Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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Just so you know where we come from: This is our third attempt at the RtL Campaign. The heroes lost twice, both times to a Tamalir raze due to unbeatable lieutenants at early gold and silver, respectively. Both were played over a period of roughly 6 months each, while we met rather regularly once a week. We tried to establish the Advanced Campaign as a substitute for our pen&paper roleplaying group, which dissolved due to time issues. While there’s still enough room for team spirit and co-op-play in Descent (on the hero side of course), which is something we definitely wanted, not having a rather safe playing experience with inevitable hero victory proved to be a somewhat difficult adjustment for us (especially as we tried to use Descent as a substitute for RPGs). Best comment: “Yeah, we understand you’re [to the OL] out to get us and that’s fine with us. But as OL you’re still supposed to arrange for a comfortable atmosphere/fun during the game.” An unreasonable demand, don’t you think
 ?
Anyway, we still have fun playing this game, so we decided to give it another shot. But losing 4 or 5 campaign games will turn them away from RtL, they almost literally admitted as much. We were eyeing to try SoB (which we own), but in the end went with RtL one more time. We’re adding all expansions, though, WoD, AoD, ToI and the dungeons and rumors from SoB (minus the ones concerning treasure maps, of course).
We also decided to start in copper again (their choice). To them the game is all or nothing, gotta love that!
After they had fun choosing their heroes last time (after the defeat and ending up with this group), they actually wanted to go back to play as per the rules, drawing heroes and skills randomly. I still wanted to give them a little more flexibility and gave them a hidden fifth pile-of-three to exchange for a really crappy draw (and they used it, read below!).
Introduction:
Hero choices:
Player 1: Tahlia, Red Scorpion, ???
Player 2: Lord Hawthorne, Trenloe the Strong, Sahla
Player 3: Shiver, Okaluk and Rakash, ???
Player 4: Spiritspeaker Mok, Silhouette, ???
While I don’t remember the full draw (sorry, no more excessive note-taking) I do remember the talks over this draw. Tahlia was a no-brainer. As such, no other melee hero was needed/preferred so Player 2 would’ve been stuck with Sahla. Player 4 was going for Silhouette as she was the only specialized ranged hero (that much I do remember) and because she would be pretty good at running, also. The available mages were rather poor though. Sahla is down a die (they knew their main weakness in past campaigns was lack of damage output so one less die was not exactly what they wanted) and Shiver is pretty expensive. They felt player 2’s draw was the weaker one and they took the fifth pile.
Player 2: Kirga, ???, ???
Whatever the other choices were, Kirga was far too tempting. But now Silhouette was dispensible (maybe not as a runner but as a ranger). Okaluk is a melee-oriented runner which they didn’t like (2 fatigue also seemed abysmally low, even with the chance of upgrades). That led them to the choice of Shiver and Mok as their mages. I don’t know if I find Mok better than Sahla (probably not, stats are similar enough but Mok’s ability seems weaker, especially against the Sorcerer King and his threat generation (they knew I was going to pick him as my Avatar)) or if his inferiority is made up by Kirga over Silhouette. And Shiver’s aura only fully protects against copper spiders, beastmen, kobolds and skeletons and of those 4 monsters 2 are ranged/magic so it’s not a very good ability, is it?
But that’s what they got and they felt they would have fun with these heroes, so on we went to skill drawing:
Player 1 (Tahlia): {Unmovable}, {Able Warrior}, {Battle Cry}, {???}
Player 2 (Kirga): {Rapid Fire}, {Precision}, {Crack Shot}, {???}
Player 3 (Shiver): {Prodigy}, {Holy Aura}, {Boggs the Rat}, {Water Pact}
Player 4 (Spiritspeaker Mok): {Quick Casting}, {Wind Pact}, {Mighty}, {???}
Everyone drew at least one skill which fit very well with their character, there was not much to think about. Unmovable basically leaves Thalia with 4 half-actions every turn she Battles and even if she can only use one attack of that Battle because there’s not much to kill in her range she still ends up with 3 half actions and an additional armor point. Amazing! And why is it fatigue-cost-free? Overpowered! *grin* Rapid Fire is a great skill, fortunately for me Kirga only has 3 fatigue which is not exactly complementing that skill. And while Aura 5 on Shiver would have deterred many more monsters from attacking him than before (most notably razorwings, master beastmen and ferroxes; all of which are not high on my upgrade list so they might be deterred for a very long time), Prodigy is such a nice skill for a mage (valued higher than Spiritwalker by the group most of the time) that Player 3 just had to take it. Player 4 passed on Wind Pact *again* (they also passed on it at the late-evening-after-defeat hero choosing), I can at least see the reasoning behind that even if I’m not sure if it’s the right choice.
