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Cross Haven
United States
Texas
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Our RTL is joined by the Alter of Despair and the Well of Darkness Expansions.
Players
OverLord info: I am a national chess champion and a professional chess teacher for 15yrs. I play the odds. I will always take a sure thing rather than reach for a more risky line. I create a plan for the dungeon defense, setup accordingly, pick targets and manage resources as best as I can.
Heroes: fill in later..
Glossary:
Plan A long range operational guideline. A way to achieve your overall goal.
Tactic A short range operation used to capitalize a mistake or a tool to achieve a longer goal.
Game play This is what actually happened in the dungeon/encounter
Conclusion My thoughts on the dungeon after we had played it
Introduction:
Hero choices: Next time I will try and record all the choices.
Player 1: Mordrog
Player 2: Varikas the Dead
Player 3: Landrec the Wise
Player 4: Silhouette
Over Lord: The Sorcerer King with Obsidian Shackles, first avatar upgrade being Snipers.
I was firm on getting Snipers but couldn’t really find where it said I couldn’t start off buying treachery. Looked in the rules but ended up ruling that I couldn’t with initial purchase.
In the previous campaigns, the heroes stacked armor. I was planning on pulling them out of their normal routine. I was going to achieve this by going Sniper and early Eldritch for the Piercing. The benefit of range vs. some slow heroes was not ignored.
Anyway, next up: the skills. Next time I will try and record all the choices.
Player 1 (Mordrog) chose Berserker
Player 2 (Varikas) chose Knight
Player 3 (Landrec) chose Boggs the Rat
Player 4 (Silhouette) chose Swift
Seriously, Varikas with Knight is a beastly combo. He grabbed Boggs for Landrec because I thrashed him with my spawns in the previous campaign.
Shop Items Purchased totaled 900+300 in potions brought them to a even 1200.
Player 1 (Mordrog): (Berserker) Sword, Iron Shield, Chain Mail
Player 2 (Varikas): (Knight); Axe, Chain Mail
Player 3 (Landrec): (Boggs the Rat); Immolation, Leather Armor
Player 4 (Silhouette): (Swift); Wizard’s Robe (nice item vs. eldritch), Crossbow, Shield
WEEK 1
[+1] (1/1), Alric moves to Bitter Downs
Heroes move (no encounter) to Starfall Forest (+1).
Starfall Forest Level 1 - #1 Downward Spiral
Overlord Plan: Early Copper makes this dungeon very much in my favor. I decide to not contest the first gold pile in the first hall. I am okay with them grabbing it and leaving. If the heroes are reckless, then they will push the second hall toward my Archers and I will deploy in the third hall with hero kills. If the Heroes become emotionally invested and push on, then I am assured of many hero kills from Master Giant Lodall. I realize that mid/late game spawning will be gone for me.
After a little time spent looking at giant stats, the Heroes feel that Master Giant Lodall will be to tough. The abilities Stun, Sleep, Reach seem like to much.
Silhouette grabs an easy gold pile for 400 then they retreat. However, not before going to the market to purchase a copper item.
Conclusion: I am okay with any Blitz tactic dungeon that the heroes don’t net CP. Job well done by both sides.
WEEK 2
[+1] (2/2), Alric moves to Smokblue Hills
Heroes take a bit of a chance and head toward Blackwing Swamp instead of the more traditional Thelsvan Highway. The heroes roll on the red encounter and discover they will have an encounter on the way.
Abandoned Treasure @ no combat encounter
Heroes received 2 conquest and 100 gold.
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: Heroes: +2 (2), OL: +0 (2/2); Total: +2 (5)
They reach Blackwing Swamp (+1).
Blackwing Swamp Level 1 - #? Collapsed Columns
Overlord Plan: I feel this dungeon has good synergy with Snipers (All of your Skeletons gain +2 range and may ignore one figure or obstacle when drawing line of sight for attacks.) I plan to pelt the heroes from the pillars as they close in. As always, I will have minions on the glyphs and this way they shoot through the walls participating in the fight. I will not challenge the heroes till they hit the pillars then deploy to restrict more and still keep pressure with my archers. I ruled out challenging prior to pillars because the heroes would range my minions down and my archers would have to leave the safety of the pillars in order to make a shot.
