I beat Cthulhu. I beat Yog-Sothoth. I could not, no matter how hard I tried, beat Shub-Niggurath. The wave of monsters would quickly turn into a tsunami and I would drown in a flood of tentacles and stamina loss.

So I thought about it and built my dream team. Charlie Kane, to acquire assets and use his global political connections to get them to the investigator who needed them. Akachi Onyele, to close gates. Diana Stanley, to gather monsters and cultists and dispatch them. Lily Chen, because she can do everything, and is kinda hot.

My plan worked well. Charlie stocked everyone with more allies and weapons than a single investigator could ever use. Akachi closed one gate after another, popping up around the world and keeping doom in check. Lily did her best at stemming the tide of monsters, but bad rolls made her the weakest of the team. Diana really shined in the Amazon, fighting the Nug and ultimately succumbing. But with her final breath as she slipped into unconsciousness she cast her last spell and was medevacced to Buenos Aries to join Charlie in the hospital. The spell was enough. The Nug died, and although the doom dropped to two during the mythos it was enough to solve the last mystery and the world was saved.

The team performed so well I had the brilliant idea of using them against every AO of the game until they met defeat. The rules were simple; if defeated, draw a random investigator in their place, but they could return next game. If devoured, draw a random investigator and they were out for the next and subsequent games. The hope was that the team could cycle through all four AOs and, eventually, Yig.

Up next was Azathoth. It occurred to me that I had only played against the Idiot God in my very first game and when introducing new players to the insanity that is Eldritch Horror. Every encounter ended in defeat. The most straight forward, and easiest, AO. Where better to start.

Right...

Through a bad other world encounter and a particularly vicious mythos card on the first round Akachi nearly went insane almost immediately. Charlie Kane took a Dark Pact in round three to keep the doom from advancing. In round four he was devoured. A random draw replaced him with Trish Scarborough, at least she's observant and can collect clues. Lily Chen, despite the rabbit's foot and killing the Windwalker in Canada early on, was unlucky and couldn't even kill a skeleton in Arkham. Add in a rumor that wouldn't allow any gates to be closed and no one able to get to the Arctic Circle in time, the world was devoured. Sorry folks, tell your children you love them and hug them tight as insanity devours the world.

So much for the Dream Team.

Let me give some thought as to who can beat this "easiest" of AOs. In the meantime, I'm going back to the relative comfort and safety of Arkham.

I have tried playing a EH 5 times now. Twice solo with one investigator, once solo with two investigators, once with three players and once with two players. All of them against Azatoth. And all have been failures. The three player game went pretty well, but had to be abandoned for time constraints. Other than that I have been completely stuck on solving the first mystery each time. Doom is down to 5 or lower by the time the first mystery is solved and it's almost pointless to continue.

The three player game went pretty well, with the sailor, the expedition leader and the actress. Particularly since the expedition leader actually sort of roleplayed and aimed at doing expeditions which got some good rewards.

So I would be very interested in what kind of investigator combinations or strategies people use to beat Azatoth since I seem to be utterly incompetent at figuring it out myself

Charlie Kane, Leo Anderson, Trish Scarborough, and Lily Chen/Mark Harrigan/Jacqueline Fine. (prefer Lily)

Now if you have bad rolls, you have bad rolls. Its happens. But you have Charlie gear your team up, Leo to get artefacts (which are really strong), Trish because she helps solve mysteries faster, and Lily Chen to be the bruiser(though Mark for combat or Jacqueline for spell casting).

The big mistake is thinking Azathoth is easy. Azathoth is not particularly easy. He's simple, which is why he is good for newbie players - there is less stuff to keep track of with him - but he's still quite difficult. Omen of Devastation is one of the hardest mysteries in the game to beat, and almost all of his mysteries have a pretty hefty Clue token requisite. I probably would have gone with Charlie, Trish, Jacqueline, and Norman to beat Azathoth.

You'll want to take some of these people when you go out against Shub-Niggurath: Jim Culver, Leo Anderson, Mark Herrigan, Norman Withers.

I'd say the most vital to any dream team is the psychic. Her clue transfer ability can easily save you a dozen investigator turns worth of traveling.

I've always considered Lily the weakest investigator in the game...

Lily isn't that good in my experience. She beefs up quickly at least, and starts near Shanghai and Sydney, which is good, but her initial items are garbage and her special action is both confusing and weak compared to others.

Our group's A team for every scenario is Charlie, Lily, and Jacqueline. The fourth we keep open depending on player preference. Trish has an interesting ability combination with Jacqueline. Norman is really useful. Generally we grab another fighter to keep the board clean (Leo, Mark, or Silas). The trick that we discovered is to make sure that Lily gets to Sydney and stays there until she gets a strength bonus (if Jacqueline is there, we make sure she forwards her clue token to Lily in case Lily gets the encounter that requires a clue to buff her). After that she is pretty much unstoppable, especially with Charlie to back her. I am sure that each group of players has their tricks and strategies, this is the one that works consistently for us.

