(Photo credit to Fantasy Flight Games)
Written by Ed Carter, Staff Writer
Arkham Horror Third Edition
- 1-6 players
- Published Fantasy Flight Games
- Lovecraft, dice rolling, scenario driven
A REVAMPED OLD CLASSIC
Arkham Horror 2nd edition is a classic. It was one of the first of the Lovecraft games from Fantasy Flight and it is now in a brand new edition. It feels like the designers looked at the other games in the Arkham files line, and pulled the mechanics that they think work best, and put it all in one game. The big board of second edition is gone, it’s replaced by hex tiles that are used in a specific setup for a scenario. The Monster cup is now a deck of cards that are again scenario-based, so you don’t face every monster. The Mythos deck is now a token bag similar to Arkham Horror the Card game. The scenario progresses based on success or failure much like Mansions of Madness and the card game so it is more specific win conditions than close so many gates before the ancient one awakes. If the game is progressing towards the failure conditions, REALLY BAD things start to happen and the game can change very fast. Like old Arkham Horror, there are card decks for various encounters you will have and there is an ample supply of items and allies to collect.
What results is a very polished streamlined game full of challenges but restricted to scenarios. While they are re-playable and will change based on the encounters if you know the end outcomes, that will not change. This game, of course, will have expansions offering more scenarios and extra challenges and mechanics, but the game foundation is the same.
THE STARS ARE WRONG: SETUP
The setup of the game is entirely based on the scenario you choose to play. It shows the tiles and layout, the monsters, and the tokens to use in the Mythos bag. Follow the instructions from the scenario sheet. Take the encounters decks for the neighborhoods in play as well as the street encounters. From the archive use the cards to set the scenario and select your investigators and starting equipment. The scenario indicates any monsters that need to be placed and the starting doom tokens in the neighborhoods. Select the Event deck based on the scenario and place it in the event deck holder. Draw the first three event cards, placing a clue token in the indicated neighborhood, and take the top 2 cards of the matching neighborhood deck and shuffle in the encounter card, placing them back on top. Take the headline deck and draw the top 13 cards and return the rest to the box. This is the headline deck used for this game session.
Determine the first player and the game begins.
THE ANCIENT EVIL EMERGES: A GAME TURN
Starting with the first player, each player will take 2 different actions; they cannot repeat the same action. Actions include move, resource, focus, ward, attack, evade research, trade, and component. Some actions will require you to take a test for one of your abilities. Look at your character sheet and roll the number of dice plus any modifiers from the equipment. A success is when a 5 or 6 is rolled. A move action lets you move 2 spaces, and you can pay $1 to move an additional space up to a maximum of 2 additional spaces.
Resource lets you gain $1. Focus allows you to take a focus token boosting one of your 5 abilities. You can only focus up to your focus limit; additional assets and items may alter this. Focus tokens can also be used to re-roll a die during a test.
Ward is one of the main actions to remove doom from a neighborhood. Doom tokens can progress the evil in the scenario and may cause more challenges, so warding doom is vital. To take a ward action, roll your lore skill, and for each success, you can remove one token. If you remove 2 or more, you gain a remnant token. These can be spent to avoid the sanity loss when casting a spell.
Attack is how to fight monsters. When you attack a monster place its card on its active side and make a strength test, adding any weapons or ability modifiers. Each success does one point of damage to the monster. When it receives enough damage to meet or exceed its health, it is defeated. Some monsters will reward a remnant token when defeated. When defeated, place the monster on top of the monster deck. An Evade action allows a player to disengage from a monster returning it to its exhausted side. Make an observation test, and if passed, the monster is evaded and will not attack.
Research is how players advance in the scenario. When a player has a clue token they can make a research action to place it on the scenario sheet to advance their progress. Make an observation test and add one clue token to the scenario for every success. A Trade action allows players to trade, items, allies, clues, and remnants when in the same space. A component action allows a player to use an item that has an action indicated.
