Yeti in soloquest = instadeath

[LucaRocks]

I was mulling over the idea of the Yeti doing his hug thing and then walking away from the heroes into a group of monsters for protection. Or past some traps/ice hazards which the heroes would have to go through to save their friend. Mostly a homebrew idea. Not sure if there's a possible situation like that in the actual Expansion.

[The Admiral]

My advice to any Hero concerned about yeti instadeath. Don't go alone.

[Kurgan]

I was mulling over the idea of the Yeti doing his hug thing and then walking away from the heroes into a group of monsters for protection. Or past some traps/ice hazards which the heroes would have to go through to save their friend. Mostly a homebrew idea. Not sure if there's a possible situation like that in the actual Expansion.

Now I picture the Yeti deliberately "pushing" (or pulling I suppose) the hugged hero through trap squares, dealing further damage. If he falls into a pit does he break the hold? (or does the Yeti keep him suspended above the pit? All this time I've presumed the two don't occupy the same square, but adjacent squares (monsters don't spring traps and normally are not harmed by them, though a monster in a pit defends and attacks with one less).

[The Admiral]

I was mulling over the idea of the Yeti doing his hug thing and then walking away from the heroes into a group of monsters for protection. Or past some traps/ice hazards which the heroes would have to go through to save their friend. Mostly a homebrew idea. Not sure if there's a possible situation like that in the actual Expansion.

Now I picture the Yeti deliberately "pushing" (or pulling I suppose) the hugged hero through trap squares, dealing further damage. If he falls into a pit does he break the hold? (or does the Yeti keep him suspended above the pit? All this time I've presumed the two don't occupy the same square, but adjacent squares (monsters don't spring traps and normally are not harmed by them, though a monster in a pit defends and attacks with one less).

Yes, Hero down the pit and yeti above so no longer hugged. Falling Block would allow the Hero to step away after taking damage thus breaking the hug. Spear trap would just hit or miss and the Hero would remain hugged.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

I've been playing this pack on the app.
I have a few things that make me dislike the quest.
The solo quest with the yeti. Laughable.
I played it my companion wolf, who helped a bit, but then died, and left me helpless against the Yeti.
Luckily I started with a kitted out Barb, so he used his crossbow by continually running around the board and shooting the smiling hugger when the app left him in a silly place.
The stupid trap tiles introduced in this quest, nice in theory against Heros, and I like the themes of them, but they are insta death for the mercenaries.??
Obviously not play tested. I ended up ignoring them as being stupidly unfair.
Wandering monsters! Two of this and three of that? Really. Two Warbears????? Seriously, WTF.
And the monster locations on the map!! Too many rooms of just Gremlins, or all Yetis or all Warbears.
If these had been mixed up a bit with other monsters, it wouldn't make the Warbears and Yetis so insanely deadly.
3bp for the Gremlins? Again, really?
Actually, 5 and 6bp for the Yetis and Warbears is too much as well, esp when you consider how sprightly they are at moving (8/6).
Not impressed so far with the pack.
Got the last quest to do, and as it's a two partner, I'm leaving a whole day to get it done.
I see if I go back to to a previous stage on this one, all previously destroyed monsters re appear!!!!
Can't wait!!!!

[Daedalus]

A Yeti in a hallway can present a similar problem. There are several quests that have Yetis in corridors, including as wandering monster traps.

Good point. I think this qualifies as one of those cases where Zargon needs to use his "experience and imagination to make the best choice." Personally, I'd treat a hugging Yeti as pulling the Hero into its square for purposes of rearward Heroes attacking the Yeti in a single-square corridor. If not, spells like Veil of Mist or Pass Through Rock would be needed to help, but even this would offer a thin chance against a hugged Hero with a second Yeti just to the rear.

[wallydubbs]

I've been playing this pack on the app.
I have a few things that make me dislike the quest.
The solo quest with the yeti. Laughable.
I played it my companion wolf, who helped a bit, but then died, and left me helpless against the Yeti.
Luckily I started with a kitted out Barb, so he used his crossbow by continually running around the board and shooting the smiling hugger when the app left him in a silly place.
The stupid trap tiles introduced in this quest, nice in theory against Heros, and I like the themes of them, but they are insta death for the mercenaries.??
Obviously not play tested. I ended up ignoring them as being stupidly unfair.
Wandering monsters! Two of this and three of that? Really. Two Warbears????? Seriously, WTF.
And the monster locations on the map!! Too many rooms of just Gremlins, or all Yetis or all Warbears.
If these had been mixed up a bit with other monsters, it wouldn't make the Warbears and Yetis so insanely deadly.
3bp for the Gremlins? Again, really?
Actually, 5 and 6bp for the Yetis and Warbears is too much as well, esp when you consider how sprightly they are at moving (8/6).
Not impressed so far with the pack.
Got the last quest to do, and as it's a two partner, I'm leaving a whole day to get it done.
I see if I go back to to a previous stage on this one, all previously destroyed monsters re appear!!!!
Can't wait!!!!

I totally understand where you're coming from. It's broken quest pack, no doubt about that. I've tried playing this the way it says to play it, with 4 heroes and by the time they got through Quest 8 all their resources and healing potions were depleted. There's no way they could've completed quests 9 and 10, so I just skipped Quest 10 allowing the heroes to access the Frozen Horror's room by casting Genie to open the door.

