Arkham Horror, too easy out of the box?

[Maerok]

I just recently got Arkham Horror and I find that it is really fun but my group and I have won every game so far. We have played Betrayal at House on the Hill for a while so we respond the threats in the game with good organization and tactics. Another thing is that the Terror Track has only risen once or twice in all our games. The four of us beat Nyarly and Yigg with three or four doom points to spare and were close to an Elder Seal victory (played against Nyarly before we noticed that the doom track doesn't go up when no gate is opened, so we would have had a huge lead).

I'm thinking about getting an expansion soon enough in May:

The King in Yellow is cool because I like Hastur but it seems like you have to focus on it specifically to get the most out of it. Also, from what I hear I could homebrew something as cool with the Strange Eons program. Black Goat of the Woods is also tough but my friends might laugh at having fight a 'goat' (mortal fools!), but getting to hang out in the cult might be cool. I like the story aspect of the game and the ability to do a lot of things (we first remarked that it played a lot like an RPG of sorts, though we don't really RP the characters). So I guess this is the sort of expansion I am looking for. Curse of the Dark Pharaoh provides some cool things but I hear quite a few of them are lame.

As for big boxes, I hear Kingsport is rather drab while Dunwich Horror is pretty good. But I might hold out for Innsmouth Horror because it's an entire town turned against you and seems likely to add some unique challenges.

[Hzurr]

Aside from being on the easy side, how is the game? I've come close to buying it a couple of times, but have never quite been able to force myself to buy a game I know so little about.

Could I convince you into giving a quick review and possibly a brief gameplay description?

[ninja_penguin]

The terror track never really rose for you? Was everybody combat monkeys, or what? Did you do the monster surges? (when a portal tries to open at an existing one, every gate open belches out a monster) I'm curious as we've usually at least had the track up to 4 on our lowest game.

Also, Strange Eons is excellent; I'm currently working on homebrewing up the ancient ones from Eternal Darkness.

Expansions are nice to the game, but I do suggest that you don't play with more then one at a time, due to the already large number of various cards that the game has. Hastur's King of Yellow events become watered down when they're buffered by other cards from other expansions.

Also, if you're a Betrayal at House on the Hill veteran, Arkham horror at the basic level might not be enough to challenge you. Try some of the scenarios out there on the internet, those can provide a larger sense of urgency to the game then usual.

[Maerok]

The terror track never really rose for you? Was everybody combat monkeys, or what? Did you do the monster surges? (when a portal tries to open at an existing one, every gate open belches out a monster) I'm curious as we've usually at least had the track up to 4 on our lowest game.

Also, Strange Eons is excellent; I'm currently working on homebrewing up the ancient ones from Eternal Darkness.

Expansions are nice to the game, but I do suggest that you don't play with more then one at a time, due to the already large number of various cards that the game has. Hastur's King of Yellow events become watered down when they're buffered by other cards from other expansions.

Also, if you're a Betrayal at House on the Hill veteran, Arkham horror at the basic level might not be enough to challenge you. Try some of the scenarios out there on the internet, those can provide a larger sense of urgency to the game then usual.

Well it was a four person game. I was the Gangster on the first game; there was the Private Eye (became Deputy of Arkham), the Psychologist (had pretty bad luck, needed the ability), and the Magician (did well as an Outer World explorer and cleanup crew; joined the Silver Twilight). We immediately fell into line on roles within the group. I sort of decided that anyone with 3 or less Sanity isn't cut for prolonged encounters so I became the gun-monkey in the streets. We had a lot of fliers but me and the fourth guy took them down while the others worked on gates. We probably had two or three seals. The AO was Nyarly and the only trouble we had with the big Mask beasts was away from all the action.

I ordered Dunwich Horror because the gate bursting and loom of the DH might stir things up a bit. Black Goats is backlisted but will probably be here soon enough. I think the two of them both contribute interesting features to the game along with difficulty. It sounds like it'll add a sort of Evil Harvest feeling when the two are combined in any ratio.

