Hi everyone.

I am purchasing the Descent board game core set, and I am looking on advice on where to go from there? Because there are a lot of expansion out and it can be kinda over whelming. What would you suggest to purchase next and why? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Thank you

No problem- I hope you and your group enjoy the game!

Fist thing, in my opinion, would be grab the lieutenats for the core core game, then the expansions and respective lieutenants in order of release.

Extra Set of Dice

Core Game Lieutenants First- Baron Zacherath, Splig, Merrick Farrow, Alric Farrow and Eliza Farrow, Belthir.

Small Expansion Box ( Lair of the Wyrm, Trollfens or Manor of Ravens.)

Whatever Lieutenant for the Small Expansion Box.

Large Expansion Box ( Labrynth of Ruin of Shadows of Nerkenhall)

Whatever Lieutenants are in the Big Box.

Rinse, Repeat. By this time you'll know what you want.

Sprinkle some Co-Ops and H&Ms in there whenever you want to buy them.

Extra Set of Dice

Core Game Lieutenants First- Baron Zacherath, Splig, Merrick Farrow, Alric Farrow and Eliza Farrow, Belthir.

Small Expansion Box ( Lair of the Wyrm, Trollfens or Manor of Ravens.)

Whatever Lieutenant for the Small Expansion Box.

Large Expansion Box ( Labrynth of Ruin of Shadows of Nerkenhall)

Whatever Lieutenants are in the Big Box.

Rinse, Repeat. By this time you'll know what you want.

Sprinkle some Co-Ops and H&Ms in there whenever you want to buy them.

It always seams like every game Fantasy Flight makes the first thing you buys is more dice lol. But why the core Lieutenants?

The Core Game gives you tokens. With the Lieutenants you get their figure. You also get their specific plot deck which you can use during a campaign. It allows the OL to summon in the Lieutenant in Agent form into any ACT quest you want, among other evil things.

Oh very nice. Sounds like a great place to start

After the buying the main game I would also get the coop version so that you can play solo and learn each character and class.(forgotten souls or nature's ire..or both). Also you might like some of the lieutenant packs for the base game.

Shadows of Nerekhall has another nice campaign and some cool heroes, but its a big box so you may want to wait until after your first campaign playthrough.

1.- Descent JITD [basic] (obviously)

2.- Dices (in my group we play with 3 sets, 1 for every 2 heroes and 1 for OL)

3.- Splig Lieutenant miniature

3.- Belthir Lieutenant miniature

3.- Zacharet Lieutenant miniature

3.- Alric Farrow Lieutenant miniature

3.- Merrick Farrow Lieutenant miniature

3.- Eliza Farrow Lieutenant miniature (all in any order, to complement the base game)

4.- Forgotten Souls [Coop]

4.- Nature´s Ire [Coop] (either of 2, or both. For solo play and have more adventures with the same tiles)

5.- Heirs of Blood [book] (another full campaign. only requires the base game)

6.- Lair of the Wyrm [small box] (mini campaign and rumors for large campaigns)

6.- Valyndra Lieutenant miniature

7.- Dark Elements [Coop] (Like the others coop, but need lair of the wyrm´s tiles)

8.- Small box [Trollfens or Manor of Ravens] (Either, or both in any order, for more mini campaign and rumors for large campaigns)

8.- Lieutenant Miniature according the expansion

9.- Small box [Trollfens of Manor of Ravens] (the other small box expansion)

9.- Lieutenant Miniature according the expansion

10.- Big box [shadows of Nerekhall or Labyrinth of Ruin] (Either, or both in any order, to gain more tiles and a new full campaign)

10.- All 4 Lieutenant miniatures according the expansion

11.- Big box [shadows of Nerekhall or Labyrinth of Ruin] (the other big box expansion)

11.- All 4 Lieutenant miniatures according the expansion

12.- Oath of outcast [H&M collections]

12.- Crown of Destiny [H&M collections]

12.- Crusade of the Forgotten [H&M collections]

12.- Guardians of Deephall [H&M collections]
12.- Visions of Dawn [H&M collections]
12.- Bonds of the Wild [H&M collections] (in any order, to gain more heroes, monsters and rumors for large campaigns)

Wow very nice breakdown. Thank you

I am going to respectfully disagree with the established opinion here.

1. We have played over 4 campaigns and never found any need to buy a dice pack. Since this is the cheapest thing you can buy, I agree that it can't hurt to get one if you realy think it is an issue to have to hand over the dice to your neighbour when your turn ends, but in my opinion, the dice that come with the base game are sufficient.

