darkvare on 09/21/2009 4:31 pm

i wish i could get this sort of game over here the only board games i have are monopoly, risk and clue :(

Protoclown on 09/21/2009 4:42 pm

Why on earth couldn't you get it?

Awesome Joe (Guest) on 09/21/2009 4:58 pm

I have this game, though it's a bitch getting together a group of people to play it. I've played it 3 times since getting it, and we haven't won once. Who would've thought stopping the coming of an ancient evil god would be so hard?

LadyMage on 09/21/2009 4:59 pm

Played it, Loved it, got eaten my first time, but I was the last one standing XD

and I have the game want to get the expansions for it

10,000 Volt Ghost on 09/21/2009 5:01 pm

"If too many portals remain open unchecked, the Ancient One awakens and then you're fucked."

This sold it for me. When I get some time I'm going to get this.

robo_rob on 09/21/2009 5:03 pm

I've seen this a few times before and what looked to be expansion packs for it. I may grab it, but the price is a yikes point.

darkvare on 09/21/2009 5:08 pm

well i could get it proto but with shipping and handlgin it would probably end up costing 100 bucks or even more but if anyone is up for some charity work it would be appriciated :P i'm kidding

Bizarro Stormy (Guest) on 09/21/2009 5:24 pm

Wow, that looks like a blast, but I don't really know anyone else interested in the Cthulhu Mythos, and the people that would play? We already play D&D as it is.

Tengaar (Guest) on 09/21/2009 5:53 pm

I got i a few weeks ago, and its a brilliant game, we managed to win on the third game we played, and it felt epic!
You will lose a few times still as There is plenty of DOOM for all!

I think anyone who plays this sort of game would love it, even those who dont know much about cthulhu still will enjoy it!

We managed to get the game to last about 4 hours know we know what we are doing, and its so much fun! i say buy buy buy!

Hanglyman (Guest) on 09/21/2009 5:54 pm

This game's great, though I have a really hard time imagining playing it with the expansions... it already takes 3 to 5 hours! Lots of fun though, and not too hard once you've played it a handful of times, though you do have to pay close attention to the rules, or you'll find yourself accidentally cheating.

Wyldflame on 09/21/2009 7:41 pm

I'd love to get this, even just to have it, the people I hang out with here (and mind you these are my friends) are drunken Hooligans. They don't know what the fuck Cthulhu is...

I think I'm going to go weep

Samfucius on 09/21/2009 8:25 pm

I love this game like none other. I haven't been able to play it in quite a while, but when I did, it was great. By the way, in my humble opinion, the guy with the "Hometown Advantage" perk (the reporter...?) is my personal favorite. That perk is fantastic.

Corpsecraft (Guest) on 09/21/2009 8:43 pm

I bought this game for $100 at GenCon this year (that includes two of the expansions, King in Yellow and Curse of the Dark Pharoah). My friends and I still haven't gotten a chance to finish a game because we never have time, though.

Julio on 09/21/2009 10:18 pm

I gotta say that this blog entry resembles a Weekly entry, Proto. You only needed to add a Pickle Rating. That makes me wonder if you guys have ever thought about adding another section for board games.

darkvare is obviously frustrated because, just as he said, getting something into Mexican territory would cost extra cash.

Copper (Guest) on 09/21/2009 11:56 pm

First thing I did seeing this article was ping my friend, who plays Arkham Horror with me. The next thing I did was start quoting bits and pieces of the article, like "If too many portals remain open unchecked, the Ancient One awakens and then you're fucked." and " I'm told on average a game can be expected to last at least 4 hours." while laughing the entire time because, yes, we've been there, done that. Our average game tends to last about four to five hours, pending on how well or how badly we're doing. On a good night, we can get it done in three.

My D&D group on alternating nights or when the DM isn't feeling up to running, plays this. The first time we played, we managed to seal in the Ancient One. We actually had a pretty decent track record, only having lost once out of the 8 games we played (and when they say it's "you vs. the game, yes, they mean it. This game will fuck you over so badly...omg. I can't begin to go into it.) Then we got the Dunwich Horror expansion and our win-to-loss ratio went down the tubes, not to mention we found out the DM wasn't playing the game correctly so we pretty much wiped our record and started over.

