2006.11.12

Arkham is no picnic

Posted in Board Games at 12:52 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel

Jason and I sat down at about 8:00pm in the evening, intent on playing a game of Arkham Horror. What neither of us realized at the time was that we would spend the next 3 hours slowly watching our chances of defeating the ancient one deteriorate.

Personally, I blame that damn museum exhibit, but I digress.

The upshot is that this game of Arkham Horror held several firsts for us. For instance:

  1. Each of us had at least one character devoured prior to the ancient one awakening. After a while, we started having fun with it. “Oh look, I’ve been devoured again.” It was that bad.
  2. The terror track hit 10, allowing hordes of monsters to overrun the town. We had struggled all game with defeating monsters (I accumulated at least 10 monster trophies through the course of the game), and this was the icing on the cake. My character at the time (was it my second or third of the game, I’m not sure) had just finished snagging a bunch of clue tokens at the Science Building when 8 monsters very rudely started wandering the streets of Miskatonic University. I decided I would attempt to fight one of the 8 (a cultist, I think) and then I allowed the next monster to force me to go insane, which was my best way out of the situation, sadly. Fleeing all 8 monsters would have been impossible.

The game also had a couple of very humourous moments. At one point, we had drawn an environment card to the effect that the weather was cold and icy. The very next turn, a sandstorm came out of nowhere and engulfed the city. The card text made it even more amusing, and I have to say, I preferred the sandstorm to the icy roads.

The best moment, though, was courtesy one of the headlines on a mythos card. A couple of careless picnickers accidentally released two monsters into the downtown streets. We both found this rather amusing, trying to imagine how such a thing would be possible. Perhaps as one of the picnickers was opening up the picnic basket they said, “Oops, I’m terribly sorry. It seems that I may have accidentally packed a dimensional shambler in with the watercress sandwiches.”

In any event, we both enjoyed the game even though it didn’t go well for either of us. Really, we did reasonably well given the circumstances. We had sealed 4 gates, and only had 4 open when Yog-Sothoth awoke, and Jason fought valiantly to destroy him, but in the end, we were both devoured.

Perhaps next time we visit Arkham we’ll be more successful.