I'm sure I'm not the first person to have come up with this and that at some point over the last few years, this idea has been presented in the forums, but I just wanted to share my experience with everyone and spread the idea!

I played a solo game today with 4 investigators and the Innsmouth board. I split the Mythos deck into two piles, one made up of the base Arkham Mythos cards and the other made up of the Innsmouth Mythos cards. Being that there are 9 neighborhoods in Arkham and 3 neighborhoods in Innsmouth, ideally it's a 3/4 chance that a gate would pop up in Arkham and a 1/4 chance that a gate would pop up in Innsmouth.

Every Mythos Phase, I would roll a D8. On a 1-2, I picked the top card of the Mythos deck from the Innsmouth pile. On a 3-8, I drew from the base game pile. At least for this one game, it worked wonderfully.

This technique would work for any number of boards you want to play with. For example:

Arkham + One Board = Use a D8

1-2 Extra Board Mythos Card

3-8 Arkham Mythos Card

Arkham + Two Boards = Use a D10

1-2 First Extra Board Mythos Card

3-4 Second Extra Board Mythos Card

5-10 Arkham Mythos Card

Arkham + Three Boards = Use a D12

1-2 First Extra Board Mythos Card

3-4 Second Extra Board Mythos Card

5-6 Third Extra Board Mythos Card

7-12 Arkham Mythos Card

Typically when I play, I only add expansion cards to the Mythos deck when I'm actually using main mechanics from said expansion (an extra board, Lurker Herald, etc.). I have played many games with these combined decks where I would draw Mythos cards from the base game cards only, rarely ever getting gates to pop up in Dunwich or Innsmouth. It's so frustrating to set-up an expansion board and get excited to experience a true add-on to the base game, only to never have to travel to another board, except maybe for clues.

Playing this game with this technique really brought the extra board to life and made it feel like an integral part to the game. I'm going to test this method out with future games and get the opinions of the other people in my Arkham Game Group.

Hopefully someone likes this idea and can try it out in their game(s)! I'd love to hear how this method plays out for others and if it makes their games better!

Sorry, buddy, but that's wrong. You can't do the math according to number of neighborhoods but no unstable locations in Kingsport), you should refer to the Mythos deck composition. Removing the "Story continues", and considering only IH and AH Mythos deck, you have

- 31 cards opening a gate in Innsmouth

- 5 Strange Sightnings cards

- 66 cards opening a gate in Arkham

Hence, the odds are:

- 30% for a gate in Innsmouth

- 05% for Strange Sightings

- 65% for Arkham

so, you rather overestimate the odds of having a gate opening in Arkham.

Clearly, if the point is chosing the deck from which to draw, then it's 35% vs 65%, so it'd be better rollind 1d100 and see

Problem is also that the probabilities could change during the game if you have a card deck. So you would need to recalculate your dice-result table constantly.

So for example:

67 mythos cards from AH = 65 %

36 mythos cards from DH = 35 %

And somehow you draw 10 mythos cards from DH in a row (Stochastic really is an a****** !)

You now have:

67 mythos cards from AH = 72 %

26 mythos cards from DH = 28 %

I dont say you're method is something you can't use but it will chance the game in some way.

Thanks for the additional statistics support, Schwaig! I was considering this, but it was too a mess for my limited math

I'm not unsympathetic to what Ben is trying to do since trying to shuffle a mythos deck off at least 100 cards is difficult to properly randomize by hand. Despite multiple methods of shuffling I often end up with clumps of consecutive cards keyed to a particular location such as Innsmouth which unfortunately severely limits my tactical and strategic options.

