Arkham Horror: Black Goat of the Woods

by Fantasy Flight Games

Product Features

• Introduces Corruption
• New items, spells, and monster tokens to enhance your game of Arkham Horror
• Age: 12+
• Number of Players: 1 - 8
• Playing Time: 2-4 hrs

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.6 x 5 x 7.5 inches ; 12.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: 1589944615
• Item model number: VA56
• Manufacturer recommended age: 12 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,171 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Woods So Dark And DeepA dangerous cult has risen in Arkham! Meeting in secret, these heretics and madmen consort with dark powers and offer up sacrifices to the Ancient One, while hordes of vicious monsters descend on the the town. It's up to a small band of investigators to infiltrate the cult and learn from these dark rituals, yet even the most pure-hearted may find himself corrupted in the process. Will their efforts be enough to stop the Ancient One from awakening, or will the investigators succumb, one by one, to the blasphemous seduction of its Herald, the Black Goat of the Woods?The Black Goat of the Woods is an expansion for the Arkham Horror board game by Fantasy Flight Games. This expansion features 88 new Ancient One cards, 9 new monster markers, 1 Herald Sheet, and 90 new Investigator cards including new items, new spells, and the dangerous lure of corruption...

Product Description

A dangerous cult has risen in Arkham! Meeting in secret, these heretics and madmen consort with dark powers and offer up sacrifices to the Ancient One, while hordes of vicious monsters descend on the the town. It's up to a small band of investigators to infiltrate the cult and learn from these dark rituals, yet even the most pure-hearted may find himself corrupted in the process. Will their efforts be enough to stop the Ancient One from awakening, or will the investigators succumb, one by one, to the blasphemous seduction of its Herald, the Black Goat of the Woods? The Black Goat of the Woods is an small expansion for the Arkham Horror board game. This expansion features 88 new Ancient One cards, 9 new monster markers, 1 Herald Sheet, and 76 new Investigator cards including new items, new spells, and the dangerous lure of corruption...

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great expansion for raising difficulty., January 19, 2009

By 

A. Hoover "grad dad" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Arkham Horror: Black Goat of the Woods (Toy)

If your games of Arkham Horror have become predictable and easy, this expansion will cure what ails you. The addition of the Black Goat herald makes the game easily twice as hard. You can use the new goodies without the herald, though, if you don't want to be on the edge of your seat all game. Also, there are rules for adjusting game difficulty, which is nice.

It'll take about one game to get the new rules down. Certainly it's worth the money and time to get new cards and items that make the game more interesting and versatile.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best small box expansion for Arkham horror, July 14, 2011

By 

wendy cheang (CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, US) - See all my reviews

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Arkham Horror: Black Goat of the Woods (Toy)

Black Goat of the Woods is a Shun-Nuggurath themed small box expansion for Arkham Horror. It comes with a new Herald as well as a Relationship mechanic, Corruption Cards and a new group called The Cult of the Thousand. The Black Goat of the Woods is in my opinion, the best small box expansion for Arkham Horror.

Pros

- The Herald "Black Goat of the Woods" is one of the deadliest and most exciting Heralds, mostly for it's ability to make monster rushes and gate openings harder. Gate openings now release an extra monster into the board (which can be annoying) and half the monsters released whenever a gate opens or a monster surge occurs must be hexagon so you must have harder monsters. Furthermore, monsters surges make the Ancient One awaken faster. These effects prevents what I call investigator momentum where investigators begin gaining power faster than the game can respond and then the game is almost guaranteed. Every gate opening is exciting and changes the momentum of the game.

-Played with Shub-Niggurath as the Ancient One makes is a definite must. She makes monsters tougher and increases the deadliness of the Herald. With investigators unwilling to spend monster trophies, this makes the game harder.

-Relationship cards are a good counter mechanic to the Herald. Often they boost your fighting ability or make it easier to get items.

-Some of the new spells are interesting especially when combined with the ones from other expansions. And as always, new encounter cards make camping at locations less feasible. Even if you don't play with the Herald, you should shuffle the investigator and Ancient One cards into your regular deck. When combined with cards from other expansions, this drastically changes the game.

-Difficulty cards are a definite must-try.

-This Herald is best played with more than 4 people both so gate openings are deadlier and you can deal with monster rushes.

Cons
-Like most small box expansions, most of the new mechanics are too diluted to really come into play. The Cult of the Thousand is a membership that is inadvisable because the events tend to hurt you rather than help. Even if you get a membership card, you tend to have very few encounters at places where the cult encounters matter, especially late in the game and with this expansion where you will be spending most of your time on the streets fighting or in other worlds.

-With the lessened effect of the Cult of the Thousand, the effects of Corruption Cards matter less. With no Cult encounters there is only one way to get Corruption Cards which is by defeating Hexagon monsters. This will happen fairly quickly and commonly. However the activation of the effects is fairly rare and the game rule to have investigators go through the "easier" corruption cards before the hard ones means that the Corruption cards are not a big worry. Without Cult encounters, it is very unlikely that someone will be forced to take a "hard" Corruption card

-The Herald's biggest effects can simply be house-ruled though with the decreased Hexagon monster count, this is difficult.

This is a expansion that advanced Arkham Horror players should definitely get. The new investigator and Ancient One cards can be combined with other expansions and shuffled into the regular deck to introduce new strategies. The Black Goat of the Woods is an interesting Herald. You can create other house rules to increase the effect of Corruption Cards and Cult memberships. I definitely recommend it.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arkham's Black Goat rocks, February 3, 2009

By 

Rachell D. Horman (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:2.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Arkham Horror: Black Goat of the Woods (Toy)

The base game rocks, and we've been picking up all the expansions since. This particular expansion, Black Goat of the Woods, adds some particularly fun and challenging aspects to the game, and we have enjoyed adding it into our decks. If you are a fan of the game, this is definitely one expansion to include!