by Jallon
Hey, so I have been lurking around here a little bit, since me and some friends started playing Descent second edition. (only the basic game)So I want to post a small summary on the topic of game balance and fun:
We started of with first blood(obviously) and we weren't quite aware how to play the game yet. Some of us had the right idea and the others not, so we lost that scenario, which is probably pretty easy. (if you focus on killing goblins and don't get unlucky rolls like we did)
The Overlord then chose fat goblin as number two, and we had a close fight in both scenes, but in the end we lost again.
Then the Overlord chose Masquerade and we stomped him on the first scene. Which didn't help us in the second scene, as he got through the 5 doors with 6 rolls, while blocking us with spiders and a shadow dragon.
Then the Overlord chose Castle Darion and it wasn't even close. Like, we stomped him in scene one... which didn't help us at all in scene two and that baron so-and-so was dead when we just started slaying the thousand monsters surrounding him (after fighting us threw another million blocking monsters)
So the interlude was overlord revealed. And we managed it, by blocking him from reaching the key and slaying monsters that picked it up as fast as we could + a little luck on our rolls for the portals.
We got to chose a scenario and we took frozen spire, as according to my resarch, it is considered quite good for Heros.
We got stomped in scene 1 by Akt 2 monsters, while only having the shadow rune and the necro's minion with 3rolls ourselves. In scene 2 we could hold out for quite some time, but in the end the overwhealming amount of cards in the Overlords hand just destroyed us anytime we tried to move.
That's it so far... Time for some first conclusions:
We don't have a healer class in our group, which makes any 2scene scenario close to unbeatable, as by just dragging out the game, the Overlord can damage us so brutally that we start scene 2 with extremly health and thus can't move around properly. I believe this is a huge weakness of the game, especially for newcomers. It takes all the fun if you get knocked down over and over again and the overlord just gets to draw one card after the other that discourages any form of movement (as you either plainly can't move and waste actions, or you move to far and a single monster just runs twice or attacks twice and kills you and camps your death location etc).
Some scenarios are plainly imbalanced. It feels like anytime one side can just camp/block and use most of its actions for chain attacking anything that closes in while a single hero/monster group fullfills the quest in a scenario that side will win. Most obvious in Castle Darion (part 2) and Masquerade (part 2). But also in fat goblin (block the heros, that goblin leader farms all the town guys - though afterwards it's the heros turn to block, so it kind of balances out), overlord revealed (you will never get that key; picking it up wastes too much actions for you and we will be able to kill your monster afterwards), first blood (kill 3+ goblins in turn 1 I guess, then it should be a cakewalk), frozen spire part 1 (block the heros from reaching the dragon and throwing them back with an ettin) and part 2 (though now again for the hero's side: kill what you can, then block the exit while whittling down frederick.
So, though the scenarios are all different, they always seem to come down to the same gameplay experience. Block and avoid getting blocked.
The step from act 1 to act 2 feels very imbalanced towards the overlord in the first scenario after the interlude. You throw 2 attack and 1 defense roll most of the time, he throws 3attack and 1-2defense rolls all the time. And I can't see this changing with just one market step before the next session.
One thing that annoyed me especially was the overlords ability to drag out games to draw extra cards in a lot of first scenes upon knocking us down. Like, at the end of fat goblin part one he could have just camped it out at our deathsites with monsters, while waiting to have all of his deck in his hand, instead of escaping. If we stand up, we get knocked down again and accelerate this process. Similarily at the end of frozen spire, when two heros were dead in the front of that bridgedragon, so standing up on ourselves was out of the question (dragon in front, which will kill us both with one attack; ettin behind us to do the same with one of that extra attack cards, if the dragon fails) and our third hero zoned away with the elemental and then caught between the ettin and the elemental and knocked down as well. And he would just draw another 2 cards, as the scenario would only end upon reaching the end of the bridge.
On the flipside, if we win a scenario as the herogroup, we don't get the loot.
And considering the petty amount of gold you sometimes get from winning act 1 quests, we often felt like "hey guys. this scenario looks hard. It's probably better to just don't go for any of the objectives and go for the loot instead. Going halfway through the quest doesn't achieve anything. Getting just 25 extra gold does."
On a general level, I'd say the game is just slightly overlord favored if both sides play for the win. Also considering the comments I have read on the internet. And I could do with a little less luckfactor, as it just ruins a whole scenario when you have 2-3 guys trying to bust through a block, and afterwards that monster that is blocking you from doing anything but attacking it, has barely a scratch, because you rolled some X, low damage, no surge (for a shadow dragon as melee), the Overlord rolled a lucky defense, or he simply played a trap card upon moving that ends your turn in one way or another.
Though this might not sound like it up to now, I'm having a lot of fun with this game. It probably needs some balance tweaks and it probably gets a little stale over time (strategies aside, the hero progression feels kind of slow. After some hours of playing you'd expect to have more than 2-3 situational tricks and a better weapon). But overall, it is a nice experience. It allows for very casual play without checking the rulebook for any move you make, as long as you just read properly once (unlike other games). And all of the characters seem to be quite playable, even though you're probably forced to take one healing class for your group.