2. While I would certainly advise to get 1 or two lieutenant packs for the plot decks they include, getting all lieutenant packs just for the figures is a bit rediculous in my opinion. You can only use 1 plot deck per campaign, so buying them all will not yield you any gameplay variety. Certainly considering the price for the lieutenant packs (you could've gotten Shadow of Nerrekhall for the money you spent on all the Lieutenant packs from the base game!). Then again, if you realy can't stand the idea that the final boss of all quests is represented as a token instead of a figure and you have the money to spare, sure, why not!

3. Coops can be fun if that is your thing. We, however, enjoy having an Overlord to control the minions of evil intelligently. Also, the coops are basically single scenarios and not full campaigns.

4. The HoB campaign book looks realy cool! However, if you just bought Descent, I would at least get both big box expansions before getting the HoB campaign book. The big box expansions also add a full campaign, but they also add more monsters, heroes, classes, items, and all the other goodies you can combine with all other expansions.

So, what you are getting depends a bit on what you want out of this game and what your budget is. In my opinion, to get the most value for your money, this would be the order of which I would get stuff:

1. Base box

2. One or two lieutenant packs

3. One small box expansion of your choice.

Now play the game a couple of times. You can get at least two full campaign plays out of what you just bought without playing a quest twice. And even playing a quest twice doesnt realy matter imho.

4. Add a big box expansion. My advice would by Shadow of Nerrekhall.

5. If you have money to spare add either another small box expansion or a H&M pack

Play The Shadow of Nerrehall campaign (or the Labyrinth or Ruin if you got that one) at least twice!

At this point you have quite some material and will be able to determine yourself what you would like next. Another big box, the campaign book with a small box? More H&M packs? You name it!

One last point that no-one has made yet. The best value for money is arguable the Conversion Kit. This kit contains all the monster and hero cards from Descent 1st edition to be able to play with Descent 2nd edition. This kit was made so people with the first edition could use their miniatures with the second edition rules and balance. Henceforth, this kit does not contain any miniatures. But if you are ok with using proxies and other methods to represent these heroes and monsters, this kit will give you the most variability for the best price!

In the end, it is you that makes the choice. My advice is to go slow. The base game contains already a lot! You can get a lot of plays and gaming time out of the base set without the need to pour hundreds of dollars into it.

Happy gaming!

Ah yes. The Conversion Kit debate. Some will tell you to get it, some won't. I honestly think it's a complete waste of money and time now since the H&Ms that are released have the updated Hero cards specifically balanced for the 2nd Edition of Descent, the monster cards, extra quests that you can integrate into campaigns AND the actual hero and monster figures. if you're on a budget and/or actually have Descent 1st Edition, it is indeed worth getting. If you you're not worried about either, don't bother with the Kit.

As for Vardaine's other points:

1- I still only have my base dice but I actually want to pick up a second pair. I find that, especially in the second act, I have to separate the use of some die for attacks and tests that happen at the same time. You don't need NEED them, but it's handy.

2- If you don't care about only playing with tokens for the lieutenants, then Lieutenants aren't a must buy. But, if you are like me and want to represent them in figure form then you should definitely get them for the base game. There is no harm in getting them and learning about threat and plot decks. For anyone playing the Overlord, they add onto the experience. Also playing the base game's campaign a few times, you'll probably do some different quests or the campaign won't run the same way, so having a few different plot decks to use makes the OL experience different each time.

3. Yes, there is no Overlord in Co-Ops. That doesn't mean they are not challenging. In fact, they are really hard to beat. Co-Ops are good for learning to play heroes and hero classes. If you like dungeon delving and such, or just need something different from doing campaign quests, these are fun to play.

4. Heirs of Blood is a cheap alternative because it a campaign that you run using the base game components and lieutenants.

Big Box- Labrynth and Nerkenhall - 4 Heroes, 4 Classes, New Basic OL Deck, One Full Campaign, More Monsters.

Small Box (Wyrm, Trollfens, Manor) - 2 Heroes, 2 Classes, New OL Cards, Mini Campaign that you can integrate into a one of the full campaigns. And Monsters.

I'm sure you'll know when you are ready to get one. There are more lieutenants to pick up for each expansion you get as well.

