Hi all, as above, new to the game and tested the rules out against myself just to see whats what. Very similar to Imperial Assault in terms of basics, so took to most of it quickly).

I have a few questions about the map-

1- The 'win' conditions seem a bit sketchy to me. If there are no Barghests on he map the heroes win. I am right in saying the Barghests have no job but to run away from the heroes and survive as long as possible?(why are they there?) Moving them into any sort of combat surely just speeds the win for the heroes?

2- Setup- Place Goblin archers on the 'battlefield'. Ok. At the nd of each overlord turn, you can place upto 2 Goblins...but now in the 'lair' where the Barghests started? Thats correct? (just seemed odd)/

3- How can the goblins hope to survive getting down to the campsite (to get +7 fatigue tokens)...surviving here 7 turns? Is it just an intro for he heroes to breeze through? (in which case I understand)

4- Special Rules...the part about 'at the start of each overlord turn'. in my book it looks like the exact same paragraph is printed twice...or am I overlooking something?

The rules themselves see, ok, but I hope the coming maps are easier/better explained than this original one or am I being a bit silly ?

Cheers all!!

Hello again To answer your questions:

1: The Barghests are indeed there to bait the heroes. But they also pack a punch. With the use of a dash and a frenzy card, you can let them make pretty powerful attacks with the option of retreating.

2: This is correct. It's this way to increase the distance between reinforced goblins and the wreckage. I guess the reason is balancing.

3: They don't have to survive their turns there. I think there is a misunderstanding in conjunction with question 4

4: Read these again carefully. One of the rules is about the beginning of the overlord turn, the other is about the end.

In essence it works the following: If the overlord does get at least 1 goblin to the wreckage in his turn, he gets 1 fatigue token. This can easily be done each round, so that this quest should not take longer than 7 rounds. Now if the heroes do not kill all goblin archers on the wreckage in their turn, the overlord will get another token at the start of his turn. In this way he effectively forces the heroes to not ignore the goblins. Otherwise the quest could be over after 4 rounds.

While these more mechanical and abstract concepts often are not stated in the rules, it helps to read about the victory conditions and think of them as timelimits, required movement and actions.

I hope this clears it up a bit.

Thanks (again) Der.

I think I was so flustered and annoyed my Goblin Archer was 'missing' when I tried to play the first map I was not really focused on things. Having said that, still think its little unclear for an intro, considering people will be playing while reading the rules...odd to make people have to pour over he map rule on the first example map too.

I sound like im complaining, im not though, love the look of both this and IA.

I agree that Acolyte of Saradyn is not optimal to serve as an introduction for new players. The first quest, called First Blood, of the old campaign that used to come with the base game (The Shadow Rune) was much better in this respect.

Heirs of Blood is better in all other aspects, though

Just played this for the first time. I was the OL and I won. It ended up being pretty balanced for us. Each side made minor mistakes. At the end they were one hero turn away from killing my last barghest. But I had a goblin in the right spot to get my last fatigue token at the end of my turn before they could finish him off. Super fun! And yeah I pretty much baited them in to the barghests, then used double movement actions along with a movement OL card to get them the heck out of there. Very fun, excited to play the rest!