My weekend had its ups and downs, but I want to focus for a moment on the board game we played; Arkham Horror. I love it. I totally love it. It takes a moment to understand the tactics, and it can be a bit overwhelming at the start; there’s a lot of decks and tokens, and the playing field is large, and elaborate. But it’s not that complex once someone takes 15 minutes to explain it to you.
You play an investigator that, together with the other investigators played by the other players need to prevent one of the Ancient Ones from entering our realm. All over Arkham portals to other dimensions are opening, and monsters come hand-in-hand with these portals. The monsters are scaring the local populace, and the more monsters roam around unchecked, the more shops close down, and the sooner the Ancient One comes to our world. Your investigator can close the portals and defeat the enemies, using an array of mundane and magical items, as well as spells and skills.
So instead of competing against your fellow-players, you cooperate with them. You can share or trade items, spells and use your skills on one another. (For example, the doctor can heal himself or others.) Besides finding spells and forbidden knowledge, you can also find artifacts that can help you. Closing the portal to other dimensions sees you exploring the dimension before closing and sealing it shut. I know I’m kind of jumping from one thing to the next without any real structure to my review of this game, but that’s because I’m very enthused about it, and I don’t know what to talk about first. :)
Last night, Dennis, Richard, Mouls, Robin, Mark and I had to prevent the emergence of Ithaqua, the Windwalker. Dennis played a Magician, whose name I forgot. Mark played Ashcan Pete, a Drifter. Mouls played Diamond Jack, the Private Eye. Richard played the Professor, and my brother played the Doctor. I played Sister Mary, the Nun. Not a very physical character (although once I was geared up she did kick a holy amount of ass.) Sadly, I had to leave before the game was finished, but we were well on our way to shut Ithaqua down permanently (as much as you can do that with Ancient Ones.)
To quote Caz: this game rocked the socks, packed the cheeks and rolled the coasters. I want to play it again! :)
We wrapped it up and closed two more gates to assure that Ithaqua could not enter our world :)
P.S. My character was Dexter Drake, the Magician a.k.a. the Great Drake
Sounds cool. Do you get various Ancient Ones to fight against?
Love the image of you as a nun, btw. :D Well, at least you look good in black. ;)
The Ancient One is drawn at random from a pool, so you have a different opponent each time you play the game.
BTW Dennis has a knack for crossdressing….you should see the pictures :D
Shut. Up. :)
Or else… shoot ‘im up. :D
Don’t listen, Dennis, please, do tell. Or better show and tell. ;)
[b]Ithaqua[/b]
[img]http://www.wiredreflexes.com/gen/gfx/image.php?id=365[/img]
[b]Sister Mary[/b]
[img]http://www.wiredreflexes.com/gen/gfx/image.php?id=367[/img]
I don’t think even crossdressing would get you far with this character judging by the photo… ;)
Cool cards. I haven’t played board games for over 10 yrs now and stopped somewhere on Talisman, I believe.
Nice images. The game is well designed and beatifully illustrated. Even the expansion sets (there are two, The Dunwich Horror and The King in Yellow) both have this same nice artwork.
P.S. We did fuck up some of the rules yesterday….we’ll fix that a different time
Which rules did we screw up? (And it’s bound to happen the first few times, right?)
Monster movement, the handling of combat against monsters and the way the skill Richard’s character has works. (clarified in the FAQ).
Well, it’s an intricate game….we are bound to make some mistakes in the first few goes. Lot of fun though…loved playing the drifter. I had me a shotgun and a dog. What else does a man need to fight the Great Old Ones and their minions? :)
A bottle of whiskey, regardless of the quality of it :)
That indeed was very handy:)