Interesting top 10 video from a well known reviewer. Thought I would share.

EDIT: He would be disappointed by the new changes to Ogres, otherwise his list looks quite decent. I can think of maybe 3-4 monsters being in my own list.

Ironbounds and Fire Imps puzzle me, though. Ironbounds are extremely situational, and Fire Imps are plain crap no matter how you look at it. Medusae also shine as an Act I monster, however much less so in Act II (dealing damage is an issue).

I totally share the same sentiment about Chaos Beasts. They are just that awesome. rats as well, these are just plain mean and a total nightmare for the heroes.

Would be interesting to ask the OLs in this community for their own top 10 list? I could come up with my own in some time maybe. Just for the sake of discussion?

My personal top 10 monster list, not in any particular order:

1) Bandits

2) Kobolds

3) Goblin Archers

4) Volucrix Reaver

5) Razorwing

6) Hybrid Sentinel

7) Ynfernael Hulk

8) Shadow Dragon

9) Harpy

10) Sorcerer

I would be really interested as to why you picked those :-)

My favorite 10 monsters probably are (again without order):

• Goblin Archer - fast, very damaging
• Changelings - very durable, hideous laughter
• Arachyura - attacking two targets at once immobilizing both? yes please!
• Goblin Shamans - I love curse
• Hybrid Sentinel - durable, agil, hit like a sledge hammer
• Barghest - reducing available stamina in a large radius
• Ettins - hit really hard and can throw to mess up hero positioning
• Harpies - fast, flying, damaging in groups
• Bandits - just nasty
• Volucrux Reaver - quick, pierce

I would be really interested as to why you picked those :-)

Sure.

Bandits:

+ Where do I start? High HP. High damage. Large group size. Multiple status effects at once so they actually stick. Pillage inspires fear in the party and can outright modify their behavior to your advantage.

- Borderline OP..?

Kobolds:

+ Crazy numbers. Split. Guaranteed denial of multiple hero turns. Heroes are pushed to spend valuable XP/gold on high quality mutli-target damage such as Dissonance or Shared Pain, or they will have serious problems. Blast isn't good enough if the Overlord positions properly.

- Hard to find the minis for these things.. so proxying is common. Will likely be nerfed in the H&M version.

Goblin Archers:

+ Many of the same qualities as bandits, but in lesser form. Superior range. Fast.

- Cowardly sucks, but it doesn't come into play as often as I thought it would. Still totally worth it.

Volucrix Reaver:

+ Skirmish + Ravage makes them the only Ravage monster I actually enjoy using. Reliable damage due to pierce. Great shock troop.

- Frail. If the heroes have a big turn the entire group may be wiped out before they can do much. Their Act II version scales badly.

Hybrid Sentinel:

+ Durable. Flying. Fire Breath. Bonus damage on weak targets. Big monster power in a small base.

- No real complaints about these guys. They are pretty much perfect for what they do.

Razorwings:

+ Speed! I've won many maps where speed is everything thanks to these guys (e.g. The Overlord Revealed).

- Frail, frail, frail. Weak. Not a fan of the Stun status effect on heroes.

Ynfernael Hulk:

+ High damage. Fairly durable. Fast. Surge-based Knockback is an incredibly useful, quest-winning ability and very reliable compared to the Ettin throw if you have a Dark Might.

- Wish they had better defense dice.

Shadow Dragons:

+ Extremely hard for heroes to deal with early in the campaign due to Shadow and defense. Excellent damage in close quarters, which is where you should be using them.

- Their durability doesn't last once heroes acquire sufficient xp/gear. I rarely use them in Act II.

Harpies:

+ Flying, fast, and strong in numbers. Very reliable surges, which are useful for things like Flurry and other effects. Punishing to isolated heroes!

- Low damage on their own.

Sorcerers:

+ Excellent, reliable damage. Sorcery is a marvelous skill and they use it the best of all the monsters who get it. Summon is a superb skill in quests where you need to ferry units around. This has saved quite a few quests for me by letting me finish a key objective.

