I got my wife Descent a few years ago for Christmas, and at the time we weren't that impressed with the game. We held it up in comparison to Warhammer Quest, and next to that it lacks a number of elements that we love. However, recently we tried it again (4 years between games) because we love FFG games in general, and know that many people like the game a lot.

Going into the game knowing that it was not a WHQ game, we found things that we liked about it and decided that we would try playing it more. I picked up the main expansions for her as a Christmas gift (except RtL...yet). We put the stuff together and started playing Tomb of Ice's first adventure Cauldron of Tears. Initially I was using the Dark Priest cards in my OL deck, but we found that with 2 characters she was quickly becoming overwhelmed and it seemed like it was whenever the Dark Priests would show up. It went like that two different times.

So I cut those cards, and we tried again. This time she was able to advance much better through the dungeon, but in the end the wounds that I accumulated on her were just too much. While she had a Minor Rune of Healing, her ability to heal was allowing me to spawn a huge amount of monsters on the board, waiting for her to move towards final fight to attack her with them. I probably could have killed her before that if I realized how hurt she was at that point.

We are now trying her running 4 characters, as we haven't really felt she has made play mistakes on 2 player. We were both extremely surprised to find that the monsters only upgraded by 1 wound per player on a number of them. Many of the monsters were still easy 1 hit wonders to the heroes, and they were gaining a huge amount of resources to use, while it felt like the Overlord wasn't picking that much up in comparison.

I'm wondering if the experience that we are having is a common one with Descent, that it feels like the game is designed better for the higher number of players, or if it might simply be the mission that we are working in. Cauldron of Tears seems to be extremely treasure light to us right now, and with the OL's ability to spawn monsters I nickel and dime the heroes wounds down while providing limited healing abilities.

Thanks for thoughts, just figured I would see if there were any thoughts from the community.

Uthanar

IMO, Descent was designed from the start that everyone would be playing with 4 heroes and the OL to start and that the 3 and 2 player hero stats were worked out afterwards. The game is a lot harder with only two heroes, three is back in forth in my experience. If she is comfortable running 4 heroes, I would just stick with that.

I have to agree with Big Remy, this game seems to be balanced best when playing four heroes and one overlord. Before we got several sortiment boxes in our round, we even thought about an overlord aide whose main task would have been to search the tokens and figures to speed up the game.

Before your wife plays two additional heroes, you may consider whether you can get an additional player - when playing four characters at once, you are more likely to forget some characteristicas per hero each round - so the OL may have an easier way to win.

Thanks for the thoughts on this. We did play the same mission at 4 characters, and she ended up winning the mission. It was pretty close at times, but I know she was forgetting some abilities. We were being understanding about some of the forgets, while others we didn't go back on as they happened a while before. Good to know it wasn't just us not really figuring something out for 2 characters, but that the game is more designed for 4. Thanks a lot for the replies, and happy gaming.

Uthanar

Descent is also one of those games that's best played in a group and not in a 2 player situation. I'd highly reccommend finding 3 other people to play with rather than the "one more" from above. It's a much more enjoyable game when people work together shedding different insights and playing styles. As for challenge, I've never played anything but 4 heroes against me, but I can say I've done my fair share of party damage and it's gotten close a few times for them. Bad party planning and play can also lead to disaster, and the OL has to be more ruthless with more players otherwise he does tend to get walked on. In the end though, more players = more fun for all.