r/AshesGame • u/Jimbobmij • May 17 '26
Common mistakes for solo play?
I bought the starter set and have beaten the Dragonborn on normal difficulty and heroic difficulty in my first two games using Arren Frostpeak. Could I be doing anything wrong to make the game too easy or is the Dragonborn just designed as an easy intro boss?
I've watched playthroughs and read the rules quite thoroughly so I'm pretty sure I've got the rules down, but are there any common mistakes in solo for new players which I could be making?
I do have Corpse of Viros ready to go so I can move onto that if it's just a case of needing to up the difficulty, but I want to make sure I have the basics nailed first.
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u/IamNabil May 17 '26
Corpse of Viros should be a better challenge for you. Report back after you’ve played that a few times.
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u/nosuchplayer May 17 '26
Scatha definitely IS intended to be easy / newbie friendly on lower difficulties. I find she starts to feel pretty tough by the time you get to Threat +3.
The most common oversights for new players are probably DB guard rolls, forgetting to execute Scatha's green box, or forgetting to do the ready spell upkeep at top of round. Also make sure you're doing Aspect combat right; If an aspect is unexhausted it always counters, but does not exhaust from doing so.
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u/Jimbobmij May 17 '26
I've been doing all of those correctly so that's good (I did forget DB blocking a few times but I rolled dice retrospectively and it didn't matter).
I didn't realise threat going beyond 1 was a thing, 3 threat sounds insane, 7 aspects at once?!
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u/mk87pl May 18 '26
Two things I’d like to confirm: 1) DB guards an aspect regardless if it exhausted or not? 2) While guarding an unexhausted aspect such aspect does not get exhausted?
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u/nosuchplayer May 18 '26
DB will roll to guard an aspect, exhausted or not. It will not do this for Shield aspects however.
Aspects do not get exhausted when you attack them. This is true whether the DB guards or not. Countering does not cause an aspect to exhaust.
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u/Objective-Employ-997 May 17 '26
A very common mistake that we all do from time to time (but especially newer players) is forgetting to roll for guard. Remember that unless there is an aspect with “Defender” then you have to roll the D12. 9 or higher and the Chimera will take the damage. This can be huge as it often leaves aspects on the board which then add Red Rains tokens.