- Wish there was 5 of them, as they can get wiped out fast.

Honorable mentions: Barghest/Hellhound, Ogre (CK version), Plague Worm, Changeling (esp. in Nerekhall campaign)

Also I would be remiss in not mentioning the Raven Flock familiar. While not a standard monster, it is my favorite OL card in the game, with a myriad of uses. Want your monster to trigger Split/Undying early to reinforce a master monster? Raven can do that. Want another body to block a hallway with? Raven can do that. No monsters dead but can reinforce? Kill a monster with Raven and immediately reinforce for a free monster! Got a monster with heal? Injure with Raven, then heal up for a free monster! Need another monster to carry a token or open a door? Raven has you covered.

The flock is not a pansy stat-wise either. It has average toughness for a small monster and BR is respectable damage that will also scale up to BRY in Act II. The heroes ignore it at their peril and will likely be forced to spend some time to deal with it. When you are costing heroes actions at what can often be no cost to you, you are winning.

Not draw dependent. Every turn. Uncounterable. Undiscardable. Doesn't consume a card from your hand. They are the closest thing to a flat out upgrade to the OL's power that you can get. Try them! I think you'll love them as much as I do. Contrary to popular belief they do not need additional Unkindness cards to be amazing. 1 exp is all you need.

Carrion Drakes >> Razorwings in my opinion, they have the same speed, they both fly and the Drakes are much more resilient. Only downside is that you only get 3 figures, but that number is still solid for these types of race quests.

OK so here's some of my favorite monsters (only the D2E ones or coming from the H&M packs). There are obvious omissions but the below is really what I use the most whenever allowed by the quests.

1 - Hybrid Sentinel - The perfect monster. Very hard to kill, very mobile, hard-hitting, fire breathm, prey on the weak, mini looks awesome...

2 - Rat Swarm - Alpha striking a high-HP hero has never been as easy. The psychological effect implied by these monsters is the most enjoyable moment in the life of a OL. I also love the fact you can

just stack these monsters in a corridor and deny heroes precious mobility.

3 - Changeling - Hard-hitting monster with huge utility value for those who rely on attribute tests. Heroes want to stay away as much as possible.

4 - Ynfernael Hulk - The fastest large monster in the game. Can deal a good chunk of damage, block corridors, throw, has decent defense.

5 - Chaos Beast - Heroes getting a set of RRB weapons? You play a 4-dices Lieutenant in a Act II quest? Who you gonna call? Sorcery makes sure they hit plain and hard. Who cares about the utility when you can spend a surge to add an attack with an extra green dice? 5-dices Chaos Beast oh my dear.

6 - Carrion Drake - Does race quests very well for great toughness.

7 - Harpy - I love their mechanims, even though they´re still a much fragile monster.

8 - Golem - So perfect in quests where you need to have a huge hinder to whatever area or objective token. High pierce runemaster or treasure hunter? These guys say **** off.

9 - Arachyura - 3 attack dices monster in Act I with Pincer Attack. I don't know, I've always been impressed by their sheer damage.

10 - Crypt Dragon - My new pets. Awesome even if heroes are not weak on Willpower.

Actually Indalecio, the master Razorwing has 6 speed, not 5, making it the fastest monster in the game. That 1 speed makes all the difference and actually ends up being 3 more squares when double move + dash is utilized to leave the heroes in the dust! They are lousy fighters though

Also, I think I need to give Rat Swarms another chance... I hate how frail they are, but I'm starting to see why you like them so much. The fact that they absolutely cannot miss their attacks (no blue die) is a really nice perk that few people mention.

Very cool video, and I agree with a lot of you about the monsters. My personal top 10 (the ones that are go-to monsters for me):

1. Harpy
2. Carrion Drake
3. Hybrid Sentinel
4. Medusa
5. Volucrix Reaver
6. Merriod
7. Sorcerer
8. Barghest
9. Shade
10. Plague Worm

I haven't used the Nerekhall monsters much yet (my bf was the Overlord for that campaign), but those are all great options, of course. I also haven't used the Arachyura much (I'm a stickler for flavorful monsters), but I'm sure if I did, it would be on the top 10. But I definitely focus more on the choices for support-type monsters (Harpies, Medusae) rather than the heavy hitters.

