by The_LoneWolf
Hi guys and thanks for reading me.
(before everything else, i've also posted some rules questions on another thread, i'll appreciate any help)
I will like if some of you would like to brainstorm with me along with the campaign advantures i go in, step by step, keeping my hand
(i think it will be quite a wall of text).
Long story short.
I knew Descent from a lot of time but never had the spark to go for it.
I bought Imperial Assault in June (italian edition came out), and me and my group had a blast (expecially them). I see that they tend a lot to prefer those kind of games despite the "german" ones that i love, so i slowly throw my gaze to Descent, and i bought kinda everything except Labyrinth Manor of Ravens.
I play a Hero in ImperialA, and we almost finished the campaign (3 matches left).
In Descent i wanted to try "the other side" and i go for the Overlord.
In the IA campaign, our OL is a bit competitive, he always do what he could to win, and we manage sometime to get a little frustrated as heroes.
I didn't want to talk about how you should play this kinda of games, how the OL should play, ecc.
I just wanna say that, i would like to play "relaxed" as the OL, making choices based "on the flavour" before the mere competition, i really hope the game allow me to do that most of the time while manteining the matches hot.
I read that the Shadow Rune campaign is not that balanced, im a bit scared of that, i hope i will not need to play always like a race game, just blocking heroes with meatshields and stuff.
But lets go on.
We have Roganna as a Stalker, Reynhart as a Berserker, Serena as a Bard and Leoric as a Geomancer.
What to you think about this compositiong? I'm already a bit scared
Roganna and Leoric characters abilities are pretty boring from the beginning, she do a lot of damage, he prevent it.
The Stalker class seems boring, i tripped about the fact that most of the missions will be "in movement", so he cant bring with him a lot of traps, but indeed she scary me the most of them, we need to do the second encounter of the Fat Goblin next time, i'm already crying?
The Bard class seems so good, Serena have a lot of Fatigue to spend, so he can just move the thing as he like, and every turn he keep this constant healing/fatigue effect. Also, her characters skills seems so good, everytime she heal everyone for 6wound and 2fatigue, plus she is so hard to catch, cause of that Reynhart or Roganna stand next to her.
The Geomancer dont seem to much boring for now, but im pretty sure he will be with more class cards. It seems such a cool class to play, i love to see it in game.
For the moment the warrior is the one that i concern the less, but just because he is "straight damage".
Indeed, im not complaining, i just would like to hear your opinion about these thoughts.
As me, i choose the Verminous Plot deck. I like to think that i can boost a bit my little guys, considering that
Lets talk about a bit on what we have done.
First Blood was pretty easy for them, i tried as i could, and in the end, with some Dash cards, i managed to bring out 3 Goblins. Beside the Heroes already plays like "pro", and just chill around to collect all the 4 Search tokens. Good thing is that i managed to take down most of them (i got a lot unlucky in the end on the mage), and i collect quite a bit of Threat.
By the way we all had fun, i was satisfied with that. Tho i also think that is pretty impossible to win for the OL, as 80% of the people state on the internet.
In the shop phase with 200 gold they bought a Jeweled Mace, one of the best weapon from act one may i say? Or im whining too much?
Roganna and the Geomancer bought 1xp cards, she can now Weaken my monster, while the Geomancer make a suboptimal choice in my opinion, taking the one that allow him to have 2 stones, gives them +1movement and more defense.
I considered a lot to which OL class invest to, and in the end, considering that the Heroes have an overall attributes of Might (in particular) and Awarness kinda low, i bought the first Sabouter card, a Web trap. I'm also looking forward for the Universal one Solidarity, to make them test with Serena attributes.
I spend my Threat to buy some cards from the Plot deck, Infestation and In Every Shadow.
Beside was the beginning, i indeed wanted to play my Rumour card that introuces an adventure.
Was the one from Guardian of Deephall.
I considered that Rumours quests might be just more gold and more shop phase for them, but i like the flavour, and indeed this particoular one seems kinda balanced for the winner (i didnt spoiled myself the rewards).
The guys decided to play it immediatly, i talked with them, making doubt if it would have been wise to wait a little, gear up, and then come for this one, cause yes, it is a Act1 mission, but still coming from an expansion.
They do it indeed, and i appreciated that.
