Brief background so all my questions have context:

I am overlord for my groups' first campaign, we are 10 months in and just finished the interlude. We played rumor quests from 3 H&M packs. I am using basic, have 2x Bloodrage, Bloodlust, Airborne, Call of the Ravens, Web Trap, and plan to get the second Web Trap, Curse of the Monkey God, and Uthuk Demon Trap, if possible, to finish out my deck. I have OL reward cards from CoD and OotO, I don't have TCtR, MoB, or the last 5 H&M packs. I am using Queen Ariad as agent with the Tangled Web plot deck.

Heroes are Elder Mok as Bard, Logan Lashley as Treasure Hunter, Trenloe the Strong as Knight, and Astarra as Runemaster. I didn't realize how elite this group was until the last two quests. i.e. one horrible turn in particular, Logan searched, killed 2 full health Crypt dragons in 1 shot each, and moved 20 spaces. No joke.

I won Intro, Siege of Skytower and 2 Rumors, Heroes have won 1 rumor and Archive of Arrizon, Calladen's Crossing, and From the Wreckage. They came into Act I final shopping phase with 600g, and bought everything they wanted to fill out their already well equipped sets.

First about From the Wreckage:

When the ruse ends, a few different start of turn things come into play. If Eliza is adjacent to decoy at the start of OL turn, the ruse ends. At the start of the OL turn before the ruse ends, you can reinforce a Merriod. At the start of OL turn after the ruse ends, OL gains a fatigue. As I understand, since it was my turn, the golden rule is that I get to choose the order of these three events. First Merriods, then the ruse ends, then I gain a fatigue. Heroes complained so much, I dropped the Merriod, which I later lamented, as I barely eeked out 1 hero kill before they cleared the table. Does RAW allow the order that I preferred? Thanks for the help to clarify. I simply want to use this as an example to not forgo whatever advantage I may be allowed in later quests.

OL tips in general:

Feel free to comment on any tips you have against the ridiculously hard hero line up that I am facing. I can't imagine getting any more wins until I can get Curse in my lineup to control Logan. Is my OL deck approach okay? Can it be improved? I have read all the general tips on here and BGG for OL strat, but anything specific against these heroes would be great. They likely have weaknesses of which I am not aware, having never played them myself.

One thing which I am considering: I just learned about the Bloodlust errata from 4 extra cards (for me) to 2 extra cards before this last quest. The heroes will allow me to cash it back in if I want as it is only half as good as it was. Is it still worth it for the 2 extra cards? It is a bit situational as I have such a hard time killing the heroes.

Let's rewind a minute. Logan did whatnow? What weapon was he using that dealt 7 damage to a dragon in act 1? And then 5... and then moved 20 spaces...

General rule is that anything happening during the same phase has its order determined by the Active Player. So, in this case (to my understanding) yes you can re-enforce first, then resolve the ruse.

For Logan: Dungeoneer + Goldrush + heroic?
Dungeoneer to search, gain 5 movement, attack (free)
Use Heroic, move 4, attack (free),
Move action, move 4, fatigue 4 (assuming we got at least one surge for fatigue recovery)
Total Movement = 17 + stamina potion + 4 more fatigue?

(Note: with the sequence above, you man NOT use Finders Keepers for any of the free attack actions)

Okay, it's even better. I called my buddy who played Logan and he reminded me of the sequence. Bard gave 1MP, Dead Man's Compass 1MP, searched via Dungeoneer, got 5th token (2 stamina, 1 curse doll, 1 warding talisman, 1 fire flask, all unused at this point) spent Gold Rush, moved 5. That's 7MP with 1 action taken that gave him a free attack. Attacked master dragon with Trident rolled 2H + surge on blue, 3H + surge on red, +1 for being not adjacent, 2 pierce from Sleight of Hand, I rolled 2 shield, but negated, 1 surge spent on +2H, one on +2MP, he did 8 damage. Mind you, he has reach. Used heroic feat to gain 4 more MP, but didn't have to move to attack 2nd Crypt Dragon. Did 2H and Surge on blue, and 3H on red, I rolled blanks, he did 5 damage, spent surge on 2 more MP. 1 action completed... 15 movement points used. Used final fatigue for 1MP, then used a stam pot, got 4MP to put him 1 space from final search token. Mind you, he walked THROUGH my blockade of Chaos Beasts at this point because Gold Rush was exhausted. No fatigue left, so spent second stam pot, searched final search token, and got a health pot. Ended with 1 fatigue on him.

So, 2 attacks, 2 search tokens, 20 movement. Could have moved 3 more spaces if he had wanted.

Since you can see that Logan can do such things, the question that comes to mind is, why do you use Crypt Dragons, a relatively fragile 2-figure monster group, that makes it possible for him to completely annihilate a whole open group all by himself?

2 hours ago, NewKevlar said:

I won Intro, Siege of Skytower and 2 Rumors, Heroes have won 1 rumor and Archive of Arrizon, Calladen's Crossing, and From the Wreckage.

4 quests won on each side: I see a perfectly balanced campaign. What's to complain about? Sure, it is the end of Act I and that's when heroes are comparatively strongest, but now you'll be getting Act II monsters.