Just a few days ago I used imps

Ironbounds and Fire Imps puzzle me, though. Ironbounds are extremely situational, and Fire Imps are plain crap no matter how you look at it.

Just a few days ago I played first mission in Lair of the Wyrm mini campaign. And I liked imps very much. In one turn you can apply burning to a few heroes and then fallback. I also managed to kill ashrian with death explosion of elite imp after using blood rage on it (it is so much fun). I found that burning condition is quite effective, I really liked it - it brings difficult choice to the heroes. I split imps and forced heroes to slow down because of chasing imps. Ofcourse they can't shoot as far as goblins can, but you can split them without penalty, and burning is sooo sweet. It is like delayed stun, I forced Ashrian to burn 3 turns straight (heroes decided that loosing action on healer can be to much of a loss) , overall that one burn dealt 6 damage. maybe my heroes were doing wrong, but anyway I feel like using imps again.

without any order, i woud say

Bandits

Wraith

Plague worms

hybrid sentinels

Giants

Golems

But there's not ten, and since all heroes and monsters boxes are not all out, I'm not sure for some monsters

Again it would be nice if you could explain, why you like certain monsters.

Yeah sorry Charmy for not remembering the 6-speed on the master Razorwing. If we strictly talk double-move and Dash in the equation, then I agree the extra 1 space can matter a great deal in a race quest. For all other sitiuations I reckon I would personally prefer the extra toughness, though. If the map allows you to move your Razorwing out of range of the heroes then you´re golden, but as long as they can reach you (and there are soooo many abilities allowing heroes to do that, including LOS attacks like Radiant Light or Army of the Dead, free moves, fatigue move, ranged attacks, some of which dont miss with the use of heroic feats etc), I think the extra toughness overshadows the extra move point. In a vacuum. Plus if you lose the master Razorwing you end up with the minions left, which this time are strictly inferior to Carrion Drakes.

This said, in some situations, why not. The fact you are saying you rely on them makes me want to give them another shot. Plus a quest may not allow me to pick Carrion Drakes. I have used Hybrid Sentinels for these types of missions too, but Razorwing do not seem awful for the mission. I just cannot get behind their fragility, that's the main issue for me here.

I´m also curious about ranking Wraiths in your top 10, Rugal. Doom is good, Death Cry "can" be good, but you think they deserve a spot in your top10? Could you please elaborate on this choice?

I´ve used them extensively in my latest MoR campaign, I like ranged monsters as a base, but found Wraiths to be very fragile and too few. They weren't bad or anything, but just not "that great" as deserving a spot in my top 10?

I've had to think about this one for a while, and I think I finally have an answer for you.

Note: I do not play with the conversion kit or use the monsters from the hero and monster packs, so all of my choices will be from the base game and box expansions. Explanations are provided.

Rank 10: Ironbound. These would be higher on the list if they weren't so situational. They are incredibly slow, meaning their only function is to guard specific areas on the map, and usually only ones they start off close to. They are in fact the slowest monsters in the entire game, by virtue of being small. You only get 2 of them, so they are very map dependent. I adore putting two of these together to hold a narrow choke. They have crazy high defense, are immune to pierce and all conditions, and can bodyguard other monsters. They have reach as well, so they can reliably attack if needed. They have rather low damage (the minion doesn't even have a surge ability), making them unsuitable for damage, making them more map dependent. I don't bust these guys out often, but when the map calls for them, I'm practically giddy. There's no tougher monster in the game. (For shenanigans, put two of these next to each other in a 2 space wide hallway, and put my #2 ranked monster behind them for cover. Expect heroes to cry foul.) Note: monsters like the minion ironbound or elementals (which did not make this list) work exceedingly well with the infector overlord class because it grants them the ability to utilize surges rolled when they would otherwise be wasted.

