My friends and I are have started our first RTL game.

I tried to look over all the relevant FAQs and such beforehand, and had the official ones and rules summaries printed out, which was very helpful.

One thing came up which I wasn't quite sure about - are there any restrictions on how many LTs the overlord can purchase, per campaign level? After turn 1, the heroes had cleared a full dungeon, gaining 27 conquest to the OL's 10, which gave the OL 12 on turn 2 (the other two from the two turns). The OL is playing the titan. Although they can only buy 1 upgrade a turn, they can buy an LT each of the next two turns if they buy them in the right order (for 3 total at turn 3). If they then move all three of their LTs to the nearby city (or Tamalir), we (as the heroes) don't really see how we can stop immediate razings.

We talked it over and decided that 1 LT at copper level was probably about all that could be handled, and the OL agreed to this, since we're not ever sure we can kill or chase off the starting guy. We've had almost no weapon draws from the treasure chest and market, which might be part of it.

So, is there normally no restriction on buying LTs? If so, how do heroes deal with this?

Unless the Lt card says something to the effect of "Can only be played at the Silver campaign level" then there is no restriction on the OL buying those Lts, especially the Farrows.

What you are referring to is commonly known as "The Tamalir Blitz" where the OL immediately buys two Lts in addition to the starting one, and stacks them all on Tamalir. Its a perfectly legitimate and effective way for the OL to win the game.

However, the heroes do stand a chance at attacking the Lts and chasing them all away from Tamalir, especially if they have managed to get a good stock of Copper weapons. Lts are difficult, but are not as bad as people make them out to be. Last time I played, our OL tried this and we managed to chase away 3 of the 4 Lts on Tamalir while in Copper.

Just as a clarification, only "one" siege token can be placed in each round. So, hopefully, you weren't allowing the overlord to place one siege token for each lieutenant. Thus, it would still take them 5 turns to siege Tamalir, and giving you a couple of turns to chase them away.

PastorJK said:

That's incorrect. Each Lt can place a siege token on their turn as the Besiege order the OL can give to them. There is nothing in the rules to prevent the OL from placing multiple siege tokens each turn. However, the OL is only allowed one siege roll per turn to raze a city. They do not get one roll for each Lt.

Also, I knew I remembered this from somewhere. The heroes can attack multiple Lts in a given game week, so especially if you are on Tamalir you can just chain Lt encounters to try and drive them off. From the GLoAQ:

Can the hero party attack multiple Lieutenants and visit a city in the same game week action?
Yes, but they may visit the town only after all Lieutenant battles have ended.

Big Remy said:

This is why the traditional Tamalir rush happens right as the campaign transitions into silver so the lieutenants get a major boost, more monsters are at silver or gold, and the heroes have yet to benefit from the tier change by getting better treasures and dice upgrades.

descentfan333 said:

You heroes are leading the OL 27 to 12, which is already quite bad for him (to have a chance, the OL usually must lead during copper). If you, as heroes, want to be 99.9% certain of winning the game, go ahead with the limit of only 1 Lt during copper. If you want to make it a bit more of a challenge and leave the OL a small chance, try the official rules.

In our campaign, the OL bought the Gem of Transport with his starting 15 XP and immediately teleported Alric on Tamalir to start building up siege tokens. We entered a couple of dungeons, bought the wall upgrades for Tamalir, visited the Riverwatch market, trained once, went back and killed Alric (the OL didn't want to flee as he felt he was so close to victory, and he probably overestimated Alric's strength) as he was putting the last siege token on the city.