by thalim
Hello everyone,I've read a lot of Descent posts here at BGG so I decided to give something back.
There are often questions about Overlord strategies so I came up to write my experience as an Overlord player.
Some things are common sense and well-known. Other stuff I haven't read so far.
As you read through the text, you will see that of the both existing opinions about the balance in Decent I belong
to the “as a hero player Descent is hard as fuck”-side.
1. Mindset
Descent is a resource-game. The two resources are actions and fatigue.
In order two win you have to maximize your actions and minimize the actions and fatigue of the heroes
(the heroes vice versa).
2. General
-read through the description of each setup/stage and understand the winning conditions
(discuss with heroes so everything is clear)
-first and only goal: fulfill winning conditions!
-write down the stats of the heroes to have a little reminder handy
for your attribute testing cards/conditions
-when playing a attribute testing card/ or giving someone a condition the test-value should be 2 or less
-always try to reduce your deck to 15 cards which highly support the winning condition
-if there is nothing better to do (like closing doors, get into a good blocking position,
sit on search tokens (large monsters) attack the heroes
-if the end of stage 1 is near: beat the shit out of the heroes, don't kill one – just weaken them
as much as possible (hearts, conditions)
-never finish your monster activation next to a melee character so you force the hero
to spend fatigue or loose an attack action
-if possible/appropriate spread monsters
-save your cards for the second stage and use them when they have an impact on the game
(this comes with experience)
3. Plot Decks
-Seeds of Betrayal, Sole Purpose! Don't spent anything – 13 Cards Deck is enough
4. Card selection
There are always questions how to combine cards, best overlords classes etc.
Remember the mindset: Minimize actions and fatigue of the heroes and maximize your actions.
The following cards support that strategy.
Basic I
-Dark Charm: running in the opposite direction is often much better than attacking,
because the hero looses one action to reposition
(unless you can kill someone with one attack – then go for the kill.)
-Dash/Frenzy (2x): you get one extra move/attack. Yay! Dash is always advantageous.
Frenzy depends on the scenario/winning conditions
-Pit trap: use when fatigue is used for movement
-Trip wire (2x): use in an movement action
Basic II
-in my eyes it is fun but inferior to Basic I
Warlord
-Blood rage (2x 1 XP): two extra attack actions is huge – but your monster is defeated afterwards.
In my opinion most beneficial at the end of stage 1 to weaken heroes, if you have to kill someone and it's
getting tight with the heroes winning condition or if a monster is on low health and will not survive the
next attack.
It's also fun to build up a one-trick-pony Act II Master Shadow Dragon with frenzy also add 'Dark Charm'
and 'Crushing Blow' to trigger an explosive attack (and 3 'normal' ones).
With a bit of luck and bad positioning of the heroes this is devastating.
Saboteur
-Web trap (2x 1 XP): Immobilize – one of my favorite conditions.
Use when at least two low might heroes are adjacent to each other
Punisher
-No Rest for the Wicked (2x 1 XP): forces the heroes to think twice about fatigue move.
If they move, you can move – great. If they decide not to move with fatigue this round – great.
You prevented the conversion to movement points. They use an action instead.
-Exploit Weakness (2 XP): you can get a whole activation for a monster or at least one movement action.
Situational but good Synergies with 'Imploding Rift' and 'Mistrust'
Shadowmancer
-Imploding Rift (1 XP): a hero looses all of his stamina? Great deal.
Play on high stamina, low Willpower heroes
-Mistrust (1 XP): loosing fatigue when when the heroes getting cosy with their buddys.
Great thing. Use in narrow maps.
-Out of Darkness (1 XP): get an attack action when hero is revived.
Sounds great but highly situational use 'Exploit Weakness' instead
-Treacherous Shadows (3 XP): can be nice if there are at least two low Willpower heroes.
I think it's to expensive.
Unkindness
-Call of the Ravens (1 XP): get an extra monster on the map – nice.
Two actions each round and one more monster to kill/disturb the plans of the heroes can add up a lot
over the course of a campaign. Also good synergies with Bloodlust (call raven on at least 5HP monster,
let the monster die with Bloodlust)
So if I want an hardcore campaign for the heroes I always pick a set out of these cards.
They are cheap and highly effective. If there are two low might heroes I get 2x Web Trap first.
Afterwards I adjust to the heroes and course of the campaign.
5. Monster Selection
I have all small/big box expansions, COF, BOW and COD so I'll only mention the included monsters.
I distinguish my monsters in different types
-“Kill me if you want to pass”
-good conditions for bad heroes
-move that damn hero
-Blow things up: AoE
Remember the resources: actions, fatigue
Remember the winning conditions.
