The Arkham Horror Thread

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DailyGeek

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So, I got a copy of Arkham Horror last Christmas and I've still yet to have a game.

What I have done is spend 2.5 hours getting it set up and attempting the first move before I nearly fell asleep at a mate's house :p

Has anyone ever played this? What did you think and is it worth persevering with? :)
 
Well I've just ordered a copy to play with friends this Christmas so hopefully I have more luck than you in getting the first game done! :p
 
Definitely keep at it. It's a great game.

It will speed up a lot once you are familiar with the rules but we still implemented some of our own house rules....such as:

* Shorten the amount of turns it takes to travel through gateways to one. However, increase amount of cards the player has to go through for this to three.

* Lost in Time and Space was revised in some way too..I can't remember how though :o

We also gave people a couple of character at the start each - they could then choose who they were to play. This saves a fair bit of time as if you give people too much choice they will take forever to decide. It's also useful if someone is devoured as it's much quicker to get up and running again.
 
I've played this a few times but not for a good few months now, It's a good game imo but we never really found it as hard/'impossible' as I've seen some people make out...

Not really sure it's good enough to warrant the time though, setup takes a fair while even after a few plays, then the game itself takes forever, can play through 2 other 'proper' length games in the same time which is generally more fun imo.
 
SKILL said:
I've played this a few times but not for a good few months now, It's a good game imo but we never really found it as hard/'impossible' as I've seen some people make out...

Not really sure it's good enough to warrant the time though, setup takes a fair while even after a few plays, then the game itself takes forever, can play through 2 other 'proper' length games in the same time which is generally more fun imo.
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I don't think it gets super hard until you have a few of the expansions such as The Dunwich Horror.

I will agree though that as 4 hours+ it can outstay it's welcome a little, though the idea of a 'proper' length game being 2 hours is maybe a little skewed in my opinion.

My favourite (and I'm not alone) is Twilight Imperium and that will at least last 4 hours, generally last 6-8, but I guess the difference is that you genuinely feel part of something for all that time constantly thinking, bargaining and plotting. It wouldn't work any shorter as the game would lose it's epic feeling.

But going back to your original point, I'm not sure AH offers 4 hours worth of game when you play it, though with the right group it's a blast.
 
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I might have to prod my mate to buy some of the expansions then, not usually too hard to get him to buy new games :D

I guess 'proper' wasn't really a good definition, maybe more normal, I dunno. What I meant Is that most of the rest of the games we have are shorter (things like Ticket to Ride, Settlers, Powergrid, etc etc) and as we play weekly in the evenings we play those when we can't play 4 hour games, so to us the shorter ones are normal, or proper, or whatever.

Twilight Imperium is one I want to get/play, along with a couple of other longer games (off the top of my head Eclipse and Game Of Thrones), but won't get much of a chance to play them.
 
It's definitely an all-dayer. You need to be setting it up and getting started early in the afternoon, otherwise you're going to be sitting there at some ungodly hour too tired to bother. :D

Eldritch Horror, the spiritual successor to Arkham Horror, is out now. Need to pick that up!
 
Pestilence said:
Eldritch Horror, the spiritual successor to Arkham Horror, is out now. Need to pick that up!
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I'm told Eldritch Horror is faster and tighter than Arkham Horror.

AH itself isn't so bad apart from the setup time and the messy rulebook. I would suggest picking up the Arkham Horror Toolkit (iOS) or Arkham Companion (Android) to handle the fuss of the Encounter Cards - they're thematically appropriate as they save time and space ;) - and the turn flowchart on BoardGameGeek that provides an index of the rules to use as you play. And remember: if you win any of your first six games, you have forgotten a rule.
 
DailyGeek said:
So, I got a copy of Arkham Horror last Christmas and I've still yet to have a game.

What I have done is spend 2.5 hours getting it set up and attempting the first move before I nearly fell asleep at a mate's house :p

Has anyone ever played this? What did you think and is it worth persevering with? :)
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Personally I'm not a fan, even though I am a huge Lovecraft lover. But then I am just not a fan of Player vs Game type games anyway, I prefer strategy against human opponents. I got friends who dearly love it, so it's clearly a matter of taste.

