Generally I prefer to play will all the expansions combined, but I like to keep the theme as well. So I keep all my mythos cards shuffled together but decide on an expansion I want to focus on for a particular game e.g. Innsmouth. Then when it comes to the Mythos phase I alternate between drawing cards until I get an Innsmouth one and drawing until I get a non Innsmouth one.

This way, I keep a theme going, but everything has a chance of happening

The quesiton I've got though is what do other people do with the allies when all the expansions are mixed together? So far I've shuffled them and taken a random 10 for the game (is it 10? I can't remember off the top of my head). But I get confused what to do when an encounter says "draw ally x if he is available" and that ally wasn't in the orginial 10 or so. It seems to make sense that all the other allies not in the starting 10 would leave the game as the terror track increases, but I haven't thought of a good mechanic for this.

What does everyone else do?

Thanks

K

I don't know how well this works with your "theme" idea, but I work allies this way:

I shuffle them all up and randomly draw 11 to be "in town" for the game. When drawing a random ally or selecting an ally of my choice, I pick only from that stack. If an encounter specifies drawing a particular ally, I look at both that stack and the "out of town" stack.

However, when the terror level increases or when the southside strangler strikes, I remove one ally from the "in town" stack and 3 allies (one for each big board used) from the "out of town" stack from the game. Also, when I draw one from the "out of town" stack to resolve an encounter, I move one of the "in town" ones to the "out of town" stack, to keep it at 11 possible allies in the game.

Well I came on to say what Jack said, but my reasoning for removing 3 from the out-of-town pile is that there are three expansion ally sets in play:

1. Dark Pharaoh
2. Dunwich
3. Kingsport

I'm working on a set of allies for a mini-expansion based around the recently published Arkham novels, and were I to add them in to my game, I would then remove 4 from the out-of-town stack for each in-town ally returned to the box.

Speaking of which, out-of-town allies that are "removed" are not considered "returned to the box." So Charlie doesn't have free reign over them.

Thanks for your thoughts, they make a lot of sense.

I'm just surprised that allies aren't mentioned in the rules somewhere when you combine everything together (I haven't got LatT or MH)

Not surprising, the traditional "use 11 randomly selected allies" rule was always mentioned. It is by far the simplest solution, albeit the least satisfying.

Tibs said:

Wait, so when ARE allies returned to the box? I thought "removed" and "returned to the box" was the same for allies.

I'm lazy and most players in my group rarely go after specific allies at Ma's, so I just leave them all in the pile and remove 3 each time the Terror level goes up (discarding the last of them when it reaches 10).

For the purposes of that variant, that is, the "out of town" allies are essentially independent from the game. Only the ones that are returned to the box from the deck of 11 count as "returned to the box."

jack21222 said:

I use this arrangement myself regarding allies. Everything but the terror level - I don't remove 3 from the "out of town" deck (what I refer to as the "ally encounter deck" or secondary deck) , I just remove 1 from the "in town" deck or "Ma's Boarding house deck"

Basically, the only way you can use the secondary deck is when an encounter card directs you to do so if the ally is NOT present in the primary.

If you plan on recruiting at Ma's only the primary ally deck is used. Any draws from the secondary must be replenished by a draw from the primary.

Is there a explanation for the draw 3 from secondary mechanic?

I must have missed this mechanic. It appears a bit unwieldy and unnecessary to me.

Then again I've only played with one board thus far.

Nameless1 said:

Yes: as the terror level increases, your chances of finding an ally in town are appropriately lowered. If you never dropped any from the "out" deck, then the total number of allies available to find would go from 34 at TL-0 to 24 at TL-10. That's still way too many (as opposed to 1 ally in the original). Dropping 3 at each terror-level up will ensure that the available ally pool would gradually dry up.

Tibs said:

Tibs, is there a formula for implementing this?

Is it a hard coded 3 from secondary or is it (as jack21222 described), 1 card per expansion board?

Also by means of further clarification would expansions or expansion boards having any effect on this formula?

Right now I only have one box box expansion (Dunwich) so my ally count is relatively small.

Nameless1 said:

I spoke too quickly when I said "one per expansion board." What I meant was "one per expansion that has allies." I think the effect of having ally-granting expansions is pretty self-explanatory. One removed from the "out of town" box for each ally-granting expansion you're using.

Not much of a formula. One ally leaves the "main" deck of 11 at each terror level increase, and X leave the "out" deck, where X is equal to the number of these expansions you're using:

• Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
• Dunwich Horror
• Kingsport Horror

If you were using all of them, then by the time your terror level reached 8, you would have removed the last of the "out" allies. There would still be allies remaining in the main deck, just like the normal game.

