OMG - this new forum is terrible. My carefully formatted text which worked fine in the old forum doesnt work. Anyone any ideas how to now do colour?

Tell you what, I would suggest not reading what is below and instead going to BGG to read it instead!

The BGG link for this is: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2919183

Previous Session 4: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/356149

Descent Road to Legend Campaign Diary - Session 5 - 12th December 2008

Blue for comments and red for rules questions

Lord Hawthorne. Skill: Tough. Equipment: Shadowblade, Plate Mail, Crystal of Tival, Crystal Shield. XP: 52
Vyrah the Falconer. Skill: Tiger Tattoo. Equipment: Great Bow, Magic Bow. Chainmail. Traits: +1 Black Ranged. XP: 37
Andira Runebound. Skill: Blessing, Prodigy . Equipment: Heavy Leather Armour, Sunburst, Cone of Fire, Mana Weave. XP: 32
Landrec the Wise. Skill: Spiritwalker. Equipment: Wizard's Robe, Staff of the Grave, Ghost Armour, Ring of Protection. XP: 52
Party Equipment: Guide
Party Cash: 3500

Overlord Avatar: The Titan
Plot: Ascension
Overlord Upgrade: Siege Engines, Sir Alric Fallow, Lady Eliza Fallow

WEEK 12

OL gains 1 more XP putting the total to 20. After advice from my last post, I decided not to spend this and save up for a monster upgrade. Sir Alric places 1 more siege token on Greyhaven, making the total there to 3 which means because of my siege engines I get to roll next week. Lady Eliza moves to Forge.

The heroes stayed in Tamalir and trained. Lord Hawthorne acquired the Mighty skill and Vyrah learnt Inner Fire . Andira increased her magic trait by 2 (now rolling 5 power dice) and Landrec increased his by 1. An expensive week for the heroes, spending 3500 coins.

CONQUEST: Heroes: 52, Overlord: 20/33, Total: 85

WEEK 13

Having failed to raze Greyhaven on my last few attempts, and the general way the campaign was going, I figured I was in for a bit of luck. However, I failed my roll yet again. Lady Eliza however starts to raze Forge. If I were to do this whole campaign again, I might try and raze Greyhaven straight away. Due to the heroes being very lucky right at the start, they were able to take on my Lt's from week 3, so I probably should have realised this and moved them as far away as possible

The heroes decided to head to Greyhaven to break the siege once more. Because they can, they chose to use the guide to roll an extra dice. This is actually after advice I gave them back in Session 2 where I knew they were already easily able to take on encounters, which basically means free XP and coins They encounter Patch and his raiders at a quiet pond. The combat went as expected. They got 350 coins and 2XP. I managed to score 1 hit on a hero and do a couple of wounds, which is about all I can hope for at this stage

They arrive at Greyhaven to take on Sir Alric, but the location drawn was 'Dark Taint', meaning they lose 2 wounds each time they place an order. Since the heroes use guard orders 90% of the time, this was going to make things a bit tricky for them. This encounter went ok for me. I was very careful and used my threat wisely (I thought), and I actually managed to get enough people attacking Vyrah that I killed him. After this, the heroes fought back and got rid of all my minions, so it was just 3 of them vs the Lt, but a few of them were wounded so they decided to flee into the city.

One question that came up: What happens to a familiar if the owner is killed when doing an outdoor encounter?

Lord Hawthorne, Landrec and Andira went to the temple, whilst Vyrah visited the alchemist and bought 5 potions - some of which were used up straight away for more healing.

CONQUEST: Heroes: 54, Overlord: 24/37, Total: 91

WEEK 14

This was a crucial week. For the first time since the campaign started, something had gone my way. I'd also now got 25XP, which I promptly spent on upgrading my humanoids to silver. In my mind, I'd been given a lifeline - and all I needed to do now was to raze Greyhaven. The party are low on potions, and having them able to buy another 5 was going to hurt me. And surely by now I should be able to roll a surge - so much depended on it....

I failed my roll as usual so the heroes chose to fight the Lt again, this time finding him at a 'Narrow Path'. My improved beastmen were nearly as useless as the copper ones, since they are still usually getting killed in one attack, and without too much trouble, the heroes had wiped out all of my minions and were left with just the Lt. At one point, I realised that if I had kept another 2 threat back, I could have moved Sir Alric, attacked once and then used the rest of the threat to give him extra MP to flee off the board. Although this wouldnt have killed anyone, just done a few wounds. The heroes gained 275 coins from the battle

So, yet again, Greyhaven is saved, and my Lt flees right back to the Overlords Keep. The heroes visited Greyhaven, 3 of them visiting the temple to heal up and another to buy 4 more potions.

CONQUEST: Heroes: 54, Overlord: 0/38, Total: 92

WEEK 15

Sir Alric heads south to the Hanging Woods. Lady Eliza places 1 siege token on Forge bringing the total there to 3. The heroes head to the Gate of the North, but despite their guide blowing his horn to increase the chance of some more easy cash and XP (aka an encounter), none are found. They find the dungeon location and the first level of the dungeon is decided - Level 27: The Monastery.

