4: Fight is neither, it's just Fight.

But did Joe D have Sanity? Shrivelling costs 1 San each turn in the final combat, so he gets 3 uses if he started at full Sanity. Further, his Lore is maxed at 3, giving him 2 dice, with Shrivelling taking up the hand even if he fails. Yes, Joe with Clues can cast Spells successfully like nobody's business, but he has low Sanity for that.

Dam said:

I should have gone on. Once he was down to 1sanity we were able to switch him to wield a Lamp of Alharazed. After 3 rounds of 9 dice to attack the AOO was very low on health before he started devouring monster trophies.