So what happens when I place a summoned stone on the entrance/ exit and the OL is using large monsters as Reinforcements... where are a the Reinforcenents placed? Are they placed?

As in any case with reinforcements, they are placed as much on the designated tile as possible, or if that is impossible, as close to the tile as possible.

You can never block reinforcements unless the rules specifically say that the monster cannot be placed outside a given area (I think Enduring the Elements might have that wording.)

This applies to more than reinforcements. If the necromancer wants to summon his reanimate in an adjacent space but there are no empty adjacent spaces, he can summon it 2 spaces away instead.

OK so can I place the Monster halfway off the Gameboard? The Stones are on the first two spaces adjacent to the next tile for instance..

No- it reinforces in the closest LEGAL spot to the entrance. So, if it is supposed to reinforce on the entrance and you are making that impossible, the figure would instead spawn on whatever tile the entrance is connected to, as close to the entrance as possible.

Blocking spaces on the reinforcement tile HELPS the OL spawn large monsters close to the action, rather tha hindering. In fact, a clever OL may position his small monsters to allow him to place a large monster further into the board on purpose.

The same rule applies to small monsters, but more rarely since every space must be filled on the relevant tile before they are displaced.

Also, wasn't tehre a recent ruling from FFG that monster groups have to be placed in such a way that they fit? So no placing one monster in the middle of the tile, then declaring "oh no, the other monster doesn't fit any more, so I'll place him all the way over here"

That ruling was specifically for setup. In any case, even if it apply to reinforcements, it would only be when you are reinforcing multiple monsters on the same time at the same time, which is rare.

OK, thank you for clarifying. For safety's sake I just used the other entrance as a spawn point.

As in any case with reinforcements, they are placed as much on the designated tile as possible, or if that is impossible, as close to the tile as possible.

You can never block reinforcements unless the rules specifically say that the monster cannot be placed outside a given area (I think Enduring the Elements might have that wording.)

This applies to more than reinforcements. If the necromancer wants to summon his reanimate in an adjacent space but there are no empty adjacent spaces, he can summon it 2 spaces away instead.

Just played a quest where this rule may have ruined any chance to win Encounter1. Was playing Cardinal's Plight, E1. Shadow Dragons as an open group. Merrick Failed about 4 times. Yet he escaped with all 4 zombies. Now I get that one of the biggest moves the OL made was to Dark Charm Ashrian into the middle of a group of monsters ( all out of range of her ability) and they just beat her senseless and kept her off the field for a couple of solid turns. Bad enough that is takes forever to kill Shadow Dragons. Unfortunately when one of the Dragons came in as a Rienforcement, there was actually no legal spot to place him on except in the small pathway in front of the heroes. Yeah...

On the plus side, still playing E2 and the Cardinal seems to be holding his own.

You must have been getting extremely well put down if Merrik takes minimum 9, or thereabouts, turns to get his zombies off the board without being able to punch through and stop at least 1.

Out of academic curiosity do you have a map overlay of what was blocking the shadow dragon from spawning near the entrance? I can count around 9 spawn points for 3x2 monsters on the 4a tile (admittedly some well placed figures cut that number down pretty quickly)

More bizarrely is the cardinal holding his own against 5 zombies for any length of time.

As in any case with reinforcements, they are placed as much on the designated tile as possible, or if that is impossible, as close to the tile as possible.

You can never block reinforcements unless the rules specifically say that the monster cannot be placed outside a given area (I think Enduring the Elements might have that wording.)

This applies to more than reinforcements. If the necromancer wants to summon his reanimate in an adjacent space but there are no empty adjacent spaces, he can summon it 2 spaces away instead.

Just played a quest where this rule may have ruined any chance to win Encounter1. Was playing Cardinal's Plight, E1. Shadow Dragons as an open group. Merrick Failed about 4 times. Yet he escaped with all 4 zombies. Now I get that one of the biggest moves the OL made was to Dark Charm Ashrian into the middle of a group of monsters ( all out of range of her ability) and they just beat her senseless and kept her off the field for a couple of solid turns. Bad enough that is takes forever to kill Shadow Dragons. Unfortunately when one of the Dragons came in as a Rienforcement, there was actually no legal spot to place him on except in the small pathway in front of the heroes. Yeah...

On the plus side, still playing E2 and the Cardinal seems to be holding his own.

When the Overlord chooses Shadow Dragons as the open group, you should not have any problems. He can't place them in the setup to block your path to the caravan. Put 2 high willpower heroes in the way to block the dragon movements into the small way. Then deal with the Flesh Moulders and go to Merick. If some hero is separated from the other in the first encounter, you have to evaluate if it's worth to get him/her or finish the encounter. Their is a free standup action at the start of the second encounter.