Rank 9: Changeling. Your all around melee fighter types. These small monsters can be brutal, and are extremely versatile. They have a speed of 4 and you get 4 of them, making them reasonably quick to move about and you get enough to make them useful. They do very good damage on melee attacks, and their defense dice with decent hit points makes them tough enough to take a few hits. Hideous Laughter on the master is exceptional for making your other effects stick, and pairs very well with basic deck 2 (my preferred deck) and overlord cards which force tests (which tend to be more powerful than ones that always work). Wither can be brutal for taking away hero options, and if they're maxed on fatigue, translates to extra damage anyway. Whisper can be very handy in the right circumstances, and bleeding is always handy for limiting resources to the hero (they lose stamina or they lose actions, either is good for you). An excellent, versatile, all around handy monster to have around. They have good damage dice as well.

Rank 8: Shadow Dragons. Pretty much the only big monster I frequently employ by choice, these guys excel at buying time. Their enormous size (2x3 spaces) makes them well suited to blocking areas of the map, and their shadow ability makes them much harder to deal with than ettins by dramatically weakening melee attacks against the. And of course, the master has fire breath, which makes him a threat the heroes need to approach cautiously, which of course, buys more time. I have, on occasion, when I run basic 1 (which is not often but I do sometimes), managed to hit all 4 party members for 10 damage in act 1 with a single shot with a dark might and critical strike card when I rolled 5 damage and 2 surges on the dice. Their durability combined with the respect for their potential damage means that the heroes cannot take these lightly, which can buy you a lot of time to pursue objectives. Also, utilizing the expand rules, they are much faster than they appear.

Rank 7: Plague Worm. These guys are tough, come in 3's (the only monster group with 3 members to make this list), and are far more mobile than they seem. They do okay damage, have weaken (one of my favorite conditions), can burrow to avoid terrain, and can disrupt hero positioning (while hurting their stamina too!). Pestilence is a nice boost: anything that can attack stamina is good, as it buys you time as the overlord.

Rank 6: Barghest. Tough, fast, medium monsters that come in packs of 4. They have Howl, a spectacularly useful ability. Enough said.

Rank 5: Flesh Moulders. I'm probably one of the only people around who actually adores this monster group, but I think most people underestimate them. They don't do a lot of damage and aren't especially tanky, but they can handle incidental damage better than most monsters with mend, they have reasonable range, and they come in a group of 4. The master is the real favorite in this group though, heal is an exceptional ability. Whenever you have a monster or group of monsters that you can't let die or use to buy time with (like Ironbound!), putting a master flesh moulder behind them to heal every round can really buy you an immense amount of time. Consider the first map of Nerekhall (for those of you who have played it). Every time I play that map, I do my utmost to get my Ironbound with Tristayne to the corridor and get my master flesh moulder over there. I block off the hallway, use the Ironbound to tank for Tristayne, and heal the ironbound with the Flesh Moulder. It tends to buy me an extra 2-3 turns, which easily seals the deal. Admittedly, heal falls off in act 2, making these monsters fairly useless in the second act, but using them properly in the first act can help you get into a position where the heroes are struggling to keep up, rather than dominating you going into the second act. They pair great with any lieutenant which is tanky as well. Playing the Shadow Rune, if I get my hands on the Shield of Zorek's Favor relic from Death on the Wing (I often do), dealing with any high might lieutenant paired with flesh moulders is virtually impossible.

Rank 4: Goblin Archers. First, you get 5 of them. Second, they do pretty decent damage, and are extremely fast units, making them suitable to kiting heroes. Third, they have scamper, meaning they literally can't be blocked. A group of 5 of these can make short work of pretty much anyone. Also, they're ranged, and have surges for bonus range, making them suitable to long range assaults.

