Did some more tinkering with this scenario. It is remarkably difficult to be 100% confident when determining the basic mechanics of this scenario, i.e.
whether adventuring parties can see more than one room ahead.
And I’m beginning to suspect that
some adventuring parties always take the optimal path, while some others are greedy algorithms just picking the easiest next encounter.
Did some more tinkering with this scenario. It is remarkably difficult to be 100% confident when determining the basic mechanics of this scenario, i.e.
whether adventuring parties can see more than one room ahead.
And I’m beginning to suspect that
some adventuring parties always take the optimal path, while some others are greedy algorithms just picking the easiest next encounter.
Built a treebased model; trialled a few solutions; got radically different answers which I’m choosing to trust.
The machines seem to think that the best solution I can offer is
BOG/OWH/GCD
and I’ve
found a row which confirms the adventurers-scout-one-room-ahead paradigm is, at the very least, not both eternal and absolute
so I’m making that my answer for now.
Oh, and as for
the Bonus Objective
if I’m continuing with my current paradigm I’d guess it has something to do with
an apparent interaction between Orcs and Hags which makes a path containing both less dangerous than might otherwise be expected
possibly such that
I could remove the Goblin in Room 7 without making the easiest path any easier
but
I have low confidence in this answer
and
I have no idea how I could get away with purging the second Goblin