Finally got my copy of the game this weekend, and played my first game yesterday. It was also the first time I've played a solo game of any kind through to the end.

I used 2 characters; initially Akachi Onyele and Leo Anderson. Things were pretty slow to begin with, as I wasn't totally sure what I was supposed to be doing, and there were hardly any clues on (or appearing on) the board. But Akachi was happily visiting other worlds and shutting gates left, right and centre and I hadn't realised at the time how quickly the Mythos deck might run out, or what that implied, so all was fine. Sadly, Leo kept failing to notice anything interesting in San Franciso...

It did take an awful long time to get the first mystery done (put 2 research clues on the mystery card), but then although I was luck with cards drawn, the second one didn't take so long. By chance, the Tick Tock men spawned on top of me, which was a problem as I absolutely couldn't kill them. Akachi fled and Leo was on his way when he was devoured thanks to making a dark pact to resolve the rumour card!

Enter Diana Stanley, in Mexico City. She made her way to Greenland to try to get a clue from there... When the Spinner of Webs spawned on top of her! And once again, it was impossible for me to defeat her. This time, there was no one else to turn to, as Akachi didn't have the necessary skills either, even if she could get there in time, so it looked like the game was almost up. I went for the last mystery, and might have made it, had I not drawn a Mythos card that triggered the third and final 'reckoning' that ended the game with a defeat to the Spider thing. Ironically, the Mythos card that did this was the so-called 'Omen of Good Fortune'...

(Positive) Observations:

• I loved the very simple, readable and understandable rules. After one read through I felt like I knew all I needed to. When I needed to reference rules during the game, it was almost always very quick to do so. After the nightmare that is (to me) the Arkham Horror rules, this was a real treat!
• I loved a lot of the simplified mechanics (compared with AH). Things like combat didn't feel simplified or dumbed down, but they did feel much easier to follow, predict and understand. I was also grateful for the lesser prevalence of combat in general.
• I liked the single 'Asset deck', which merged a whole range of bonuses into one, easily digested pack, thus saving plenty of space.
• I liked the fixed stats for the characters, again, saving space and fiddly counters.
• Both of the above points are examples of something else I liked: the scale and the focus on significant events. This is not something that is 'better' than AH; just different. Most things in the game felt significant. Who cares about spending one dollar on a train ticket? At this scale, that level of detail is not needed.
• Likewise, the encounters were generally much more satisfying. The rewards seemed bigger, and they seemed more like the result of doing something. Helping a detective track down a murderer rather than 'chat with the paper boy'. None of them felt like generic 'filler', unlike some encounters you can have in Arkham when you're hoping to get something exciting. And the encounters are among my favourite bits from both games. They're really where a lot of the narrative and feel of the game comes from.
• The encounters also felt more stable and predictable in a way. i.e. Sometimes I had good ones, sometimes not. Sometimes I gained something, sometimes I failed. But generally I wasn't losing more than one or two points of health or sanity, meaning that choosing to have an encounter wasn't generally a potentically life-or-death decision. Running out of health or sanity would obviously be bad, but it felt that you'd need a string of bad luck (or bad decisions) to get to this point, rather than a single bad encounter. Being delayed wasn't such a disappointment either, as you could still have encounters and so feel that you were 'in the game'.
• The emphasis on the 'big picture', the Old One specific events and research, and the high quality encounters, made the game feel to me that the theme was more obvious than I've often felt playing Arkham Horror.

(Negative) Observations:

