Ye Olde Inn

If using the variable hit points rules, what happens if there are more ogres then skull squares, how would you handle it? I'm sure it's rare, but I saw it had just enough skulls, but the ogre is a wandering monster. Would the chart start fresh? Or would each new one be a single hit like the last few? I saw the ogre lord has his own health, but I didnt notice for the chieftain.

Fullork345 wrote:If using the variable hit points rules, what happens if there are more ogres then skull squares, how would you handle it? I'm sure it's rare, but I saw it had just enough skulls, but the ogre is a wandering monster. Would the chart start fresh? Or would each new one be a single hit like the last few? I saw the ogre lord has his own health, but I didnt notice for the chieftain.

My players took the right route over the left route so barely killed any ogres that quest even with a wandering monster.

That determination is up to you. Probably depends how many resources they have stocked up and how easy they have got through the quest pack, considering it is supposed to be hard. I like your idea of starting over.

I was about to suggest my Monster Body Point tracker, but I see this is referring to the EU edition rules (default for ATOH) while I play with fixed body points for Ogres (meaning the little boxes written on the quest maps for those monsters' body points), so what Jalapenotrellis said!

The OP question is good. Some quests have excess check boxes with 1BP each, but in those quests there are no wandering ogres like in Fortress of the Ogre Lord. This one has 10 skull boxes for the 10 ogres that you have to defeat (no way around). The 11th ogre is the ogre lord with his own BP bar.

So maybe the default would be that all ogres beyond the list have only 1BP. This means you could tactically search for treasure (cornering one hero of course) to fill the BP bar by killing wandering monsters. This could backfire, but if it works the final battle will be playable.

I have just played through ATOH (90s) solo, and this quest is so hard. You have to face 6 ogres on the way to the center room. The only other quest with 6 ogres is The Carrion Halls, where 3 of them are in the center room that you don't have to open.

So after taking down more ogres than in any other quest, you have to fight 5 at a time!

It is doable, but only with all equipment and artifact cards (playing with equipment limited by cards) and by playing strictly by the algorithm (all wait at the door, then rush in), but at least one hero will die in the boss battle. If the Sleep spell works on the ogre commander, the chances are ok to win. Else it is hopeless.

My last playthrough of Against the Ogre Horde consisted of the 4 heroes: Knight, Elf, Berserker & Warlock, I thought this group was doomed as they had no Dwarf to disarm traps like the Pit of Darkness (Berserker had Borin's Armor & Knight had Plate Mail), nor did they possess healing spells (Elf used Time Spells), so they had to use some creative ways of going through these quests: the Elf's Flashback spell came in handy with unexpected pit of darkness traps, allowing the Knight or Berserker to replay their turn; the Warlock was able to ignore Pit Traps in Demonform and in a few occasions would swing the Knight or Berserker safely across the Pit of Darkness; the Knight's Shield Block saved his friends from taking Major Damage from an Ogre; the Berserker had to learn to not use his Enrage skill as a method to preserve body points with no healing spells; The Warlock's Fear spell neutralized an Ogre in each quest, reducing him to 1 attack dice, allowing the other heroes to take him down with minimal damage; the Elf's Slow Spell gave him and his fellow heroes a chance to end their turns more than 2 spaces away to prevent an attack, giving the Elf ample opportunity to use a Crossbow and Warlock use her Wand to take the Ogre down at range, since the Slow spell only ends when the Elf breaks line of sight.
The most notable instance occurred when playing Fortress of the Ogre Lord and the heroes found themselves against 4 types of Ogres in the middle room. The Elf cast Time Stop on the Berserker, who had a Potion of Battle Rage, giving him 2 attacks per turn. With Time Stop overlapping it gave the Berserker an immediate 4 attacks with a Battle Axe, which he used to take out the Ogre Commander early on.
Looking back this was a great team to have for Against the Ogre Horde but if I had to do it again I'd trade up the Berserker for the Dwarf as his trap disarm skills were needed more than the Berserker's 3 skill cards, plus the Dwarf could use a Crossbow, which is restricted for the Berserker.