Hero Plan: Heroes planned to move down the hall with tanks (those that can negate or absorb the most punishment on your team) in the front. The OL will have to move his skeleton archers out from behind the pillars if he wants to shoot through the tanks to the squishies (the heroes with few to no ways to negate damage).
The heroes maneuvered down the hall keeping with their strategy. They took minor damage because I did not risk units needlessly. Heroes got Boggs the Rat to shut down any deployment in section prior to pillars. Mordrog (tank) broke rank in order to grab a glyph for (+3). This created a space gain for me and allowed me to use a tactic. I deployed Beastmen and killed Landrec for (+2 OL).
The heroes strike down a master monster (+50g) but not before some awesome rolls killed Silhouette (+3 OL).
Varikas the Dead opened a chest which contained 1 potion, 350 gold, and 1 conquest. In the joy of that moment, the hero had a lapse in reasoning and forgot to drink his potions. I tapped Varikas for another kill (+4 OL).
The heroes let emotions of a previous death enter into the equation. Landrec the Wise came back from his pitiful death to play to aggressive. He over extended and died yet again. (+2 OL). The heroes pulled together and smite my leader for (+2 & 100g). They then cleaned up the dungeons gold pile, healed at temple and bought some copper items before going to the next level. They were careful not to get to weak and a well placed Boggs the Rat resulted in me saving up threat for next level.
As far as I can tell from the rules, I get to keep the threat from this level and cards when I move to the next level. I don’t know if I get a free two card draw before heroes first action so I opted not to in order to avoid debates.
Conclusion: I feel both sides held very well to their overall plans. A few missed tactics here and there made all the difference.
LEVEL SUMMARY: ? turns; Heroes: +5 (8), ? Gold ? potions, OL: +11 (13/13); Total: +16 (21)
Blackwing Swamp Level 2 - #? Throne Room
Overlord Plan: I felt good with my overflowing pile of threat and killer card hand. I was going to blockade at the entrance door and keep pressure on the heroes with my bountiful resources. I feel this is a good plan. If I let them in the main room then they can easily gain some loot. They do not have any blast and therefore can hardly can devastate my ranks. The only other course, that I saw, was allow them easily/light access and then hopefully blow them away with my resource. I chose not to do this because I always take the ‘sure thing.’
Heroes: They felt there was a lot of potential gain here but they felt it was to risky.
Conclusion: The heroes fled the dungeon of Blackwing Swamp. They would normally purchase and heal but it was done at the end of the previous dungeon at the cost of a finely tuned hand and a pile of threat.
DUNGEON SUMMARY: ? turns; Heroes: +5 (8), ? Gold ? potions, OL: +11 (13/13); Total: +16 (21)
WEEK 3
[+1] (14/14), Alric moves to Moonglow Marsh
Heroes head toward Thelsvain Highway and hit the green encounter. This is the same route they took in previous campaigns without a single encounter.
The Sky Darkens @ Butterfly Meadow
The heroes are each healed of 4 wounds before this encounter begins.
Overlord Plan: I did a fairly even split between the two exits. I will have a great lead in speed and the flight ability should be brutal. I will be content with a light kill or two but I do not want my Leader to die under any circumstance. I will fly over their tanks and focus a squishy hero. If my Leader becomes compromised then I will just move to the other end of the map at great speed, respawn and repeat.
The heroes moved to the choke point (2 square section) and ‘blocked’ it off with his tanks. Unfortunately the heroes made a Tactical flaw. They forgot that Razorwings have flight and do not concern themselves with the blockade. I quickly flew over the barrier and devoured Landrec the Wise. Heroes then decided to cut their loses by fleeing the encounter.
