Hi, I just both this great game and playing it with some friend.

Monday we played a 2 player game and were totally wiped away, tueasday we played a 5 player game and we blasted the game to pieces.

in the 5 player game midway we were waiting for portals and monsters to spawn and all five people right jumped on them as soon as they were spawned. While in the 2 player game we hardly had time to close and kill monsters.

Is there indeed such a great difference between 2 or 5 players games or i'm i missing something.

Thanks in advance,

Erwin

Did you followed the rule of 2 monsters per gate in your 5 players game?

There is indeed a steep scale in difficulty the fewer investigators you use. Try it with 1 sometime, as I did repeatedly before I wised up. The trouble is that you need about 3-4 investigators to stay abreast of new gates opening, the only way I ever won through solo investigator was by becoming deputised, which frees up movement restrictions, and having a Find Gate spell, which shortcuts Otherworlds.

However the game should not be repeatedly easy with 5. It can happen that as a fluke Arkham just rolls over, but there is nothing in 5 players that says it will be a cakewalk. So its possible (indeed likely) you have played something critical wrong, but it could also be the way things spun out for you.

I take it you only have the base game. In that case, here's what various rules should be for you with five players: two monsters appears whenever a gate opens, as My NeighbourTrololo said; whenever you have a monster surge, you place a number of monsters equal to five or the number of open gates, whichever is greater; the Ancient One wakes up when there are six gates open at once; the monster limit in Arkham is eight; the monster limit in the Outskirts is three. Also, randomly (and because a number of new players get these wrong), you cannot trade Clues, Allies, or Skills and you cannot have more than one of the same Special card at once.

Walk said:

and.. remember what to do in what phase; movement/combat with monsters on the board, arkham encounters, other world encounters, etc.

and let's not forget the rule that so many miss in the beginning that greatly affect the difficulty; entering combat with monsters end movement. even if you don't make any combat check (e.g. you fail sneak check, take damage, do the horror check and then successfully sneak).

sparhawk1975 said:

Oo... An Eddings fan. Hmm. 1-2 player games are difficult bordering on impossible to win except by gearing up to defeat the Ancient One in final combat (unless you only have the base game in which case it is possible to win by sealing, but, still somewhat difficult without understanding the game structure very well). All other comments being considered, the base game *is* very easy, as long as players stick to the goal of getting and using clues (and clue equivalent items) for sealing gates instead of getting distracted by the glamor of killing monsters.

Here are some mods I made for the base board only use. I have some other mods for the other AOs, but I'm not at home right now, and I don't remember which thread it's buried in.

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For playing the Base Game only and for enhancing the difficulty of the Base Game Ancient Ones:

I wouldn't play with the modified Doom Tracks if you have other board expansions (particularly Dunwich and Innsmouth), or use the following Elder Sign/Encounter rule.

Doom tokens can not be removed from the doom track by any means prior to final combat (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. Elder Signs are used as normal, but they don't reduce the doom track.

Optional: ban the use of clues with the fight skill and/or the shotgun during final combat.

Starting Doom Tokens for base game Ancient Ones [with the base board only]:

Yig: 0

Ithaqua: 2

Azathoth: 5 [if you are not just playing the base game, 3]

Cthulhu: 3

Nyarlathotep: 2

Hastur: 3

Yog Sothoth: 2

Shub Niggurath: 3

Yig: Investigators can not be blessed during games against him (Sister Mary is an exception to this rule). Twice as many successes as normal are required to remove a doom token from his doom track.

Cultists are fast.

Ithaqua: gains 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: Start him with 5 or 3 doom tokens.

Cultists and Maniacs deal four damage to an investigator who defeats them and are stalkers.

Cthulhu: when he reaches 7 doom tokens, his ability reduces 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 permanently 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: is magically and physically immune and requires 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 at the start of the game.

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: gains physical resistance. Flip all gates against him upside down until investigators enter them, increase their modifiers by -1.

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: gains magical resistance. His final combat attack require investigators to lose 3 monster trophies.

Dark Young have their toughness increased an additional one, are Endless, 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 the Dhole on the open gate with the least number of monsters on it (players choice if a tie). The Dhole and Dark Youngs can not be taken as trophies.

Yeh indeed a big eddings fan , thanks all for the feedback, thought I was getting crazy with our 2 player game.

In both games we really worked together, even more in the 2 player game, but still couldn't win, but now I see that's very hard to win.

Maybe next time in a 2 player game we both take two characters, that will probably teach arkham and the monsters .

Or use one of the "house rules" suggested here.

Again thanks for the feedback, have fun!.

Erwin

sparhawk1975 said:

This is exactly what most players do in a 2 player games. Many players who play solitaire control 3-4 investigators.

Avi: South Church exploit? What might that be...?

Walk said:

I think Avi referred to this: "You join in the morning mass. Spend 1 Clue token to ask for heavenly aid. If you do so, roll a die. On a success, your prayers are answered. Remove 1 doom token from the Ancient One's doom track"

If you play base game only, you can exploit this encounter in case of need for lengthening your games. Just gather your party there, in a couple of turns you should be able to remove the doomer

Julia said:

Exactly. And as long as you never close gates without sealing them in the base game, using that tactic or Elder Signs essentially gives you infinite time to win the game. Assuming you don't die of boredom first.

That's not much of an exploit. There's only a 1 in 7 chance of getting the encounter with just the base game, and 1 in 2 chance of passing if you're already blessed. Plus, you have to spend clues. Clues spent on goofing off aren't spent sealing gates.

If you park Patrice there, yeah, maybe she'll get the encounter once or twice in a game. But she may also get negative encounters that could cause her to fail her story. However, Patrice as written has the ability to just sit anywhere and allow others to win the game with her clues, so this isn't a problem with the encounter so much as it is with Patrice.

Tibs said:

You need Darrell and/or the Dragon's eye to make it really worthwhile (it'll come up about every other turn if you have both). It's not that hard to get the dragon's eye if you go after the search for any item encounter in the curiosity shop.

::Shrug:: it's not *much* of an exploit (there are much worse), but it is one of the more unpleasant things that can be done to the base game to make it even more of a joke ;')