I know this has been touched in some topics but my group is having trouble figuring this out from the scraps of info here.

1. Can heroes "swim" off the board to flee, or is the only way to flee getting the Revenge off the board?

2. If they can "swim" to safety, could the heroes just all swim off when the going gets tough resulting in almost no benefit to the overlord? With the shoe on the other foot, can the overlord just swim away with encounter leaders resulting in a waste of time and money for the heroes?

I ask this because in our campaign the heroes were trying to lift the siege of Orris. We believed form page 17 and 18 of the rulebook that any figure can just flee the encounter by swimming off the edge. At first the heroes kept getting to Orris, realizing they cannot beat the lieutenant, and then jumping overboard before any of them gave up conquest tokens. it seemed right because the heroes had to start from their home port elsewhere and waste time, so it seem correct.

However, the heroes finally got the upper hand and the lieutenant fled, lifting the siege. The heroes declared Orris the home port and this is when things got bad. The overlord kept tried to restart the siege and the heroes kept trying to push him off. whenever the overload was about the kill the heroes, the heroes fled before any deaths and returned to their home port, WHICH IS WHERE THEY ALREADY ARE. When the overlord fled, he just returned the next week to restart the siege. All progress grinded to a halt.

After about three game weeks of half-assed fights the overlord got bored and decided to besiege somewhere else, even though the meaningless fights were to his advantage (he still got one conquest a turn anyways) because he felt it was cheesy and stupid to pester the heroes unless they let him besiege uninterrupted.

Feel free to correct anything else my group did wrong and thanks in advance for the answers.

Tepes said:

1) They can swim off the board.

2) Yes, the only benefit is that the hero's game week ends, so no visiting town, dungeons, etc etc. Yes, the OL can do the same thing but I don't think normal encounter leader's can flee only Lts. Saving your Lt is never a bad thing.

So by the rules its fine, but I have to ask: What in the name of god possessed your OL to waste 3 game weeks trying to siege Orris with the heroes there ? That is a profound tactical mistake on his part in my opinion. You really want to keep the besieging Lt as far away from the heroes as possible and stack multiple Lts on one city if possible. The OL should have abandoned the siege of Orris the second the heroes made it their home port and went elsewhere, unless this was part of his plot. So that three game weeks of meaningless fights and boredom never should have happened because the OL really should have moved on to another city.

1. Can heroes "swim" off the board to flee, or is the only way to flee getting the Revenge off the board?

Any figures can flee off the board in Sea of Blood, which is a change from Roda to Legend. However, the only way to end the encounter via flight is to move the Revenge off of the board. If every hero swims away, they leave their ship behind as an easy target. Sinking it will still result in a TPK.

2. If they can "swim" to safety, could the heroes just all swim off when the going gets tough resulting in almost no benefit to the overlord?

The revenge has to get off of the board to end the encounter.

With the shoe on the other foot, can the overlord just swim away with encounter leaders resulting in a waste of time and money for the heroes?

If the heroes sink the opposing ship or kill every monster on the board they get the cash. If the lieutenant flees, they also get the cash.

I ask this because in our campaign the heroes were trying to lift the siege of Orris. We believed form page 17 and 18 of the rulebook that any figure can just flee the encounter by swimming off the edge. At first the heroes kept getting to Orris, realizing they cannot beat the lieutenant, and then jumping overboard before any of them gave up conquest tokens. it seemed right because the heroes had to start from their home port elsewhere and waste time, so it seem correct.

You should have been getting a TPK every week if they're leaving the Revenge behind for you to sink.

However, the heroes finally got the upper hand and the lieutenant fled, lifting the siege. The heroes declared Orris the home port and this is when things got bad. The overlord kept tried to restart the siege and the heroes kept trying to push him off. whenever the overload was about the kill the heroes, the heroes fled before any deaths and returned to their home port, WHICH IS WHERE THEY ALREADY ARE. When the overlord fled, he just returned the next week to restart the siege. All progress grinded to a halt.

After about three game weeks of half-assed fights the overlord got bored and decided to besiege somewhere else, even though the meaningless fights were to his advantage (he still got one conquest a turn anyways) because he felt it was cheesy and stupid to pester the heroes unless they let him besiege uninterrupted.

The heroes have delayed the siege quite a bit by chasing off the lieutenant. He has to spend a week moving back in, and then slowing build the siege tokens up again. During that time they can be exploring the surrounding dungeons to gain power, and return once the city is within a couple weeks of falling. For Orris, they could chase him off, fully explore Queldan Flood the week he moves back in, Shivering Hills when the first siege token is placed, and Mount Arrik with the third. At the end of Mount Arrik they return to Orris, leaving them two weeks to chase the lieutenant away before any rolls to raze can be attempted. When the siege ends, they head straight for Mount Orrik. They'll have the treasure buried nearby in three weeks.

Alternatively, the Overlord could have moved to Gafford and sieged a weaker city while forcing the heroes to chase him or give it up. Even if they chased they might not be able to stop it, as him fleeing put them one turn behind, and he'll have one siege token in place before they can try to chase him off.

In any case, Orris is a tough city to siege at 5 strength, so probably shouldn't be bothered with if there's only one lieutenant available, if even then. You can win the game without ever having to siege a 5 strength city, unless you're going for a plot that requires it.

Big Remy said:

Fleeing does not end the party's week, only a TPK does that. In SoB any figure can flee off the map, which makes the special text about lieutenants being allowed to flee kind of confusing.

Thanks for the quick responses. I have read the rulebook again and based on your response I think the idea that the Revenge escaping, and the enemy ship escaping (if applicable) is the proper way to flee without penalty. So lemme see if this is somewhat clear.

The entire party can flee off the board by swimming, but the encounter must be played out to see if the Revenge sinks. If it does, the overlord gets CP for all remaining heroes (zero) and the heroes' week ends at home port.

About the besieging, the group misread the alchemist rating as the defense rating and with siege engines the overlord felt he had a shot at it (he actually managed 4 dice rolls of 2 dice at it failing each). This is our first campaign so mistakes will happen and both sides moves will be far from optimal.

James McMurray said:

Whoops! Yeah I was looking the fleeing rules and then looked down, and when I looked back up I guess I read the TPK section. Thanks for the catch.

Heh, that sounds like our first campaign. The overlord sat at Dawnsmoor for 5 turns, rolling two dice each turn, just to raze it. He made up for it by getting lots of surges with high-health undying leaders.