Arkham Village Idiots

I almost decided to let this game of Arkham Horror with the family slide by without a report but I decided I needed to make a confession of sorts. Wow, did we ever botch this one! We were hoping to repeat our exciting game of last year when our younger son, Shea, was the last man standing and defeated the Old One on his last dice roll. Of course, it had been so long since we had played the game that we'd forgotten the rules and more importantly, the strategy. Arkham Horror is a wicked, wicked, unforgiving game. You don't mess around with the Old Ones. Rather than actually THINK about how we should proceed, we chose to run around willy-nilly first to remind ourselves what is at the various locations. Could we have been more stupid? We were soon running out of health, stamina and money for starters. There are just places in Arkham that you don't go near until you've buffed yourself up. That would actually be most places, in fact. We should have taken our starting cash and made a beeline to the stores for a little shopping excursion first.

It didn't help that the first card was a rumor that had an ally removed from the game at the start of every turn. According to the card, they were fleeing in fear from the Southside Strangler but I personally think it was because they had heard about the four bumbling investigators responsible for ridding the town of evil. Actually, we found out later that according to the corrected rules, we should have discarded this card and drawn a new one because it was a rumor card. I doubt it would have changed our fate.

Anyway, gates were soon opening everywhere, the streets were overrun with monsters, more people were fleeing in terror, and Yog-Sothoth was stirring in his sleep. We decided to stick with our lost cause and make it our goal to close a single gate. Yes, a single gate. Sheesh. Has any group ever done this poorly with this game! The person who ended up achieving this lofty goal was me. Since the others did not have a gate trophy when Yog-Sothoth awoke, they were all instantly devoured, leaving poor little me to face him alone. Bad choice, as my character, Marie Lambeau, was strong in the mystical arts and old Yog is immune to magic. I could not even manage a single attack and I lasted about 3 rounds before my mind cracked and I was put out of my misery. Sorry, citizens of Arkham!

All four of us are experienced gamers so the whole ordeal was quite embarrassing. We really need to pull it out again soon and redeem ourselves.

A winged denizen of evil prepares to swoop down on the brave investigators.

More gaming stuff:

I punched our new copy of 1960: The Making of the President and was very impressed with the component quality - big board, thick tiles and a linen finish on the cards. I read the rules, which are laid out very well, and I'm quite looking forward to spending a leisurely afternoon tomorrow playing it while watching NFL games. The Cowboys are playing the Giants which should be a good game.

I got several Mayfair games last week in the mail to review. My quick takes so far:
Market of Alturien - despite a big box of lavish components, they seem to have forgotten to include much of a game.
Chicago Poker - this is a very fun multi-player Schotten-Totten with some bluffing and special cards. I enjoyed it a lot.
Gangster - I haven't played it yet but I've read the rules. It's either going to be yet another area majority control game (yawn) or great fun because of the theme. We'll see.

I paid a visit to Great Hall Games in Austin and came away with a copy of Tantrix. I haven't played the game yet but the puzzles alone make it worth the purchase. Hopefully this will make another great travel game as it consists of 52 bakelite tiles with a bag to hold them.

Posted by Susan Rozmiarek at November 10, 2007 5:02 PM