Final Party:
Player 1 (Thalia): {Unmovable}; Axe, Chainmail
Player 2 (Kirga): {Rapid Fire}; Crossbow, Iron Shield, Chainmail
Player 3 (Shiver): {Prodigy}; Sunburst Rune, Leather Armor
Player 4 (Spiritspeaker Mok): {Quick Casting}; Immolation Rune, Leather Armor
Of all the new items from WoD they only picked the Sunburst rune. Are any other (expansion) shop items worth purchasing at the start (Ghost Armor and Ring of Protection will be bought asap, but they are vanilla items anyway)?
What do you think of that party now? Better than them choosing? Worse? Or just give your opinion in general (without cross-checking my other post)?
I briefly considered taking the Beastman Lord (for his focus on humanoids, which is the monster category I haven’t upgraded yet) but with Kirga in play and their generally good dungeon play I dismissed that thought again. So I went with what I promised: an Avatar as far away from Tamalir as possible and weak map play, the Sorcerer King. As my starting upgrade I chose snipers (neglecting the Transport Gem (and thus a flexible option for better map play) on purpose). But I didn’t want to totally screw up and pick our last remaining plot, the darkness plot, as that requires gathering objects on the map. So it’s Obsidian Shackles again.
OL Avatar: Sorcerer King, XP: 0/0
Plot: Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F., Snipers
City Status: All good
Week 1
[+1], Alric starts moving and the heroes have an encounter on their way to Starfall Forest.
Hunting Spiders @ Box Canyon
Box Canyon, and I roll a surge for an ambush, too! Yeah… or not, as the spiders are way too many and too big to place them in good positions on this map, water in all the wrong places. Luckily I get two master razorwings, too. One spider and the razorwings are the only monsters able to reach the sleeping heroes. On those three attacks I roll two misses, of course. Two heroes wake up, two heroes guard. So I try to attack with the razorwings while two heroes are still unable to hit me (sleeping and stunned) but the guards kill both of them. I could have kept them safely out of reach but to what point? The spiders can’t really maneuver around this map so the heroes will just slowly advance with guards and kill everything. Why bother delaying that?
The rest is a cakewalk although I do get some damage in on Thalia and Shiver with the leader due to its high number of wounds and the resulting survivability. Heavily poisoned their healing will at least take some turns, maybe I can make use of that. Otherwise an unlucky (for me) combination of great location and bad encounter.
Starfall Forest Level 1 - #48 Wax Museum
First level is a new SoB one. 4 statues can turn into skeletons and back, one at a time and once per round. The leader is a master ogre with 20W and 6A and Burn. I pick ferroxes and a naga as monsters just to continue the “everything is new” feeling.
The level prove to be rather tough for the heroes, a master ogre is not easily killed with shop gear. Treasures are hard to reach (blocked by naga or ferrox standing on it) so fleeing is an option. They try it anyway. Good movement and coverage by three heroes (Shiver is healing for two turns) puts them in good position. But I also hang back. When he returns Shiver is knockbacked into the room and killed by bleeding soon after. Now the ogre seperates Mok and Kirga in the starting corridor from Thalia in the middle room. Now they move back towards the glyph to reorganize. The ogre misses on an attack that would have knocked Mok off the glyph. Thalia is heavily wounded and burning. She can’t shake the burn off for two turns and with only one wound left and the burn token still on her (temple healing wouldn’t save her because of the many poison tokens) they decide to flee back to Tamalir. They only collected the forward glyph and a coin pile. The market provided them with the Cone of Fire and the Staff of the Grave, though, both of which they happily bought.
SESSION SUMMARY: Heroes: +6 (6), +800 gold, OL: +4 (4); Total: +10 (10)
At end of session:
Player 1 (Thalia): {Unmovable}; Axe, Chainmail
Player 2 (Kirga): {Rapid Fire}; Crossbow, Iron Shield, Chainmail
Player 3 (Shiver): {Prodigy}; Staff of the Grave, Leather Armor
Player 4 (Spiritspeaker Mok): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Leather Armor
Comments:
This is by far the most detailed post you’ll get from me on this campaign. Hero selection is always a high point of fun for us so I paid more attention here then during dungeons, sorry . The next sessions will only cover details where I remembered them. As we have had quite some Descent-less weeks, our last session took place well over one month ago. But I’m throwing it out there anyway  .
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M.J.E. Hendriks
Netherlands
Velp
Gelderland
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Re: Campaign #4 - Sorcerer Suppressor - Session 1
Thalia + Unmovable = Useless - you can have only 1 Guard per turn.
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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Re: Campaign #4 - Sorcerer Suppressor - Session 1
Huh?
Unmovable reads: Quote: When you declare a Battle action, you may place a guard order during your turn and you gain +1 Armor until the start of your next turn. Tahlia reads: Quote: When Tahlia discards a Guard order to make an interrupt attack, she may move a number of spaces equal to her speed before or after attacking.
Of course she can have only one guard order but what’s your point here? Unmovable seems hardly useless, I think it’s a very strong skill for her.
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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Re: Campaign #4 - Sorcerer Suppressor - Session 2
Week 2
[+1] (5/5), Alric moves to Smokeblue Hills, heading for Riverwatch.
