Gates of Arkham (2nd Elder Sign Expansion)

Gates of Arkham

Looks like we are hitting the town. The big mechanic change is that the Adventure Cards are played face down but the backs are locations in Arkham. You have a promise of certain rewards but don't know exactly what you will face.

Can't stand variations on Yahtzee! (Quarriors, this etc). Chucking loads of dice does not do it for me as a sole mechanic.

What is Eldritch Horror like now that it has been out for a while?

Anyone played the Forsaken Lore expansion?

This sounds cool. I really like the physical version of this one; unlike digital you can see everything at once, and you actually get to... Roll dice.

ThirstyMan wrote: Can't stand variations on Yahtzee! (Quarriors, this etc). Chucking loads of dice does not do it for me as a sole mechanic.

What is Eldritch Horror like now that it has been out for a while?

Miss a turn, miss a turn.

Anyone played the Forsaken Lore expansion?

Miss all the turns.

ThirstyMan wrote: Can't stand variations on Yahtzee! (Quarriors, this etc). Chucking loads of dice does not do it for me as a sole mechanic.

What is Eldritch Horror like now that it has been out for a while?

Anyone played the Forsaken Lore expansion?

Looks like you will also be required to close gates and perform other tasks in this Elder Sign expansion as well.

I like Eldritch Horror because it cleans the AH turn structure up and allows everyone to do something on their turn. It also prevent a lot of the "stalling" that could occur in AH when things were not completely won, but it going to take 5-8 more turns to get there.

Very excited for this...Elder Sign is one of mine and the wife's favorite games.
What I like is that they're changing the way to play the game rather than going the Arkham route of adding more and more and just making it a modular mess.

Forsaken Lore rounds out the game and the base game feels complete. Don't get me wrong though it is fully playable and enjoyable, but it just thickens all the decks and I think it is close to a must buy if a person likes the game.

As far as the game itself - There are times where it feels a bit like "chucking dice" but instead of dice you're flipping cards and then chucking dice to see which outcome you read. I like it quite a bit, it is a fun adventure game, but there is a lot of randomness to the game. There's no intelligence in the AI so basically it comes down to learning the ways to limit the impact of card flips and dice rolls.

ThirstyMan wrote: Can't stand variations on Yahtzee! (Quarriors, this etc). Chucking loads of dice does not do it for me as a sole mechanic.

What is Eldritch Horror like now that it has been out for a while?

Anyone played the Forsaken Lore expansion?

I like Vanilla ELDRITCH HORROR. It really tidies up ARKHAM, and as noted, can make for a lot less downtime for folks that need to get "across town" in a big ARKHAM game. That said, it lacks the same narrative power as ARKHAM. The whole "Nun with a Whiskey Bottle" magic is distilled (huehuehue) out. It plays much faster and leaner though, no denying it.

I have an ELDRITCH HORROR review that is stuck in a holding pattern here on the site, but I agree with the sentiment.

ELDER SIGN is also my lady friend's favorite game to play with me. She seems to enjoys the co-op, dice chuckin', and figuring out how to mitigate bad roles. But Richard DID design the game with his eldest daughter in mind who wanted some of the same features of Arkham, but not Arkham's complexity.

I really enjoy Elder Sign. I can roll with the fact that it's a dice game and the weird situations and difficulty variations that can arise from that. My wife likes coops, she loves rolling a bunch of dice, and so naturally Elder Sign is always high on her want-to-play list.

I really dug the 1st expansion because it did a couple interesting things without over-complexifying the game. This 2nd expansion looks cool; I like the idea of a new play mode/style as long as it also doesn't up the complexity too much. I'll probably buy it day 1.