Rank 3: Harpies. You get 4 of them, which is a decent amount, but most importantly, they do damage. And by damage, I mean enormous bucketloads of hahahahahaha you're a corpse. They are exceedingly mobile, having a speed of 5 and fly to ignore terrain. The minions roll a green and a blue die, making it highly likely for a surge to be rolled, allowing swarm to activate frequently. There is no better monster in the game better for punishing a hero from getting isolated or wandering. They are quick and brutal. The master does lower damage than the minions (rare, I know) due to it's substantially lower odds of surge rolling, but the flock ability on it significantly enhances your ability to utilize the minions. I find myself using it to flock twice in one turn fairly often, moving all the minions 4 spaces to get the swarm, so they can all do maximum damage on their turn then retreat with their second action, forcing the heroes to waste actions or stamina chasing. In this way, even though the master doesn't do much damage comparatively, it causes all harpies to be skirmishers with crazy damage. Harpies are fantastic for chasing down objectives as well.

Rank 2: Volucrux Reavers. I adore these monstrosities. Firstly, you get 4 of them, which makes their damage potential quite high. Secondly, they have surge for piercing 2, allowing them to destroy pretty much any target with ease (act 2 master gets piercing 3 =p). Most importantly, they are absurdly mobile: move action plus skirmish gets you seven spaces and an attack. Skirmish moves spaces without spending movement points, so you can ignore water terrain with it. One of my favorite strategies is to pair them with a big tank monster (like a Merriod, for example) and have them skirmish to attack, then move action back behind the tank. They are squishy, but their mobility combined with crazy damage output through negating defense makes these a terror to heroes. They aren't highly durable, but if you play your cards right, they shouldn't get attacked anyway. Also, the master has ravage for 2 attacks a turn.

Finally, my favorite!

Rank 1: Bandits. These monsters are absolutely amazing when utilized properly. Firstly, you get 5 of them, so right off the bat they are near the top for damage output. They have a ranged attack, making them flat out superior to melee monsters by sheer virtue of versatility. They can kite. They aren't as fast as goblin archers, but they are only one shy and are a little tougher (lower defense on the minions, higher HP overall). The minions don't have much in the way of surge abilities (+1 (or 2 in act 2) damage or poison), but they roll a blue and red, which is, on average, better than a blue and yellow for raw damage. Pillage is terrifying, they can permanently destroy player loot if uses properly. The masters have lower damage on average than the minions (in act 1, but it's higher in act 2 than minions), but they come with black venom, one of the best surge abilities in the game. Doom + Poison can annihilate low might targets, and it makes one of the conditions far more likely to stick because healers can typically only automatically remove one condition per turn. The combination of high numbers of them, brutal abilities, and decent stats makes these my favorite monsters in the game. These midrange units are devastating.

Good stuff.

I've also come to appreciate numerous small shooters like Bandits, Lava Beetles, and Goblins to lesser extent, but since heroes area attack effects have been dominating all of our previous campaigns I have somehow refrained from giving them free kills. I can control Blast (well... not always), but LOS effects, extra attacks from familiars, and half the heroic feats around give heroes the reach they need to avoid getting kited or trapped in guerilla tactics. At least I´ve found. Then sure, OL cards help mitigate that, but generally speaking you rather want to be outside range of the heroes as long as you cannot strike them with full strength. Maybe hiding behind a big fat wall of a monster would be the natural way to go with those.

Because it's very difficult in this game to stay out of line of sight and be 1-2 spaces away from short shooting range. BR is indeed very powerful, but BY gives way better range, which means minion bandits almost have to operate 2 spaces away from their target, 4 at max (and I tend to miss those rolls...). With "only" 4 move points, that means heroes can get to you very easily. Getting the surge is also harder on BR, so I often shoot with the master first to try and get Doom on the target before my "unit" storms in.

I´ve never been able to pull out Pillage. The ranger is typically operating a bit off the main party, so unless she's jumping right in the middle of the monsters I have never bothered dedicate a full 5-man party to chase her down while the main party progresses unchecked. A couple of Bandits is not enough to take one hero down.

I like Bandits the most when they operate on the side of an objective, like Skarn moving in one of the quests in MoR. They sit there at range while heroes try to spend actions for moving to the target (Skarn) and dish damage, leaving bandits unchecked.