Heroes move to Thelvans Highway, no encounter.
TH Level 1 - #38 Throwing Stones
A boss giant with [lots of]W and [lots of]A (no dungeon cards handy, BGG files are .rar, now way to open it here), things don’t get easier for the heroes. He can throw rubble in straight lines, causing wounds determined by the red die or complete death. Unable to consistently hurt the giant they just collect what they can and flee.
Week 3
[+1] (6/6), Alric continues towards Riverwatch.
Heroes move to Blackwing Swamp, encountering the Bridge Trolls. They just pay the fee (in their case 175 gold) and leave.
BWS Level 1 - #55 Hellfire?
Statues on this level maybe triggered to cause 2 wounds (ignoring armor), attacking with the breath template. Finally a weaker boss, or is he? A hellhound with 22W 3A, but also Fear 3. The minions are easily slain but the boss takes far longer than they would have liked. Tahlia never gets a successful attack due to missing surges but is brought down to 8 wounds due to Aura (she was moving in for quite some turns only to miss again). On the other hand, the hellhound doesn’t do much damage, either. But 2-3 damage to the mages take their toll and I kill Mok [+2]. After enervating 10+ turns they finally kill the hellhound (+2) and loot everything. They decide to take a look at the next level.
BWS Level 2 - #26 Trial by Fire
Yep, that’s right, another rather tough level . They decide to just plunder the first area and flee quickly, which works. On their way out they buy the Staff of the Wild and the Cloak of Deception.
Week 4
[+1] (9/9), Alric arrives in Riverwatch.
Heroes move to Gardens of Tarn, no encounter.
GoT Level 1 - #7X ???
A Master Naga with [lots of]W and [lots of]A who can ignore obstacles when moving, skeletons have +2 range on this level (whoo, that adds up to a built-in +5 range, a shame this level has no hallway to shoot through). I pick a golem just for using different/new monsters again but he falls easily to Tahlia and two attacks. All skeletons are killed on the first turn (breath attack is strong). Spawned ferroxes and the naga kill Mok [+2]. After that it’s a simple mop-up. I try to always keep my monsters one space away from Tahlia so she can’t profit by Battling (as she’s out of fatigue pretty often) but I do move a Mimic beastman adjacent to her which is followed by a three-kill-turn by her, including the naga. Without this move I might have gotten quite some more damage in with the naga and a master ferrox. They pick up everything and move to the next level.
GoT Level 2 - #5X Branka’s Brewery
We stop for the night.
SESSION SUMMARY: +7 OL (11/11), +?? Heroes (~30)
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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Re: Campaign #4 - Sorcerer Suppressor - Session 3
Week4 continued
GoT Level 2 - #5X Brankas Brewery
No chests or glyphs on this level, and the barrels are unsearchable, tough luck. On the other hand, the monsters are relatively easy. (All the SoB levels so far are noticably smaller so far. As corbon usually says, there are also more LoS obstacles, making spawning theoretically easier. But then I’m facing Kirga.. ..  )
GoT Level 3 - #37 Fountain of Life
The boss can’t die if in range of 3 spaces to the fountain. Luckily with all expansions the Tamalir market offers a knockback shop weapon in the hammer.
All the lengthy hallways finally do give some spawn opportunities but they are not well used by me. All I get is a couple of melee attacks supported by two master beastmen. The heroes grab everything (+3, +1 from empty chest) and kill the leader (+4, +250 gold). They choose to stay (next stop will be Riverwatch, so location doesn’t matter). [Must’ve killed for 8 CT somewhere during those two levels.]
Week 5
[+1] (20/20), Riverwatch +1 ST. I buy Greed & Hatred. (Maybe this is where some readers will shake their heads but I warned you. I’m trying to play differently and somewhat below the “cruel-competitor threshold”. The group thinks this card is resource limiting and therefore pretty strong (most of their items so far come from market draws)).
Heroes move to Riverwatch and do not attack Alric. They visit the market, alchemist and tavern, rumor “XXX” (+2000 gold) is placed on the Guardian Hills. After this rumor they very probably will have enough money (XP is not a problem) to upgrade two dice each, something they want to do as quickly as possible. They can’t get it before fighting Alric for Riverwatch though. Having that upgrade even way before my silver monsters might make the rest of copper a cakewalk. Maybe I need to step up my game to full potential again soon since they surely want to win but still want to face some kind of challenge along the way .
Week 6
[+1] (1/21), Riverwatch +1 ST (now at 2)
Heroes move to Guardian Hills and enter the dungeon.
GH Level 1 - #??
GH Level 2 - #??
Killed Mok [+2] and Shiver [+4] somewhere.
GH Level 3 – Rumor
Three easy levels for the heroes.
