When comparing Arkham Horror vs Vinhos: Deluxe Edition, the Slant community recommends Arkham Horror for most people. In the question“What are the best board games?” Arkham Horror is ranked 21st while Vinhos: Deluxe Edition is ranked 33rd. The most important reason people chose Arkham Horror is:
Currently there are 8 licensed expansions on the manufacturer's site. There are also many fan made expansions available online as well thanks to the games large and friendly community. Both the manufacturer's and community expansions add plenty of new content to the game including cards, investigators, board addons, Heralds (mini-bosses), Ancient Ones, spells, and items.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Lots of expansion boards available
Currently there are 8 licensed expansions on the manufacturer's site. There are also many fan made expansions available online as well thanks to the games large and friendly community. Both the manufacturer's and community expansions add plenty of new content to the game including cards, investigators, board addons, Heralds (mini-bosses), Ancient Ones, spells, and items.
Pro Scales well from solo to large groups
The game supports up to 8 players, which is something of a feat for a game of its size and components. Makes for a great party game due to the size of players it allows. However, at the lower end it can also be enjoyed with one or two players, making it great for intimate gaming session. No matter how few players you have available, you'll be able to enjoy the game.
Pro Great challenge for those that enjoy difficult games
The win conditions of the game are quite slim and require one to know the rules ins and outs, so while not a game for casual players it is a game for the hardcore who enjoy a challenge.
Pro Well-crafted
Big map, lots of items and heroes with their own graphics, player figures on plastic stands; lots of tokens and monster cards made of firm cardboard.
Pro Lots of choices
Each location offers you different opportunities to trade for and to explore. The imaginary hero class (like tank, mage, support, stealth) is up to you and usually not well-tied to hero abilities.
Even when apocalypse comes, you still (might) have a chance to defeat the planetary evil.
Pro Great atmosphere of Lovecraft tales
Your weak heroes have to dive into parallel realities, use magic, defeat unknown guests and apply unique artifacts. Each game's location has its own secrets and 'contacts' with various outcomes — good and bad.
Pro Role-oriented
You either choose by yourself or get a random hero, and play with them the whole party (if you were not killed, of course). You and your hero have skills, items, unique qualities and effects, and their story.
The game itself encourages role-playing elements to dive into the Lovecraftian environment.
Pro Highly cooperative
Though the rules do highlight "best players of the game" via basic calculations, the game itself is aimed towards collaboration. To win, everyone must commit to the victory, and you often forget about the existence of a "best player".
The game allows players to exchange items or help other players via skills, special abilities and magic. In practice, players often compete their tasks in pairs and more, e.g. they close gates in pairs, where one has to clean the entrance from monsters, and the other seals the gates.
Pro Each game is unique
The game starts by choosing a random boss and/or heroes. Each turn begins with the myth phase, whose effects apply from a random card in the deck. These effects include monster movement, game-wide buffs and de-buffs, quests, monster gate breaches, etc. You will never know if you will be able to win the game.
Items and skills are usually taken randomly too.
Pro The limited number of turns lead to very tense and engaging gameplay
Since the game plays out over the course of only 6 years with players receiving only 2 actions per year, actions are very limited over-all. This gives additional weight and meaning to every decision in the game as players try to optimize their estates and balance short-term rewards with long-term goals.
Pro Incredible component quality
For the deluxe edition of this game Eagle-Griffon games hired famous boardgame artist Ian O'Toole to do all new art for both the box and the player boards, resulting in one of the most beautiful games of 2016. They also went above and beyond with the physical components, opting for thick, high-quality cardboard for most of the pieces and chunky wooden bits for everything else.
Pro Two games in one
In addition to the original 2010 edition of the game, the deluxe edition features a new, streamlined and updated, set of rules that help make the game much more accessible to players who are new to heavy euro-style games.
Cons
Con Very unaproachable
Arkham Horror has a lot of moving parts, its rules are difficult to follow, and the gameplay itself is pretty difficult. This all adds up to a game that is very unapproachable and will take the most dedicated of players to really understand the whole concept put forth.
Con Huge rules
24+ pages of rules. Though they are well-written, highly illustrated, enriched with small data tables, it is easy to forget small details, especially when some critical rule is applied, e.g., for just one type of bosses.
Con Long
The game is very long (several hours).
Con Playing alone or in small team (2-3) is usually easy and boring
Arkham is best enjoyed when played by teams of 4 and more.
Con Long preparation time
Laying out all the things may eat up to 30 minutes (without extensions).
Con Hard to find
It was actually released in 2005 and currently out of stock at official page.
Con High cost might be a problem for some
Although justified by the impressive quality of the components and the game itself, it is still a relatively expensive game and may not fit in everyone's budget.
Con Not well suited for new board gamers
Vinhos is a very heavy euro-style boardgame and as such has many complicated and interacting parts that might be too much for a new boardgamer to handle. Since there is almost no randomness in the game, the winner is usually the player who played best or knows the game best, which means that a single mistake can make it very hard to win.