We then pack up because it is late although I'm already looking ahead to this dungeon level, and something strikes me as being wrong. I cant see how I could ever kill all 6 villagers to summon Lord Aktar. I think the heroes could easily clear this dungeon level without any difficulty whatsoever and get a whole bunch of XP from it - Has anyone played this level at all and got any advice for me?

CONQUEST: Heroes: 55, Overlord: 1/39, Total: 94

For Monastery, with upgraded Eldritch, a cleverly placed block to allow for a good spawn location, and with the red treachery card to upgrade the demon you get to a Master.. I can imagine a lord Aktar summoning.

Also, if the villagers cannot move (which they cannot, AFAIK, a Boulder would be all that it takes. A Hero makes a step, you place the boulder next to the villagers, splat splat splat, instant OL happiness!

A good read! Seems you are certainly unlucky with your siege rolls. Despite that, I'm confident that your newly aquiered monsters will give you an edge in the forthcoming dungeon, unless you are unlucky and only draw non-humaniod ones

Xandria said:

lol. Whilst I appreciate the excellent advice, it sounds like this dungeon level is unplayable as it stands. It sounds like it relies on a number of other things to be in place before it works. In my campaign, I dont have upgraded Eldritch, I dont have any treachery, and the heroes in my group will probably just rush in immediately using ready actions, using fatigue to move further and then go on guard.

Since at that point I will only have 3 cards in hand and no threat, its unliklely that I will be able to drop any kind of block. And dont blocks do 4 wounds?

With my heroes all on guard, I will probably lose 3/4 of them on my turn before I get to do anything. The rest will be pretty useless as I wont be able to reach the heroes. If I am lucky I might get some ranged shots in and do a few points of damage. Then on the heroes next turn, they wipe out the rest of my monsters. Turn 3 they activate the glyph, grab the key and head through the door for an easy 9 XP.

Has anyone actually played this level and managed to do anything at all with it?

The forum formatting is in RTF, so you can paste your post into wordpad or MSWord, color it there, and copy-paste it back into the post text box.

I sense a flaw in your tactics. Have the heroes set up in a defensive formation, ready to wipe out 4 of the 5 critters you have as soon as you come close?

Then don't.

Really.

If it is the start of copper, they will move a few steps, place guard orders, ready to blast... and you don't throw your monsters at them. 4 Hero actions wasted. When they stretch thinner, you drop a block, create rubble, cut off LoS... (this is of course conditional).

Still, the Monastery level favors Eldritch excessively, much like many other levels. Be glad you didn't draw the ancient library, look at that one, it's pure crap.

So, delay, accumulate threat and cards, if they avail you nothing in that level, perhaps they help you in the next. If you draw the right stuff, open a can of whoopass. Still, if you throw your monsters at the heroes mindlessly, of course they will get a closed-casket-funeral and the pesky adventurers will just zip through the dungeon.

Xandria said:

That is what I had hoped. In fact, I've played D&D so much that I keep making this mistake. I have the mindset that if I dont want them to hit a monster, I wont activate it. However, as per the rules:

"At any point during the overlord player’s turn (not during a hero’s turn), a hero may use his guard order to immediately “interrupt” the overlord player’s turn and make one attack (following all the normal rules for line of sight and attacking)."

"The overlord player must allow for an interrupt attack at any time, and must reverse any movement/attack if it was made too fast for the hero player to have a chance to declare an interrupt attack. "

So basically the attack can be anywhere against anything. The first time I got caught out by this is when I thought I was being clever. The players all went on guard. I said, "Fine, I will move just this one guy right at the back who you cant see". They interrupted my turn and used their guard orders to wipe out all my monsters that I'd just said I wasnt going to move.

The main problem why this is so effective in my group is they have 2 Magic characters, 1 Ranged, and 1 Melee with reach, so I usually cant get anywhere near them.

I'm 99% sure we are playing it correct but it is very powerful indeed. My players use it to get round some of the special abilities such as regeneration. They do loads of damage to it on my turn, then they finish it off on their turn - I get no chance to regenerate.

You played it correctly. Still, I think a viable approach would be to set up the critters at a range where you can threaten the heroes, yet they are outside effective range, behind corners etc. The heroes will advance, place their guard... and you don't move the critters into effective range, even fall back a bit.

Note that some monsters, like upgraded Master Trolls, can wander into this barrage at a relatively low risk. Skeletons can shoot away Hawthorne's Guard, too, and clever play can mean the other guarding characters don't have the LoS to use their guard.

Against a party like this, a humanoid upgrade is somewhat weak, true. Still, a ranged character cannot hope to one-shot a silver beastman, and magic guys will also find it difficult unless they are Landrec "call me Gandalf" the Wise with Stuff of the Grave.

Take it positively: it takes far less skeleton shots to take down a mage or a ranger than that Nanok.

always place your monsters where heroes will have trouble getting LOS to them. I usually place them as far as possible from the hero starting areas. It forces them not to cover spawn if they want to avoid losing too much time. razorwings are great at removing guard orders from non tanks, as they are able to sustain a good amount of punishment. As Xandria advised, just advance a very resilient monster first that stand a good chance of getting a guard order out. This would force the heroes to focus fire him even though they planned to keep the guard for weaker monsters.

Yay for speed-of-light razorwings. The Death on the Wing costs 1 treachery if I am correct, btw., giving you two speedy flying tanks.