Okay so here is my situation. I already own the Base Game, Shadow of Nerekhall and the conversion kit. Yesterday I saw the Labyrinth of Ruin expansion highly discounted at a local game store and was thinking about picking it up.

But here is the thing. Is it worth picking it up?

The volcruix reavers look like cool monsters, the other seem forgettable though (despite looking cool).

The hero classes seem to be a little off balance (maybe except the apotecary class).

Most people say the Nerekhall campaign is more interesting, so I don't know if I should consider the LoR campaign a selling point.

So what do you like about Labyrinth of Ruin?

Is there anything the Labyrinth of Ruin campaign does better than the Nerekhall campaign?

Are the quests a little less corridor like than the base campaign and are you able to take alternate paths to the same locations?

What is the best feature about Laybrinth of Ruin that makes you consider it a "must-own" or is at least a highly appealing reason to get it?

thx for your answers

regards

DA_Maz

I really like enjoy the Labyrinth of Ruin campaign. Heroes get one of two companions depending on the chosen quests. Both influence the further story and facilitate new tactics which is a nice change from original campaign. The new monster are fun to play around with. Volucrix are mobile, fast and really damaging, Goblin Witcher are a total pain in the ass with curse and forced movement, Arachyura strong, resilient, and can attack two target at once immobilizing both at the same time, dragons are funny in combination with other monsters which can spread poison or diseases. The Missions are interesting story-wise and from a game design point of view.

I would recommend to pick the expansion up, especially for a lower price.

.I LOVE Labyrinth of Ruin. Volucrux Reavers are among my favorite overall monsters. Arachyura are interesting and can be rather useful in the right circumstances. The classes are a lot of fun (minus the hexer IMO, but the others are good), the added equipment is good, the quests are fun and interesting, the new villain is fun, I just love the entire box.

I don't think balance is very off on the classes. The treasure hunter is a little bit on the strong side but not by much in my opinion, and I think the wildlander is just a tiny bit stronger regardless. The other classes are fine balance wise.

LoR is absolutely worth it (especially discounted.) There are lots of things I like about LoR, but primarily, I like the loads of new content it offers.

The campaign does allies- that's a unique feature of LoR you won't find in another campaign. It also has some very creative quests, such as "Let the Truth Be Buried." In encounter 1, Splig is trying to drag a chain across a room, and in encounter 2, the floor is heavily slanted, which really changes up the movement mechanic.

There are actually a few "must-own" points, for me:

1) Basic 2 OL deck. This adds a completely new angle for the OL, one that is less directly powerful, but one I've found can be sometimes devastating, and always fun.

2) 4 new hero classes- who doesn't like having more options for hero classes? The hexer, beastmaster, treasure hunter, and apothecary are all very cool classes, and the heroes that come with them are also quite useful.

3) A new campaign- having 3 full length campaigns means even if you play Descent a lot, you can cycle through the campaigns (rather than just alternating, ) and it will be a good long while before it has a chance to get repetitive. Not only that, but playing with Raythen vs Serena is quite different, and opens up different Act 1 quests.

why not ?

since there's monsters, classes, and heroes, why not take it ?

I prefer Nekerhall but LoR is still supercool. Loads of content. And it's hard not to fall in love with Raythen. Great character. Often use him as a hero in campaigns now (as a treasure hunter or thief.)

thx for your answers you all bring up good points.

My problem is just that while I play a good amount of Descent I don't play it very regularly. So I think it will take me some time to finish the Nerekhall campaign and maybe they will release a new campaign-expension until then. One thing that doesn't hype me for Labyrinth of Ruin is that the new tiles seem so similar to the base game in comparison to Nerekhall that I can't really judge if it feels different enough theme wise from what the base game offers or if it's just a bigger and better shadow rune campaign.

I agree with all the other points, we have played the campaign a couple of times and they have both been pretty even.

By winning quests Heroes can add skills to their ally which extends the character building mechanic we all enjoy in these games. The items are good too and pretty balanced.

For the Overlord Volucrux Reavers are awesome, essentially move twice and attack with their skirmish abilities. Arachuyar are good too, great blockers and the master can attack multiple all adjacent figures. The heroes get the Apothecary, Beastmaster and Treasure Hunter classes which are all good classes and the Hexer as well.

I would definetly get it IMO I enjoyed it more than Shadow of Nerekhall.

I would say that LoR has better classes than SoN. It also has more useful monsters for an overlord player. You're right about the tileset though.

SoN has some really interesting heroes and as you've mentioned the tileset is really good. It has one absolutely amazing monster - the Ironbound - which can completely change how you play the game.

I think LoR is "more of the same" (which isn't a bad thing, especially with the classes) and SoN is a bit more experimental, seeing what they can do with the format.

If I could just have one of the two I'd go with LoR.

I agree with all the other points, we have played the campaign a couple of times and they have both been pretty even.

By winning quests Heroes can add skills to their ally which extends the character building mechanic we all enjoy in these games. The items are good too and pretty balanced.

The campaign itself is pretty balanced. However, we made the mistake of allowing the OL to use the Mirklace plot deck- shifting earth has been used at least 3 times at key moments to end quests against the heroes (in general, I'm against nerfs- but that card is crazy.) We're not playing with rumors. Anyway, we're about to play the finale, and we have only won 2 quests- gathering foretold, and web of power. My point is, we've lost all 3 of the quests that would give Serena upgrades. She's still as weak in the finale as she was during the first act 1 quest- oh - and the OL has acquired a total of 13 XP.

I finally bought the expansion for the same price as a hero&monster pack and as I spend about the same time painting the miniatures as playing the game I have to say it was worth it. I finally got hero miniatures that are comparable to the base set quality wise (man they were a disapointment in SoN and even the hero&monster packs are a big step down except crown of destiny). The volucrix reaver models and the dragons really are awesome, goblin witchers and the spiders seem a bit boring though, but are well sculpted.

From a quick glance over the questbook it seems to be the most RPG-like campaign where you can choose between two alternate paths. Additionally the whole set-up seems to be the most light-hearted of the three that doesn't take itself very serious which is a nice change to the seemingly serious SoN campaign. I mean it's "Did you hear about this place at the boarders of Terrinoth were big treasures are burried?, let's test our luck" vs. "We have to save the world".

The only little disapointment so far is that there are no real "one encounter quests" with big and highly connected maps (like in SoN) and that a good chunk of the maps still is a single twisted path, but let's see how that plays out.

thx for all your input

regards

DA_Maz