The second game ran a lot smoother as we hammered out rules and are all pretty big co-op board gamers/tacticians. There were 4 characters: me as The Author (I like her ability and spellcasting worked well; got to close a lot of gates and be Deputy), the Photographer (I played a one-investigator solo game against Azathoth and did very well - 3 sealed gates or so - before the world ended), and two others I can't remember. This time it was against Yigg and with some unfortunate moves the Cultists were coming on strong. I closed the last gate before two of them and a High Priest moved into the space with one of our guys. This time it got close but the seals started to kick in and we gained enough ground. We didn't put a doom token on the track every turn as we had been doing last game even when a gate was blocked by a seal - it made it more enjoyable as we got to roam around and grab equipment or see what kinds of things could happen around town. We did get the terror track to raise once or twice via the Outskirts. There was a lot less maintenance on monsters so monster surges caught us once or twice and the terror track got up. Every so often we went off on tangents to kill squads of accumulated beasties.

Still haven't played against Cthulhu which might be a final bastion of difficulty before the expansions.

My solo game was enjoyable. I used the Photographer and got 21 turns in before the End. I even managed to succeed on the Rumor that adds another Mythos card each turn unless you discard three spells. And the game ended as the Terrible Experiment card was drawn. With one investigator it becomes quite an excruciating task to close and seal gates while monster surges keep popping up. Terror Track reached 6, sealed three gates (was on the fourth one but I realized I had no Elder Signs or clues). The Woods and the Witch House were brutal locations as gates kept getting called there. I started with some good stuff: Elder Sign, Dread Curse, Bravery skill, the tome that lets you get a spell (useful for the Rumor), the item you can use to eliminate all San or Stam damage from one source, but no weapons. I did pick up an Ally on the first encounter (+2 Luck, which came in handy). I did get knocked unconscious one time to use an Elder Sign. From this, I can say that three to four people is the right number for less overwhelmed experience.

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Arkham Horror:

The town of Arkham Massachusetts is a weak point between the horrors of the other realities and the world of humanity. An Ancient One has set its sights on breaching the weak points in the fabric of time and space where this forsaken town resides. Each turn the AO comes one step closer to awaking and unleashing infinite horrors across the world unless it can be stopped.

The game draws from the Cthulhu Mythos from HP Lovecraft. You can also check out the Call of Cthulhu card game which you could say is a sister project to Arkham Horror.

Gates will begin to open across Arkham. In order to close them, you'll need to brave the terrors that stalk Arkham and enter the portal itself and escape in order to close the portal. You may receive Rumors of strange activity which work like small quests and strange opportunities open up allowing you to barter with inhuman forces.

If I were to pick other board games on the family tree, I'd say... Clue in board layout, plus Betrayal at House on the Hill in mechanics and theme, and a light RPG.

Each player chooses an investigator and carries around their own supply of items, spells, and skills. They have their own stats which can be adjusted within set values; you increase your Speed at the detriment of your Sneak and vice versa, Fight vs. Will, and Lore vs. Luck. You make rolls with a d6. Anything 5 or greater is a success. You roll dice equal to: your skill + modifiers - penalties. If you'd roll zero or less dice, you fail, but you can spend clues to add rolls.

If you fail in your mission and the Ancient One opens enough gates or their doom track maxes out, the beast awakens and you get one last ditch effort to fight them. (You aren't supposed to survive... But I imagine there are an unsettling number of successes. If you're the kind of person who intentionally tries to max out the doom track in preparation to just fight the Ancient One, then this may not be the game for you.)

It's a remake of the 1980 game. There was a revision in 2006 or so, and the Revised Printing is marked on the lid of the box. It addresses some imbalances it the total value of investigators (in theory, their stats and items are all equal in total converted points; special abilities vary by mileage).

Gameboardgeek.com has a lot of information on this game as well. You might wanna look around for homebrewed stuff. Strange Eons is a multi-platform, Java-based and all-encompassing content creator (even makes custom expansions, AOs, investigators, the works). Anything can be added to the game.