We've discussed the dice pack before as well. I suggest you try playing as Thomble, equipping some items that give you extra defense dice and then standing next to another hero that has quite a few dice himself (they get added to thomble's pool). And then decide to reroll a select few of them (if one of your items allows that) while still remembering which ones you didn't want to reroll

I also want to point your attention to the Conversion kit. If you play the OL and after a few game find your monsterchoices too limited (which happend pretty quickly to me and made me doubt the game a lot), the ~20 monstercards of the CK really expands the gameplay a lot, it basically ups your monsterchoices from ~2 to ~7. There are a few downsides however. You get no miniatures, but you can use your other Descent miniatures instead, which worked quite nicely for me.

Does the H&M packs really make the CK obsolete? While the H&M packs come with miniatures and heavily updated heroes and mildly updated monsters, they are also quite pricely. You will spend ~100$ for 12 monstergroups, with the CK you get ~20 monstergroups for under 30$. If you really decide to go all out on Descent later, spending well over 200$, you could always pick up the H&M packs of your favourite monsters and heroes, in this case I guess the 30$ for the CK won't play that big of a role and you still got the monstercards for the monsters you haven't bought with the H&M packs.

To get the miniatures for the CK, would I have to buy the original Descent?

Yes- or go to ebay to find them separately. I like to eatimate that to get all of the CK minis will cost you CLOSE to the cost of just buying the H&M packs. Also, when you buy the packs you get rumor quests.

If you want the miniatures, it's better just to go with the H&Ms. Sure, you'll be spending more, but in the long run, I think it's worth it.

Are the h&m the same thing? Just updated?

Each of the H&M packs contain new versions of 4 heroes and 3 monster groups of the first edition of descent.

All of the figures sculpts have been updated (and are a big improvement imo over the first edition ones)

The Hero sheets of some of the heroes have been altered compared to the ones found in the conversion kit. (For balance reasons I assume)

Each H&M packs also contains 2 quests. One of which is a rumor, the other one is a follow up to that rumor. (In case you don't know: Rumors can be played by the overlord during any of the 4 large campaigns, and some, like the ones in the H&M pack, offer quests the heroes can attempt during the campaign they are played in. (So that is, at the current total of 6 H&M packs, 12 extra quests to play)

Very nice. Sounds like the H&M are better over all to purchase. The more and more I am learning about this game the more into I get.

Hi,

I've gathered a new group to start a campaign next week. I'm having hard timing choosing which campaign to start with and should I include 1st ed. monsters. I want this to be as enjoying as possible. Few newcomers and few guys have tried Descent couple of times.

I have Shadows of Nerekhall and Heirs of Blood. Also liutenant packs for Zachareth and Eliza Farrow. From the 1st edition I have several expansions. I recall reading that you shouldn't take 1st ed. monsters/heroes because they unbalance the game? I have painted most of the 1st ed figures so that makes it more difficult to exclude them.

So, I'm all ears for suggestions which campaign to choose for entertaining, challenging and fun game. I believe that my group will also appreciate a good story, not just encounters after encounter without a redline behind all mayhem. Also comment on 1st ed. integration would help.

Thanks.

I also forgot to mention that each one (if I'm remembering correctly) contains one or more overlord cards as a reward for the quests.

In my opinion the H&M packs are the best option yes. But some people will disagree.

I guess if you are on a really, really tight budget, then yes, the CK might be better. (Or if you already have everything from the first edition, then too)

Otherwise, the h&m packs offer you the actual figures to play with (having all kinds of different monsters but have them represented by Ettins or whatever every map sounds pretty boring) and offers some extra spice to add to the normal campaigns. Plus, nobody is forcing you to buy them all at once.

Hi,

I've gathered a new group to start a campaign next week. I'm having hard timing choosing which campaign to start with and should I include 1st ed. monsters. I want this to be as enjoying as possible. Few newcomers and few guys have tried Descent couple of times.

I have Shadows of Nerekhall and Heirs of Blood. Also liutenant packs for Zachareth and Eliza Farrow. From the 1st edition I have several expansions. I recall reading that you shouldn't take 1st ed. monsters/heroes because they unbalance the game? I have painted most of the 1st ed figures so that makes it more difficult to exclude them.

So, I'm all ears for suggestions which campaign to choose for entertaining, challenging and fun game. I believe that my group will also appreciate a good story, not just encounters after encounter without a redline behind all mayhem. Also comment on 1st ed. integration would help.

Thanks.

If you do have everything from the first edition, then the Conversion Kit would be a good option for you, then you can use the 1st edition monsters with the cards provided by the CK.

What I would recommend is to check the descent wiki (or other) for the stats/abilities of the monsters you are using in a quest and check if any changes were made by the H&M packs compared to their version in the CK, and then playing with those changes applied. (Since I assume the changes were made to further balance the game).