Game too easy? Playing it wrong?

[Kurgan]

Chaos Warrior blocks the door, he is flanked by two Orcs with spears (diagonal striking permitted).

Also, spear traps on both sides of the door, just in case you were wondering...

[wallydubbs]

Our party is pretty new to HeroQuest. We played the first few quests. But are running into well, not sure to call it a problem... thing is, seems our party has figured out how to play this game. I play the DM and notices the party has this tactic of just opening a door and standing in the door with the barbarian killing monsters with extreme ease. Same with corridors, just have the barbarian in front and it blocks everything... and as most corridors are only 1 square width the monsters have no choice but to get slaughtered one by one...

Now, I tested this with some improvisation. During Quest 2 (rescue of Ragnar) I added a sealed barracks that released no less than 8 orcs in addition to what the quest specifies. The party went to the middle room (the one with stairs Ragnar needs to reach), the barbarian blocked one side, the elf the other (because I split the orcs to attack from both sides (as there is a corridor around the entire middle room) but yea to no avail... the wizard and dwarf didn't even really need to do anything.. At Ragnars location there is the first abomination the party encounters, when I placed the figurine the party thought "ooooh, exiting". So did I.. then the barbarian attacked and rolled 3 skulls. (no kidding he did), I didn't roll any block so the abom was basically one shotted, talk about ant climatic.

- Is this game suppose to be so easy?
- Why are almost all hallways only 1 square width? Unless we play it wrong, this makes the amount of monsters irrelevant as you can only attack one by one...
- Is standing in a door a valid tactic, or should this be disallowed?

I read the rule book multiple times, I don't think we do anything "wrong"... just that it feels something is off difficulty wise, and without tension it starts to feel a tad dull.

The heroes are allowed to stand in the doorway, but you can also change up the tactic by either not going after them and pacing them one at a time and making them come to you. They have to pass by your rooms so you could keep a defensive position and wait until they enter or you could go attack one at a time.
Another way to ramp up the hit points is to capitalize on the movement / attack phase. This can be alternated. If the hero fails to kill the monsters he's currently fighting, on your turn you may attack with that orc, move him away after the attack phase bring another monster forward and attack again.

Ashley Zargon you reserve the right to make this game more complicated and interesting, so you can always make adjustments by adding more monsters or when the heroes get to a boss, give him additional spells and/or body points.
If the hero is out matching you with the courage spell, run out of his line of sight until it's broken.

My brother and cousins worked extremely well together when we played the first few quests. So when the heroes face Ulag I gave him a few spells to use at his disposal. By the time Quest 6 Legacy of the Orc Warlord came around, the elf was already armed for the crossbow and was sniping all my monsters with precision, so I gave Grak a rust spell and put an end to that.
Depending how well the heroes work together you are allowed to make it easier or harder. Inevitably, as Zargon, yes you are supposed to lose, but you want to keep it as close to the wire as possible.

When I was playing Legacy of the Orc Warlord, as the heroes are captured at the beginning of the quest I did not keep their gold with the rest of their equipment. I left the gold in the middle room with all the monsters at the table, who are divvying it amongst themselves. So the first hero to search for treasure in that room found all the gold for himself. It was there for up to him to see if he would pass all the gold back to his friends or keep it for himself. In my group the heroes were generally good as consolidating the gold and doing what's best for the group, hence the Elf already having a crossbow. Well after the Barbarian Town All the Gold in the middle room he had just enough to get a shield, and The Wizard got very cross about this because the Barbarian refused to give up his portion of the gold, reasoning "you can't buy armor, it's for the good of the group if I get more defense."

[Stig]

I like the rule where if a figure loses two or more BP in a single turn they no longer block the square they’re in. This represents them being wounded, stumbling, having a defensive stance etc

[Kurgan]

You can pull out all the stops as far as I'm concerned on the BQP... that quest pack is BRUTAL.

Multiple traps in a row on both sides of doors that do unblockable damage OR persist in making the square dangerous after wounding a hero... undetectable traps... monsters with special rules (Yeti, Polar Warbear), not enough potions or gold... unmarked or empty chests, and TONS of monsters, so each room or two is a struggle to the death but without the loot before or after to make it worthwhile in many cases!

[Jalapenotrellis]

The later quest packs are fairly hard. I drained most of the potions out of the players between wizards of morcar quest 5 and elf quest pack quests 4/5. The quests are long and they are too fatigued to go back and search for loot.

[NoOn]

Very good ideas , thank you all !

[rapatuan]

One house rule we used back in the time was that the heroes could not attack blocking the door, a fight with a door in the middle seemed unrealistic to us, the only way to attack for the Barbarian would be to poke the enemies with his sword, which felt quite ridiculous. You'd have to push back the enemy if he was blocking the door or step aside and let them out.

[Daedalus]

Our party is pretty new to HeroQuest. We played the first few quests. But are running into well, not sure to call it a problem... thing is, seems our party has figured out how to play this game. I play the DM and notices the party has this tactic of just opening a door and standing in the door with the barbarian killing monsters with extreme ease. Same with corridors, just have the barbarian in front and it blocks everything... and as most corridors are only 1 square width the monsters have no choice but to get slaughtered one by one...

This problem got me thinking about a difficulty house rule I favor that uses the Monster Cards to generate monster patrols. It now triggers when Heroes doorway block. Find it here if interested.

[Kurgan]

Once you step outside the GS (or I suppose the Japanese system, apart from one or two quests; maybe the first computer game), most of HeroQuest is not "too easy."

The great thing about the game is that it's so flexible... you can homebrew it to the point of impossibility to win or to lose, but we all seek that happy medium for our particular table.

[Parzival]

The heroes are allowed to stand in the doorway, but you can also change up the tactic by either not going after them and pacing them one at a time and making them come to you. They have to pass by your rooms so you could keep a defensive position and wait until they enter or you could go attack one at a time.
Another way to ramp up the hit points is to capitalize on the movement / attack phase. This can be alternated. If the hero fails to kill the monsters he's currently fighting, on your turn you may attack with that orc, move him away after the attack phase bring another monster forward and attack again.

This. Very much this. What you want to do is get as many dice rolls against the blocking hero as you can. So after the first turn, attack, retreat; move in, attack is the way to go. Hit ‘em with a high defense roll foe the first turn and you can probably pull tat off.

Really, it’s all about attrition for Zargon. What the Heroes have is better odds on defense and higher attack numbers. What Zargon has is superior numbers. It’s not *this* fight you have to win as Zargon— it’s the *last* one you have to win. Whittle them down, bit by bit— it’s gonna happen.

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!

Sometimes what you really need as Zargon is for the Heroes to get bad card draws and bad dice rolls. It *will* happen, in the long run. And if the players come away with “close” wins, they’ll never think it was easy. No, you may never “win” a quest. But for me as Zargon, I have fun even if I “lose.”