HEROQUEST - COMPANION APP discussion

[SirRick]

The Rogue is fine using app so far. Because of how the app targets heroes, you can often have the Rogue stand in the middle of the room and not get attacked. If playing a human Zargon, its a different story, and I would expect him to die frequently. I think the best thing to do against a human Zargon is protect the Rogue like a Wizard, and attack using a Crossbow or Longsword to hit with 4 dice most of the time.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

For that sort of use though, a better option would be Elf.
Spells and no equipment restrictions.
Rogues standout ability really is being able to sneak past monsters and attack the flanks, but he is then caught for one turn on his own.
Yes I use rogue in the app, but wouldn't against a human, especially a skilled human.

[SirRick]

Yesterday I finished Quest 8: The Forbidden Caverns. Wow, this quest surprised me. I played about three turns before I noticed the Zargon’s Turn tab showed up, even though there were no monsters present. My group was in the NW corner when I saw this. One of my heroes was standing on the spawn point, so initially monsters were only spawning in the SW corner of the board. When I started advancing towards the second room, monsters started appearing behind me, just as I opened the door to a room full of monsters. As powerful as my group was, I was quickly getting overwhelmed by a lot of weak monsters and rolling poorly. During the fight I triggered the falling rock trap trying to open the South door. This trapped my group in the room. Even though up to two monsters can spawn per turn, a couple bad rounds of rolling can lead to a large amount of extra monsters to deal with.

I had to fight my way out of the room and turned down the corridor heading back to the center room. I soon realized it was a dead end, but I did manage to collect the treasure chest before fighting my way back to the hallway to head South. By now I figured out a system of advancing that was a mix of turtling and leap frogging through the corridor. The Barbarian took the rear fending off the majority of the monsters. He moved slowly, never advancing past the next hero. The Elf, Bard, and Rogue would use Crossbows to mow a path forward, and they could usually kill the monsters before they reached the front line.

Once I got this system down, the quest felt less like a game of Zombicide. I figured out the app only spawns monsters on spawn points that are revealed, while in the quest book, it could be interpreted that monsters appear when in locations not currently revealed by the heroes. I managed to collect all the treasures in the notes, but I did not waste time searching for regular treasure. The wandering monster is a Dread Warrior, which could get bad quickly.

Overall the number of monsters is a little less than the conga line of death in KK, but you can get swarmed from all sides if you are not careful. The app is very nice for this to keep track of all the monsters and which ones are wounded. Even though my heroes could have been fighting for quite awhile, it was a relief to finally see that wooden exit door.

My one issue with the app for this quest, is the heroes should be warned that Zargon still gets turns even if no monsters on the board.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

Yes, when I last tried that quest, my party was Hard, Rogue, Warlock and Wizard.
As you can imagine it wasn't fun!!!!
Closest I've ever come to Hero death against the app.

[SirRick]

Yesterday I finished Quests 9 & 10 of RotWL using the app. Quest 9 had nothing special about it. I got lucky both with treasure searching and fighting so I made it through the quest relatively unscathed. The only thing app related was that when Kassandria fired off a Lightning Bolt, it hit everybody in the room, no matter where they were standing. Someone had mentioned this in a previous post, and I am just confirming that the same thing happened to me. I was ok with this since I like the idea, and the quest had been fairly easy up to that point.

Quest 10: The Court of the Witch Lord was a different matter. Like when I played Return to Barak Tor in the game system, my progress was riddled with bad luck. There were quite a lot of traps, and with no Dwarf hero in this group (he went to Kellar’s Keep when my party split), I was failing to disarm traps left and right, there was another occurrence of every hero falling into the same pit on the same turn. Even the Elf with her Rabbit Boots fell into that pit. Also where it was placed, some heroes fell into it multiple times. All this doesn’t have anything to do with the app, but I bring it up because of how quickly the quest ended despite the difficult journey to the final fight.

When I did make it to the final room, I kick open the door and see a room full of monsters….and the Witch Lord standing two spaces away from me. My Barbarian chugged a Heroic Brew and a Potion of Strength. My first attack with 5 dice, I rolled 4 skulls. The Witch Lord blocked two of them. My second attack with 3 dice I rolled 2 more skulls, which hit automatically if you play using the multiple attacks rule. I was using the Rogue in this group, and the Rogue is built around this rule, so I have been playing this way since I started using the app. The Witch Lord died and the quest ends automatically. Fortunately the app gives you the 500 gold coins hidden in the Witch Lord’s throne, since you don’t have a chance to search for treasure. It was quite anti-climatic.