As for complexity... First game took us about 8 hours... From there the games have taken between 1½-4 hours, depending on the experience of the players involved etc. It is definitely one of the tougher games I've encountered for the initial playthrough, especially as mentioned due to the rulebook being a bit messy. As I am a stickler for rules a lot of time was spent during the first playthrough ensuring everything went down correctly. At least it gets better once the initially painful game is over... :p
 
I played this game for the first time yesterday - it was good but I find it particularly annoying we had to best guess how the rules were applied as they weren't clear (or weren't all set out in the obvious place / we couldn't find them). I'd be very great duo with help on the following points:

The rules make out you can only damage an ancient one by one hit point / doom token per round of player attacks. This makes no sense Cthulhu spawns one health every go - so he'd be invincible?!

When you finish your movement phase on a portal that also has a monster on it, I presume you must still fight / evade that monster before entering the other world?
 
Nitefly said:
The rules make out you can only damage an ancient one by one hit point / doom token per round of player attacks. This makes no sense Cthulhu spawns one health every go - so he'd be invincible?!

When you finish your movement phase on a portal that also has a monster on it, I presume you must still fight / evade that monster before entering the other world?
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1) It's 1 Doom token removed for every four successes. The AH rulebook is pretty bad, but I've never seen anyone fluff that before.

2) No, you don't fight or evade the monster. When you finish on a Gate you're immediately sucked into it. When you come out again you also get one free attempt to seal the Gate without combat. If that fails, you have to defeat all monsters present before you try again.
 
JeditOjanen said:
1) It's 1 Doom token removed for every four successes. The AH rulebook is pretty bad, but I've never seen anyone fluff that before.
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Well, you say you've never seen anyone fluff that before, but do you care to explain how you came to that conclusion on the basis of this image, which was taken by me of the relevant section of the rulebook? I can't see any reference to 'four' :p

YgcEzdF.png

I suppose, however, that you have played with four players, in which case I think you would be correct. That's particularly badly worded considering how the relevant part of the manual deals with battling monsters. It should say "you can remove multiple doom tokens in one phase of player attacks i.e. in a 3 player game if all players score 9 successes remove 3 doom tokens". It also doesn't tell you if success can be carried across rounds... I guess so?! Pah what a piece of poop! :p

JeditOjanen said:
2) No, you don't fight or evade the monster. When you finish on a Gate you're immediately sucked into it.
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On re-reading the rules, I don't think that's correct either. You only get sucked into the portal in the Arkham encounters phase:

NTMgb8E.png

And the movement phase, which precedes the Arkham encounters phase, says this (see evading monsters at the bottom):

BzQ8FT0.png

It continues:

PUOtIqi.png

So you can't be sucked in before you have to fight it. I can't see anything to the contrary... but happy to be shown the light!

JeditOjanen said:
... When you come out again you also get one free attempt to seal the Gate without combat. If that fails, you have to defeat all monsters present before you try again.
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Yes - that is correct in the sense you have the arkham encounters phase immediately following the movement phase to close it without having to fight / evade the monster. That is specifically explained!

I can't really blame anyone for getting this wrong though... not particularly coherent!
 
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The rules are awfully written and a real pain to go through when you've not got someone else there teaching you how to play. Completely understandable to get loads of those bits wrong to be honest.

edit: I'd recommend watching a few playthrough videos and checking out the various cheat sheets/rules clarifications on BoardGameGeek.
 
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FrenchTart said:
The rules are awfully written and a real pain to go through when you've not got someone else there teaching you how to play. Completely understandable to get loads of those bits wrong to be honest.

edit: I'd recommend watching a few playthrough videos and checking out the various cheat sheets/rules clarifications on BoardGameGeek.
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Was just going to say that.

Grab the Universal Head rules cheat sheets from Boardgamegeek. They're invaluable.
 
Nitefly said:
I suppose, however, that you have played with four players, in which case I think you would be correct.
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Yeah, sorry, I always played Arkham with four so it stuck in my head that it was four successes. What the rule means is that you don't roll a single fight check and win or lose, but if you're rolling enough dice it is theoretically possible as a solo player to defeat a couple of the weaker GOOs like Yig in one attack.

AH has a very thematic rulebook in that reading this arcane tome of forgotten lore can drive you mad.
 
I got it for a birthday a year or so back. We got as far as unpacking it all (takes years - there's far too much) then reading the rules, which looked painfully boring to me.

So we packed it back up again and put it in the attic. If anyone wants a copy, feel free to get a in touch! lol
 
jimmitaylor said:
I got it for a birthday a year or so back. We got as far as unpacking it all (takes years - there's far too much) then reading the rules, which looked painfully boring to me.

So we packed it back up again and put it in the attic. If anyone wants a copy, feel free to get a in touch! lol
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Selling outside of the MM is not allowed I'm afraid :)
 
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