DaveNYC said:

Yeah, definitely. It's the board that works best as first expansion, and the items provided helps a lot in creating a greater gaming experience. Plus, Injuries and Madnesses are vital. And the Herald is fun

Herald...? Do you mean the Dunwich board mechanics, or the actual Dunwich Horror Herald?

Julia said:

> urgent whispering < Psst! Julia! No Herald in Dunwich! The Horror is in Miskatonic!

Don't forget that there is a subtly different downloadable version of the DH herald.

jgt7771 said:

::facepalm:: yeah, sorry guys, half of my brain was asleep, not watching what the other half was writing. No Dunwich Horror Herald in the Dunwich Horror Box (sounds odd, doesn't it?)

To be fair, the Horror is odd all around. Even in the original story, it wasn't entirely clear whether "the Dunwich Horror" meant the monster or the horrible events connected to it (or both). The name of the expansion, in addition to having the same problem, was also an echo of "Arkham Horror," which would seem to suggest the second interpretation (even though the exact events of "The Dunwich Horror" do not happen in a game of Arkham Horror played with Dunwich Horror). What's more, in-game, if someone mentions "the Dunwich Horror," they might be referring to the expansion, the actual monster (or, by extension, the mechanics that cause the monster to appear), or the Herald (that is, one of the two slightly different Heralds).

I should probably end with some sort of contrived pun involving Heart of Darkness , but I can't think up a good one (such as it is, or rather, might be) and, myself not actually having read Heart of Darkness , it strikes me as cheating.

Not to mention that the first Herald ever released was for the King in Yellow, so, at that time, no Herald could be added because none had ever thought about them! Since then all boxes but Miskatonic had (at least) one

Um...on the one hand, I'm honestly not trying to make fun of you, and on the other hand, it's possible that I'm being dense, but, uh, that was a joke, right?

Walk said:

I think you might have to elaborate...

Miskatonic has the Dunwich Horror.

I just re-read Julia's text and I think it was an oversight. Though, the Dunwich Horror herald has been available for a long time, and MH was the first time it was available in print. Unless you count the very minor change to the DH doom token rate, it's the same herald that's been available for years, so MH has really offered zero new heralds.

Tibs said:

Yeah, that's the point. Even if there is a Herald (something apparently I'm not able to remember at all ::laughter:: sorry folks), it's not anything "new", nor "specific to that expansion" (a la Hydra / Dagon for Innsmouth). It's just a good print of something that was available for many years, with just a minor change

Ah, alright. Although (just to nitpick further) you could also add the new CotDP to the list, since its Herald was also posted on the site.

Very true! Even if I tend to consider the revised CotDP as a reboot of something old, and not part of the "normal" Arkham continuum (Innsmouth - Lurker - Miskatonic - still to be published). Yeah, it sounds like an X-Men something alternate story ::laughter::

Talked to my friend and he said he will sell me the games more than likely if I just wait. His games are in exquisite condition and in the meantime I still get to play Arkham from time to time. In the meantime, I picked up Gears, and that game is fun (if you like Death Angel, worth picking up for sure).

I had the same dilemma myself after playing a few times and realized that this is one of the best games i ve ever played! So I decided to do a "little" research on which expansions to buy (if not all!).

Ive reached to a conlusion that:

From the big expansions I should buy in that order:

Dunwich Horror: one of the best expansions and the one to start with in terms of difficulty.

Innsmouth Horror: probably the best expansion but quite difficult to start with.

Kingsport Horror: not quite preffered when it comes to what it adds to the game.

Miskatonic Horror: it comes last just because is an expansion to the expansions!

From the small expansions:

The King in Yellow: it's the atmosphere and what it adds to the game.

The Lurker at the Threshold: it makes the game easier and combines well with the other expansions.

The Black Goat of the Woods: it makes the game even more difficult.

Curse of the Dark Pharaoh: it's like an extension to the base game.

Hope this was helpful!

I think Drag0nfly hit the nail on the head, with the one qualification that Lurker can make the game either easier or harder; the main thing that makes it easier is the herald, which really makes it too easy. The one other thing that helps the investigators is relationships. However, the new gate tokens definitely make it harder than the base set, as do the mythos cards. The nice thing, though, is that it's more modular than most small boxes, so you can add whichever combination of those things you want (though I do still agree that it's worth getting King in Yellow first).

So after having waited over a full year now with my friend still keeping his copy, and myself with a way better job than Walmart, I have invested finally in Arkham Horror. The game will be in the mail any day now and I probably will end up getting half the expansions in no time.

*Clapping excitedly. Can't wait for Chthulu to rip my face off!

Tromdial said:

Welcome aboard, my friend. It's a pleasure reading you even on this forum :-)

Quick add on questions. do the expansions bring whole 'new boards' ie you don't use the original at all or are they add on boards so you use the original and the new one together? If there is a mixture which one is which?

Lilikin,

There are four Big Box Expansions, of which three have additional boards (Dunwich, Kingsport, and Innsmouth) and you MUST use the Arkham Board at all times. The fourth Bib Box is Miskatonic Horror which provides cards to reduce dilution across the other expansions but does not include a board. There are also four Small Box Expansions (Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, King in Yellow, Black Goat of the Woods, and Lurker at the Threshold).

Each of the expansions have something to offer ~ I would suggest checking out additional threads here and over at BoardGameGeek. Personally, I would suggest Dunwich Horror as your first Bib Box Expansion and King in Yellow for your Small Box Expansion. I play with all of them, but I've also played more than 100 games. Get used to the board without ANY expansions first and once you've won 70% or 80% of your games, strat to introduce an expansion.

Happy Gaming!

With my friend and sometimes with his friends, I've yet to have seen us lose a game with the original game. Been waiting to see Dunwich but he always misplaced or forgot cards so we never get to see it, and since I got a special coupon for Barnes and Noble, I thought now is a good time to go portal squashing.

Wait, Lurker makes things easier, or too easy? Say on, folks. My group has yet to win a single game. I'm about to drop a Guardian in there…

The Lurker herald fresh out of the box is exploitable and makes the game too easy (although it is a really cool herald). So, too easy—but I have high standards. Miskatonic makes him a bit better though.

Two questions for now:

1). Does Miskatonic Horror make Kingsport more accessible during gameplay? Have heard Kingsport is one of the least favorite expansions yet was wondering if some of the other expansions made it more worth visiting.

2). Does ffg make sleeves large enough for the heralds, ancient ones, and character sheets?