Arkham Horror vs Eldritch Horror vs Mansions of Madness

[Captain Kelsten]

As some of you may now I'm a big fan of Call of Cthulhu and the Cthulhu mythos. I fancy getting one of the above games but don't know which one to get. They're all fairly expensive and all set around the same theme, so does anyone have any experience of them and any recommendations?

 

Thanks!

[Nicky]

Yeah played them all, and own eldrich horror. get Mansions of Madness. Infinitley more fun.

[Aluco]

I concur. Definitely Mansions of Madness.

[Munkienut]

I own Mansions, Eldritch and have played arkham 2nd edition, I also had Arkham Horror the card game which I sold on as I wasn't willing to go down the rabbit hole of LCG collecting at the time (Marvel Champions now has me though). 

 

Mansions has made it to the table a lot lot more than Eldritch has, in fact I don't think I've played Eldritch in about 5 years. I would say that perhaps it has more variability from game to game even though it has only 4 old ones in the base game (from memory) compared to the 4 or 5 scenarios in the MoM base game. Mansions scenarios by and large will play out much the same story wise when repeating scenarios (there's slight variations in the tile layout and monsters when repeating the same scenario) as such I have bought quite a few Mansions expansions to keep it fresh but you can still easily replay base game scenarios and not get bored of it. Due to the minis the MoM expansions are probably more expensive although there are a couple scenario DLCs available through the app that don't require a physical purchase and are around a fiver each.

 

Arkham the board game I enjoyed but think Eldritch pushed it out as its a more streamlined version which perhaps leans a little more on the adventurey side of things in comparison to the horror side of arkham, Arkham mechanically is similar but is set in one town with different buildings compared to running round the world with Eldritch. The new third edition of Arkham looks quite different and I'd be quite keen to try it but haven't got round to it so can't comment on that.

 

I really enjoyed the Arkham card game and had fun with the scenarios and deck building but it's a massive rabbit hole money wise and I felt like I was too late to the party to pick up content without going via ebay scalpers. I feel like I read they may be releasing it in an easier format to collect though but don't count on that.

 

Anyways you probably knew a lot of that and as others have said Mansion wins out of them for me. I played the new expansion a few weeks back and really enjoyed it once again, it took things I'm a whole different direction compared to earlier ones. It's also now been long enough that I can easily go back through all the older scenarios having forgotten most of them so they should all be pretty fresh!

 

It may also be worth noting there is an app with fan made scenarios (think they are free) which I've never looked in to but I've heard good things.

[jonamok]

Played all three, own none, but the best by a mile is Mansions.

[Captain Kelsten]

Thanks guys. I ended up going with Mansions. I was going to get both Mansions and Eldritch, but change my mind at the last moment and swapped Eldritch for Gloomjaven Jaws of the Lion. 
 

thanks for the recommendations!

[Nicky]

@Doctor Shark if you get more eldrichy itches get the arkham horror card game. it's a blackhole but its a fantastic little coop adventure.