oh, yeah and we inaugurated the first African-American President…

So, four years ago this weekend, I visited my brother in Philadelphia. During the previous two years (2007 and 2008), my friend since the late 70s tried in vain to make me understand the allure of this game called Arkham Horror . He's a bright guy…he's a Mensa member, an accountant, and a long-time RPGer, but for the life of him, he couldn't convey the beauty and intricacies of this game.

On Sunday evening of that weekend, I had travelled to my brother's house to spend some time gaming…I had no idea that what I would see would change my opinion of board games in general and focus on one exclusively for the next four years…and most likely, for a very long time. Laid out upon his regulation-size pool table was the map (board) of Arkham , and around the board, he had four locations carved-out for each of the Investigators we would play for the next few hours and actually the next day, as well.

I ended-up playing Monterey Jack the first game, Dexter Drake for the second, and during the third, I played Joe Diamond ~ what a rush! We had an absolute blast, winning two of the three games, but loving the loss as much as the victories…I can't say that about any game I've ever played, which includes maybe 50 or so games of Monopoly, 100 games of Risk, and well over 300 games of chess. To this day, I haven't found another non-RPG which has absorbed my interest as much as Arkham Horror . In short, Happy Anniversary to me!

…and congratulations, again to the President!

Joe,

after reading your post, two things come to my mind. First of all, since the very beginning you were perfectly aligned with the win / loss ratio of Tibs' statistics ::laughter:: and then, you played your very first games with two of the most disliked characters ever. And you still loved the game. That's definitely something that's gonna last for a long time ::laughter::

Happy anniversary, mr. President!

I hope you had a nice, little Arkham party, with a game and doom token shaped ritual candles :-)

Julia,

Well, I did draw my friend Monterey again today ~ along with Darrell, Kate, and Carolyn…against Atlach Nacha. Wish me luck!

Cheers/Ciao,

Joe

Julia said:

Which ones are the most disliked investigators? Personally I don't like Monterey (aka. Indiana Jones) much, so I guess that's one of 'em? But what about the other two? Why is one more disliked than the other?

And to The Professor: It's good to see that you still haven't lost your sanity, after four years with this game. ;-]

Dexter is often said to be a bad investigator. In some way he is bad, but fortunately his PS fixes him a little.

As for me, the ones I'm never happy to play with are Monterey, Mary and Vincent. They are so… terrible…

I think Sister Mary is quite ok. She's quite thematic, and even if you fail her personal story, the outcome is good. I agree with you on Vincent, though.

eiterorm said:

The geek in me says you're right, but I don't know, really, there is something about Mary that annoys me greatly. And things went even worse after I had to play for something like 18 Scenarios in Avi's League.

I'm always happy when I play Bob, though.

@ eiterorm~ still going strong, but the current game is tough…Atlach-Nacha takes no prisoners…the place is crawling with monsters and Gates keep opening faster than we can close them…we're heading to the South Church and Ma's Boarding Hous e. Pray for us.

The Professor said:

Use Kate to protect the seals (better if you deputize her and manage to find Arcane Insight). Focus on the minor gates. Don't waste trophies in blessings or allies, but clues at the Science Building. If you manage to seal three minor / medium freq locations, then you can't lose the game.

Anyway, fingers crossed!

My friend, your recommended course of action is sage advice against almost every other AO. With this one…maybe not

The Professor said:

::laughter:: considering the situation you described in a different thread (9/13 doomers, no seals), probably not. As a general strategy against Atlach: certainly yes. Believe me. You have to master the board and allow the poor spider to get rid of his poison, and then kick his ass. Plus, you can metagame Kate (never ever had the luck of playing Kate against him) and use her power to catch some respite. If you manage to seal one or two among the Historical Society / STL / Hibb's / Science Building, you can do it!

The main issue against Atlach is that if you rush against him, you're doomed. You have to choose what to seal and what not, and try to get some items able to help you.

You're absolutely right ~ Love me some Arcane Insight!

The Professor said:

::laughter:: so, what? Did you win? Were you roasted in an interdimensional web? ::biting nails::

I know ~ it's killing me too ~ when I get home from work, I have to finish the game. I played 15 runds yesterday..,stay tuned!

Yes, it can be a rush right!?

I find Dexter and Montery to both be a tad underrated. Dexter can vary wildly (some games he's terrible, others he's solidly above average) while Monterey is a pretty consistent mediocre, but very playable.

Mary is like Dexter to a degree, but with the added disadvantage that the Blessing eats up all of her starting resources and is therefore a huge gamble, which is why most people seem to houserule her, as do I (if she rolls a 1, she can succeed a will check to reroll the die once per turn.)

Vincent is straight up bad by RAW. However, he's a lot less bad with my Stamina-for-movement points houserule.