A game I am playing right now illustrates this well. In the first five turns using only Innsmouth and with both Heralds and Cthuga as the AO I drew four gates in four separate areas of Innsmouth and two monster surges. Since some of the Mythos cards dumped even more monsters into the Innsmouth streets I was staring at almost 20 monsters by turn 4. The only good thing was I had handpicked the investigators and I was lucky enough to draw good starting weaponry. Thomas Muldoon is trying to hold back what looks like a tidal wave moving inexorably toward the tornados at the bus depot being helped by Patrice's clues and a shuttle system from the Curiositee shop where two Elder sign draws by Akachi are being funneled to them in what looks like a desperate attempt to blast my way to the Marsh refinery and Devil Reef ( I have succeeded in getting into the Reef gate) I think I can get to the Marsh Refinery-"only" 4 monsters guarding the path to it, one of which is the second Hound that has already appeared- but Dagon is hopelessly flooded and I can't even get to Yth until the Gate at the Reef is closed. I still have 15 monsters In Innsmouth despite having killed 8 already while Arkham itself is completely still. I expect that to change shortly and may render the situation hopeless before the 6th turn. I won't give up yet because of the chance of some glorious and heroic victory possibly aided by a favorable Mythos card to come but I'd say things are definitely looking poorly. At least a number of the beasties are yellow and green so this and the kills I have so far have kept the DOR track from moving. Oh not to forget I also drew Evidence Destroyed turn 3 and cleaned all the clues off the board--who wants all those messy Green magnifying glasses cluttering Arkham anyhow?

Yep I sure love taking the significant set up time to play this game only to get screwed practically from the beginning and render it all academic. Good thing I live in Wisconsin where as I said in a previous post there is plenty of cheese to go with my wine. Too bad I don't like either one.

I know....instead of wine and cheese I'll use the same solution John Belushi did in Animal House when he said

"Might as well join the ******* peace corps!"

Hmmm...when I shuffle, I have a technique that thoroughly splices the cards. It takes 5 minutes. You simply place the cards one at time into seven piles, this being a magic number that does not divide evenly into a circle. Then shuffle each pile quickly and gather them up in a random order. I guarantee this as one of the most effective shuffling techniques you will ever come across.

I think I was doing this but I think I only used 4 piles and didn't separate them one at a time as you did. I'll try this my next game attempt--after I see if I can extricate myself from this current mess.

EDIT--nearly did extricate myself from this mess but no. Gonna try one more time with both heralds (DOR track ultimately gets me the last two times despite efforts to interdict monsters). Yet the last three times I felt the game was forcing my hand and limiting my options right from the get go. If the next game ends similarly afrer trying a different shuffling method it might be time to go back to video gaming

dj2.0,

Interesting...I have a similar method, requiring six dice and 18 separate stacks (in six groups of three stacks) of Mythos cards.

1.) Organize six groups of three separate stacks

2.) Each stack contains 16 Mythos cards

3.) Roll six dice, placing each die next to the corresponding group of three stacks (i.e. a roll of '5' ~ place the die next to the 5th group)

4.) Roll each placed die (see 3.) and pick-up the corresponding stack from within the group . (Of the three stacks in the 5th group , a roll of 1-2: 1st stack ; 3-4: 2nd stack ; 5-6: 3rd stack )

5.) Shuffle the 16 Mythos cards in the stack, selecting one and place it face down

6.) Repeat steps 1-5 twice and you will have a stack of 18 Mythos cards (shuffle, as necesary)

Enjoy,

Joe

Joe how are you reconciling the above with using Cthulu pieces? I was presuming you put all your Mythos cards into one of the Cthulu Crafts slots after some sort of shuffling method--or is that what you do after the above is done? When you select a card from the location decks do you simply take the front card from the Cthulu Craft piece? And what of reshuffling-do you just put a card randomly back into the Craft slot or do you remove them all, shuffle, and replace?

Maybe it would be easier on the Mythos cards if there was a custom or regular card shuffler. Some of the good ones though are ridiculously expensive.

jackman51,

Great question ~ I do place ALL of the Mythos cards back in the Mythos Fortress , but place the 18 cards in the front. As for the Neighborhood Displays , I don't shuffle the decks at the beginning of the game, but simply shuffle, as needed, selecting the first card and placing it behind the others after reading the location encounter.

