Weekly Trash - Arkham Horror

This is a pretty fun game, but it seems that the problem we have is getting enough clue tokens to permanently seal a gate. But we usually get lucky in getting an elder sign. Shoot might have to play this one this weekend.

Merkles wrote:

That said, I've been curiously intimidated in trying out this game---perhaps it is the sheer number of bits and cards, but it seems almost impossible to grasp reading through the rules (at least for me).

This is the interesting thing with the game I've found. There really is two different learning curves going on with the game. For someone just casually playing the game it really isn't that tough to grasp. The mechanics are pretty simple...But that said the person learning the game to teach others has an entirelly different curve to learn.

Like you mention the game is daunting - My roommate was watching me run four players solo and I was urging him to take control of one for a few turns but his response was "Fuck no...Look at this there are one, two, three...fifteen different decks of cards infront of you!"

I told him "No...you just have to move around, flip a card and do what it says and I'll walk you through what is happening, but you don't need to know everything like I do...You'll have fun". He just turned back on the Wii and left it at that.

The rule book is confusing...One of my worst game induced headaches was after I read it for the first time, but once the game is going it does start to make sense. The flowchard from Skelator is very, very, very useful though and alomst a must when learning the game.

ozjesting wrote:

3. Spells suck. Whatever. I hate the fact that some people complain that the game isn't "hard enough" yet still tend to pick power characters, stick to "hot spots" and avoid spell casters. I prefer Mandy to be missing, shotguns kept to a minimum and I adore the Great Drake! Spells are tough going I agree...but I like that magic exists at all in this world, and it should be hard.

Spells are fun. I like the spellcasters - Drake and the Psychologist. The one spell which lets you exit gates in one turn is pretty good. I do agree though that the game is easier if you choose characters, as you'll hardly play those which aren't that good.

Oh, and we finally lost a game. I learned my lesson: Never enter a gate with only one health point left.

One more note: Read the frigging flavor text!!!

One thing that the guy who ran our game tried with us was to get the next person around the table to read the encounter card, and if there was a choice whether to perform an action and/or skill check that had a consequence then they would say there was a bad consequence but not tell you what it was. Don't know if this is common or if he imported it from his younger rpg days - it didn't affect many encounters but gave a bit more edge for the player.

Agree that it is easy to play when you get into it, but some people have to know all the different permutations of the rules in every phase so you don't miss anything.
I need to play it a few more times before I can make any sensible opinion on it - but initially, due to the Doom track 'counter' mechanism, there does seem to be a choice of whether; you attempt closing/sealing gates, you fight the monsters for fun and points for buying shit and for points at the end, you just rush around getting stuff for the final battle .... and even the basic choice in the game of whether you are playing to win any way you can and thus want to try closing/sealing gates or if you want to have fun by being able to fight the Old One at the end.

Did you guys see FFG's Summer Arkham Horror League? www.fantasyflightgames.com/ah_league.html

You play through different scenarios and report your results or something.

I think the summer league was (and is) an excellent idea! Adds some "scenario" type action to the game which I think is fun. Plus the idea of one team of investigators staying together for all of them (if they survive) is also excellent.

I haven't been able to play it officially (as in reporting my results), but have played both games so far and they are good fun indeed! Recommend you print them out and include as yet another wrinkle in the "expansion" choices for how you play the game.

We played again a couple of days ago, with another full set of eight players. It was great fun, though maybe just a little too easy because we forgot to double the monsters for having more than four players. At one point, I laughed so damn hard that there were literally tears in my eyes, as a player read an encounter card with peculiar emphasis that revealed the dubious sexual orientation of Sir William Brinton.

Not to be too much of a components whiner, the cards are a little flimsy. I'm just wondering if anyone who's played a bunch of times has had problems with them wearing out too quick or if they're sturdier than they seem.

Mad Dog wrote:

Not to be too much of a components whiner, the cards are a little flimsy. I'm just wondering if anyone who's played a bunch of times has had problems with them wearing out too quick or if they're sturdier than they seem.

