Board Game Review – Arkham Horror
Number of players: 1-8
Suggested # of players: Due to the rapid nature of spawning Gateways, I do not believe it is possible to complete this game with (1) or (2) players. We were having trouble with (3), so I’d recommend (4) or more.
Playing Time: 210+- minutes on the first run. Successive runs and higher number of players will lower the amount of time it takes to complete.
Overview -
Arkham Asylum is a board game utilizing Template characters called “Agents”with inherent strengths and weaknesses. It is cooperative play, meaning that it is in the best interest of the players to work together. Several factors determine the success of the players but weapon, asset, ally, and acquisition of items enhances the ability of the team. Ultimately, team tactics will be the deciding factor in the teams ability to complete the game.
Players start with a number of sanity point and stamina points as are allotted on their character template card. Each character has a unique ability. My character was a “Drifter” who gains an ally (Duke the Dog) granting a permanent +1 sanity bonus at the beginning of the game, which is extremely helpful when battling minions of Cthulu that are capable of lowering your sanity just by fighting them. Some characters begin with a cash bonus, which is really helpful in the early stages of the game and some have upkeep paid to them giving them another slight advantage.
The biggest differences come with items. Magic weapon cards, Shotguns, Tommy Guns, and Holy water were all weapons that provided a significant advantage in battle. However, defeat either physical or mental sends you to the hospital or the Asylum where you lose half of the cards and tokens you just spent the last hour acquiring. The combat is relatively simple but even the most well equipped character can fall to a horde or a monster with a strength in an area the agent is weak to.
The game takes place on a fold open board with several sections of Arkham City visible. Each player starts off in an area described on his or her Template card. Districts called Streets separate the city. On each street are a couple of locations. In these locations, EVERY TURN, a gateway to the realm of Cthulu opens and a random monster appears. If the characters do not act quick to shut down the gates, they will be quickly overwhelmed and the remainder of the game is spent struggling to survive and merely stem back the tide of monsters and gates.
Learning the Game –
My initial thoughts when seeing all of the cards, game pieces, counters, tokens, money pieces, and various game items were “Wow this looks complicated.” I was correct in that thought. The rulebook is 20 pages long. The turns though quick once learned, were agonizingly long to learn the sequence of. In fact, we had to leave a component out of the game because we had initially overlooked it. Had we used it, we would have lost a lot sooner.
The first player of each turn changes every turn and they receive the “Leader token” for that round. It ran in a clockwise fashion being randomly determined at the beginning of the game. At the beginning of a turn, players can adjust their attributes to better suit any situation they might face. The attributes are joined together and raising one will lower another. They are joined as follows: Speed/Sneak, Fight/Will, Lore/Luck. Each character, based on their template has differing numbers in each of these scores.
After this is done, you may move your player to a new location. Movement is determined by your speed. So, if you have your Sneak ability ratcheted up, you will not be traveling very far. Likewise, if your Speed is ratcheted up, your sneaking ability will go down. Though we did find sneaking to be somewhat useless as a failure means you take full damage from a monster you would probably have had a better chance fighting in the first place.
Once movement happens players, in clockwise order from the Leader, encounter the space that they are on. (Action, Spell and Weapon cards may be activated at this time) This can be from combating a monster on that spot to drawing a card relevant to the location and following the instructions on the card. The encounter cards are a mixed bag. Some encounters give you powerful items and some end up costing you, it’s completely random. I learned though that the encounters were a greater advantage early in the game, since I did not take any and the other players started off far stronger that I did.
After, each player has his or her round, The leader pulls a Mythos card. The mythos card tells you the location in which a gate will next open, which directions monsters move, and any other events that may effect game-play. Considering these cards are drawn at the end of every turn, monsters and gates soon abound.
Combat is determined by rolling 6-sided dice. The exact number of chances you get (meaning number of six sided die you get to roll) is one die for each point you have in your fighting skill plus any bonuses afforded you by items, spells, or weapons. However, fighting is not always the first order of business as some monsters require you to make a sanity check. This is done by rolling a 6 sided die per will score you have selected and adding in any bonuses from allies, items, etc. If you pass, you retain your sanity, though some Cthulu monsters drain your sanity regardless just by fighting them.
