Against the Ogre Horde 2024 Remake Edition Suggestions

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

The tokens for the spells was because the Spellcasters usually had a few spells, but could cast them several times, hence the tokens.
If you changed to cards, you would need multiple (6?) of each card to allow the caster to cast it several times.
It saved you having to count how many times you have cast each spell.
What annoyed me was that they were never printed squarely, with the print off centre to the token!!

[wallydubbs]

The picture of the back of the box says 28 Miniatures, 29 cards and 29 tiles.
That's 7 Ogres, 4 Stone Doors, 2 Double door/Gate, 4 Boworcs, 3 Bowskeletons, 4 Goblins (2 Smoke bombs, 2 Boomerangs), 1 Ogre Throne, 2 Dwarven Druids, 1 Wolf.
For the cards we'd have 7 Monster Cards, 6 Druid spells (3 spells x2); 2 hero cards and apparently 1 for the wolf, 3 Dread Spells... And that only takes us up to 19. Leaving us with 10 others that probably have something to do with the arena or maybe artifacts and/or treasure cards.
It appears as if the tiles will be single sided: Pit of Dread, Surface Level, Carpeted Floor, All-Seeing Eye floor, Bridge room tile, Armory room (if I remember correctly), the Arena, probably 4 Pits of Darkness traps, 14 Spell Tiles... That brings us to 25 tiles so we'll probably have 3 more falling block traps or secret doors or something.

[Kurgan]

I doubt there will be more than 3 Druid spell cards. The trend thus far has been for AH to intend us only to use one type of a hero in the party at a time. The multiple copies of Skill cards in the Knight and Rogue packs could be explained by desiring to depict the male and female versions of the character. But we can vaguely see the Druid spell cards and they appear to be using the same art as the Mythic set, which would only require one set.

Amalgamash thought the Wolf would have its own card (as an animal companion like Snowdasher?). That's a cool idea, but why would that be the case? The point of the Animal companions, via Into the Northlands, was to supplement a solo quest. Where are the solo quests in ATOH? Maybe this clues us in that there will be some... ? Having a miniature of a wolf is cool, but Into the Northlands suggested using a "mystery tile" (the seal of Mentor in this case) as a proxy for the character.

The Druid doesn't need a dagger card (even though the Mythic set included a duplicate dagger card). I would point to the ROTDM example of the Guardian Knight hero, which didn't include an extra shortsword and shield card (despite those being included in the limited release HeroQuest Collection version).

Yes, they can do whatever they want... they might not follow past conventions. But I'm betting there will be only 3 Druid spell cards and no Dagger card. Anything is possible but I'm thinking the wolf won't have any special card for it (even so, that would be just one card, unless maybe it was a wizard wolf that has 9 spell cards or something... I mean at this point we have nothing but speculation!).

See here for more observations about the back-of-the-box images.

[Aki]

You can have animal companion instead one Hero, is written in Into the Northland "beta rules"
For Snowdasher I used the wolf tile (Mage of the Mirror set)

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

Why would you use the wolf instead of a Hero? The woof is pretty useless, when I used it in northlands, it died pretty quick.

[Aki]

If you have too strong party I think in this way you can improve the challenge, you know someone says KK or GS are too easy when heroes are fully equipped, well switch one Hero with the companion can be a solution

[AmalgamAsh]

The idea of the animal companion in Into the Northlands was something they were trying out, demoing; they weren't secretive about its experimental nature, and no conventions or expectations were set in stone. "Why would he have a card" would easily be just as valid as "why wouldn't he?" (especially considering all men-at-arms and Cadre members have their own cards).

If the consensus of given feedback was that Snowdasher was too weak, we might expect a beefier companion and / or supplemental rules that improve upon the design and concept of the animal companion going forward. And I'm certain AH will be collecting the feedback from this release as well...

