Ok slightly more interesting than my last post....

I randomly select all the AO's, investigators, heralds and guardians, so I get a unique game each time.

I use a d6 to select the heralds and guardians and pick 5 investigators and 1 AO at random. (I have all the expansions)

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My question is I noticed that the herald I always somehow manage to avoid with the d6 (its number always being one) is a wee bit tough. It is the terror that is called GHROTH! Should I take him out? He seems to be very powerful, and playing with all the expansions and only 5 players, in your valued opinion, am I ever going to win?

I must say I have no problem losing, I just don't like setting the game up, which always takes me an hour, to have no chance what so ever in winning. I mean I suppose it does depend on what AO and different investigators you have.

I think what I am asking is, what are your experiences with this beast?

It depends on the Ancient One. If it's Yig, you might as well start gearing up for the final fight right from the off. If it's Azathoth, 12 Doom makes the game a lot tighter, but far from impossible.

All Heralds make the game harder (though some would disagree about the Lurker at the Threshold), all Guardians make the game easier. You can mix and match both to set the difficult of the game to your choosing. Most players would like a challenging game that goes down to the wire, rather than a walkover for either side. you can find plenty of custom Heralds (and some Guardians) in the Fan Creations section of this forum and on www.boardgamegeek.com

In terms of game set-up, organisation up front really does pay off. The game shouldn't take an hour to set up. I keep my small cards in several boxes to make it easier to find them, then I use these boxes as dispensers for the encounter cards. You should be able to find something suitable at your local hardware / DIY store or you could check online retailers like www.boardgameextras.com

Jake yet again said:

I wouldn't even bother disagreeing with that assertion regarding Lurker, since it's a fact, objective, indusputable, that it is actually a guardian that FFG repeatedly typoed as a herald.

As for Ghroth. Eh. It depends... The truth is, if you're expert at this game, five investigators can get *a lot* done quickly. If you're fairly newish, or even somewhat newish, or you're an old-timer but don't play the game as a strategy game exactly, it could make the game a bit more difficult. I think Black Goat is considerably harder. I'd hate to play Ghroth with Zhar or Rhan Tegoth though (I like 3 investigator games).

Set up usually takes me about 20 minutes. Have you separated your main types of chits into bags or sealed boxes, and perhaps made a ziplock bag or two for miscellaneous frequently used chits (i.e. I have one for the terror token, first player token, and doom tokens).

Yeah, basically, what Avi said. The main point with Groth is the two doomer addition at the beginning of the game. It really depends on how good you are at controlling the doom track (with 5 investigators in play, you should be able to beat the game in 13-14 Mythos). I personally believe other Heralds are by far nastier than Groth, the Black Goat above all, but even Dagon & Hydra are an interesting mix. Too many factors are relevant to the game's result, and even if a Herald has a major influence on it, it's not said it's game-over before you start

Ghroth adds a challenge but as a herald isn't that interesting: he doesn't do a whole lot once the game is started.

Black Goat is very challenging but is also fun because she deals out corruptions and you never know when the next surge is going to hit.

However, the nastiest herald of all is definitely Dagon. When the terror level goes up, everyone loses a clue token, and if not everybody had one to lose, he gains a doom token.

Total suck city.

Very interesting question. I think Ghroth is one of the more powerful AOs for sure, but there are nasty ones even more brutal such as Dagon and Black Goat (mentioned above by all the other posters). Don't feel that Ghroth is impossible though. If he is paired up with an AO with a lengthy doom track, you just have to get to those gates fast! If the AO has a doom track of 11 or less... you maybe should prepare for Final Battle.

If Ghroth gives you a hard time, try playing with the Lurker. He doesn't give much of a difficulty boost at all (there is even speculation that he is a guardian is disguise!) I remember one game with Glaaki, me and my sister's 6 starting investigators had no more than 4 clue tokens between them. And thanks to the Lurker's wonderful gift of power, we accomplished a sealing victory.

Glaaki: "You know something Lurker? Maybe you should increase the interest rate of those loans."

mi-go hunter said:

::Facepalm::

Cool, ok that sounds interesting. Glad I don't have to take him out, maybe just plan a good strategy.

Because I play everything random I'm sure there are going to be times when it is super hard, or super easy.

As for organization, im trying to find somewhere with some good storage, live in england and we seem to lack any decent board game shops, well I did just find one in Cambridge, where I live, will ask them what they suggest. My main problem is the that my table just fits on the main board and the 3 expansions. so I have 4 small round tables around me with all my other cards on it, it's a bit of a pain. Tried playing on the floor once and that was too painful after a while.

Lucky my next game random selection was the herald as the lurker. Now I'm hoping Ghroth comes up instead of Dagon, after giving him a read, ouuch!

Thanks all.

I don't know all the games shops in the UK and you didn't say where you lived, but here's the ones I'm aware of:

Portsmouth - Southsea Models and Games

Exeter - Clifton Road Games

Cardiff - Don't remember the name of the shop but it was in one of the arcades relatively near the castle

London - Orcs Nest

Thanks for the list, will check them out :-)