Greetings beliefers! How are you in this fine evening? *He looked into your eyes with wicked smile on his face*

So, Finally after long time (and a lots of refreshings on Upcoming page) i will get my own copy of Arkham Horror game.

My question is (and i Demand answers) wich expansion would be most fullfiling, or more fun to play with base game?!?

I know all of them would be fullfilling and fun, but at this momment i want to start slow with expansions (Tho' i will try to get 'em all)

So wich one (expansion) in your oppinoin would be nice start for base game?

So… Yeah.

Thanks in Advance!

*As he turned around and left, you cannot, but feel, that this was only the small part of what will happen*

Before deciding on which expansion to buy, I suggest you take a look at the different rulebooks at the Arkham Horror Wiki . When deciding on whether to buy a new game, I always read the rules first, in order to get an impression of how the game is played and what it includes. The Arkham Horror Wiki also has detailed lists on what each expansion includes (cards, investigator sheets, etc.) --- just search for the name of the expansion and you'll find it.

As the first expansion, I'd recommend an expansion box which includes an expansion board (Dunwich Horror, Kingsport Horror or Innsmouth Horror). That gives you more stuff to play with. ;-] Other than that, I suggest you check out the new mechanics each of the expansions add (use the link above), and try to find out what you like.

Personally, I prefer the Innsmouth Horror expansion. The expansion adds 16 new investigators and 8 new Ancient Ones, as opposed to 8 new investigators and 4 new Ancient Ones in the other two board expansions. The game also adds a personal story for each investigator, which I really enjoy playing. The personal story is a quest which is unique for each investigator, and which he/she can either pass or fail. If you pass, you get a reward, if you fail, you get a penalty. But this is just my personal taste, and it might not be the same as yours. ;-]

We really do need to sticky one of these…

This is the most popular question on these boards, and you'll get different answers from everyone.

Here's my stock answer:

If you can get a big-box right out of the gate, GET DUNWICH HORROR. The board's lousy, the Horror itself doesn't activate that often but it's got some great Investigators, Monsters, and Ancient Ones - And Madness and Injuries. After you play with Madness and Injuries once, you will never want to play without them again. Period. Of all the Expansions, big and small box alike, Madness and Injuries are by far the best single addition to the game. You will use them every game, and the thought of abandoning them will never once enter your head. They are THAT CRITICAL.

If you want a Small Box, you have four to choose from, and all have their strengths and weaknesses.

The King in Yellow: This one is generally held to be the favorite, and it's my personal favorite as well. It doesn't add a lot to every game (if you don't use the Herald or Acts in every game) but it is by far the most Thematic and Intense, and it's Herald is easily one of the two best. If you want a distinct flavor to your game, this one is the one to get.

Curse of the Dark Pharaoh: This expansion is solidly thematic, and the recent revised edition makes its Exhibit mechanic interesting. However, it also includes the single worst Herald they put out, and the Patrolled mechanic isn't that fun. If you ignore the Herald (I do - I've never played with it and I never will), the Whispers mechanic and the solid theme make it a worthwhile experience.

Lurker at the THreshold: Lurker would be my number-two choice behind King in Yellow. There are many complaints about the exploitability of the Herald, but it's also the most interesting Herald (not the hardest or most fun, but most interesting). Relationships add a little flavor, but we rarely use them. But another good bump are the Lurker gates (which have abilities) and it also features some Gate Bursts to make your games a bit more threatening. However, it's the least thematic expansion - just mix the whole thing to every game and you won't notice a theme, but it'll improve the experience.

Black Goat of the Woods: Get this expansion if you hate your gaming group. The Herald is the hardest (YIPES) and the mythos deck is darn mean too. It comes with a lot of monsters, most of which are Dark Young which just suck to fight. But it's mechanic is useless - it's incredibly difficult to find the Cult, much less join it, and the other cards will get virtually no use. This is widely held to be the weakest of all expansions, and I'd advise you to get it last of the small boxes.

As for the other big boxes:?

Innsmouth - Innsmouth has some fantastic Investigators, and Personal Stories, which are not as critical as Madness and Injuries, but we use them every game as well. It's got some terrifying Ancient Ones (Quachill Uttaus is by far my favorite, even though we've never beaten the dusty bastard), and Innsmouth itself is fairly interesting and very hostile. I'd recommend it as the second Big-Box pickup after Dunwich - you'll get a few Epic Battle cards you can't use until you get Kingsport, but you won't miss anything.

Kingsport: Except for (maybe) Miskatonic or Black Goat, I'd get this expansion last. The Epic Battles are cool in theory, but you get to that point very rarely, and the Sinister Plot cards are practically a waste of space. The Kingsport board has an interesting mechanic, but so little goes on in Kingsport itself that whoever is stuck with Kingsport duty will be hating life by the end of it. Two of the three guardians can be fun, but they aren't necessary. And honestly, the best thing to come out of that expansion is the Tulszcha Herald, who is up there with the Lurker and the King in Yellow for most interesting and fun Herald. The Ancient Ones and Investigators are ok as well. But still, of all the Big-Box sets, this one I felt was the least necessary.

