Game too easy? Playing it wrong?

[wallydubbs]

My first game with adult friends? The Wizard bought it—in the Trial quest! They were super cautious about searching for Treasure because they hit so many hazards and wandering monster cards early on. Which meant they didn’t take the risk later, and lost out on the healing potions they needed to keep the Wizard alive. They came away thinking it was a brutal game!

To be fair the Trial is the most difficult quest in the whole Game System. The heroes start off with nothing, no potions or armor. It has 3 Dread Warriors and a Gargoyle in it (which you won't see until Bastion of Chaos) and an incumbent number of monsters over 1 Body Point. The heroes 2 defense dice won't certainly hold up. I'd say they only has a 40% chance of success. There may be no traps, but there's no certainty that the treasure deck will be on their side. I'd move this quest up later down the line.

[Parzival]

My first game with adult friends? The Wizard bought it—in the Trial quest! They were super cautious about searching for Treasure because they hit so many hazards and wandering monster cards early on. Which meant they didn’t take the risk later, and lost out on the healing potions they needed to keep the Wizard alive. They came away thinking it was a brutal game!

To be fair the Trial is the most difficult quest in the whole Game System. The heroes start off with nothing, no potions or armor. It has 3 Dread Warriors and a Gargoyle in it (which you won't see until Bastion of Chaos) and an incumbent number of monsters over 1 Body Point. The heroes 2 defense dice won't certainly hold up. I'd say they only has a 40% chance of success. There may be no traps, but there's no certainty that the treasure deck will be on their side. I'd move this quest up later down the line.

I guess I assumed it was going to be easy because it had been a cakewalk for me against the Companion App. But the Companion App’s combat AI maybe Artificial but it’s not very Intelligent, so that may have colored my assumption.
I left that quest flush with cash and loaded with healing potions. They left it dragging along the corpse of the Wizard…

[Kurgan]

One way to make it more forgiving (If you are in that mood) is to remove the "Hazard" cards from the treasure deck... just for this quest though.

For many the Trial is a right of passage, a trial by fire, a baptism in blood... but do what you think is best!

[Parzival]

Encountered another evidence of the app’s AI’s tactical limitations.

In a quest today, I foolishly had my party spread widely. (I really wasn’t trying to play all that smart.) I had polished off most of the foes with ease. But my Barbarian opened a door and Holy Cow, there were a ton of bad guys behind it. He got of a Crossbow shot (killing one) and then had to wait for the onslaught. The others raced— err, make that, stumbled all over themselves to get close, err, less far away. I decided to back the Barbarian into the central chamber on the board, which had a door at the western T-junction and another door in the southern wall close to the east side. There was a trap on the south side of the T-junction which I hadn’t disarmed or triggered.
Honestly, backing into there was not the best tactical situation. But the allies had only made it that far, so I wanted him to have back up.

And that’s where the AI went stupid. It had several goblins, which are fast movers— they could have crossed the trap and headed for that southern door; they’d have come in behind me in two turns. And they had heavier hitters— orcs and Dread warriors. But instead of engaging me at the T junction with the slow moving heavies, the AI instead moved the goblins first, directly to the T-junction door, blocking off the heavies. And it didn’t move anybody down to the southern door at all. (I’ve figured out it moves by who was closest when discovered, and sticks with that order, which is dumb, and then it sends everybody at the closest foe by the shortest route… really, really dumb.)
I then got smarter myself, used PTR to move the Barbarian into the T corridor “behind” a heavy hitter, while letting the gobboes into the room in small numbers, where they promptly went after the armored Dwarf and Elf, but ignored the Wizard. The heavy stayed in place to fight the Barbarian, but was exposed to the door. I made short work of the gobs, then triple-teamed the two heavies as each stepped into the T junction.
Honestly, I should have suffered for all that— but in the end the Barbarian, Dwarf and Elf suffered one hit each— and it was the last fight of the quest.
Yeah, that app is dumb…