I had all available threat tokens at several points during level 3. Power Cards were at the copper limit (Brilliant Commander and Trapmaster), spawning wasn’t possible (or useful) and so on. I managed to take out Mok once with my obstacle-ignoring skeletons [+2]. Shiver was advancing fast, trying to take out the leader. [I wasn’t sure if his ability to spawn a regular beastman counts from the very beginning of the level or only after he himself was dicovered. Since I forgot to spawn the extra even at time of revelation (and due to their good spawn coverage and Kirga) it wouldn’t have made any difference] I focused 2 spiked pits on advancing Shiver and he evaded the first and prevented the second with a feat. Now instead of hurt and in a pit with no LoS he was standing in the corner of the final area, surrounded by pits, basically giving him Aura 5. Which luckily is just enough to avoid being attacked by almost all my available monsters, especially 2 master beastmen (one spawned, one the already damaged leader). The hellhound didn’t do much on his one attack before Tahlia guard-killed him. The group even managed to escape with three heroes going to town and healing (important, since Alric is most probably the next fight), so my small amounts of damage without killing anyone were useless. Two more turns and my deck would’ve been empty so they also denied me that income.
SESSION SUMMARY: +18 OL (9/29), +?? Heroes (~60)
At end of session:
Player 1 (Thalia): {Unmovable}; Mace of Aver, Plate Mail, Ring of Quickness, Ring of Protection
Player 2 (Kirga): {Rapid Fire ; Dwarven Firebomb, Crystal Shield, Chainmail, Archer’s Charm, (Falcon’s Claw, Iron Shield)
Player 3 (Shiver): {Prodigy}; Staff of the Grave, Improved Leather Armor, Ghost Armor
Player 4 (Spiritspeaker Mok): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Cloak of Deception, Mana Weave
Comments:
Heroes are showing good skill in dungeon play. Not having a monster upgrade yet does of course hinder me, but it was my choice. Can’t comment yet how much Greed & Hatred hindered them, despite higher potion prices they still have ~6000 gold to buy 2 silver dice for everyone. Their equipment is also pretty good for a Alric fight, Cone of Fire vs. Razorwings, Staff of the Grave for damage, Dwarven Bomb for a more useful ranged attack (+ Crystal Shield for better defense). Only Tahlia has her shop weaponThere is no real useful copper melee weapon against Alric (i.e. one that isn’t cursed) so Tahlia having the Mace of Aver is no big deal; but as compensation she wears Plate Mail. Shiver wears improved Leather Armor, only Mok has yet to benefit from his Cloak of Deception (Blanks only came on attacks with like 7 damage when he has two wounds left, not in crucial moments, much to his dismay ).
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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who knows, maybe you are revolutionizing the hero denial route.
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M.J.E. Hendriks
Netherlands
Velp
Gelderland
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BastiRand wrote: Huh? Unmovable reads: Quote: When you declare a Battle action, you may place a guard order during your turn and you gain +1 Armor until the start of your next turn. Tahlia reads: Quote: When Tahlia discards a Guard order to make an interrupt attack, she may move a number of spaces equal to her speed before or after attacking. Of course she can have only one guard order but what’s your point here? Unmovable seems hardly useless, I think it’s a very strong skill for her.
Okay, fair enough - I figured you were counting on getting a double Guard.
Still, when does Tahlia Battle? Rarely, in fact, since she's always falling behind due to her low speed. Or at least, that is my experience with her, and I've played her in two campaigns and a number of vanilla descent scenarios.
All unmovable gives Tahlia is that +1 Armor, and only when she battles. I'm not sure that's such a good skill and I would certainly not call it a "very strong skill". But that's your call of course - I simply thought you were playing the Guard wrong (getting two of them).
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M.J.E. Hendriks
Netherlands
Velp
Gelderland
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Oh, and how do you like the obstacle-ignoring skeletons [+2]? My son is playing the overlord this time around and he is also the Sorcerer King and also took this skeleton upgrade but it seems rather useless to me.
Are you able to make good use of it?
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Nice report btw - I'm too often in too much of a hurry so don't always have the time to let you know I'm enjoying the read.
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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Mr Mjeh wrote: Oh, and how do you like the obstacle-ignoring skeletons [+2]? My son is playing the overlord this time around and he is also the Sorcerer King and also took this skeleton upgrade but it seems rather useless to me.
Are you able to make good use of it?
do you use it every time you attack with a skeleton? no
does it make things much harder for the heroes as far as positioning? yes, and as far as i am concerned, anything that gives me a whole extra turn or more in a dungeon level because they want to hide around corners instead of behind rocks is fine by me.
imo, this is a great skill. but my OL tactics often are baiting into traps into kiting monsters into more traps. doesn't always work, but it does do very well when it happens.
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M.J.E. Hendriks
Netherlands
Velp
Gelderland
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What if you just (mainly) ignore the skeletons? They don't do much damage... - that's what I did in the first two dungeons (which I cleaned out).
