Arkham Horror: The Essex County Express

Product Description

"It seemed that the railway express clerk on no. 5508 had been able to recall an incident which might have much bearing on my loss "     –H.P. Lovecraft, Whisperer in darkness The Essex County express is the second Mythos Pack in the Dunwich Legacy cycle for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Among its sixty new cards, you'll find twenty-eight player cards, including four copies of a new weakness. You'll also find a thrilling new scenario in which your investigations lead you outside the town of Arkham. While the train you take may offer the fastest transit to your next lead, It may not offer the safest when the train rumbles, shakes, and lurches to a halt, you and your fellow investigators must race from your car to the engine. If you can't get the train moving in a hurry, you and all the other passengers may fall prey to whatever unnatural things seem to be crawling, shifting, and oozing their way from car to car, growing ever larger as they do so. Your adventures on the Essex County express feature a randomized set of locations that greatly enhance the scenario's replay ability, meaning this nightmarish ride is one you'll want to take again and again and again! This is not a standalone product. It requires the Arkham Horror: The Card Game Core Set and the Dunwich Legacy deluxe expansion to play.

Top Reviews

Unique race against time adventure
by Teh K. Yang (4 out of 5 stars)
October 1, 2018

Pretty cool scenario where you really feel the time pressure. Also could be extremely challenging. Took me like 8 tries to finally beat it.
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Five Stars
by Gage (5 out of 5 stars)
March 16, 2018

Great product line. I love these mythos packs and AH as a whole.
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Five Stars
by Amazon Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
April 27, 2018

Great expansion to a great game.
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Arrived fast and in good quality
by Kevin Sung (5 out of 5 stars)
September 3, 2018

Arrived fast and in good quality.
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Great player cards, adventure is okay.
by John Garrison (4 out of 5 stars)
February 22, 2018

This pack comes with several great player cards, including Charisma, Hypnotic Gaze, and higher level versions of Deduction, Shrivelling, and Switchblade. The Survivor cards are a bit meh in my opinion, but the other types do well here. You'll especially want to get this if you like to play Mystic or Rogue investigators.
** Minor spoilers ahead, regarding adventure setup and overall design **

The adventure is a unique setup, with just a linear path of locations going from train car to train car, trying to reach the engine at the front of the train to get it going again. Meanwhile the mythos agenda is chasing you, even removing one or two train cars from the back end of the train each time the agenda deck advances.

If this sounds a tad dull - a linear progression while being chased - you're not totally wrong. However it wasn't nearly as uninspired as I feared, and the flavor text, specific encounter cards, and introductory and resolution text were all very evocative. And there is some replay value in that you only use 6 train cars out of the 8 versions provided, further arranging them randomly, and use only 1 random engine card out of the 3 provided. Looking at all the train cards available, some of them are quite diverse and significantly change the game depending on which combination you wind up using.

I will say that this adventure seemed relatively easy though. There aren't many monsters to be encountered, mostly treacheries that wear you down. There are a few obstacles that pop up to spice up the flow, and you'll need to decide whether to quickly try to take care of them or if you don't have time (and are willing to suffer the consequences for ignoring them).

I've played this adventure twice so far, each time with two new investigators. In both cases my characters wound up pretty damaged by the time they reached the engine, but I never worried they wouldn't make it. Whenever the agenda advanced, its actions never threatened me; I was at least one or two steps ahead of it at all times. So maybe the agenda cards require a tad too much doom before advancing. However, failing to stay ahead of the agenda deck causes significant consequences in this adventure, so I can understand why the designers might have wanted to error on the forgiving side of difficulty here. And perhaps I just got lucky.

This adventure is pretty skimpy on experience points. Completing the adventure without being defeated only guarantees you one point, with a 75% chance of getting a second. Theoretically it's possible to get up to two more points, but you'd have to be quite lucky (or unlucky) to have the opportunities present themselves, and if they do show up the risk required to grab them is so great I pesonally doubt I'd ever go for them.

In summary, The Essex County Express mythos pack has some great player cards, especially for mystics. But I think most people will find the adventure too easy, and despite having multiple different train cars and good flavor it is quite linear with just a handful of important choices to be made. Campaign plot developments are minimal to non-existant, and the potential to earn experience points is very limited. So if you're looking to play the Dunwich Legacy campaign as efficiently and cheaply as possible, you might be okay skipping this pack. I personally find it to be a memorable adventure though, and have no regrets getting it.
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Five Stars
by J. Borrero (5 out of 5 stars)
June 9, 2017

fun, should not pay more than 15$
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Four Stars
by Jake Rubio (4 out of 5 stars)
April 8, 2017

Great product. Should not pay more that $15-$18 for it though

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