The title says it all... Why include stuns in your game? If you don't want me to play it just say so don't force me to sit and lose. When you have one card draw for 3 zombies and then all 3 hit me with Brains! my whole party can't act it's very frustrating. I want to play not sit and watch my characters get demolished while perma-stunned.
That's just a hint that you should stay away from melee attacks with multiple zombies if you can avoid them. They're best fought at range, or when they step into your warriors attack zone.
Woodhome's second map starts the players in melee range I begin the game stunned basically. It also starts you out separated so you can't focus your damage. I could see it do-able with 3 mages but with 2 melee heroes in your group and the mage so weak a single Infected Bite usually kills them the following turn it's truly an impossible feat to win at the correct level.
Oh, you're talking about the later Woodhome (then you already know all about brains). That one is tricky and spawn positions are random for some reason - I'm not a fan of spawning next to monsters either. Seems it's more the spawn point that's the problem here?
Your suggestions only work based off the assumption the player has access to cards that supply ample enough blocking to avoid the problem. Being generous here a player can have access to approximately 5 cards that "block" in their deck up to this point, If I recall correctly that is a seventh of their deck, and being extremely generous here, that is not reasonable odds of drawing said cards. Also suggesting to add more blocks warrants me to question if you have beaten the map yourself because I can almost guarantee you blocks were not the reason for your success if you have in fact beaten the map. You need cards with reach in your deck, something that can hit the enemy when it is a step away from you or further. If you have gear with the spell firestorm use it, and use it alot. Make sure your characters are all using cards that have a reasonable level of armor. 2 damage mitigation with a 3 up roll preferably at least 2 of those armors per character. Use cards that induce burning and make use of your movement cards. If your party is of dwarves this might prove a bit more difficult however, but not impossible. Make use of the mage, and have your cleric equip gear that has both healing, and card manipulation (Inspiration, demonic feed or other cards that draw multiple cards) Equip your mage with staffs that have high range reasonable damage spells if you have them. The sorcerer bolts are an example. Your warrior should be equipped with anything that can give attacks range, or allow you to move to the enemy and attack. If you have access to them give your cleric cards that can increase your warriors melee damage which should increase your potential damage output enough to kill enemies quickly enough.
After banging against this mission about 6 or so tries(with 3 replay's each try so like 18 battles) I got extremely lucky and didn't get Brains! played against me and beat it. Changing my deck and tactics didn't really help much as I continually got Brains! on one hero at a time till they were all dead. Even when attempting to keep distance and hit with range, inevitably I always had one zombie close distance and hit me with it allowing the others to close the distance and kill that hero. Either way the mission wasn't much fun and was a chore to play I wish I had spent my free pizza on a different treasure hunt.
I had trouble there myself, so much in fact I had to resort to a cheesy tactic of just ranging them to death as they chased me around. Very tedious and not at all fun. I am all for game mechanics that force you to try a new tact but not ones that amount to basically running in a circle for 20 minutes.
I lost my priest on the map where you start in different corners - he was surrounded at the start and couldn't get away. Maybe if he had run right away he would have made it. At least he got a nice item! I still beat the map once the monsters were bunched up and I could keep away from them. I don't think it took all that long, though it did take a while for my wizard to solo the last two zombies. I quite enjoyed the map.
My running around in circles came from the head guy constantly having festering gut active. I had him down to 1 hp and had to run around for an extra 10 turns because he kept drawing a new copy before the last had expired.
Zombies with festering gut can actually be very advantageous to the player on the zombie levels. There were a couple of times where I calculated I could survive the hit from festering gut (or that at least one of my characters would survive), so that when I killed the festering gut zombie, every other zombie got wiped out by the process. It can potentially clear a room full of enemies in one hit. I agree that some of the zombie levels can be challenging, but I think it's great that different levels in the game are challenging in different ways.
I think it's true that starting you next to a monster is a bit unfair. We'll adjust the spawns to make sure this doesn't happen.
Actually I wonder if I had the right assumption...if your party dies because of killing the final enemy with festering guts, do you win or lose?
I think you will lose because Festering Guts triggers from the death blow, killing you before the death is finished resolving.
Nice, but hard to arrange since some of them tend to have Resistant Hide and you have to get that off them before killing the festering guy.
If I remember rightly, Brains! lets you play move cards still so you should be able to move away after getting hit. Also it is a duration 1 card so it goes away after that round. Along with what others have said, I've found using step-attack cards to be effective since I can step into my opponent to hit them and, if I get brained, step away to heal and regroup.
Brains is only one round, but if I've had a character locked down unable to move because he was being hit with multiple encumbrance effects every round (Citrine Demon portal, Ice Sprites) I have no trouble believing someone has been in a situation where they've had a character hit by Brains! multiple rounds in a row.
True, and I've been in that situation. My point was that you can still move so if you use step cards to move and attack while getting the zombies to waste their move cards before they brain you, you can move away once brained to heal and pass the turn. It is beatable at the level it is intended. I've done it. Annoying, yes. Broken, no. I think much worse is the random placement and getting all your characters stuck next to bunches of enemies on turn 1 so that you MUST get hit before you can dodge away. Actually, this is one reason why I approve of the change in how step-attack cards. The only downside is that you can't use them after you are brained, so you have to make sure you save you racial move card until the zombies brain or you will not be able to move away.