ENCOUNTER SUMMARY: 2 turns; Heroes: +0 (8), OL: +2 (15/15); Total: +2 (23)
They reach Thelsvain Highway (+1).
Thelsvain Highway Level 1 - #20 Two by Two
Dungeon Specific: This dungeon is separated into two sections by a rune locked door. The heroes must open it by some form of song and dance. It is of note, there is an official errata on this dungeon.
Overlord Plan: I can only see two possible plans for me to use.
I can either put all my creatures in the first section. The goal of that would be to snag a single hero kill (and that seems like a pipe dream). This might generate enough of a threat to put up a moderate resistance at the Leader’s portion of the map.
My other option is to place all my units in the second portion of the map (with leader). This would yield the 2 gold piles to the heroes (because it was in the unguarded first section). However, it would shut down any CP for the heroes (glyph in second section) and their advance in the dungeon. It is also true that I would not get CP unless the heroes loose their focus and open the door to my hoard.
I chose plan B, I will always take the sure thing.
Conclusion: The heroes take some loot (two gold piles) but choose not to face my force in the second section of this dungeon. The heroes do the sane thing of purchasing things in town before announcing the retreat. They purchased Enchanted Boat, and Cursed Dolls amongst other things.
The heroes purchased a cursed doll to remove the curse from their characters. This is the only way we figured out to remove a curse.
DUNGEON SUMMARY: ? turns; Heroes: +0 (9), 850 Gold ? potions, OL: +0 (15/15); Total: +0 (24)
WEEK 4
[+1] (16/16), Alric moves to River Watch
Heroes head toward Red Echo River (no encounter)
Red Echo River Level 1 - #? The Pull of the Depths
Dungeon Specific: The Leader of this dungeon can move characters 1 square for 1 of his movement points. The target (the hero or monster) must be within his line of sight (LOS). The pits also draw the heroes one square toward themselves at the start of the Overlord’s turn.
Dungeon specific Tactic:
Leader ability to move a character into a trap, pull them out of the trap and dump them again.
Leader ability can push our units forward and therefore reach farther than normal movement.
A clever deployment of a pit trap (down the hallway) can be devastating to the heroes. Allows the pull from the other traps (I don’t know about ruling if it can pull heroes itself) and give the Leader another option for dumping heroes in holes.
Use the Charge card, “Play when you activate a monster. Double the monster's speed for this activation.” Use this on Leader for even more special ability since its based on your movement speed.
Setup Choice: I actually felt I had some big choices to make in stocking my dungeon with minions. I felt that a Deep Elf would be awesome on top of the glyph. That would force the heroes to close the distance to the pits and take needless wounds. I don’t quite recall why but I went with a different grouping.
Overlord Plan: I decided to yield the first room and put up resistance in the hall/final room of the dungeon. Here my Leader would be able to inflict the most damage while focusing all my troops on the wounded prey (from being tossed into pits).
Game Play: I must applaud the masterful play of the heroes. They dodged the pull of the pits with absolute ease and even used it to their advantage (pulling them to where they wanted to go.)
I only had two shots in this dungeon to bludgeon the heroes. The first was a severely weakened Landrec (the hero’s thinnest character.) With the clever use of fatigue, the heroes managed to escape the hall (where I focused him) and put Landrec on the entrance portal. The heroes then blockaded the path with his thickest characters. As a side note, they eliminated Landrec’s biggest threat (a hellhound that may have been able to catch him.)
I let the pit pull one of the heroes 1 space out of the way. I then used the Leader ability to move my razor wing up four squares. I then played ‘Charge’ card to double his movement points and was able to put an attack on Landrec (could have all been prevented by a guard order on one of the two tanks). I rolled a miss and he escapes with one health.
As far as I understand, I can not initially deploy troops in the red area. I did not find a ruling but I am under the belief that I can not spawn troops in that area at any point? When I don’t know, I usually error on the side of the heroes.