I played a solo game with Charlie, Diana, Norman, and Lily a few weeks ago.

Things started very, very badly. The dice that came with the game hate me... HATE ME. Seriosly... like, a lot. I have never seen so many 1's and 3's in my life. I rolled 2 of the dice 5 times in a row and got a 1 and a 3 EVERY TIME. Grabbed the dice out of my Arkham Horror box and luck fortune smiled on my team immediately.

Charlie spent the first couple turns finding Assets to help Diana with her abyssmal Mind attribute. Diana went Spell hunting. Norman went Clue hunting. And Lily proved quite adept at chasing the Expedition Marker around... even to Antarctica.

First Mystery: "Occult Research" Usually, the first mystery is always the hardest to complete. This one was right in Norman's wheelhouse. He was able to complete two Research Encounters without an undue amount of difficulty (after I switched dice, that is).

Second Mystery: "The True Name" Norman, again. He had to work a bit harder for this one. He had to make sure that he had at least one Clue on him before he traveled to the Eldritch Token. Then his special ability let him use a Sanity for the second Clue each time.

Meanwhile... Diana and Lily are keeping the gates and monsters in check. Somehow every couple times the Doom advances we land on a Research or Expedition effect that retreats the Doom. Unfortunately, the Expedition Marker explodes in Egypt, seriously injuring Charlie and Diana in Roma and Istanbul (not Constantinople).

Third Clue: Omen of Devastation Omen is Red and there are two red Gates on the board. Diana jumps into one and Lily jumps into the other. Diana succeeds as does Lily, very nearly getting eaten by the Cats of Ulthar in the process. Each closes their gate and spends a clue to place a Token on the Mystery.

Then I said, "So long as this last Mythos card doesn't kill us, the game is over." It didn't and it was. Victory.

We played a 4 man jam yesterday with Diana, Jim, Silas, and Charlie VS Cthulu. We started out the game nice and strong with no problems other than Charlie not able to get a single success on his influence tests to buy things. Diana just kind of parked in Tokyo to deal out the heat on the monsters that showed, in particular Cthylla. After that we only had about 4 turns left when the mythos card that forces a completed mystery into the deck showed up. We lucked out and had 2 clues to spend to cancel its effects. Then R'yleh rose out of the sea and Silas swam around trying to solve the mystery of the island. After 3 turns of trying he finally was able to clear out the island and solidify a victory for all.

I had a good game against Azathoth with Charlie, Diana, Leo and Akachi. Charlie kept everyone well supplied, Diana was doing the killing, Leo went on expeditions and Akachi went on her gate duty.

Despite several bad rolls and events, I managed to win the game.

D4L3W. You are not alone. Well, you are ALMOST not alone. I've played more than 40 matches since i bought Eldritch Horror and i just beat Shub-Niggurath ONCE. Surely she's the hardest of all core AOs. Yog-Sothoth is the easiest (already lost the count of how many times i beat him).

I usually choose charlie, jaqueline or trish. My GF plays wth lily, diana and akachi. we play 2 to 6 players.

I seem to pull of wonders with charlie. MY GF usually loses an investgator to the greater good.

I've had good success with the following four: Charlie (item fountain) + Jacqueline (clue fountain and spell casting) + Akachi (gate closing) + Silas (combat and mobility).

Overall Strategy: Control doom and mythos threats while steadily acquiring character buffs/items/spells and solving mysteries.

General Tactics:

1. Charlie generates items from San Fran and buffs Observation. He then moves to Tokyo to mitigate monsters. Weapons are given to Silas and Akachi. Lore and spell casting gear are given to Jacqueline. Influence items are given to Charlie.

2. Jacqueline moves via Arkham to Buenos Aires to acquire critical spells (Plumb the Void, Blessing of Isis, and Feed the Mind). She feeds clues to investigators.

3. Akachi initially moves to Shanghai to buff lore to at least 4. She then begins closing gates using her Mists of Releh spell to avoid the monsters.

4. Silas is used to address mysteries and ongoing mythos threats.

I use Charlie and trish, I sometimes substitute for Jacqueline. My GF plays Diana and Lily, her substitute is Akachi. We usually do well but last week we tried to go against a particular stacked mythos deck with shub (rumours were windwalker and whiteship) and could not beat it, in 2 player game despite only needing 2 clues to solve mysteries we either get close or butt handed to us and not even one mystery solved.

Once we just randomized the mythos we did not even get more then 2 doom or 8 monsters at a time, and it was still a mean mythos deck but guess our other one was just too difficult or luck just bad..

Charlie at first was our go to guy. The buffing he gives with items is great.

However our current choice is Norman+Diana+Akachi+{Trish or Jacqueline or someone else appropriate for the ancient one} and we've been playing with cutting out Norman for another AO approriate character but that is risky.

Diana gets feed the mind. Diana buffs her Lore and then buffs others while standing on Buenos Aires or Arkham for spells. (Others come to her. She spends all her actions casting and resting.)

Besides Lore buff the weakest stats first.

