Good day to you folks,

our group of heroes got crushed in the first scene of Hoard of Monster. It was our first act II quest and he used Razorwings as his open Group. As a result we will have to cope with teleporting Monster while going by foot ourselves.

Our overlord uses the unstable forces plot deck of Tristayne Olliven in combination with the Raven flock, which allows him to dish out lots of damage without big consequences. he has access to any Monster released in Big or Small Box expansions or as part of a Hero and Monster pack.

Our heroes are Mok as a Barde, Laurel as a Thief, Trenloe as a Champion and Astarra as a Hexer.

Without teleporting the rightmost spot for the bow seems really far away. Does it make sense to try and get it in the limited amount of turns we have? Or should we focus on the spots nearby and gamble?I would be grateful for any advice on how to turn around this mess to may be get the Bow.

You have 8 turns, and that's actually a long time. I managed (miraculously or fatefully, depending how you look at it) to defeat a team of heroes that won encounter 1- the key was keeping multiple heroes down at once- and I was able to isolate the hero who found the bow (since it can't be dropped like an objective token can.)

Crowd control is important. As such, I'd say use your positioning to limit the movement of the monsters- if you're standing on one of the middle teleporters, there's really no effect- but if you're standing on one of the end ones, you can prevent the monsters from moving around. If he chooses shadow dragons to guard the exit, you'll need to take them down- unless your thief has Tumble- could be really useful here. That, or Astarra is probably your best bet as a mobile hero- and Mok's Dissonance can grant extra MP to everyone. I don't see any reason to search the back token first- the chances are higher that it is not there. I'd suggest making a counterclockwise circle of the map- go right, check the back, and then swing up toward the exit- you can do that in 8 turns. If you really want to, you could split- send part of the party right and part of the party left- the left party can deal with the open group, while the right party searches more tokens. The biggest threat to you is losing actions by being KO'd or immobilized, here, so I wouldn't split up unless you think you can handle it.

A question you should really consider before going in is- do you want Trueshot? (I only ask because when my heroes chose this map, I was very confused, as they didn't even have a scout, and the only character that could have logically equipped Trueshot was their beastmaster.) As it's not a magic weapon, really only Mok or Laurel could effectively use it- if they're already set for weapons, maybe treasure is what you want instead? Luckily for you, in this quest winning depends on searching, too.

First of thanks for Input Zaltyre, it is really welcome. We didn't even manage to get one search token in scene one, as the overlord managed to kill Frederick in turn 2. We choose this Quest to indeed try to get Trueshot for our thief Laurel. Laurel has bought tumble to get an advantage. Astarra bought Elven Boots so she could teleport right away. I'm afraid that our hero group doesn't have enough action to move and defend themselves at the same time. Our overlord has already spend Dark Charm, 1 Frenzy and both dash card to kill Frederick in scene 1 one. I agree that splitting up doesn't seem like such a good idea, as every lost action weights heavily. Which Monster would you choose as you open Groups?

With the disclaimer that I had lost encounter 1 and this was pre manor or the H&M packs, I chose fire imps and shadow dragons. I used the fire imps because they're fast, and ranged, and burn (action waster.) Additionally, there is lava for them to heal in (honestly, I wanted them to be a distraction, since I was trying to stall the heroes for 8 whole turns. As it turns out, they worked well for ganging up on a single hero.) The shadow dragons blocked the exit. I kept the master protected until I had Dark Might and Dark Fortune in my hand, and managed an 11 damage fire breath on 3 heroes- that was crucial to my win.

If it weren't for Tumble, I'd trade out my shadow dragons for Golems, hands down to plug the exit. Immovable + Ironskin does a great blockade make. Hybrids or Lava beetles would also be under consideration. I wasn't operating with the CK, but Kobolds have the cave trait- since you can't teleport, it's a great way to slow you down.

Trenloe is carrying Valyndra's Bane making him kill large Monsters really fast. In combination with his heroic feat I don't think Shadow Dragons would last very long.

The Overlord has the choice between:

Bane Spiders, Beastman, Cave Spiders, Elemental, Ettin, Fire Imps, Giants, Golems, Harpy, Hybrid Sentinel, Lava Beetle, Plague Worm, Razorwing, Shadow Dragon, Volucrix Reaver, Wendigo and Ynfernael Hulks (no Kobolds, I'm sorry ;-))

and has to keep in mind that reinforcements only bring him a Goblin Archer at the start of each turn.

Following your suggestions it would make sense for the overlord to choose Monster Groups forcing the heroes to split up spend actions to kill them like Lava Beetles, Giants or Hybrid Sentinels. The Sentinels have nice defense die and hit like a truck. Astarra and Laurel only have 2 might so they are a nice target for prey on the weak. Lava Beetles with Blast and range attack are highly ennoying but very fragile. Giants hit hard, have lots of HP and can hit multiple heroes and at the same time stun them. Wendigos look nice too, having stealth and freezing to make them come close and loose fatigue. Elementals using Earth to immobilize the heroes doesn't seem like such a bad idea too.

Mhhh sounds like it could be a really tough fight for our hero group. 8 Turns doesn't seem like much ...

After rereading the rules I'm not so sure there is a way to prevent the overlord from teleporting as line of sight between teleporters isn't blocked by any figure.

For your interest he's planning on using Bane Spiders and Elementals to immobilize the heroes by utilizing hit and run through the teleporters.

After rereading the rules I'm not so sure there is a way to prevent the overlord from teleporting as line of sight between teleporters isn't blocked by any figure.

For your interest he's planning on using Bane Spiders and Elementals to immobilize the heroes by utilizing hit and run through the teleporters.

You cannot block by standing on the in between tokens- but if you're standing on one of the "terminal" tokens, you do indeed block it- you move to the other token "as if they were adjacent spaces." Can you spend a MP to move into an adjacent space occupied by an enemy figure? No.