If your heroes have high single target damage try to avoid small monster groups
So first of all I ask myself: is blocking a good Idea? Will the heroes loose a good amount of actions?
If yes – let's find a monster with two defense dices (grey-brown, grey-grey, …) and a good amount of life.
That's a simple one. Nothing more to say here.
Next question: Conditions
I distinguish between the good ones (listed here) and 'bad' ones (left out).
The good ones are those which need an action to remove or Immobilize ;-) Diseased is an exception because it
directly attacks the fatigue resource.
If possible always try to get immobilize and/or stun (Medusa anyone?) because they restrict actions (immobilize)
or directly take away an action without a choice (stun).
Bleeding [1 action, each action 1 fatigue]
-Changelings (surge)
-Rat Swarm (action, test strength)
Burning [1 action, 1 heart you & adjacent at end of turn]
-Fire Imps (surge)
Diseased [willpower, 1 fatigue]
-Carrion Drakes (surge)
-Zombies (surge)
-
Plague Worms (start adjacent, test willpower)
Immobilized [discard end of turn, cannot move]
-Merriods (surge)
-Medusa (surge)
-Arachyura (surge)
-Elementals (action, test awareness)
-Zombies (action, test strength)
Weakened [rest action, -1 shield & heart p. attack]
-Plague Worms (surge)
Stunned [1 action]
-Giant (surge)
-Medusa (surge)
Next question: Move
Is it beneficial to move heroes because they block the exit? They protect your target? There are hazard fields like pits?
So here we have some bad guys who can do it:
-Ynfernal Hulk (surge, 3 fields)
-Hellhound (surge, place on field adjacent to monster)
-Plague Worm (action, 1 field + suffer 1 fatigue)
-Changeling (action, test willpower, 1 field)
-Ettin (action, test strength, 3 fields + suffer 1 heart)
-Goblin witcher (when cursed, 2 fields)
Last question: AoE
Heroes often stay near each other? Narrow map? Get some AoE which is like (an) extra action(s)
-Lava Beetle (surge,always)
-Arachyura (attack adjacent max 2 fields)
-Elemental (attack adjacent / test willpower, 2 fatigue / test awareness, immobilize adjacent)
-Plague Worm (action, 2 fields fatigue AoE, 1 fatigue)
-Barghest (action, 3 fields radius fatigue AoE, test willpower, 1 fatigue)
-Fire Imp (when defeated, adjacent, 1 heart)
-Merriod (attack, 2 fields)
-Shadow Dragon (surge, 4 fields)
-Hybrid Sentinel (surge, 4 fields)
-Hellhound (surge, 4 fields)
-Giant (action, every figure in 2 spaces and LoS)
There are different types of monster which can fulfill more than one task:
-Elementals (Condition, AoE, fatigue-AoE, with Air nice blocking)
-Plague Worm (Condition, fatigue AoE, Move)
-Arachyura (Condition, AoE, blocking to an lesser extent)
-Giant (Condition, massive AoE if positioned correctly)
-Merriod (Condition, AoE)
-Changeling (Condition, Move, fatigue)
-Medusa (Yo Dawg. I heard you like conditions? So I put a condition into a condition so you give conditions while giving a condition)
-Shadow Dragon (AoE, Blocking, good looking :o)
-Ettin (Blocking, Move)
-Fire Imp (Condition, AoE when defeated)
-Hybrid Sentinel (AoE, blocking to an lesser extent)
So if you ask me about my top ten eleven - there it is
Barghests are also pretty strong if there are at least two low willpower heroes . Howling until they die *evil laugh*
This Monster selection process also answers the question about which H&M Expansion to get for the Overlord.
COD is in my eyes one of the best (Golems are nice blockers, Medusas for Conditions, Sorcerers are also fun)
With all this in mind I'm quite successful as the Overlord and the heroes have a really hard time.
7. Hints for the heroes
So what can heroes do to make me feel at least a bit uncomfortable?
-The group hast to be balanced in their attributes (a whole low willpower group? Wet dream of mine)
-FOCUS. ON. THE. WINNING. CONDITION(s).
Oh cool you killed this Sentinel behind your Team? Nice. You just lost one round of coming closer to the
winning condition.
-every character has at least 4 movement points
-get a condition remover & healer
-get skills that give you extra actions
(Advance, Whirlwind, Fleet of Foot, Blast, familiar, ...you get the point ;-)
-Lindel (really - that's a fucker. Even without a class he's nearly unstoppable movement wise.
He is also nice to have for attribute tests in quests)
-Mess with my cards (Marshal, Wildlander)
-Search as much as possible
So that was a long one. Hope you enjoyed and got something out of it.
If this post starts a discussion or something comes to my mind to add I'll edit it in this post.
Cheers
Thalim
