which quests are slanted towards which side? can someone please give me tips about which monsters are good for general tasks i.e blocking, killing villagers, etc.

also, which monsters are good for the first encounter of the cardinal's plight? I've heard people say shadow dragons, but since the heroes move first, they pass the shadow dragons, then use 2 heroes to block the path, which is pretty effective, since there's only 1 dark charm in the OL deck, and I don't have the gargan mirklace lieutenant pack.

any ideas?

Most of this things depend a lot on what (and how many) heroes and classes you have, and wich expansions, which affect on what monsters OL can choose from. If you give a brief explanation on this, we could help you better.

I only have the core set, the campaign is currently with 4 heroes: jain as wildlander, syndrael as knight, ashrian as spiritspeaker, and leoric as runemaster.

Quite frankly, I've heard that Cardinal's Plight is OL favored. Masquerade Ball is as well. Death on the Wing is more Hero favored. Fat Goblin is just about even. Castle Darion definitely Hero favored.

Death on the Wing can be easily winnable for the heroes, and Masquerade Ball can be quite difficult depending on how the first encounter goes. In Act 2, there are a couple other very one sided ones- for example, the Ritual of Shadows is very winnable for an OL playing correctly. I rather enjoy "The Shadow Rune" campaign, despite the balance of some of its quests. Interestingly, it's the campaign that has been the most balanced overall when played in my group (LoR and SoN have both had campaigns where either the OL or the heroes absolutely destroyed the other side consistently.) The core camapaign, however, has always resulted in some victories for one side, some victories for another, and then a tense finale- quite enjoyable.

Death on the Wing can be easily winnable for the heroes, and Masquerade Ball can be quite difficult depending on how the first encounter goes. In Act 2, there are a couple other very one sided ones- for example, the Ritual of Shadows is very winnable for an OL playing correctly. I rather enjoy "The Shadow Rune" campaign, despite the balance of some of its quests. Interestingly, it's the campaign that has been the most balanced overall when played in my group (LoR and SoN have both had campaigns where either the OL or the heroes absolutely destroyed the other side consistently.) The core camapaign, however, has always resulted in some victories for one side, some victories for another, and then a tense finale- quite enjoyable.

Agreed. This is just my first time playing through LoR as you well know, but it seems heavily OL favored. Which kinda sucks because as the OL picking the quests, why wouldn't Fury of Tempest and Back from The Dead be picked if only to keep the heroes from powering up their Ally? Well I guess that is a discussion for another thread.

Many quests are favored towards one side or the other, but most of the time it depends on the composition of the heroes and the overlord deck choice, among other factors (like plot deck).

A slower, stronger hero group will do better when they can control the pace of the map, while a faster, less durable hero group will perform better in races against time.

There's no hard and fast rule as to which quests are overtly hero favored or overlord favored.

I will however commit to saying that A Cardinal's Plight in The Shadow Rune campaign is overlord favored, pretty much regardless of what the group is. It takes some tremendous luck on the part of the heroes to win that one.