the pit fends seem too weak, i have yet to be defeated by them, and most of the time its not even worth rolling dice against them as the characters strength is usually too high by the time they get to the inner region. it seems pointless having them on the board. Many other creatures/enemies also seem too weak and it's pointless even rolling.

am i missing something here? whats the design angle on this?

They are weaker because the way through the Mines is usually used by the characters with higher craft. Strenght of these characters is usually lower.

If things seem too easy to you it could mean you are lingering during your way for a crown

I agre whit rimmer. but this is very common, In my games we play for about 4-7 hours, and still we might only still be in the outer or middle rigion, or in the dungeon , but then again this is a very fun game so wy rush?

Here is an idè: if u roll a 3 for the pitfinds total number, then roll their strength, ex: 3, this will then be 3X3:9, and fight them all once whit a strength of 9, If you fail, you roll again for the total amount of pitfinds and a new attackroll for them, this will make it mutch harder

I'm on the other end of the scale from Fredrik Winde, 3 games last week, 75, 75 and 55 minutes. Though have to say that even then, characters taking the Craft-path tend to have a Str of 7+ (in battle, not raw Str most of the time), forcing them to roll, but they aren't really in risk of dying. Pits are there to prevent Wizard who draws Brainwave + Spell Call at the start from going to the Inner Region immediately (assuming he lucks out with a Talisman). Portal of Power with Brainwave, take it back for Mines, Craft 10 at each should be fine, especially with Fate, but Str 2 vs Str 4 up to a possible 6 times is too much pushing your luck, at least from my POV.

thanks for your thoughts.

I had half an idea that they were designed to stop high craft low strength characters. However the trouble comes when high strength characters get a starting boost in craft early on then they seem to breeze through.

I suppose thats all part of the fun and other players should gang up (temporarily) to try and smack down that character before he can race away to the inner region.

I do understand that in it's simplest terms the game is a race game and that many players mine included fail to race on ahead at the first opportune moment and they hang around the outer and middle region exploring to give themselves so much stuff that they can powerhouse their way through, meanwhile the smart player has achieved success with the bear minimum.

so whats the fastest win time then?

on a side note: My kids just don't see the potential of this game, they see the draw 1 card actions spaces as 'boring' I on the other hand see it for the brilliant mechanic that it is, every draw 1 card space is uniquely different, not only everytime encountered within the same game, but also different from game to game. They don't realise that boardgames in my day were actually the same over and over again day in and day out. (unfortunately i never discovered Talisman in its earlier incarnations) I think they might take more interest in this when i get the two board expansions as they offer more diversity in actions.

Ah well us big kids (my gaming group) play it and many others too. long live FFG board games! Huzzah! Huzzah!

The Thing In The Attic said:

I think the fastest to the CoC in R4th has been the Ogre Chieftain in 25 minutes (through Dungeon, naturally). He didn't even boost his stats once, just drew Sword of Light, beat up a few monsters with it, taking them as Followers and molested the LoD by cashing them all in at once.

Fastest game is probably around 35 minutes, several in the 40-45 minutes range. 75 minutes has nowadays become the average, slower than before adding Frostmarch, I think because FM dilutes the Adventure deck with a host of weak enemies, so kills don't come up as fast as they used to (or least 7-points in trophies take longer to collect).

The ending that most adds duration is Ice Queen, that normally averages around 90 minutes, but even she has been beaten in 40 minutes (gotta love spell-casting Trolls ).

On a semi-related note, if any space in the Inner Region needs a boost, it's the Werewolf. Too often he isn't even a speed bump that the Pits are on the Craft path. 2d6 Str, going up with Str 9 and a Weapon, meh, often the WW doesn't even need to bother rolling for its attack, you roll 3+ and it's gg. He should be something like Str 9 + roll 2d6 and add the higher result, that is the WW's Str (so 10-15). Then it might have a slight chance and would slow down the already fast characters with high Str. Str-path does had its nasty bump in Dice with Death, but sadly Fate nerfed that pretty badly.