Hello everyone. A long time lurker and an occasional poster here. AH was long time on shelves, however a recent deal at my local gaming store made possible for me to obtain Innsmouth+Kingsport for little over 60$! Of course I was thrilled! So, having Dunwich from earlier, now I have all the big box expansions. And on top of that everyone wants to play again since we haven't play in a while. However, my group only played base Arkham with Dunwich before and it was...well, ok when we played just AH with extra cards but with Dunwich board we weren't really thrilled because nothing happened there

My question is: Is Innsmouth or Kingsport better regarding this? As far as I understand, Innsmouth is the best big box expansion. Since I do not own yet any of smaller boxes, can anyone recommend what could be the best combination of cards to play with without having just a extra town that no one ventures to.

Thanks for any response

There are no unstable locations in Kingsport, so no gates pop open there, but there are rifts that show up that need to be dealt with.

Innsmouth, in addition to gates opening, has the Deep One Rising track that has to be managed by dumping clues to it or the Ancient One wakes up.

I really enjoy Innsmouth, but I haven't used Kingsport (despite owning it for a while).

When you used the Dunwich board, were you using any other expansions? If not, then you just got unlucky. Dunwich should have been quite active.

Kingsport rifts will always be active, no matter what expansions you have in. Dunwich and Innsmouth will be quite active on their own, but will dilute as you add more expansions.

Play each board individually a couple times to get the feel. Personally I'd use all three at once, and with no small board expansions the dilution should be minimal. But Dunwich is the best one to play alone, and Kingsport is best paired with another expansion board.

Don't forget the multi-expansion-board handicap, and don't forget that Dunwich and Innsmouth together have their own handicap!

I did not own any expansions prior to Dunwich. I guess we were unlucky and unfortunate to shove away Dunwich for just the base game then. I currently own all big box expansions, so this advice helped, thanks!

Also, we will probably play a 5 or 6 player game, so I hope things don't get too easy! I've looked the Ancient Ones from Kingsport and Innsmouth. Boy, they are nasty, well most of them. I wonder how do you even beat the likes of Zhar or Quachil Uttaus, not to mention Attlach? Interesting times ahead, I hope.

Are the 'easy' Ancient Ones like Yig more dangerous with epic battle cards? They seem to be, to me at least. Sorry for bunch of questions, I am just excited about all the new content

With 5 or 6 players, I'd definitely go with all three big box expansions. That will keep you busy. Make sure you give the really big mythos deck a good shuffling, so you get Innsmouth and Dunwich cards. Then give it to someone else to shuffle.

With regards to the new ancient ones, one of my favorite aspects is that these new ancient ones force you to play differently. You'll have to learn to adept, and be prepared to lose a fair amount as you learn!

Epic Battle cards makes all Final battles more difficult, with one exception. It won't come up too much. You are in for a rough time in Final Battle. And some of the new Ancient Ones could basically have Azathoth's Final battle fight, they are so difficult.

ALL the AOs are fearsome with the Epic Battle system. Even pushovers like Ithaqua, Yig, and Nyarlathotep. Quachil Uttuas isn't that bad to face, as long as you beat him BEFORE final battle. He's beatable (and, according to statistics, easier than Tsathoggua, but only slightly!), but VERY difficult. Zhar is easier than that, both in fighting in final battle, and before-hand. But that's just my opinion.

I really love the Innsmouth AOs because they add a LOT of suspense. Ghatanothoa, Quachil, Zhar, and Rhat Tegoth can make or break the game with EVERY turn. It's fun

As a side note, remember always what kind of experience you want to dive into while playing Arkham. Having all expansion boards is fun, but doing so you'll end up with having something like 20 unstable location, which could mean a new gate opening every round (this is the so called speed Arkham ). In this case, you should really hurry up in gathering clues and sealing the gates, otherwise it's game over pretty soon. Besides, it's very likely to happen, with everything in play, that you don't see much activity on all expansion boards.

In case you prefer having more time to explore locations, read encounter cards and doing strange things like becoming Captain of the White Ship and travel through the Dreamlands... yeah, it's better if you play with just two expansion boards, and one of those has to be Kingsport. This should grant you time for exploring the game, a lot of activity on extra boards (rift mechanics never dilute and the other expansion board will be crowded).

Julia said:

This is an excellent point. It is one of the main reasons my group uses only the big box expansions and excludes all of the small box expansions.

Hey, thanks for the input

Well, I do not want us to play with all expansions. That could be pretty overwhelming because we haven't played that many times. I think that we will stick to Innsmouth with epic battle cards or maybe a Herald, if it proves too easy. Everyone voted for Innsmouth anyway .

Btw, how often does the card "innsmouth look" come into play and are personal stories a good thing to play with?

Cardinal Nicodemus said:

When playing Innsmouth we usually end up drawing card(s) a few times each game from the Innsmouth look deck. I always love the tension when you have to draw cards from that deck!

I personally like the personal stories. It adds a small challenge for every investigator and can give a small twist to the game.

Regarding Dunwich Horror, to prevent little action on the Dunwich map we sometimes keep the mythos and gate card decks seperated, drawing cards from the Dunwich decks in the first turn and cards from the Arkham Horror decks the second turn.

Cardinal Nicodemus said:

Personal Stories, however, are simply brilliant! One of the best additions to the game for a long time. In a way they're like the missions of Dunwich Horror done right and they even come with lots of flavour.

Cardinal Nicodemus said:

Innsmouth *is* great. The board is enchanting and games with Innsmouth are always terrific but Innsmouth only games tend to be a little tricky. Basically because of how the Mythos deck is built: you won't have any gate bursting in Arkham since all Innsmouth Mythos cards refer to the Innsmouth board only. A small box (Lurker or Black Goat) can help you while fixing this problem. Otherwise a good choice is using Kingsport Mythos as well.

Anyway, enjoy the game. Learn how the board works and if something does not satisfy you completely, then try to change the Mythos deck a little :-)

Though that also depends on how easy one thinks the game is! But yes, as you said, Julia, give different combinations a try until you like them. Then when they become stale (and/or too easy) switch it up! Kingsport's Mythos can help with this (and you can just skip Mythos cards that are irrelevant) by adding Gate Bursts without the need for an expansion! As for the Innsmouth Look thing, I think it's happened from the Innsmouth Look deck (not Personal Stories) two times or so, one of which was thanks to the Innsmouth Plague. But! One shouldn't be succumbing to the Innsmouth Look every time. That'd just be frustrating!

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Julia

Thanks community You are very helpful. I will post a brief summary of the session when we play it out.

We interrupt this thread for an important news bulletin....

"Happy Birthday, Julia"

Professor, Ecno,

thank you very much for your wishes :-)