Arkham Horror Board Games & Arkham Horror 3rd Edition Review

Posted bytherealgmanreviewsPosted inArkham Horror Board Games, Board Game Reviews
Arkham Horror Board Games PT1 Arkham Horror #rd Ed Review

Introduction

Welcome to Gman Reviews, We will review the Arkham Horror Board Games I have played in this article series. There are four in this list which are:

  1. Arkham Horror 3rd  Edition
  2. Elder Sign
  3. Eldritch Horror
  4. Arkham Horror 2nd  Edition

Part 1 of our review will cover Arkham Horror 3rd Edition and an introduction to games in this series.

The amazon link to buy Arkham Horror 3rd Edition is https://geni.us/iACSCh8. This is an affiliate link so I get a commission if you use it.

Now I assume that if you have started to read an article titled Arkham Horror Board Games Review that you understand what the Lovecraft Mythos is but just in case you don’t read my blurb below or skip if you know:

Lovecraft Mythos Explained

These games are set in the Lovecraft mythos, in which humans find out that strange eldritch gods are behind the scenes and ready to come pouring forth from other dimensions if our heroes can’t stop it before it happens.

Back to the introduction

Now all these games have something in common: whether you are playing one player or with multiple players, all players are working together to beat the game. This is pretty unique in gaming because all players usually play against each other in board games.

In these games, though you are playing against the game itself (some requiring more upkeep than others), which is excellent for a team-building game, these games are also quite difficult to bear as the odds are significantly stacked against you.

That’s what is fun about these games though: every time you play, you will come away with an exciting story about how you were defeated and eventually how you just won by the skin of your teeth.

What should you know before you buy into the Arkham Horror board games?

So just before buying into these games with the exception of Elder Sign, a simpler version of Arkham Horror combined with Yahtzee, these games are not simple and take a while to play.

With Arkham Horror 3rd Edition and Eldritch Horror, you are looking at one and a half hours to three hours to play, with Arkham Horror second edition taking four or five hours, so these are not the games you bust out for a quick gaming session.

They are basically like modern d&d dungeon crawls, except you are woefully underprepared to deal with the monsters you will face initially (way worse in Arkham Horror 2nd Edition than the others)

Also, the boards for Arkham Horror 2nd Edition and Eldritch Horror are huge, so be aware you will need lots of table space to not only place the board down but also have room for everyone to put their counters and character cards (and oh boy are their counters)

Also, if you have never played any complex board games before, these have a learning curve, so it might not be best to bust these out with people trying to get into board gaming for the first time. I would save that for Bang the dice game.

Arkham Horror 3rd Edition Board Game Review

Comparison to Arkham Horror 2nd Edition

So now we will review Arkham Horror 3rd Edition specifically, be aware that some of my comments will discuss the 2nd Edition of Arkham Horror that I will cover last because it is now out of print.

Arkham Horror 3rd Edition is a more streamlined version of Arkham Horror 2nd Edition and is much more accessible than the previous version was for several reasons.

First, the modular board it uses takes up a lot less space while having lots to do on the board. Secondly, there is much less upkeep required than the Second Edition, which means unless you are playing with hardcore board gamers, this is the version I would bust out.

Even then, it’s still a great game to bust out even with hardcore board gamers, and honestly, as much as the 2nd Edition has given me some fond memories, which I will keep forever, this is a more accessible version to play.

The focus part is streamlined into a better version from the 2nd Edition, as you now have focus tokens instead of the dials on the investigator sheets. Which I think was a significant improvement as that used to annoy me greatly, and I seldom bothered with it.

For those new to Arkham Horror Board Games

Here’s a special section for people who have never played any Arkham Horror Board Games before and are starting with the 3rd Edition. First, when you open the box for the game, you will see multiple decks of cards and tokens, map tiles, investigator sheets and scenario sheets.

You pick a scenario that will tell you how to set up the board (which of the modular tiles to add) and then prepare the decks in the order indicated in the setup guide.

These decks include:

  • Event Deck
  • Encounter Deck
  • Monster Deck
  • Headline Deck
  • Assets (Allies, Spells and Items used by players)
  • Headline Deck
  • Archive Deck

Then you choose an investigator from one of the investigator sheets(or more), and each one has unique skills and abilities, so it will affect how your game plays.