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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each place has its own application for things. yes skeletons don't do much damage, but you can do hit and run tactics and hopefully do at least 2-3 attacks per skeleton per dungeon, that starts to add up.
you can always pick a different monster group at the start of the dungeon, but seeing as they are cheap and there should be at least 2 spawn cards, it should work.
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Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
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BastiRand wrote: Player 4 passed on Wind Pact *again* (they also passed on it at the late-evening-after-defeat hero choosing), I can at least see the reasoning behind that even if I’m not sure if it’s the right choice. Final Party: Player 1 ( Thalia): { Unmovable}; Axe, Chainmail Player 2 ( Kirga): { Rapid Fire}; Crossbow, Iron Shield, Chainmail Player 3 ( Shiver): { Prodigy}; Sunburst Rune, Leather Armor Player 4 ( Spiritspeaker Mok): { Quick Casting}; Immolation Rune, Leather Armor Of all the new items from WoD they only picked the Sunburst rune. Are any other (expansion) shop items worth purchasing at the start (Ghost Armor and Ring of Protection will be bought asap, but they are vanilla items anyway)? What do you think of that party now? Better than them choosing? Worse? Or just give your opinion in general (without cross-checking my other post)?
This is a better party than the other, I think - given their historical problem is damage dealing.
Tahlia is far better than Nanok for a start, especially if she draws Unmovable or Knight, which she did,
Kirga is at least as good as any other Ranger (IIRC they chose her before) and has a skill that will be devastating later, if not so great initially, but I would have gone with a Sahla/Silhouette combo - Sahla works great with the Staff of the Grave (removing the Curse).
I can understand taking Shiver - not the best draw but you need at least one pure mage IMO, and while Shiver is overpriced in CT terms, he is at least a pure mage and his aura means that you only need to wound razorwings to make him 'immune' during outdoor encounters (remembering that properly handled razorwings are a major danger in outdoor encounters). That's probably a bigger deal that safety from beastmen.
I think they really blew it not taking Wind Pact for Mok. With Kirga/Shiver/Tahlia they don't have any other 'expendable' runner-type, so Mok should ideally have been configured as a runner/support hero - not a great runner neessarily, but cheap cost and with the annoying skills for the OL that you don't want to burden any other hero with. Quick Casting should have been saved for your more powerful mage.
But that is very subjective opinion only.
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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i'm with you corbon. at first glance, i think most people snap up the good skill in quick casting, but if you really think about it, you just aren't going to be attacking all that often with mok, or at least successfully.
i am in love with silhouette and would have taken her easily over any other character. 5 fatigue and 5 movement is just took sexy to pass up, then you have her special ability, which is AMAZING. it takes a special person to play her correctly.
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Christopher Reid
United States
New York
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duhtch wrote:
i am in love with silhouette and would have taken her easily over any other character. 5 fatigue and 5 movement is just took sexy to pass up, then you have her special ability, which is AMAZING. it takes a special person to play her correctly.
ha! She is my favorite too! Even at 3 conquest, she has better stats than any other hero in the game ('cept Nanok and Lindel, who are variously stupid). Plus, concentrated skills and traits in the rarest of categories. And the ability is superfun.
Every time I decide to switch it up and take Kirga, I always regret it, cuz Kirga's just boring- slow, no fatigue, too hard to kill... just sits around shooting stuff.
My only gripe against Silhouette is that uninteresting miniature.
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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Tahlia: How often does she Battle? Well, usually for her a Ready/Guard action is strictly better than any other action (three vs. two half-actions). First turn she readies and at the second turn is 7 spaces (RoQuickness) farther into the dungeon and close to monsters. So she Battles and moves with the Ring and/or fatigue to kill stuff. This happens pretty regularly on every dungeon level. With RoProtection, Plate Mail and +1 from Unmovable she’s at 7 armor and not able to get hurt by almost anything so moving forward is not scary to her.
Sniper Skeletons: I try to make good use of them, of course . I feel it comes up often enough to be worth it. The range plus also helps to keep the skellies far enough from the action while still getting shots in. Snipers probably keeps some skellies alive where they would have been dead. And as I’m planning to upgrade them it will get better but even now against the mages their damage isn’t exactly negligible. On the last rumor level at least one hero kill came from sniping skeletons. It also makes covering the mages a little more difficult.
Mok + Quick Casting: I’ll have to pay more attention but I think he’s using it pretty often. He has the Cone of Fire and with that additional area attack he is at least a decent attacker. Wind Pact might still have been the better choice but I think they went for maximizing their number of attacks, even if Mok has a slightly weaker one. I also think he will be the one buying Wind Pact eventually
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Slyvanian Frog
United States
Lakeville
Minnesota
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BastiRand wrote: Tahlia: How often does she Battle? Well, usually for her a Ready/Guard action is strictly better than any other action (three vs. two half-actions). First turn she readies and at the second turn is 7 spaces (RoQuickness) farther into the dungeon and close to monsters. So she Battles and moves with the Ring and/or fatigue to kill stuff. This happens pretty regularly on every dungeon level. With RoProtection, Plate Mail and +1 from Unmovable she’s at 7 armor and not able to get hurt by almost anything so moving forward is not scary to her.
