LOVE your reviews; you deserve a much bigger audience...This review is excellent, and spot on. Eldritch Horror is my favorite game of all time. I own EVERY expansion, and have played dozens of times, both solo and co-op. Advice to all: 1) NEVER play with more than 4 players. Period. I agree 3 players is ideal. 2) Do NOT try to play with all the expansions mixed together; I have, and it's not good. Not only does this greatly bloat the game, it makes for a non-nonsensical narrative. I suggest blending in the cards from ONE expansion only whenever you play, separating them out when finished. 3) DO feel free to try any investigator with any expansion. There are 55 to choose from with all expansions, and each brings something unique. While certainly not equal, most are fun to play. 4) Experience has repeatedly shown me that this game always takes at least 3 hours to play. Be prepared for that time commitment, especially if your playing with folks that carefully plan their actions each turn. 5) Use Focus Tokens, even if you only own the base game. Focus tokens were first introduced in the early expansion, Mountains of Madness (which I recommend). They were also included with other later expansions (which ones I don't recall). If you don't own an expansion with Focus Tokens, simply create your own make-shift tokens. You can find the rules on their use in expansion rules available online. ALWAYS use them, as they can make a big difference on your win chances, plus purchasing them as an Action means you’ll rarely have a wasted turn. 6) EH is a great solo experience. Simply control 2 or 3 investigators. 7) Finally: Play only if you're up for a tough challenge. Like it's predecessor (Arkham Horror), Eldritch Horror is HARD to win. I believe I've won less than 10 times in more than 50 plays. As suggested in the review, the fun's in the PLAYING, certainly not in the WINNING.
I was under the impression the small box upgrades mixed well, I only have forsaken lore which seems to be the go to for most, but am expecting the other small boxes soon. Do you recommend playing with them separate or was this comment mostly aimed at the big box ones
I absolutely love this game. One of the things I did to sort the expansions was to separate conditions, elder gods, etc with index cards and old MTG Fat Pack boxes. I also play with an app that shortens set up and auto draws cards. A little glitchy but it lets you pick what sets you play with. I don't have many board games but if I had a place to exclusively play them, this might be set up year round just so I could play it in boredom.
@@BoardGameBollocks ooo! Any time friend, will be very happy , not only cup of tea , will support any questions, transfer, hotels, adventure, can give you phone number or @mail,
Such a great game. I've got all the expansions. I wouldn't dream of ever trying to separate them out again. I just keep them stored in business card holders (like you see on the counter in doctor's offices) on a shelf, and pull out the stacks I need for whichever Ancient One I'm facing. The amount of content is staggering. I could play for a year and not go through all the cards.
For the longest time I actually thought you were a shopkeeper with that background. Love to see you review 2nd AH not that anyone can afford it anymore..great stuff !
Nice review as always. We had a great session only yesterday just with the base game and Forsaken Lore. The story the game tells is just great, although a little disjointed at times. We'll be "cracking off" another session this evening with the additiona of Lost Cities. Even though our group loves Mansions, there's just something about Eldritch that keeps us coming back. HAve a great Saturday. See you next time!
I have all the small box expansions except "Cities in Ruin" and I have a ton of content that still fits in the original box. Playthroughs are always epic and a blast... like you said its more about the story, which is different every time, than whether or not you survive. A++
Some people like the "bloated" feel of many expansions. I loved this about Arkham Horror 2E. Gives it an epic feel when you add expansions in my opinion!
It's a board game review by a Guy Ritchie villain, innit? Make no mistake, these are first rate reviews, and deserve more viewers. If this bloke says ya it's worff playin', it's worff playin'.
I love this game but have not played since 2021 because of the time commitment required but will when opportunity arises . A session with more than 4 players is very rare but when it happens it is not a complete drag waiting for your turn because the turn is broken up in small bite stages. You go round and do actions in turn and then go round for encounters in turn and end with mythos phase where changes occur in the world and usually affect everybody and each person resolves the pertinent effects on their investigator where applicable ex: each investigator loses half their spells. I would play more often if not for the long set-up and put away time and have looked for ways to streamline play with some success like organizing components and apps and periodically check online for other fans ideas to try to implement. I found your review helpful and would direct others new to EH to it to help them get the main idea of the gameplay.
I like your views man, this is great. I love every Arkham game FFG has released and this one takes a sweet spot just behind Mansions of Madness 2nd edition.
I played yhe beta demo of this with one of the designers at GenCon. I loved the feel of the world map but i did wish i could zoom into a scene like a old movie. 😊
I began my solo board gaming hobby with Eldritch Horror a year ago, and it is still my #1 all-time favourite. It's a tough game for two investigators. In fact, I don't have all expansions; I have yet to buy MoM, SoC, and MoN (hope they won't go out of print very soon).
All the small box and maybe one of the big box depending on theme preference. Mountains of madness is my favourite. If you could grab all the extra cards out of the big box and leave out the board it would be better. It’s just a shame it won’t be getting a reprint.
