I would like to run some players through the campaign, but I am wondering if I should get some expansions before starting. I can't spend too much (at least not all at once). Any suggestions?

I would like to run some players through the campaign, but I am wondering if I should get some expansions before starting. I can't spend too much (at least not all at once). Any suggestions?

The base box is plenty fun. Go for it.

Hi,

Core box has everything you need to start playing. There is really plenty of stuff there. And you will spend many meny hours playing the campaign before you'll get bored and want something new =)

The only thing is that lieutenants are presented by tokens, so if it's important for you to have miniatures, you can buy lieutenant miniatures. There are 6 different lieutenants in the core set:

Zachareth

Belthir

Liza Farrow

Alric Farrow

Meric Farrow

Splig

So you might want to get those first.

Only in case you are really eager to buy some expansion, I personally would recommend to start with the small one, because it can be incorporated into a big campaign, so you can do it right away. Or play it as a stand-a-lone "small" campaign. I personally like trollfens, so I would recommend this one.

I would not recommend to buy big box expansions before playing core box campaign (shadow rune) for at least couple of times.

I would recommand at least 1 "heroes and monster" box so OL will have choice in monsters and at least 1 lieutenant pack

The base game is plenty of fun all on its own, and it's the simplest way to play. I'd recommend giving that a run before you spend money on more bells and whistles- The expansions add missions, mechanics. heroes, and monsters to freshen up the sessions and keep them from feeling repetitive. The first couple times through, that's not a concern at all.

Yea play at least 1 campaign with the starter set to make sure you and your group enjoy the game. And to see if you can make it through a full campaign.

I would suggest at bare minimum sleeves for the OL deck (about 20 sleeves is enough).

It gets shuffled quite a bit, is constantly in your hands and your strong cards you buy via XP, will be much less shuffled to the point where it gets quite easy to spot your truly powerfull cards just by the condition of their back-side.

If you and your group enjoy the game after a few quests, get the conversion kit, if you can find it for ~20$. It makes the game much more interesting by opening up a huge selection of 25 monsters for the OL and it gives you 50 heroes. You get only cards, however there are good looking 3d tokens on boardgamegeek.com and most of the time it's not a problem to use the miniatures from the base game to proxy the monsters. Most of these heroes appeared in different FFG games (runewars, runage, everything Terrinoth based) so if you own these games you already have the miniatures.

If your budget is not that tight and you play this game a lot, safe for a big expansion, as they both offer a new campaign.

Big box expansions also come with 4 monster-groups, 4 heroes, 4 new classes so you could maybe get one right away, it's just a bigger investment than the conversion kit.

I don't really like the hero&monster packs particularly, especially if price is a concern. You get only 3 monstergroups and 4 heroes and I think 2 quests, mind they are not campaigns. Of course you get awesome looking miniatures, but they cost 35$ for 3 monstergroups, where usually one is nearly useless, which means 2 monstergroups and 4 heroes. If you play a campaign, you will play with the same 4 heroes for quite some time, so I think more heroes aren't that important right away. The hero&monsterpacks are awesome for collectors, painters and everyone that isn't concerned with the price, but if you are, they are not a good choice imo. Another minor detail is that these packs only contain the same heroes and monsters as the conversion kit does, so their big appeal really are their awesome completely revamped and highly detailed miniatures and little else.

The small expansions are kind of cool and provide some additional minor mechanism for the game. They come only with a minicampaign 2 heroes, 2 monstergroups and 2 classes however and they aren't that less expensive than a big expansion and don't provide even half of what big expansions provide.

So here is what I did and I'm on a tight budget as well:

I bought the conversion kit after I played a few encounters, printed out the 3d tokens for the monsters and used them quite often this far. As I was playing the OL, it made the game twice as good for me, because there suddenly were real choices between many monsters with very different strengths and weaknesses not just 2 or 3. This also made the game much more interesting for the heroes, because they weren't always fighting against the same monsters. I used the base-game miniatures for the ck-monsters most of the time and never thought they were unfitting or taking me out of the game.

