I've read a few 'expansion mix' type questions on the various AH forums so I have a few ideas of what parts of different expansions to add together. We've planned a big 6 player game for next weekend so I've just been setting things up in advance. I've decided that it'll be our first game with Innsmouth Horror. We've previously played Dunwich Horror and I have all the expansions available to me.

I'm thinking of using Innsmouth as the primary expansion and cherry picking bits out of the other expansions. I'm not planning on mixing the Mythos or Other World Encounter cards from any other expansion to avoid diluting the Innsmouth theme. I am however planning on adding the following:

Innsmouth Horror expansion including Personal Stories
Injury/Madness cards from Dunwich Horror
Epic Final Battle cards from Kingsport Horror
Items, spells, skills from Dunwich Horror
Random draw-3/choose-1 character selection using ALL available characters
Randomly drawn GOO from ALL available baddies
Monsters from Arkham Horror + Innsmouth + Dunwich (because they're already mixed)

Questions:
1. I was just wondering about mixing in the Dunwich ally cards since Innsmouth doesn't include any?
2. I decided to add the Spell/Item/Skill/etc cards from Dunwich because there aren't any with Innsmouth. Seems okay to me?
3. I notice that Innsmouth doesn't include as many extra additional Arkham encounter cards as Dunwich. Could I, should I!, include the Arkham encounter cards from Dunwich Horror as well? This would allow us a chance of a rail pass for instance at the Train Station. I don't know if there would be any other implications as I don't like to read cards ahead of time.

Just wondering what you regular players might do?

I'd use these cards from all the expansions (I do in my games). Less chance of duplicating certain cards, diluting the power cards (Elder Signs especially).

Oh, and since you're using the full investigator pool, certain investigators (KH in this case) have fixed possessions that came in KH (Lily, Daisy).



Some DH Arkham Encounter cards will refer to certain cards that came in DH, Sheldon Gang, the 4 Condition cards, but it's not that much work to add those to your small card mass .

I sorted the Item/Spell/etc cards from Kingsport beside the base and Dunwich cards. I now see that there were more of these added in Dunwich.


Ahhh, good tip, thanks. That was the primary reason I went and set them beside the other stacks. Mind you, with the enormous stack of Investigators that I've been shuffling I wonder just who we'll be seeing in play.


I'm hoping they'll be okay. As mentioned, I don't like to 'read ahead', I'd rather be surprised by them when they come up. But if some do refer to Dunwich for some reason then we can just remove it and draw another card. The only drawback is we're less likely to see the Innsmouth Arkham Encounter cards so I'm currently thinking I won't add these. There are only 4 new Arkham Encounter cards per deck in Innsmouth Horror (and Kingsport). I kinda like big stacks of cards!

Been losing to Innsmouth every time, so I added the Items and Spells from Black Goat (only other expansion I own) They allow for some strategies. I come closer to not-losing. "Milk of Shub" can get monsters away from the vortices (or rifts, or whatever they're called) Things that never came in handy before, like the item that lets you open a Gate.

I think use of the "Summon Ancient One" spell may be the only way to defeat Quachil-U in Innsmouth. I played once with him in Arkham (without Inns) and it was one of the best games yet(barely won by closing gates) He seems more suited for the base game without Innsmouth; he's decidedly non-aquatic.
You don't really need an extra expansion with Q-U; he's a scenario all his own, a very "Curse of the Demon" vibe (awesome B&W movie)

Haven't gone all-out yet, with Innsmouth AND the Goat. Seems like too much with the Cult and the Personal Stories, and the Deep Ones, and the two monster cups.... What do you guys think? Would the Cult Encounters actually HELP in Innsmouth?

Randomly drawn GOO from ALL available baddies

Questions:

3. I notice that Innsmouth doesn't include as many extra additional Arkham encounter cards as Dunwich. Could I, should I!, include the Arkham encounter cards from Dunwich Horror as well? This would allow us a chance of a rail pass for instance at the Train Station. I don't know if there would be any other implications as I don't like to read cards ahead of time.

Just wondering what you regular players might do?

We usually play with all of Dunwich. But if we take out the Dunwich map, we still play with the items, characters, injury/madness, etc. We also keep all the encounter cards in play. I don't remember if any of the Arkham encounters from the Dunwich expansion depend on Dunwich being in play, but if you draw one that does, you can just draw again. Same for Mythos cards - you can either remove the ones with Dunwich locations, or just redraw them when they come up (which is easier and faster).