Hey everyone,

First post here for me

A friend of mine bought Descent about a month back, and me him and 3 others got together to start playing. I ended up OL'ing because i picked things up the fastest, and now we have a fully running campaign going.

We're still on JITD but i have WOS arriving later this week. I was just wondering who else has current campaigns running and how they are all going?

Ours is running pretty strongly it seems. We haven't had any balance problems yet (even if the heroes did get very lucky on their skill choices) and im having alot of fun overlording. Half way through the third quest, im currently just ahead in terms of conquest, and im managing to get spawns and traps out alot.

How about yours?

I'm OL in our campaign. Currently in the second dungeon. My lead is 47-27 so far. But in 2 weeks they'll have Tahlia with Leadership; I think that will turn the tables

I'm playing Sorcerer with Snipes and silver Eldritch so far.

See www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/378175 and previous threads pointed to by that post. I'll be posting the latest session (hopefully) soon.

edroz said:

Report for session 5 can be found here: www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/388082

Cool cool, im really liking the sound of the RTL campaign.

Anyone else got some campaigns going?

Does RTL have a rule set for establishing a campaign mode for the JitD and WoD and further expansion campaigns? Of is it just the campaign mode I've read about, where the dungeons are a lot smaller, and generated somewhat randomly (I think)

Wondering if I should pick up RTL before I get the third expansion box...

Yes, that is effectively what RtL is, a campaign for the normal game. It doesn't introduce any new monsters or Quests, rather it introduces the Advanced Campaign, which turns a 5 hour game into a 65 hour game

Basically, it starts the Heroes pretty weak (only 1 skill, no treasures, etc) and then spends a LONG time building them and the OL up. The maps are a lot smaller, but since a typical dungeon is 3 of these maps, they last about the same length as a normal Quest. The overland map adds some cool interactions, trainings, etc that doesn't happen in the normal game. There are 3 stages to the campaign, Copper, Silver, Gold, then the climactic battle between Heroes and the OL's chosen Avatar. Each campaign level lasts about 3 dungeons long (usually means 3 playing sessions). So in average, you'll be playing about 10 sessions or more to finish a campaign.

IMHO, the *only* way to play Descent now

-shnar

Check out the rulebook before buying

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=5&esem=4

Well, For me, either im that ruthless of an overloard....or my groups i play with suck. The best they have done is get past the 3 quest once. Now im the kinda of person that likes to play by the rules. I shouldnt have to make house rules to balance the game, which imo, they tend to unbalance them.

All i have is the original box set and the first 2 expansions. Anyone else having a hard time beating there overlord, or for those heroes that always win, hats your secret?

The secret to Hero success is the "blitz" strategy (check out http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/325622 ). Basically, early in the game the Heroes just touch dungeons instead of going all the way through. Using the Blitz strategy, the Heroes are *always* ahead of CT over the OL. The campaign we started a couple weeks ago, we're seven "weeks" into the game, and the score is 20 to 12, Heroes in the lead.

In previous games, the OL was always in the lead, at least 2 to 1. But with the Blitz, the Heroes remember they are in control over how much CT an OL earns, and they leave dungeons early and stay in the lead.

-shnar

Our campaign started the eve of my 30th b-day. My descent-playing g/f made me a Beastman Lord cake, thinking I would pick him, then she got Kirga...somehow they still convinced me to use him. While Kirga plus a Boggs bought before I could sack riverwatch has made for a tough time spawing, I still do it...especially since it's cheaper. And I really enjoy all the beastmen that I DO spawn.

Being everyone's first time, the heroes were not well enough versed on the "blitz" strategy, and so they let me gain enough cp in the first dungeon to upgrade humanoids right away. The heroes btw, are One Fist (or One Ball as I call him), Runemaster Thorn (in my side), Nanok of the too much armor, and Kirga (naga, naga, nagonna spawn within five spaces of her anyway). Well, silver anything is pretty tough when the heroes still have largely shop equips, so things went well. We house ruled that OL could buy treachery with his starting 15, so I got 1 monster and focused.

They managed to get a boat and some fatigue upgrades (except one ball, who got the extra wounds he desperately needed) before we went silver, and then got some good silver equipment pretty early. I think another thing that shows it's our first time is that the heroes are generally finishing every dungeon they get into, which I've come to realize is not generally the best strategy. They've remarked recently that they became too laid back about dying, and it's gotten me a pretty big lead.

