Suggestions on expansion packs

By revy, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

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Just got base descent 2e for Christmas from my wife (she's the best). Currently my play group is coming up to the interlude and we are all having a blast. Last week everyone kept asking about expansions for the next campaign. I've searched the forums, it seems most people suggest to buying a big box expansion or the conversion kit first, but I thought it wise to ask once more.

Could I have suggestions on what expansion(s) I should buy first? I have only base descent 2e and don't have enough minis that I would want to proxy for the conversion kit. I would say that I have a ~$80-100 budget to purchase a few expansions for us to play around with. In our current campaign I would say that the heros and OL (myself) are pretty evenly balanced, so keep that in mind when suggesting.

Thanks all!

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Without question, Labyrinth of Ruin or Shadow of Nerekhall should be your priority, you get the most bang for your buck and you get another big campaign to play through. Get at least 1 or 2 lieutenant packs to play with as well, which ones are up to you, and depend on your personal preferences.

Small boxes (Trollfens, Manor of Ravens, Lair of the Wyrm, in that order in my opinion) should be next.

Finally, you can consider the hero and monster packs.

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Buy a new lieutenant before each campaign, these only give cards to the overlord and you can only use one per campaign.

Go for a big box expansion first, alternating campaigns will stop the game from getting stale.

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Thanks for the suggestions so far. Would you say that it makes sense to add 2 expansions worth of materials at a time, or just 1 expansion + a lieutenant pack?

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I am a new player in descent2 and i bought as my first expansion lair of thw wyrm. I think it s better to buy a smaller expansion because it s easier for new players to learn better and consistently the game. Then, i am planning to buy some monster and hero collection and liutenant packs. After that, i am going to buy a bigger expansion, probably labyrinth of ruin.

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Thanks for the suggestions so far. Would you say that it makes sense to add 2 expansions worth of materials at a time, or just 1 expansion + a lieutenant pack?

Both options are good.

I think that having one lieutenant pack is a must. It will give your OL more play options and the cost of a single lieutenant pack is fairly low compared to M&H pack or expansions.

On the other hand, having two expansions will add extra heroes, extra monsters, extra cards and (maybe) some new mechanics.

You might want to consider :

- 1 big box expansion

- 1 small box expansion

- 1 lieutenant pack

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There should really be a pinned thread for "which expansion to buy." Here are a few of the questions/answers from the past, you should find a lot of helpful information in there:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/92678-what-expansion-should-i-get/

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/111567-which-expansion-to-get/

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/99623-expansions-which-one-to-buy/

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/128244-a-newbie-asks-what-to-buy/

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/131977-which-big-box-expansion/

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/122796-just-got-the-game-which-expansion-first/

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At least one thread pops up a week, a sticky or pinned post would be a good place to collect all the advice :)

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Welcome Revy,

Like you, I got Descent 2e for Christmas from someone special (if you count me as "special"). Based on the suggestions on this forum, I bought Labyrinth of Ruin over Shadows of Nerekhall because the deck from LoR can be integrated even into the Shadow Rune campaign where SoN cannot, so to me that seemed like value added. I also bout a small box (Lair of the Wyrm) and a H&M pack (Cult of the Forgotten) because I knew my two daughters would appreciate playing girly heroes (their term).

To add to this thread, my question is this: are there better Lt. packs? I don't have any yet and have been thinking about getting a couple. Any suggestions?

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To add to this thread, my question is this: are there better Lt. packs? I don't have any yet and have been thinking about getting a couple. Any suggestions?

This is purely personal taste, but I have no real desire to own all of the LT packs- I'm on of the anomalous players who doesn't mind using tokens to represent LTs, and none of the packs would get enough use if I had all... 17, now?

Anyway, I've decided to just focus on packs for the "end bosses." Mirklace, Ariad, Bol'goreth, Zachareth, etc. The figures are indeed more impressive for the central characters, and most of them tend to be the large monsters, anyway. That does limit my agent summoning, but that's not why I get the packs really.

As with the other monsters, LT packs vary in power. Some are full of great cards (Zachareth,) some have rather wimpy cards with just a few priceless cards (Mirklace,) some cost lots of threat, others are cheap to play. They also cater to different playstyles. Belthir's deck, for example, is all about Basic 1. It's useless with Basic 2. Alric's deck is about tanking monsters, making them harder to kill.

(This isn't to say I dislike the LT packs. I received Alric as a gift, and really enjoy it. I'm just not going out of my way to collect them all.)

Edited by Zaltyre
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I love the Shadow of Nerekhall campaign. You could certainly get away with buying just one new lieutenant pack per campaign. Those are only $10-15 each and bear in mind you get much more than just the figure. The plot deck, in my opinion, is equally important (if not more so, that's just a matter of personal taste, but by no means are you just getting the figure). As time goes on, more hero and monster packs are becoming available, so it grows increasingly less relevant to purchase the conversion kit. I'd be concerned that there aren't enough hero and monster options to choose from and would start looking at hero and monster packs too. I just got one on Coolstuff.inc for $17.49.

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Thanks for the suggestions so far. Would you say that it makes sense to add 2 expansions worth of materials at a time, or just 1 expansion + a lieutenant pack?

