I just finished my first game with The Black Goat of the Woods expansion. I had one single opportunity to draw a Corruption card (turn 2), but passed the skill check. And that was it for the rest of the game! I had heard that this expansion was notorius for that kind of thing, but I didn't think it would be that bad. No Cult membership or Gate Bursts either.

Does the Miskatonic expansion do anything to resolve this issue?

Would I be right in thinking that you really need to play with the Herald to get anything from this expansion? I decided not to play that variation on my first try because it looked really difficult. Is it really as hard as it looks?

One of the new spells is a bit of a mystery too. Summon Monster ?! What are you supposed to do with that? The only thing I can think of is using it to manipulate the Monster Limit, but I'm not sure if that's possible or even legal.

With the ML at max could you enter an area containing a monster, cast the spell to draw a new monster from the cup, thereby bouncing the previous monster to the Outskirts? I suppose it could be one solution to difficult monsters that just sit on gates the entire game. But would it / could it work?

Tomorrow I will try The King in Yellow for the first time. Hopefully with better results.

If you use the herald sheet, you will for sure get more Corruption cards. You will have to create a separate monster pool which consists of all the hexagon monsters. About half the monsters that enter Arkham will be drawn from that monster pool and everytime you defeat one of those hexagon monsters in combat you will have to draw a Corruption card. You should definitely try this variant.

This is the one problem that Miskatonic does not alleviate. Cult memberships are still very sparse.

I still maintain that Black Goat is the worst expansion, and this is one of the reasons.

I'm certain you'll enjoy King in Yellow more.

If you want to spice up BGotW and don't mind playing with custom contents, you can use this custom institution I created some time ago:

If you want to spice up BGotW and don't mind playing with custom contents, you can use this custom institution I created some time ago

Thank you, Julia. That looks really great.

'Institution'? Is that something from the Miskatonic exp?

So far I only have AH, IH, BGotW, KiY, & Lurker.

I just recently purchased BGotW as well, and my game was full of corruptions and cult opportunities.

I don't know how much it helped, but I removed all other expansion Mythos and Otherworld cards before play.

Additionally (as per Julia's previous comment about custom content), I was using Angelina Everett from the custom made Lovecraft Country expansion. She begins the game wish Endless Greed (when it activates, you are instructed to gain $4 and draw another corruption). By the end of the game, Angelina had 9 or so corruptions including one that had her offering Cult Memberships to other players.

She's a very fun character to play with, but perhaps a burden to your team (I haven't decided).

Either way, I think most of the corruption related things that happened were a result of her and the smaller deck sizes. You could always cut down the location encounter decks as well to provide more frequent opportunities to join the cult, if you'd like.

Either way, I think most of the corruption related things that happened were a result of her and the smaller deck sizes. You could always cut down the location encounter decks as well to provide more frequent opportunities to join the cult, if you'd like.

I could try that, but I want to do a little more play testing first. And with the Herald next time.

But it's a good idea though. With the standard AH encounter cards plus the BGotW cards you've only got a 1 in 11 chance of a cult membership at the Unvisited Isle and the Black Cave. It rises to 2 in 11 at the Woods, but that's still a little bit on the slim side.

@ Lee:

indeed, Institution arrived with MH. They could be benefical or detrimental, but generally speaking they add theme to the game, and they allow interesting twists in the game structure. Glad you like mine

@Soakman:

the main problem with BGotW is that there are no real good reasons to join the cult. Encounters are absolutely not useful to your cause, and generally speaking they create a lot of problems. Encounters from MH are somehow a little more interesting, but again, no one ever in our games has ever felt the urge to join the Cult.

Additionally, the Corruption mechanics, which are totally cool, rarely enters play unless you play with the Herald (that many find to be too brutal) or with custom material. A possibility could be using the revised Black Goat Herald Avi designed some time ago:

Another very interesting custom creation using Corruptions is Amikezor's Sheldon Gang (officially it's a Herald, but you can consider it more an Institution):

I'm certain you'll enjoy King in Yellow more.

I tried that for the first time tonight. What a contrast! Acts, Blights, and Riots on the streets. There was so much happening. And for the first time I lost due to too many gates being open.

Second game with BGotW - Herald included. Better but not perfect.

A very close game. I just scrapped a win. Only two spaces left on Azathoth's doom track. It was a real race against time at the end. But I was lucky that there were no gate bursts or I would have been finished.

There were lots of corruption cards in play this time, and it was fun to see how corruption lead to more corruption once it started. Remembering to check the movement symbols took a bit of getting used to though.