As it stands, we are about to start level 4 of the silver legendary dungeon. Current totals are heroes 122, Old 242, meaning if they get all their stuff in the last dungeon, I need 24 of my own to put this thing into Gold. I may do this because I have 2 lts. in tamalir and I am very close to razing it. Gold level lts. vs. practically silver level heroes (they also missed secret training this level and are probably going for skills upon completing fool's rapids).

I currently have gold humanoids and silver everything else. I have 4 monster treachery and 1 trap, with plans to buy at least 1 event very soon...and diamond humanoids when we hit gold. I've done a couple OL upgrades here and there, but really only have the farrows for lts. right now..which seems to be fine. I;m doing ascension and I'm one surge in dawnsmoor and a temple away from the harbinger approaches. So, balance that against lts. in tamalir and low fatigue for the heroes and things are looking pretty good for me. But I'm not counting the heroes out.

Right now the heroes have one ball with mighty and skilled plus the wound upgrade, runemaster with fatigue upgraded plus necro (he had a bad skill draw, and necrod silver stuffs pretty good and unmovable, kirga has fatigue upgraded w/ born to the bow, inner fire, and master archer, and nanok has unstoppable and a whole bunch of dice, plus 2 fatigue as well. Everyone has upgraded dice somewhat but not even close to where they technically could be. They all have silver weapons and a solid complement of "other" items. Runemaster has this breath rune that can really suck hard with a power potion.

Anyway, it's been fun and a good learning experience. If things go well, we may be wrapping up the campaign by next weekend, which means we will start a new one soon. My buddy who plays with both runemaster and one fist will probably try ol this time, and I think he is deciding between spider queen, sorcerer king (he likes traps), and maybe demon prince (I mean, you have a lt. who's got a demon on his side. You can play a dark servant to make that demon a master demon, and then reinforce ANOTHER demon)...no idea what plot he would do, but we'll probably play a 3rd afterwards to at least see all 3 plots and the different avatars.

It's been a lot of fun, but I do sometimes find myself not falling asleep at night because my mind is racing thinking of new and different descent strategies.

shnar said:

Havent got to The new expansion yet, Any advice for my players playing in the first game and 2 expansions.

My campaign as Beastman Lord is winding down to my propbable demise. We're about 2 dungeons short of the final battle and they are heading into the Gold special dungeon next time we play. Party is Tahlia (with taunt, unmovable, bear tattoo, parry, swift, and way too much armor), Kirga ( Shadowsoul and an assortment of damage enhancing powers to make his scarab of death one-shot named), Nanok with beefy melee abilities, and Andira with spiritwalker and that nuisance AoE Undying-remover gold treasure. I expect to lose hard, but I made some bad decisions early on. I should have been much more agressive with my liutenants during copper and silver when they are basically unstoppable, and I should have invested in treachery earlier. Also, I halfway committed to working on my Nightfall plot then abandoned it, wasting some points. At this point my only hope seems to be that the party won't be able to run back to town to heal for the final 5 level dungeon and I can rack up some conquest for extra health. Maybe if I get really lucky and brutalize Andira and Kirga early on I'll have a shot polishing off Nanok before he kills both my clones, which would leave me vs. Tahlia, who has invested so heavily in absorbing damage she doesn't really do any damage.

Don't forget that you can't go into the Legendary Dungeons unless you (the Heroes) are *losing*, that is to say they have less Conquest Points than the Overlord. The way your heroes sound, they might have more, and if so, cannot enter that special dungeon...

As for strategies otherwise, BE PATIENT! A lot of new players want to rush rush rush to dungeons. Calm down, take your time in the cities, rest to full Health, etc. And FLEE, a LOT! Just skim dungeons until you're way beefy. Remember that the deeper you go into a dungeon, the harder it gets, so do the first level and then just flee! REALLY helps you keep control of the game (as Heroes).

-shnar

We just started our first RtL campaign. I must say the heros got a very fortunate draw against me. I chose the Spider Queen and they managed to draw Ispher, who is immune to poison. Then, as a melee trait on their tank they pulled Ox Tattoo, which is alot of immunities, most notably web. And finally, on their mage they pulled Wild Talent, which grants an extra die on trap saves. All in all, for starting heros/traits those are fairly solid for going up against the spider queen.

