Why is it so hard to find a water bottle in this game? I played a game tonight where I really had to wait until the last ten minutes before crossing from the outer to the middle region just because I didn't want to lose my lives in the Desert! In the end I built up all my strength in the outer region, crossed over from the Tavern, and went straight to the PoP, missing the majority of the middle region all together, JUST because I never had a water bottle! My opponent was lucky enough to find one in the adventure pack early in the game, and so spent the last half of the game there.

Why can't we buy water bottles at the Village and/or City? We had a GREAT game, and I won, but it's silly being put off going to the middle for such a small object that you should be able to find in either of the four corner spaces.

wastedyuthe said:

actually, i can't answer the question to that, why there are no water bottles in the village or city..

Water bottles and mules are rare.

You need to get them by buying them on the market or find them as a object in the adventure deck..

I think that if the City expansion will be added to the main board, then can you buy water bottles there... or maybe not... ( we will see..)

Because WBs are the worst Object in the game? Only the Merchant will want one and even then only to trade it up to Armour at Village or to another player. Nobody else ever bothers with one, it's the first Object ditched or Alchemied. If you're constantly landing the Desert, you're planning you moves poorly (or keep visiting Oasis and rolling 1s, drew Poltergeist/Blizzard or something). If the 3 characters in our games lose more than 1 life total in the Desert per game, it's shocking, usually nobody loses a Life.

Well what ever you say Dam, I still think they ought to be available to buy for 1g at the City and Village, for those who can carry them with room to spare. Let's face it, if you have a mule, you may as well get one so you have more options in the middle region, right? I'd hate to be restricted in going one way instead of two. And like you said, what if you get a 1 on the Oasis? I'd rather keep my lives for the inner region.

It's not a problem for me, to pay 1 coin to get a water bottle..

If you have enough space, then buy them.

You roll a 1 at the Oasis, you lose a Life (or use a Fate). Middle Region has Temple and Castle that offer Lives back and there is no space in that region that you can't reach either one from. Temple isn't good odds, but still there. Planning your movement is important, around here, people make sure that whatever they roll next turn, they have a non-bad space to land on, if possible. The Runes on the PoP-Temple side will get you into a bad-bad option (Black Knight-Desert) if you roll a 3, ditto for Woods next to Temple and a 4. Chasm gets you into trouble if you roll a 5, but seriously, Chasm has seen less than 5 visits in 42 games (and you can always drop down to the Outer Region).

Dam said:

My merchant will buy a sword at village( as soon he land there at the start of the game) and will trade it for a armour, and then he will buy a axe so he can reach the middle region..in the same turn..

If he has the chance, he will later get a water bottle there by trading another object there !

Dam said:

What are you talking about..?

You don't lose a life at the oasis...( there is no dice rolling)

At least..( not the revised edition)

Velhart said:

He meant if you roll a 1 at the Oasis (the square between the two Desert spaces where there IS dice rolling) then you have no choice but to land on a Desert space either direction = 1 life lost without a water bottle.

Nobody in my games have ever carried the water bottle. In fact, we've rarely ever gone to the desert spaces. There's no incentive to do it.

Furthermore, in my humble opinion, the entire middle region is very poorly designed. Most of our games focus on the outer region the whole game until we are ready to cross PoP. The only reason we even bother with the middle region spaces at all is to a) get a talisman from the warlock or temple, or b) trying unsuccessfully to land on the PoP.

There should be more desert spaces (perhaps a desert space card) and more ways to use the water bottles (give water bottle to a thirsty wizard and gain a follower). etc.

wastedyuthe said:

The oasis says only that you must draw 2 cards..( nothing more)

(EDIT) oh you mean if he is standing already at the oasis and roll a 1.. ( ah...

Lars Gnomish said:

At least, if you have the water bottle, then you can move where you want in the middle region. Then you don't have to worry to lose a life in the desert .( Exept black knight, chasm or warlock are places where you do not want to land..( and then you can try to land on the oasis or hidden valley to draw more cards

Lars Gnomish said:

Completely agree that the middle region is poorly designed. In fact, I agree with Velhart that it was better in the 3rd edition. Your strategy was exactly the way I went in my game tonight. I don't think I landed on any more than 3 spaces total in the middle region the whole game (including stopping at the Temple from the Tavern, and stopping at the PoP to enter the inner realm.

@ Velhart- Finally got was we meant in the end eh? Has it been a long day?

wastedyuthe said:

Hi Wastyuthe,

yeah, 'very long..

And in the end... you guys keep me busy here on the forums

About the middle region..( i miss the draw 2 spaces( wildernis spaces etc)

So i am not so happy with that. It can be replaced by overlays, if FFG want to do that in the future

On top of that, the artwork ( from mainboard)is not so good as dungeon, but we can't have everything you know..

Lars Gnomish said:

Unless Cerberus is on the board (and hasn't been Displacemented), PoP is a pass-through space, like the Sentinel. If you want to go to the Inner Region, you just need movement points to get you past PoP, you don't have to land on it first and then move up next turn.

Well, water bottles are not the most desirable Object you may find or buy, but I saw many situations where they could have prevented the loss of crucial Lives, but I'm afraid that this is the basic game. Generally speaking you needn't have a Water Bottle to safely wander into Middle Region.

I see that with Reaper and Dungeon the Middle Region has become less significant than in the past. The reason is that in Middle Region you draw a lot of cards thanks to Hidden Valley and Oasis, and you can boost your Character at the Temple. In the base game players usually went to Middle Region when the Adventure deck was about half exhausted, in the hope to catch the last goodies with less or no fear of the remaining Enemies. Now that the deck is never exhausted you have too little chances of drawing what you expect, so Middle Region has become an option. Players tend to stick in the Outer Region for a long time and eventually decide to go for the Dungeon or rush to the center. Dungeon is clearly the best option so far. I'm the only one that tries to reach the Crown by the normal means (I'm always first to the Crown), but my usual bad luck makes me lose precious time and then someone else gets my head and final victory.

Example reminders as to why a water bottle would come in handy in the middle region:

If on Warlocks cave: Roll a 1 or 3 to move, and you have the choice of the Desert (lose a life) or Runes (possibly fight an enemy which adds 2 to str). With the water bottle, you can just land on the desert and not have to worry about the +2 str, where as without you are forced to go there.

If on the Chasm: Roll a 5 to move, with the choice of the Desert (lose a life) or the Black Knight (lose a life or 1 gold). Again, with the bottle there is an easy option.

If on the Runes: Roll a 3 to move, with the choice of the Desert (lose a life) or the Black Knight (lose a life or 1 gold). Same as above.

So I personally think it is WELL worth having a bottle as it gives you a lot more choice in that region instead of being forced to go in the other direction. And even then, in the case of the Chasm (won't be going there much anyway) or the Runes, you won't always have a choice but to lose a life in either direction.

wastedyuthe said:

And if the Pool of Strength or other interesting adventure card will be drawn on the desert, then you can go there easily without the worries of losing a live there.

Conclusion: don't think twice for buying a water bottle for 1 gold

Gypsy drew Water Bottle today and spent a lot of time on the Middle Region (despite being at Str 2). Did the WB save her from Desert? No, because in the 15 or so turns, she never landed in either Desert space.

Amazon won and almost broke the speed record, winning in 50 mins (Dwarf is still tops at 45mins). Compared to yesterday's monster Gladiator (Str 27, Craft 20 in combat), Amazon was very modest Str 7 (8 in battle; had Shovel for Crypt), Craft 4.