Eldritch Horror: Mountains of Madness Review - with Tom Vasel

[@ericjohnson2832]

Tom, the reason that Ithaqua isn't tied to the Antarctica board is that he is from the north, and the Arctic. He's tied to the legends of the wendigo in far north, and to the fantasy land of Hyperborea (which actually ties Conan to the Lovecraft mythos, as Robert Howard and HP Lovecraft were pen pals). That said, my group and I have done an "Ice Age Theme" game, like you did, with the Antarctica Prelude, and Ithaqua as the Ancient One.

[@QuiGonJack10]

This has been 6 years for you since seeing this video but does the Antarctica side board only get played when the players play the Antarctica prelude or can you add the side board into every game??

[@ericjohnson2832]

@@QuiGonJack10 The only Rules as Written way to use the Antarctica sideboard are 1) when the Rise of the Elder Things is the Ancient One card you are battling or 2) with the "Doomsayer from Antarctica" sideboard. You can pick your prelude anytime your want, by the rules. My group does play with "multiple Preludes" house rules sometimes, so with a little tweaking you can play with Antarctica even if you want to see other Preludes. The Prelude does give you good, productive reasons to go so far out of the way down on those sideboard spaces. Otherwise, the sideboard can be a source of more far-away gates, so be aware of that. (Although with some highly rewarding sideboard spaces, if you used them right) My group has even done a "multi-prelude card" where we purposefully used all 3 sideboards, from 3 different expansions. But we are a little crazy, and have played literally hundreds of sessions of Eldritch Horror, so a little variety and extra challenge is nice.

[@QuiGonJack10]

@@ericjohnson2832 Ok, thank you. Our group just bought the expansion and it’s coming soon! Are the ancient ones in this expansion hard?? Because we had a though time with yig and the lost in time and space effect

[@ericjohnson2832]

@@QuiGonJack10 Actually, from my experience, the Rise of the Elder Things Ancient One is the *easiest* AO, out of ALL the expansions. You have to solve 4 mysteries to win, but you start at high Doom, and have extra large Mythos deck, so there is time as long as you don't dwaddle. Just remember that you can use the sideboard effect to spend 2 Acquire Assets successes to travel to the Miskatonic Outpost. And the Elder Things let you jump to the Plateau of Leng when you close a gate. Plus, the Plateau has an effect to jump to gate spots. Use this mobility, it's a great strategic advantage. Ithaqua is notably tougher. He can be a little frustrating, making you take repeated Focus actions to avoid Hypothermia. Sometimes you just have to take the Hypothermia for action efficiency. I found you learn how to fight Ithaqua after multiple plays, then he gets easier, once you know how he works, and understand his mysteries.

[@QuiGonJack10]

@@ericjohnson2832 Awesome!! Thank you!!

[@PetrVojtech]

The reason Elder Things (it's the entire race, buried under the snow of Antarctica) are tied to the second board is the book At the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft. This expansion takes so much from the book :). And it plays even better if you know the original story.

[@erikdweber]

Rise of the elder thingS, with picture showing multiples of them "I don't know if its one elder thing or a bunch of them"

[@kommodore6691]

You don't need to buy any expansion to get the focus mechanic just add the rule and use anything to represent the tokens.

[@user-zi7qd1fy7d]

Nah, many things in Eldritch horror correspond with that mechanic. If you just add focus tokens, it is not that interesting

[@TheGunslinger019]

Кирилл Дектярев yeah but the extra stuff are usually beneficial so you don't miss anything crucial. I added the focus mechanic since day one of vanilla EH and especially if you only have the Forsaken Lore expansion tha makes the game harder is a good way to mitigate that difficulty. I am using the eldritch tokens btw that are plentiful.

[@hondito]

But Ithaqua is from the north, and the Elder Things are the big bad in the actual story Mountains of Madness! It's very thematic, Tom :)

[@jonathana6298]

Thanks for the review. EH is my favorite solo board game. (Although, this may be threatened later this year by Kingdom Death when it arrives.) I always liked the Antarctic board more, mostly because it's the only side board so far that has unique actions on the spaces themselves. It's always great when you can send an investigator out to the City of the Elder Things to farm artifacts for a few turns.

[@necrotoaster94]

EH is my favorite game, has been since it came out, and I admit I'm biased to buy all the expansions regardless. I'm sure FF games loves that. Thanks the taking the time to catch up on these expansions, much appreciated. I did notice though that KZbin has yet again not posted HD versions of either this review or Under the Pyramids, which is an annoying trend they've been doing over recent video postings - boo to KZbin for that. Two Thumbs Up for the review content! :D

[@paulcoy9060]

Ever notice that the Horrible Plateau of Leng's initials are HPL ?

[@TheDarktater]

Are you doing the Dreamlands big box expansion review right away too?

[@loicovis426]

Thank you so much for this video! Love this game! You explain so well!

[@DanielMarrable]

did you say "UP in the Antarctic" ???

[@nigelwade5131]

Does anyone know what's wrong with Fantasy Flight Games' website, can't establish a connection at all ?

[@williamgarcia-medina9989]

EH is impossible to find. Any news on reprinting EH the base game?

[@blueprint_79]

I called Fantasy Flight a few days ago and the customer service rep told me EH probably wouldn't be available again until around June. He said a few months for printing then another few months for the packing and shipping. I'd recommend checking your local book stores and/or comic book stores. That's how I found a copy.

[@williamgarcia-medina9989]

Scott Puckett hey thanks for the info.

[@TurboCraftBros]

Amazon seems to have it still, for a solid price. That's how I got my copy

[@crimsonhead100]

If you live in the Los Angeles area Aero Hobbies, Game empire, and Nexgen games have the game.