However I've come up with several methods to make this quest pack less difficult:
1.) Add a 5th hero or pet to the group quests.
2.) if the Wizard is in play allow him 4 spell sets.
3.) Any mercenaries found in a quest can be bought.
4.) Heroes with a dagger trapped in a Yeti hug may attempt to stab said Yeti.
5.) Allow heroes to roll defense for both Polar Warbear attacks.
6.) Remove unnecessary rooms from some quests, like the whole Southeast quadrant from Deadly Depths.
7.) Minimize Wandering Monster to 1.
8.) When you turn the corner and there's 3 gremlins waiting for you, just make it 1. The narrow hallway minimizes attacks and they're 3BPs, so it'll take way too long and become boring. They not particularly dangerous, just annoyingly take forever to kill.
9.) Go with the Wizard's of Morcar Mercenary rehire, instead of paying full price just pay them 10 gold at the end of the quest... Or at least half.

[Kurgan]

By default, defeated monsters don't "respawn" when you travel from one board to the next on these multi-part quests. That only occurred, officially, in the Dark Company, which of course was using the EU rules (1st or 2nd edition, you pick). The way the two parters are setup for the NA games, there isn't that much actual backtracking, it's just more the added challenge of not being able to heal/shop/hire between quests that makes it extra difficult at the end (as if it wasn't already difficult enough).

Players who just completed the game system probably aren't ready for a marathon challenge like this, it's more like the MB team really were hoping to stump people who had played everything up till this point and were getting "bored" with how "easy" it all was (GS, KK, ROTWL...). But they really didn't consider just how huge the quests are and how long the combats tend to be, if you don't get perfect, one-sided rolls for the good guys. The crunch time left them inadequate time to re-test everything for a fun play experience, so you're left with these different solutions (or your own) to try to reclaim that. I agree with those who say you're better off tweaking it in some way than just playing it as is, but I also recognize the desire many have to experience it "as it was" in 1992, that maybe they never got to experience before. Few will see that through to the end I think.

[Daedalus]

Does anyone have tactile strategies to play it as is? Clearly they have to avoid getting hit by the yeti. Sleep scrolls and staying more than 8 squares away with a ranged weapon and kiting it? Other ideas?

Just avoid going into any of the rooms in the North West quadrant altogether. If the hero stays in the hallway, looking for the exit door he only has to go through one room to find it.
It does say to find the wooden exit door. The halls circle the Northwest quadrant, so there's no way this could lead to it and since there's no special treasure in any of these rooms at all, it's not relevant. So if the hero is solely looking for the exit door there's really no reason to even go in there.

Well if you're using an experienced/equipped Barbarian for these Solo Quests, he should already have gold for whichever quest pack that was played before.
I don't mind modifying these quests, as Anderas and I both came up with ways to do that.
But as Jalapenotrellis asked for a way to play it tactically as is, mercenaries are restricted from the Solo Quests. The Barbarian therefore can't buy them. However it doesn't necessarily restrict the Barbarian from buying potions at the alchemist shop: so if he uses a Potion of Icey Strength, Heroic Brew, and a Potion of Battle, it's possible to one off the Yeti before he even gets a chance to attack.
You can also play it defensively, which is still a tad bit dangerous, using a Potion of Frost Skin, will up the defense dice in addition to any armor worn, and a Potion of Battle Rage, giving the Barbarian double attacks each turn. . . .

You can always mix and match a crossbow with potions (although I feel Potion of Icey Strength and Battle Rage should only be adequate for melee attacks), a potion of Battle and Heroic Brew might allow the crossbow/kite strategy to work... but the rest of it comes down to luck of the dice roll. It's a lot of "If's" and "But's", but it's doable.

Those are all great suggestions. A Potion of Dexterity and a Potion of Speed should help out with kiting. I have thought about this hug snag too much and come up with some other options:

• As quoted above, avoid the Yeti entirely in Quests 1 and 3 by not entering their rooms. Unfortunately, the objective of Quest 2 doesn't afford that luxury. Still, there is a strategy that can work. First, the Barbarian must clear the preceding monsters and then open the secret door near Krag. He then shoots with the Crossbow conveniently gotten earlier in the Quest and retreats away from the Yeti. The Barbarian has a loop to run through, so unless Zargon is a dick out to screw the Hero, it's possible to chip away at Krag without facing the Yeti's hug.
  
• The Path of Sir Robin: run away! If the Barbarian can make it back to the entrance and force an unfinished Quest, Zargon should modify the Quest map up to the point of discovering the Yeti. Recognizing a flaw in the Quest, any Zargon worth his salt can simply leave out another Yeti.
  
• Though it's not directly what was asked for by Jalapenotrellis, there are a couple of other exploits open to creative Zargons with some stretching. Since the solo Quests can also be played as fun Quests when only two players are available, even the Snowshoes of Speed can be gotten from group play and later used for kiting in the solo Quests. Broadening the scope even further to include the Zargon's choice rule on p. 9, it's possible to amend anything. So after all else fails, Dust of Disappearance will also do the trick if a side Quest is introduced to make it available or it is just added in the solo Quests as a patch. It only requires movement to put into effect while a Yeti hug only prohibits actions. So once one or another of the other options fails and your solo Barbarian gets caught in the Yeti's not-so-loving embrace, use this RotWL artifact thoughtfully provided by Zargon to just slip through its claws and escape.
  [I've since discovered manaknight14 has also presented Dust of Disappearance as an option--great minds and all that. -edit]

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

The Monk has skills for dealing with Yetis. He has his cancel damage skill, so he can attack, if he gets hit by the Yeti, cancels damage and avoids hug, then attack again and run, preferably out of sight to reset his skills. Then repeat. Potions of resilience are a must as well dealing with these things!!