Hello,

I have a concern about the first encounter in the Final Quest named "The Man Who Would Be King". I have not played it yet, so I would love to hear from people who have played it and see if my concerns are correct or not.

My concern:
As written, it seems that all the doors start closed. If that is the case, then I believe Splig will have a hard time surviving past the first hero turn, as during his first activation, he will only be able to open the first door and move, but not close it.

There are also a couple of other details that make me think that maybe the original intent is to start with the doors open:

- The Special Rules section says something like "As Splig passes, he can close the doors behind him" [i don't have the exact phrase here]. This could suggest that doors start open, but I don't think it is clear enough to take it as a rule.

- The flavor text at the quest begining says something about the castle having the doors wide open. But, of course, we can't take anything from the flavour text as a rule.

Also, I have played recently "The Ritual of Shadows" and in the second encounter it used the yellow marker to mark a door that starts open and red markers for the doors that start closed. But this is clearly explained on the quest text, something that doesn't happens on "The Man Who Would Be King".

So, what's your experience with the quest? Does it work fine when played with the starting doors closed? Do you think they should start opened?

Thanks a lot!

After two plays of this Finale (and looks like a third is on the way), it comes down to whether the OL gets Reinforce or not. If he does, drop a Shadow Dragon to block the path and Splig can make his break (heroes didn't even see him after the setup in the first play). Or Dark Charm on a hero with Blast + Stun/Immobilize and hope he gets all the heroes (and no Disciple), else Tripwires and Web Traps up the kazoo to stop them in their tracks. The other play, without Reinforce, Splig even Dashed but was killed by the first hero to act…

Of course, heroes winning E1 helps very little IMO, denying one target from the OL's Dark Charm ability in E2 doesn't carry them far.

Thank you very much for reply, it kind of reaffirms my fears about this quest.

Dam said:

I totally agree with this. My concern is not as much about game balance as about having a good, fun, game… and preparing the setup of this encounter to have it end in a single turn seems a bit lackluster.

There are other Blitz Encounters as well. Death on the Wing, E2, if heroes won E1, can be over before the OL gets a turn (seen this happen as OL ). Masquerade Ball, perfect flips + Dashes can see the OL run off with all the guests on turn 1 (esp. now that Dash doesn't have to be played at the start of the activation, so you can move, unmask, if guest, Dash). My only play so far of MB, as OL, I revealed all six tokens (3-hero game) on my first turn via my monsters, carried off one guest, one Goblin Archer was on the Exit space and one guest was behind a solid mass of monsters. Castle Daerion, E2, can be very fast, two turns and OL wins.

UPDATE: Well, we played this quest yesterday and it seems my gut feelings were off: We played it as written, with doors closed, and I could still win it as the OL. It took a bit of luck and a couple of strong cards, but it is perfectly doable.