Arkham horror expansions (board game)

[El Moose Monstero]

Evenin' all.

Just picked up Arkham Horror - I've played it before and really enjoyed it, but I remember Stark et al (2008) commenting that Arkham Horror without the expansion packs was a broken game (I've only played it twice, so I don't remember noticing). Should I be rushing out to get the expansion packs rather than having the people around me learn the rules for one game and then add to it with a new? And which of the expansions are really required reading / playing, as I don't fancy a game board which takes up a vast amount of space, and Arkham Horror is already a bit on the large side IIRC.

Thoughts?

[Stark]

We can just tell you the Dunwich rules that make the game 'work' (I believe they're in the newest edition of base game anyway). I've found the actual boards for the expansions aren't much use unless your team is huge, and Dunwich has the shittest Ancient Ones ever.

I love Innsmouth and KIY. Dunwich is good because it fixes the game with surges etc, but is pretty naff otherwise.

Also, pressure some nerd into making use a Arkham Horror Deck Simulator so we don't need 5000 decks of 20 cards (ps lookup table lol).