im new to arkham horror and was wondering what a good order is to get expantions for this game. should i go with card expantions first or board

This order:

1. small box of choice (except Black Goat of the Woods)
2. Dunwich Horror
3. next small box of choice (except Black Goat of the Woods)
4. Innsmouth Horror
5. remaining small box of choice (except Black Goat of the Woods)
6. Kingsport Horror
7. Black Goat of the Woods
8. Miskatonic Horror

While I don't own the game, my dad has all the expansions, and we (the men) play it whenever the family gets together.

I recommend getting the big boxes first. You get more investigators, ancient ones, items, so that even if you leave out the extra map your core game has more variety.

Innsmouth, if thats the one with the personal quests for each investigator, would be my first pick. Those extra goals help vary and split up what everyone is doing. I like dunwich as well, the injury and madness card add some extra decisions to your play when the dice dont go your way.

The epic battles don't add as much in Kingsport, since you have to actually fight the ancient one to see how this addition works out, and we found that there were precious few opportunities that we could enjoy the epic battle, as the ancient ones are rather nasty and tend to eat a few investigators when they come out... leaving a player or two out of the epic battle entirely.

For small boxes, I'd prioritize The Lurker, The Dark Pharaoh, and then The Black goat and the King in Yellow as my lowest 2 in terms of expansion priority.

I approached you question of how to prioritize expansion purchasing with the thought of what will add the most to the game experience in the long run.

These are just my opinions though. We tend not to play the specific scenario variants as much. I hope some others weigh in with their thoughts on the matter as well!

I faced the same problem and got all expansions. *problem solved*

Nevertheless I got the new Curse of the Dark Pharao Revised Box first and I would get it again.

The new Exhibit Encounters and Items add much to the game in my opinion.

I would also then recomment the big boxes.

Dunwich is a must in my opinion, adding much to the basic game even if you dont want to play with the board.

Innsmouth is about the board and the new locations, while you could argue the personal stories are a good addition, I could live without them.

But then I really like Kingsport: Great new Skills / Investigators, Epic Battles, and I really really like the idea of just doing encounters in Kingsport and not closing gates. ( In the original game I always feel like not having enough time/turns to enjoy enough Arkham Encounters )

So CotdP, Dunwich, Kingsport/Innsmouth in this order would be pretty fine.

How many people are liable to play is a big thing...

If you're playing with 5 or more players who are all already familiar with complex (geeky) board games, best to focus on the big boxes...

If 3 or less players or most players are laymen, focus on small boxes (less new rules to keep track of).

Innsmouth as the last board. Miskatonic as the last expansion.

I ordered Arkham Horror with all existing small-box-expansions and one big-box-expanions of Innsmouth Horror.

After reading this thread I feel horribly mistaken.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

I would say if you got all the small boxes and Innsmouth, permanently integrate any items, spells, and monsters from the small boxes, and all of Innsmouth Horror's stuff, then cycle in and out small box expansions for theme games. You'll have fun this way, and be challenged.

Avi_dreader said:

Innsmouth is the hardest expansion, and it also comes with no new items or skills. The small boxes all come with new items, so that's not a problem if you mix them.

Innsmouth first wasn't a "mistake," per se. You can use any of the Ancient Ones and investigators without having to use the rest of the expansion. That way you can hold off on exploring the new board until you're ready for a REAL challenge.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Oh, you're not just going to trust me ;') Okay, beyond a lot of experience with the game and its mechanics, I'd say that because Innsmouth and the base game for the mythos deck is the hardest combination, any other small expansion mythos cards will dilute that difficulty (and mythos deck is a large part of game difficulty), on the other hand, diluting the item decks isn't a problem, it's actually an improvement in some ways (particularly the Unique Item deck, which if undiluted is very easy to hunt through for Elder Signs).

It'll actually make for some fairly difficult games, but, at least when you get the other expansions, if you can master this combination, the other large board expansions won't add that much to your sense of their difficulty ;') Except maybe Miskatonic (a Dunwich/Innsmouth/Base game, with the King in Yellow mechanic ::shudder:

Here's the Order I got them in:

King in Yellow

Lurker at the Threshold

Innsmouth Horror

Black Goat of the Woods

Curse of the Dark Pharaoh

Miskatonic Horror

Dunwich Horror

Kingsport Horror (Well, soon, presumably )

Now, here's the order I'd recommend:

1st Expansion: King in Yellow or Curse of the Dark Pharaoh - These two are the most thematic small box expansions, playing them makes the game feel like a specific story. Either of those will increase your difficulty but also give you some good items and spells.

2nd Expansion: Dunwich Horror - At this point Madness and Injury cards are almost a neccessity. Plus increasing your ranks with some good new investigators and adding some new Ancient Ones to struggle with will make it fun.

3d Expansion: King in Yellow or Curse of the Dark Pharaoh - At this point, your collection will still be small enough to reasonably be able to play thematic games (separating out mythos and location cards afterward) so that you can still enjoy the theme. Neither Black Goat or Lurker have enough of a feel beyond the Herald to make a difference.

4th Expansion: Innsmouth Horror - Yes, the game will have some cards you can't use yet, but Personal Stories add a lot to the game, and I love the Innsmouth Ancient Ones quite a bit (Though he's hard, Quachil Uttas is by far my favorite AO to fight - I love the Dust Deck), and in addition, the game will rack up the difficulty.

5th Expansion: Lurker at the Threshold - The Lurker will be a welcome break, making fun choices a part of the game (I love the deal with the devil mechanic), and adding the fun new gate markers, as well as more good items.

Remaining Expansions: You should probably get Kingsport first (though I don't have it yet). Finish off your boards and other worlds, and grab the last of the Investigators, AO's and Epic Battles. At five expansions, Miskatonic will add enough to your existing expansions to be worth it, but you don't really need it until you have all of them. Pick up Black Goat whenever after Lurker - all it will do is increase your difficulty somewhat (and add a very rare chance of a Cult encounter).

As for combining them, what I finally did was incorporate everything together with the following exceptions:

1) I keep King in Yellow separate, because I still like having a theme game with it (though I may just give up on that after I get Kingsport).

2) I use card boxes to hold all my encounters, mythos, ect, and seperated the base decks from Innsmouth and Dunwich, and combined them with the relevent cards from Miskatonic, so that I can keep the expansion boards separate but easy to set up.

3) I only use the Ancient Whispers mechanic in specific games, since it is thematic enough on its own.

The system works well.