@@BoardGameBollocks Great, that's kinda what I was thinking too, I don't like the idea of having extra boards. I already have the first small box expansion, I will look into picking up another one before they go out of print.
Played this only once about 5 years ago with 6 people none of us had ever played it before. Total mess we gave up in the end, took way too long. But I always liked the look of the game and I'd like to give it another go (max 3-4 as you say). Love the theme and the world map. Your review has inspired me, I will see I can lay my hands on a copy, gratis ideally. Great review & channel. I just ordered a copy of Carpe Diem based on your review, artwoork looks perfect for a SF game.
however much i love this game it ended up in my cull video... i just had too much mythos and other games got more play time lol great review Stay Hexy!
I stayed away from this because I had already complete AH2E collection and didn’t want to dive down that rabbit hole again. Though I broke down and got into the LCG. Any plans on doing a separate vid for Arkham Horror? Either the bloated beauty of 2E or the streamlined pile horse manure that is 3E. Also have you tried Death May Die. I tried it after watching many reviews and find it quite a fun sprint of a game. Like a Cthulhu version a Benny Hill outright.
@@BoardGameBollocks all right then. I see I’ve touched a nerve. In that case, What’s your thoughts on the failure to launch of the the International Football SuperLeague?😁
Hmmm…interesting question. Dunno what people are moaning about tbh. Sky Sports have been ruining football for 30 years. Don’t see what difference ESL will make to the scam.
I have no idea how you can play this in 1.5h. I don't wanna assume anything, but is there a chance you're playing it wrong? I've never heard of anybody playing it so quickly.
Small box expansions add more stuff and some minor rules. The big box add side boards. They recommend you only play with 1 so check out the themes and go for one that you like. The final big box (masks of whateveritis) can be skipped till last as it’s thin on content and doesn’t add a lot. Hope that helps.
Thanks for posting. You won’t be surprised to know that this sort of game pushes my buttons. I owned a copy for longtime before gifting it to a friend cos I am generous like that, right. He has bought all the expansions, loves it and if he brought it over I would happily play. I have a mixed view of Howard Lovecraft, about forty years ago I was an enthusiast but then everybody - especially gamers - discovered him and now I suffer from syndrome. Because of that and because I prefer Flying Frog production aesthetic to Fantasy Flight, Fortune and Glory which EH closely resembles would be my marginal preference. Still Eldritch Horror is definitely worth your time.
@@BoardGameBollocks correct, mountains of madness, under the pyramid and signs of carcosa are all really hard to find and have inflated prices. Ffg has confirmed they won't be reprinting them anymore so all existing copies are all that's left unfortunately
I'm quite surprised that I have never purchased this game. I had Arkham Horror 2nd Edition and, probably due to its excessive bloat and complexity, I could never really get into that game. Others have commented that Eldritch is what Arkham should have been. My one criticism, as you indicated, is the tendency of FFG to play on gamers completionist tendencies by releasing a never-ending stream of expansions. I could barely believe how many there were when I searched this title!
@@BoardGameBollocks I feel your suffering. I have done the same thing recently with Teotihuacan and its various appointments. I now have more coloured cubes that a Montessori Play School and I need a bigger table for all those throw-off boards, too. What the fuck was I thinking?
@@BoardGameBollocks Yeah, the new Teotihuacan Expansion Period box contains a mansions board and Obsidian resource among other bits and pieces while the Pre-Classic Expansion contains the "Orange Temple" board. Thankfully, both expansions are a series of add-ons that don't need to be played all at once (or even together). Now that I think of it, I acquired this next-level addiction after watching your review! So we have come full circle on this one.
Arkham Horror = Soooo many pieces, a monstrous amount of content. Sort of made the game more epic than other games. An ambitious and creative person could use all those pieces to craft a few variant games from the bounty of parts & pieces. Eldritch Horror = Bare-bones minimal content, same price as previous game but a painfully miserly amount of content leads to repetition that kicks in too fast. Fantasy Flight has become a company that has fallen back on screwing their consumers at every possible opportunity with often lackluster (and over-priced) additional content that (hollowly) promises to make the games better and more complete. The Mansions of Madness 2nd edition that introduces an app was a terrible gimmick that made the game worse and more limited -- and allowed them to re-sell the same game with less content. That said, Eldritch Horror is an easier and lighter game than Arkham Horror, and the difference is very appreciable. Good review.
The Masks of whatever it is was quite possibly the worst big box expansion I’ve ever seen. Basically a couple of decks of cards and a ‘campaign’ variant that was nothing of the sort. FF knew people would buy it to complete the game…con artists.
I've been watching this review for 7 minutes and I'm yet to see the game board. 99% of it is your face, and 1% extremely zoomed in glimpses taken away so fast I'd have to stop the video to process what I'm looking at, that is when you are not shaking the fucking components madly. It is at 7 minutes where your video and super important face became such a frustrating experience despite coming here in good faith for the first time that I stopped it, wrote this, and now I'm closing it.
