Ok, I have the rules for AH pretty pat now and I am trying to engage my gaming group with this wonderful game, but I do need some help with basic strategies. I would normally search the web for such things, but the filter here at work will only let me access FFG's site (which they would probably block if they knew). So my question is as follows. In a newbie group, with say 5-6 players, what sort of approach should we use to achieve victory. As the group is new, we will be doing only the main board with no expansions for the first game or two, until others are familiar with the mechanics. In the solo games I played,I would usually run groups of 4 with teams of 2, one heavy on combat, the other on lore. Each team would pick gates and try to seal. There are just so many things I am not sure about, like is it worth the time to find allies at the boarding house, or should we have people trying to earn income from the paper or elsewhere, to try to farm some elder signs. Any kind of good pointer here would be helpful. Thanks.

In a rush right now, so no time for answering, but you can read some stuff here . Plus, the arkhamwiki is full of good suggestions written by people very expert in the game :-)

Gtg

thanks, but that is one the sites blocked by my workplace. Otherwise I would be reading it post haste.

Just reminded me how casually me and my gaming group playing, wasting all the clues and doing random stuff.

Rule 1 I think is that your strategy needs to be fluid. It needs to be able to adapt and respond to things happening. Initially you need to take stock of which AO and which expansions you are using, and how your basic strategy needs to respond. Then if you have an expansion board in play it is often wise to designate someone to go there early and deal with it (picking up the clues, laying down work with the Feds, or delaying the Rift track). This should be done even if nothing happens in that place initially and that player should only leave when there is nothing left to do or something more urgent requires their presence elsewhere.

The basic strategy is to gather clues quickly for the first few turns and have at least one investigator with the power to seal in the otherworlds by the end of turn 3 or 4. If you play with bursts, this should preferably seal one of the quieter unstable locations. After that the ideal way to play it is to make your sweep through the OW with 3 investigators and then two more at a time, hoping things do not go up the fabled creek. If rumours show up you should evaluate whether or not they are threatening enough to distract you. One player should maybe have the task of keeping the streets clear.

I usually dont bother with allies but if speed or monster blockers become an issue I head straight to the police station with my requisite trophies. The paddy wagon is worth its weight in gold. Blessings are cheap and powerful and the science building is critical for the last seals.

Gotta go now, nurse is here wit my pills. Theres a lot more to it, Im sure others will now add things of enormous value.

Some brief suggestions, some of them stolen from the page you can't access:

Don't use clues for anything except sealing gates (except in extreme cases, obviously; suppose you need to pass a check in order to not be devoured, for example)

Luck is (generally) more useful than Lore in encounters

A subjective list of where to spend your trophies: Science Building and Ma's are probably the best; the Church and Police Station can also be extremely useful (though somewhat more situational)

You know about the newspaper->elder sign thing, so I won't dwell on that, except to say that it is indeed a popular strategy. Whether it's better than going all-out clue hunting seems to be a matter of opinion.

Lastly, and most importantly, unstable locations differ a lot in terms of the likelihood of a gate opening there. In particular, there are four high-frequency locations (I won't name them here, since that's probably the most spoilery detail about the game, and some people prefer to find out for themselves, but if you do want to know, it should be easy to search for a thread that lists them). Seal a significant number of those and the game is effectively over.

Arkham Horror is a game of tactics, not strategy. It's often the little decisions that turn out to be crucial:

• The exact position to choose on your Fight/Will slider
• If you have a focus of 1, whether you can afford to maximize Fight just to close a gate
• Whether to fight a monster or avoid it by moving somewhere else on board (maybe it's guarding three clues. But if it ends up taking four clues to kill it, then was it really worth it?)
• Whether to visit the Hospital/Asylum before jumping in a gate
• How many clue tokens you really need to survive in an other world (often, at least seven, including five to seal)
• Whether to give one player all the good items
• Whether to send a fighter up to Innsmouth, or a sneaker
• When to ignore a rumor
• When to ignore a personal story

Usually, the right decision depends on the circumstances. Sometimes it makes sense to take out the Cthonian come hell or high water (or the expenditure of five clue tokens). Sometimes it's better to let him make his earthquakes. Or, if your Lore sucks, but your Fight is good, and you have a Focus of 1, it might make sense to max out your Fight in order to close the gate to the Abyss. But since your Lore is bad and your Fight is good, chances are that your Will and your max Sanity are also bad, which means it's going to take you a couple of turns before you can get your Will to the point where you can be an effective street sweeper. So, if Arkham needs a street sweeper right away, it might be better to not max out your Fight, even if you have to give up on closing the gate. It's the little things that make or break you.

My advice.... is not to read any advice.

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with being said, but Arkham is more of an experience than a game. You don't play Arkham, it plays you. Sure there are locations that have more beneficial encounters than others. And some locations are more unstable than others.

The fun part is to learn all of this by playing. You might end up losing alot, but thats OK. It won't be long before you are finding the base game easy and you'll be wishing it were harder.

Just play and enjoy.