A Simple Request

By arkhamresident, in Arkham Horror Second Edition

My lady and I are getting a little bored with the base game and Lurker but we aren't getting any other expansions in the near future so I'm asking for help to make the game as hard as possible for our next play. I only have the base game, Lurker and I printed out Daoloth but I don't have access to a working printer for any other heralds/AOs. We'll be playing with the worst four investigators available (based on responses here) and the hardest AO (again, up to you guys). The LatT herald is gonna stay in play since we don't use pacts much (we only pull them as a last resort) but we like the random reckoning that screws us over and the -1 to gate closing checks.

Any and all help would be well appreciated.

arkhamresident said:

My lady and I are getting a little bored with the base game and Lurker but we aren't getting any other expansions in the near future so I'm asking for help to make the game as hard as possible for our next play. I only have the base game, Lurker and I printed out Daoloth but I don't have access to a working printer for any other heralds/AOs. We'll be playing with the worst four investigators available (based on responses here) and the hardest AO (again, up to you guys). The LatT herald is gonna stay in play since we don't use pacts much (we only pull them as a last resort) but we like the random reckoning that screws us over and the -1 to gate closing checks.

Any and all help would be well appreciated.



Oh, excellent :') no problem. I devised just the things a while back. I cleaned them up a bit today, and made a couple modifications (particularly to Azathoth), so I'm going to repost them in the custom AO thread after this. ;'D You may enjoy Nyarlathotep a little more now.

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Increasing the difficulty of the Base Game's Ancient Ones

Ancient One fixes for only playing the base board (this will make it *quite* difficult) They can also be played as variants for the normal game, but the Starting Doom Tokens should then be ignored in all cases except Azathoth:

Starting Doom Tokens:

Yig: 0

Ithaqua: 2

Azathoth: 5

Cthulhu: 3

Nyarlathotep: 2

Hastur: 3

Yog Sothoth: 2

Shub Niggurath: 3


Doom tokens can not be removed from the doom track by any means (that means no South Church exploit, and no Elder Sign hunting). This makes it so you can't just play out the clock for a guaranteed win. If you are only playing the base board, mythos cards that would open two gates simultaneously DO add two doom tokens.

Another basic difficulty raising rule along with the above would be banning the use of clues with the fight skill or the shotgun in final combat (I'd strongly suggest this against Ancient Ones without combat resistances, since otherwise it's too easy to stockpile clues and kill them in one or two turns).

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Yig: Make it so that investigators can not be blessed during games against him (possibly make an exception for Sister Mary). Twice as many successes as normal should be required to remove a doom token from his doom track.

Cultists are fast.

Ithaqua: give both physical and magical resistance.

Each round of combat with a Cultist, roll a die for each weapon or spell you are using, on a failure, it is lost.

Azathoth: Starts with five doom tokens.

Cultists and Maniacs deal four damage to an investigator who defeats them and are Stalkers. They are not counted against the monster limit, if one appears in the Outskirts, place it directly on The First Player instead (unless the first player is in an Other World, in which case, place it on an investigator in Arkham with the lowest sneak, first player's choice if a tie).

Cthulhu: when he reaches 7 doom tokens, have his ability reduce all investigators maximum stamina and sanity by 2 instead.

Star Spawn have their toughness increased by two. If they are adjacent to an Elder Sign, they will move onto it if their movement is shown during the mythos phase, ignoring investigators and arrows. If they are still on the Elder Sign during the next mythos phase, remove it from the board. If they defeat an investigator in combat and are on the board, they immediately move one space closer to the nearest Elder Sign (player's choice if there is a tie), following an arrow, or directly (if they are directly adjacent). They can not be taken as monster trophies. If they are defeated, return them to the cup. If they are placed in the outskirts, substitute them with any non-Star Spawn monster on the board that is not in the Sky— if there is a Cultist on the board, a Cultist must be chosen.

Nyarlathotep: make him magical and physically immune and require twice as many successes as normal to remove doom tokens from his doom track.

If you defeat a Cultist, immediately search the monster cup for a random Mask, and fight or evade it as well. If the Cultist was on the board, the Mask remains on the board if undefeated, if not, return it to the cup.

Hastur: raise the terror track to four in the start of games against him.

If a Cultist is in the sky, moves, and is unable to leave the sky (due to lack of investigators in the street), raise the terror level by one. When a Cultist is defeated, all investigators lose one clue.

Yog Sothoth: flip all gates against him upside down until investigators enter them, increase their modifiers by -1, give him physical resistance.

Before investigators in an Other World draw their first encounter they must fight or evade a random monster from the monster cup. If this causes them to be devoured, add a doom token to the doom track.

Shub Niggurath: Give him magical resistance. Have the final combat attack require investigators to lose 3 monster trophies.