Miskatonic: Don't get Miskatonic until you have most the expansions. You don't necessarily have to get it last, but you should at least have 2 of the Big Boxes and 3 of the Small Boxes before it becomes worth it. But when you do, it is very worth it. Every little annoyance or issue with dilution, ect. is well handled in the expansion, and it will bring new life to your expansions.

So there's the run down. If you want to know the order to buy them, I'd recommend:
Dunwich Horror
King in Yellow and/or Curse of Dark Pharaoh and/or Lurker at the Threshold
Innsmouth Horror
Finish off King/Pharaoh/Lurker
Kingsport Horror
Black Goat of the Woods
Miskatonic Horror
Hope that helps!

I would first ask what kind of player are you, but you probably don’t know what you are yet. So we’ll skip that.

If you are planning to get all of the expansions anyway, I would recommend getting them in order of release: DP(just the Revised edition), Dunwich, KY, Kingsport, BG, Innsmouth, LT, Miskatonic. This way you get a mix of good and not-so-good, instead of front-loading all the good and ending up with cookie crumbs at the end. Don’t get me wrong: there is SOMETHING to love in every expansion, whether it’s the whole primary mechanic or just a single pack of new cards, but clearly there are expansions with MORE to love than others.

That said, I also agree that if you can afford to, get Dunwich first. Dunwich isn’t so much an expansion as it is “the rest” of the base game. It’s like FFG wanted to put out all of the actual Arkham game, but decided it was too much and held off on half of it. Whether you use the new board or not, make no mistake: the rest of the Dunwich box COMPLETES Arkham.

I also want to add that Kingsport is not immediately the slouch that Fwiffo alludes it to be. It does operate differently than any other expansion, but then, maybe you will play your game differently than the other players that are less than fond of it. (I know I do.) For one thing, unlike ANY other expansion, Kingsport is completely immune to card dilution. You can play with a Mythos deck of 50 or 500, and Kingsport will play just as effectively. Epic Battle cards are fantastic, and Kingsport has some of the most interesting Investigators and challenging Ancients Ones. It’s an old cliché: “Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it.”

Welcome to the Carnival, Embery!

This answer has been brought to you by the miracle of cut-and-paste, as the topic has been discussed many, many times on this forum.

*****

Good god, I wish we could sticky this question. Anyway, Dunwich Horror is the best big box set. Kingsport is easiest and Innsmouth is hardest. You'll probably want either Dunwich or Innsmouth to start with as they give you extra locations for gates to open at. Don't get Miskatonic Horror until you have at least 4 other official expansions

Small box expansion is trickier: Curse of the Dark Pharaoh gives you a new class of cards (Exhibit cards), King in Yellow is probably most balanced in terms of theme, Black Goat of the Woods for extra monsters (but the cult itself is rubbish) or Lurker at the Threshold for extra gates. My preference is CotDP, but you can make a decent argument for all of them.

More significantly, if you're tight on funds, grab some of the custom material out there! Here is a small list you should seriously consider downloading:

Simple Additions

These links require no extra material to play. You can download them, print them out and you're ready to go.

FFG Free Material: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/71859/promotional-ancient-ones

16 Custom Investigators: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/50107/16-custom-investigators

Nyarlathotep Heralds: http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Additional%20Components%20for%20the%20Fan%20Creation%20League/?start=all


Large Expansions

These expansions are "big box" expansions. They're probably the best bang for your buck, containing new boards, new cards and new challenges. Whilst that sounds like a lot of work remember that Arkham is modular so you can often include some cards and disregard others. For instructions on how to manufacture the boards, read this excellent article: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/832608/constructing-custom-expansion-boards-for-arkham


Lovecraft Country Horror: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/65090/lovecraft-country-horror-rules-and-board (See my sig for more details)

Vermont Horror: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/127198/vermont-horror-expansion-fan-expansion-for-arkham

Arkham Nightmare: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/796568/arkham-nightmare-dreamlands-expansion/page/1


Board Expansions with Scenarios

These expansion include a new board for use with a specific scenario. As such the replay value may be impacted, but they may be worth downloading nonetheless.

The Haunted House: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/47628/haunted-house

The Masks of Nyarlathotep: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/821899/masks-of-nyarlathotep-available-to-download-from

Koth of Hyboria: http://plaidscape.net/downloads/arkham/Spanish2/Sc6Images.zip


Expansion Specific Material

These expansions preusme that you own at least one other expansion, either Curse of the Dark Pharaoh (for the first two) or Innsmouth Horror (for the last one.

