Hey all, I'm new to the forums and relatively new to the game in general. I'm running a vanilla campaign with 4 heroes and were on level 4.
Anyone have an general tips for the overlord based off playing the vanilla game? As it stands, I'm lucky if I kill two heroes over the course of a dungeon. Maybe I'm playing wrong or maybe the heroes are too tough. I dont know. Anyway, any tips would be most appreciated.
Apologize to them in advance, and tell them that it's your job to be as much of a **** as possible.
Then move monsters onto glyphs, chests, potions, anything else they might want. Play traps to slow them down as much as possible. The longer it takes them to get anywhere, the more you build up threat.
searching through this forum is really awesome ... I was have marked ( name of the topic in my notes ) in my Descent stuff but searching engine find everything but no link to name of my asking Topic. Engine seems to be adjusted find standalone word from phrase on first place not complete phrase and then results of searching separated words ... this slow down every search and doing searching useless.
so, finally here are two interesting links for you:
Aspiring Hero Tips?
http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efpag=0&efid=4&efcid=1&efidt=12417
Aspiring Overlord Tips?
http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=4&efcid=1&efidt=10693&efpag=1#12670
maybe in second one you'll find some answers.
Veinman said:
Apologize to them in advance, and tell them that it's your job to be as much of a **** as possible.
Then move monsters onto glyphs, chests, potions, anything else they might want. Play traps to slow them down as much as possible. The longer it takes them to get anywhere, the more you build up threat.
I second these statements.
Also, re-read the rule a few times. I was shocked at how much stuff I was doing wrong after the first game. So you might find something there. Also check the FAQ and the GLoAQ on the forum.
A good tactic is to spawn ranged attack or high speed (ie razorwings) monsters behind the Heroes at every chance. So while the Heroes are moving forward hitting your melee monsters, they are getting attacked from behind with ranged people. This works especially well since most groups tend to keep their magic/ranged Heroes behind the tanks.
Whenever possible, have a monster move and close a normal door to an already revealed area. Give you an unrestricted spawning area to work with.
Chain your trap cards. For example, when a player is going to open a chest play Chest Trap. As soon as they move one space away, play a Crushing Block card, and when you move them to an adjacent square, play a Pit Trap. It will make your Heroes fear to move if you have more than two cards in your hand.
Don't be afraid to discard like crazy for threat, especially when trying to get enough threat to play Powers, like Horde of Things.
Lastly, being OL is more than just moving monsters and playing cards. You need to utter screw with the minds of the Heroes. You need to make them afraid to move. One of my favorite tactics: Pile threat in stacks that match the cost of certain cards, and line them up in front of you. They're going to start wondering what you are planning. I've even gone so far as to take cards out of my hand, line them up on the table in front of you with their threat on top. I did that one time with the Trap Chain, and had the guy utterly scared to move his character. He almost didn't go for the chest.
Part of that is you need to bluff sometimes as well. Make them think you are strong when you are actually weak. I've done that with the threat stacks. I could have like 3 Dodge cards in my hand, and I'll stack 3 pile of 4 threat each out there just for effect.
Another mind tactic is to help them at the start of the game. Give alternative suggestions for moves and explain why they are better than what they were thinking of. Then, once they think you are on their side, start making the suggestions a litte less helpful for them, and a lot more helpful for you.
So a lot of it is mindgames, not just cards and figures.
Agreed on the useless search feature on this forum. A simple forum filter should be easy to implement.
Big Remy said:
Veinman said:
Lastly, being OL is more than just moving monsters and playing cards. You need to utter screw with the minds of the Heroes. You need to make them afraid to move. One of my favorite tactics: Pile threat in stacks that match the cost of certain cards, and line them up in front of you. They're going to start wondering what you are planning. I've even gone so far as to take cards out of my hand, line them up on the table in front of you with their threat on top. I did that one time with the Trap Chain, and had the guy utterly scared to move his character. He almost didn't go for the chest.
Part of that is you need to bluff sometimes as well. Make them think you are strong when you are actually weak. I've done that with the threat stacks. I could have like 3 Dodge cards in my hand, and I'll stack 3 pile of 4 threat each out there just for effect.
I do this, I find it to be a great tactic, and makes the players pay more attention to what you are doing and not always alot of attention to what their teammates are doing.
There's a thread on this forum (currently on page 2) entitled "VERY FIRST GAME!" that has some good OL tips from a few different players (one from me) about mindset and what to do. I suggest you give that thread a look. Some very good points out there.