As the title says, it is my first time playing the game and I'm OL. I'm getting killed by 2 friends playing 2 heroes each. They have won the Intro, A Fat Goblin and Death on The Wing. We still have 1 more quest to play before the interlude, but being that they have won everything we will be playing their interlude "The Shadow Vault". I'm probably pretty terrible being that it is my first game and we have been learning the rules as we go. We definitely have screwed up a bunch of times with regards to the rules and almost everything was in their favour. The last quest "Death on The Wing", I should have won. It was just absolute terrible luck that I didn't win, so I think I'm getting a bit better.

So for the Interlude "the Shadow Vault", help please!

The Heroes I'm facing are Leoric (Necro), Syndrael (Knight), Grisban (Beserker), and Avric (Disciple)

What monsters should I choose to give me the best chance of winning?

Any strategy suggestions that will give me the advantage?

Thanks!

I am a new OL as well, we have one last act II quest before the finale. Interestingly, my two daughters have almost the same heroes, except Jain instead of Grisban.

I will leave the specifics of strategy to those far more in-the-know than me, but let me offer these tidbits because I was where you are a couple months ago.

First, realize this isn't a D&D dungeon crawl. If all you are doing is shoveling different monsters in their way to slow them, you are playing the wrong game.

Second, learn what weaknesses those damnable heroes have and pick that scab. My advice? Hammer at one or two heroes to weaken the entire group. I find it hard to bring down Syndrial but Leoric doesn't take much.

Third, the way you win as the OL is to make the heroes waste actions on things that don't really help them. Conditions are great and making Leoric waste a turn by doing nothing but standing is even better.

Fourth, use the cards wisely. Try an keep card playing to zero in the first encounter. If you can get a good pile of cards heading in to encounter 2, let the devastation commence!

Lastly, learn about your monsters. Some are weaker than others but each has its strength. When I posted something very near what you did right after Christmas, I was whining about how weak those pathetic goblin archers were. I have come to love them because once you learn to play to their strengths and try to minimize their weaknesses, they become damage machines.

Use your first campaign to learn how the game works. I hope this helps.

Try to separate the party as much as possible. If you must kill, focus on leoric

THe hero party you listed doesn't have a rogue archetype so focus on treasure denial. if you manage to keep them at minimum treasure, they won't be able to upgrade their equipment, which is very important later in the game.

Use barghests to drain Avric's stamina (and Griban too, so ti slows him down even more)

Use goblin archers in "shoot and scoot" tactics.