1. Had an enconter with lieutenant where the map says heroes are ambushed. With lieutenants heroes are not ambushed. Now, which counts the most? Also have in mind one of the lieutenants where it says heroes are always ambushed(can come in play at silver level if I am not mistaken).

2. Soar. Sigh, the heroes really hated it. Not sure if we misunderstood something here. Can someone please enlight me here? How good is the soar? Can a hero go under a soaring monster(its 4 spaces away, yet it isnt, right?). Is it using 4 moves to "swoop down" and 4 to get back up, or is it considered instant back and forth, no MP spent? Also, if the map says spend 1 extra movement point when entering a space adjacent to water, does that count for flying/soaring creatures as well, or are they 4 spaces away? If a large monster moves here, would it have to spend 2 extra MP?

Soar really made it difficult for us. Please tell us good and bad stuff about this ability(situation examples are very welcome).

Moneseki said:

The rule of thumb I always use in these situations is that specific rules trump general rules. The rule about LTs never causing ambushes is the most genral rule of those mentioned. The map rule about it always being an ambush is more specific, so this encounter would be an ambush. Likewise, the LT who always ambushes people is a more specific rule than the general "LT cannot ambush."

If you feel that's broken and choose not to let LTs ambush even on a map that says ambush, that's fine. The LT who always gets to ambush would still trump everything and get an ambush though.

Moneseki said:

Soar gives any attack targetting the creature +4 range. That is all. As far as I know, swooping costs no MP, but it's been a while so I might be forgetting something. The monster still occupies the spaces it covers on the map, so heroes cannot move into them and it still blocks LOS as well. Other monsters can move through but must not end movement there. The monster is not 4 spaces away, it's just +4 range on attacks. No, it doesn't make sense. Welcome to Descent.

Monsters that are soaring would NOT take the extra MP for being adjacent to water, but that's only because a monster that is soaring must necessarily have the Fly ability, which expressly says it ignores terrain effects while moving. This is not actually related to the Soar ability at all.

Read the FAQ section on Soar. All of your questions are answered there.

Steve-O said:

I agree with the rule-of-thumb. However in this instance I think Steve-O has it around the wrong way. The rule about Lts never ambushing is specific to Lts which are a subset if all encounters. The rule for that particular location covers all encounters, both Lt and other.
Obviously it is a matter of judgement in such a case, neither side has a definitive argument as both sides are a subset of a larger group.

In this case I go for the Lt rule being more important because it has a larger potential for breaking the game. A Lt that goes first, and knows it will go first before setting up, and has a handful of cards too, should be able to cripple a party in the first turn, if not getting a TPK with ease. THe Lt rule is designed to prevent that and it is my opinion that that is substantially more important than the ambush rule for one particular location.

I agree that the Lt that ambushes should always ambush.

Steve-O said:

Soar
This ability is only used during outdoor encounters. Any figure with Soar is considered to be flying above the ground, and the range both to and from it is increased by four spaces.
A soaring monster cannot normally be the target of a melee attack . However, monsters with Soar can choose to swoop down before attacking. If they do so, the extra range is negated until after the attack goes off , at which point the monster flies back up. Heroes may use interrupt attacks ( even melee attacks, if in range) to attack a monster while it is swooping.
Note that all monsters with the Flying ability also automatically have the Soar ability.

Soar is actually rather simple. However it does have some strange, unintuitive effects that cause people to misunderstand it.
1. Any attack to or from a soaring monster has the required range increased by 4. Not the actual distance, just the range (subtle but important difference). Melee attacks simply don't work. Note that this means two soaring melee attackers (eg necromancied razorwing) simply can't attack each other. It also means that a Soaring Razorwing cannot attack without swooping.
2. Swooping does not require any movement points. It is simply a declaration and ends after the attack finishes. In effect, it is a temporary annulment of the Soaring condition of the figure.
3. There are no changes in LOS or movement-through rules. The Soaring figure still occupies the space it is in - the only changes are in the attack rules (this is the most un-intuitive bit).

Good stuff is all for the OL. Melee heroes are restricted to using Guard attacks against swooping Razorwings. They can't attack at all against Dragons and Demons that use Ranged attacks and may elect not to swoop (although they will need 4 extra range of course).
Ranged and Magic using heroes often find it difficult to get enough Range to do much damage against Soaring creatures. Even standing adjacent they will need range 5 to hit.

The only good news for heroes is that breath and blast attacks ignore Soar (ie don't have to worry about the extra range). They are also able to hit multiple Soaring monsters at once as if they are Soaring they cannot benefit from terrain (most importantly, no Shadowcloak from Trees).

A Lt that goes first, and knows it will go first before setting up, and has a handful of cards too, should be able to cripple a party in the first turn, if not getting a TPK with ease. THe Lt rule is designed to prevent that and it is my opinion that that is substantially more important than the ambush rule for one particular location.

The party still goes first in an ambush, and so can wake people up (hint: give the all melee guy a backup throwing dagger).

There is an encounter location that lets the overlord go first, but that has nothing to do with ambushes.

The FAQ did clear out alot of things. Thanks also SteveO and Corbon for even more info. Especially thanks to Corbon specifying that the soaring doesnt benefit from terrain(shadowcloak probably being the most important).

I can imagine Corbon is right if lieutenants gets to ambush, and OL has some treachery it will be piece of cake to trash the heroes. Yet, to me it does seem like the encounter overrules the "illegal-lieutenant-ambush" when it comes to trumping general/specific rules. Guess we houserule it one or the other way, knowing my friends they will probably vote for no ambushing ltnts.

Yeah, soar is stupid. Normally I'm a solid supporter of the philosophy that one should not house rule Descent. Just play it as written no matter how strange and game balance will be maintained. That has been my experience with the game anyway. Reading the rules for Soar was the first time I've seriously considered house ruling things to make more sense. I haven't actually done that yet, since doing so is probably going to require me to rebuild everything from the ground up. I'm considering looking into Antistone's Enduring Evil variant, that looks exciting, although I'd prefer a rebuild of the rules that didn't involve so many new cards.