Another ruling that I made but could not back was the Leader ability in the dungeon. It states that I need LOS to grab the target but does not say I have to keep the character in LOS for it’s entire movement. I ruled that I must keep LOS which I hope is right. Like I said, error on the side of the heroes.
The second missed opportunity was near the end. Using my leader ability, I drug a hero into a pit, back out of the pit and back into it again for some decent damage. I put some meager blows on the already crippled hero to lower him to 1 hp. Sadly, my last Leader drag had put the hero one square away from an already activated glyph. WOW I can be boneheaded.
Conclusion: I would very much like to play this dungeon again. Next time with better draws from the overlord deck (which was pathetic) and with the Deep Elf on top of the glyph. The dungeon ended in favor of the heroes who gathered a lot of gold, grabbed treasure and stiffed the overlord with a big fat 0.
Red Echo River Level 2 - #Library
Dungeon Specific: The Leader in this dungeon has a special mechanic. The Sorcerer starts with 4 health and auto resurrects when killed (there is an official errata for this dungeon about his spawn.)
OL plan: As I see it, the Heroes are geared and can pretty much kill the Leader in 1-2 turns no matter what. I will pass on keeping him alive and instead move and attack the heroes with my Leader every turn. I will treat him as a disposable heavy hitter that can be used like a meat shield. I will choose ranged units to full advantage of the tables and overlord upgrade Snipers.
Conclusion: The heroes did an absolutely amazing job of shutting down my spawn points. Hero placement and Boggs the Rat gave him a lot of board control. Sadly my bane spiders are no match to his geared heroes. On the downside, my charging Leader idea was sound but he missed all but one of his rolls. On the flip side, my skelly archers hit many more than they were suppose to. Overall the heroes had the better part of the dungeon. I might really enjoy this dungeon when Eldrich is in the silver age.
Red Echo River Level 3 - #? Dragon ?
Overlord Plan: This is a large dungeon. I plan to draw the heroes deep in the dungeon in order to spawn behind them. I will pick the Nagga minions in order to tie down the heroes. Once they are restricted, I plan to use fire breath to eliminate them.
Game Play: I thought I had a pretty good bottle neck going with the heroes. I tied down the tanks with my Nagga to open up attack opportunities against the squishy heroes. Spawn some beastmen for beat-down but the heroes mowed through all my guys (Varikas with Knight is a BEAST.)
The real excitement of this dungeon happened at the end. I cut a hero away from the safety of his group. My leader dragon moved in for the finishing blow and rolled a miss. I followed up with my Master Dark Priest rolled enough misses to render his point blank attack useless vs. his armor.
Next turn, the well geared heroes marched through all my minions and Silhouette struck my Leader dragon while moving 7 spaces around it to activate a glyph. That allowed Varikas to come from town with an advanced order to slay my dragon.
While the heroes broke up to gather up treasure, they missed one spawning area (even Boggs missed it). I only had a Bane spider spawn, so I put the master bane spider on the board and moved in for the kill on Landrec. The hero’s 1hp seemed like free cp but I still paid threat for aim. Of course, sticking with the tone of this dungeon, I rolled a miss (glad I did the aim) and rolled another miss.
Mordrog owns my master monster to leave me devoid of CP in this level of the dungeon.
I ended up missing 8 rolls that would have auto killed heroes by rolling the 1 in 6 chance miss on the dies. All you can do is play the odds and man up. Don’t turn into that whimpering gamer. Heroes netted 2 treasure chest, several gold piles and a Dungeon Leader kill.
Unless I missed something, I think I can still spawn troops after my leader is dead (this not being an encounter.)
The heroes went ahead and healed up in town, bought potions and even purchased Staff of the Wild before concluding the Red Echo River dungeon.
DUNGEON SUMMARY:
The Overlord, The Sorcerer King, purchased the Silver Eldrich upgrade for 25 XP.