Dark Young have their toughness increased an additional one and are not counted against the monster limit. Dhole moves like a Hound of Tindalos, is not counted against the monster limit, and is Endless. Every time a Cultist is defeated, roll a die, on a 1-3 search the cup and place it on the open gate with the least number of monsters on it (players choice if a tie). If a Dholes or Dark Young would be taken as a trophy, return it to the cup instead.

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Here's a Nyarlathotep variant that you can combine with the above. Although it's quite tough just by itself.


The Demi-Gods:

Drawing a mask will trigger various game effects, keep at least one copy of this sheet for reference during the game. You may want to mark on the sheet which masks are currently active for easier reference of their abilities and effects.

Masks can not be gained as trophies, if a game effect would have them be gained as trophies, return them to the cup instead. They can be returned to the cup as normal by the closing of gates.

For the masks, “in play” means being permanently in play (not just temporarily appearing as the result of an encounter and not in the outskirts).

With Dual Gates, only the top symbol can remove masks from the board (unless there are three or more masks on the board, and God of the Bloody Tongue is not in play).

When the doom track is at six, search the monster cup for a random mask and put it into on Miskatonic University streets. If this would be above the monster limit, the first player may choose the lowest toughness non-Mask monster and place it in the Outskirts.

Start of Game: Players may collectively decide to give Nyarlathotep a two extra doom token track (so his doom track is 13 instead of 11); however, if they do so, when the doom track reaches 11, search the monster cup and place The Dark Pharoah on Miskatonic University Streets.

When Nyarlathotep awakens, he has weapon immunity instead of magical resistance, and rather than losing a clue, the penalty for failing a lore check against him is being devoured.

The Dark Pharoah - He has two extra toughness and weapon immunity. While he is in play, the monster limit is ignored (this will not cause the Ancient One to potentially awaken unless the terror track is at 10). When he enters play, all investigators’ monster trophies are reanimated and placed on their locations (unless they are in an Other World, in which case, reanimate them at the beginning of the turn after the investigator emerges from a gate). If he leaves play, the monster limit is restored (remove excess non-mask monsters of your choice from the board to get as close as possible to the normal monster limit).

The Black Man - Whenever he moves, the first player must draw two madness cards or add a doom token to the doom track. Investigators who draw these madness cards can not be retired. He must move when he comes into play, even if his movement symbol is not shown. He moves like a Fast Stalker. When he leaves play, replace him with a random mask (an investigator in the new mask’s location, must immediately evade or enter combat with it).

The Bloated Woman - When she enters play each investigator loses two stamina and two sanity. While she is in play will checks have an additional -1 penalty (this includes horror checks) and all sanity damage is increased by 1. An investigator who defeats her in combat is Cursed.

Haunter of the Dark - It has +1 toughness and physical and magical immunity. While in play, flying monsters treat unstable locations as adjacent to the sky, are not counted against the monster limit, and if they are in or are placed in the outskirts, they go directly to the Sky instead. When it leaves play, all flying monsters in play are returned to the monster cup. This does not count against the monster limit (and if it is placed in the Outskirts, place it in the Sky instead).

God of the Bloody Tongue - It has weapon immunity. While it is in play monsters can not be returned to the cup by closing gates with their dimensional symbol and red, black, and purple bordered monsters move toward the nearest investigator (following yellow lines like an investigator could) with the lowest Sneak (first player’s choice when nearness and sneak are tied).

Wailing Writher - It has +2 toughness. While it is in play, investigators must fight or evade an unmodified copy of Wailing Writher before attempting to seal a gate by means of clue or power tokens. If you declare you are intending to attempt to seal a gate, fight or evade a Wailing Writher copy before rolling against the gate modifier. Unmodified copies of Wailing Writher can not be modified by any game effects and defeating or evading them has no effect beyond ending or avoiding combat.

Shugeron - He has +2 toughness. While he is in play, all streets are treated as aquatic locations and black bordered and yellow bordered monsters move as orange bordered monsters instead. This does not count against the monster limit (and if it is placed in the Outskirts, place it in Rivertown Streets instead).

Skinless One - He has +1 toughness. While he is in play, whenever an investigator is devoured, raise the terror level by one. Also, all monsters move twice, and yellow bordered monsters are treated as black bordered monsters.

The Beast - It has +1 toughness. While it is in play, all other monsters gain +2 toughness, except as monster trophies.

The Shadowy Figure - When he comes into play, remove one Elder Sign token from the board, and investigators in Arkham lose all their clues.

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[if you use this variant with the above (base board only), you may want to ignore the sped up doom track, since The Black Man should add doom tokens]

[if you want to make this extremely brutal, make none of the masks count against the monster limit, if they go to the outskirts and do not have a specified location, redirect them to Miskatonic University streets.]

Avi_dreader said:

Dhole moves like a Hound of Tindalos, is not counted against the monster limit, and is Endless.

That's just not right...

