Sorry if these are silly questions (they probably are), but I'm just starting out playing Arkham Horror and am a little unclear on a few things (have not yet even played one game, just got the game in the mail). I've read the instructions, but I'm just not sure how one thing works with combat, and want to make sure I'm understanding something else properly.

When an investigator encounters a monster, the combat--if it occurs (since they can evade instead)--works over several rounds if the investigator doesn't beat the monster in one. My question is this--does each "round" occupy the investigator's full turn, or does the investigator fight until the monster/investigator is defeated/escapes before the turn order moves on? I'm assuming, from the wording in the book, that it's the latter, but I'm not sure if I missed something.

To clarify, if the above was unclear...Joe the Investigator meets, say, a Mi-Go. Ken the Investigator is next in the turn order. Which way is right?

1: Joe fights the Mi-Go for one round, but doesn't beat it. The Mi-Go does damage. Now it is Ken's turn. When it comes back to Joe in the next movement phase, he fights the Mi-Go for round 2.

2: Joe fights the Mi-Go until he beats it, he escapes, or he is defeated. Only then does it move to Ken's movement phase.

I'm assuming #2, but just want to be sure.

My second question concerns cooperation. At the very end of the game (the ending where everything went wrong, anyway) the investigators fight against the Ancient One that was unleashed, and they get to pool their successes to fight it all together. Is there any way that this can happen when investigators are fighting a normal monster, or are those always one-on-one battles? For instance, if two investigators are in the same location and one of them initiates combat against a monster, can the other participate? From looking at the rules, it doesn't seem like this is possible, but I just wanted to make sure I was reading that right. (I almost missed the fact that investigators could trade items, so I'd hate to miss something else!)

Thanks very much for your assistance.

Sdrolion said:

When encountering a monster, first make a Horror check, if necessary. Then you choose to try and Evdae the monster or just start fighting.

If the investigator tries to evade a fails, he first takes damage from the monster and then begins the first round of combat. Combat between him and the monster continues in successive rounds until one or the other is defeated (or the investigator runs away - he does get the option to make a new evade check each round, and will not take damage immediately for failing them after the first one.)

If the investigator tries to evade and succeeds, he avoids combat with that monster and may continue on his way.

If the investigator chooses not to evade at the beginning of combat, he does not take any damage up front and the combat begins immediately.

The investigator must go through this entire process for each monster in the space he is trying to leave (for every space he tries to leave that has monsters in it) and/or end his movement in.

Sdrolion said:

No, other investigators cannot help you fight a regular monster. They can give you equipment and spells and so on to better equip you for the fight, but that's about all. (Unless there are new rules in an expansion or some obscure card I haven't seen come up yet.)

Steve-O said:

So just to make sure that I've got this, then:

We have two investigators, Joe and Ken.

On his turn in the movement phase, Joe encounters a monster, and makes a Horror check. Joe doesn't try to evade, so combat begins.

Joe attacks the monster, but fails to defeat it. The monster deals damage to him. Play immediately proceeds to round 2 of combat.

Joe attacks again, and again fails. The monster deals damage. Play immediately proceeds to round 3 of combat.

Joe's still able to fight in a third round, and finally slays the monster.

Only now does it become Ken's turn (presuming there are no other monsters in the same space for Joe to deal with).

In other words, an investigator completely resolves all combat or evasion with all present monsters on his turn before the turn order passes to the next character, right?.

Is that right?

Sdrolion said:

Not quite...

If Joe wants to evade the monster without combat (ie. hide from it instead or sneak past it completely) he does not make a Horror check. If the evade fails he receives combat damage and combat begins - at this point he must make a Horror check (for confronting the monster). At the beginning of each 'combat round' he can try to flee rather than fight (unless the monster has AMBUSH ability) which means he must make an evade check again...and suffer the consequences if he fails. He does not make any further horror checks.

In my understanding of the rules, at least, you do not have to make a Horror check unless you confront the monster in combat (which you must do if your initial attempt at sneaking past or hiding fails).

If I am wrong here, I am sure someone will correct me...

So an investigator can choose just to hide, rather then fight or avade? So you remain in the location (street etc) and nothing happens, then in the movement phase you can simply walk away?

H.P. Lovecraft said:

NO - The Investigator still makes an Evade check and suffers the consequences if s/he fails BUT if s/he succeeds this initial Evade check the investigator can move on or remain hidden (and take the location encounter). What I meant was that the initial decision to Evade does not incur any Horror Check. The Horror Check is only made when/if combat is initiated. Subsequent attempts to Evade the monster are referred to as attempts to 'FLEE' - which is not quite the same thing as an initial sneak/hide Evade attempt.

Sdrolion said:

Right: one investigator has to completely resolve his movement before the next investigator takes his. And all monster combats occur in such a way that they're completely resolved before anything else happens.

Well, you have something incorrect: when you first encounter a monster, you first decide if you're going to voluntarily enter combat, or attempt to evade the monster and keep moving. The penalty for failing to evade is that you suffer the monster's attack, then combat enters (do a horror check, go to combat, etc). That's to discourage you from saying, "well I'll try to evade but if I fail I'll just kill it" because of the added penalty of failure.

When you enter combat, you do a horror check. After that's resolved, you then choose whether to do a round of combat or to Flee (by making an Evade check). If you successfully flee, combat is over. You'll have to deal with any other monsters in that space, of course, but you won't be moving any more this round.

Thanx for clearing that up so fast.

Thanks a lot! That really helps out with understanding this. (Sorry, probably wouldn't have asked at all except I've played a lot of Dokapon Kingdom, where each "round" of combat counts as your turn O_O).

I think I get it now--you've all been a great help.