arkham horror strategies?

[fireinthedust]

so I've tried ARkham Horror, and loved it. However, not only was our group entirely Newb, but we only played until the whole group arrived for D&D: one full turn.


I want to know how to win at this game, any strategies people have discovered. ...please?

1) who are the best characters to play?
2) Is there an optimal group cast?
3) any schemes for victory recommended?

 

[Wycen]

I've only played it 3 times in the past 2 or 3 years, so I don't really have a good idea on how to win, but to prolong the game I suggest not moving to dangerous areas, which might mean staying put and doing nothing for a long time.

And forgetting the rules, like the number of monsters that appear, is another good way to prolong the game.

I might also suggest choosing your doom, (like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man) and simply choosing one of the easier BBEG's to kill. Then again, I'm not sure of which definition of easier you should use.

 

[Victim]

It's usually better to seal gates, especially in the most frequent locations, than to simply close them. There are two real exceptions: 1: you're close to losing on open gates, and 2: the investigators are going to win soon, and you want to increase your own score to become 1st Citizen.

The newspaper is your friend. In the base game, there's only 1 bad encounter there. Chilling out there can be a good source of additional money and clues.

Consolidate your clue tokens so you can seal more gates - 1 person with 5 is a lot more useful than characters with 2 and 3.

Trade items. Rich and lucky characters should buy things and give extra weapons or spells to other characters. Ideally, every character should have a decent weapon (or a pair of poor weapons) for self defense, and one guy should be a more focused monster slayer.

Mandy is a like a cheat code.

 

[fireinthedust]

Should I focus on killing monsters or can I skip them and get to the gates?

I think the archaeologist is a good monster slayer, ditto the gangster; but their low sanity scores mean I come really close to dying every time I run into a critter.

I worry that spending a turn getting supplies feels like a wasted turn waiting to fight (which likely means I should be the monster slayer).

How do we trade items? Do we have to meet up in the same spot?

 

[MerricB]

The basic rules are:

Seal gates. Collect 5 clues as quickly as you can (more would be advisable so you survive the encounters), then move to one of the four "common" gate locations and seal it: Independence Square, Woods, Unvisited Isle, Witch House.

Pay attention to how you fight the Old One in the end just in case you can't seal gates in time. If he's resistant to magic, go to the General Store before it closes and buy every weapon you can. If he's resistant to physical, get magic weapons from the Old Curiosity Shop.

Keep down the monsters wandering about if you can.

Get blessed when the final battle draws near.

Cheers!

 

[fireinthedust]

What if we go through the gate to the Abyss? Are we supposed to do that, to close a gate? Oh yeah, I think we need an Elder Sign, or something. ...i could be in big trouble.

 

[MerricB]

What if we go through the gate to the Abyss? Are we supposed to do that, to close a gate? Oh yeah, I think we need an Elder Sign, or something. ...i could be in big trouble.

You *have* to go through gates to seal them. Although you can seal them with an Elder Sign, getting one of those is very hard (and random). Most gates will be sealed with clues.

If you move onto an open gate, you'll be drawn through into the Outer World. For the next two turns, you'll have to Outer Worlds encounters, then return through the gate (place an explored marker under your character) and then you can make Fight or Lore checks to close it. If you close it and have 5 clues, you can seal it by discarding the clues.

Sealing gates is essential for winning the game - it means that you get times where no gate opens and no monster burst occurs. If you seal the top 4 gates (mentioned above), you've basically shut down 60% of the Mythos deck.

Cheers!

 

[fireinthedust]

should I go through gates without clues? I didn't have any (well, one), I just killed the monsters and jumped through. ...with one Sanity left. While typing this, it reads like a massive mistake (or at least a waste of time).

 

[MerricB]

should I go through gates without clues? I didn't have any (well, one), I just killed the monsters and jumped through. ...with one Sanity left. While typing this, it reads like a massive mistake (or at least a waste of time).

LOL.

"Just closing gates" can work, but you've got to do it on the right gates. The Science Lab gate, in particular is a real pain if it's taken up by a gate (since it is one of the main sources of clue tokens), and it rarely gets a gate on it. Getting rid of gates like that - the one on the Historical Society is another good one to just close - are good and you don't "waste" clues sealing a gate that doesn't give benefits.

Just closing a gate on the Woods, Independence Square, Unvisited Isle or Witch House is a mistake: another gate will open there very soon (increasing the Doom track), and Doom increasing is a much bigger threat normally than a monster surge.

The other "uncommon" gates... normally, close them only if you have to (if the game is going to end due to too many open gates). Otherwise, seal the major four gates first, then close/seal the uncommon gates.

Cheers!

 

[John Crichton]

If you are just playing with the base game (no expansions) your best bet is to simply get familiar with the rules before thinking about serious strategy. The real beauty of the game is that it can be played many different ways and you can still be successful and have fun. Another huge bonus is that you can play it solo. Just play with 2-3 investigators yourself a few times and that will help you get comfy with the rules, timing and such. It will also give you a chance to try out all the characters to learn their strengths and weaknesses and see different types of weapons, skills, spells and other items.

As for basic play the whole point of the game is to close/seal gates. That's the only way to win unless you want to just try and gear up to fight the Old One which I think get pretty boring fast but it's still one of the 3 win conditions.

As for characters in the base game the best two are easily Kate and Mandy. Just have Kate make sure she is at an unstable location every turn so that she effectively turns into a gate/monster blocker. Mandy is obviously powerful because of her "super re-roll" that lets you keep successes and re-roll all failures for any character once per turn.

She isn't in the base game but there is a violinist character in one of the expansions who has weak stats. However she gains a clue token every time a gate opens plus all the investigators can use her clue tokens making the team able to seal gates almost every time they close one. Out of about a dozen games with her on the team I've only lost one and it was still close. She is about as close to an auto-win as one can get with AH when used properly.

You also may want to check out boardgamegeek.com. They have strategies there as well as some helpful downloads that clear up many of the more confusing rules.