But to reiterate my printer = broken so I can't print any of this out for easy access. sad.gif

arkhamresident said:

Avi_dreader said:

Dhole moves like a Hound of Tindalos, is not counted against the monster limit, and is Endless.

That's just not right...

But to reiterate my printer = broken so I can't print any of this out for easy access. sad.gif





We play with a couple of house rules that can make it a little more difficult.

One is that investigators cant trade fixed items away, the can still lose them or sacrifie them but not give them to another investigator.

The second is that when the fight against the anicent one starts, no more trading, so all weapon optimization have to happen before the AO wakes.

If you haven't read RL's house rules yet, I recommend them; a few make the game slightly harder--mostly in little ways, such as "Two monsters on first gate" and "Sanity loss for trapping another investigator in a gate"; "Gate locations unknown" is probably the hardest, though it's sadly incompatible with the Lurker gates.

According to Tibs's stats, Cthulhu has the most wins against the investigators among the base set AOs, but he's closely followed by Yog-Sothoth, who of course has better synergy with your herald, so I'd recommend him. Vincent Lee, Sister Mary, Dexter Drake, and Monterey Jack are the least successful investigators (though the last one or two aren't far behind the rest).

(Side note discussion)

Personally, I don't understand how Cthulhu has been beating Yog-Sothoth.

In final combat perhaps Cthulhu is harder, but only because he heals. Yog's modifier is almost as harsh, and he has magical immunity while Cthulhu has no immunity. Against Cthulhu you get seven or so rounds to survive but with Yog your gate trophies are your lifeblood, which are hard to acquire. Not to mention that your defense stat is Will so you have to choose to what degree you want to attack versus survive, effectively making up for Yog's "easier" modifier.

But before final combat? Against Cthulhu, your maximums are lowered. Not that big of a deal. Against Yog? Closing gates—your only other way to win—is made fiercely tougher. And in Lost in Time and Space you're completely toast.

It's been years since I've started this project, and with the exception of a couple odd months, Yog has always been in second place. But the gap has been closing.

Tibs said:

(Side note discussion)

Personally, I don't understand how Cthulhu has been beating Yog-Sothoth.

In final combat perhaps Cthulhu is harder, but only because he heals. Yog's modifier is almost as harsh, and he has magical immunity while Cthulhu has no immunity. Against Cthulhu you get seven or so rounds to survive but with Yog your gate trophies are your lifeblood, which are hard to acquire. Not to mention that your defense stat is Will so you have to choose to what degree you want to attack versus survive, effectively making up for Yog's "easier" modifier.

But before final combat? Against Cthulhu, your maximums are lowered. Not that big of a deal. Against Yog? Closing gates—your only other way to win—is made fiercely tougher. And in Lost in Time and Space you're completely toast.

It's been years since I've started this project, and with the exception of a couple odd months, Yog has always been in second place. But the gap has been closing.



Eh... Maybe some players have difficulties managing the decreased maximums? Maybe Yog is less popular to play against because he's not as much of a celebrity, so you get more beginner games against Cthulhu (i.e. more losses), and fewer against Yog.

Avi_dreader said:

Maybe Yog is less popular to play against because he's not as much of a celebrity, so you get more beginner games against Cthulhu (i.e. more losses), and fewer against Yog.

Hadn't thought of that. Well, wait, according to the last report, the number of logged games is:

Cthulhu: 410

Yog-Sothoth: 407

So, statistically speaking, there is not enough of a tilt to really claim that Cthulhu is that much more popular. Yog is, after all, more frequently referenced in the mythos than Cthulhu is.

But it's at least less distressing to see the loss percents:

Cthulhu: 42.51%

Yog-Sothoth: 40.73 %

The awaken percentages for these two AOs is closer than their battle percentages, so it truly is the final combat that tips the scales in favor of Cthulhu. I guess having one extra doom token and healing them back really edges him out over Yog's balancing act/swift kill.

Tibs said:

Avi_dreader said:

Maybe Yog is less popular to play against because he's not as much of a celebrity, so you get more beginner games against Cthulhu (i.e. more losses), and fewer against Yog.

Hadn't thought of that. Well, wait, according to the last report, the number of logged games is:

Cthulhu: 410

Yog-Sothoth: 407

So, statistically speaking, there is not enough of a tilt to really claim that Cthulhu is that much more popular. Yog is, after all, more frequently referenced in the mythos than Cthulhu is.

But it's at least less distressing to see the loss percents:

Cthulhu: 42.51%

Yog-Sothoth: 40.73 %

The awaken percentages for these two AOs is closer than their battle percentages, so it truly is the final combat that tips the scales in favor of Cthulhu. I guess having one extra doom token and healing them back really edges him out over Yog's balancing act/swift kill.



Tibs said:

(Side note discussion)

Personally, I don't understand how Cthulhu has been beating Yog-Sothoth.

Because Ancient One's have no respect for the laws of probability. Cthulu fixes random posession draws and the dice rolls.