This game is great! Yes, it does take a little bit of getting the rules down, but once you've played it a couple of times, things go much more smoothly. We do still have to look some things up, but for the most part, now that we all know what we're doing, things go well. Personally, I like the scientist's ability (no monsters or portals can appear where she is.) but it's all in play style. The nun can't be lost in time and space. Very handy for the Ancient one that devours characters that are, you guessed it, lost in time and space.

And the game is different each time around, pending on what cards get drawn and what characters are being played. We've even swapped strategies in the middle of games when it looks like we're starting to get our asses handed to us. Oh, and yes, it is possible to take down the old ones. We took out Hastur last game with none of us being devoured. Personally, my favorite is Azothoth (sp?). "If Azothoth awakens, the world is destroyed. Game over."

Okay, going to stop now but the fact that I'm babbling about this should hopefully be a good indication that I have a great time whenever we play this. I've even considered picking up a copy myself and it's already owned by one member of our group, so that should tell you how fun I think this is. Even if you're not a Cthulu fan but you like strategy board games, give it a shot. You've nothing to lose but your mind!

Protoclown on 09/22/2009 12:14 am

Julio: That's a good point about this sounding like a weekly, but as you pointed out, we don't really have a spot for something like this in the Weeklies. And as for adding a board games section, I'd say that isn't too likely. We'd run out of material pretty quickly, as they tend to be an expensive thing to buy just to review.

So far I've played twice. The first time seven of us beat Shub-Niggurath without too much trouble. The second time we started with six against Hastur, had 3 people have to quit early, so the remaining three carried on alone. Got the terror track up to six, the doom track up to 10, and only two portals sealed before we finally had to quit on account of lateness. We MIGHT'VE pulled a victory out of that, but I seriously doubt it.

Victor (Guest) on 09/22/2009 4:12 am

This is one of my favorite board games. I've been a huge Lovecraft fan for a while and one day my friend suggested I try this game. The game is certainly not designed to be easy. You really have to struggle and work to just barely lose instead of flat out wiping out in the first few rounds. It seems like everything in the game is working completely against the team which reflects on just how human the characters really are. And after one game where the great old one awakens every game after will seem that much more urgent to prevent that from every happening again. I'm also a huge fan of collectible card games having grown up with Magic and I've found that Call of Cthulhu is awesome and the mechanics are fun to play around with. Unfortunately I think the series isn't being made anymore.

Fat Ugly Drunk on 09/22/2009 4:52 am

Think I'll take a look at this, depending how many £££ it'll set me back.

Ash (Guest) on 09/22/2009 6:24 am

My brother bought this game last week...
While i haven't played it yet, it is interesting to watch.
I especially love the strange nature of some of the cards, like the serpent playing chess...
I was a bit surprised that this review popped up, its like you omnipresent...
We were trying to look up and see if you could make your own character cards. If you could look it up (if you want to) and give a demonstration, that would be sweet.

stevetothepast on 09/22/2009 7:47 am

I love board games, and this one looks right up my alley.

Purple Man on 09/22/2009 8:04 am

I must have this, as surely as the Unspeakable One must ultimately consume all.

Ozzie on 09/22/2009 8:28 am

Funny how so many people have commented on the time the game plus expansions would take up, but not on the space. It already takes a full dinner table for my group and I to set up the basic board and all the cards. I shudder to think what kind of royal dining hall table you'd need to get three more boards in play.

Drunken_Lemur408 on 09/22/2009 8:37 am

I think I might have seen this in Barnes and Noble once, right next to Munchkin.

RedCometXIII on 09/22/2009 1:52 pm

When I first saw the title I thought it was a Batman board game.

Thomas (Guest) on 09/22/2009 3:57 pm

For a while I thought they mixed Batman and the Cthulhu mythos but then I remembered that Arkam was created before Batman.

nilus on 09/22/2009 5:22 pm

Ozzie, It does take up a lot of space but what gamer worth his dice doesn't have a huge ass table somewhere in his/her house.

The other nice thing with Arkham is that not only does it support a large number of players, it can also be played with a small group. Technically you can actually solo play it if you were the type to do that. I've played it with as many as 8 people and as few as two.