I do have a question. Is it uncommon for the Heros to take an early lead in conquest? After one week the Heros are up on me something like 4 to 8 and I don't imagine next week will bring me too much additional conquest.

Was that from like an encounter and the first dungeon level?

Typically, the OL is ahead but I've had times when I've been behind on the first level, and then made up for it on the next two.

LostSailor said:

Err, you get to choose your Avatar after the party is complete, not before...

And no, its not unusual. Competent heroes should be able to stay ahead or maintain parity until you get almost to 25 and can afford the frst silevr upgrade (on Beasts, for the Spider Queen). Then they are likely to go all they way through three levels of a dungeon before you upgrade, so by then you could well be something like 40-30 ahead, and mostly stay ahead slightly from then on. Thats assuming high levels of competence all round.

Big Remy said:

Yes, it was an encounter and the first dungeon level. In fact, it might be 6 to 4, as I think Level bosses are 4xp if I recall correctly. The 4 for me being the week xp of 1 and a kill of 3.

Something seems wrong....assuming they moved the first week, had an encounter, and entered the first dungeon level, killed the boss, tripped the glyph and found at least one treasure in the chest they should have 8 CT.

2CT for the encounter boss

1CT for entering a dungeon location they hadn't been to before

2CT for the dungeon level leader (if it was the third level, it would be 4 CT since he would be the dungeon boss)

3CT for tripping the glyph

Big Remy said:

Ya, 8 is what I initially thought, I was just doubting my memory.

Athough I do feel quite foolish as I didn't know I got to pick my avatar *after* they drew heros and traits.

After hosing the heroes in the last quest, this time I'm playing as a hero, and have a really good party... and it's tough to keep heroes alive. Even with a good blitz strategy, occasionally things will go wrong, the OL will have his Charge or Dark Charm in hand right when you least expect it, and then what seemed like an easy Glyph, Gold pile, and out type dungeon turns into 4 CT for the OL, and he gains more XP than you.

If u spend too much time in the Overworld, you hand the OL point after point of CT... as well allow his LT's the time to move into position and raze more cities.

For example in the last one, we were about equal in CT at around 10 each, we drew the dungeon that is the 3-part one, where you first face a Hellhound, then a Dragon, then a Demon. So I decided to blitz it... opened the first door, and blazed the Hellhound before it ever got to take a turn. +2 CT for the Heroes, great. Then the OL springs a Charge and Ferrox spawn, and the perfectly calculated unreachable party was soon under the breath of a beefed up red dragon, with ferroxen blocking the path back. That made me have to take more battles, waste more time... and against the Beastman avatar, got hit w another spawn (easy to do w him) the following turn. Lost 3 heroes before being able to escape.

This put the OL up like 23 to 12. Barely enough to not get an upgrade, but he'd already bought an LT so his CT was only 18 available.

Then in the next dungeon, it was the one w the 3 sarcophagi and 3 leaders... where you dont want to get knocked into the sarcophagi. Blitz worked like a charm here, could activate the glyph (Runewitch is in the group) and grab 2 gold piles, and make it back to the glyph before the OL first turn. This time he didnt have the perfect cards, and so he got in one long range shot and that's all. Heroes gained 3 for the glyph, and lots of gold.

The trouble for the Heroes tho, is that the heroes are always bearing more risk than the OL in any dungeon. They can easily hand the OL conquest after conquest if they die and die... but what they can win is a fixed amount. Usually 3 for a glyph and 2 for the leader. I've found it very difficult to actually clear a level without, say, losing Runewitch twice, for maybe a 4 CT gain for the OL. So what the OL really has to do, is be prepared to wait out a number of dungeons himself, use time to his advantage, and eventually there will come the dungeon in which the heroes whiff big time on their initial cavalry charge, and then you've got some sitting ducks, and suddenly the OL has some nice gains. Like in the dungeon where the blitz worked - if the OL had any number of cards - a CrBlock, a Pit, anything to slow movement - he could have had a hero hung out to die.

I have new respect for the Beastman Lord... with cheaper spawns and only 12 to flip, what used to cost about 4+15+4 for two quick spawns in the first two turns, now costs 3+12+3, or only 18. With 4 CT per turn, merely drawing 7 cards worth 10 makes for 2 insta-spawns.