When I got home from this weekend's session at the game room, my fiance exclaimed this to me in surprise.

We've just completed our third quest of Act I, and right now the heroes won the introduction, and as the Overlord I have won Fat Goblin, Cardinal's Plight, and Death on the Wing. The heroes are using Nara the Fang (Berzerker), Tarha the Widow (Runemaster), Silhouette (Thief) and Ashria (Disciple). Only Ashria is a veteran of Descent 1E. The introduction was just a steamroll, as expected, and then slowly I started turning things around.

On Fat Goblin I only got 1 crop out, but on the second half I had a pair of Shadow Dragons just LOCK DOWN the front room till Splig and his entourage barreled through is a Dash-induced charge. The goblins cleared a hole and Splig exploited it, a second dash on the following turn saw a victory for the Overlord.

On Cardinal's Plight I only managed to get a single zombie out the exit before they overran me (I used skeletons at the front entrance and they were wiped out on the first turn). But then I proceeded to LOCK DOWN the first search room with Crypt Dragons, and after painfully staggering their way to the second room, I just unleashed fury with Hell Hounds. Despite their attempts, my two zombies managed to kill the cardinal off. The overlord loots a runic staff!

So I'm on a roll so far, and we played the next quest today: Death on the Wing

For the first encounter, I had the cave spiders in the canyon, and dropped a pair of Giants in the fire pit. I then proceed to rack up a total of 10 "knockouts" during the encounter. The master giant is just sweeping them with reckless abandon. The absolute most amazing turn was when I dropped Frenzy on him, did Sweep twice, then did Blood Frenzy, taking two more attacks and defeated him. FOUR SWEEPS in one turn. I killed three of the heroes and left the last with 1 life and stunned. They really made a big mistake though; they got tunnel vision on the giants, which were just coming back into play the following turn when they killed them. After I had 6 boulders down in the canyon, they still hadn't placed even a single hero on the tile yet. Finally they decided to stop fighting a losing battle with the giants, and ducked into the canyon, killing off the spiders and finally having a turn where I wasn't hitting them from both sides. I surrounded them with monsters from the north, and they had two full rows of boulders below them.

They could have had Silhouette try to move a boulder, then use Tumble to flee the canyon (rather than lose), then Tarha move over to where Silhouette was, then let Nara try to break a boulder, without losing at the end of his turn. (Tarha and Nara were both stunned.) Instead, Nara says, "What are the odds I won't roll a 4 or less!?" Rolled a 5, obviously.

So we go into the second encounter with a HUGE advantage for the overlord: I get to go first.

So there is a HUGE flaw in this encounter, in my opinion. The guards only activate if there is a monster or hero on the same tile as them at the end of the last hero turn. I had Belthir, Elementals, and a pair of Manticores. Since I get the first turn, the Elementals both drop Fire on the heroes at the entrance, killing the front two (Tarha & Silhouette). Then the Manticores blast the guards crippling one on each side. Then Belthir flies over to the right side, finishing a guard off, then finishes his move back outside the tile. Silhouette manages to Tumble all the way up to the left room, opening 3 search tokens on the way, then Nara spends both actions reviving the other two heroes, who then fail to get past the elementals on the bridge. The guards on the left activate, nearly killing the minion Manticore, leaving it with 1 life left, and the right guard STANDS THERE, because their's no one to activate him.

If you attack the guards without staying on the tile, they stand their stupidly unless a hero is on the tile. Kind of killed the mood since it was pretty obvious it was over now. The minion Manticore almost kills the other left guard (1 life left) and the master Manticore & Belthir kill the right guard off easily. The last guard with 1 life on the left blindly runs into the center tile, and they barricade the approach to the guard. Poetically, the guy playing Ashria says, "Okay guys, we'll get one turn to kill Belthir as long as he doesn't pull a Dash." (I had no cards in my hand.)

I drew my card, and laid Dash on the table. Belthir flew over all of them and killed the last guard.

So we'll be going into Interlude 2 next weekend, with the Overlord up 3 to 1.

Phew. I didn't know you could use dragons in those early quests. Dunno why, I just kinda… assumed so. For example in "A Fat Goblin" quest's second part, it doesn't make much sense for Shadow Dragons to be in that cave, so of course I wont use them.

I quess it's just how one wants to play I like the "rp" aspect of being overlord.

Oh and btw, what is "Crypt Dragon"? Or was that just Shadow Dragon with your own name for it?

Crypt Dragon is from the expansion.

Also, I don't think the game is as unbalanced toward the OL as everyone seems to make it. I have found each map to be somewhat balanced and a challenge for both sides. I think one of the big issues is it is harder to play as the heroes than it is to play the OL. But, if the heroes are very well organized on what they want to accomplish, the OL can have a really tough time.

I think it evens out. The heroes have 4 chances to make mistakes, while the OL has 3-4 chances to make mistakes, too on his turn. Mistakes lose the game for you, the dice tend to average out.

My player have very strategic thinking and are steamrolling me as a Ovelord, however we had some misunderstanding about Stun early on but I'm still thinking I must be doing something wrong or just a bad Overlord. The difference is that they are 4 and help each other out with planning while I'm alone.