I finally got to play my first game of Arkham Horror, solitaire style, using all expansions (and wow did I have to make room for that…)

Anyway, I lost but I thought I put on a good fight: had 4 out of 6 seals and was making for my 5th before Azathoth devoured all known reality.

Along the way I had some questions on how to play that I could not find in the manuals:

1) Tommy Muldoon came across a Moon-Beast. Because of his Pass condition on his Personal Story card, I wondered if I could fail my horror check on purpose, thus being devoured and claiming his Pass condition and selecting a new investigator. Is this legitimate, or do you have to roll and if you succeed, you keep your successes no matter if you want them or not?

2) When does a new investigator come into play after an investigator is devoured before the Ancient One awakens: immediately, or at the beginning of the next turn, before the upkeep phase?

3) William Yorick's Secrets of the Dead ability: is that 1-for-1 on the trophy or the toughness of the trophy?

4) When a Rift moves along a white/black arrow, does that trigger a Doom on the track or only when the arrow is monocolor that shares the same color as the Rift's symbol?

5) I went to the Historical Society and a janitor gave me the option to go to another location and draw two new location cards at that location, choosing the one I prefer. However, there was also a Gate present at the same location I could travel to. When traveling there do you ignore the remainder of the sentence of drawing the 2 cards and just go through the Gate, ignore the gate, or do both with the draw being first?

6) When a monster appears in an investigator's space, what happens (appearances from Other World encounters especially)?

7) Does the deputy's paddywagon "teleport" not just anywhere in Arkham, but also Dunwich, Kingsport, and Innsmouth too? Does it ignore train and boat fares?

8) When a Gate is sealed and monsters sharing its symbol on the board are returned to the cup, does this include those in the Outskirts?

9) If I ever run out of tokens, can I substitute tokens or is there a maximum limit (once you're out, you're out)?

1) You cannot fail checks on purpose, sorry. If you are asked to check something, you have to roll. Nonetheless, during Upkeep you can adjust your Skill slider so that you have no dice for a certain check (clearly, if your focus allows you the adjustment). For instance, the Horror check against a Moon-beast is at -1, Tommy's min Will is 1, so if you manage to have his Will minimized, it's automatic that you fail the Horror check (no dice)

2) At the beginning of the next turn. This was clarified in the FAQ (pag 14):

Q: When starting a new investigator after a previous one has been devoured, at what point in the turn does the new investigator start?
A: The new investigator starts at the beginning of the next turn.

3) 1 trophy = 1 clue, regardless of the toughness of the monster (ability refers to trophies, toughness is never mentioned). And fortunately, otherwise it'd be too broken

4) KH rules, pag 8: "In addition, if a rift moves along an arrow of the same color as its dimensional symbol, a doom token is added to the Ancient One’s doom track". So, if the "white circle" rift moves along a white arrow, you also add a doomer

5) gates substitute locations, no encounter cards can be drawn if you are on a gate. So, if you accept the ride, your encounter is encountering the gate. Full stop. So, if you go there, you enter the OW

6) from the core rules, pag 14: "Sometimes monsters appear as the result of a location or gate encounter. An investigator can evade these monsters
just like any others. However, these monsters never remain on the board after the encounter is resolved. If an investigator evades such a monster, immediately return the marker to the monster cup." In other words, you have to deal with the monster. If you evade it, return the marker to the cup (the monster does not stay on the board). Same as you enter combat and you're driven insane / knocked unconscious . If you pass the combat check, you can take it as trophy (unless the monster is Endless). Please be aware that a monster that surprises you cannot be evaded; elusive monsters require an Evade check to enter combat, so you can decide not to roll (in this case clearly rolling is not compulsory), and the monster returns into the cup; if an elusive monster surprises you, then you cannot enter combat by any means

7) you can use the PW to move directly on other boards. Please note that you can't patrol wagon to all locations on every board. Refer to the FAQ, pag 30 for Kingsport movement and pag 38 for Innsmouth movement

8) yes, you remove monsters from Arkham, the Sky and the Outskirts (you can crosscheck the core rules under "Monsters and closing gates", pag 17, IIRC)

9) tokens are not supply limited, so feel free to find proxies

Ok, hope this helps! And congrats for running your first AH solo game!

JULIA

Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of woefully whimsical wolo--er, solo play. I do enjoy a solo game, though the fact that it is a dog to set up and put away makes it WAAAY more satisfying with people to play with--now I just need to find people to play with! ^^;

Good luck with your future games!

So I been playing Arkham Horror for about 2 months know I have couple of silly questions that my friend couldn't answer or find on the forum. I currently only have the core game but never found what these few token (hexagon) pieces that I have never used and not sure what to do with or what they are for and hoping someone could enlighten me

1) small gate tokens

2) small tokens with the # 1 -> 3 with they abyss looking background

*nevermind answered my own question going through rule book again.

Dark Nite:

The 'small gate tokens' are explored token markers, used to indicate that an Investigator has passed through the Other World and returned to Arkham .

The smal numbered tiles (1-3) may be used on the board to highlight the location of an activity from a Mythos Card or some other visual reminder of an activity during play.

I don't mention this as frequently as it comes up because I don't want to be That Guy, but I found a variant over at BGG that might have been Tibs's, I'm not sure, where the gate is not the full physical replacement for the location. So when entering a space with a gate, you're not obligated to jump in. We still hang onto the rules that a gate opening in your location is indeed right under your feet and you are swallowed up, and once explored, doing ANYTHING else other than closing/sealing (twiddling your thumbs is just fine--like waiting for an item or some such) loses your ability to close and you have to jump in again.

We've played less than ten games, myself less than fifteen and we've still only had one genuine victory. It's a consistent House Rule for us.