They quest seems pretty straightforward for the win of the OL, they mistake, in my opinionm to get scared from the Zombies at the beginning, and did not immediatly try to pass the water section, they lose kinda 1/2 turn with that, so i manage to flow all the rest of the map with full health guys, and i win by round 5/6. Beside all, till the end, we had the feel that they might comeback with some lucky shot, but it not happens. Also, i had so much OL cards, cause of the Travel section, like +4/5 from the beginning hand.
The quest go fast, so we decide to set up another one.
They got no gold from this one, but they spend the 100 gold left they have for a ranged Wand that do +2 damage with a surge, heal for 1 the hero if he do at least one damage, and also weaken i think? with blue and green die, cant remember the name but still, they are so lucky with the shop draw phase, i think this is also a great one
I bought one more Plot card, Initation.
We go for the next adventure, and now its my turn to choose.
I read online that some of the quest are really good for me, and hard for them, but i dont like that so much.
So here it comes a bit of my "relaxed" kind of play for the OL.
I talk with them of the fact that some mission are favored for me, and i say some of them, like Cardinal Trouble. We indeed spend 10 minutes about to check the intro of every mission, and in the end we decide togheter to play the Fat Goblin.
I pretty regret that by the way ahahah
But i was still a bit uncomfortable cause of my recent and speedy win the Rumour adventure.We set up the first encounter, and as a my open group, despite im pretty sure the Merroid would have been the best choice, i'll go in for the little and pretty Spiders.
I see that was hard from the beginning, i managed to take 2 of the Grain bag at the beginning and i was thinking that 2 for 2 was good, but they manage to catch my little one and i got some pretty unlucky dices on my attacks.
I was initially thiking of letting them taking 3 of the bags, while i was keeping my hand of cards, but then an opportunity comes up, cause they take time to take more Search tokens, so, by using 3 OL cards (2 of them a Dash :| ), i managed to take my second bags and make the Encounter end.
So, i knew while i played those cards that wasnt really worth anything, 2 Dash cards in encounter 2 is far way better than 4 HP on Splig i think. No doubt on that.
We had to end the session, we will make the encounter two next time.
I still have like 6 cards in my hand, and like 4/5 Threat tokens, but indeed im already pretty anxious for the match to come, cause it seems really hard, expecially without Dashes (i would need to drawn like 3 more cards, reshuffle the discard pile and hope
).Also, in these particular kind of quest, the Stalker traps reaaaaally scary me.
Despite everything, i will try my best, and i think that the "relaxed state of mind" is enough for a while, ahhah
I was thinking on which open group to take for this second encounter.
I saw a lot of guys go for the Shadow dragons, but i think i have better choices considering all the expansion i've bought.
I was looking forward for Ironbound or Plagueworm.
Considering i have no Reinforcement (whaaaat) i tried first to think "Wound-wise + defensewise", and both of these picks seems good to me.
The Worms are decent defense dices, 17 HP among 3 different targets, and 2 square bases to help block some heroes to go for Splig. But more of that, i really enjoy the Burrow skill, i think that it could come in pretty helpful in these adventure, spamming fatigue on them and force their movement a bit.
Ironbound is selfexplanatory, the Protect skill seems great to defend Splig (also, when a hero declare an attack, can i both trigger the "Not Me!" skill from Splig, maybe for an adjacent Goblin, and if he fail the test, trigger for the same attack the Protect skill of the Ironbound? I guess yes?).
They have great defense with 18 total HP.
Downsides is maybe the only 2 movement points, maybe they cant stick up with Splig?
Other choices i was thinking about was the Wendigo or the Hybrid sentinel.
Reason is that i think that i could try to distracte them. True, they are not stupid, they will focus Splig, but man, these guys punch hard, i dunno if they really can ignore them at all.
I prefer Wendigo over the Drakeguys, i think that i could make use of Ravage (2attack per turn) with them quite often, considering that the heroes might want to stick around a bit and wait for Splig to come.
The drake guys can punch a bit harder con Leoric or Serena, but i dunno.
What you prefer? Do you have other advices?
Well, to everyone that tried to follow me down there, and a really big hug to anyone who could have really make it till the end
I would like to keep uso this post to keep sharing my thought, reports, and braintripping about all that happens.
Big Cheers