Long time lurker, first post today

After playing Descent for over 8 months, I have 2 questions that I hope those more experienced can answer:

1) My group and I have been playing through the WoD expansion. As we are nearing the end of the WoD quests, I have purchased AoD in anticipation of continuing our questing once WoD is complete. For my birthday, my wife has purchased ToI for me and my group. We have 3 quests left in WoD. In your opinion, is it best to continue to play through WoD with just the WoD and JitD components, or finish WoD and play through both AoD and ToI with all expansion components?

2) My group has "shrunk" to only 3 people and sometimes 2 people. We normally play with all 4 heroes regardless of how many people are playing. That would mean that for our 3 person game, 1 player is the overlord and 2 players control 2 heroes each. We also use 4 heroes when playing with just 2 people (1 playing OL, the second controlling all 4 heroes). When playing like this, we always use the monster cards meant for a 5 player game. For the people playing the heroes, this can be a daunting task to keep track of everything. However, it has generally worked out better for the heroes as line of sight issues are much easier to deal with. For all of you out there playing with a smaller group, how do you normally play and how many heroes do you use?

Thank you in advance,

~Aux

1) Personally, if you think you all have a good handle on thing I would just throw it all together.

2) Always have the 4 heroes, since it seems that was what the game was built around balance wise.

Big Remy said:

1) Agreed. Especially since the ToI Feats boost seems to counter the Treachery boost and even things up a bit.

2) Agreed.

Corbon said:

2) Looks like we'll keep playing with 4 chars; thanks for the help!

I also play as overlord with 2 people controlling 2 heroes each. They wanted it that way so that they had more firepower and more LoS control. I also agree that throwing it all together is the way to go. Just be ready for those feats to screw up your plans.

I'll second (or more like 4th) the 4 hero vote. I usually play with 3 people, including myself. Each of the other two players controls 2 heros. It seems to work out best that way.

We've tried to play with just 2 heros and it gets a bit tricky. it is do-able in JitD, but with WoD and the addition of AoD, I think 4 is almost a necessity.

AuxNuke said:

Man, I'm trying to remember exactly what came in AoD.

For the Heroes: well, the Heroes. Or at least two of them. Kirga and Tahlia are both top notch Heroes IMO. Kirga is the antispawn machine and Tahlia can move during her Guard orders which can be a nightmare. Some decent treasures as well. Also, Shadow Soul is in AoD, and he is one the best familiars in the game.

For the OL: I love AoD for the OL for three reasons and they are all monsters: Deep Elves, Trolls and Dark Priests. They are all nasty, nasty creatures. Plus there are some decent new Treachery cards as well.

Thank you all for the advice!

One final question: If we add all the expansion material to the next quests, how do recommend that we go through the quests? I was thinking that, instead of plowing through WoD, then AoD, then ToI in order... that we should should alternate quests and do 1 from WoD, then next week 1 from AoD, then the following week do a quest from ToI. What do you guys think?

We do it almost exactly like you propose - and it´s great fun because of the variety.

One word of caution: If you are using feats and have only one person controlling all 4 heroes...you may have some difficulty keeping track of your feats. It's still better with them than without, but if you are OL I would give a little leniency to your heroes...at least giving them a chance to check through all their feat decks when traps, etc. are played. Other than that, I agree getting more monsters and treachery, etc. into the deck will make it more fun...though it's also a fair amount of new things to keep track of. You will find yourself consulting the rulebooks a lot.

Aod gives great mosnters/treachery for the OL as well as a free danger for your starting deck. It gives solid heroes in Kirga and Tahlia as well as the ring of protection. ToI feats and the morning star offhand are pretty sweet and Zyla is one of the handiest heroes in the game...just don't count on her to do damage early.

Definitely switching between the different expansions will allow you to see more of the different types of monsters and effects/terrain and will keep your experience fresh. Your OL will indeed love trolls, dark priests and deep elves when you see them. Put a lone troll in your deck and hang onto an aim...maybe a charge...tpks are possible with one swift stroke.

I haven't read through all the quests I've got, but I did notice a Tomb of Ice quest that referred back to the first two quests in JitD, so I suppose it would be recommended to make sure that a quest doesn't connect to a prior one that you haven't done.

That being said... the people I play with really don't care about the story.