To kind of play the other side of the field as the other thread, how about your best/worst/favorite/most hated overlord plot+deck combos? I'll give it a start, i guess but be warned; im an idiot and probably don't know what im talking about so heres my favorites so far. As for the worst...i guess a lot of the original box's lieutenants seem kind of forgettable, notably excluding Belthir/Saboteur.

Tristayne/Warlord

Fanatically attacking monsters, overexerting themselves to great effect. sometimes exploding, good fun pretty straight forward berserker.

Mirklace/Punisher

Allegorical Satan, temptations with the extra damage and free revives with punishments. Hey want a free revive? yes? well your friends now get hit for 1/2 your max health. Also leads to a fun explosion frenzy with Blood Bargaining + Rings Of Zhol'alam

Bol'goreth/Infector

WHY CANT I HOLD ALL THESE DISEASES. Constant poison and disease debuffs plus extra debuffs procs lead to infection tokens, which have a myriad of uses. Tried this one a couple of times, pretty fun.

If you want to be impressed by the durability of your monsters (from a base game lieutenant) go Alric/Infector. You can use Armor of Darkness, Fight in Formation, and Airborne to really buff your defense (don't forget Knight Training), and you can use cards like Contaminated and Tainted Blow to make "Trial of Knighthood" a valuable threat generator.

I will second Tristayne + Warlord. It is a very potent combination that gives great ferocity to the Overlord's monsters. Reliable surges are fantastic, and this mix has awesome combos, such as combining Blood Rage with Explosive Fall. The heroes will need a very tough group and some luck to survive this combination.

I find Belthir + Warlord is similarly powerful.

One combination I'm finding quite enjoyable is Infector + Zarihell. Pins and Needles is a spectacular plot card in itself, and makes up for some of Zarihell's more lackluster cards.

In addition, Contaminated can help enable 1-damage situations more often. I also find Airborne delightful, as when it is in play I never feel quite as bad about missing an attack - every swing provides at least some benefit - often significant benefit!

When I'm feeling really mean I just use Zachareth + Infector/Warlord though. Zach's ability to slim down the deck and draw it very quickly allows the key Infector cards to come out early in the quest, and this combination is an extremely good counter to the Marshal and Treasure Hunter.

And of course, I consider no Overlord deck complete without Call of the Ravens. It is a vital staple for me in every single campaign, no matter what the lieutenant/deck I pursue - the value of being able to summon a solid monster body for attack/defense/blocking/objectives/doors/etc. is just way too immense for 1 XP to ignore.

The addition of the Scourge servant synergy in the next expansion is going to make it even more powerful.

I generally agree with Indalecio's great guide on plot decks to single out the bad agents. When it comes to Overlord classes, I ignore the Magus, Punisher and the Unkindness (except for CotR) decks entirely. They don't suit my playstyle, and I find their power pretty underwhelming compared to the other options.

This stuff reminds me that my guide to OL cards is still overdue.... Just cannot get enough time to work on it, but it will come one day

In reaction to Charmy's post,

Punisher still has "No rest for the Wicked", which I find very useful in many quests. Fatigue move is just the standard way my hero players would choose to move nowadays, so getting free repositioning on your monsters can be quite important. You also have these quests like the one where Alric tries to reach the Duskblade before the heroes do, basically forcing them to "waste" move actions to move (can't believe that's the choice of word my hero players would have!) otherwise Alric gains precious move points, pressing the heroes further. I often find myself buying one copy of this card for these race quests. There is no other card in the game giving you fatigue move denial (heroes are not keen on triggering this card) or several occurences of additional movement on different monsters anywhere on the map. As always of course, it 's situational, but I´ve seen it work quite nicely several times.

Magus does suck, even though I´ve tried really hard to make a use of Unholy Ritual. It's just not worth it, believe me. This class should really be re-designed.

Unkindness cards are pretty bad at level 1, but the level 2 are quite good. Mirror effects are quite powerful past a point in the campaign (as heroes gear up and throw a million dices to attack). I´m not a huge fan of that class, though, as it requires you to invest in several cards in it to make the servant worth the purchase in my opinion. Yeah, I don't buy CoTR every campaign for the reason that I find it pretty weak past a certain point in the campaign, bearing in mind it costs me a slot in my deck and 4 damage on a monster. But we may have to rethink the whole class once the Chains gets released, since it would imply the scope of these Unkindness cards could be vastly enlarged to cover other servants. Because one of the main issue is that you´d put all your eggs in the same basket. If your heroes can control the flock then all of these cards are dead, basically. So yeah, I´m prepared for some nasty shenaningans pairing up this class with the new one. High hopes indeed!

