Ok, I'm a newbie player in Descent and have played a few games already. However, I'm thoroughly astounded at how powerful the Overlord is. I've only played as heroes, and my sister as the overlord, and I seem to be flatenned to hero squash in the very first room in a couple of quests. The closest I ever got was in Quest 3: Grotto of Wisdom, when I almost rang all the bells and slayed Kisst-Haa. Unfortunately, the overlord spawned monsters in a corner, out of our line of sight, and crushed our weakest hero. Are heroes always threatened to the brink of death, and when they win, it's usually a very close victory? While the overlord can destroy heroes, with a couple of spawn cards and well-placed units, in the first few rounds? It doesn't seem right.

Well the question is, is there a tremendous unbalance in this game, as the overlord outmans and outmaneuvers the heroes? Or is it meant to be that way, the heroes struggling to get through the dungeon?

I guess my questions are: Are you playing with expansion material? How many heroes characters are you actually playing with?

The expansions add a whole lot to the arsenal to the Overlords tactics in the form of deadlier monsters and treachery. And if you are playing with any less then 4 heroes, it really is a uneven match for the heroes.

Oddly enough, assuming the Overlord is competent and playing to win, his...or in your case her tactics are really simple. Crush the heroes. However, the skill is in playing the heroes side. They always have multiple options to choose from and if they are not looking at all the available tactics they could be using then they will be crushed.

mi-go hunter said:

Sorry, but either you have some rules wrong or your sister is just a much better player than you.

Either side can win, but there isn't a big imbalance and n particular the first two quests are rather easy for the heroes - they are really just 'training' quests.

Ahhh, OTOH, the game does not scale at all well and playing with just two heroes is very difficult . Play with at least three heroes, 4 if you can manage it.

mi-go hunter said:

I don't think there's a tremendous imbalance in the game. It's not unusual for new players to misinterpret the rules in ways that make things very easy for one side or the other, though. Those who responded before me have asked some of the more obvious questions, so I'll wait to see your response to those before pushing further. However, if you managed to lose within the first room on the first quest, you almost certainly did something wrong (either tactically or mechanically.)

If it helps any, the first game I played I got crushed too. We played with only 2 heroes and I made the mistake of letting my hero get left alone. =P

Steve-O said:

Hm. Well, I'm not sure I misinterprated the rules, but tactically I might be at fault. I'm not new to hard-core boardgaming, as I do play Arkham Horror for nearly 2 years. Then again, that's a whole different ballgame. I only have the base set and play with four heroes, so I have a feeling I might simply be lame. Do different quests vary in difficulty (as I remember the quest I was flattened was in Quest 5: Last Wishes)? I remember the very first room in that quest was bristling with foul monsters. Also weak-armor heroes did contribute to my destruction.

Is there any solid strategy for the hero player to overcome such challenges? I'm getting tired of losing, and I would like tips from more experienced players.

The quests vary significantly in difficulty. If you're playing them in random order, you may just have picked badly.

I've only played as OL so far, but as especially the first Vanilla box quest is supereasy, I think you're doing something wrong. I had absolutely no chance against the heroes in that one.

I found a thread from BoardGameGeek you might find useful:

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/586399/heroes-general-tactical-strategic-advice

Btw: When spawning monsters, are you aware that a) heroes don't have facing, so place then so that they block as many of possible spawning places as possible and b) monsters don't LOS when it comes to spawning.

Also here there are some good pointers for heroes (and OL too): www.descentinthedark.com/index.php

Other than that read the rules one more time and make sure you're doing everything right. Also the game is meant to be played in a way that it is much harder for you to win as heroes as the first time you try a new quest. So play one as long as it takes for you to win it and then move on. All the puzzles and quirks give OL advantage when playing the quest the first time.

If after all this you still feel that the game is too hard for you, then buy Tomb of Ice, as the feats it brings to the game make Descent easier for the heroes.

Antistone said:

Thanks for the link! According to boardgamegeek:

"Quest 5: Last Wishes

Games: 14
Hero Wins: 2
Overlord Wins: 12

This map initially gave my Heroes a LOT of trouble. In no other map did I kill them as frequently in the first half-hour of the game as I did on this one. In spite of this, I do not feel this is an unfairly difficult map. Rather, the hardest part of the map is the first room, and the setup is such that it severely punishes even the slightest mistake"

Heh, combined with many weak 2 conquest value heroes coupled with the first time playing it, now I see why I might have been slaughtered in the first room.

Oh, one more thing. Is it advisable to randomly draw heroes or handpick them (in terms of balancing out the game)?

Lots of people seem to use a compromise, such as letting each player draw 3 random characters and pick one of them to play (which is the official rule in advanced campaigns, but was popular in vanilla as a houserule before that). The heroes definitely vary in power, so letting players choose freely results in a significantly stronger average party... IF the players know how to choose well. For newbies, it doesn't necessarily make a big difference.

The main thing about the draw-3-choose-1 method is that it usually allows players to ensure they have a diverse party, which helps with treasure distribution. It also means that the worst few characters, once the players have identified them, pretty much never get played...which may be good or bad, depending on your point of view.