Custom or regular card shufflers are quite nice, but lack the thematic feel I want around the gaming table.

Cheers,

Joe

Well Joe get crackin" on that card shuffler!

Make it look like Cthulu's tentacles putting cards into itself.

Ha! My friend, that's why I'm relegated to Administration, Packaging & Shipping, Website Design, and Financial Matters. I can't even draw a proportional stick-figure.

I do 8-10 stacks for every deck before starting a game. I randomly assign cards to each stack. Then I pick up randomly every stack and create the deck. I cut the deck 4-5 times and it's set. It takes about 10 minutes to shuffle every deck. I'll admit that the OW deck is shuffled usually once every 3 games. Every other deck is shuffled unless it went unused in the previous game. I've had excellent results in the past 90 games where I've used this method

My pal, this is exactly why I'm banished for you to Management, The labels & Shipping and delivery, Web design, and Monetary Issues. I are unable to even attract any proportional stick-figure.

Great question ~ I do place ALL of the Mythos cards back in the Mythos Fortress , but place the 18 cards in the front.

I assume then your games last no more than 18 turns?

Great question ~ I do place ALL of the Mythos cards back in the Mythos Fortress , but place the 18 cards in the front.

I assume then your games last no more than 18 turns?

Spread over 48 to 72 hours

jackman51

Most of the games have lasted around 12-16 Mythos cards/turns.

Julia,

Ha! Yes, that's about right

Cheers,

Joe

48-72 hours? You aren't even in the Major Leagues--I often have the same game up for a week as my imagined (?) ADD kicks in and I go do something else or haggle over some difficult game decision.

jackman51,

Despite playing with greater frequency now than ever before, I do keep slipping down the list on Tibs' Contributors page...from 30th to about 32nd. Yeah, I love the game, but I can't claim Major League status. I have the game set-up permanently in my game room and will spend 45-min to an hour on four turns at a time, finishing a game in a few days.

Cheers,

Joe

It was not at all meant as a critique but just a funny note to show you that you're hardly the slowest player ever. 45-60 min for 4 turns seems on par with me with the first few turns taking the longest. Probably I could play more but I really don't have a game room per se so I can't really leave it set up permanently ( I kind of use a large old wooden dining room table on our enclosed patio) and tbh it may prevent me from buying more than a piece of two of your crafts.

What is Tibs' Contributors page? I've noted he does a lot of good things on this page and BGG--hope he never loses interest.

jackman51,

Ha! No, I didn't take it as a critique, at all, my friend. I play the game in a fundamentally different way from many other Arkhamites...more like an RPG , than a board game. It's funny that you mention playing on a "large old wooden dining room table" because that's where I started before building a table last year for the room ~ 3' x 7' to accommodate the game and all of our pieces to bring the game to life!

If you go to the first page of posts, you'll notice a few 'stickied' posts ~ one of which is Tibs' Arkham Horror Statistics Reports . Check out the 1st page in which you can submit games played and review the spreadsheet with over 10K games over the past 7-8 years, with a list of contributors on one of the spreadsheet's worksheets.

Fhtagn!

Joer

Oh yeah I did see that--one of these days I'll actually report a few games.

Role playing AH--how do you do that other than maybe flowery descriptions of turns or thematic scenarios?

jackman51,

I don't, as has often been expressed as a winning strategy, dive into gates and attempt to seal them without so much as a "Hello, Arkham!" I often read the Encounter/Other World cards without revealing the cost/prize; play each of the Investigators as individuals rather than a collection of attributes and items; and immerse myself in the entire experience, instead of Speed - Arkham as it's described around here. I've written-up my special Variant over at bgg if you're interested...you have to understand that of the 100+ games I've played over the past four-and-a-half years, 95% have been solo with four Investigators .

Cheers,

Joe

Well with two exceptions that's all I've done too.

Are you saying that in some cases you won't trade certain items an investigator has because say he looks like Indianna Jones with his Bullwhip and Pistol? Because I sure know people who do that for real!