With my friend and sometimes with his friends, I've yet to have seen us lose a game with the original game. Been waiting to see Dunwich but he always misplaced or forgot cards so we never get to see it, and since I got a special coupon for Barnes and Noble, I thought now is a good time to go portal squashing.

Wait, Lurker makes things easier, or too easy?  Say on, folks.  My group has yet to win a single game.  I'm about to drop a Guardian in there…

The Lurker herald fresh out of the box is exploitable and makes the game too easy (although it is a really cool herald). So, too easy—but I have high standards. Miskatonic makes him a bit better though.

Two questions for now:

1). Does Miskatonic Horror make Kingsport more accessible during gameplay? Have heard Kingsport is one of the least favorite expansions yet was wondering if some of the other expansions made it more worth visiting.

2). Does ffg make sleeves large enough for the heralds, ancient ones, and character sheets?

CrusherJoe said:

If you don't add some restrictions to the Lurker herald, it does indeed make the game too easy. With a 7/3 or 3/7 investigator, you can sacrifice all sanity or stamina but one, gain 6 power and pay $2 at the Asylum or Hospital to replenish all you have sacrificed. Do this a couple of times, and you're unstoppable. But if you house rule it, or choose not to exploit it, it can be a really fun herald. Not very malevolent, but still fun.

Tromdial said:

Unfortunately, no. If they did, I would certainly buy a bunch. You can, of course, laminate the sheets, but if you don't have a lamination machine, that requires a bit more effort.

Tromdial said:

After adding Miskatonic Mythos in, nothing has changed in me going to Kingsport during the game to investigate rifts or whatever. But Kingsport IS good. Some people don't like the board since it doesn't have unstable locations, but many agree on the fact it has tons of good things in it. Good investigators, good items, great monsters, nasty AOs and the Epic Battle Decks that allow you to experience at max the brutality of the Great Old Ones.

Plus, the rift mechanics never dilutes :-)

I agree with Julia.

Kingsport is one of the expansions that seems to not suffer from the Mythos Dilution problem that other expansions do (Think Dunwich).  You can play an entire game of Arkham Horror with Dunwich and never have to go there.  With Kingsport, no matter what mythos cards are in play, Kingsport is always a threat because it's mechanics are based on monster movement instead of gate openings.

The AOs in Kingsport are also some of my favorite with my specific favorite being Eihort.

There is a line of thinking that says Kingsport is boring because not enough monsters spawn there and while I agree that monsters could spawn there more often, I enjoy it at it's current balance anyways.

I have to tell you ~ using Miskatonic's King in Yellow Act Cards…never dilutes and always scary!

Quick question: I've got Dunwich Horror, which expansion is the best to get as a second one?

Big box are generally better bang for your buck than little box, (with the exception of Miskatonic Horror, which should always come last). You get more Investigators, Ancient Ones and monsters as well as a new board and encounters for your old board. If you're having trouble with AH and Dunwich go for Kingsport over Innsmouth. I'd recommend Innsmouth over Kingsport. It's got more unstable locations, so you've more likely to see some action, whereas Kingsport can snooze for most of the game - or it can end up with an Investigator playing the Kignsport Loner. The fact that a fan expansion exists for Insmmouth (Dark Corners of This Earth) is extra gravy.

The little box is much of a muchness. Black goat gives you extra monsters and Lurker gives you extra gates, so if you want bling go for these first. CotDP and King in Yellow do a better job with their theme. CotDP has Exhibit encounters gives you something to do on the streets and it has slightly more encounters than the others.It also has two fan expansions in support (Gilman Wing and Cult of the Godlen Scarab).

King in Yellow has a new way of losing, but this won't affect your game much unless you onlu use the set on it's own or you use the rules from Miskatonic (which you can easily download and implement) The Herald in KiY is probably the best of the four too.

Wincent said:

I'd recommend another big box expansion, because they give you more stuff. My favorite, as people on this forum has already heard a dozen of times, is Innsmouth. Innsmouth give you 16 new investigators and 8 new Ancient Ones. Also, I think Innsmouth is most fun to play because it introduces some interesting new mechanics. Instead of having two new Other Worlds, Innsmouth introduces a new track called the Deep Ones Rising track. The Innsmouth expansion also introduces personal stories, which are completely optional. Personally, I always play with the personal stories, because I think it gives the game a little more depth, and the investigators get a purpose in the very beginning of the game. You can read more about these mechanics in the rules. It should be noted, though, that Innsmouth will suffer from dilution in the same way as Dunwich. There are, however, several ways of tuning your Mythos deck to counteract the dilution.