OL Problems with Hugo the Stone Armour Knight

By po2, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

I just played epic play twice with my friends. It seems that we discovered a game breaking combination: Knight with defend + stone armor. This combination is particularly difficult do deal with when the hero is Hugo the Glorious. (please see the following links/descriptions of the cards)

Defend:

http://www.descentinthedark.com/2nd/defend/

Hugo the Glorious:

http://www.descentinthedark.com/2nd/hugo-the-glorious/

Stone armor: I could not find this one so it is described below

225 gold

2 black dice

movement seed reduced to 3

may not use fatigue to move

This makes him nearly invincible! Additionally it allows the other three members to just deal massive damage with out the need of a healer. I believe the access to two black dice is possibly game breaking when compared to the cost of other armors!

I would like some suggestions for how the overlord should deal with this hero. Basically with a hero like Hugo the penalties associated with this armor are minimal and I can not find a way to deal with it. I have tried removing his fatigue, using smaller monsters, and the infection deck. (One thing I have not tried is just trying to continually trap him so he can not move; but often times he does not want to move and can use Oath of Honor to get around these restrictions.) With this combo it is not possible to consistently deal enough damage to the other heros to knock anyone down. Not every quest is time dependent when you don't have to worry about taking damage and can tank all the attacks the overlord can send at you.

The only thing I can think of is that this armor should have two gray dice instead of two blacks. I would like to see what the community thinks about this item/combination!

Nah, you can deal with that. Choose monsters with knock back, or blast to target Hugo.

Knockback will force him away from the meaty targets you want to dive into. Heck, knock him back twice, he'll waste his turn running back to where he was moved from.

Elementals can immobile him easily.

Monsters with blast, or fire breath can target Hugo and then affect the adjacent hero he is trying to use Defend on. He can't defend those that are not targeted.

He will burn his stamina is any race game that depends on him being somewhere when the time requires it, and then he can't use defend.

There are plenty of other ways to counter this bastion of armour, but it shouldn't take too many brain cells to workaround if you sit down and think about it.

Edited by Cursain

Cursain, on 13 Nov 2013 - 7:53 PM, said:

He will burn his stamina is any race game that depends on him being somewhere when the time requires it, and then he can't use defend.

He can't spend fatigue for movement while wearing stone armor. This means it will be up to other three to remain adjacent to him. Everything else you said is still valid, of course.

The fact that the others need to stay adjacent to him in order to benefit from his invincibility makes the whole party sitting ducks for AoE attacks, and Cursain also makes a very valid point about Defend being useless versus attacks that don't target the other heroes. Just pick your open groups with that in mind and it should be manageable.

And, of course, in any quest where you can complete your objectives without engaging the heroes at all, just focus on doing that. Use blocking monsters to cover LoS to the ones you need to complete the objective and the heroes' inability to leave Hugo's side will prevent them from being able to make useful attacks.

Needless to say, if any of the other three are ever foolish enough to leave Hugo's side, tear into them with everything you can bring to bear.

Edited by Steve-O

The speed in which everyone can go will be the issue. If you need to cut down everyone, you might have an issue for the time that everyone stays at his side, but Steve-o is correct. The moment anyone leaves Hugo's side is the moment you need to jump him like yesterday's left overs. If you can't get to him fast enough to cut him down, block him from the rest of the group. The following turn will prove useful.

And if they are going to be pro-try-hard with a combo like this, go for some old faithfuls, such as magus + warlord combos. You can pull it off in an epic setup. If you really don't want to get into "want to hit for hard all of the time" then megus + infactor will get the job done as well. If you are doing large amount of no damage then Airborn and contaminate can get work in there fast. Keep cards in your hand to keep unholy ritual going and then have dark host to brake them up and/or hit each other. Use Basic I for the added dark charm.

Or just pick epics in which "got-to-go-fast" is the goal ^.^ You will win in a heart beat.