And you are right, the errata'd Bloodlust is not really worth it any longer. I usually buy 1 Unholy Ritual for card drawing instead. There often is a group far enough away that they just diddle around for 1 or 2 turns anyway, or Zombies that can only move once so they don't mind losing an action. And it is very good for quickly getting infector or enchanter cards together.

You are going to play Army of Dal'Zunm next. If you had gone the Magus way and bought Rise Again, you'd have an almost sure win, since it teleports a Zombie right into the Open Field from 8 spaces away... And once you have the first Zombie mutate into an Ettin, it gets much easier.

4 hours ago, NewKevlar said:

They came into Act I final shopping phase with 600g, and bought everything they wanted to fill out their already well equipped sets.

You've played 3 rumors. Against a Treasure Hunter. With 3 additional quests, no wonder the heroes are flush with money.

5 hours ago, NewKevlar said:

First about From the Wreckage:

When the ruse ends, a few different start of turn things come into play. If Eliza is adjacent to decoy at the start of OL turn, the ruse ends. At the start of the OL turn before the ruse ends, you can reinforce a Merriod. At the start of OL turn after the ruse ends, OL gains a fatigue. As I understand, since it was my turn, the golden rule is that I get to choose the order of these three events. First Merriods, then the ruse ends, then I gain a fatigue. Heroes complained so much, I dropped the Merriod, which I later lamented, as I barely eeked out 1 hero kill before they cleared the table. Does RAW allow the order that I preferred? Thanks for the help to clarify. I simply want to use this as an example to not forgo whatever advantage I may be allowed in later quests.

What you did is probably allowed. I say probably because although the order of things is decided by the active player, I don't know whether things that happen according to a state of the game at the start of turn have that state of the game checked just once and then the active player can do things in any order he wants, or if the active player can change the state of the game during his start of the turn so that he can get two effects that seem mutually exclusive, one before having changed the state of the game and the other after, which would make the game "check twice" in the same turn for something that normally should be checked only once (until the ruse is over, do this at the start of the turn; when the ruse is over, do that at the start of the turn instead).

I don't think I have ever seen a ruling on this, so it might be worth asking.

I sent the question to FFG.

The heroes felt I beat them too badly the first few quests, and talked about restarting the campaign or choosing a different OL, so to appease them, I promised 3 rumor quests. I also told them they were going to get way stronger than me very quickly, which, of course, happened. I am having a blast, and I don't mind losing, but, of course, I want to crush their spirits into dust.

I also conceded to them that I would try to choose a new monster group for my open groups each quest so as to mix it up and make it interesting. That has been my weak point for sure, and now that we are starting Act II, I will no longer be doing them that favor. I looked up Unholy Ritual, and I don't know if you realized, but it also got nerfed. Hard to say which is better...

On 10/3/2017 at 2:23 AM, NewKevlar said:

I sent the question to FFG.

The heroes felt I beat them too badly the first few quests, and talked about restarting the campaign or choosing a different OL, so to appease them, I promised 3 rumor quests. I also told them they were going to get way stronger than me very quickly, which, of course, happened. I am having a blast, and I don't mind losing, but, of course, I want to crush their spirits into dust.

I also conceded to them that I would try to choose a new monster group for my open groups each quest so as to mix it up and make it interesting. That has been my weak point for sure, and now that we are starting Act II, I will no longer be doing them that favor. I looked up Unholy Ritual, and I don't know if you realized, but it also got nerfed. Hard to say which is better...

Unholy Ritual :

The card should read, “Play this card at the start of your

turn. Choose one of your monster groups and draw Overlord cards equal

to the number of figures from that group on the map. Choose and keep

2 cards and discard the rest. Each monster in that group performs 1 less

action during this turn.”

Thanks for sending in the question to FFG, I'm also interested in their answer.

I know about the nerfing of Unholy Ritual, and that's why I play only one. But one is good because I almost always find a window to cast it without hurting me, at least in the first turn(s) of either encounter or at the very end of encounter 1. Sometimes a group is "imprisoned" in a room and can't do much before the end of the encounter anyway (Blood Will Tell, The Baron Returns, Saradyn in Flames...), then it's 2 good cards (because you get to choose) for one without any disadvantage. Also, I currently play Enchanter cards and Unholy Ritual is very good at getting me the combo of Sign of the Last Zenith / Rune of the Phoenix quickly.

Is it normal to have a week elapse before a question is fielded by FFG? Just wondering how long I should sit tight until asking again for good measure. First time jitters, ya know...

Nowadays, usually you have to wait months to get a response. Sometimes you never get one. Unfortunately, customer service is not what it used to be.

Rules Question:
In From the Wreckage, when OL begins with Eliza adjacent to decoy, does he choose the order that the three potential start of turn events take place? Can OL reinforce the Merriod group, end the ruse and relocate Eliza/remove the locked door, and then gain 1 fatigue?

Hi Kevin,

Because each of those rules has the same timing, the overlord would get to choose the order of their resolution.

Thanks,

Nathan Hajek