Not so sure it's a Tibs' houserule (pretty sure it's not). Anyway, I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems with the core game. There is something not properly working with your strategy, I think. Have you considered reading this article ?

Anyway, some suggestions: focus on gathering clues to seal gates. Try to have a 5 clue character entering a gate by the end of turn two / three at max. Remember that different locations have different chance to have a gate appear:

- high frequency locations: Woods, Unvisited Isle, Witch House, Independence Square

- medium frequency locations: Graveyard, Black Cave, Unnamable

- low frequency locations: Silver Twilight Lodge, Science Building, Hibb's Roadhouse, Historical Society

so: if you need to close a gate without sealing it because you don't have the clues and need to keep the number of gates low, go for a low freq one. As soon as you have clues, try to seal the high freq. This will give you a lot time more to respite (several Mythos will open on sealed locations, hence nothing terrible happens, and you have new clues appearing on the board).

Don't focus on monsters: monsters are fun, but the objective of the game is to hit the gates. So, go for them.

Don't waste clue tokens on skill checks because you want that cozy little Unique Item or something similar. There are few clues in the game, and you need them to seal, so, unless it's a "question of life and death", don't use them, save them for later.

Try to play 4 investigators at once, so that you can define roles, and have time to explore the city and close gates and deal with monsters and shop for item: in this way you'll understand better the mechanics of the game.

Start playing with some specific AOs: Azathoth (the easiest) and then some of the others. Avoid Shub and Yog until you're confident with sealing gates victory strategies: these two guys here are tough to deal with.

Remember: Luck over Lore (many more checks ask to check Luck), especially in the OWs. Remember the colour pattern of the OWs: red is for encounters that tend to damage your Stamina, yellow is for Sanity, blue is for your equipment, while green are generally good encounters. So a character low on Stamina should try to enter and OW without the red light on it. Clearly, he can have bad luck; but maybe he's lucky.

Optimize money. Be sure that the monster whacker in your party has some good weapons.

Once you've mastered all of this, you should be able to beat the base game pretty consistently.

And may Nodens be with you :-)

Julia,

I've heard similar comments from Tibs, Dam, and ColtsFan over the years, but that's probably the best synosis I've read on Arkham Strategy. Admittedly, I really liked the "cozy little Unique item" comment. In the end, unless that check is going to save your life or revent you from entering LiTaS , let it go.

Cheers, Joe

The Professor said:

::blush::

Julia,

Thanks! That's a treasure trove of info, some of which we've stumbled upon ourselves. I phrased it badly, I only mentioned our win:loss to show that even making gate jumping optional in a space hasn't helped us win. But having brought up your shared strategies, I do think our first win was the first time we really COOPERATED. We saw the emphasis on seals and really went for them last time, and getting the right stuff in the right Investigators hands was important.

What we haven't done is play enough. So that time is coming when there will be heralds and expansions galore. Also they're getting the hangt of playing certain Investigators, so that will change if we keep winning for sure. Right now, only one guy likes playing the same character over and over again and it's the handyman. Sadly, the player only knows how to tank. In any game. In any media. His strategy is

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

with weapons flying. I love him, but he really just wants to kill monsters and this is too much of a thinking game to challenge him otherwise. If it's any clue, the only videogames he owns are zombie killing ones. *sigh*

::laughter:: aye, the tank. A fundamental hero in every Descent party. Sometimes a fundamental hero also in Arkham, but not always.

Anyway, I'm very, very, very happy to hear that you managed to beat the game. And that you successfully cooperate in order to win. It's one of the biggest pro in Arkham, and I've always found it a bonding experience :-)

Glad I was of some help, and g'd luck with the coming games! You're certainly right, the more you play, the more you know the game, and win more, and soon you'll add some new cool stuff so that your Arkham experience will improve :-)

It's nice that you start to get the hang of it.

As for the tank guy. Well I'm sure you can find something useful to do. After all, keeping the streets clear can sometimes be quite an important job. There's no point in having the clues to seal a gate if you can't make it to the gate at all.

And yes the most important thing is that everyone cooperates and have the same goal in mind.
This can sometimes be a little dificult when playing with new players. Some I have played with rather put all their focus in getting the best gear for their investigator or just kill monsters. I'm still not sure what to do then. Do I let them play the way they want even though I know we're going towards a fate worse than death? Or do I try to control their every action and feel like I'm playing a solo game with people to move around stuff for me?
I'm still not sure wich is worse.

Tbla,

I guess the question is do you prefer winning or having fun? The two aren't mutually exclusive, but if everybody's having a great time, what's an apocalypse between friends? But I get it. I'd prefer winning too, even if once in a while.

I think like my buddy Rick, you're describing folks who are bringing their own playstyle to a new game, because why wouldn't they? It's what they know how to do. A few good losses did my group a lot of good in looking for solutions simply out of frustration, and changed up their playstyle for that reason. And if frustrated for too long, I imagine someone would simply fall away from the game and lose interest. The players who are willing to change will, the others probably won't play. But then I have a large pool of people to play with.

I gotta admit I've invited so many people to play that with the flake factor, not everybody has tried it yet. But I found myself wanting to go a few games before inviting The Next Noob. There's a smoothness to playing when everybody at least knows the game.

CrusherJoe said:

Yes, that's a very good point. I see what you mean, and I agree. And you're right also on the other point. Mother Nature teaches us that an organism unadapt to fit a different environment is condamned to extinction unless it evolves in something different. So for Arkham players: if they do not accept they have to approach the board trying to understand the game, they will probably quit after some defeats. Or they will fall in love with the game, and they will start considering playing a little differently

Julia,

I think you just called me an "organism."

Cheers, Joe

The Professor said:

::laughter:: biology should support that!!

(great joke, btw, loved it!)