I just got me to wondering: what would be the ultimate conflict in Arkham Horror, the most terrifying concatenation of fathomless evil that would send any mortal misfortunate enough to gaze upon its hideous countenance spiralling into the uttermost darkness of using "Cyclopean" and "batrachian" in the same sentence? Having come up with this little thought, I had another - who the heck could actually beat it?

So, the two-horned challenge begins. To start, concoct if you will the hardest setup you can imagine for an Arkham Horror game. Any legal combination of GOO, Herald, expansions and optional decks is permitted, but if you want to use an expansion's board, monsters, Mythos cards or OW cards you must use all four of those elements.

Then, to play against this scenario, devise a team of Investigators. This team can be made up of characters from any set, with only two rules. First, Personal Stories must be used in the game. Second, to keep the game limits consistent you must select four Investigators plus one additional Investigator for each expansion board after the first in your scenario.

I'll whomp my way through the Wiki and see what I can come up with, but I think Abhoth plus Mum and Dad on AH+Innsmouth would be pretty crazy. Yibb-Tstll and Ghroth doesn't sound like the easiest combo either - effective Doom Track of 9, a Clue cap, any Mystic drawn forces you to either take a hit and risk a Doom token or lose the ability to seal, and if you try taking it to Final Battle all your Clues get eaten.

Ghroth and Zhar would make a nasty team.

Atlach Nacha plus Black Goat may be the hardest combo. Not necessarily the most interesting, but the hardest. I wouldn't even include Innsmouth, since the more unstable locations, the more likely your seals are to last. Maybe A-N, Black Goat, and Kingsport. Opposed by Vincent, Jim, Dexter, George, and, um, Gloria maybe. Have fun with that.

avec said:

That's five Investigators, but you only chose one expansion board. You should only have four.

Also, I perhaps wasn't clear enough on how to pick the Investigators. The idea is to make the strongest team you can to defeat your nightmare scenario - or even better, someone else's nightmare scenario. This thread isn't about making the most unwinnable game, that's easy. It's about making the most epic game. If you're going to end the world, do it with some style.

Ancient One: Ybb-Tstll.

Guardian: Hypnos (cos those clues are really going to help you when you can only carry five, and Ancient One = -X clues)

Herald: Ghorth, +2 Doom effectively gives Ybb a Doom 9 track. The zap you on a Mystic environment is just gravy.

Investigators: Rex Murphy (enjoy those double clues, try pasing that personal story now), Roland Banks (Intuitive prevents you picking up too many clues. If you pass you're mission by getting 5 clues, intuitive really hampers you), Tony Morgan (Fail that mission, by getting 5 clues, and every kill = clue), Lola Hayes (Fails her PS at 4 Doom. with Ghorth you don't have much time at all)

Expansions: Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth (Whilst buying Gossip in Innsmouth helps against Ybb, the +2 Doom and 11 Doom track total means Martial Law will break out very soon). Monster cup formed of all boards plus BGoTW. Gate Cup formed of all gates including the ones in Lurker.

Roland must start with Professor Rice (who dumps clues all over the board).

The basic idea is that Ybb wakes up too fast for the team to deal with him and the board contains so many clues that his combat modifier renders him invulnerable.

Strictly speaking according to the kingsport "Guardian/Herald" Variant Rules you aren't limited to a single herald, though it does say you probably should limit yourself to one. So you could make an absurdly hard game by just facing a whole load of heralds at once.

As for an investigator team I would say that Patrice + Joe is a near unstopable team add William and Rex and you have clues coming out your ears even without Patrice. Of course Ghatanothoa could throw a monkey wrench in that strategy, but he's hardly unstopable in final combat and for this to be a true nightmare scenario you would need an ancient one who could steamroll them in final combat.

I think Dagon is worse than Black Goat. Pairing up Dagon with Yibb-Tstll means that there's always a good chance that investigators won't be able to seal gates.

AO: Zhar, Yibb, Atlach, or Yog-Sothoth
Heralds: Dagon+Hydra
Innsmouth + Kingsport expansions

That ought to sting.

Black Goat expansion difficulty cards should probably also come into play here. Extra mythos card / turn and everyone starting out cursed would be no fun at all.

MustardTheTroops said:

Having no fun isn't the idea. Of course, once you beat Nightmare Green there's nothing stopping you trying again at a harder difficulty level.

Looking at it, I think there's a few ways to go here. If you're planning a scenario that forces the issue with surges then AH+KH and Black Goat maximises the chances (Abhoth would be an especially mean GOO for this, double monster draws would soon see the terror level hit 10). OTOH, there's mileage in putting out more threats than the Investigators can readily control using AH+IH with Atlach.