so far i have played is with 2 against me 3 against me and 4 as me against myself. I remember almost all rules(not quest rules though) and do everything as i would do in any game in same place (though playing alone whole game i forgot leoric's heroic ability completely and used some of others feats/abilities rarely)

First Blood: 3 times (with 2,3,4 hero) won every single time as OL though with 4 players got bad luck with rolls and big dude had 1 hp left when goblins got away. 2 and 3 games where too easy .although i played reinforcement wrong every time (just noticed). it wouldn't have effect on any of my games cause rarely heroes got even one down of thous cause placed them far back to starting point hide them end of every turn.

Fat Goblin 3 times (2x2 hero and 1x4 hero)

1 encounter: played storage thing wrong and lost to heroes 2 times against 2 heroes only played it right on last one and face rolled all crops (1 goblin took 1 damage and had one to back him up so not even close to fail)

2 encounter: 2 times i have dashed at right time to entrance with 0 damage taken so luck was with me most of the time and did good blocking with big monster and goblins

Gastle Darion 1 time (4 hero)

1 encounter: heroes one only cause i almost have full deck drawn and spend during that and was bored to block last beacon with big monsters.3 hero killing and get killed and 1 guarding 3 villagers (2 of them almost dead and 1 with full health) most of fight.

2 encounter:

1 turn: Heroes had killed whole flesh moulder group with 2 good blast attacks. healer guy (spirit something) charged to room to give stoneskin to palamon but didnt have fatigue for that in first turn.on OL turn i hammered almost 15 damage to Sir Palamon with 1 zombie and 2 ettins with 4 cards used on attacks.

2 turn: all heroes hitted monsters with minor damage except grisbane the slow who used move+ full fatigue move + rest to get next to one of ettin. OL gives other good beating to palamon with ettins/zombies/ farrow would have died but i decided to say that leoric was close to 3 of thous monsters so he was near to dead bed already.

3 turn grisbane hits with all of his might and new axe 3 times and still barely even scratch ettin with good defense dies and when he got big hit used 2 shield card to easy the pain. others tried to do same but now luck to kill even one of 2 ettin's let alone farrow behind them next to 2 flesh moulders (master and minion) and heal card in overlords hand. OL turn i healed ettins with moulder master and heal card. Then hitted with all ettins (both missed) and zombie did finising blow with farrow still left with waiting number ticket in his hand.

Gardinal's Plight 1 time (2 hero)

played roll thing wrong and 2 hero in 2nd part is realy hard with all zombies

Masqurede Ball (first part) 1 time ( 4 hero)

had luck as OL on quest positions. Managed to escort 3 as OL heroes 1. Heroes got all chest rolled blank on black die so the won first encounter

so here are some things that could help heroes bit:

1.house rule goblins only be able to move ones during turn when they are doing something important cause they are too fast to do stealing/escorting/escaping?

2.more health for palamon or better die in 4 hero game ?

3.1 movement action only if carried something but can use dash for 2nd one (dont know if there is rule fix on site already)

give your thoughts and bare in minds that this is what i have thinking cause it seems that most of the time game is too easy to me as OL and i dont want to play game where others dont have fun cause soon i only get play this alone and still win as ol : (

The first blood encounter is incredibly rigged in favor of the heroes. I consider it a victory as OL if I can keep the heroes from searching all 4 markers before losing. If the heroes have trouble winning, either they haven't figured out how to effectively play as heroes, or else you are interpreting rules very wrong.

For first blood if the heroes all move and attack the goblins the first turn, they should kill most of them. Since only one goblin is reinforced every turn, and him at the END of the OL turn, the heroes can easily kill the new one every turn, and the OL should never have a chance to escape with them.

I am trying to think of what rules things you might have wrong to give the OL a chance in First blood.

* The Heroes should be getting the first turn

* Monsters can only attack once per activation, unless you have a card that gives them extra attack actions

* Check when reinforcements come in

Are you playing the campaign? It is how the quests are meant to be played. Taking a hero party with only basic gear through a lot of these quests will make them a lot harder. I feel like the hero party gains more than the OL within each act.

It's true that the heroes have a steeper learning curve in Descent than the OL does, but it still sounds like something is off-kilter here. The first time my group and I played First Blood, the heroes won hands down without even trying to kill the goblins. They just piled on Mauler and beat him down before enough goblins could get out. All of the goblins were double-timing it to the exit, BTW, it's not like they were wasting time with pot-shots at heroes either. (It was a 3 hero game, so there was only one ettin, and I did admittedly have really bad luck on rolling defense dice.)

Assuming you have, as you said, played all the rules right, here are a few tips for hero players in general:

1) Focus on the quest objective. Don't waste time killing monsters that will just get reinforced. Only go for Search tokens if you can spare the time. If you need to search for the unique token, only search the "*" tokens that have a chance of actually being it. (Remember that the heroes are allowed to look at the whole quest book at any time, nothing is secret.)

2) Heroes are allowed to look at the whole quest book. Nothing is secret. I know I just said that above, but it bears repeating. If the heroes aren't looking at the quest book, they are depriving themselves of important tactical information when it comes time to pick the next quest.

3) Rotate who plays the OL from one campaign to the next (or play a few one-shots to do it more quickly.) It helps to give everyone a better perspective on the game if they properly understand the OL's capabilities and limitations.

4) Get geared. Either by picking quests that give you artifacts or by spending money wisely in between quests. Having proper Act-level gear does make a difference in combat capability.

5) Use fatigue. It's easy to get back and it can be a game-changer.

5) To echo what Badend said, double-check when the OL's reinforcement arrive. It isn't always the same from quest to quest. Sometimes he gets them at the start of his turn, other times at the end. That can be a factor.

And here are a few tips on rules that new players often play wrong without realizing it, just in case:

1) Stun only causes the figure to lose ONE action, not his entire turn (see FAQ.)

2) Cards that have an arrow icon (Action) ARE NOT exhausted after use, unless of course the text says to exhaust it as well. This isn't MtG, the arrow does not imply tapping the card.

3) The elemental's "Air" ability has been errata'd (see FAQ). They are no longer invincible.

4) Just in general, it may be wise to check the FAQ, if you haven't already.

Badend said:

only thing i had wrong was reinforcements. i spawned them in start of turn.

that thought wouldn't effect to out come cause only 2 hero got 1 hit and with long range so 1 of them was to far and other one could only hit master and didn't kill it. after that goblins run behind ettins and then they where never seen again(line of sight)

other i had right

make sure you are playing the movement rules correctly, especially when it comes to diagonal movement and corners, etc. Even some melee heroes can reach the goblins on the first turn with a move + all their stamina. Some ranged heroes should even be able to stamina move and get 2 ranged shots.

If the melee heroes can't get to the goblins and attack, they should be able to at least double move and block the ettins from moving to block the goblins.

Also make sure you are playing the line of sight rules correctly. Tracing Los is extremely easy and forgiving in 2e, I find it hard to believe that the heroes could trace Los to the master goblin but not any of the other goblins.

And finally, don't forget the heroic feats. Some of them are game changers (the one that stuns an entire monster group comes to mind)

AnimalKDR said:

Indeed. If a hero with a ranged weapon can get into the intersection (requiring a grand total of 4 MP, even if he started in the furthest possible space of the Entrance tile) then he would have Line of Sight to every single space in the Wild Garden, where the goblins start. Literally the only thing that could be blocking his LoS to any particular space is another figure.

If that other figure is a different goblin, shoot that one instead. If it's a different hero, slap that player up-side the head for stopping in the line of fire. There's no reason the heroes can't get off at least a few pot-shots before the goblins begin moving.