by agduncan
I know that this was an issue that a lot of people talked about with the first descent, but it was my impression that it was fixed for this version.So there are 4 players in my board gaming group, 5 including myself, and since I often GM for my RPG group, I volunteered for the Overlord position. The first game had only 3 heroes because one of the players couldn't make it - The Halfling Theif, The Orc Runemaster and the Dwarf Knight. This was a pretty fun game, challenging and interesting and on the second quest, the Masquerade, the players actually ended up dying off. As a GM at heart I take no pleasure in having PC's die - the challenge and the tension is fun, not the dying or at least not everyone. I play with a fairly win-centric group and they did not take well to losing.
The following day we agreed to restart so that our 4th player could have a chance to play the entire campaign. The players spent a good half hour pouring over every card, every skill and every ability before deciding on: Leoric as a necromancer, the dwarf as a berzerker, the human wildlander and the human Disciple. We are almost finished the campaign and it has been a complete nightmare - They have mopped the floor with me in every quest except for the masquerade encounter II where the vampire beat them to the vault.
They pretty much work exactly like their characters are built to but the combination is unstoppable - the necromancer and the dwarf run forward to engage - the necro stops a space before the characters and summons her reanimate which is upgraded to hit just as well as the dwarf. Then those two are able to slam opponents (5-8 points at earlier levels, 9-14 points after all the upgrades). The archer stays back and can fire through the crowd, or hit at range while the disciple is slamming the healing on them every turn. What's worse, they travel in a solid pack - taking their time and resting almost every turn so they can set up combo attacks consistently.
I used to be able to challenge them a little with range attacks (and by a little I mean do 4-5 points of damage before they slaughtered everything, but that damage means nothing when the disciple is doing nothing but healing the party) however, since the necromancer gained army of death or whatever that allows her to slam anything in line of sight, the heroes just hide while she and the archer take everything down, then the armoured turtle of death marches forward.
Even using dark compel(or whatever) to have the dwarf turn on his allies is a temporary set back. I do what I can to focus on the objectives but after they lost the race to the vault against the vampire - they spend 10 minutes before each game strategizing so that the first 3 turns are generally a decimation of monsters or objectives. I'm no idiot either, I try different combos, different strategies, I use blockers to slow them down, play cards like a fiend - but I really feel like the game is severely stacked against me. Even when my strategies come to fruition (a staggered line of goblin archers, lucky rolls and some OL cards took down the Necro and brought the Dwarf to 3 HP left) A quick run and hide, use the reanimate and archer for cover, disciple healing, resting, healing - and the tables had turned again, literally my greatest victory was a 10 minute set-back for these munchkins!
It's not that I mind loosing either, like I said, I'm a GM and the players should win - the problem is I can't make it challenging - they are walking through these quests on autopilot and I seriously want to say to them: why don't you just say "We Win all the Quests" and I'll read the end, to which they reply: where is the fun in that? This is the sort of thing that I remember from D&D in the 80's - total focus on combat mashing and loot collection, winning is not about challenge, it's just...about winning. The GM in me really wants to put a map just full of ettin and shadow dragons flanked by goblin archers and elementals and teleport them in the middle of it, just for the challenge - but like most good munchkins, they are rules lawyers - if they feel I've deviated even a little from the written rules, they are all over me - which normally I don't mind, save for when a game seems sooooo unbalanced.
I don't get it. Why do people enjoy playing like this? Just move a piece of plastic, roll a die, move the plastic, roll a die again, move again, roll, move, roll, move, roll - I win. I mean I guess there is probably some brain chemical that gets released when they win that gives them a little high and like a fiend they chase that high the quickest and easiest way possible - but how is that fun?!? It's like a weird version of candyland.
Anyways, I was thinking of playing this with my RPG group as a little break but after this experience, I'm strongly considering selling the whole thing - so I ask, is it just me and my group? Do other people have the same experience?
(Sorry this came off a little rant-ish and angry, I'm just frustrated. I was really excited with this game and now I completely hate it! I bet if it was 3 players I would have a completely different experience with it, or maybe it's my group, or maybe it's just me?)