So I just finished my latest game of EH. The Ancient One was Shub Niggurath, and the Investigators were Charlie, Jim, Mark, and Jacqueline.

The first mystery I pulled was Hunting the Thousand, and it occurs to me that it's a fairly random mystery. Since it's based off the toughness of the monsters, it's possible to solve it very quickly or very slowly depending on which monsters you draw, and if you are powerful enough to defeat them. I also had the misfortune of most of my early monsters getting tucked away where I couldn't get to them - Elder Things, Serpent People, a Mummy - so it took a looooong time to resolve. Comparatively Knowledge of the Dark Mother was a breeze. Unfortunately it took so long to complete Hunting the Thousand that by the time I had solved my second mystery, Shub Niggurath awakened. I managed one more turn before losing the game; it just doesn't seem possible to win if the Ancient has awakened unless you have nearly finished the third mystery.

Notably, Charlie received a Blessing. He lost the Blessing to a Warlock, and then received a Curse from spawning Wraith, and then had to lose two Health and two Sanity because he couldn't discard a Blessing. Sometimes the game just feels like it's flipping me off.

I managed to receive a few good Artifacts, but they were inevitably handed to someone who they weren't "for". Mark received a Gate Box for the Gates he had no hope of closing, and a Artifact to aid in the casting of spells he didn't have.

Part of me feels I would be served better if Jacqueline or Charlie had been replaced by a combat oriented investigator, but their utility is too much to just casually dismiss. Getting items without Charlie is much, much more difficult, but he's so very frail. Jacqueline is good for Clue tokens, but she seems to be just crappy enough at everything that she never really rolls well, and it gets irritating at times. Mostly she's great for the western half of the board, but then she gets bogged down.

I had a very similar experience. Playing with 2 investigators and got this mystery as my first of the game. By the time I solved it I only had 2 cards left in the mythos deck.

Sounds very typical lovecraft/cthulhu like.

GF and I played a dozen games or so against Azatoth, before we finally won. And it was by the skin of our teeth. We had one eldritch token on a rumour to be removed at the end of the turn that would have caused us to lose.

It's by far the hardest mystery in the game. Shub more than doubles in total difficulty in games where it comes up.

Other mysteries usually fall under "perform some simple task and spend 1 clue per player" or "defeat this very tough monster".

Hunting the Thousand boils down to "defeat simple monsters and spend 2 clues per player" or "defeat very tough monsters and spend 1 clue per player".

Not only is the condition harder on paper, but it's harder in practice. Not only do you have to pick up clues, you have to pick up items to defeat the monsters. You don't just travel to the clue locations, you travel to the clue locations then the monsters. Also traditionally you divide monster killing and clue gathering between specialized investigators. With HtT, you either have to do both or waste actions meeting up and trading.

It's kind of crazy how that one mystery is in a total difficulty league of its own. No other mystery even comes close. I have idea why Shub doesn't start with more doom spaces and more mythos cards since his slumber ability and mysteries are a lot tougher than Yog's.