Yeah, I still don't completely get how to play against Tahlia (other than to ignore her, realize she is going to slaughter stuff, and focus on other characters, which is pretty unsatisfying from a balance/game mechanics sense).
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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Tahlia with Tiger Tattoo and Ring of Quickness and Plate Mail, yay. I can't wait to get Unmovable for her.
Tahlia is another beast I like playing because of her ability to just mess the OL up a lot. As of right now we have the Plate Mail on Mok, because he has Blessing, so he is usually up in the front somewhere. This way he has at least 3 armor and isn't so squishy.
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Alain Gottcheiner
Belgium
Brussels
Unspecified
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Regarding the Guard issue : I don't understand how you can count 4 half-actions ?
Regarding abilities choices : you'd rather pick Quick Casting, er, quickly. The plot is Obsidian Schackles, which means Olmric isn't going to live forever. While Wind Pact is safe.
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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Merrimac wrote: Regarding the Guard issue : I don't understand how you can count 4 half-actions ? Battle: attack, attack + guard token (from Unmovable); during OL turn: Guard action: move, attack. I count the bolded ones. But remember, Tahlia cannot move-attack-move (some answer in the GLoaQ) nor spend fatigue for movement points during the OL turn (basic rules).
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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Re: Campaign #4 - Sorcerer Suppressor - Session 4
At beginning of session:
Player 1 (Thalia): {Unmovable}; Mace of Aver, Plate Mail, Ring of Quickness, Ring of Protection
Player 2 (Kirga): {Rapid Fire}; Dwarven Firebomb, Crystal Shield, Chainmail, Archer’s Charm, (Falcon’s Claw, Iron Shield)
Player 3 (Shiver): {Prodigy}; Staff of the Grave, Improved Leather Armor, Ghost Armor
Player 4 (Spiritspeaker Mok): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Cloak of Deception, Mana Weave, Bag of Holding, (Hammer)
Week 7
[+1] (10/30), Alric stays to siege more, Riverwatch +1 ST (now at 3). I don’t buy anything after thinking about it during the last weeks, even asking about it on these forums  .
Heroes move to Riverwatch and attack Alric
Sir Alric F. @ Corrupted Forest
Hey, 2 damage after placing an order, good for me! We play it as ‘order is removed due to damage’ (except for dodge of course) which is pretty limiting to the heroes, especially for Tahlia who now can’t attack the razorwings at all.
First turn: Tahlia has lots of armor and runs toward Alric who hides behind his minion in a tree close to an exit. The others run/walk into trees. On my turn Player 4 plays We are not afraid, so no reinforcement this turn for me. A razorwing blocks Tahlia’s path to Alric, forcing her to go through 2 mud spaces.
Second turn: Unfortunately Shiver kills the blocking razorwing and Tahlia Battles and fatigue-moves closer and kills a beastman and the sorcerer. Mok kills the second razorwing and a hellhound with a Breath attack, Kirga kills the second hellhound. With one lone beastman left (and Mok with Sparks of Pain active) Alric really has no chance, tries to hit on Tahlia (pun intended) and flees (+225 gold). The heroes didn’t even need to drink their power potions.
Visiting Riverwatch they buy the Gauntlets of Power for Shiver and the Shillelagh for Tahlia.
Week 8
[+1] (11/31), Alric to Bitter Downs.
Safe from any map pressure the heroes discuss their strategy for the next game weeks. They still find Boggs an excellent skill upgrade as most of my kills com from spawns (see next dungeon). But it would be a rather useless training action with only one out of four heroes getting anything (Riverwatch does not let you train dice). And Player 1 purposefully mentions again and again that tactical upgrades over damage ‘killed’ them last time. So they decide to do yet another dungeon. As long as I have no silver monsters this is a good idea, I think, even if they have enough XP and money to give each hero a full 2 silver dice upgrade with money to spare for items, too. So they move to .. .. ahh, no dungeon left to reach without a boat! Head-slapping all around and then I of course allow them to buy it retroactively. They travel to Marshan River and have an encounter.
Silent as a grave@ Butterfly Meadow
As expected a lone monster can’t get anything done against the heroes. I hide for two turns, soak up a guard from Tahlia and hit Kirga for 10 wounds. Then Silence is killed by Shiver (+2, +275 gold).
MR Level 1 - #3 Dragon Cave
The boss dragon forces the heroes caught in his attack to lose one potion. It’s a pretty big dungeon so the heroes advance with guards ready. In return I don’t move anything. On their second turn Shiver tries to kill a naga but falls into a pit. Tahlia then Runs in front of him to block LoS for the naga. On my turn I just Charge it around the rubble and with help of the Command from a spawned master beastman and the second naga, Shiver goes down [+4]. Then the nagas and the master beastman are killed, the dragon is too far away and the hellhound just too weak in general. They clean up, the dragon never get’s a shot in (+3 glyph, +2 boss, +1 chest, +950 gold, Elven Robes).