A few months later after playing around 2-3 campaigns and playing nearly every quest at least once, I bought Shadow of Nerekhall, because of it's theme and while I haven't played it yet, the quests/maps look radically different from what the base game offered.

I believe conversion kit is not a good choice for a new comer. As DAMaz correctly specified - there is just cards. All heroes and monsters from 1st edition are available in better looking art (+super cool miniatures) in hero and monster packs. Yes the price is almost the same as for conversion kit. But if you are planning invest into this game hero and monsters packs are way to go. Conversion kit, was created for those who have 1st descent, so they could use heroes and monsters from there.

I believe conversion kit is not a good choice for a new comer. As DAMaz correctly specified - there is just cards. All heroes and monsters from 1st edition are available in better looking art (+super cool miniatures) in hero and monster packs. Yes the price is almost the same as for conversion kit. But if you are planning invest into this game hero and monsters packs are way to go. Conversion kit, was created for those who have 1st descent, so they could use heroes and monsters from there.

I would say it's definetly worth considering if you want to spend as little money as possible on this game, especially if you don't know if you REALLY like the game.

In my case only 1 hero&monster pack was announced and I wanted to play back then and not wait until everything is released, so going for the conversion kit seemed like the best idea. Even today only 2 packs are released, which means 4-6 monstergroups for 70$. To get 6 good monstergroups you have to wait even longer and spend more than 100$, the price of Star Wars:Imperial Assault in a few months.

I only recommend the conversion kit, because OP specifically said money was a concern to him and I think even with the perspective of eventually getting a few hero&monster packs down the line, the 20$ that enable you to use 25 more monsters right from the get go, is extremely well spent money. I know how much more fun this game became to me, when I was able to use or fight against that many monsters, even without having the corresponding miniatures. It kept the base-campaign fresh for a few play-throughs and that wouldn't have been the case, if I just got all the hero&monster packs that are available (which would've been more expensive addtionally) .

Now that I know how the monsters work, I'm considering picking up one of the upcoming hero&monster packs that has my favorite monsters, but nonetheless, to think that I couldn't have used these monsters in my campaigns so far, just because the hero&monster pack wasn't released back then, makes me really glad I bought it.

So, looks like we all have our opinions.

As an OL, I would suggest at least 1 plot deck (9$ is not so much, but so much fun)

@DAMaz

Well, I understand what you mean, but for me miniatures is a critical point =)

Thanks for all the replies =) I have the original Descent box and one expansion for it so I will pick up the conversion kit. I will probably pick up the first expansion (Trollfens?) for the game if my group likes the campaign. I will check on new cards for the overlord (didn't realize that you could get them). It's we play regular, I will get more and try to go broke slowly =)

Thanks for all the replies =) I have the original Descent box and one expansion for it so I will pick up the conversion kit. I will probably pick up the first expansion (Trollfens?) for the game if my group likes the campaign. I will check on new cards for the overlord (didn't realize that you could get them). It's we play regular, I will get more and try to go broke slowly =)

One thing I think you absolutely MUST get has nothing to do with expansions ... you need to download and thoroughly read the latest FAQ for the game, so that you are playing by the correct rules. There have been many things, including quests, that have been tweaked for balance. It can make a big difference to how you play, and the satisfaction you and your players get from the game.

You can find it here: http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/descent-second-ed/support/faq/may-2014/Descent%20Second%20Edition%20FAQ_v1.4.pdf

Thanks for all the replies =) I have the original Descent box and one expansion for it so I will pick up the conversion kit. I will probably pick up the first expansion (Trollfens?) for the game if my group likes the campaign. I will check on new cards for the overlord (didn't realize that you could get them). It's we play regular, I will get more and try to go broke slowly =)

I would really advise you to get cardsleeves for the OL deck (just for the ~15 cards you actually use), if you plan on playing this game extensivly. They are very inexpensive and keep your cards in a good condition and enable you to shuffle them without restrain.

have fun