Hello,

we had a discussion on the reinforcement rules during our last game session on saturday. Is the overlord player free to choose WHICH monster he wants to reinforce when more than one were defeated by the heroes previously.

Here is our situation: We played "Death on Wings" - Encounter 1 and overlord used Ettins (2x2) as open group. So Cave Spiders (1x1) and Ettins were in play. Rules says that overlord may reinforce 1 monster at the beginning of his turn on the entrance tile (2x2). In one turn the reanimate of the Necomancer was placed on one field of the entrance tile and all other heroes were placed on the "Path"-tile so that there were not enough space to place a Ettin. At the beginning of his turn the overlord had a master Ettin AND a master Cave Spider to choose the reinforcement from.

Now here is the question: Does the overlord has to choose the Cave Spider, because there is enough space to place it on the entrance tile? Or is he free to choose the Ettin? In this case, the Ettin would have been placed on the fire place, because this was the first empty space where the overlord could place a 2x2 monster.

The overlord is free to choose the Ettin - if a monster cannot be placed in its normal reinforcement position, it's placed in the closest possible space(s). Thus, the Ettin can be placed on the board (even if it's not in exactly the normal position) and thus is a perfectly valid reinforcement option. The only way the Ettin would be unselectable would be if there were literally no 2x2 block of empty squares on the entire board (which is realistically never going to happen).

Oh, and you don't have to take my word for this - I believe the rule about placement is given on page 2 of the quest guide, under the 'reinforcements' section.

The overlord is free to choose whichever monster he likes to respawn. It is not possible to prevent the overlord from spawning a certain monster. Large monster are placed in the empty space closest to their designated spawn position if the spaces are occupied by figures or obstacles.

Confirmed/agreed. The OL chooses which monster he wants to reinforce freely, then places it in the most fitting way possible. I asked a similar question previously regarding the first encounter of "The Dawnblade," where the OL can reinforce multiple monsters:

Q:If a monster may reinforce on one of two locations, but one of those locations is blocked, must the OL place the monster on the unblocked area instead of placing it on the "closest available space" next to the other, or may he choose where to place?

A:The overlord may choose the location and then place on the closest empty space.

That is, the OL is not forced to choose where (and I've made the logical jump to what) to reinforce based on placement concerns. He chooses, and then places as close to the required tile as possible.