I was shocked the Witch Lord was placed where he was, so I consulted the quest book. The notes do say to place him on the space marked “C”. I feel most people, not reading the notes carefully would just automatically place the boss on his throne surrounded by his minions. There is even a Jabba the Hutt style pit trap in the room that heroes don’t even have a chance to fall into because the boss is the first thing in front of you when you open the door. It would be so much better to place him on the throne. Then the first hero to charge at the Witch Lord (who likely has the Spirit Blade) would trigger the pit trap and end their turn. I definitely respect the crew working on the app to follow the notes as close as possible, but in this case, I would have just placed the boss on the throne where he logically should be based on the layout of the room.

Since I completed RotWL, I feel the next step should be the Prophecy of Telor. Since my party is reunited I have to decide who will do this adventure. I will bring the Barbarian since he had the Talisman of Lore since the beginning, and I know you need it for this quest book. I’ll bring the Dwarf since life is difficult without him. I want to work in a novice Warlock into the group, since its the only mythic hero I haven’t played yet, and it comes with the new PoT quest pack. That would only leave one hero left for healing spells, so either the Elf, Druid, or Wizard. It seems fitting if I used all the original heroes for this pack, but I don’t where I would use a novice Warlock since it will probably be suicide bringing her in for FH or MotM. I still have the Monk to fit in at some point as well, so I will ponder this.

[Kurgan]

I brought a Rogue into the midst of our Frozen Horror campaign, but granted, the other heroes were pretty powerful and he was bringing up the rear.

Yeah the App has some issues with spells for sure. I remember the old one was "Chill" being able to hit for 2 at a distance (instead of 1 adjacent only). Then you have the Ancient Staff reflecting the spell back ONLY at the castor (instead of all monsters in the room). But lightning bolt against everyone in the room? Wow! At least it's just one attack, but that's potentially nastier than Firestorm (1 BP against the crowd, and then a chance for up to 2 more on top of that).

[SirRick]

I started Prophecy of Telor today, and played the first two quests. I used my original 4 heroes who played through the Game System together. After reading a few other topics that mentioned some features of the app, I turned on the options for: Monsters attack weak, Advanced Skeletons, and Advanced Goblins. Turning these options on almost resembles a human Zargon. I witnessed monsters running around heroes to attack the “weakest” character available to them. Usually this ends up being the Elf, since I typically shield the Wizard in the corner when he searches for treasure. In response to these new behaviors, my Elf is using a Longsword and Shield, instead of the Battle Axe she carried early in her career. This helped her take less damage in Quest 2. Skeletons attacking diagonally, and the Goblins hit-and-run tactics are a nice touch, though I noticed sometimes some monsters don’t move or attack in certain situations, like they would before. Its hard to explain exactly, so after playing more quests with these settings maybe I can nail it down.

Quest 1: Return to Melar’s Maze had no app related issues or antics. I took a lot of damage from hazards while searching, and the monsters got a number of lucky heavy hits on my Elf, due to their new strategies. This is what prompted the Elf to stow her Battle Axe for Quest 2. I managed to heal the Elf on time with spells so she never had to use a Healing Potion. My total by the way is 84 Healing Potions collected since the beginning. They are spread fairly evenly across the eight different heroes I used. This doesn’t count other potions and items such as the 4-point heals, Heal Body scrolls, and Elixers.

Quest 2: Escape from Melar’s Maze sounded like it was going to be another conga line of death, like in KK. I believe when a hero reaches a certain point, it triggers monsters to appear and a couple doors open at once, revealing Skeletons. This is where things got weird. The monsters that spawned and the Skeletons only attack if a Hero is within range. Otherwise they just stand there, for the entire quest. So what I thought would turn into a desperate running battle to find the exit, turned out to be a leisurely stroll through the dungeon. Only one of the spawned orcs ever moved to attack. The Goblins never advanced because the Orc was in the way. The next turn my Barbarian was well out of range, so the Goblins stood there and did nothing. The Skeletons in the South room did the same thing and just stood there. All other monsters revealed through opening doors behaved normally. I’m sure the monsters are supposed to be chasing you, and the way the quest is designed supports this as there are a lot of dead ends to get trapped in.

[Aki]

The App don't allow animal ally in the three solo quest of FH, but the pdf said you can hire him for free in the solo quests

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

84 healing potions, not including the four point ones?
That seems very excessive to me, how are you finding all of them in just three quest packs, that's around three per quest.

[SirRick]

It does seem like a lot. I find two or three per quest. I average about 10 “good” cards each time. I also played New Beginnings, and I had to play Halls of Vision twice because I failed the first time, but everyone was alive and well, so I kept the treasure I found, in addition to what I found the second attempt. I believe I only used two potions that required die rolls, and mainly used a small number of the 4 point potions on occasion.