Ye Olde Inn

So, my 9 year old girl decided to try her hand at painting minis. She and I play a 1 on 1 campaign where she controls all 4 heroes and I ramp up the difficulty a bit.

This week she painted two dogs wearing barding that are the right size for HQ. I'm betting you can guess what she asked me.

So...stats for war dogs? I plan on treating them as the mercenaries are treated. But what should their attack/defense die be? How about BP/MP?

If this is the wrong forum for this, please feel free to move it.

Would you want them as strong as "Snowdasher" the animal companion included in the official "Into the Northlands"?

Kurgan wrote:Would you want them as strong as "Snowdasher" the animal companion included in the official "Into the Northlands"?

Unfortunately I don't know what that is. Back in the Old HQ days I only owned the base set, and I couldn't get anyone to buy me the expansions. I own them now, the rereleases, but I haven't delved super deep into them yet. I'm guessing this is part of The Frozen Horror?

I want a decently tough pair of dogs but not quite as tough as a Hero. What do you recommend? I'm absolutely bowing to the expertise of members here on this.

So, I looked him up, and that seems like a decent set of stats.

Thank you.

Maybe divide it up so that the two dogs are as strong together as the one Snowdasher? Up to you.

Firstly, that's awesome that you (BroccoliRage), and your daughter are gaming together! Kudos. Also very cool that your daughter is already leaning into the sandbox nature of the game.

Kurgan wrote:Maybe divide it up so that the two dogs are as strong together as the one Snowdasher? Up to you.

I was thinking something similar; as Snowdasher is pretty burly.

Something like the following stats for each dog:

Move: 8-10?
Attack: 2
Defense: 2
Body: 2-3?
Mind: 1

These stats would make the 2 Dogs together a little tougher than Showdasher on their own, but individually a bit weaker. Also these dogs would be fairly in-line with other Mercs.

QorDaq wrote:Firstly, that's awesome that you (BroccoliRage), and your daughter are gaming together! Kudos. Also very cool that your daughter is already leaning into the sandbox nature of the game.

Kurgan wrote:Maybe divide it up so that the two dogs are as strong together as the one Snowdasher? Up to you.

I was thinking something similar; as Snowdasher is pretty burly.

Something like the following stats for each dog:

Move: 8-10?
Attack: 2
Defense: 2
Body: 2-3?
Mind: 1

These stats would make the 2 Dogs together a little tougher than Showdasher on their own, but individually a bit weaker. Also these dogs would be fairly in-line with other Mercs.

That seems like a decent nerf. Thanks.

She loves the game and we've been expanding the living hell out of it lol. I've set it in the Old World during Karl Franz's reign, and she gets super excited when seeing Warhammer video games, or products in the game store. "So that's all happening at the SE time our game is, Dad?" I think it's fun for her because she's doing something with dad and seeing other things brings the whole thing to life to her.

I tend to run the game more as a DM rather than the Zargon-as-adversary. I let her move/burn furniture, there are NPC's she knows, I treat HeroQuest as an admittedly limited and basic roleplaying game, which in my view is where the game really shines.

If your playing with four Heroes, you should to include a cost for hire, just like regular Mercenaries. Snowdasher stats might price out at 100 gold coins, while QorDaq's stats with 3 BPs look like 50 Gold Coins. If you use 2 BPs and no diagonal attacks, you could even discount a War Dog at the low, low cost of 25 Gold Coins. That's as cheap as a Dagger, but hey, your daughter is only nine years old!

Daedalus wrote:If your playing with four Heroes, you should to include a cost for hire, just like regular Mercenaries. Snowdasher stats might price out at 100 gold coins, while QorDaq's stats with 3 BPs look like 50 Gold Coins. If you use 2 BPs and no diagonal attacks, you could even discount a War Dog at the low, low cost of 25 Gold Coins. That's as cheap as a Dagger, but hey, your daughter is only nine years old!

Not a bad idea.

That dogfood costs a lot! Also, for some reason they get body points restored after they clear a room of monsters... nobody quite knows why (they love skeletons best)!