If you're using just Dunwich, then you'd remove one ally from the "main" deck and one from the "out" deck every terror-up (or any other effect that returns an ally to the box). Clealrly, at TL5 you'll run out of "out" allies, but that's how it is. It's still more available to you than with the official "use just 11" rule.

Tibs said:

Many thanks! This is very interesting - I must remember this next time I play.

And just to confirm these are the only expansions that include additional allies?

I suppose the inclusion of additional allies from Miskatonic and the novel promotion(s) would not have a significant effect on this implementation - or would be too complicated to correct.

It's a pity there isn't an elegant official solution to allies.

Those are the only three. And yeah, I don't count the promotional ally because it's just one guy with no encounter to obtain him. As I said before, when I'm done drafting encounter cards and some allies to compliment Professor Grayson, I would count that as a "fourth" expansion in terms of removing "out-deck" allies.

FFG does have an elegant solution, but it's not satisfactory. Choose 11 random allies to be in the game.

Oh, one last thing: Young Zoog is never in either deck, but he may be obtained via the encounter card that specifically names him. He doesn't count as part of the 11, either, so it's theoretically possible then to have 12 allies in play.

Based on the commentary here I've written up an addendum to my player setup. Would others say this captures the salient points?:

Preparation (Game Setup):

1. Shuffle the ally deck and deal 11 cards face-up so that all investigators know that these are recruitable at Ma's Boarding House during the game - this is the PRIMARY (main/boarding house/in town) ally deck. The remaining cards are comprise the SECONDARY (encounter/out-of-town) ally deck.
2. Shuffle the PRIMARY ally deck.

Ally Recruitment:

1. If an ally is recruited from Ma's Boarding House, the investigator must choose from those present in the PRIMARY deck ONLY .
2. If a described ally is to be recruited from an encounter (after meeting the encounter card requirements), the investigator must first search the PRIMARY deck (taking it if so).
3. If the described ally is NOT to be found in the PRIMARY deck, the SECONDARY deck must be searched (taking it if so). If an ally is drawn from the SECONDARY deck by this means, an ally card must then be transferred FROM the PRIMARY deck to the SECONDARY deck to replace it.

Terror Level
For every terror level increase remove 1 ally card from the Primary deck, and X ally cards from the SECONDARY ally deck where X equals the number of these expansions in play:

• Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
• Dunwich Horror
• Kingsport Horror

Nameless1,

Elegant and practical! That's exactly how I like it.

The Professor

The Professor said:

Thank you!

Nameless1 said:

Great to have it all in one place, Nameless: nice work! I only have a slight beef with this last part. I play with all Allies all the time, even if I'm only playing an Innsmouth-Lurker game (since you don't need a Kingsport Encounter card in order to recruit a Kingsport Ally from Ma's)...which could mean, by strict definition, I wouldn't discard ANY Secondary Allies, ever. On the other hand, if I was playing with all three of those expansions, I would run out of Secondary Allies by the time I hit Terror Track 8. I would prefer they drain all the way together. (Plus, even in an Arkham-Only game, 1 Ally would be brave enough to remain in town on Terror Track 10. So I don't mind extrapolating that a few Secondary Allies would be just as headstrong.)

I would say:

• If the Secondary Deck starts with 12 cards or fewer: X = 1.
• If the Secondary Deck starts with 13 cards or more: X = 2.
• Optional: If you have all 34 Allies, and you REALLY want to deplete everyone but that last boarder at Ma's: X = 2 AND discard 1 extra Ally whenever the Terror Track closes a shop. (And when you hit Terror Track 10, if you happen to have Oliver Grayson as well.)

Hey jgt7771:

While I see your point about wishing the decks to drain simultaneously I'm not sure it's an issue.

The secondary deck is ONLY accessible in encounters which as I recall tend to specify the ally by name.

Barring certain investigators who can farm the encounter deck I think it would probably be difficult to "game the system" as it were to access this secondary deck.

I admit your solution would be balanced but a bit concerned about the math.

I was told there would be none!

Nameless1 said:

You're quite right. My brain got a "But that's not exactly what I do" bug up its cerebrum, probably due to work boredom, and I just let it dribble off. Pay no attention to it!

Again, nice work!

For me, it's a lot easier to just remove one ally from the "out" deck for each ally-expansion in play. I thought about trying to make a rule that changes their frequency based on how many allies are in a given expansion, but... sometimes less is more, you know?

Tibs said:

Thanks guys!