Both options are good.

I think that having one lieutenant pack is a must. It will give your OL more play options and the cost of a single lieutenant pack is fairly low compared to M&H pack or expansions.

On the other hand, having two expansions will add extra heroes, extra monsters, extra cards and (maybe) some new mechanics.

You might want to consider :

- 1 big box expansion

- 1 small box expansion

- 1 lieutenant pack

If we continue down this road I'll just end up buying everything in one go! Well... that does sound good now that I've typed it out. Thanks for your input, I think 1 big, 1 small, and 1 lieutenant wont break the bank.

I agree 100%, a sticky post at the top with expansion suggestions would be great. I found a good deal of those threads and gave a read, but felt like asking the question anyway.

Welcome Revy,

Like you, I got Descent 2e for Christmas from someone special (if you count me as "special"). Based on the suggestions on this forum, I bought Labyrinth of Ruin over Shadows of Nerekhall because the deck from LoR can be integrated even into the Shadow Rune campaign where SoN cannot, so to me that seemed like value added. I also bout a small box (Lair of the Wyrm) and a H&M pack (Cult of the Forgotten) because I knew my two daughters would appreciate playing girly heroes (their term).

To add to this thread, my question is this: are there better Lt. packs? I don't have any yet and have been thinking about getting a couple. Any suggestions?

Thanks, I'm glad to be here! This seems like a really compelling reason to go with LoR as the first big box expansion. My wife only likes to play "cute" heroes, so that's a useful suggestion. Thanks.

I love the Shadow of Nerekhall campaign. You could certainly get away with buying just one new lieutenant pack per campaign. Those are only $10-15 each and bear in mind you get much more than just the figure. The plot deck, in my opinion, is equally important (if not more so, that's just a matter of personal taste, but by no means are you just getting the figure). As time goes on, more hero and monster packs are becoming available, so it grows increasingly less relevant to purchase the conversion kit. I'd be concerned that there aren't enough hero and monster options to choose from and would start looking at hero and monster packs too. I just got one on Coolstuff.inc for $17.49.

Ugh, right after someone presents a compelling argument to go with LoR as first big box you come in and tell me how awesome SoR is! I'll be sure to pick up a lieutenant or two. Like Zaltyre above I don't really have a desire to own all of the lieutenants, but having the major bosses and an interesting plot deck here or there sounds good. I agree with you on the H&M packs, I may consider buying one of those in this first batch. The conversion kit is tremendous bang for the buck if you have the original minis, but I don't (a former boyfriend of a girl in my playgroup had D1 and wont sell) and not having the original minis is a deal-breaker for me (I know it's crazy).

Thanks to everyone so far for the suggestions. My group is meeting this Sunday (if the weather doesn't end up snowy) and I'll offer up a few options to them and see what they're interested in. I'll make some decisions and report back later.

Edited by revy
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For the record, I don't own the conversion kit or any of the hero and monster packs, and I don't ever feel like I'm lacking for options on a quest for monster picks.

The box expansions seem quite sufficient to me for monster selections.

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When buying LT packs remember you can't run a lieutenant from the same campaign you are running.

Serena and Raythen are my favourites, they double as hero's or allies when running the campaign they come from.

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To add to this thread, my question is this: are there better Lt. packs? I don't have any yet and have been thinking about getting a couple. Any suggestions?

This is purely personal taste, but I have no real desire to own all of the LT packs- I'm on of the anomalous players who doesn't mind using tokens to represent LTs, and none of the packs would get enough use if I had all... 17, now?

Anyway, I've decided to just focus on packs for the "end bosses." Mirklace, Ariad, Bol'goreth, Zachareth, etc. The figures are indeed more impressive for the central characters, and most of them tend to be the large monsters, anyway. That does limit my agent summoning, but that's not why I get the packs really.

As with the other monsters, LT packs vary in power. Some are full of great cards (Zachareth,) some have rather wimpy cards with just a few priceless cards (Mirklace,) some cost lots of threat, others are cheap to play. They also cater to different playstyles. Belthir's deck, for example, is all about Basic 1. It's useless with Basic 2. Alric's deck is about tanking monsters, making them harder to kill.

(This isn't to say I dislike the LT packs. I received Alric as a gift, and really enjoy it. I'm just not going out of my way to collect them all.)

Hmmm this raises a question for me: if each Lt pack comes with its own figure and mini deck, does that means they can't be used for others-- do I have to have the Splig Lt pack to use it for Splig? Or, if Zacareth is in play this quest, could I use the Splig deck?

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When buying LT packs remember you can't run a lieutenant from the same campaign you are running.

Serena and Raythen are my favourites, they double as hero's or allies when running the campaign they come from.

Not true, you simply cannot summon them as an Agent. You can still use the deck. The summoning as Agent tends to be a weak option anyway. That refers only to major story characters: you can't summon Zachareth as an Agent in The Shadow Rune. His deck works fine, you just lose out on that one card.

@Krejaton: You choose one deck at the start of the campaign, and you never get to switch.

Edited by Whitewing
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@Krejaton: You choose one deck at the start of the campaign, and you never get to switch.

Thx WW!