A Year With Arkham Horror: Innsmouth Horror | Arkham Horror: Innsmouth Horror Expansion

DoomTurtle

(DoomTurtle)

United States
Redford
Michigan

After almost a year and a half after getting this expansion, I finally got my 5th play in with it and am ready to review it. This expansion for Arkham Horror is one of the more sinister and thematic expansions available.

The Premise:
The small fishing village of Innsmouth has some deep secrets to keep covered. Its denizens are all in on it, and will often make things difficult for investigators for sticking their noses in other people's business. But it is definitely in the best interest of the investigators to try to stop what's going on, or else the Ancient One may appear sooner than expected. Try to stay out of jail and find proof of bad happening to call in the feds and clean up the place. Of course, make sure that things in Arkham don't get out of hand while all this is happening.

The Components:
A 'large box expansion', the most noteworthy item included is the gameboard which portrays the village of Innsmouth and its locations, some of which contain some new abilities printed on the board. Unlike Dunwich and Kingsport, however, there are no new Other World locations to visit, instead, that section of the board has a new 'deep ones rising' track which will be detailed in the gameplay section.

16 new investigators, 8 new Ancient Ones, and 2 new heralds are included which help increase replayability tremendously. Several new monster types also make their debut, and other cardboard tokens are included.

As is standard, new Mythos, city location, and Outer World location cards are included. Their is also a new type of large card which is a deck used to determine if you have the Innsmouth Look. Filling out the rest of the large cards are Ancient One story cards used in the epic battle system introduced with Kingsport Horror. The only small cards that come with this expansion are personal story cards for every investigator (including from previous expansions), and 12 cards that work alongside one of the Ancient Ones. No new items, allies, spells, or skills are included.

The Gameplay:
The Innsmouth board has several unstable locations that gates can appear. There are also rifts on the board that monsters can move into. When a monster moves into a rift, a token is added to the 'deep ones rising' track. Also, if an elder sign prevents a gate from opening anywhere on the board (doesn't need to just be in Innsmouth), then a token gets added. When all 6 spaces of this track are filled, the Ancient One immediately awakens. In order to prevent this, the investigators must add 6 clue tokens to the other side of the track. This is done during upkeep, where they can add up to two clue tokens on the section of the track that matches the Innsmouth neighborhood they are in. 2 clues for each of the 3 neighborhoods will fill up the track which call sin the feds to raid Innsmouth and empty the deep ones rising track, which can start filling back up again.

Another unique thing about Innsmounth is a couple of locations that are off the mainland, where a boat must be chartered from one of the inland locations in order to reach. Both of these locations are unstable with a rift located directly next to them, so they can be pretty dangerous. However, there is no guarantee of a return back to the mainland unless another investigator charters a boat for you. If they are unavailable to do so, you have to rely on an encounter to take you back.

Many locations in Innsmouth have a positive/negative modifier associated with them. When the Ancient One's doom track hits halfway full, marshall law is declared in Innsmouth. Investigators must make a sneak check based on the modifier, and if they fail, they are cent to the Innsmouth prison. Even those that can't be arrested in Arkham, are not immune to the citizens of Innsmouth. Once in prison, it can be difficult to get out, but other investigators can try to help you.

The Innsmouth Look deck of cards may need to be used after certain encounters. Many of the citizens of Innsmouth are descended from the Deep Ones, some sort of ancient fish people that want to awaken the Ancient Ones (hence the reason for the 'deep ones rising track). Those that are descended from them tend to start looking like a fish person themself, which is called the Innsmouth Look. An encounter may have you draw a number of cards from this deck, and if you get the card that says you have the Innsmouth Look, it means your investigator is devoured as it transforms into a deep one (which thematically means they had descendants from this race somewhere in their family tree, and being this close to the mythos has brought out the changes).

The personal story cards for the investigators flesh out the background of each character and also add a pass/fail stipulation. The ending of their story will be altered whether they achieve the pass or fail requirement. If they pass, there is often a reward such as a stat boost, extra money or clues, or an upgrade in their special ability amongst other things. Failing will often make you lose clues or money, a stat will go down, etc. It gives each player their own personal goal to achieve which may or may not help out the overall goal of winning the game. Especially if you have to spend clues to pass your story, do you do it or save them to seal a gate?

Other than these new mechanics, this expansion uses some ideas from previous expansions such as gate bursts and monsters with water movement.

Final Thoughts:
This is another one of those must have expansions. Dunwich is better to start with because of what it offers, but this one should definitely not be passed up. It is a very challenging expansion, and the included investigators and Ancient Ones really add to the variability.

Once reason why it is often not recommended as the first expansion to get is due to the lack of items, spells, allies, etc. However, the personal stories are great and add a lot of depth to the characters and give the players more to do and deal with.

I also want to mention the great new Other World locations cards. Each one only has one location on it, and if you are not in that location, then you are instructed to draw another card. But if you are in the correct place, you get a long encounter with a couple of options to choose from. It's a fun change of pace from the usual quick encounter where you just make a skill check.

Overall it is a great expansion and increases the difficulty by a great amount for those that are having too easy of a time with the game. Following the BGG rating guidelines, I give this one a 9.

A Year With My Games has my other reviews if you are interested. Thanks for reading!