I 've only got the Core Set so far, but I 'm pondering the idea of broadening the fun via the acquisition of expansions. The consensus is that Dunwich Horror should be the first to pick, I 'm tending towards buying a small box first however. The KiY appeals to me and I 'm cosidering it to be the first. There is something that baffles me however: since it revolves around Hastur, I think that Hastur will have to be the AO I 'll have to face in my playthrough (if that is not case and I can pick whomever I want, I 'm not excited by this prospect, since I prefer thematic games). The problem is this: till now I play the game solo (this might change in the near future, but right now I 'm approaching the game from a pure solo perspective) and Hastur is almost impossible for me to beat in the first phase (the juicier) of the game. Every single time I faced him, the matter resolved to final combat save one time I used two investigator, though I did not enjoy that much to play with more than one investigator. Better to focus to just one. So it comes down to this:

Should I pick the KiY and incorporate him in an AH game vs the Hastur or will it be nigh on impossible to beat the game solo in the first stage and things will always escalate to the final combat? Do not get me wrong; I like a good challenge, it's just that this specific AO narrows down my options in many aspects. Should I prefer another expansion such as the Lurker? Unless of course, KiY is really THAT good that it would be a shame not to be the first to pick. No matter how hard the game gets.

Thanks.

Serazu said:

KiY is the small box you should start with. It has the coolest Herald they've ever created, and some amazing cards. Great theme, great flavour, interesting Mythos.

First of all, you don't need to play Hastur. You could incorporate all the elements of the expansion into your base game and then play ANY AO from the core set. Then, if you want extra theme and extra challenge, you could use the King in Yellow Herald. And you can use it with ANY AO, as well. In case you want to play with Hastur, and Hastur is too tough for a solo game, you can use the modified Hastur from Arkham Nights (same stuff for the worshippers, but only 5 clues for a seal, and a small penalty for those who seal gates).

But most of all, once you're comfortable with the basics, you could start playing more than one investigator even soloing :-)

Thanks for the tips. Where can I find Hastur's modified version?

Edit - Never mind, found it.

...

Reduce maximum sanity by 1 every time I seal a gate? No thanks, this is even more difficult for solo play, I believe. Unless the point is to just seal the 1-2 most unstable locations and just close the rest. Perhaps it's possible now that I think of it...

Serazu said:

Yeah, that's tha point. Even if playing two investigators should help a little (2 seals each on the high freq locations, and then you close the others).

Anyway, happy gaming!