My group and I picked up AH nto too long ago and after four games, we have four wins. We have not even felt the game was close yet. I'm a big fan of the horror atmosphere of the game and from some of the people I've talked to, they've said that the expansions give the game more flavor and make the game more difficult for the players. Can someone tell me which expansions make the game the hardest for the players and why? Thanks!

The King In Yellow can be quite nasty. But if you've got a bit of cash, Kingsport Horror might be a better option as it has harder Ancient Ones, Heralds and a nasty new mechanic,

If you're looking to make the game harder without getting any expansions, there are several things you can do. One of the more interesting possibilities is to place all Gates face down on the board when they open, so no one knows what they are until they step through them. Most players aren't too bothered about the prospect of going to Another Dimension when not fully tooled up; but if there's a possilbility it's R'yleh, suddenly they're not so keen. Another idea is to put a limit on the number of Clue Tokens an Investigator can carry at any one time, or deal just one random Investigator to each player at the start of the game so they have no choice over who they play as, or start the Doom Track on 2, or anything else you can think of ... If the base setting is too easy, then change it. :-)

If money is no issue, getting all the expansions and playing with a herald plus one of the kingposrt ancient one is the way to go.

Otherwise, any expansion you get would make the game more difficult, except for CotDP which doesn't add that much difficulty.

If you can afford a big box expansion, I'd suggest Dunwich for the increased difficulty level, although granted with all the expansions Dunwich is rather dead and Kingposrt poses a greater threat. However with only one big box expansion Dunwich if the way to go.

For a small box, BGotW+its herald will increase the game's difficulty dramatically, but the final battle would remain the same. KiY, on the other hand, with its act cards could end the game at any moment, but if you get more expansions the KiY's threat would become less significant

First of all, make sure you were playing all the rules correctly. Many newbies claim the game's too easy... until they see they've overlooked a crucial but simple rule

But more seriously: if you want more difficulty, get an expansion.

Any of the following will do, and will cater to your particular tastes:

Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
Not much increased difficulty, only a little bit. But there's an official Print-N-Play herald to complement this expansion that gives it some teeth. That aside, the expansion's theme is pervasive and is the best of the five expansions in this manner.

Dunwich Horror
Large difficulty ramp-up! More possible gate locations makes it much more difficult to slow down the ancient one with seals. Not to mention, you can lose seals as this expansion introduces the wicked Gate Burst mechanic! The new AOs themselves are decently harder, and there is always the looming threat of the Dunwich Horror itself awakening and raising hell. The Injury and Madness cards don't make the game harder, but are just really cool to use and should be used with every game, regardless of expansions. This expansion also has an official print-n-play herald that makes the Dunwich Horror much more threatening. As far as new and fun features go, this expansion's the best.

King In Yellow
Adds a decent amount of difficulty without bunches of new rules and components. No Gate Bursts, but the herald makes the terror track more harmful, and the Three Acts deck puts the constant stress on the investigators that they can instantly lose the game if they don't get their Acts together (A PUN! A PUN!!!)

Kingsport Horror
No new gate locations, but the constant and nearly unyielding threat of rifts appearing and awakening the Ancient One NEVER gets reduced when multiple expansions are mixed in! This game has Gate Bursts, truly horrible Ancient Ones, and my favorite new addition to make every game harder: Epic Battle. Final combat will be much more unpredictable, and much, MUCH more intense.

Black Goat of the Woods
Black Goat is nasty. It is the only small (non-board) expansion to add Gate Bursts. This will really add difficulty to your games. And the herald that comes with the game is hands-down the hardest one currently published. But...

Innsmouth Horror
has 8 new ancient ones, and two new heralds that are rumored to be the "hardest yet," so this may wind up being the best expansion.

If difficulty is your only goal, I'd get Black Goat and/or Kingsport. But Let me recommend Dunwich and/or King in Yellow, because they add fun things and great theme (respectively) while still adding decent difficulty.

lol the more games I play the harder it gets ha ha our records has been going down but we are trying harder combinations

In addition to what other people are saying, the difficulty of the game varies a lot by the Ancient One that you are playing against. If you want to increase the difficulty of the base game, without using an expansion, try playing against Cthulhu or Yog-Sothoth if you haven't already.

OHH. If you want more difficult base game, well you can begin by removing unique items so that there's only one copy of each (truly unique, lol).

What else...? Er... during final combat, the number of successes to remove a doom token is increased by one (5 in a 4-investigator game).

Oh, and when a gate opens on a seal, flip the seal over to the doom token side (it still counts as a seal). When a gate opens on it again, remove the seal but don't add a gate.