My group would be playing it more but right now we are obsessed with shoving each other out air locks(I just got the new Pegasus Expansion for the Battlestar Galactica Board game, also by FFG)

Supragenius (Guest) on 09/22/2009 7:31 pm

Oh come on! You have GOT to talk about Last Night on Earth next. Best horror boardgame ever. Easy to learn, fun and quick to play, plenty of content, and it just drips of theme. The game comes with a SOUNDTRACK, and a deluxe version is available. Arkham Horror is good, btw, but it's SO hard to get people to play it.

dantheman (Guest) on 09/22/2009 10:52 pm

Me and my friends play this game all the time, we just got 2 of the expansions but havent all had time to try em out yet. I always get raped in the woods by the damn sheldon gang :( Oh and wait till your ancient one is Azathoth, if hes summoned you lose instantly you dont get a chance to fight him. shenanigans i say

ChrisGlass on 09/22/2009 11:40 pm

Played with co-workers once with a bunch of the expansions.
Really enjoyed it, but some people didn't catch on as quickly, so that really slowed the game down and by the end of the night, each person was controlling someone who wasn't there anymore.

OxBlood on 09/23/2009 3:25 am

A good choice, can´t go wrong with old Lovecraft if you ask me.

I played the thing for about 6 times now (though I´ve owned the game for quite some years) but we never ever won yet. But that´s what you get when you´re trying to mess with the Elder God´s plans.

Boardgametip: Check out Smallworld, it´s a really fast and fun game. Extremely easy to pick up, it comes with special boards for 2, 3, 4 and 5 players, so the balance is always spot-on, it doesn´t take too long to play and it´s just plain fun.

Copper on 09/23/2009 4:10 am

"So far I've played twice. The first time seven of us beat Shub-Niggurath without too much trouble. The second time we started with six against Hastur, had 3 people have to quit early, so the remaining three carried on alone. Got the terror track up to six, the doom track up to 10, and only two portals sealed before we finally had to quit on account of lateness. We MIGHT'VE pulled a victory out of that, but I seriously doubt it."

Not with his terror track up to six you probably wouldn't have unless you were packing some seriously magical equipment or spells. His modifier is minus whatever the terror track is (as in, he takes off that many dice to your roll, for those that don't play, and he's also physically resistant, which means all physical attacks are halved.) He *was* a bitch to try and take out but we eventually whittled him down. Shotguns are nice. (Magical shotguns are even better, but alas, no spells...)

"Funny how so many people have commented on the time the game plus expansions would take up, but not on the space. It already takes a full dinner table for my group and I to set up the basic board and all the cards. I shudder to think what kind of royal dining hall table you'd need to get three more boards in play."

Actually, the expansion boards aren't as big as the core board. They're only about two Otherworld portals big and only...two? Three? of the expansions have boards. The others just add more cards. And rules. And ways to fuck you over.

goose_jediknight on 09/23/2009 10:06 am

Awesome Joe (Guest) on 09/21/2009 4:58 pm

I have this game, though it's a bitch getting together a group of people to play it. I've played it 3 times since getting it, and we haven't won once. Who would've thought stopping the coming of an ancient evil god would be so hard?

Awesome Joe if you have never won it sounds like this board game stays pretty faithful to the Lovecraft mythos. The protagonists in his story rarely got anything for their efforts but insanity, or if they were lucky, a quick death.

This also reminds me of the pen and paper RPG Call of Cthulu. You didn't play that game to make your characters all powerful uber-gods like in D&D. You merely played to see how long you could survive without your character going crazy.

I think a scenario in Call we once played involved us all playing characters at a teenage girl's slumber party. The only tools we had for survival against the horrible unnamed were what would be typically found in said situation...needless to say hairspray and a lighter only help to set your house on fire. It's just better to run...

MrWarranty on 09/23/2009 11:22 am

I've won this game every time I've played with my friends. Clearly you people are deficient.

A Bad Enough Dude on 09/23/2009 4:45 pm

Lovecraft munches my hibiscus. I can't wait to have my game store order this yum-yum. Thanks for the review, Protoclown.

Jimbob Jones (Guest) on 09/23/2009 8:07 pm

I concur on Last Night on Earth. The only game I have rated 10/10 on BGG, simply because it's a blast every single time I play. Definitely for people who like cinematic zombie goodness.

If you want a game along a similar vain as Arkham Horror, but at a lot less board space and about half the time, try Flying Frog's A Touch of Evil. It isn't quite as deep as AH, but definitely a lot of fun. And the enemies are Vampire, Werewolf, Headless Horseman, and Scarecrow, plus a free online one, so no worrying about friends who aren't into Cthulhu

Supragenius (Guest) on 09/23/2009 11:19 pm

Thanks for the backup Jimbob. I just hope some the I-mockery crew will give LNOE a swing. It's stupid simple, but complex at the same time. Also, Call of Cthulu is AWESOME, but even harder to bait people into playing than Arkham Horror. At least Arkham Horror has a board, so you can somehow goad people into thinking it's "like Monopoly". I really can't stand Americana sometimes.