But once again the Cult aspect was lacking, and that was with two investigators with memberships! It just seems that cult membership has almost no more impact on the game than Silver Twilight Lodge membership does. That's a bit of a shame.

Congrats for your victory! Games with the BGotW Herald are always difficult (but they could be really *great*. Or greatly depressing, it depends), so, well done!

A couple of notes: indeed, corruptions can be a nuclear meltdown if uncontrolled. Just remember (in case you missed the FAQ entry) that Norman's special abilities works not only for removing monsters from the board, but also can be applied to corruptions.

Not so sure I share your position about the Silver Twilight Membership: Inner Sanctuum encounters can be awesome, and often, when the board is dried from clues and you don't know where to go, an Inner Sanctuum encounter could be an interesting way to follow, while Cult Encounters... well, they suck...

Black Goat was my first Expansion and I still love it. But yeah, without the Herald it really doesn't amount to much. I'd randomly pick someone to start with a Cult Membership, otherwise you're not likely to ever join the Cult. (And I hate to sound negative towards it, but some of the Cult Encounters are pretty banal)

One way to jazz up the Corruptions is to make the mistake I made early on- remove half of them from the decks. I thought I had doubles of each (didn't realize there were supposed to be 2 of each: one activates on black, the other on white) This'll get you to the Red Corruptions and bring you close to the brink of Doom real fast!

I've never used Summon Monster, but it could come in handy if you need some Trophies to trade for Clues/Allies etc and don't wanna kill a Hex-symbol Monster. I have actually used "Call Ancient One" a few times...

@Julia

Congrats for your victory! Games with the BGotW Herald are always difficult (but they could be really *great*. Or greatly depressing, it depends), so, well done!

Thanks. But I'm under no illusions about my success. There was a big slice of luck involved and a very timely appearance of the "Feds Raid Arkham" card helped no end. All things being equal I think I would have been crushed. Actually I was expecting defeat after my previous game against the King in Yellow herald. That was the shortest game I've played so far. But that game was blighted early on by an environment card that only allowed movement along the black arrows. I couldn't move without running into difficult monsters, and before I knew it there were too many gates open and it was game over.

A couple of notes: indeed, corruptions can be a nuclear meltdown if uncontrolled. Just remember (in case you missed the FAQ entry) that Norman's special abilities works not only for removing monsters from the board, but also can be applied to corruptions.

Thanks for the pointer. Actually I haven't used any on the Innsmouth characters yet. In fact I haven't tried the Innsmouth expansion yet either. I bought it recently along with BGotW, KiY, and Lurker. But so far I've only experimented with BGotW and KiY. Lurker is next up. I'm not sure if I like the look of those new gates. And I'm wondering what effect the reduced number of gates will have on play too.

Not so sure I share your position about the Silver Twilight Membership: Inner Sanctuum encounters can be awesome, and often, when the board is dried from clues and you don't know where to go, an Inner Sanctuum encounter could be an interesting way to follow, while Cult Encounters... well, they suck...

My Silver Twilight encounters have seemed a little dull so far. But maybe that's my lack of experience talking.

Black Goat was my first Expansion and I still love it. But yeah, without the Herald it really doesn't amount to much. I'd randomly pick someone to start with a Cult Membership, otherwise you're not likely to ever join the Cult.

Or it could be possible to set up the Arkham encounters decks (or maybe just the three location decks that contain Cult memberships) in a similar way to the Touring Performance variation in the KiY expansion. Instead of shuffling all the cards place the new Black Goat cards on top of the encounter deck and don't shuffle until the top four have been picked. It wouldn't necessarily guarantee a Cult membership, but it might increase the chances of one appearing during the early part of a game.

Hi Lee

- Mirages of Lakes is a terrible Environment, especially if you have a crowded board and no good weapons. It's also a terrific card (KiY's flavour texts are simply awesome), but I can see how it can make your game end very quickly.

- you've done wisely not to mix Innsmouth Horror in yet. By far it's the most brutal board, and Innsmouth games tend to be quite challenging for all level of players, so maybe it's a good thing if you spend some more time with BGotW and KiY. Do you have the Dunwich Horror expansion? It's something worth adding, for cards, items and so on, plus is great to start working with vortices and expansion board locations before Innsmouth

- Inner Sanctum at the STL: if you don't mind spoiling a little the game, you can skim some of the encounters in the Inner Sanctum here

Do you have the Dunwich Horror expansion? It's something worth adding, for cards, items and so on, plus is great to start working with vortices and expansion board locations before Innsmouth

No, I don't have Dunwich.

