Hy Everybody

It seems that as we gain more and more and more expansions we tend to get more and more and more problems with this game as it comes to ruling
We use all the expansions in our SoB campagin ecept for Road to legend (only dungeon maps are used for this purpose).

Also i'm kinda disapointed on the rulebook for this one since i find there are many aspects still unclear but i will come to that later on.
Another way to look at it is to be disapointed on the questbook since it creates unique situations with no further explanation on how to treat the rules further on.

Example: There is an island level where the overlord starts with a shipwreck with 2 cannons on the island map

* First problem: Being Bones as avatar, do these cannones gain +1 dmg +2range when they attack ?

* When the ship is sunk during this dungeon level, what happens ? In an encounter the heroes are autokilled as well.
But nothing is told about it in dungeon levels (since this is unique). If they are autokilled as well then this level is impossible if they are not using a very big ship since the dragonfire cannons will wreak havoc on a 25hit point ship.

Also playing this map we wondered if the trait being used when shooting with cannons isn't the melee trait but the range or magic trait depending on the type of cannon (Didn't find anything bout this in the book except that cannon are to be treated as a normal weapon). Since we have to use the cannon as the figure's weapon we presumed this also implies that all skills are valid when shooting a cannon effectivily giving a dragonfire cannon sorcery 3 when shot by a master sorcerer or hawkeye cannon +1dmg +2range when shot by a hero with hawk-eye skill-card ?

Another question goes back to the other last expansion. When playing the feat "Preventing Evil" or something on a spawncard the overlord wanted to play,
what are the consequences on the whole spawn mechanic ? Does it mean the "reinforcement marker" is still used up and the OL has to spend another 15 threat to be able to spawn again on that level ? Or does the OL just play another spawn card if able that same round ?

Another of Bones skill allows him to blow up his skeletons at any given time during their activation.
You can hear it comming already ... If a hero wants to use a guard order to hit a skeleton that is standing right next to him, can the overlord decide to blow up the skeleton before any dice are rolled doing damage to the hero and removing his guard order in the proces ? Or does Guard gain priority ?
Another situation is: Shiver (skill: Aura 4) stands somewhere and a skeleton moves right next to her getting 4 damage (skeleton bronze = 4hp) is it possible to still blow up the skeleton before the 4 damage kills the skeleton ? Since it can be done at any time during it's activation ?

When entering certain encounters the ship immediatly is stuck on shallow water giving the ship damage. The ship has to keep sails to move forward getting more damage because on that particular map the currents would drive the ship backwards making it flee since the rear of the ship would move off the map.

A Question that i wondered myself as well is: How many cards am i supposed to have now in my overlord deck ?
With all the moving around, replacing and adding and removing cards in this deck i'm no longer sure that it is correct.
I think i had 48 cards in my deck and i saw a paralysing gas trap from the well of darkness in there and one from the original set.
I suppose this isn't correct but haven't been able to retrace all the supposed modifications to the decks.

If anybody has the courage to post a list of cards that are supposed to be in an overlord deck for Sea of Blood
using all expansions that would be most appreciated !!!

The list will probably grow but this is what i can remember right now from the top of my head.
The sad thing is these situations really kill the appeal of the game to our play-group altough we all love to play it.
But it rarely happens that we can play an entire dungeon without one of these situations rising up causing all discussions and delaying the game for way to long. Is there a thumb rule or house rule in existance that can help us avoid these discussions?

Anyways, what would ruling be for the situations described above ?
Anybody have any logical ruling on these things ?

Thx !!!

Since I don't have SoB, I cannot really answer a lot of those questions, but in regards to which traits to use for the canons, I CAN answer that one:

Here's some of the cannons from the game. Notice the text underneath the "Cannon" title? It says Magic or Ranged. That's the trait you use. So:

- Dragonfire Cannon : Magic
- Hawkeye Cannon: Ranged
- Runeblast Cannon: Ranged
- Coldsteel Cannon: Magic

None of /those/ cannons use Melee (not sure if there are other cannons in the game). Also note the little icon at the bottom right corner, next to the attack dice? That shows magic/ranged.

-shnar

In my opinion, Captain Bones' card states that only his ships' cannons get the bonus, so I'd say it doesn't apply for the cannons on shore.

The canons are located on a shipwreck stranded on the island ...

DavekeC said:

There is no rule in Descent where you can prevent something just because you are faster than the other players. In fact if your were too fast you have to go back to the point where someone wanted to make a reaction. The guard order allows to interrupt the overlord at any given time, even before his first monster is activated. So the heroes are allowed to kill the skeleton before it can activate (and explode).

DavekeC said:

No, the skeleton is dead. It even cannot attack before it dies by the aura. ;-)

Besides why would you enter the aura with a ranged unit? This looks like a constructed question...

DavekeC said:

You should have 49 cards in the overlord deck. Just add all overlord cards without a colored gem in the middle of the card.

36 from the base set, 3 from Well of Darkness, 6 from Altar of Despair, 4 from Tomb of Ice

If you have 50, you might have not replaced the Explosive Rune card with the one from Well of Darkness.

Is there any way to spend surges with those cannons? According to the card text: No.

Is anything in the rules written about it? If you can't spend surges with cannons, they don't seem to be very effective...

@Lorien: It depends on the wording of the exploding ability. If it says "anytime" then we will have a conflict with the Guard "anytime".

The correct number of OL cards is 48 with all three non-campaign expansions (ToI adds only 3 cards).

DavekeC said:

Can the shipwreck be considered as Captain Bones' ship (Shame on him if that's so)? I'd rather see it as a prop, so his special ability doesn't count.

Parathion said:

I posted the ability already in the SOB Preview Thread (currently on page 7). It says: "They may do this at any point during their activation for free"

Thanks for the correction on the number of overlord cards. I was using the rulebook-PDF for reference and not checking the components at home. The ToI PDF rulebook speaks of 4 cards being added: Lava Beetle Scouts, Shade Spooks, Lone Medusa and Lone Wendigo. I wasn't aware that there were only three of them in ToI.

Lorien said:

I would say the guard attack still interrupts the explosion. If a hero declares guard moments before you were about to declare an explosion, then you can tell him there's something you want to do first and then explode the skeleton, but the hero retains his guard order for later use in this case. Nor is he dedicated to using his guard on something else, because per the rulebook we rewind to before the guard order was declared to use the explosion.

Some people might make a case for allowing the explosion to come after the declaration of guard but before the attack (or even after roll but before the damage.) In my opinion that's dirty pool. I wouldn't continue playing with someone who wanted to press that level of exactitude.

@Schnar:

I sincerely hope there aren't any Melee cannons in the game. That would seem to defeat the purpose of being a cannon, to my mind =P

You can also attack or move at any point during your activation, that doesn't mean those are interrupt effects. Barring a clear indication to the contrary, I'd treat exploding as just another thing you choose to do during your turn, subject to being pre-empted by a Guard order, even after it's been declared (but before it's been resolved), just like attacks.

Antistone said:

+1

I'd interpret it that Guard can interrupt any action, and that the players have the advantage here. (Overlord Tip: As you're using skeletons, try shooting at the guarding Hero, this forces the Guard hero into action, as if he takes damage he loses his guard action.)

Overlord hint #2: save those Dark Charms for when you need to remove someone's guard order. Best case scenario is you flat out kill them, but even if they only take one point, the guard order is gone.