by warfinger
Of all the monster groups in the base game, the Cave Spiders and Zombies seem to be the least useful as an Overlord. I'm still kind of new to the game, but I've played about 4-5 sessions now and I've started expanding my collection (Labyrinth of Ruin, Lair of the Wyrm, and Trollfens), and I'm starting to feel like these two monster groups are pretty worthless.Both groups have weak health, weak defense dice, and don't have very much damage output. Why would I ever select either of these in an open group as opposed to something else? Are there ways to use these groups effectively?
It seems like the Web ability could be good for slowing down hero progress through a time-sensitive encounter, or simply to plant heroes in place to be hit at range from something like a goblin archer group. But they die so easily that it doesn't seem like you'd get much use out of this ability.
The grab ability of the Zombie seems a like slighter stronger version of Web, with the cost of it not working all the time. But again, the Zombies die so fast in addition to moving fairly slowly.
So for you experienced Overlords out there, do you find that these monster groups can still be effective after you have an expansion or two, or do you pretty much ignore these groups unless they are required by a specific encounter?