Hello! Just played FoI encounter 2. The overlord won in 2 turns - closed all the wellsprings with witchers and archers. I really can't see how a hero team could respond fast enough to stop this happening (and all 4 of our guys have 5 movement!) So much so that I think I must be missing something. Any ideas?

IF this is the quest where you have to drink for 6 rounds to win, while the OL has to close the 4 wellsprings, when our group played this quest, the heroes focused on defending one of the wellsprings, the one closest to the entrance, while the Ally drank from the well. It worked out well. This quest isn't so much about movement, as it is about staying alive long enough for the Ally to finish the quest. What you need here is defence and the OL needs to be the one on the offensive.

ETA: make sure to use the terrain features in the map to your advantage. The red hash lines represent elevation and can't be crossed by regular movement.

After studying this quest to answer your question, I'm starting to think this is just a virtually impossible quest for the heroes to win and they should avoid picking it at all costs. It is unfortunately one of the weaker quest designs in LoR.

If the Overlord picks Goblin Archers as his open group, he is poised to take the game in two Overlord turns, even taking into account terrain features like elevation. The units are too fast and the Overlord's positioning relative to the wells is too favorable. Even with super move abilities like Jain's, the other two springs are just too far away to contest. The OL doesn't even need the lieutenant for this strategy, thus making Encounter 1's outcome moot.

OL Turn One: Overlord sends one archer to the bottom left wellspring, seal off the top left wellspring, and positions his remaining archers at the door near the top-left wellspring.

Overlord leaves the witchers clustered around the door near the hallway, keeping the door closed .

OL Turn Two: A lone archer seals off the bottom left wellspring. Archers open the door near the top-left wellspring, move in, and seals off the middle-left wellspring.

Witchers open the hallway door and the Overlord plays Dash on an unused archer or a witcher to allow it to move in and close off the final spring. Since this is encounter 2, it is unlikely the Overlord doesn't have a Dash by this point.

However, even without Dash being a factor due to bad Overlord luck or specific hero skills, this becomes a 3 turn win, and the Overlord's odds of winning drop only slightly.

There really isn't much the heroes can do to stop the overlord. The doors are perfectly positioned to prevent heroes from sniping at goblins before they are ready to hit the center wellsprings. Scamper is perfect for this scenario. If the heroes rush in and block off the witchers, then the archers can hit the wellspring instead, or vice versa.

Furthermore, the heroes would need five figures to completely block access to the middle-right wellspring to dashing goblins. There are only four heroes with which to do this. If they use their Ally as the fifth, then the OL just kills the ally to win instead, and the ally isn't drinking from the well, which is the entire goal of the quest.

If they use something like a reanimate, or a geostone or something as the fifth, that is easy to kill, and the OL has plenty of figures after killing it to move in and seal the wellspring.

No matter how you slice it, barring some incredible luck, or multiple specific counter abilities (maybe Cripple + Caltrops + Heroic Feats that attack advancing monsters, etc.?), this quest is just doom for heroes. This is a real shame, since the Ally ability cards you can earn in this quest are pretty awesome

Charmy, my group played this quest a few weeks ago, and the heroes won handily.

The heroes camped one of the stones using the Geomancer's 3 stones with 2 grey dice of defence to block access.

All the heroes in the group are set up for ranged combat with massive damage can kill a goblin witcher with one hit, same witha goblin archer.

It's not a sure win for the OL by a longshot, with the proper group composition.

Firstly, what you're proposing requires a Geomancer with Stone Tongue, Ley Line and Ways of Stone. This is an extremely specialized build that is ideal for the quest. The vast majority of teams will not have this caster.

Secondly, two grey defense dice and one brown defense dice, while great, is not impregnable. Stones have 2 hit points. All it takes is one bad roll and your entire defense plan is down the drain as only a single opening is needed. Hell, the OL can just Dark Charm one of your low willpower heroes out of position and its done.

Finally, 'set up for massive range damage' isn't a factor in the strategy the OL was using. I was trying to point out that if the OL plays it out correctly, then the heroes won't even have LoS to the archers and witchers until it is too late. This is one of those 'all or nothing maps'. The overlord carefully sets up his monsters behind closed doors on turn one, and then unleashes them in a single burst to accomplish his objective.

If somehow he fails to complete it, he has probably lost, as his reinforcements are poor and once the first wave is dealt with, the heroes can secure additional wellsprings.

However, that initial push is extremely likely to succeed in this particular quest, as even with this perfect Geomancer, the heroes are depending on sealing off an objective token with 2hp rocks to survive an onslaught of a full group of witchers and archers with a OL hand filled from encounter 1. I don't think that is realistic.

Kudos to your party for winning this quest though. If your party has an ideal composition, then sure, give it a try. I wouldn't recommend it for most though. There are plenty of other quests that are hero favored in Act II to choose from, like Tipping the Scales. Not a fun quest for the OL!