When the Overlord chooses Shadow Dragons as the open group, you should not have any problems. He can't place them in the setup to block your path to the caravan. Put 2 high willpower heroes in the way to block the dragon movements into the small way. Then deal with the Flesh Moulders and go to Merick. If some hero is separated from the other in the first encounter, you have to evaluate if it's worth to get him/her or finish the encounter. Their is a free standup action at the start of the second encounter.

The Overlord can block the way with them. There is enough space. He can also move them there.

You must have been getting extremely well put down if Merrik takes minimum 9, or thereabouts, turns to get his zombies off the board without being able to punch through and stop at least 1.

Out of academic curiosity do you have a map overlay of what was blocking the shadow dragon from spawning near the entrance? I can count around 9 spawn points for 3x2 monsters on the 4a tile (admittedly some well placed figures cut that number down pretty quickly)

More bizarrely is the cardinal holding his own against 5 zombies for any length of time.

I don't have a map overlay, but I will tell you there were about 4 Heroes, a Shadow Dragon and a Summoned Stone on the Ruin Tile. Spread out enough so there were no 3X2 Spaces to legitimately place the Shadow Dragon on except on the path leading to the portal and caravan. So essentially the heroes had to kill an extra Shadow Dragon to even attempt to advance. That probably lost the Encounter for the heroes. Though what lead to the heroes downfall ultimately was the Dark Charm on Ashrian. It forcefully moved her to the intersection leading to the caravan and made her easy prey for the whole Flesh Moulder group. Then the minion Shadow Dragon was able to activate and basically walked on top of her. Even if she would have revived, she would have been placed in a spot seperated from the other group. (Though now I think on it, urrrgh...) I guess the most ironic thing was I was able to get a hero to the caravan and search and the first token ended up being the key...

Anyway, working on E2 as soon as I can return to it. The Cardinal's Defense Rolls are holding up well, the Zombies are swinging with some weak stuff. This has gone on for 3 rounds already and now I have Rey hitting the altar switch every round. (Had to get past Shadow Dragons at the entrance again.) He has about 6 Hearts. Hopefully he can hold on long enough for the heroes to get to the Key...

Thanks for the reply Omnislash , but you may want to have a closer looks at tile 4a.

In encounter 1 there is no way for the shadow dragons to block the corridor to the caravan, there is always an available adjacent corner to move to for the heroes. Granted, it only lasts until the end of the first round if the heroes dont rush like mad but it is most defiantly there.

As the regular overlord in my group i wish it was not the case but it certianly is.

Quick grab of the tile for you (admittedly it could do with rotating ) but in the current rotation the critical square is a2 (first column, 2nd square up) That connects directly to the corridor, even with the shadow dragon in a3,4,5 & b3,4,5 that adjacent corner is a viable movement route. the dragoons cannot deploy over the boulders (squares lined in red) so can never block that route.

2 Barghasts however, most certainly can.

Hope this helps any further scenarios

Dang..you're saying the heroes can move diagonally through the red terrain at the corners? Huh..

yup

And the penny drops. It is precisely these little misunderstandings that can totally change the course of the game. Not only can you move through those corners- you can trace LOS through them as well.

Yup, I remember when I first played a map using that tile with my friends (I was overlord), and they didn't realize they could do it. They got a nasty surprise the next turn when I blitzed through that hole to hit their mage and healer in the back.

I knew about LOS (it even has a diagram of the exact tile in the rulebook) but movement is a totally different story.Interesting. Even so, the spaces where the Dragon could legally be placed was on the 2X2 square of the entrance and the 2X1 squares on the pathway. Kinda sucked.

BTW Heroes lost the 2E. Guess it was only a matter of time before the attacks took their toll.

With the obstacles think of each square being a 1x1 monster, in the same way you can move past monsters in the arrangement you can move past obstacles.

Yeah, Cardinals plight is a pretty heavily favored quest to the overlord. With average dice the overlord should get 2 zombies away which means 3 attacks per round in 2EN, with a hand of decent cards this can lead to serious damage on the cardinal in short order.

Anyway the important bit is that now you know for future reference and can counter/play dastardly plots involving them

Yes that was enlightening. Thanks dude! This is why I solo play... so I can learn stuffs.

Speaking of hard to kill dragons, I went through a few games treating Shadow (spend a surge for the attack to not miss) as if it affected ALL attacks. Made life very difficult. It was a week later when I had reread the card and saw it only applied to heroes adjacent... Major facepalm moment.

Yeah....kinda did the same thing. I smiled when I realized they had a weakness to ranged fighters. Too bad ranged usually uses a Yellow die though... usually those attacks don't do crap anyway.