Simple question : how ?

Lets see we have the best bronze equipement and 1 follower (shadow soul) that allow our fighter to get his 3 attacks most of the time, we purchased one silver dice also for each character.

The ol bought goodies like siege engine, 2-3 more generals and one creature type silver upgrade the main reason we feel its kinda already over. I mean look at those skeletons : 4 dices of dmg (1 more cause of an upgrade) + armor piercing 3. We have at best 16 lifes 4 armor. How the hell are we suppose to win this campaign now. Next game he'll be able to upgrade the rest of his common and uncommon creatures too. The ol can chose the upgrades he want while we have to deal with random items pick most of the time.

Seeing how insanely bad things went in the last 2 dungeons levels we made we feel its not about the game being "advance" or "harder" but more unbalanced and just downright weird. We should have run more often and close some dungeons forever ? Leave the ol destroy 4-5 cities without trying to stop him once while we run for... 4 lifes/2 energy add on ? I really cant figure it out we need some general hint.

We LOVE the game its fun once in a while but winning seems to depend a hell of a lot more on luck then strategy Tx for any tips and encouragement !!

There are a gazillion threads on this forum and the Board Game Geek forums about Descent campaign strategy. Do a search. You'll find a lot more information then by asking for quick answers here. The campaign is hard and unforgiving for the heroes, but it's not luck-based.

phelanward said:

I'm going to have to disagree here - there is a LOT of luck on the hero's side of the table. When you get a chest do you roll a treasure or get gold? If you draw a treasure is it any good for your party? What starting heroes did you draw? What feats do you draw? What starting skills did you draw? Are the dice "being kind" for combat rolls?

Conversely on the OL side of the table you randomly choose dungeon levels. You draw from a randomized deck that's been customized as you level up (getting to choose what specific cards to buy rather than randomly choosing) and the same random combat dice. The OL doesn't deal nearly as much with luck as the players. Yes, in a long game things tend to balance out (you'll probably eventually end up with the treasure you want, most of the skills you want, etc) but those random factors can certainly kick your butt early on.

MadnessFromHell said:

so what you are saying is he got siege engines as his starting upgrade with his 15 points. and for the next 3 weeks, he got at least 5, 5, and 25? in the meantime, you only got 20 ish xp for a silver dice upgrade. you are going to have an uphill battle, but you can still do it. you probably didn't run from a dungeon when you really needed to. the margin for error is much smaller for heroes than the OL.

it is really tough to take out a LT with shop armor, but if you have some weapon upgrades and an extra dice or skill, before they get silver monsters, you have a great chance at taking them out or making them flee.

my advice would stick it out until silver level, you will most likely lose, but it will at least show you that it is not the game that is unbalanced, while showing you some of the nuances of the game. You might think of it as a waste of time, but it isn't. Then if you want, you can start over again with a lot more knowledge of how the game progresses. Or you can even start at silver level, right where you left off, as per the rules.

Tx for the few tips =)

I think I figured it out : you always need to bluff the OL that you might escape and accept the loss of a dungeon it force him to use cards. Ours knew we wouldnt run so he was always accumulating tons of power and his best cards for the end. Seeing that your fleeing he might waste some good cards and lot of powers trying to get some last minute kill wich would in turn give our heroes more chances at continuing if he miss his opportunity.

So fight, bluff, run or not.

And mostly, early game dont face an OL who seems to accumulate all his best cards for the end, thats probably what killed us the most. we gave him too much exp by trying to finish every levels for more goodies. Of course he was always encouraging us to continue "It wont be too bad !" Hehe right... Sneaky sneaky OL.

I think we'll start a new one and we'll see a lot of differences in our choices.