Thoughts on reordering adventures (for difficulty, learning, etc.)

I guess I'll bump my old thread 'cause I just thought of something in the same vein. We're all talking about game difficulty, but I wanna talk about the patterns or themes in the difficult stuff Blue Manchu asks us to do. You know: their quest to make the player better at their own game in a Portal-esque masterpiece of player learning.

I (and others) have issues with Return to the Astral Shrine (level 14). I'd noted that "I know to get the enemies to overlap each other in their chess-based blasts so they are less likely to blast me," so I think I wasn't just being stupid with strategy.

But now I've played High Mountain Pass (premium, level 13). I've played Riddle of the Gnome Lords (level 15) and Secret of the Gnome Lords (also level 15). And . . . dude.

I thought I was done learning once I'd finished the "learn about armor," "learn about maneuvering" etc. stuff posted above. But here, in the teens, there's a new theme pounded into the player's head: "learn about enemy psychology and area-of-effect." To survive the chess-based blasts, you have to understand the ratio of players to chess pieces in the area-of-effect: a Guardian won't fire if there is one player and one other Guardian; it WILL fire if there are TWO players, so if you have defensive cards you can get them to kill each other while you survive.

Guess what you do in High Mountain Pass? Get Ogres to use Sweeping attacks (or even that Battlefury thing) to kill stupid goblins for you. Gnomes? Get Berzerkers to use Berzerk Spin to kill stupid gnomes for you. Presumably, in both cases, there's some combination where you can get them not to use their horrifying attacks by understanding enemy psychology.

It's the same thing! But Return to the Astral Shrine is level 14 while the gnome adventures are level 15. Gnomes are easier to kill than Guardians: they have no blocks, do less damage, have fewer hit points, and are often minions (and therefore get to use fewer attacks). And the victory square situation is universally easier: the gnomes have fewer victory-square-based battles, don't start with a monopoly (unlike the Guardians), and require more total victory points to win than they would earn by just killing you (killing you earns 6 points: to win by standing on victory squares, the gnomes often have to get 8 points).

Thus, just like with the Troglodyte example (now revised by Blue Manchu), Card Hunter has set up the "learn about enemy psychology" lesson out of order: you face the hardest challenge before you face the easiest challenge. I recommend making Return to the Astral Shrine level 15 while both the gnome adventures become 14. Maybe even move High Mountain Pass up in level.

 

I found high Mountain Pass to be a bit on the hard side even when i used the logical tactic and was over geared.

 

We now have two votes for "High Mountain Pass is kinda hard." Let's see if it gets us somewhere.