At end of session:
CONQUEST TOKENS: Heroes: 32, OL: 1/26; Total: 58
Player 1 (Mordrog): (Berserker) Shadowblade, Chain Mail, Iron Shield, Ring of Quickness, 3 HP pot
Bag = Sword
Player 2 (Varikas): (Knight); Dragontooth Hammer, Chain Mail, 3 HP pot
Bag = Axe
Player 3 (Landrec): (Boggs the Rat); Immolation, Leather Armor, Pack of Holding, 2 Fat Pot, 1 HP pot
Bag = Staff of the Grave, Bane
Player 4 (Silhouette): (Swift); Falcon’s Claw, Iron Shield, Wizard’s Robe, Gauntlet of Power, Archer Charm, 2 Hp Pot, 1 Fat Pot
Bag: Crossbow, Elven Robe
Heroes have 0 gold
HERO UPGRADES: Enchanted Boat, Staff of the Wild
OL Avatar: The Sorcerer King
Plot : Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F. (at Greyhaven), Snipers, Silver Eldrich
Comments:
I felt I was in a great position up until the heroes hit the last dungeon. The heroes have done a great job with their early Blitz and turn it into some real CP in the last dungeon. The heroes seem extremely well geared and daunting to face. Hopefully the Silver Eldrich plan will pay off with some Treachery in subsequent Weeks to result in a positive turn for the Overlord. At least the Heroes being in the lead takes the Legendary Dungeon off the table.
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Master of the Waz
United States
Troy
Missouri
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Re: Chess Player Campaign - Post 1
When moving down a level of a dungeon you keep your hand and threat and cards in play. You do not get to draw two new cards.
Also, you lose your curse token when you die. Although, if you had a cursed item equiped then you would automatically re-equip it and gain another token in it's place. Of course the doll works too. I just wanted to point that out incase they were no longer using the item or if they got the curse from a priest.
You cannot place the initial troups in the red area, but you can spawn there later following the normal spawning rules.
Nice report though.
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Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
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Re: Chess Player Campaign - Post 1
Crosshaven wrote:
I was firm on getting Snipers but couldn’t really find where it said I couldn’t start off buying treachery. Looked in the rules but ended up ruling that I couldn’t with initial purchase.
Treachery isn't actually an Avatar upgrade (see pgs 4, 5, 10) and the rule is you may purchase an Avatar upgrade (pg8).
Unfortunately they screwed up in the rulebook and in the Avatar upgrades section (pg24) they included a sentence saying that Avatar upgrades included Lts (which they do not). But Treachery Upgrades are always a different thing.
Quote: As always, I will have minions on the glyphs and this way they shoot through the walls participating in the fight.
This may be just an inaccurate description on your part.
But walls can never be shot through. They are not obstacles (or figures).
Quote: As far as I can tell from the rules, I get to keep the threat from this level and cards when I move to the next level. I don’t know if I get a free two card draw before heroes first action so I opted not to in order to avoid debates.
You do keep threat, cards and powers between levels - its just the next part of the same dungeon.
The fourth paragraph of the 'Dungeon Level Setup' section (pg17) should be in its own section labelled 'Setting up the First Level of a Dungeon' or similar. It only applies on the first level.
I'm not sure why you would thing of getting a free draw 2 cards? Unless you are thinking that because the heroes finished the last level, and start the next level, the OL gets a turn in between (in which he can do nothing but draw cards - but then why no threat?). He doesn't. Heroes effectively get 2 consecutive turns, although the first might be as little as a single hero moving one space.
Quote: They forgot that Razorwings have flight and do not concern themselves with the blockade. I quickly flew over the barrier and devoured Landrec the Wise. Heroes then decided to cut their loses by fleeing the encounter.
More importantly, they have Soar. Not only do they entirely ignore any terrain in their space, and pass through figures with ease, they are also at +4 range and unable to be attacked by melee weapons, except at the moment of their 'swoop' , or if they deliberately 'land'.
This encounter is by far the most dangerous one to an early party.
You might have seriously missed a trick here (competitively) - or you may have just not screwed your heroes over too badly (DM style).