The card stock is fine. If you are shuffling the neighborhood encounter decks after every draw, stop it. Just discard to the bottom of the deck each time, and only shuffle the decks before starting a new game. That will save considerable wear and tear on the cards. Also, discourage players from manhandling the cards. Some people seem to subconsciously mangle cards, bending them as far as they can while reading them.

If you want to see what really flimsy card stock is like, check out Innsmouth Escape from Twilight Creations. Those cards significantly more fragile than the ones in Arkham Horror.

Arkham Horror is great in another respect. It's gradually expanding the attention span of our players. Most of the people in my regular AmeriTrash boardgame group used to get pretty restless if a boardgame lasted more than two hours. But we have always played Arkham Horror with all of the expansions, and so the game has gradually gone from taking about 2 hours to play to maybe 3-4 hours per game now. And our players have adapted to the length, realizing that they are still enjoying the game even if it's long. That longer attention span seems to be carrying over to other games, which means that I can finally get some of my longer AT games on the table again.

Shellhead wrote:

The card stock is fine. If you are shuffling the neighborhood encounter decks after every draw, stop it. Just discard to the bottom of the deck each time, and only shuffle the decks before starting a new game.

Doesn't that encourage card counting locations though? Under the 'reshuffle' rule I'm never garenteed to get a retainer at the newspaper no matter how long I sit there, with your discard rule if I sit there I will get one.

Personally I find the cards really stong. All mine still look new.

Has anyone won a game against the Kingsport Horror GOOs? I was looking at them last night and they seem a bit rigged.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Doesn't that encourage card counting locations though? Under the 'reshuffle' rule I'm never garenteed to get a retainer at the newspaper no matter how long I sit there, with your discard rule if I sit there I will get one.

Personally I find the cards really stong. All mine still look new.

Has anyone won a game against the Kingsport Horror GOOs? I was looking at them last night and they seem a bit rigged.

It might be a problem with the original set, but really, the pace of the game strongly discourages this "card counting." If somebody camps out at the Newspaper location for more than a couple of turns, they are neglecting more important things like monsters, gates and the Doom Factor. Once you start adding expansions, of which every single one adds roughly a half dozen encounters to every Arkham location, card counting would become pretty pointless. Likewise, one of our regular players used to camp out at the Curiosity Shoppe searching for Elder Signs. That was questionable strategy with the base set and has become absolutely foolish once all the expansions are added to the game.

And yeah, the card stock is good. I've played my set at least 60 or 70 times now, with no sign of wear on the cards. The Arkham board, on the other hand, is showing a little bit of wear, with a little bit of bubbling of the surface near the seams.

We've just battled each of the new GOOs once each so far, and we have won 3 out of 4 games, though every game was very close. The trick is that you need to be playing all of the new stuff, including a Guardian, to balance out how tough the new GOOs can get. The new characters are particularly strong.

Finally got to play this. We did a two-player game with one investigator each (Joe Diamond and Carolyn Fern). My friend had played once before and knew the general idea of things, but Mr Skeletor's flowchart was awesomely helpful throughout the game. We were figuring it as a learning game for several turns before dying, but we ended up playing through and sealing six gates for the win. With some good and bad luck along the way. I liked the game a lot and expect it will see many more plays. Of course we read the cards to the other person (same way I play Runebound), which makes it more fun.

Mad Dog wrote:

Finally got to play this. We did a two-player game with one investigator each (Joe Diamond and Carolyn Fern). My friend had played once before and knew the general idea of things, but Mr Skeletor's flowchart was awesomely helpful throughout the game. We were figuring it as a learning game for several turns before dying, but we ended up playing through and sealing six gates for the win. With some good and bad luck along the way. I liked the game a lot and expect it will see many more plays. Of course we read the cards to the other person (same way I play Runebound), which makes it more fun.

Two investigators can be really tough. Couple of bad roles, or a Dhole and you are just FUBAR. When my friend and I play, we go two each. When soloing, I play three. How long did it take you? I think my first game (2 players, 2 investigators) was 4 hours or so. I can set up, play, and tear down a 3-player game in about 2:30 now. It'd go faster if I had more dice.