Protoclown on 09/24/2009 9:25 pm

Supragenius and Jimbob Jones: I've seen Last Night on Earth and A Touch of Evil on the shelves, but I've not played either (nor do I know anyone who has). I'll check out some online reviews and see what they have to say, and then perhaps I'll check them out. Always looking for new games to play!

Fortunately my friends are the type who are REALLY into the kind of shit like Arkham Horror, so I doubt I'll ever have much trouble roping them into playing.

Any other recommendations you have for me, please pass them along and I'll be glad to look into them (although buying them and playing them may take a while...it can be an expensive hobby, after all!)

Jim (Guest) on 09/24/2009 11:53 pm

I have played Arkham Horror many times and it never gets boring. In fact it kicks major ass. The expansions give more characters to play as and more ancient ones. My friends and I have been extemely lucky in two respects while playing this game. First, we rarely have a game last longer then 2&1/2 or 3 hours, in fact we finsihed one game in 45minutes. We won and it kicked ass. Second, we actually win about 80% of the time which is about 20% more than you should expect to win. All in all I have to say that this is one of the funnest games ever made and it gets really fun when people get really into it and the investigators start arguing with each other. It also is worth it for those times where you are totally fucked but there is a glimmer of hope that you cling to, priceless.

P.S. one of my friends was devoured twice in one game and it was about the funniest shit ever.

Copper on 09/25/2009 1:58 am

I would just like to say that my group beat Ithiqua (I know I'm spelling these names wrong...the Wendigo) tonight. Of course, there was only one investigator left, but we took him down. Hooah.

Also, does anyone else out there have Miguel McGlen, the Spanish Irish gangster or is my friend the only one with the fluke?

"Any other recommendations you have for me, please pass them along and I'll be glad to look into them (although buying them and playing them may take a while...it can be an expensive hobby, after all!)"

You ain't kidding. If you like the fantasy aspect of it, try Descent. It's a dungeon-crawl type game, you against the Overlord. Kinda D&D and Heroquest, if you're familiar with that one, but it's got the 'never the same game twice' aspect to it, pending on the characters you play and what cards the overlord draws.

Protoclown on 09/25/2009 8:58 am

My roommate JUST picked up Descent about a week ago. We haven't had a chance to play it yet, but we will soon.

I also picked up Android, because it was half off in my local gaming store's "scratch and dent" section. Haven't played it yet, but it's a murder mystery, very Blade Runnery.

Copper on 09/26/2009 2:21 am

Ooh, murder mystery. Like those. And I was at a Con today and saw "Innsmith Escape" which looked moderately amusing (one player against all the others...not like the players against the GM.) Only looked at it briefly. Not much to the visuals, but it's more of a strategy game, it seems like.

Howard (Guest) on 09/26/2009 12:50 pm

I got this game a couple years ago as a gift. I've played it, maybe twice. And both times were awesome. Hell, maybe now that I'm out of school (and work) I can play it some more.

Have you ever played Zombies!!! ? That game's a lot of fun.

Quicktap McGoo (Guest) on 10/01/2009 7:04 pm

order straight from Fantasy Flight...it's 38 bucks and some change...

http://www.gameoutfitter.com/category-s/326.htm?gclid=CNKqycuHnZ0CFSYoawodi3au_g

Quicktap McGoo (Guest) on 10/01/2009 7:05 pm

sorry...online game retailer.. not FF direct.

My bad

Knighthawk (Guest) on 10/04/2009 2:51 am

My friends and I love this game. Usually we play with three, including myself, and we have a little ritual.

1. Spread all the Elder Gods face down at the table.

2. Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who picks a card.

3. Turn the card face over. Nine times out of Ten, we then weep at how fucked we are for the next four hours. The tenth time, we weep for how royally fucked we are for the next four hours.

Naturally we love the game. We try to wrangle as many people into playing as possible, but usually it's just the three of us. This makes the game really, really hard.

Copious amounts of alcohol are usually consumed because of this.

shadowdancer21b (Guest) on 09/04/2010 3:05 pm

I wanted to play this game as soon as I knew it existed. God help me, I also want to play the ICP board game. I'd play it with my roleplaying group like I do with Zombies! and Zombietown.