I've played Doom: The Boardgame hundreds of times and it seems that no-one could ever beat the first stage on the normal difficulty level (I always play as invaders player), only on the easier difficulties. Mostly because lack of ammo and even on the easiest level they would die half the times.

Am I being too harsh on them, is the game too hard or do all the players I ever encountered just can't play right?

Are they working together? If not than no duh their gonna get killed, they can't split up or the monsters will rpi them to shreds. Also, as with the hundreds of other "Dooms to hard" complaints (nos saying your complaining) is that it's DOOM! they arent  supposed to win all the time! Thats why when they do win, it will be greater than a win if they do it all the time, besides, your a player to, you gotta win!!

Is this based off of the video game "Doom" that eventually was made into a movie?

Doom the Boardgame is based on the original Doom PC game series.

Yes, Doom is supposed to be hard...

I definitely recommend the expansion, download the expansion rules and check the suggested optional ones to adjust to your game style.

I have the expansion. And my friends are working closely together. The thing isn't that doom is hard. The thing is that they win a lot on the easiest level ("i'm too young to die"), almost never win on the second difficulty and have never one a single level on the normal difficulty level. I think i'm just being too good of an invader :D

I played against my friend on a 1 vs 1 (I'm the invader player) using Hurt Me Plenty (normal rules, no special changes), played Missions 1 to 10.  I lost each and every one of them.  Marine... rolls too good... my demons... rolls misses a lot...

Doom is a very hard game for the Marines. The best fix I have found is simply increasing the marine's starting armor from 2 to 3.

Or how about trying some different tactics? When I run the game we usually play it on the standard level and it gives the Marines a run for their money but if at first, second or third times you don't succeed....why try, try and try again but use a different strategy. The game should be hard and it should make players really try and adapt to the changes and challenges tossed at them. The game is not impossible but it will definately be "too hard" if your tactics are bad. So keep trying and those Marines will find themselves slowly but surely getting through those levels.

Mr Skeletor said:

You're kidding right?  Even if I have them start with -2 wounds I'll still lose.  My dice is cursed! CURSED I TELL YOU!

I haven't ever found doom that difficult from either players perspective, but thats probably me.

what my group has found works really well is that u get an ammo whenever u pick up a wepon, u only get an ammo if u pick up a duplicate wepon (we just the wepon breaking rules), and that the listed frags is the respons so that when they run out the just dont respawn any more

When playing my friends as the invader, I see that if I didn't hold back on playing a spawn card here or a darkness card there I would have won long before they got to the winning door. I didn't want to give them the impression that it is stacked in favor of the invading player and never want to play again. So yes , it can be hard. But if they get good rolls and work as a team they can make it out.

Maybe that's the reason I always lose.  I only use spawn cards and smash cards.  I ignore most other event cards (though some of the 'range' cards in the expansion I sometimes use)

My g/f doesnt seem to find it hard as the Marines, she won the whole campaign play with them on the normal difficulty settings. Im not a blithering idiot when I play the Invaders either, but she has a knack for strategy so yes it can be done. Finding the right rhythm for each scenario is what it seems to take, what that strategy is? I have no clue, I seem to be stuck like your group on level 1 with normal play, but I find it fun anyways.

Hmm maybe there is a difference between Doom players and Descent players? Is there less whining about Descent by Doom players on a game being unbalanced that say players who only have played Descent? Since Doom players have more going against them? :P

The biggest prob for the rines is not knowing the invader's cards. If you play with a noob group I would always suggest to join the rine team and let one of the noobs figure out the invader strategies.