I keep seeing references to Arkham Horror having a really long setup time, sometimes as long as a half hour. In my (very limited experience) I have yet to take longer than a few minutes to setup the game though, so I'm wondering, what am I doing wrong?

I can't quite understand why it would take that long to layout the cards and tokens especially if I play with a random old one and investigators. What's everyone else's experience with setup?

notanumber said:

After dealing out the fixed starting items you need to shuffle each item deck to get a random draw. It can also take a little time to separate tokens, cards etc - but there are ways to speed that up with storage boxes and card holders. I think 30 mins might be an exaggeration, but it is long compared to most games.

notanumber said:

You probably aren't using all the expansion components, which adds considerable setup time - even more now you need to unpack all the monster miniatures ready to use.

True. I've only just purchased the base game and Curse of the Dark Pharoah, which I haven't tried yet, so that would probably explain it. Just wanted to see if there might be something I'm missing in the setup.

Well.. I have all the big box expansions, Miskatonic included, and my setup time is pretty much a few minutes.

I customly ogranized my boxes, of course, with some foamboard and some spare time, and I fit everything into two boxes (third is only for the boards, so I don't count this one really). So I have every locations from the Arkham/Dunwich/Kingsport/Innsmouth plus some extra cards (like epic battle cards, AO plot, Innsmouth look, Dunwich Horror cards etc) in one box, and pretty much everything else in the other - in a form that allows me to draw cards directly from the boxes - it saves so much time and space!

As for the tokens, I put some of them together in some removable foamboard "pockets" so that everything fits in two four-pocket pieces.

I can post some pictures tomorrow, if someone is interested, but I must also say, that I don't rally have any project files and dimensions to share, so I can post it as a reference of sort.

Cheers

You still need to shuffle cards, which will dramatically increase the setup time.

Yes,but I don't understand why can't I do that when I'm packing after already played game, so that I'll have them shuffled at the start of another game?

I do that all the time, so the setup time isn't really increased by shuffling.

You deal investigators fixed possessions at the end of your games for the next game to come? Because you need to shuffle deck after the fixed possessions has been dealt.

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

I have impression, that you're looking for a hole in all.

I was talking about shuffling big cards, but geez... I don't see shuffling few decks of small cards after dealing fixed possesions to be such a horrible problem you make it out to be. You have what? something like four decks of cards to shuffle (common/unique/spells/skills and sometimes allies). Is that so time-consuming? Not really..

And as for needing.

You need to do nothing, really. It depends on unique house rules by which you play, doesn't it?

Drow said:

The way I see it, whether you shuffle the cards at the end of one game or at the beginning of the next, it still counts as "setup time." This becomes especially apparent when you play two games back to back.

I guess it's the way you see it, not me.

Drow said:

Yes please!

arkhamresident said:

Here you go

http://boardgamegeek.com/images/user/450904/drowish

That's a really nice setup. Seeing this, and some of the other custom made storage solutions on Boardgamegeek has inspired me. I'm going to have to try my hand at this.

Drow said:

What do you use to attach the pieces at the corner, adhesive?

Drow said:

If you're shuffling the cards after the game is over and your friends are winding down, then it's not using up any time that could otherwise be used for your game, sure. But it does count as setup time if you're playing back-to-back games or are playing alone.

arkhamresident said:

Yes, I've bought an universal glue entitled "Magic Glue" (not kidding) and it glues foamboard perfectly, and it's getting transparent after drying.

I just added to the base game with the Innsmouth and Dunwich expansions. I have only played once with the new expansions, but in an attempt to keep the expansions separate, I kept all the card decks separate for each expansion which means that I have 27 location decks (3x9) for just the main board. This takes a lot of space and set up time, but I figure that it saves me from sorting out the decks at the end of the game to keep the expansions separated from the main game.

How does everyone else do it? Do you keep the expansions separated between games or do you leave everything shuffled together and just play with all the same expansions every time?

This is not for everyone, but I keep the complete game out on the table all of the time. I play with the the base board plus DH and KH . In the weeks ahead, I'll completely transform the current set-up once we have the thematic Card Displays, Component Trays and Player's Plate available (see other posts by me on this subject). I currently play AH + CotDP (both versions) + DH + KiY + KH + BGotW + LatT + MH

Along the long side of the assembled boards, I have each of the main board (and each of the expansion) encounter cards standing upright in balsa wood boxes. In front of these boxes, I have all of the smaller decks, corresponding as close as possible to their relative location on the map. Thus, in front of the box containing the Red, Brown, and Blue neighborhoods, I have the Bless/Curse, Ally, Injury, and Silver Twilight Lodge decks. At the "upper" end of the table, I have two long balsa wood boxes..one containing the Mythos cards and one holding the Other World cards (placed at the edge of the Dunwich map, forming a large rectangle between them). In the space between the card holders, you'll find the GOO, Doom Tokens , misc. other tokens, the Crown Royal Monster Bag, and any Herald and/or Guardian in use. At the "lower" end, you'll find a series of low-walled balsa wood boxes which contain the Common, Unique, Spell, and Skill decks, along with the various tokens ( money, clues, Sanity, and Stamina ).

After taking out the Fixed Possessions , I shuffle only 12 decks, as I shuffle all of the other decks, when necessary ( Arkham Encounter, Injury, Madness , etc.):

- Common Items
- Unique Items
- Spells
- Skills
- Relationship
- Mythos
- Other World
- Exhibit Encounters
- Exhibit Items
- "Reckoning" Lurker (Herald)
- "Visions" of Hypnos (Guardian)
- Allies

From the time one game ends, until the time I'm ready to start a new game with four new Investigators (not counting drawing each of the Investigator's Starting , not Fixed, Possessions ...10-15 minutes!

JosephCurwen said:

Try tripling those decks up. North Arkham (Northside, Downtown, Eastown), Central Arkham (Merchant District, Rivertown, Miskatonic), and South Arkham (French Hill, Southside, Uptown). Then shuffle all the Dunwich and Innsmouth neighborhoods each into its own deck. When you draw for an Encounter, do it the same way you do the Other World deck: keep drawing facedown until you match the color of your neighborhood. I find this not only saves a HUGE amount of space, but it cycles each Encounter deck much more randomly.

When dilution issues presented themselves early on, I gave up trying to keep Arkham all mixed together. Instead of trying to jam all of Arkham into one or two boxes, I just went out and bought a duffel bag that comfortably holds all 4 Big Boxes, 2 of which each contain a Small Box in the largest area of the plastic insert. I shuffle whatever expansions I'm playing together before the game, and separate out everything back into their own box after. If I'm playing solo, I might do 2-3 games before separating, but if I'm with my Cult, we each take a portion of the decks to separate while we keep the party banter going.