Once all players have taken 2 actions any monsters on the board will activate. Follow the instructions for that monster’s behavior. Any monster engaged with a player will deal damage indicated on their card. After all monsters have been activated, players will have encounters. Unless the scenario has conditions that state otherwise, draw the top card on the matching neighborhood the player is in and resolve the encounter for their specific location. Each location has indicators on the board for what type of encounter to expect.
If the card is the clue encounter, follow the instructions and take any tests indicated. If you pass and receive the clue, place the card in the encounter card discard pile, If you fail, shuffle it among the top two cards of the neighborhood deck.
The Final phase is the Mythos phase. Each player will draw two tokens from the Mythos bag and complete the actions indicated for that token. A doom token indicates doom is spreading, draw the last card of the encounter deck and add doom to the neighborhood indicated by the doom symbol. Place the card in a discard pile.
- A clue token adds a clue to a neighborhood. Take the first card from the encounter deck and place a clue token in the neighborhood and shuffle the card into the top two cards of the neighborhood deck and place them on top.
- A monster indicates to spawn a monster. Take the bottom card of the monster deck and place the monster where indicated on its exhausted side. Follow any additional instructions for that monster.
- To resolve the headline token, draw the top card from the headline deck and resolve it.
- A Reckoning token triggers the Reckoning event found on the scenario sheet.
- A Gate burst token is resolved by taking the top card of the encounter deck and placing one doom token at each location in the indicated neighborhood.
- When you draw a blank, nothing happens.
- Once drawn place the token aside and do not return to the bag. The bag is refreshed when all of the tokens are drawn.
ENDING THE EVIL OR BEING DEVOURED: WINNING AND LOSING
Players win the game as a group if they complete all of the objectives in the scenario from the Codex cards and lose if they fail to complete the objectives before the doom has spread and evil has advanced beyond their ability to defeat.
If your character ever suffers more health or madness than on your card, your character is dead. Remove their standee from the board and discard all items. Return any clues or remnant tokens to the supply. Pick a new character and start them off at the scenario’s start location.
THE STARS ARE UNSURE: SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
Component-wise, the game is gorgeous. The art is the same as their other games in the Arkham Files, and the components are solid and work well. I am sure that some will upgrade the cardboard to plastic. Miniatures from Mansions of Madness can be used in place of the standees.
The storage solution is typical for Fantasy Flight games, you get the cardboard trench. This game uses A LOT of cards and small tokens so this trench is awful if you want to keep it organized. You will have to look for an organizer if you want to use something more than bags.
I really like the streamlined gameplay, the use of scenario progression goals, and token bag used in the Arkham Horror card game. These changes have made the game move much faster. I am glad that they kept encounters similar to Eldritch Horror and the original version. The only concern is with such a small neighborhood deck, repeated plays will generate the same encounters and tests. What it does, though is weave a unique story every time the game is played. You may be having the exact same encounters, but not in the same order and with different circumstances.
I like that the game is not app-driven, so no technology is needed to play, and the layout is small with the use of tiles instead of a board. I mean I absolutely love Mansions of Madness, but sometimes it’s great to have a game that can be played by itself. I also like that the game is built around a specific scenario so all of the monsters and encounter cards are for that particular scenario. That really increases the story it weaves.
Overall, in spite of the lack of a good storage solution, I would recommend the game, especially to first-time gamers in the Arkham world. I think a board game may actually be a better introduction than the Card game. The game moves fast, with only 4 phases and only 2 actions per player, so there is very little downtime between players and turns.
In closing, should you get it? I think the Arkham games appeal to a specific set of gamers, especially fans of Lovecraft. They create a story. The cards are written, in a similar style so it feels like his world. This one does that very well, and I can confidently say it can have its own place right next to Mansions and Eldritch card games, and even good old second-edition Arkham Horror.
Until next time, keep moving those meeples, and see you soon!
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