Well. I played my first game of Descent last night as the overlord. And like so many others I had a hard time keeping up with the heroes, feeling that the odds were pretty much stacked against me.
Knowing that the first couple of maps are "learning maps" we sprung for the quest with the ancient relic to give the heroes some challenge... still I was thrashed.

I am wondering if there is sort of a "Overlords strategy guide" somewhere around here?..

I made some tactical blunders for sure(the two "water hazards" dividing the board really messed things up for me)... Still..I had the feeling that the heroes were HUGELY overpowered right from the start, with skills enabling them to make two attacks each turn at least and with lots of extra damage and surges, while my cards(traps in particular) were pretty ineffective.

I tried to save up as much threat as I could and then jump on the most vulnerable hero when I had a chance, and also managed to get some 3-4 hero kills in, and even got to the bottom of the OL card deck for 5 CT. .. but all the time activation of glyphs and treasure chests just let the heroes pull away from me.

I am not whining about loosing.. I had a great time playing... And I just LOVE the Overlord role... I have NO problems what so ever doing my utmost to kill off my friends... and taunt them in the process!! .
My concern is that the heroes start out so overpowered that no real tactics are needed.. and thus with no challenge in the game they will probably grow bored with the game pretty soon.
I bought RTL along with the base box, and am now wondering if the balance is as much in the heroes favour In the campaign game too?

To me it seemed that the game would have been "fair" had the heroes only had their special abilities and no skills, while the skills just pretty much rocks.

My poor heroes always complain that the Overlord is overpowered, unfortunately

There is an Overlord tactics guide indeed, yeah. Have a look here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=30

There is one for the heroes as well, while we're at it - you can use that to spot the things you have to question loudly when they attempt to do them :

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=26

Generally, what you want to do as Overlord is stall them as much as possible. Hide your melee monsters behind corners in their path, so they have to expose themselves if they want to close in. Spawn ranged and magic monsters behind the heroes, hiding them behind corners after taking their shots, so the heroes have to decide to either backtrack and take out the nasty buggers, or push forward - or to spread out, which is very much in your favour. Try keeping them from opening chests and activating glyphs by means of resilient monsters on top of them and in their way. Protect weaker, ranged stuff with the melee types if possible. Try to avoid the heroes taking battle actions (or force them to spend fatigue for it) by staying 1-2 squares away from their melee heroes after your turn.

Generally, try to be as conservative with your monsters as possible, protect them with line of sight and through smart placement, and amass as many as you can - all while wearing down the heroe's defenses. Eventually, if you do that, the heroes will be overwhelmed. Time is on your side, use it well

Which "quest with the ancient relic" are you referring to? There are 4 in the base game. Quest 7, "The Black Blade," is widely considered to be the hardest quest in the base game. But from your comment about water dividing the board, I'm guessing you played Quest 6, "The Eternal Guardian," widely considered to be stupidly easy for the heroes. This reviewer rates it as even easier than the first quest, and suggests that if the heroes can't win on that one, your overlord either tremendously outclasses your heroes or you're making some critical rule mistake.

Antistone said:

I see..... It was the eternal Guardian we played.... so.... NEXT time...!!! ...Muuuuuuua ha ha HA HA!!!!

I just picked a quest that looked to be a challenge for the heroes... but guess I chose badly.

Also, we got quite a few rules wrong as we were leaning as we played ... but I reckon it was equally so for both sides.(I did manage to catch that beastmen swapped pierce for +1 dam, and that skeletons gained pierce...but I thought skeletons discarded their +1 range which they don't) and I struggled with large monsters as they were impossible to "hide" and too slow and cumbersome to move around.

I found the rulebook to be somewhat of a nightmare for quick reference.. or is that just me?

Yes, the rulebook is not structured well for quick searching at all. My friends and I made our own quick-reference sheet, but it ended up being two pages long (including all the creature abilities, which are oversimplified on the back of the rulebook).

I tend to have my laptop ready and searching the PDF is easy

Also, over on BGG there's a consolidated rulebook that is a LOT easier for searching as the FAQ and all pertinent rules have been reorganized and put into their proper locations.

-shnar

Yahh. I also found some on http://www.headlesshollow.com/freebies_games.html#drtl that seems very useful.

As for balance, I am thinking about buying Well of darkness as I have head that it will give the OL a lot more "nastyness" to hand out.

I have RTL sitting on the shelf, and we are getting to it once we have had a few more games to learn the basics... any thoughts as to how this plays balance wise?

RtL's balance has a huge swing through the campaign: Copper is easy for OL, about balanced in Silver, and Gold is easy for the Heroes. The best way for heroes to stay competitive in Copper is the "blitzing" technique (hit the near-by dungeons and flee early, giving the OL as few CPs as possible, and always refreshing to max before hitting next dungeon).

The hardest part of RtL is the length. I have yet to get through Silver because most groups just peter out after the 4th or 5th session and want to play other games. If your group might not be so dedicated, start out at Silver. They at least won't feel the frustration of Copper and may want to keep going.

-shnar