Punisher still has "No rest for the Wicked", which I find very useful in many quests. Fatigue move is just the standard way my hero players would choose to move nowadays, so getting free repositioning on your monsters can be quite important. You also have these quests like the one where Alric tries to reach the Duskblade before the heroes do, basically forcing them to "waste" move actions to move (can't believe that's the choice of word my hero players would have!) otherwise Alric gains precious move points, pressing the heroes further. I often find myself buying one copy of this card for these race quests. There is no other card in the game giving you fatigue move denial (heroes are not keen on triggering this card) or several occurences of additional movement on different monsters anywhere on the map. As always of course, it 's situational, but I´ve seen it work quite nicely several times.

This is a good call Indalecio. For race-type quests I usually like to rely on cards like Web Trap and Implosive Rift, but I should take another look at "No Rest for the Wicked", because it doesn't require an attribute test. Nice if the heroes are strong in Willpower or Might. Reliability is great, and it is a strong effect.

Good heroes spend a lot of their time fatigue-moving and will not like this one bit.

Thank for the tip. Always nice to hear of new ways to improve Overlording

Unkindness cards are pretty bad at level 1, but the level 2 are quite good. Mirror effects are quite powerful past a point in the campaign (as heroes gear up and throw a million dices to attack). I´m not a huge fan of that class, though, as it requires you to invest in several cards in it to make the servant worth the purchase in my opinion.

I'm just not sold on any of the Unkindness cards, even the Level II ones. Imitation can easily be played around. It only triggers when a servant is attacked, and servants in Act II have pitiful HP and defenses, so the heroes can simply use a hero that doesn't have a super strong attack to defeat this monster, weakening the counter attack effect. In addition, if the servant is attacked indirectly, such as with a Blast attack, Imitation cannot be used.

Finally, I find that servants are often ignored by the heroes - they are so easy to resummon that it is often better to block or sprint past them, so the Imitation card is wasting precious space in the deck and 2XP.

Envelop is really cool - but how often does a lowly servant defeat a hero? There are much less circumstantial cards than this one I'd prefer to build towards.

Yeah, I don't buy CoTR every campaign for the reason that I find it pretty weak past a certain point in the campaign, bearing in mind it costs me a slot in my deck and 4 damage on a monster.

CoTR doesn't consume a slot in your deck, actually. It does not count against the 15-card limit, and you do not have to draw it. Once purchased it is placed in your play area as a permanent effect. That is what makes it so great - it is like buying an XP skill as a hero - it is a passive 'anti-heroic ability'.

The crazy thing is, the 4 damage drawback is actually negligible in many situations, and even a boon in others! Any quest which has a monster with healing can easily negate the initial damage with minimal cost. (e.g. many quests start with a Master Flesh Moulder well out of reach of the heroes - a prime target to create a Raven and then heal back up.) I already liked Dark Priests as a monster group in some situations, and they are great healers for the ravens too. Other great targets for this include Alric Farrow, who can Regenerate, and luckily positioned Fire Imps, that can explode.

Even more powerful is the common situation where a monster is near death, and can be reinforced at the start of the turn nearby. Pop the monster for a raven at the start of the turn, and then immediately reinforce - in this case you are actually *gaining* health on the monster and creating a raven at the same time. The amount of value created by this sort of maneuver cannot be matched by any other Overlord card because nothing has been spent.

Sorry yes, the CoTR is not part of the deck, you´re absolutely right. Which means you can pop it whenever you get into one of these favorable situations.

I wouldn't go as far as picking my open groups to maximize the usability of the flock, but you are right to say that there are ways out there to mitigate the drawback of the cost.

I played with the Infector deck once and found it pretty terrible because way too many times the cards that allowed me to deal infection tokens would be at the bottom of my draw pile, making the other cards that relied on targets being infected and which I might have drawn earlier basically useless, until near the end of the encounter/quest and by then they didn't have the impact they could have had (if I even drew the required cards at all).

