Encountering Lts in RtL, we found that they may begin the encounter next to an exit, use their minions to damage the heroes and flee. Worse, soaring Lts may easily kill range-attacking-heroes thus making the encounter impossible. What do you guys think about placing Lts next to the exits?

it is what a smart OL should do, but you will find ways in late game to defeat even such lieutenants ... anyhow when lieutenants flee they go back to the keep location... and that itself is rewarding for the heroes ..

The overlord has next to zero chance to win the game without his lieutenants. Placing them next to the exit is often necessary just to keep the overlord in the running. Having them flee all the way back to the keep is a bad enough drawback for having lost the encounter.

Even then, a strong runner with a bow that drops web tokens or a knockback weapon can still ensure that a lieutenant dies

Hrmm, one reads so much about those unwinnable bronze encounters .. this and the tamalir thread itself is about the same thign once again:

What Lt. is unbeatable when? And why?

From my experience it's not a matter of "Lt, or of state of the campaign, but of the heroes preparations before the fight, and the conquest standing."

So far i have seen:

Great Wyrm vs Zyla, Hawthorne [Dragon tooth hammer], Grey Ker, Mok :

Alric meeting and dying to the Heroes at about 13 totalconquest. No Bronze item was required, we had only the dragon tooth hammer (ironskin..).

He got knocked back from the entrance by 5 spaces[Zyla], then met with 3 ready actions, aimed + attack, 4 powerpotions+ lots of fatigue were used.

Additionally his path out was blocked by heroes he wouldn't have been able to kill in one attack, if he had survived that round.

Eliza: died with her silver beasts in the mid of copper, we had her webbed all the time while slaying her minions and staying out of her sight.

[Hurt by a dark charm and a crushing block, but event held a rage and a danger. The overlord would have neeeeeded the Crushing blow instead, to get rid of the freshly aquired Web-Weapon.]

Merick:

The first week in silver, with a gold manticor and 3 event treachery:

The fight began with the mantikor ambushing[2 Event treachery] the heroes, getting raged and killing Mok and Grey ker. Then it ended as a TPK.

Overlord surrendered though as we chased merrick away two rounds later, mid silve only one city was down.

And Grey ker had his rapidshot, vampiric blood, marksman, and two silver weapons+ a fatigue training.

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Sorceror King, silver eldritch, 1 event treachery, 1 trap treachery, 1 monster treachery::

Alric and merrick go to tamalir at the end of bronze (130 conquest)

The heroes try to chase Alric away, being the easyer target [not that much silver eldritch in that fight]

The heroes are hindered by an environment that hurts them while standing besides water at the end of their turn.

This destroys their possible guard orders. Soon they die to the reinforcment-spawns of two dark brothers and 3 skeletons (monstertreachery)

As the crushing blow robs them of their blast-weapon in exchange for a hero escape, they surrender the campain not being able to beat the wimp of the two besiegers.

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Beastman lord: Silver beasts, 1 event treachery:

Krazz, 1 event treachery:

Mid copper (bout 40 to 70 conquest), 3 Leutnants roam the board, Krazz is assaultet while besieging Frostgate:

"Stong winds" make targeting a little more difficult: -3 to all range rolls. The heroes flee, as only one hero could possibly damage Krazz.. Frostgate falls.

Alric, same setup, 1 week later:

The area "things can only move as far as their printed movement" is drawn.

Alrics razorwings need to crush the hammer the heroes carried, otherwise Alric would have had no chance to flee, what he needed to do at overlord turn three.

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All of those show you the dependencies of Lt. encounters.

-Treachery: one needs event treachery EARLY else the web weapons just destroy the OL game.

-Map draws: "Your Lt. cant run away, only "go"! "> oh ****, they got a hammer!

-Treasure draws: Web Weapon, Blasts, Breaths. (And aaalways carry a hammer!)

-Potions: 4 Attacks with power potions DO bring Alric down with town equipment. Just never forget to aim while punching through high armor!

-Monster categorys: if Eldritch you need spawns! Just Merrick brings litte to no preassure. If Beasts Eliza AND Alric are evil.

-Rolls: of course.. always.

-Skills: Acrobat: no total party kill ever.

Wind pact: No crushing blow to that web weapon, no ambush, no animate weapons.

-Feats: "Preventing evil", no ambush or crushing blow for you! "Disarm Trap": Animate weapons my ass.

The conclusion is simple:

There is NO "the heroes will always loose to copper Leutnants at the start of the campaign."

There is NO "the heroes will always win at the end of bronze.

There is NO "the heroes will alwqays loose at the start of silver.

There are too many factors for such a full scale certainty.

Is it a Lt. heavy game? 4 Lts? Then way less treachery! Go slay em! [Preferably with hammrs and web weapons and without an overlord event treachery, of course.]

Is it a single Lt with lots of treachery? Go hoard potions, get a wind pact immediately, and run a few dungeonlevels to gather the nasty feats your OL so dispices. A single Lt. needs four rounds to raze any city, you just need two to get more than 6 feats and 4 potions.

There are many ways to counter the Overlords plans, you just need to adapt.

[And i highly support houseruling soar to "you can pass though spaces occupied by soaring monsters, but thats a way diffrent story]

Sinso said:

Err, but Alric is Unstoppable and thus is immune to Knockback ?!

Thanks for the help! However, isn't Arlic unaffected by knockback as he has the unstopable ability?

Oh, true that, i gotta apologize to that player then sometiem :-/

We all forgot that part of it :-/

In SoB they only go away one track when they flee.