Heroquest Revisited

[Onan]

I wonder where all those henchmen came from, by the way.

From the quest intro:

The Heroes’ party consists of four Heroes, four Men at-Arms and one Sergeant. The Henchmen have been provided free by the City Fathers to aid the Heroes in their quest.

his halberd can attack diagnolly

Oh, I completely forgot that. He uses a magic halbert, and if you scroll some pages down to the weapons table, you find that rule They had a good chance of killing the barbarian!

Pull Skaven Warlord back, leave the other Skaven to halt anything coming in per Death zone rule.

That was also my idea, but the heroes formed a gauntlet pocket in the corridor. If the skaven don't enter the pocket, Torallion shoots the death zone guards.

I'm afraid making decisions for the GM is not solo play at all.

Hmm, the rules only say "should". This sounds like some leeway for deciding monster movement:

Each monster armed with hand-to-hand weapons should be moved to a square from which it can make an attack if possible.

I didn't want them to run into the heroes' gauntlet mindlessly.

How are the Heroes supposed to rush into the room with monsters blocking the entrance? Are you going to keep making decisions for the GM every time?

Right. The solo rules are strict about monster placement and enforce me to place them around the door:

The first monster must be placed in a square as close to the party as possible. If the monster can be placed in a square from which it can make an attack, it must be placed in that square. Any remaining monsters must be placed in a square adjacent to an already-placed monster.

Why would the Heroes enter the room in the first place? As I said, a dungeon has like 10-12 room encounters on average.

The rules are quite clear about how the heroes are supposed to enter a room:

kickdoor.JPG

[RECIVS]

You're right about the Henchmen; I haven't played vanilla AHQ in ages.

I didn't want them to run into the heroes' gauntlet mindlessly.

My point exactly; there shouldn't be such a convenient gauntlet in the first place. That's the source of the problem.

From what I read in your post, though, you're intuitively (de facto) avoiding the bottleneck, which is quite revealing by itself.

[Foilfodder]

doorfight.JPG

his halberd can attack diagnolly

Oh, I completely forgot that. He uses a magic halbert, and if you scroll some pages down to the weapons table, you find that rule They had a good chance of killing the barbarian!

That explains why your elf is firing his bow illegally. Ranged Combat Rule 3, prohibits use of ranged weapons when in a enemy Death Zone. Skaven Warlord has a halberd and is in the doorway, Elf is in his Death Zone. No bow fire allowed.

[RECIVS]

That explains why your elf is firing his bow illegally. Ranged Combat Rule 3, prohibits use of ranged weapons when in a enemy Death Zone. Skaven Warlord has a halberd and is in the doorway, Elf is in his Death Zone. No bow fire allowed.

I find that rule too restrictive and dulling, by the way, so, in my games, death zones restrict enemy actions only when focused, which allows for more interesting, tactical encounters.

[RECIVS]

My point exactly; there shouldn't be such a convenient gauntlet in the first place. That's the source of the problem.

Some people say AHQ is supposed to be "brutally realistic", relentlessly difficult, deadly, etc., but at the same time, they also defend exploiting doorways, which is the opposite of that and also boring—let alone a waste of potential. Then at some point they have to start limiting FPs, for example, because the Heroes have it too easy. It still beats me after all these years.