hello

i have recently bought the main game of descent journeys in the dark and when I played it i encountered a few problems

(maybe it was a bad idea) i decided that instead of just selecting the first quest in the book we shoul decide ramdomly what quest to play... and we got the 5-last wishes- i was the overlord and right in the first area i had quite an army of beastmen and skeletons and the other players were just 3... since we started with 5 conquest tokens if i were able to kill just 2 players i would win right? (they were playing with heros with 3 of conquest value)

am i making any mistake here? because it almost sounds to easy... i mean they eventually understood that the onlyway to survive was to make ranged attacks, retreat and close the doors ...and so they eventually were able to defeat my minions... (by the way is there any way to recover the wounds of the minions?)

in the end however they were left with little life... but we could nt find any other way to recover wounds other than potions... which was hardly an option after buying the equipment... and later in the area 2 they were doing the same (instead of closing doors they climbed the stais...) but ended up with the same problem and no money with which to buy potions...is there any other way to recover wounds for the heros?(besides the potions)

and is there any limitation on the amount of monsters i can have in the board at any given time? and can i move them all with limitations?

another problem i encountered was the treasure chests... they had a number an in the quest guide there was a list of the numbers and their corresponding treasures... the first one if i am no mistaken had: 2 conquest tokens (is it in total or is it 2 tokens for hero?) 1 curse and 1 copper treasure(which is if i am not mistaken one for each hero...) so the heros get all these? all the tokens and the treasure while the overlord gets the threat provided by the curse? or only one of the contens of the chest os to be distributed?

i believe that is all the doubts we had with the game

if anyone could please answer thank you

Itachi said:

First of all, there is a huge learning curve with this game. Starting off with a more difficult quest (they ramp up as you go) is not really fair to a beggining group of heros. You will want to start with the first quest to have your players get the hang of the game. In general mistakes are much more unforgiving for the heros than the overlord. Even if the first quest might seemed less advanced and more "boring" start with that one. I would also reccomend starting with the maximum ammount of starting heros even if this means someone controlling an extra hero. The game scaling is a little lop-sided and favored to the OL when there are fewer heros.

The ammount of conquest your recieve from killing a player depends on the value on thier card so it just depends, but the heros can gain more conquest from doing things like opening treasure and activating glyphs.

Actually one of the main strategy's your heros will need is to get through the dungeon as fast as possible; thinking they need to defeat every minion is a very common mistake new players make. There are so many strategies the players will need to learn before they will be able to start clearing the later dungeons most of which they will start to figure out when they get through the earlier dungeons. Strategies like rushing for the glphys to activate them for conquest and taking them to town, rushing for treasure as quick as possible, etc can easily make the difference between wiping out early on and clearing the dungeon.

There might be some abilities and skills (I don't have them memroized TBH) that allow character healing, for example the red scorpion has a natural healing ability: http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic447175.jpg. Im fairily certain some treasures provides healing as well.

As far as spawning limitations they are outlined int he rules and covered on page 12 but the main limitations are the ammount of figures you have available to place (the game allows you to move one of the already spawned minions and replace spawn a "fresh" figure if you run out of say, skeletons to spawn), and line of sight. The constantly spawining monsters is another reason that the players need to keep moving because if they spend too much time in one spot they can quickly become overwhelmed.

There is a number under each of the treasure tokens you place down. Randomly one of these. For the last wishes the contents you described would have been correct for the first copper treasure if the marker you placed down revealed a "1". the players get 2 conquest, 1 curse, and everyone gets 1 copper treasure.

I'd say go back and start with the first dungeon and work your way up. Once your players start to find the first couple of dungeons easy they should be ready to tackle the hard ones. This is not an easy game to get the hang of especially for the hero players, and starting with a more difficult dungeon for the first game will probably drive away players and make for a bad first expierence for anyone trying the game out of the first time. Keep the rules handy and refer to them constantly paying close attention to the wording.

There is also a FAQ in the forums. If you are playing with the first set print out the first few pages that cover it, go over them, and bring them with you on your games.

Good luck with your future games.

(maybe it was a bad idea) i decided that instead of just selecting the first quest in the book we shoul decide ramdomly what quest to play... and we got the 5-last wishes- i was the overlord and right in the first area i had quite an army of beastmen and skeletons and the other players were just 3... since we started with 5 conquest tokens if i were able to kill just 2 players i would win right? (they were playing with heros with 3 of conquest value)

Correct on both counts. It was a bad idea and you would only need to kill 2 heroes to win.

am i making any mistake here? because it almost sounds to easy... i mean they eventually understood that the onlyway to survive was to make ranged attacks, retreat and close the doors ...and so they eventually were able to defeat my minions... (by the way is there any way to recover the wounds of the minions?)

There is a treachery card the overlord can get with a future set, as well as a monster ability, which can heal monsters. For the most part though. they're stuck with what they start with. That's ok though, because it's easy to create more monsters.

in the end however they were left with little life... but we could nt find any other way to recover wounds other than potions... which was hardly an option after buying the equipment... and later in the area 2 they were doing the same (instead of closing doors they climbed the stais...) but ended up with the same problem and no money with which to buy potions...is there any other way to recover wounds for the heros?(besides the potions)

There are treasures which heal, and skills in other expansions.

and is there any limitation on the amount of monsters i can have in the board at any given time? and can i move them all with limitations?

You cannot have more of a monster type than you have figures. There are some exceptions, though these are caused by poor planning in quest design and the FAQ will tell you which figures to use as proxies when the adventure calls for more minis than there are available.

another problem i encountered was the treasure chests... they had a number an in the quest guide there was a list of the numbers and their corresponding treasures... the first one if i am no mistaken had: 2 conquest tokens (is it in total or is it 2 tokens for hero?) 1 curse and 1 copper treasure(which is if i am not mistaken one for each hero...) so the heros get all these? all the tokens and the treasure while the overlord gets the threat provided by the curse? or only one of the contens of the chest os to be distributed?

p.18. The OL gets his threat from the curses in time to use it to trigger any chest traps he may want to use. Then the treasures are handed out.

ok

thanks i ll keep those in mind and try an easier quest next time. nevertheless i think this is a great game especially with the expansions

thank you very much for the help again