Just got Labyrinth of Ruin yesterday and my gaming group will be starting a new campaign this week with yours truly serving as OL. My question is does anyone have much experience with the new Basic II OL deck and how does it stack up (pun intended) to the original?

There are some interesting cards in the new deck like Flurry (which seems to represent a new Frenzy of sorts), and Blinding Speed (which replaces the Dash card). Dirty Fighting is like a new Dark Might and Befuddle will be useful for messing up hero attribute tests. And I like how there are added benefits for using specific cards on specific hero classes.

However, the fact that I will no longer have access to 2 Dash and Frenzy cards (which have proven to be quite useful) and Dark Charm and Tripwire makes me a bit worried (as this will be my first OL-ing for this gaming group) to forgo the original deck just to try out the new deck. After all, I'll be stuck with those 15 cards for the entire campaign, never having access to the other deck.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

OLII seems like it has more "draw if this fails" cards than OLI although I am not home to check. That alone seems really useful.

I have had one epic quest with them. There is a card (I am bad with names, sorry!) that says when a hero moves with fatigue play this card and move a monster. For the rest of the heroes' turn, anytime they fatigue to move you may move a monster ins response. That thing was BOSS. My heroes like to start out their first turn with set up and often use fatigue to do so. I messed all their entire turn.

Flurry is not frenzy as in you are not promised to use it. I missed in my attack which meant I could not Flurry, meaning the following turn that monster was dead. Dash is more blinding then blinding speed, BUT I feel it's a bit more fair. Dash was always the bane of my heroes. They HATED hearing me announce it.

What is also more fair is the fact that many, not all, of the basic II say "if they pass [blank] test, draw a card." you you aren't out a card if you fail to get them to fail. I really like that.

There is no dark charm... Dark Charm is my buddy... I can not tell you how good that card is. I had my healer hit himself which hurt him allot. In the same quest he hit the scout, which took her down. Beautiful. Artwork in the making. I mean it ^.^;; I will illustrate it soon.

I am still debating on what set I will use for our new campaign, but I will most likely use Basic II for something new. It's really hard to choose since both deck potentially have their awesome workings. But it's nice to have choices!

I get my copy of this in few days can't wait to test it out!

The OL tends to be a very reactionary game: Hero's move first every round, they have way more abilities and potential abilities and ways to combine them.

OL spends the rest of the game building his deck and choosing monsters to counter what they are trying to do.

The new deck makes the problem even worse! Now OL builds the deck and can't even rely on half the cards to do what he want's them to do! I always pictured the OL as laying complex plans and traps with delicate strategy, this is now blown out of the water.

I find the OL has a very small window to do 70% of his damage before most of his main monsters are dead. This requires some reliable DPS cards now it's up to fate to decide if the OL even can get his abilities off!

For instance:

Is "Blinding speed" going to proc 2 or 4 movement... or none? This is important when planning a turn!

"Reflective ward" is nice, but WTF it's used before rolling so hero's can react? The hero can cancel it with just 2 fatigue?

"Flurry" is nice and it never procs when you need it to and there is only 1!

"Overwhelm" may or may not do what you want.

Now I gotta sit on "Befuddle" cards just to make the other cards hopefully perform properly...

That being said there are some real nice benefits:

"Flurry" backed with "Dirty Fighting" then "Mental Error" to boost damage

Is probably more reliable damage (Cause of the two potential surges) than the older "Frenzy" "Critical Blow" "Dark Might" Combo

"Grease Trap" can put on enough damage to kill low HP hero's or that stupid wolf.

"Mimic" is way better than the older "Poison Dart"

There are some Real biggest losses to the new deck:

"Critical Blow" is an enormous card when used properly.

"Dark Fortune" is so clutch when you need the damage and can't afford and X on the blue die.

My strategy:

This deck is gonna need the OL to hold alot of cards. "Dark Ritual" even though it got nerfed is going to be essential. Following the Magnus "Rise again" is a brilliant card combo'd with "Blood Rage"

Grabbing "Blood Rage" then going to "Expert Blow" for extra surges and "Blood lust" for extra cards fleshes out the deck.

The Saboteur tree just got more appealing better to. "Befuddle" can be combined with "Wicked Laughter" for two re-rolls to really lock down traps.