[Kurgan]

Yeah Snowdasher got a (digital) card! Good point Ash, WOM even infamously got more Men-At-Arms cards than there were Men-At-Arms in the box (speculation was that was to fill out the card sheet rather than waste the space). Then we have MOTM's Sinestra who never got one (card spots were taken up with other things, including the Elven Bracers that were never found), even in the remake edition (but at least we found the Elven artifact!). So anything is possible (NPCs haven't been getting cards, but heroes and mercs have). It could very well be that the Wolf is in fact a brand new Hero alongside the Druids. But I'm sticking with my earlier prediction (and the animal form doesn't get a character card... the spell card does that already which I think it would in this case too... the red plastic gargoyle didn't match the card art of Demonform either), since there's no way to be sure at this point. To me using an alternate plastic figure to represent when the spell is in use is a neat idea... while not necessary, this spell could last a long, long time, potentially, and be used multiple times per quest. I'm a little disappointed they haven't adopted Ribby's solution (of the Remarkable Rims, similar to those used in Betrayal 3rd Edition... I guess things could start to get out of hand if you insisted on a different colored rim for EACH spell state of a character instead of just a general MARKER for which merc goes with what hero which is how we use those homebrew rims).


They do seem to take feedback into consideration which we appreciate, and it's always going to a year or so behind given the physical nature and process of these releases. But that doesn't stop them from jumping out later with digital fixes or explanations as they've done before.

Into the Northlands had a survey at the end in the Companion App, at least it did at one time. I wonder if the feedback they got was negative? A lot of us assumed the animal companion thing would be used more in the future, even if they didn't promise it was going to be. It's there for your homebrew if you want it!

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

The idea of the animal companion in Into the Northlands was something they were trying out, demoing; they weren't secretive about its experimental nature, and no conventions or expectations were set in stone. "Why would he have a card" would easily be just as valid as "why wouldn't he?" (especially considering all men-at-arms and Cadre members have their own cards).

If the consensus of given feedback was that Snowdasher was too weak, we might expect a beefier companion and / or supplemental rules that improve upon the design and concept of the animal companion going forward. And I'm certain AH will be collecting the feedback from this release as well...

Buddy, I love your YouTube stuff, especially the "The best thing about Heroquest"spoof.
The original is special as well.
Oh no, Mormons!!!!!

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

If you have too strong party I think in this way you can improve the challenge, you know someone says KK or GS are too easy when heroes are fully equipped, well switch one Hero with the companion can be a solution

Yes I agree with KK and ROTWL, esp the latter when fully equipped, but the Northlands and FH are BRUTAL! Esp with the Yeti hugs enabled.
It was that that killed Snowdasher. I tried to team up on the Yeti with him, fluffed my attack, then it grabbed the Wolf and killed it before I killed the Yeti.
Personally, my homebrew rules for FH are.
Yeti breaks it's hug if it takes any damage, not just having to be killed.
BP on all monsters are too high. Ice Gremlins the same as a stone Gargoyle?
Polar bear the same as FH???
Reduce IG to 2, Y to 4 and PW to 5
Also both attacks by PW are defendable. Two attacks of 4 die is still massive. Maybe allow one of 6 instead?
Remember the same rule is for Heros as well, so if I rule that they can only defend one attack, when THEY get to dual wield, they will carving their way through my monsters. No thanks.
Them undetectable wandering monsters traps are ridiculous. Just absolute death to most of your mercs in one go. Two PWs at once is crazy.
Also the map locations of the FH themed monsters is annoying. They are always grouped together in one lump, three IGs, or 2 Ys and two PWs together.
I will spread them around a bit, mix them with other monsters. I see no harm in splitting a group of PWs up and putting one with some Orcs or IGs instead.
Also the traps in the pack are death to Mercs as well. That ice slide, sending Mercs down that is risking losing half their BP in one go, esp the quest that has the slide right at the entrance door with no way of avoiding it.
Seems harsh to me and a bit unfair.