In the meantime Akachi is teleporting between gates and closing them to buy everyone time.

The Clue person gathers clues. Takes care of rumors... Whatever. Putting out the whatever fires might arisen on the board.

You should spend an excessive time buffing. We get through about half the mythos deck before finishing the first mystery. It is scary seeing the mythos deck so low and no serious progress on mysteries but it works.

If things go well everyone is strong and can wander about without fear of failing too many tests.

If things go really well Diana become partially infused with godhood and teleports around smiting all evil.

Trish, Jacqueline & Norman is one if the best combos available in my opinion. Add a monster killer or gate jumper and you're not gonna have too hard a time.

My "Dream Team" investigators are:

1. Charlie Kane

2. Daisy Walker

3. Zoey Samaras

4. Sister Mary

Very quickly my favorite character became Silas Marsh. Because of that extra movement. It always comes in handy.

I saw someone on youtube running these four:
Silas, Lily, Jaquline and Trish.

And boy did that team work (well Trish dies all the time for some reason)
The team is pretty well spread around the map from the start, Silas can run to whereever.
Jaquline get's a clue every or every other turn due to sheer randomness with conditions.

But most games I've actually lost 2-4 investigators, so I have a tactic for picking the backups:

1. Charlie Kane (He is a super reserve, you don't need him to farm items from the start of the game.
2. Pick whoever starts close to whatever problem you need to solve (it's following the rules)
3. If you can't find a good replacement pick then go for Jim Culver, he is well rounded, stars with a clue and all.

I managed to beat Shub, with this initial team...Rex, Minh, Marie, Daisy.

I lost Minh early to bad luck and then sacrificed Rex, For the Greater Good.

Mandy replaced Minh on turn 3, then Finn replaced Rex on turn 8, only to be replaced himself by Agnes, who sadly died on the final turn of the game, turn 13.

Here's a rough precis of the game:

Minh had two unlucky rolls and went out early, this changed my game plan as I had decided she would be support for Marie, who was my elected fighter and team leader.

Turned out that Marie and Mandy were the grinders, while Daisy picked up gates and clues, along with Rex, who also gained Assets.

Rex's rolling was remarkable, 3 tests out of 4 he rolled at least one 6, plus he picked up the Witch Doctor asset, giving him 2 chances per reckoning turn to pick up an extra clue.

Because the first Mystery took so long to complete, I decided to sacrifice him, in the hope of advancing the second Mystery, as Doom was on 12 after turn 7. It didn't really work as it took 2 gates off the board and 1 monster.

Marie and Mandy worked well together.

Finn was unluckly as I used him to confront Nug, to clear out the ghoul and make way for Marie with her double barrel, with her 3 STR and Dhol chants 4+3+3 additional dice - 2 for Nug.. Unfortunately, Overwhelming Swarm was the Mythos Card, so his second encounter with Nug wiped him out.

Marie (blessed) and Mandy stepped up. Nug fell, but not without the use of 2 focus and 1 clue from Marie.

Mandy, despite her Clue gathering ability was more of a support for Marie, they had quite a lot of useful assets and Traded them frequently, all within the scope of the rules.

Daisy was our spell caster, using Arcane Insight to gain clues and Storm of Spirits when she got into a fight (Lore 6 + Book of Spells). She also took out a pesky Mi-go.

The final Mystery was fairly easy to accomplish as Nug was defeated on The Amazon, Nature of the All-Mother, two clues were within 2 spaces, so they both went there, where Marie and Mandy picked them up, then, believe it or not, a Mythos card spawned another clue on the Amazon and Mandy went to Alaska to pick up the final one.

Agnes died from a sucker punch that could have been avoided had I not been so tired.

Doom advanced 6 times in the final two turns. 3 blue, 2 red, plus poor Agnes, but I figured the leeway with 10 points in hand would get them home. It also advanced once with the final Mythos Card.

The team of Marie, Mandy and Daisy, once settled in really won the game as they produced a good Clues per turn ratio. Keeping monsters below ten proved testing but not impossible.

Mythos deck, 7 hard, 4 normal, 2 easy.

Silas Marsh is a favorite, as he is a sailor like me (and the extra move doesn't hurt).

Charlie Kane, Mark Harrigan and Jacqueline Fine are other characters I like to use.

The friends I game with usually tend to go for the "cool" characters, which means usually no Charlie Kane on the board (as who wants to play a politician?), which doesn't always give the best combination, but is a lot of fun.

Daisy Walker for spells and clues. Hank Samson for stomping monsters. Norman Withers for gates and improvements. Then it depends...I gravitate toward Ursula for her expedition and move bonuses with focus though. Also like Wendy Adams a lot.

I'm surprised to see nobody mention Lola Hayes -- she's been exceptionally strong in every game. That extra die and ability to change stat improvements means she can handle a wide variety of situations.

I'm surprised to see nobody mention Lola Hayes -- she's been exceptionally strong in every game. That extra die and ability to change stat improvements means she can handle a wide variety of situations.

Second this - love playing Lola for her versatility.