Recently there was a suggestion in my gaming group that Hastur be permanently removed from the stack of Ancient Ones. It was argued that Hastur games are rich only in frustration, given the eight clue tokens to seal requirement, and that it was better to take him out. Though reluctant to remove him, I can't really dispute the point, and I was curious as to what other Arkham players thought about this question. Where do you stand on retaining or removing Hastur, and why?

Keep Hastur and play with King in Yellow Expansion! Then you'll have something to complain about...

Leave him in.

A. Hastur is a classic.

B. Variety is king!

C. You could make Hastur the one AO in your whole set where your primary objective is to defeat him in final combat. Racing to get yourself adequately armed before the terror level gets too high will be the adventure.

D. Variable combat modifiers are just cool in general.

Do you have the Kingsport Horror expansion? Because I thought any game with Hastur and Charlie Kane is unsettlingly unchallenging...

Hastur is a good ancient one, good challenge for a sealing victory but goes down like a punk in final combat.

Veet said:

A drunk punk. A drunk punk who's been savaged by rabid chipmunks.

Hmm... Seriously, if your group hates him, take him out of the random pool and only include him for special occasions.

RandomPrecision said:

when eight clue tokens are required to seal it's hard to use those pair of clue tokens to prevent the terror track's increase.
but then again, when we get kane + hastur (or even on kane + yellow king herald random draws) we usually use his clues to prevent terror and win by closing instead. winning by final combat feels lame against hastur and yibb-tstll, especially with the possability of sealing the beast's power..

Oh, I do loathe Hastur. He may not be considered that hard by the forum-goers at large, but he is my personal nemesis (of course, I still haven't played against any of the expansions AOs). I think that, in general, Ancient Ones should make it a more feasible option to go for a sealing victory than a final combat victory (partly because it's always my inclination to go for a sealing victory). As you may surmise, I'm not exactly an objective observer (in fact, I've already removed Hastur, at least for my solo games), but ultimately, I think you should listen to your group. If you (in the plural) aren't having fun with him, take him out.

Walk said:

I do think that some AOs should mix things up and make one depart from the usual formula (though in this context I'm mostly thinking of closing victories, as I share most people's disapproval of the final combat victory). That said, my group refuses to play with Atlach-Nacha for the same reason.