Hi folks,

we are halfway through the Quest Heart of the Wild with a fairly easy win for me (OL) in encounter one. Between the objective as is and a good hand of movement cards there never was a chance for the heroes.

Now I've seen a number of threads saying that encounter 2 is a near automatic win for the OL. My question is whether that holds true after the adjustments in the Errata (you can now only sacrifice cursed monster only in the Wild Garden, which will be teeming with heroes, a wolf and Raythen...).

Additionally I'd ask for advice on the open group. Apparently a cursed group would come handy but apart from that I'm not decided. Initially I wanted to try Arachyuras but now I wonder whether something small and fast would not make it easier, getting to the garden.

My group consists of: Durik Beastmaster, Tomble Thief, Alric Disciple, Jane Fairwood and Raythen

I'm playing basic II with webtraps, curse of the monkey God, etc and the Eliza Farrow plot deck.

Monsters come from: Core, LoR, Lair of the Wyrm and Trollfens

Thanks for your ideas

I was one of the people that first brought up that this quest was broken so I'd be really interested to know if the errata fixed the problem. It sounds like it does but we haven't played that map since to check.

It sounds like it does but we haven't played that map since to check.

Frankly speaking it still seems way to easy. Assuming my nettraps work, I will move the archers into the bottleneck to the wild garden, open a way through the tentacles in the northern part of the map using a few flesh moulders and double move the flesh moulders and my first goblin witcher (is that the correct English name?) into the Archers starting position.

I now decided on goblin witchers because they are fast and numerous, cursed and the elite can move heroes blocking the bottleneck out of the way.

I am actually about to play this quest as the OL, ill let you know how i go

I'll face it the day after tomorrow. We'll see...

I am actually about to play this quest as the OL, ill let you know how i go

Well Bento San, have you tackled it already? I'm desperate for some first-hand impression...and it's only 23 hours before I'll confront the good and the greedy.

Been working late nights, so havent had any time for Descent. Might get a chance this weekend though.

Just got home and I won...

It wasn't all that easy.

First two heroes managed to close the bottleneck at the wild garden, the rest was delayed by the two webtraps. My monsters started out clearing the tentacles on the northern part of the map and Archers tried to hit the two heroes on the wild garden. As Durik has an armor and Tomble was next to him that was of little use.

Next turn all the heroes moved into the wild garden and rested with Durik and Tomble blocking the entrance. I moved my Archers through the heroes and the blocking Overgrowth and directly in front of the special rule overgrowth. Fleshmoulders and Goblin witcher moved next to the pond in 4 spaces distance from the wild garden.

Then the heroes decided to first clear the archers from the wild garden and thus have a clear line of attack on the overgrowth. Tomble having an action left moved one square with fatigue to search the marker and then moved back into his blocking position next to Durik. But I had played curse of the monkey god. As he had no defense pool I easily killed him with the two reinforced goblins and then was able to move three fleshmoulders and one goblin witcher onto the wild Garden. Each having an action left to sacrifice themselves.

If Tomble hadn't been greedy, I would have had a much harder time.

Just got home and I won...

It wasn't all that easy.

First two heroes managed to close the bottleneck at the wild garden, the rest was delayed by the two webtraps. My monsters started out clearing the tentacles on the northern part of the map and Archers tried to hit the two heroes on the wild garden. As Durik has an armor and Tomble was next to him that was of little use.

Next turn all the heroes moved into the wild garden and rested with Durik and Tomble blocking the entrance. I moved my Archers through the heroes and the blocking Overgrowth and directly in front of the special rule overgrowth. Fleshmoulders and Goblin witcher moved next to the pond in 4 spaces distance from the wild garden.

Then the heroes decided to first clear the archers from the wild garden and thus have a clear line of attack on the overgrowth. Tomble having an action left moved one square with fatigue to search the marker and then moved back into his blocking position next to Durik. But I had played curse of the monkey god. As he had no defense pool I easily killed him with the two reinforced goblins and then was able to move three fleshmoulders and one goblin witcher onto the wild Garden. Each having an action left to sacrifice themselves.

If Tomble hadn't been greedy, I would have had a much harder time.

Maybe I got it wrong, but the Quest description states that the overlord needs 4 exhaustion marker for each hero. Each monster you sacrificed only gave you 2 each, which add up to 8 and you would need 8 more to win.

Additionally I find it really irritating that the Quest allows for other reinforcements than a group of monster carrying the curse trait, because how could the overlord gain enough exhaustion marker after sacrificing the flesh moulder if not for an group withe curse trait?. Is it possible to give a group of monster the curse trait via plot decks?

Additionally I find it really irritating that the Quest allows for other reinforcements than a group of monster carrying the curse trait, because how could the overlord gain enough exhaustion marker after sacrificing the flesh moulder if not for an group withe curse trait?. Is it possible to give a group of monster the curse trait via plot decks?

It's true the quest was super easy for OL prior to errata.. But post-errata I'd be interested to see how Demon Lords would fare. They hit like trucks at close range to smash through a hero barricade and are hardy enough to be more likely to survive to reach the Garden. Very favourable reinforcement rules for them too, and they award more tokens when sacrificed. It didn't sound like enough monsters were sacrificed in Ser Folly's play description to have won the map..

I see this quest as still being OL favored. However if it's one of the last maps before the finale and the heroes have acquired a good number of Act II weapons I can see their damage output being high enough to smash through the overgrowth fast enough to secure a win. As heroes I'd try to wait on this quest pick for good gear IMO :-)

In my group it is the 2nd Quest after the interlude. My heroes only gotten their hands on a single act II weapon. Sadly I do not posses the demon lords, I was thinking about using the Ynfernael Hulk as replacement.

I just played the first scene as an overlord and won by letting four zombies escape. I just read that the overlord keeps every exhaustion marker for the second scene in the reward section. Is this true? If yes Ser Folly's described scenario would indeed be possible.

It is true... Our group played this quest a few weeks ago and the heroes struggled valiantly in Scene 1 not to allow any zombies to escape just so they wouldn't be handicapped in scene 2.

This quest is a good example of why you should read both quests before playing, so you don't get a nasty surprise further up the line. Sometimes, losing the quest just to go hunting treasures is not the best policy.

We played it through and then broke it down. Was an easy win for the hero’s even with us all puzzling through a win for the OL. Near impossible to achieve the 12 fatigue tokens even though I’d gained six on encounter 1. Decided that we should have just skipped it with a win for the players. Shame as was a waste of a session setting it up. Seems broken and poorly conceived on so many levels.