MR Level 2 - #22 The Citadel
We know this one, another pretty big level. OL can spend 10 (or 5 later) threat to make a master giant attack if heroes end their movement in certain areas. I never did that on any of our playthoughs, spawning was always better, especially here with all the doors. Again the path to the boss is reaally long so ready actions all around, two guards two rests. I spawn lava bugs to take the rest orders off, first one is killed and the second only does enough damage to hurt one hero. Next turn they split up, Mok and Kirga going for the chest and Tahlia and Shiver going for the boss. I spawn razorwings behind a door (had plenty of threat from earlier level and been discarding power cards like mad) and with the help of two commands and the boss kill Shiver [+4] (I’m glad the razorwings have 5 wounds, staying alive in Shivers aura). The forward glyph is not yet active so he has to walk fromm all the way back. Later the chest turns into a mimic but doesn’t do much (Crystallize, some other treasure, 150 gold). Tahlia kills the two master beastmen but Shiver is killed again [+4], this time from a skeleton spawn and the boss. That’s pretty good for me, I think, the rest is clean-up (+3, +2, +500 gold).
We end our session here.
SESSION SUMMARY: +14 OL (23/43), +13 Heroes (74), + >1600 gold (~ 8500)
At end of session:
Player 1 (Thalia): {Unmovable}; Mace of Aver, Plate Mail, Ring of Quickness, Ring of Protection, (Shillelagh)
Player 2 (Kirga): {Rapid Fire}; Dwarven Firebomb, Crystal Shield, Chainmail, Archer’s Charm, (Falcon’s Claw, Iron Shield)
Player 3 (Shiver): {Prodigy}; Staff of the Grave, Improved Leather Armor, Ghost Armor, Gauntlets of Power
Player 4 (Spiritspeaker Mok): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Cloak of Deception, Mana Weave, Bag of Holding, (Elven Robes, Crystallize, Hammer)
Comments:
I missed a couple of items last time, added them as much as I remembered .
Well, so far a good dungeon for me. I kept looking for spawn opportunities to get 4-5 good hits on one character and it turned out to be Shiver every time. Monsters were used even more like suicide commandos then usual (ie. Razorwings get hurt by his aura). They frowned upon my multiple spawning but the sorcerer king does generate enough threat, even with paying +1 for each card due to Mok whose ability does prove to be rather useless (drawing Danger and several power cards and big levels all helped that sitiuation, though).
I’m sitting on 23 unspent XP so I don’t think they will explore the 3rd level. Which probably means, going by their reasoning so far, they’ll do one more dungeon again without training as it’ll definitely be the last without silver monsters. Which means by the time they finish their training Alric will besieging Dawnsmoor already and I will thus force them to deal with that, tailor their traveling plans to my liking  . Or maybe they cleverly use that trip chasing off Alric to continue south-west to vistit Olmric for the secret master training and I won’t really have hindered them at all  .
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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looks like you are doing just fine. you potentially had them waste a week could've done two, but you were nice.
you are right on track though, 3 kills on Shiver is awesome (btw, i only count 13 CT gained for you, the 3 kills and +1 for game week). If the heroes do in fact flee, they are most likely making the correct choice.
you have a very tough group you are going up against, but i have a feeling you will be pulling ahead soon.
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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duhtch wrote: you are right on track though, 3 kills on Shiver is awesome (btw, i only count 13 CT gained for you, the 3 kills and +1 for game week). It's +2 from game weeks, one with Alric fight, one after that .
duhtch wrote: If the heroes do in fact flee, they are most likely making the correct choice.
you have a very tough group you are going up against, but i have a feeling you will be pulling ahead soon. Played today, not much pulling ahead in that session .
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Sebastian D.
Germany
Berlin
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Re: Campaign #4 - Sorcerer Suppressor - Session 5
At beginning of session:
Player 1 (Thalia): {Unmovable}; Mace of Aver, Plate Mail, Ring of Quickness, Ring of Protection, (Shillelagh)
Player 2 (Kirga): {Rapid Fire}; Dwarven Firebomb, Crystal Shield, Chainmail, Archer’s Charm, (Falcon’s Claw, Iron Shield)
Player 3 (Shiver): {Prodigy}; Staff of the Grave, Improved Leather Armor, Ghost Armor, Gauntlets of Power
Player 4 (Spiritspeaker Mok): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Cloak of Deception, Mana Weave, Bag of Holding, (Elven Robes, Crystallize)
Week 8 continued
MR Level 3 - #52? The Cave-In(or something like that)
Different areas are hit by falling stones. This SoB dungeon is small enough for Kirga to almost cover every space with his anti-spawn which works even through closed doors.
