This has probably been asked before, but I can't find it, so if this is a double I'm sorry.
When we play JitD along with AoD, we always complain that the overlord is overpowered, and it is really hard for the heros to win. Dark relics, Gluttony, Dark Glyphs...it all seems unfair for the heros. I've heard that ToI fixes a lot of balance issues and it is the expansion I'm getting next. Until then, however, are there any house rules to balance the game out?
Tomb will definitely help you. It was my first expansion, and without all the treachery to help out from the other expansions, the heroes rolled me.
As for house rules, there are any number of things you could do, but an easy start is similar to the 'Cautious' skill. The OL gets one less threat per turn. It's probably easier to weaken the OL than to power the heroes.
You could also use the Road to Legend spawn rule.. the OL spawns once per area, and can pay 15 threat + the cost of the card to spawn again.
My quick suggestion would be: forget about playing with less than 4 Heroes. Never use Heroes with less than 12 starting Wounds or less than 1 starting Armor. There are too many traps ignoring armor and monsters with the Piercing ability to underestimate the number of Wounds.
With the basic game, it was possible to have balanced games with 3 Heroes against the Overlord, but not with the Treachery cards.
That's my humble opinion.
Ezhaeu said:
My quick suggestion would be: forget about playing with less than 4 Heroes. Never use Heroes with less than 12 starting Wounds or less than 1 starting Armor. There are too many traps ignoring armor and monsters with the Piercing ability to underestimate the number of Wounds.
With the basic game, it was possible to have balanced games with 3 Heroes against the Overlord, but not with the Treachery cards.
That's my humble opinion.
Mad Carthos has 8 wounds and 1 armor, Landrec the Wise, Runewith Astarra, and Runemaster Thorn (he's in WoD, though) have 12 wounds and 0 Armor. They're only worth 2 CP and have some of the best hero abilities in the game. I wouldn't take them out of the mix for the heroes. And if you get ToI, I wouldn't take out Zyla, either. There may be a couple others that I'm not thinking of, but I wouldn't make a blanket statement that no hero with less than 12 wounds AND 1 armor isn't worth it. That's inaccurate to say the least.
I agree that you'll probably need 4 heroes. 1 extra wound per monster isn't really worth the loss of an additional person to cover line of sight and 1-2 additional attacks per round for the heroes.
Some other things you can try to help the heroes is let them pick heroes, maybe let them pick 1 or 2 skills. You could let them start with additional gold or a copper treasure or a training token, maybe 3 extra starting conquest...something like that. You'll have to be careful not to go back the other way and unbalance in favor of the heroes, though. I certainly wouldn't do all of those things. Make sure you heroes understand and use their ready orders correctly. Make sure they are taking full advantage of fatigue and fatigue (vitality) potions as well as their skills. Make sure they understand how spawning works and the importance of covering line of sight. It's doable, but AoD does have some of the toughest monsters out there.
You are right, Feanor, I wouldn't take them out completly. As i said, it was a "quick suggestion" mostly for new players. If you are an experienced player, you can still use them and do great, but you really have to watch your back because 2 beastmen can probably take you down in a single turn. One skill that is great to protect "weaker" heroes is TAUNT, found in Well of Darkness.