Ye Olde Inn

I have never try this quest.
If I remember well,when we saw the giant map we've decided to play our own shorter quests...
Is someone survived to this ?
How long time it has taken to finish it ?

I've played the Dark Company with two groups. The first only made it half-way before realising it was too much for them at the time. I had another group make it half-way before running out of time and we never got back to finish it. Both instances took 2-3 hours, so I'm guessing it would take a good long time to finish. We played using North American stats for the Monsters though, along with the 'Black Shield defends all' for the Dark Warriors and Doom Guard. Extremely tough that way, but nice for Zargon. It's not often the Heroes are challenged once they have all their equipment and have established their strategies.

With one group I used one board and wiped it clean as set out in the rules. With the other I used four boards and tried it as one continuous quest. Both seemed pretty fun, but I myself preferred using four boards and not resetting the previously explored areas. With the North American stats, this seemed to balance the game better than having all the monsters come back again and again.

Just a question : your groups started with all needed gear and artefacts ?

Yes. With both groups, we played after the Game System, Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord. With one of the groups we had also finished a few of my own Quests, my Heir to the Black Banner Quest Pack and the solo Quests from Mage of the Mirror and Frozen Horror.

I have just picked up a copy of the Dark Company Quest Map. What is the history of the Dark Company ? Was there anything else apart from this map ?

ken wrote:I have just picked up a copy of the Dark Company Quest Map. What is the history of the Dark Company ? Was there anything else apart from this map ?

There was no official history. The Tears of Times Passed, which you can find on this forum, posits that the Dark Company wanted to attempt a coup earlier but recognised that this would drive the Empire into anarchy and they would be overrun by Morcar. As a result they had to wait until the end of the Wizards of Morcar before making their move. This quest also explains what happens to the turncoat from the Dark Company after that quest.

drathe wrote:I've played the Dark Company with another group make it half-way before running out of time and we never got back to finish it. instances took 2-3 hours, so I'm guessing it would take a good long time to finish. We played using North American stats for the Monsters though, along with the 'Black Shield defends all' for the Dark Warriors and Doom Guard. I used four boards and tried it as one continuous quest. I myself preferred using four boards and not resetting the previously explored areas. With the North American stats, this seemed to balance the game better than having all the monsters come back again and again. we played after the Game System, Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord.

Thanks for the tips drathe, we're about to play the Dark Company after completing the North American Game System, Kellar's Keep, Return of the Witch Lord, Against the Ogre Horde and Wizards of Zargon, can't wait to play on four boards! We're going to use the Phoenix monster stats, let's hope they're not too hard for the heroes.
I'll hopefully let you know how it worked out for us.

I've played Dark Company once, many years ago before I'd discovered the NA version. My brother and his group had done the initial quests, Witch Lord, Kellars Keep, Ogre Horde and Wizards of Morcar, but the party was much depleted. Only the original and powerful Barbarian (Theopholus P. Wildebeest) survived. The (my) original Wizard (Roy Wood) had died in the WoM in a rather acrimoneous fashion. The fresh Elf and Dwarf were again dead, and I had decided to stay and fight in the central room to the finish, expecting the Barbarian to do the same, he ran. Being trapped in the room I died and he escaped to take on the Dark company with three fresh charachters and enough money for six henchmen and a couple of helmets. It wasn't enough and he died in the penultimate central room.

I played it as per the rules, and if Roy had been with the party he may have been a bit more helpful vis a vis avoiding already played sections, but this was a new wizard and he was no help whatsoever! I wasn't bitter....much!

I had the privilege of playing a round of The Dark Company once about six years ago. We entered with a party of fully-equipped Heroes, including a bunch of potions and some of slev's HQR artifacts. It took us eight hours to play through the entire thing, minus a break for lunch in the middle, and I think one or two Heroes died towards the end of it.

As part of our HQR playtest, we played through this once. We did a two-afternoon session one bank holiday weekend. It's a beast for sure!