I've managed to make it work a fair bit, through a combination of overlord cards, plot cards, and careful positioning. The Wristlet of Wind enchanter card is a 1 xp card that is exceptional on bandits, and I nearly always buy it now (since it's a great card in general). Sticking bandits behind tougher monsters works extremely well. Using grease trap to force heroes to move too far forward so you can jump on them with monsters that were previously just out of range and pillage them works. Combining them with other monsters that can force movement can accomplish the same thing.

They do require a bit more planning then some other monsters, they aren't as easy to use well. It always depends on the hero group what you can use as well: if your heroes are extremely AoE heavy, then naturally more middle size or large size monsters will fare better.

I'm a hero player at the moment and the monsters that give me the biggest problems are below in no real order and I can't immediately remember why but I'm sure the OL players will know, I pick my heroes semi randomly, a luck dip of 1 from each catergory, so this could also have a bearing

Sorcerors - for their sorcery ability, I always seem to take heavy damage.

Rat swarms - this could have been due to the scenario but they were good delayers and did some high damage and kept reappearing.

Bandits - seemed to be good all rounders

Ironbound - hard to get past

Shadow dragons - particularly early on. big blockers and I think that it was these that have eaten a hero on a couple of occasions taking him out of play for a few turns as they eat and then run away with the hero

Kobolds - Just so many to get by makes it very difficult to concentrate on the mission.

There are stil a few monsters that I have yet to fight but these I remember as being annoying.

Can I use "Whisper" to move a hero through a channel ? (like Respected Citizen ,some tokens can be used to move)

Can I use "Whisper" to move a hero through a channel ? (like Respected Citizen ,some tokens can be used to move)

ex. 2 same color Objective tokens connect 2 different map tiles .

Figures can move with these token .

When playing the overlord I like having many monster figures to play around with. I also like high speed creatures or with abilities that make them mobile (like fly). With a lot of creatures and a lot of movement I feel that I have a lot of options as OL, and I find that fun. I don't have all the expansions, so Bandits and Rat Swarms like they would fit my playstyle, but I've never actually tried them.

In no particular order:

• Goblin Archers
• Goblin Witchers
• Fire Imps
• Cave Spider
• Carrion Drake
• Barghest
• Hybrid Sentinel
• Harpy
• Voulucrix Reaver
• Flesh Moulder

(ignore this)

if you do not have Oath of the Outcast, if might be worth picking up for the Razorwings. There are up to 4 of them, they fly, and the master has a speed of 6.

After playing a new campaign, I have to say... the Crow Hag tops my list. Pretty high health, nice defense, and always have a master version. That Death Omen ability is beyond useful. She pecks away at the heroes for four health, or if the heroes are getting close to her, 2 health and a movement of 5 (which is amazing on its own). She literally never has to attack, just bring the pain with conditions or unavoidable damage increments of 2. Bandits, who I haven't used prior to this campaign, also proved their usefulness. So my new list:

1. Crow Hag
2. Bandit
3. Harpy
4. Carrion Drake
5. Hybrid Sentinel
6. Sorcerer
7. Manticore (love that ranged ravage and pierce)
8. Barghest
9. Medusa
10. Plague Worm

1.Kobolds
2.Hellhounds

3.Bandits
4.Medusa
5.Barghests
6.Shadow Dragons

7.Golem
8.Plague Worm
9.rats

After playing a new campaign, I have to say... the Crow Hag tops my list. Pretty high health, nice defense, and always have a master version. That Death Omen ability is beyond useful. She pecks away at the heroes for four health, or if the heroes are getting close to her, 2 health and a movement of 5 (which is amazing on its own). She literally never has to attack, just bring the pain with conditions or unavoidable damage increments of 2. Bandits, who I haven't used prior to this campaign, also proved their usefulness. So my new list:

1. Crow Hag
2. Bandit
3. Harpy
4. Carrion Drake
5. Hybrid Sentinel
6. Sorcerer
7. Manticore (love that ranged ravage and pierce)
8. Barghest
9. Medusa
10. Plague Worm

I'm not surprised as they seem to be OP beyond belief. They won't be included in any of my campaigns unless specifically stated.