Most seasoned players will have a group of investigators they like to use to give them the best chance to win the game, but if you’re starting, pick the character you want best with a few caveats.

Make sure in your team, you have at least one character with high strength, one with high lore and another with high observation.

Strength is used when attacking monsters; you will need a character who can fight monsters. You will need another character for warding (lore is used for this), and the bonus is the character with high lore will be great with spells and another character with high observation for reaching clues.

List of Phases

The game itself plays through four phases in a single turn which are:

  1. Action Phase (Your investigator/s turns)
  2. Monster Phase (monsters move, attack investigators etc.)
  3. Encounter Phase (Each investigator resolves an encounter)
  4. Mythos Phase(The baggy phase, as we liked to call it)

Action Phase

The action phase is where your investigators get to take turns performing up to two unique actions, each of which includes:

  1. Move (up to two spaces, stopping if ending up in a space with a monster)
  2. Gather resources (gather the princely sum of 1 dollar)
  3. Focus (to get a focus skill token allowing you to reroll a die in a skill check)
  4. Ward (to remove doom tokens which is a good thing to do)
  5. Attack (attacking a monster in a space you are in)
  6. Evade (sneak past a monster)
  7. Research (for getting clues to win)
  8. Trade (Trade assets with another investigator)

Encounter Phase

See the rules for the monster phase as it’s simple, and then you have the encounter phase. If your investigator is not engaged with a monster, you draw from the encounter deck and resolve the encounter depending on where you are.

Each neighbourhood will have its encounter deck, making this game fun. It gives each neighbourhood its flavour, so different investigators will get encounters depending on where they are.

Mythos Phase

Now we come to the last phase, which I call the baggy phase. In this phase, each investigator will draw from the Mythos cup (or bag in our case) to determine what happen by drawing a token out and then resolving the effect of the token.

This part of the game also adds variability and adds to the game’s tension as the bad luck depends on the player who drew from the baggy, and there are more bad tokens than good.

The other good part is that it helps scale the game’s difficulty to the number of investigators. If you have more investigators, you will draw more times from the Mythos cup per turn but have more investigators do things, so that’s quite good.

Skill Tests

Skill Tests in Arkham Horror 3rd Edition are simple. You roll the number of dice based on the skill being tested, and fives and sixes are successes, and every other result is a failure. Some checks will have penalties.

This is the basics of skill tests, but cards(assets) you obtain will allow you to modify the test results and, in some cases, reroll dice such as with focus tokens etc

How do I win Arkham Horror 3rd Edition?

In its most simple terms, you win by researching clues and warding away doom tokens. You lose if you fail to do that, and having investigators killed by monsters also adds doom, so killing monsters gunning for your investigators helps.

But the codex cards for the scenario will indicate the win-loss conditions of the scenario which makes each scenario more interesting as its unique win and loss conditions.

What about assets?

And now, we step away from all the doom and gloom and talk about assets which consist of allies, spells and items. These are the items and spells you would encounter in a dungeon crawler, and boy, oh boy, will you want these.

Allies consist of allies who can aid you by providing permanent skill buffs while you have them or one-off effects. Items are all sorts of things ranging from whiskey to magical weapons, and lastly, we have spells.

Unlike, say, a dungeons and dragons game, to use spells, you have to pass a lore check, so typically only characters that have an excellent lore skill should be casting spells, and while they are mighty, there is typically a downside to casting them in terms of sanity loss(which can drive you insane)

Conclusion to this awesome Arkham Horror Board Game

Arkham Horror 3rd Edition is a brilliant introduction to this series of Arkham Horror board games. If you are getting into these games for the first time and aren’t in the old guard (player of 2nd Edition),

Even if you are in the old guard, you will enjoy this version because of how much more streamlined it is, as it’s much easier to get to the table and manage the upkeep.

The amazon affiliate link to buy Arkham Horror 3rd Edition is here: https://geni.us/k7NeE. I get a commission if you use this link.

Also, my merch store is now up. It’s called Gman’s Emporium, so if you are in the US and you are interested in supporting the Gman multiverse, please check it out here at Gman’s Emporium.

I am currently selling Armello-inspired t-shirts, Mugs, DND dice sets and gamer room decor, with more items coming down the pipeline.

Read part 2 of the Arkham Horror Board Games series covering Elder Sign here: Arkham Horror Board Games Part 2 Elder Sign.

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