I'm useing the new deck just for amusement's sake, I'm interested to see how it really pans out at the end of the campaign.

-M

I have had one epic quest with them. There is a card (I am bad with names, sorry!) that says when a hero moves with fatigue play this card and move a monster. For the rest of the heroes' turn, anytime they fatigue to move you may move a monster ins response. That thing was BOSS. My heroes like to start out their first turn with set up and often use fatigue to do so. I messed all their entire turn.

That's not a Basic card though, is it. At least from the description sounds like it's the Punisher deck card No Rest For the Wicked that comes with Lair of the Wyrm.

I have had one epic quest with them. There is a card (I am bad with names, sorry!) that says when a hero moves with fatigue play this card and move a monster. For the rest of the heroes' turn, anytime they fatigue to move you may move a monster ins response. That thing was BOSS. My heroes like to start out their first turn with set up and often use fatigue to do so. I messed all their entire turn.

That's not a Basic card though, is it. At least from the description sounds like it's the Punisher deck card No Rest For the Wicked that comes with Lair of the Wyrm.

Unless they put a copy of that card in the Basic II deck as well. I don't own LoR yet so I can't say for sure if they did or not.

I play with the Basic II deck in a mini-campaign we started. The deck is very situationnal but powerful and useful. I like the new cards that have additional effect when played on a specific Archetype.

I'm having fun playing with these but what is cool about them is they don't make the Basic set obsolete at all.

Both have their worth.

I have had one epic quest with them. There is a card (I am bad with names, sorry!) that says when a hero moves with fatigue play this card and move a monster. For the rest of the heroes' turn, anytime they fatigue to move you may move a monster ins response. That thing was BOSS. My heroes like to start out their first turn with set up and often use fatigue to do so. I messed all their entire turn.

That's not a Basic card though, is it. At least from the description sounds like it's the Punisher deck card No Rest For the Wicked that comes with Lair of the Wyrm.

Is it? I did play punisher that night. All new cards. This is what I get for not remembering the names of things!

"No Rest For the Wicked" is a Punisher 1 card. I have 2 of them in my Overlord deck to use against my Heroes, who LOOOOVE to spend Fatigue in order to move. Since I got the first one, they're deathly afraid of buying those movement points. In one case, the Heroes had determined that they were going to shoot an arrow at Eliza Farrow from 4 or 5 spaces away. They were concerned that if the shot missed, it would cost them the game. They chose to spend 1 and only 1 fatigue to move in closer to her... BAM! "No Rest For the Wicked," and Eliza was able to move diagonally behind a map corner, effectively removing her from their line of sight, no matter how much fatigue they were willing to spend.

So far, in Basic II, my favorite Overlord card is "Grease Trap." When timed correctly, it's not only hysterical to imagine in a thematic sense, but it has some great potential. The other night, while playing the intro, I was able to hit a Hero (Warrior) with a "Grease Trap" just as they moved toward a wall. They were instantly dealt the full possible amount of damage for slamming into said wall, which was just enough damage to defeat them. End of turn... oooh, lookie! A new Overlord card!!

So far, in Basic II, my favorite Overlord card is "Grease Trap." When timed correctly, it's not only hysterical to imagine in a thematic sense, but it has some great potential. The other night, while playing the intro, I was able to hit a Hero (Warrior) with a "Grease Trap" just as they moved toward a wall. They were instantly dealt the full possible amount of damage for slamming into said wall, which was just enough damage to defeat them. End of turn... oooh, lookie! A new Overlord card!!

Oh that sounds awesome! I will have to try to get that going >} Though I wonder how a grassy field gets slick like that. hmm...

This weekend we starting LoR campaign and I will definitely use Basic II just to try using "Grease Trap" when hero moving towards a door or a pit.

There's another Basic II card that you can play on a Hero when they attack a monster. They test their willpower (I think), and if they fail, you choose how their surges in battle are spent. In addition, the attack gains "1 Surge: -1 Fatigue." I played this one on the Treasure Hunter, who was attacking with their whip... It's a nice way to deal a small bit of fatigue to the Hero while forcefully using the whip's ability to move your monster one space in a direction of your choosing. At least, I BELIEVE you would be the one to choose the direction, since you choose how the surges are spent...

I wonder if the Hero player would still be able to choose...???

logically, he shouldn't choose

reading the rules, he should.