by Phadin
This is my first campeign as overlord. So far I've done okay I think... managed a win on Death on the Wing and actually came close on Castle Daerion till the dice got in the way. (two failed throws and two failed grabs in a row)However, I'm facing down some very effective heroes heading into Shadow Vault where some of the most useful strategies, such as Dominion/Dark Charm, will not work.
the lineup:
Jain (Thief), with Water Walking Belt, Tumble, and theive's Lucky Charm
Reynhart (Champion) (has store bought lucky charm)
Astara (Runemaster) (has Exploding Rune, Runic Sorcery)
Andira (Disciple) (has Fortune's Dice)
If you know the heroes, the first thing you will note is all the heroes except Jain are sporting 4 Will. Jain would normally only have 2, but the Belt gives her +1, and she can use Lucky Charm. Against these kinds of numbers, I don't even bother keeping Dark Charm in my deck, and I generally avoid using any abilities or creatures that depend on Willpower checks (Zach's Dominate, Bahgrest howl, Disease condition)
My advantages:
Shield of Zorak's Favor (Baron can use it till his first defeat)
2 Web Trap cards in OL deck.
I know the group is low on might (Rey has 3, others are 2 or 1). I bought Web Trap because of that... and won Death on the Wing because of that. I'm not sure how to seriously leverage it however. Once they get to the rivers edge, it seems like Jain has a good shot to dash to victory with her heroic feat (web trap won't stop it). Andira does have the condition clearing card for her healing as well.
We don't have any plot decks or the like, but do have a number of expansions. I have a good selection of available monsters, but I'm not sure what to use to try and maximize my opportunities to try and down the heroes and get the casket, preferably before Jain can rush past the monsters at the rivers edge and beyond.
My thoughts in terms of monsters include Demon Lords, Hybrid Sentinels (they would get bonus damage against 3 of the heroes), Windegos, or Shadow Dragons. I'd go for a group of smaller high damage monsters like Sorcerers, but Astara with Exploding Rune (with pierce 2 surge effect on her default weapon) could easily wipe them out. With Andira's ability, the more damage I can get out of a single hit, the better.
My concern is three of the four are very effective builds. Jain is a speed demon with Tumble, so blocking is relatively useless to stop her. Even in a turn where Tumble is not available or the entire party needs to pass, Astara can move monsters out of the way once. Andira's ability makes going for mass attack with abilities like Firebreath very painful for me. Rey is the only one I'm not particularly concerned about. He's good at dealing damage, good at absorbing it, but that's about it. I expect him to drop valor tokens on Astara and Jain regularly.
I anticipate they might leave Zach alone, given he has the shield and they could eat a lot of damage trying to defeat him. They avoided touching Alric in Castle Daerion when he had it. I also don't see Zach as being much of a threat to them. Dominate is worthless, due to high willpower, and dropping a condition on someone will just get purged by Andira. If he gets too annoying, Astarra can hang back, drop an Immobilize condition on him (Runic Sorcery), then teleport to catch up with the group. It really comes down to what some good monsters are, and how I should engage them. I'm looking for tips and help in this.