Toll of the Bell strategy

[ryric]

I've played through this scenario both with a solo Jirelle and a 2 person team of Lini and Feiya. The solo run took me three tries to beat before I came up with a strategy that worked very well in our two player game.

Scenario spoilers below so if you want to be surprised be aware.

Spoiler:

So in this scenario we have only two locations, but each has two extra cards per player. The real trickiness comes from a couple things. You can't close locations until they are empty, and the villain can't be defeated until he is the last card in his location deck. Oh, and he has a pesky Str/divine 12 check on there too.

It can get rough because each time you encounter the villain, he shuffles back in and you're pretty much relying on luck to try and get him to the bottom of the deck. Even if there are only two cards left including the villain there is a small but not insignificant chance that you might meet him 3+ times without him getting shuffled to the bottom. This can be a big drain on resources and turns. And at AD2 some group may be lacking reliable scouting, though scouting seems easier in S&S than it was in Runelords. Deck manipulation to put cards on the bottom of the location deck is still in short supply however.

So here's the strategy. Start with Fog Bank, put your entire group there. Work through it. If scouting reveals that the villain is there, switch to the other location and work on it. (I choose Fog Bank first because it's easier to close and if playing with an odd number of players it has a slightly less chance to have the villain). The first goal is to empty one of the locations. Once you do that, don't close it. Leave it open and empty. Now work on the other location. If you get super lucky the villain is on the bottom, in which case when the last card is left go close the other location and then fight the villain. In most cases you'll encounter the villain with some set of cards left, 5-10 or so.

So the villain is undefeated, and away he runs. Your other location is open, so he could run there. He steals a blessing, but there is now a 50/50 chance he's alone in your other location. Hopefully you have some scouting and can check. If the single card is a blessing grab it and leave the location empty again. If it's the villain finish up your new villain-free location, close it, and then go win.

While not perfect or any sort of guarantee, this strategy gets you a 50% chance to put Pilk on the bottom of a location deck every time you meet him, rather than randomly shuffling him with cards and hope.

Feel free to comment/criticize. I have not tested this strategy with a large group where the timer might be tighter, but it seems like less of an issue sue to this scenario's unique setup.

[Mundane61]

We played this one today and lost badly. Our party is Oloch, Damiel, Jirelle, and Lirianne. We encountered the villain twice. Nearly closed the Fog Bank before the game ended. We will try again next week. I think you need to close one location so you don't lose blessings off the blessings deck every time you encounter Pilk.

[Ashram316]

I have played through this scenario with two different groups, both 6 characters. Closing the Fog Bank first seems to be the way to go. Also, don't be afraid to lose the fight to Whalebone Pilk when you aren't ready to actually finish him off. Discarding for damage isn't the end of the world if you have Oloch/Damiel to toss in some heals.

[MightyJim]

Played this last night with 6 - massively frustrating. Encountered the Villain 4 times at the Fog Bank - by the 4th time he was the only card there but a.) we'd burned so many cards facing him the first 3 times that we couldn't beat him and b.) the other location was still half full, with no time left in the Blessings Deck.

i'll try the strategy above (looks interesting) - but it does feel a lot like the main strategy for this is "hope the villain isn't at the Fog bank" - at least if he were at the other location there's a chance to scry and move him to the bottom.

[rokeca]

Thanks for this inspired brainwave. After 2 crushing defeats using 3 characters (Alahazra, Jirelle, Seltyiel), I decided to give your strategy a go.

Some luck was involved: we cleaned out the Fog Bank without issue since Pilk was at the other location; then when we encountered Pilk in the other location he obligingly escaped to Fog Bank, which Alahazra was able to determine. Nevertheless, keeping the location open gave us a huge edge in taking control of the scenario once we had Pilk pinned down. Whew!

We finished with 5 blessings left. Of course, after completing the scenario, Periscope was one of our plunder cards!

ryric wrote:

I've played through this scenario both with a solo Jirelle and a 2 person team of Lini and Feiya. The solo run took me three tries to beat before I came up with a strategy that worked very well in our two player game.

[Fights with Wolves]

I don't think Pilk escapes actually. He is undefeated if there are other cards at the location, and he would only escape if he was defeated. This scenario is pretty brutal. The strategy is definitely hope for luck. We were able to win but there was a lot of luck involved in shuffling pilk down. It came down to our last turn.

[skizzerz]

Fights with Wolves wrote:

I don't think Pilk escapes actually. He is undefeated if there are other cards at the location, and he would only escape if he was defeated. This scenario is pretty brutal. The strategy is definitely hope for luck. We were able to win but there was a lot of luck involved in shuffling pilk down. It came down to our last turn.

Villains escape if they're undefeated too. The only time the villain doesn't escape is if they're evaded. If defeated, the blessings from the villain escaping come from the box. If undefeated, the blessings come from the blessings deck (meaning you just lost some turns unless there's only 1 open location for it to escape to).