• The flip side of the quality encounters and theme is that it's quite apparent that there aren't enough cards in some of the decks!
• I didn't like the combining of all the conditions into a single deck. I don't see the point, as I never needed to pick a random one - I was always instructed to take a specific card, or draw one from a specific selection (eg. an injury). I'll be separating the conditions into their own mini-decks in future.
• Travel seemed pretty slow. Admittedly that makes it meaninful, but it did usually mean that my investigators were a long way from help and/or where they needed to be. I'd have felt this more keenly has not Akachi not been able to keep appearing at different gates and/or clues and had not I been able to replace the dead Leo in Australia with the living Diana half a planet away (and closer to the action) in Latin America.
• I missed the feeling of being part of a team that I get from AH. Although the investigators are on the same side, in my game there was very little interaction between them, so it was more like 2 or 3 individuals fighting private wars against the horror rather than a small team of comrades. Perhaps playing with real players will mitigate this feeling somewhat, just be being able to chat with each other.
• I didn't use the expeditions at all. That's not actually a criticism of the game. It's quite nice actually to know that there are still things to explore! But I was surprised that it never seemed sensible to try to get to Antartica.
• I wish there were more city locations on the board. It's not that I felt the game needed them for any mechanical purpose, but it did feel odd not being able to visit some important and characterful places.

Over all, I enjoyed it and am looking forward to playing it again - with friends! I'm also pretty confident that when I introduce the game to them, they'll pick up and understand the rules very quickly, and so feel more like they can do what they like in the game, rather than be forced to rely on me to explain what they can do - as happens a fair amount with the convoluted AH rules.

Something I would comment on is that there are a few mechanical effects in Arkham that you either don't interact with that often, like Bank Loans, or are discouraged from interacting with, like most encounters. EH brings both to the fore, although they proceed to stumble with their own mechanic:Expedition Encounters, which feel tacked on and like a waste of time most games.

Something I would comment on is that there are a few mechanical effects in Arkham that you either don't interact with that often, like Bank Loans, or are discouraged from interacting with, like most encounters. EH brings both to the fore, although they proceed to stumble with their own mechanic:Expedition Encounters, which feel tacked on and like a waste of time most games.

Expedition is a cool feature in my opinion….. You got artefact, very cool thing and also can retreat a doom. Im pretty sure with expansion expedition will play a big role in the game.

It would be cool, if it didn't feel like a side trip. Most of the time though it feels like there is too much that needs doing otherwise.

I haven't read most of the cards, so I'm expecting either that some mythos events will make it seem like a good idea to go on an expedition, or I you happen to be relatively close I'll take the opportunity to go on one. It just didn't arise in this game.

Mind you; it's probably appropriate. I haven't read a lot of HPL's stories, but of those I have read, only one of them was really set in the wilderness. It's probably just as well to have wilderness expeditions and encounters be rare - and mysterious.

Pretty good list of points. I agree with pretty much all of them. I have only played one game so far (2 player) and I honestly felt like we were playing as a team. At least I felt that way to the same extent that I did in AH. We were splitting up the work going to different locations and doing what needed to be done. It really didn't feel any different than AH did to me as far as teamwork is concerned. We also did not use the expeditions for most of the game. I think part of the problem is we just didn't see know what they were good for and none of the mysteries called for us to go there. We did do one expedition though (I couldn't quite make it to where I needed to and the expedition was on the way so I stopped there). I ended up getting an artifact from it! From my experience so far Artifacts are extremely rare (we only got 2 during our game). So, I'm thinking next game I may try some more expeditions and see what else I can get.

As I said, it may just have been that I was playing solo for the first time. But I think it's also about the scale. In Arkham (and with lots of players), you always felt like you could phone or shout to someone in the street next to you, and with it being relatively fast to move around, it did feel like you were at least crossing paths.

In this game, Akachi and Leo met once, briefly, in Australia. Leo handed over some magic knife and was dead a few moments later from a dark pact. (And Akachi then lost the knife and something else in some horrible sanity-busting event shortly afterwards.)

Akachi and Diana did I think then cross paths as one was on her way to Greenland via Arkham and the other was fleeing, ahem, strategically redeploying to somewhere else...

But it's hard to imagine characters who start the game in different continents, and never meet actually working together very successfully as a team.

I can't really think that there's a way round it in game. I just have to hope that when I play again with more players I'll get some of that Arkham feeling back.

Investigators can feel remarkably isolated. Play with Charlie Kane, it'll improve the team feeling a little.

Great write up. My wife and I played this for the first time a couple of days ago and I doubt AH will ever hit the table again. Definitely needs more cards though!