Hey everyone,

I've had two games with my two other buddies and we were all thinking the game seems a little too easy, which leads me to believe we're doing something wrong. The first time, the doom track was at about 8 on Cthulhu and we sealed 6 portals to win, as well with Ithaqua the second time also by sealing 6. Is there anything you guys realized you were playing wrong when you started that changed the difficulty of the game? Also, I had two quick questions that I was never really sure about someone might be able to clarify.

1. For flying monsters that enter the sky, the next turn when they go back to the map, it says they move back to a street area. Does this mean the first player picks where they go or who they attack or is just the person closest to that side of the board?

2. For other world encounters, I think I've been playing this right. You enter in the Arkham encounter phase and move your piece to the first spot of the other world. In the same turn in the other world encounter phase, you take an other world card, do whatever. Next turn, you move to the second spot, you take another card, do what it says. Next turn you leave, and attempt to close/seal the gate. I hope that's correct?

Thanks,

-GB

Edit: Also we might have been trading clue tokens >.>

The game was initially very easy for me, too. But I started playing with pro players, so I got all the strategies from those who had done it before. So when I started playing, I didn't lose until I added the Dark Pharaoh Herald (since I only had the base game). The new expansions not only add flavor, but also add difficulty. So if you find it too easy (and you're certain you're not forgetting important rules), go ahead and get an expansion or two. Maybe 1 big box, and 1 small box!

As for your questions:

1.) They only "swoop in" when an investigator is in the streets when their monster movement symbol comes up. It then moves to the investigator. If there's more than 1, it goes to the person with the lowest current sneak value. If that is tied, the First player chooses. The same goes for ties with the Hound of Tindalos (say, two investigators are in a location are both the same amount of squares away).

2.) That's all correct. Assuming you aren't delayed, or aren't returned to Arkham and etc. So you've been playing it right!

Oh, and yes, trading clues is a no-no :-) That probably made things a touch easier (though not ALWAYS a game changer. But in this game, who knows what would've happened in the 2 or so turns that trading the clues shortened the game by!)

EcnoTheNeato said:

That makes more sense, but how does that conflict with the monster limit because I know they're included. Normally when we play with 3 the limit is 6 then they start piling up in the outskirts. So let's say they're 6 on the map and ones flying and it's movement symbol comes up, so it moves to the sky. I wouldn't move one from the outskirts, and it still counts as 6 in the town?

This also makes me think I'm doing something wrong in the outskirts. When we reach the limit we start stacking them up and then when we kill one we take the one who's on the bottom of the pile(kind of like a line at Disney) and put them on and empty gate open on the map(or the one with least monsters), correct?

As for an expansion, I'm really interested in this game so I'm going to buy one when this semesters over because I won't see it getting play time until summer. I was looking into Dunwich, The King in Yellow, and the Dark Pharroh one. Which one would you say is the tougher of them all, or the most fun?

Thanks,

-GB

The sky counts towards the monster limit. Problem solved :-D

Also, when you have monsters in the Outskirts, and are at the Monster Limit, you do NOT transfer them back to the board. They stay there. They are cleared only by closing a gate that matches their symbol, exceeding the outskirts limit (where they are all placed back into the cup, and the terror level raised), or things that say to do so (one Mythos card clears the outskirts). So don't forget there's a limit to the monsters in the outskirts (8-number of players), just like there's a limit to the number of monsters allowed on the board (3+players).

Oh, and my expansions I have are Dunwich, Dark Pharaoh, and King in Yellow. They're really fun and raise the difficulty, but not TOO much. At least, not that I've noticed just yet :-D The Heralds really do make the game more difficult. You can download the Dark Pharaoh Herald for free!

If you need more help with the Outskirts, Monster limits, and etc, check out page 18 of the Rulebook And if that doesn't help, check with us. Just remember that you add monsters to the Outskirts 1 by 1, then clear it when applciable, then continue to add to the (now cleared) outskirts. So that means if a bunch of monsters show up, you can increase the terror level by more than 1 in one incident!

EcnoTheNeato said:

Oooooooook. That might explain why the game is going to smoothly. We've been putting monsters from the outskirts back into the game once we killed a monster in the town. Our terror level has only gotten up to like 4 this way. Thanks for all the help man, and I'll deffinitely look into those expansions.

Thanks again,

-GB

gb14 said:

Heh heh heh... You're making weird errors. I've never heard of two of them, and I've been on these forums for what, about three years now? I'd suggest giving the manual another reread. A *slow* reread :'D still, I have to admit, it's entertaining. You're aware that fighting monsters ends movement, right?

Anyway, the base game is very easy once you understand it, if you play it like a strategy game. If you want me to show you how to amp up the base game difficulty, let me know and I'll find an old variant I designed about half a year ago.

Why is this coming up so much today?

Avi_dreader said:

haha, yeah. I think I'm playing the game right for the most part. Just when we ever killed a monster, we would take one from the outskirts and place it on an open gate so that the board maximum was 6 again. Now that I think about it, it does sound kind of weird. I downloaded the Herald neato was talking about and if the game doesn't change with the "new" rules I've learned I'll see about implementing it.

Another common mistake that makes the game significantly easier is to forget that you lose all of your movement points after engaging in combat.