Arkham Horror

ben · Arkham Horror

I just started playing Arkham Horror, and I must say its reputation as a difficult game to beat is well deserved. Does anyone have some tips, or maybe know of a webpage discussing strategy for this game? I'm not googling anything up too easily except wanky reviews.

The game is so capricious that I'm not even sure it's possible to strategize much in a general way, although it appears to me (a novice) that certain sets of investigators are probably more effective against certain Ancient Ones, or at least that certain teams are a lot more effective than others -- you want a variety of specializations I think.

Other specific questions off the top of my head:

If you're choosing investigators instead of drawing them randomly, who are the most indispensable ones?

How do you get Retainers?

What's the most effective way for broke characters to get on their feet financially? The obvious way is taking out a loan, buying a weapon at the general store, killing a bunch of monsters and then selling them on ebay, er I mean at River Docks. But it takes an enormous number of turns to do this, even with a lucky draw of items at the store; and by the time you're done planning your financial future the world is about ready to end.

admin

Here's some widome passed down from the eldars...

Don't close gates until you can seal them
Don't waste clues on rerolls unlees SUPER-IMPORTANT

Need to have investigators...
someone to kill monsters
someone to find clues (hopefully fast or sneaky)
someone to be the spellcaster

Here's some forums to check out as well...
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/292412

FunkBGR

Hey -

This is probably one of my regular groups fav games, so yeah, I got some tips.

Right away, come up with a plan on how to stop various things. You need someone who can fight monsters, someone who can travel to the outerworld, and someone who can do other things.

Realize that your plan will never go as planned. SOMETHING will come up, that will require the person who has 1 sanity to jump in a gate.

Generally - there's two ways to win, right? I don't count fighting the end guys, because that's cheesy. Either get 6 elder signs, or close all the gates on the board.

6 elder signs - Get X-2 players focused on getting money. X = total number of players. Have them fight monsters, have them encountering locations, have someone sitting on the Newspaper for that oh-so-awesome $1 / round card. ALWAYS have SOMEONE with $5 cycling the Unique Items - but watch out. One of the rules clarifications says that you HAVE to buy an item if able, which means you'll be out money quickly. That's where other players come in and give it to you.

Close all the gates on the board - This is less doable with the base game, and with the expansions, becomes one of the fewer ways to win. Get someone in a gate EVERY ROUND. Always put someone in there, and close them like mad. You want spare Gate Trophies. Hope for "repeat gates", and let those monsters come out, taking care of them as necessary to keep the terror track from rising. Make sure someone is grabbing clue tokens while the others are running interference with gates - you want to seal some key areas = The Woods, Independence Square, The Black Cave, and The Unnamable. If using expansions, hope to god you don't have Gate Bursts.

And Rumors from the expansions. Those usually indicate that your game is over if they get out. Sacrifice people willy-nilly to get those gone.

The game is amazingly fun, and we find new stuff every time we play. Keep at it, and eventually you'll start figuring out what areas offer, and play that up.

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Random Investigators - We don't quite do random investigators as much, but we use all the expansions. We draw three, and pick one. The expansions make the game HARDER, which is ridiculous, but whatev's - still fun.

Retainers - The Newspaper is one place that has it. Almost nothing bad is at the Newspaper. And it's right by the Unique Item Shop, which is basically the best way to win the best game. Cycle that Unique Item deck every turn at least once!

Broke Characters - Sit on the Newspaper in the base game. In the expansion(s), take a Bank Loan and roll well. The symbols next to areas aren't terribly helpful, but look for the $$$ and go there. And then pray.

Good luck dude.

- Bryan

Chocolate Tanuki

Have you tried any of the expansions? They only make the game even crazier Smile