The Gilman Memorial Exhibit: http://cgjennings.ca/eons/samples/gilman.html

Curse of the Gold Scarab: http://megaupload.com/?d=W0LT60Z0

Dark Corners of this Earth: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/67259/dark-corners-of-the-earth


Other Resources

For additional material, check out the fan creations protion of this forum, the FFG leagues and the Spanish leagues.

Jake yet again said:

Hey, you can't do Cut and Paste! That's my gimmick!

jgt7771 said:

The problem with epic battle cards is that you only get to those each time you lose, and they tend to slow down, rather than speed up, losses that are already inevitable. And the best part of them - the Sinister Plot Cards - are so rarely seen as to make them useless.

And while Kingsport is immune to dilution, whoever is stuck down there is going to have a game consisting solely of location encounters - no Gates, no monsters, nothing that most people find fun about the game. Instead, you're kinda wandering around having random encounters to somehow keep things from getting worse on the other board in ways that aren't really that thematic.

The Investigators and Ancient Ones I don't have any complaints about, but I don't think they're significantly better than Dunwich or Innsmouth, both of which have more interesting board and added game elements. The Guardians - well, Hypnos and Nodens are fun, but the cat is worthless, and Tzulscha (who I admit is one of the best Heralds) is good while the angry red planet guy whos name escapes me at the moment (Groth?) uses 90% of the function before the game actually begins, so I really can't say there's anything to make Kingsport actually worth getting before any of the other two Big Boxes.

The natural progression from here is for someone to just cut and paste everyone's reply the next time there's one of these threads

All I was doing was providing a perfectly viable alternate viewpoint for a brand new player who hasn't made up his mind about anything. Because, simply put, I (and my Cult, and many others on this board) dig Kingsport for the same reasons you don't. And no offense, you're being maybe a wee bit too fervent in your opinions.

Master Fwiffo said:

I merely said they were fantastic, and I think they are. They add a bit of theme and "action beats" to an otherwise rote exercise of rolling dice back and forth. After one has done a Final Battle a few (hundred) dozen times, I find a bit of Bruckheimer a welcome addition to the story.

Master Fwiffo said:

Honest question: have you ever played a Kingsport-only game? With all your unstable Locations only in Arkham, including ALL Bursts and Surges, the old board is hopping with activity, clogged with monsters and Terror. My Cult loves going to Kingsport to catch their breath! And we LIKE Encounters without having to worry about getting trapped by a Dhole that won't move or getting dumped off to R'lyeh. I challenge the clause "that most people find fun", because we do.

Master Fwiffo said:

I never said "better"…I said "interesting". Wendy is interesting: I'd never really played a Stealth Investigator until her (and she taught me how to play Mark properly). Lily is interesting for her Sanity/Stamina slider. Lola is interesting for "shopping" the Skill deck. Daisy is one interesting Spellcaster. Rex is one of the most interesting starters in any game. And Yibb? Eihort? Tough opponents. Atlach-Nacha is THE most challenging AO on ANY scale.

But I'll agree with you on the Heralds and Guardians.

jgt7771 said:

I agree on all the point you said, Jgt, but this one. But I'guess I'm the only one finding Atlach simply boring. Never lost a game so far against it (c'me on Atlach! Be my Atlach-Nachos! Chomp!), but all Atlach games played tend to be *very* long ::yawning:: At the moment, I believe Glaaki to be the most difficult (not considering Rhan, which is certainly difficult, but not "challenging difficult", he is "stupidly difficult")

*He felt a glimpse of hope as he entered his domain*

Some day i will join your conversation with same excitement (Let's stay with this word) as all of you!

And thanks for the info, it is really helpfull. So Dunwich will be thy first expansion, for this old mate .

And about what gamer i am, Jgt7771(your name confuse me, but in good way) I like almoust any board game (i know there is some i dont like). For example i really enjoyed Battlestar gallactica (aswell with expansion, wich took my group of 5 ppl, 7 hours to play), at this momment i am into Mansions of Madness(dont have FA, rest i have) and CoC LCG (have base game). Aswell i enjoy war games, as Warhammer and Runewars. In few words that's about me as gamer.

eiterorm that link to AH wiki, is really REALLY usefull. Somehow i didnt tought about our beloved Google-aunt (or mom, or godmother or what-makes-you-go)

And Jake yet again, Even it is copy paste (aint it usually like that? ) it's nice with all the links to BGG (Hooray for Tibs) it would take me a long time(or not so long) to search and look thrue all that stuff in there, to see what would be nice for This begginer as myself.

Master Fwiffo, that's why asked (or precissley - posted) this question. To get answers from diffrent players with their own (or similar) tastes for each expansion. So i could read up and come with my own conclusions. Tho' better would be if i'd played expansions. But i think thats for laters.

Thanks again, it was really helpfull from all of you!

*As his eyes met the master of this domain, he understood that the glimpse of hope he felt before entering here, was just perfect deceive for this monstrosity to take over him.*