All right, so I'm pretty new to the Arkham Horror world, but I do have to admit that it is pretty insanely awesome. Now comes the big question, which of all the expansions is the best to begin expanding the game with? I really have no idea. I've read a little bit about most of them, but I just don't know which one would better game-play in the best way.

I have just managed to get around to buying them all (took a while) and I can say from my games that I find the Innsmouth horror the best expansion with a new board. It does make the game much harder, but adds so much more to think about, and some hard to get locations that make you panic a little.

Kingsport is my least favorite board. all it added to my game was the need to have one investigator running around it stopping stuff opening, it does mean you get to have some location encounters there, and some of them are interesting. But I found it to be more of a chore than fun.

The dunwich horror is very new to me, having only played it a couple of times, but has a good mix of new stuff, it's just not as full of content as innsmouth.

If your after the small expansions my number one is the king in yellow, a great new herald and some terrifying new rules, followed closely by the lurker at the threshold for it's much more interesting replacement for the gate markers.

Don't buy Curse of the dark pharaoh as it's getting a new updated version soon.

Hope this helps

I agree. For big box/board expansions, Innsmouth might be my favorite. It provides a challenge and it also gives the personal stories, which I love. Dunwich is up there with it, but you currently can't buy Dunwich (at a decent price). I don't play with the Kingsport board very often since no gates ever appear on it, but I do like the epic battles that came in that expansion. For small box expansions, I like Black Goat because of the corruption cards and cult encounters, which don't happen nearly frequently enough, but I think my favorite is Lurker at the Threshold. You get the relationship cards, new gate mechanics, and the dark pacts. While the dark pacts do make for an easier game, they provide a very clever and deep thematic element.

Don't get Innsmouth as your first expansion. It has a lot of components and mechanics that work best when you own the other two board expansions. Not to mention, Innsmouth is the hardest, so you don't want to get the hardest first and then find that adding all your other expansions makes the game easier.

Wow, awesome. Thanks for the responses. I'll definitely leave Kingsport for later. I guess my best bet is to check my local store to see if they have Dunwich and if not, go with some smaller boxes. Thanks

benjobaker said:

King in Yellow is pretty awesome and very thematic. I kept it permanently shuffled in for like 20 games, before I tried some new combos. Just make sure to read the book after (or before) you get it, it's free on project gutenberg

If they don't have Dunwich at your store (quite probable) and you want a big box, get Kingsport. Some people don't like it much (I do), and as it was said, Innsmouth is a harder overall experience.

What's especially nice about Kingsport is that its board mechanism doesn't dilute with multiple expansions, so if you're the kind of person who just indiscriminately adds expansions each time you get them, Kingsport will pack a punch no matter how late you buy it.

I bought big boxes in chronologycal order and I think its the best for sure. Innsmouth is sure very awesome, but in term of experience of play, new rules, new mechanics, I dont regret buying them in that order. Stuff is getting better and better in that order too. For exemple, Investigators are getting more awesome from an expension to another. You might be mindblown by Innsmouth Investigator, and then you get Dunwitch and youre like: meh i've seen better. BUT Innsmouth's personal stories brings all Investigators to the same power lvl i'd say, and thats another story

Once you start getting the expansions, id suggest holding off 3 months between getting a new one, to allow you the most enjoyment out of each new expansion

silonce said:

What, you need 90 plays to get the most out of an expansion ? Even if you slow play, say 10 games a month, you'd still get 30 plays in that time, way past the point where I for one would feel like I've seen all it has to offer. Granted, I added DH just 7 plays into my AH "career".

Dam said:

::laughter.: man, that's rather quick! I'm able to play 10 AH games in something like three months, more or less!

I'm with Julia ~ I'll have a weekend where I might play two games...with long stretches between those types of weekends.

I usually get to play AH only three times a month, and absolutely zero times when I had to study for my exams (that's right, no boardgames of any kind for one month). I don't know how some people have so much time.

Im lucky to be able to play AH once a month,

Id like to play a few times more, but so is life

The other issue i find is when playing at other peoples houses and they dont have a wide enough table to allow it all to fit.

Cause i dont feel i should have to put such an awesome game on the floor. Its like dropping the nations flag

great info guys , thank

I hope others are reporting this spammer-troll (GrandInquisitorKris) as well. Same pointless post in pretty much every game's area .

benjobaker said:

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but here is the order I believe is best for neccessity of expansions:

1) Dunwich Horror

2) Innsmouth Horror

3) The King in Yellow

4) Kingsport Horror

5) The Lurker at the Threshold

6) The Black Goat of the Woods

7) The Curse of the Dark Pharoah

I like them all for different reasons, however I do think as far as essential content for every game, the ones on top deliver much more that you will want to use every game (such as the injury and Madness cards). Also, I noted a poster indicated about the forthcoming revised version of Dark Pharoah. It should be noted that most of what in the Revised Dark Pharoah seems mostly entirely new, so even though I have the original set, I personally plan to buy this as well. (I should probably add that I give Dark Pharoah a lot more love than some other posters do, so hopefully the new version will help shake that trend).

I have no idea why you placed King in Yellow over Kingsport other than your choice of Avatar ;')

Blight cards > Epic Battle cards > unbalanced Kingsport investigators > Kingsport board

avec said:

Blights cards= a clever pain in the *****.(they are cool stuff tho)

I also tend to dislike Kingsport board since it just cut you off an investigator. And so far, I've never seen Kingsport's portals active on the board.

Arkham Horror+Dunwitch+Innsmouth is so far the best mix I've been playin. Just add some King In Yellow to it and you've got a clever recipe. I only use Epic Battle deck+investigator and items from Kingsport.

That's the thing about Kingsport. It won't cut you off one investigator if you don't send one there right away. And then, soon enough, you will see rifts open.

Saikoro said:

No, it cuts off a bit more than half an investigator. The trick is allowing all the rift tracks to half fill and only clearing off the other halves while letting new mythos cards bounce off the half filled rifts. I.e. once the tracks are half full, statistically speaking, mythos cards should bounce 50% of the time (plus mythos cards with unusual movement patterns don't have any effect, and the original half filling of the tracks doesn't require spending investigator time).