Once you have survived the mental; assault, you must now survive the physical confrontation. A high fight score is nice but ultimately you will find yourself depending on items to be able to defeat the more powerful monsters.
For example (Numbers are not exact, they are from memory):
I want to fight the Gug. He has a Willpower check of -2 and a Toughness of 3. He does “ “ damage which, unless you have an ally that offsets that automatically eats 3 stamina, regardless of your role. You need three success to kill him.
So, I roll 4 dice (Will 4 + 2 (Ally). = 6 -2 (monster) = 4)
I roll 4 six sided dice getting: (1, 1, 5, 6)
The 5 and the 6 are both successes, I only needed one success to pass the sanity check. So I lose no sanity.
No I try to fight the character:
I add my fight 5 + 6 (Tommy Gun) -3 for monster toughness
I roll 9 six sided dice and get the following result:: (6, 2, 1, 5, 6, 2, 3, 2, 3)
The 6, 5 and 6 are all successes and it takes three successes to kill the Gug. I have defeated the Gug and can now put him into my trophies. Trophies and closed gates can be used to purchase allies and items at various locations on the board. I still however lose (-3) stamina, due to the Gug’s Overwhelm ability. Only an ally can offset this.
If you enter a space with a gate, you must try to close it. To close a gate, you must first travel to the realm that the gate sends you to. You will spend two turns in this realm (or more) completing the encounter cards for the area. When you have successfully done so, you will return to the original gate and can then attempt to close it. To do so requires a combat roll. However, to permanently close the site, you can trade in 6 clue tokens for a seal and gates can never open there again. This should be a goal for the team as early as possible if they ever hope to win.
The combat system is fairly simple and can be learned in one or two combats.
The Components –
This game has almost too many components and should have come with plastic baggies to keep them all separated. Game set-up alone is probably ten minutes of separating pieces, assigning cards and placing everything, and that is a modest estimate. The templates are enjoyable as each comes with a unique back-story and there are quite a few to choose from. They are randomly chosen at the beginning of play..
Playing the Game –
Game play is fun and acquiring items is fun as well. Players with low initial sanity will likely be less willing to run into combat even if they have amazing fighting skills. Sanity is lost very easily and everything you have worked for can be taken away in one encounter. Play with at least 4 people to get the best results and more if you can manage it. I can see more players cutting down on the time it takes to get to the gates and end the game quicker.
When rolling dice 5’s and 6’s are successes anything else is a failure. Successes are determined by the number of dice you rolled 5’s and 6’s on.. A blessing from another player at the church can change the outcome of all of your rolls for the better. Blessing makes success rolls go from 5 and 6 to 4, 5 and 6.
Overall -
The game is slow. It takes a while to read the 20-page rulebook and it is difficult to keep up with everything that has to take place in a turn. Some things could have been left out to make the game mechanics work better. We did not use the Terror Track, because we forgot it when concentrating on the many other conditions we had to meet during a turn. This tells me that the game might be too complicated for it’s own good. More enjoyable was the 1920’s feel and the individuality of the characters. The creators put a lot of thought and effort into making a playable game.
Good -
There are a lot of good elements to Arkham Asylum. The character templates are fun and easy to learn and use. The items make a difference in game-play and your second play through will probably yield far better results than the first. Players are encouraged to work together which I found refreshing. Too many games on the market these days are geared towards players being pitted against one another without a true end goal other than beating their opponent into submission due to a lucky draw. This game requires strategy and teamwork. The inclusion of the Blessing at the Church is a great tide turner in the game.
Bad -
Some characters are unfairly hobbled early in the game and will spend the first half of it merely surviving rather than contributing. Starting the game without money is an incredibly serious liability and some characters start with as little as one dollar. Many of the items, which drastically affect game play, can initially be purchased which is great for characters that start out with money but another set back for those that don’t.
Fewer players reduce the chance for success, unless we missed something in the rules Considering their length and complexity, this is highly probable.) We struggled with three players, 2 of whom were veteran board gamers.
The game can be overly complicated. Searching through the rulebook bogs time down and tries the patience of a player who sometimes just needs the simple answer. With this, there are also too many things to keep track of and as a result, we ended up excluding some things that were probably vital to the game mechanics and play. Our game ended with us admitting that the game, had we included those features would have beaten us a few turns earlier.
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Reviewed by: Daniel Hendrix
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