As for review and scrutiny:

When it comes to games, I often get caught up in trying to understand what I'm actually trying to accomplish. I've played Pandemic but didn't really like it because it was too cut and dry really (I never really saw it as an infection but more like a menacing game of colored, vertically challenged Jenga). To me it just seems like you're fighting chance alone which is not quite engaging and rather 'superficial', as I try to find a better word. It's too simple for me really.

With Betrayal, it is kind of seeing its way out in our group this year. We kind of know 'what it's all about' now and there are very few times that a good fight is put up when the Haunt is revealed. Usually the end comes in two or three turns with either the Traitor or the Explorers in a surefire position to win. (Damn the Mystic Elevator so much!)

Arkham Horror has been an immersive experience so far. There's a lot to do and a lot of variation in what will happen. Different characters make it fun and there's a contrary type of random than what Pandemic has. I guess what I'm looking for in the expansions is to get a challenge out of it. Some uncertainty in victory throughout the game would be nice, but as it stands now a good position with closing and sealing gates will allow you to slide into victory. This seems more of a problem with gates having biased distributions and once a 'major' gate is sealed it'll slow down the advance of the doom track enough to win. I will say that we would have lost in three or four turns had we not won when we did (we won via a combination of sealing some gates and closing the rest).

My only complaint is that the Location cards are limited for the base set. And a side note is that it will take 3-4 hours to play. Even half an hour to open the box when you get it and then maybe ten minutes to set up if you've got a system worked out. It is intimidating at first; so many decks of cards, both large and small and the rules can be convoluted but stick with it. A lot of people might be put off by how long it takes, so finding people to play it with you could be an issue.

Presentation is impressive; for whatever you pay, you get a lot of game. The board is huge. Vibrant, evil colors. Lots of stacks of cards, both normal sized and mini. Looks good with a lot of tokens and things to pick up (I like that sort of getting to hold on to items, etc.). Monsters are randomly decided by pulling out cardboard tokens from a bag so anything could show up at any time. After a few games you wanna get down a system to set-up the decks of cards and board for play and for storage.

I'd give it 8 star-spawned abominations out of 10 for now. It has been a bit too easy for my group (mostly due to how events have been weighted internally - apparently a lot of this has been addressed in Dunwich Horror), it's hard to find people interested sometimes, and I guess you may become a bit hardened to the game if you've played it enough (but play for fun, not to win). Box weighs 6.1 pounds apparently. The game runs $40 to $50. Check Amazon.com, but shipping will most likely knock out any deal you're likely to make on it ($7 - $11 on shipping).

RPGnet has its own review that I found. I believe they game it 5 Style and 5 Style (out of 5).

As far as expansions, Kingsport and Curse of the Dark Pharaoh have not peaked my interest at all for some reason. Dunwich Horror and Black Goat of the Woods are on their way. Each expansion adds its own mechanics to the game, at the expense of diluting the really cool cards when decks invariably grow larger. I don't see this as a problem for Location Encounter cards as I worry they'll be the first thing I get bored of.

[Malek]

One of my friends owns Arkham Horror so we play it from time to time. From my personal experience I wouldn't exactly call it too easy - so far I think we managed to win only two or three times, thought there were many close games. I think the main reason for that is that doom track fills very fast, and thus our games end with Ancient Old One awakening most of the time. It also means that Dunwitch and Kingsport boards don't really come into play most of the time :(

[ninja_penguin]

Maerok, you guys must roll awesome on your will checks then; our combat guys almost invariably go insane to a dark spawn or some other high SAN loss monster that is rampaging about. Heck, I think in our group we almost always go insane before we lose all stamina, regardless of what character we're playing.

Also, anybody good at homebrewing stuff? With the eternal darkness ancients, I'm blanking on Chattur'gha's power. His worshipers ability gives overwhelming 1 to everything, and cultists and maniacs get an extra toughness, and his start of battle power is extra doom tokens to his health. I'm blanking on a good power for a god of power/flesh/stamina that would be his environmental effect while he slumbers.

[Maerok]

We usually get Bravery which helps. And there's been a good mix of monsters. If one of them is too scary, one of the people who make gate runs usually show it time and have higher Sanity.