So I now I'd rather select decks that are reliable. (I would only use it again if the infector deck had a card that functioned like CoTR, which you just always put into play at the start and allowed you to infect targets)

I find Infector as a class to be vastly overrated, however I still purchase Contaminated and Airborne on a regular basis. I like these cards as standalone, but not so much the Infector "engine" that some people claim to be so powerful. Every card, plot card, or monster in this game can be "powerful" if you´re playing them against a weak opposition, in terms of hero players who don't know what they are doing or unable to analyse plays from the overlord. It's not so much about the capability of skilled players to shut down Infector as a whole (although they can do that to some extent), but more the fact that the overlord has to give up so many things to make the engine work. XP investment to Infector, extra XP investment to card reshuffling/digging abilities (more than what you would normally purchase), picking monsters with second tier conditions like Poison/Diseased etc. And don't get me started with using Bol'Goreth, one of the worst plot decks around.

And it's not even worth that investment, really. It doesn't compare to the vast majority of other class cards for the same level of investment.

A lot of dislike for Infector it seems, even though I like the fluff of it (but I've always been partial to diseased things in games like Nurgle from Warhammer). What are your guys' thoughts on the 3 from Bilehall? Ix'erebus seems like he'd pair pretty good with Enhancer and Kyndrithul seems like he'd go well with a mix of shadowmancer/punisher to just constantly sap stamina. Kyndrithul has a VERY situational threat gen though, so I'm unsure if I should use him or just stick to the berserker necromancer for an upcoming game. I want to use my new stuff though lol.

edit; I've since read Indalecio's lengthy post at BGG about the plots; very informative. What would you recommend to go with Verminous? Enhancer seems like it'd be handy to buff the little guys but again; I don't know what I'm doing about 80% of the time.

My current campaign with my first plot deck I had at the time.

What i'm playing right now:

Valyndra Plot:

All plot cards purchased

2x Unholy Ritual (Magus)

1x Word of Pain (Magus) (Not in deck)

1x Diabolic Power (Magus)

1x Airborne (Infector)

1x Call of the Ravens (Unkindness)

Monsters and why I use them:

Kobolds... duh (Airborne, Unholy Ritual, Agent, Door stopper.)

Goblin Archers or Witchers (Airborne mostly)

Arachyura (Plot deck gives bonus damage and defense, Airborne protects them.)

Wendigo (Plot deck gives bonus damage and defense, Airborne protects them, also stealthy and ravage are fantastic.)

Airborne is always drawn and traps are always returned to my hand. Players know their clock is shortened by airborne saving multiple creatures by creating roadblocks, so they don't search often. Valyndra profits greatly from her initial card as you can obtain 8 threat as a one time deal. Banking extra threat on one card that requires no activation cost is also a bonus. Probably not the most synergistic, but very powerful at stopping races.

Some combos I do like as an OL :

- Raythen plot deck + Saboteur + Placebo + Bandits (and optionnaly Basic II)

The idea is simple : even if you're losing quests (but winning them is better), the heroes should have really few gold to spend and should be really bad equipped in act 2, so you can crush them as they should be ! (hahaha)

- Skarn's plot deck + Enchanter

Simple idea : summoning skarn and block the way of the heroes, making them lose as many time as possible. Rune of the Phoenix is the needed card, and heroes should never forget how hatefull Skarn can be.

- Verminous' plot deck + Soulbinder + Unkindness

Don't forget that the scourge will have 7hp and not 6 in act II, but before than, will be able to be triggered by all Verminous' cards. You can even damages the scourge to summon the Raven flock, or summon more reinforcements, etc ...

Verminous' plot deck + Soulbinder + Unkindness

Don't forget that the scourge will have 7hp and not 6 in act II, but before than, will be able to be triggered by all Verminous' cards. You can even damages the scourge to summon the Raven flock, or summon more reinforcements, etc ...

Soulbinder is one of my favorite new OL classes. There are some sweet builds you can get using Unkindness cards, but it has a lot of utility on its own (and with other decks). The scourge is a great servant- not really physically imposing, but still a very versatile tool for the OL.

And the more servant there are, the more target avalaible for the cards you've bought