INTRODUCTION
The King in Yellow is the second small box expansion to the Fantasy Flight Games remake of Arkham Horror. This game and its expansions are based upon the short stories of the 1920s horror/Sci Fi writer H P Lovecraft. The King in Yellow is a card expansion, and cannot be used without a copy of Arkham Horror. So, if you don't have Arkham Horror I suggest you go and read my review on it before you go any further with this one (look for "Arkham Horror: My First Review")!

OVERVIEW
The infamous theatrical play known as "The King in Yellow" has come to the town of Arkham in order to warp the minds of those who watch it. Its malignant powers and cursed Yellow Signs are spreading chaos and terror throughout the town, corrupting the otherwise kind and friendly townsfolk. With the town of Arkham once again weakened, it will only be matter of time before the Ancients break their bonds and try to enter our world! Will a small gang of Investigators stand firm against the evil of the Tattered King?

COMPONENTS
The King in Yellow expansion includes 90 new Mythos, Other World and Arkham Encounters, 76 new Investigator cards, a sheet of tokens and 1 King in Yellow Herald sheet. As with all FFGs, the quality of these components is excellent and matches that of the base game and expansions.

GAMEPLAY
What does the King in Yellow expansion bring to a game of Arkham Horror? The newest, most significant feature is the Herald. Heralds are supernaturally powerful entities that will attempt to make way for the Ancient Ones, speeding up the time is takes to their awakening. The King in Yellow Herald can be used with any Ancient One (not just Hastur as you might expect) and modifies the game in a similar way to the Ancients (adding certain special rules and penalties that last for the length of the game). Many of the bits found in this expansion are used through the effects of the Herald.

The King in Yellow Herald affects the game by making the Investigators pay for every time the Terror Track is increased. The expansion comes with a number of Yellow Sign tokens (identical to Doom Tokens in size but with the image of the Yellow Sign printed on them instead of the usual eye/Elder Sign design). Whenever the Terror Track rises, the Herald forces the Investigators to add a Yellow Sign token to either the Doom Track or the Terror Track. If placed on the Doom Track the Yellow Sign just counts as another Doom Token, bringing the Ancient closer to awakening. If placed on the Terror Track the Investigators must draw one of the dreaded "Blighted Ally" cards.

The Blighted Allies are familiar townsfolk who have been corrupted by the evil powers of the Yellow Sign. Each Blight has a permanent and crippling effect on the rest of the game, leaving Investiagtors with a difficult decision. Do you allow the Doom Track to build up faster then normal or risk a Blighted Ally instead? Good examples of the nastiness of the Blights: Sheriff Engle (once corrupted) causes the Deputy Cards to be removed from the game and decreases the Outskirt Limit by 2, whilst Doyle Jeffries causes Riot monsters to brake out all over Arkham! The Riot monsters are Overwhelming with a combat modifier of -4 and cause 4 damage when they beat you! Plus when you kill them because they are still just humans, you lose 1 sanity and the Terror Track may be increased causing yet another Yellow Sign token! Additionally, once a Blight is in play any Arkham Encounter that involves him or her is replaced with the Investigator loses 1 stamina or sanity!
As you can gather, the Herald mechanic is monsterous and will seriously affect any game it is part of!

The other King in Yellow themed feature is the "Act" cards; three cards that mark the passing of the different parts of the King in Yellow play. The first and second acts can be stopped by the Investigators under certain circumstances, but the third act can't be stopped and will drive the townsfolk to insanity, destroying Arkham in the process. These acts will progress throughout the game every time a "The Next Act Begins" card is drawn from the Mythos Deck.

The new Mythos don't make it any easier, with more of the "no gate opens this turn, but add 2 Doom Tokens to the Doom Track" cards that featured originally in the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion, as well as a couple of "no gates open this turn, but the Terror Track increases by 2" cards! This expansion also has the first Mythos cards that cause every monster to move in the Mythos phase rather then just the odd two or three symbols worth!
The total effect of these components is a whirlwind of Terror Track increases and penalties that can make Arkham Horror more difficult then ever! Its not all bad new though, as The King in Yellow adds some of the most potent Investigator cards to date.

Firstly there is "Magical Effect" cards. These special cards come initially in the form of spells, but once cast they become more like skills. The three magical effect cards include "Summon the Beast Within", "Open the Third Eye" and "Call the Azure Flame". Once cast, the Beast Within gives the caster +1 maximum stamina, -2 maximum sanity, +2 to combat checks and +1 movement in the movement phase. The Third Eye gives the caster +1 maximum sanity, -2 maximum stamina, +2 to Horror checks and immunity to being cursed. The Azure Flame is basically a magical shotgun (+4 magical combat, 6s count as two successes). The first two remain active until the Investigator chooses to resort to normal. The Azure Flame requires a payment of 1 sanity per turn to keep active or it is discarded. These accompany a selection of decent spells that by far beat the passively mild spells of the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion.

Despite this, I personally think its the Common and Unique items that make the biggest impression out of the investigator cards of this expansion.
A couple of Common item examples include "Press Pass" which you can exhaust once per turn when gaining clue tokens to gain one extra token. Then there is the "Athame", a +1 Physical combat weapon that becomes a +3 when the monster is magically resistant and +6 when the monster is magically immune! The "Time Bomb" has already grown a reputation in my gaming group- you place it on a street or location and can set it to go off between 1 and 4 turns afterwards. When its timer runs out, it blows up the entire neighbourhood it was in and returns all monsters there back into the cup!

On the Unique Item side of things, there is the "Gladius of Carcossa" which works kind of like a big, magical Axe, giving a +4 Magical combat with one hand, and a +5 if you use both hands to wield it! "Petrifying Solution" is a one use only +8 Physical combat weapon that ignores Physical Resistance and the Endless abilites (a nice mask monster killer)! There are more subtle Unique Items too, such as "The Warding of the Yellow Sign" which once placed on a location will stop monsters being able to appear there as a result of gates, and allow Investigators to Evade any monsters they would encounter whilst in the same place.

Lastly the King in Yellow expansion offers a couple of different play styles. You could mix all of the King in Yellow cards into Arkham Horror so that whilst the events surrounding the play are still going on, they aren't the focus of the game. Optionally you can play a more themed game by placing all of the new cards on top of the base set cards. This way you can experience all of the King in Yellow cards concentrated into a single game (quite scary I imagine!). Last of all, the King in Yellow Herald can easily be removed or added into the game, meaning you can face it at your leisure rather then every single game.

CONCLUSION
The King in Yellow expansion is a great addition to Arkham Horror. The Herald will really step up the difficulty for those who complained that the base game becomes to easy on repeated plays, whilst the new range of Investigators cards are powerful and exciting. Although this expansion seems just a little bit pricey (normally around £13/$26) and seems to lack all of the really cool bits added by the Dunwich Horror expansion, it is still better then the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion and any hardcore Arkham Horror fan will love it. I rated this expansion 9/10 because it's a great expansion to an already great game! If you think Arkham is too easy, try taking on the Tattered King!