My recent splurge of AH expansion purchases was based on availability. IH, BGotW, KiY, and Lurker were all in stock and easy to get hold of. DH, KH, and CotDP seem a bit rare at the moment, with some sellers asking high prices here in the UK. Are those titles out of print or something?

The only other expansion is Miskatonic Horror. There are plenty of copies around at a reasonable price, but I'm not sure how useful it would be with expansions I've got. A lot of the content in MH seems to be geared towards DH and KH.

First of all, just checked Dunwich Horror on Amazon.co.uk: it's available, starting from 39.99 £. I don't know if it's a good price or not, and clearly I don't know if you're interested now in this expansion, but I thought it'd not have been hurtful cheking and telling

As for Miskatonic Horror: the expansion is great, and works perfectly even with the core game only (even if, clearly, the more expansion you have, the greater the enjoyment). The only thing that you need to know before deciding what elements (if any) of MH incorporate in your games is that MH increases *a lot* the difficulty of the game. The Mythos deck is EVIL. So, if you're relatively new to the game, maybe it's better if you practice a little without MH to be sure to know how to control the board.

First of all, just checked Dunwich Horror on Amazon.co.uk: it's available, starting from 39.99 £. I don't know if it's a good price or not, and clearly I don't know if you're interested now in this expansion, but I thought it'd not have been hurtful cheking and telling

Actually Amazon.co.uk was my first port of call. Although Dunwich is listed, it also says it's available in 1 to 3 months. That's 'Amazon-speak' for " we will gladly take your order but we don't know if we can get this item in stock. In 3 months we will send you an email to confirm that we can't supply this item. Sorry for wasting your time ."

There are two third party sellers, but both are based in the USA. No UK sellers at all!

I've searched around plenty of other places that I know of and none of them currently stock Dunwich. There's a couple of places that have one copy of Kingsport for sale. But Dark Pharoah is a bit of a no-show.

There seems to be no shortage of the other expansions though. Strange....

As for Miskatonic Horror: the expansion is great, and works perfectly even with the core game only (even if, clearly, the more expansion you have, the greater the enjoyment). The only thing that you need to know before deciding what elements (if any) of MH incorporate in your games is that MH increases *a lot* the difficulty of the game. The Mythos deck is EVIL. So, if you're relatively new to the game, maybe it's better if you practice a little without MH to be sure to know how to control the board.

Thanks for the low-down on Miskatonic, Julia.

I figured that the MH expansion would tighten up the rules and add to the difficulty level. But I'm still tempted to pick up a copy now and save it for a rainy day, so to speak. The thing is that it's available right now and is reasonably priced too. If I leave it till later I fear it might vanish from the shelves like Dunwich has, and leave me kicking myself for not getting it while I had the chance.

I'll think about it for a few days.

Actually Amazon.co.uk was my first port of call. Although Dunwich is listed, it also says it's available in 1 to 3 months. That's 'Amazon-speak' for " we will gladly take your order but we don't know if we can get this item in stock. In 3 months we will send you an email to confirm that we can't supply this item. Sorry for wasting your time ."

There are two third party sellers, but both are based in the USA. No UK sellers at all!

Bummer! Sorry, I didn't check for the details. But I've just checked the Upcoming section of this very forum, both Pharaoh and Dunwich are "on the boat": games should be again available soon (a couple of months in the worst case)

Pharaoh is available at ebay.co.uk, but I guess the price is much higher than normal (37 pounds)... might be worth waiting. Shipping is also not very fast.

I don't know if this has been answered yet, but Miskatonic does have that Skill Card built for Black Goat. You start as a member of the cult and there are a few other advantages when it comes to Cult Encounters.

If you aren't getting MH yet (although I agree with almost everyone else; once you have a couple of big-board expansions, get MH. It's a great way to tie everything together), you could always just choose an Investigator to be a cult member at the start of the game.

I've gotta say, Black Goat is growing on me. It's probably the expansion that comes into play the least when I play it, but the odd time it's totally in your face.

Pharaoh is available at ebay.co.uk, but I guess the price is much higher than normal (37 pounds)... might be worth waiting. Shipping is also not very fast.

37 pounds for a small box expansion is quite expensive. That's probably double the normal RRP. I think I'll wait until Amazon get it back in stock. They will probably sell it for around 15 pounds.

To put it into perspective I just bought a copy of the big box Kingsport expansion today for 37.39 + Free P&P.

Congrats for getting Kingsport

Congrats for getting Kingsport

Thanks, Julia. It's not due to arrive until Friday, but I can't wait.

Quick question: Are all of the locations in Kingsport 'stable'?