by mkgray
I love 1st edition Descent. I want to love 2nd edition. Objectively I like the rules changes, the shorter playing time and I like the idea of interesting scenario goals. But, it's not clicking the way 1st edition did. I'm wondering if we're missing something, if we're playing the wrong scenarios, missing a key tactical element, or what.Now, we've only played twice, both in "Advanced" mode. In both of the games we've played, it's felt like the players haven't spent much time attacking the monsters and the monsters have't spent much time attacking the players. As a result, a lot of the interesting tactical combat powers, interactions and rules barely seem to get used.
In "A Fat Goblin", there was some fighting in the first encounter, but a lot of ignoring each other to scramble for crops. In the second encounter, the players did kill a bunch of monsters up front, and then just pounded on Splig while he tried his tests to find Frederick, which were brought to him the goblins. Lack of reinforcements meant there weren't many monsters to do any attacking anyway. The Overlord had little motivation to attack the players, as focusing on crops in encounter 1 seemed better, and in encounter 2, they weren't able to put up a meaningful defense, and whacking the players didn't seem to slow them down anyway.
In "Castle Daerion", the monsters pounded on the villagers while the players tried to light beacons, with the players having to do a little fighting through monsters, but not much. In the second encounter, the players did plenty of attacking of monsters, but the monsters just gathered around Palamon and pounded on him, ignoring the players entirely. At no point did it feel like the Overlord was motivated to pay any attention to the players at all (focusing on Villagers in encounter one, and Palamon in encounter 2).
What am I missing?