2 razorwings covering each exit block the heroes completely. They can't escape, the melee heroes can't attack, the ranged and magic heroes need a minimum of 5 range (unless with blast or breath).
The boss stays back and recruits reinforcements. 4 Razorwings block the exits (as far forward as possible of course, to give extra cover) and excess Razorwings target the ranged/magic heroes first, only attacking from positions where guarding melee heroes cannot hit them during the 'swoop'.
Its a party killer, one of the best the OL has, though later parties can handle it much better with some hard hitting blast/breath attacks and better ranged/magic damage dealing.
Quote: The heroes purchased a cursed doll to remove the curse from their characters. This is the only way we figured out to remove a curse.
As mentioned, death does the trick too. So it is actually a tough choice sometimes - is 1CT (for the OL) worth 200 coins? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Both are variable resources and either can be the more valuable at different times.
Quote: As far as I understand, I can not initially deploy troops in the red area. I did not find a ruling but I am under the belief that I can not spawn troops in that area at any point? When I don’t know, I usually error on the side of the heroes.
Its on pg17
He may place his minions anywhere except in the red-shaded portions indicated in the Quest Guide map.
Quote: Another ruling that I made but could not back was the Leader ability in the dungeon. It states that I need LOS to grab the target but does not say I have to keep the character in LOS for it’s entire movement. I ruled that I must keep LOS which I hope is right. Like I said, error on the side of the heroes.
Since each space of such movement is a separate 'event', you effectively must keep LOS to the target for all except the final space.
Quote: The second missed opportunity was near the end. Using my leader ability, I drug a hero into a pit, back out of the pit and back into it again for some decent damage. I put some meager blows on the already crippled hero to lower him to 1 hp. Sadly, my last Leader drag had put the hero one square away from an already activated glyph. WOW I can be boneheaded.
We've all been there!
Quote: Unless I missed something, I think I can still spawn troops after my leader is dead (this not being an encounter.)
Yes. Spawning is independent of Leaders.
Using the Reinforce ability (in encounters) is something that requires the Leader in the encounter because only the Leader has the Reinforce ability.
Thanks for the report.
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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Re: Chess Player Campaign - Post 1
I would really like to know the timeframe it took you to play all 4 weeks.
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Cross Haven
United States
Texas
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Re: Chess Player Campaign - Post 1
I believe we started around 10:00am Sunday and played till 11pm. We broke to grab a bite to eat a block away. All the players involved are logical and do not require 5 cups of coffee to only whimper into making a decision. If a player decides to spend a prolonged amount of time then everyone is very polite and allows them to concentrate. I do not think we should overlook the fact that we all have personalities that get along well with each other.
There is no pouting over certain items/cards, the fact that the dice are spurning the player or missing a critical position. I dont know if that is due to us all being tournament chess players that prefer playing blitz chess (5 minute chess).
I hope this answers your question in a satisfactory manner,
Crosshaven 'chessguy'
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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I am very happy to see you guys playing. I was originally thinking that it would be painful to play in your campaign because when I think Chess, I think slow and tedious, but now that I learned you guys are all speed Chess players, that is great!
It really looks like you guys researched well and have things planned out, which will make the game go a lot easier and quicker too.
As you go along with this campaign and ones to come, it is important to play by the rules, it even helps to have a copy of the FAQ next to the toilet for the longer deposits 
Your group sounds awesome to play in to be honest. I myself, like to play 1 on 1 now just because I don't like others playing poorly, but that is just me. Looking forward to some more.
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Cross Haven
United States
Texas
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We have a bit of a odd system going. We have two running campaigns going at the same time. We alternate between the two from week to week. I was the Sorcerer King OL last time and now I must play different group of heroes against his Spider Queen OL. This alternating pattern seems to fit our group.
Perhaps in 2 weeks, we will see a continuation of this campaign.
-Happy hunting
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Posted Tue Mar 29, 2011 7:09 pm