Mok is hurt and moves to town to heal right away. Kirga readies and guards with Shiver doing the same next to him protecting both from incoming beastmen. Ranged or magic monsters are too far away. Tahlia readies and activates the second glyph (+3) on my turn after knocking off the deep elf, taking a hit from him/her in turn for zero damage. Man, almost nothing hurts her! I spawn a medusa (stun seems tempting, one figure per spawn does not) which is promptly killed a little later without effect. I throw everything out, the boss opens the rune door and webs Tahlia who actually stays stuck for 2 whole turns. But with Kirga in the middle and Shiver protecting everyone against beastmen I can’t get any grip on them. Soon everything is dead (+4, +250) and the chest open (+1, +300 gold).
Because I didn’t get that 1 CT I needed for an upgrade the decide to skip training again and do another dungeon in the south. So they stay at the location.
Week 9
[+1] (24/44), Alric to Smokeblue Hills (Riverwatch again, smart move?).
No monster upgrade → another dungeon! Encounter on the way to Applewood Forest.
One Eye’s Bandits@ Peaceful Glade
I get two attacks from the sorcerers on Shiver aided by command but it's not enough to kill him. Then One Eye dies (+2, +325 gold).
AWF Level 1 - #17 Bag o' Bones
Another huge RtL level, the boss skeleton must be killed and his 'body' dropped into a sarcophagus. The starting hallway proves to be a good spot for my sniping skeletons. The boss is safely used on the frontlines since he’s not easily put out of the fight permanently due to the dungeon special. Some skeletons get killed with guards but Shiver is also killed [+4]. When he comes back he’s easily pummeled again but not enough to kill him. Player 3 spent an awful lot of time getting Shiver in an out of the temple today.
A pit trap on their rally to the sarcophagus fails unfortunately so they put the boss to rest (+2, +100 gold). The sarcophagus turns into a chest (Crystal of Tival, +200 gold). They skip one half of the level for speed reasons, only grabbing the coin piles (+800).
AWF Level 2 - #54? The Tavern
A boss manticore who can 'throw' barrels for +4 damage and stun 2 in exchange for quickshot. Another very small SoB level where Kirga can keep almost the entire dungeon spawn-free just by standing in the middle, that's just too bad.
So I only have one good chance after a beastman spawn on turn 1. 3 shades and 1 master beastman (second one too far away but gives command) attack Tahlia for measly damage. I should have gone for Kirga instead (mages were out of sight). The manticore misses two attacks on consecutive turns with a barrel while trying to get Tahlia stunned for some time. In return she drinks a power potion just for the fun of it and kills the boss in two hits (+2, +100 gold).
SESSION SUMMARY: +5 OL (28/48), +12 Heroes (96), +2200 gold (~ 12000)
At end of session:
Player 1 (Thalia): {Unmovable}; Mace of Aver, Plate Mail, Ring of Quickness, Ring of Protection, (Shillelagh)
Player 2 (Kirga): {Rapid Fire}; Dwarven Firebomb, Crystal Shield, Chainmail, Archer’s Charm, (Falcon’s Claw, Iron Shield)
Player 3 (Shiver): {Prodigy}; Staff of the Grave, Improved Leather Armor, Ghost Armor, Gauntlets of Power, (Crystal of Tival)
Player 4 (Spiritspeaker Mok): {Quick Casting}; Cone of Fire, Cloak of Deception, Mana Weave, Bag of Holding, (Elven Robes, Crystallize, Bane)
OL Avatar: Sorcerer King, XP: 28/48
Plot: Obsidian Shackles
OL Upgrades: Sir Alric F., Snipers, Greed and Hatred
City Status: All good
Comments:
Lucky guys, my heroes , I’m going nowhere. They are now swimming in gold and XP (96 unspent is almost unbelievable) and plan to get two dice upgrades for everyone twice, which will leave them almost totally broke. But you know what? I’m not really scared of their soon-to-come firepower. They kill monsters in one or two shots right now anyway. So they won’t gain any real advantage. While my monsters will hit harder, making hero kills more common.
My next turns will probably look like this: monster upgrade, Alric to Moonglow; Merick (if XP allow it, if not one turn later) to Bitter Downs, Alric to Riverwatch. Merick will continue to Dawnsmoor thus opening a second pressure spot. Can’t tell more than that although I did plan further .
Copper will soon be over, will get close for them to get secret training if they continue to ravage dungeons, I don’t know if they’re thinking of this.
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Corbon Loughnan
Singapore
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BastiRand wrote:
Lucky guys, my heroes :), I’m going nowhere.
Its been said before, but this campaign should be enough evidence for anyone.
Always, always, always save for your monster upgrade first.
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joel cuthbert
United States
fort collins
Colorado
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BastiRand wrote:
Because I didn’t get that 1 CT I needed for an upgrade the decide to skip training again and do another dungeon in the south. So they stay at the location.
if they flee, they have to go back to Tamalir, they can't stay where they are at.
oops my bad, they can when it is the last dungeon level, lol
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Posted Mon May 16, 2011 6:41 pm
