I don't know if I chose a bad party for it, but I ended up having to tackle the first scenario in "Plunder and Peril" four straight times to beat it (took about five, six hours). I couldn't tell if the scenario was unbalanced or what, but I ran out of time three times in a row, and only on the third time did I even come close to actually having a chance to beating it. On the fourth try I got lucky and half the henchmen got shuffled into the middles of the decks, so I had a fair shake at it, but I still ended up with only three or four cards left in the Blessings deck at the end.
Party:
Alahazra
Lirianne
Val
Sel
I don't think it helped, though, that I shuffle maybe too well: I ended up with most of the henchmen as either the next to last or very last card in every deck.
Hirgenzosk is horribly rude, though... Combat 30 in the first scenario of the game? I have almost no shot at even coming close to making that check, unless I have Sel go in with a Rapier and spell, getting two Gorums and another two Blessings, a ranged shot from Lirianne, and maybe getting a Magic Weapon from himself and/or another person: 7d8, 1d6, and 5d4 +3 for a range of 16-82... and the average comes out to 44. (Whimper)
Game's pretty much declaring, "Discard someone's entire hand, or your ship is wrecked and this location can never be closed until the villain winds up in it." Owwwwww. In the end I wound up culling the vast majority of stronger items in the box, so now I don't have much need of exploring ever again, since there's a grand total of maybe - maybe - seven cards left in the entire box worth getting.
On the other hand, I should end up like a level seven player rolling through a level two game from here on out. ;-) Zero skill bonuses and I'm already starting to auto some stuff.
That's almost the same party we have. We went with Alahazra, Jirelle, Lirriane, and Seltyiel. It took us two tries to beat the first scenario, but that could have been due to horrible rolls the first time around, combined with the fact that Jirelle completely forgot about her re-roll power. I am loving the added challenge.
....well that's a little intimidating. We only have a three-man group and preparing to start later today. But we choose Alahazra, Seltyiel, and Lirriane.
Did you custom your starting decks or just used the suggested list from the instruction book?
I would advise against the suggested spells for Alahazra. Well, at least replace Black Spot with a second Cure. The other spells are OK.
csouth154 wrote: I would advise against the suggested spells for Alahazra. Well, at least replace Black Spot with a second Cure. The other spells are OK. Well we custom built ours. I've always said that while they fit the theme, tactically, the suggested lists could be better.
Planned tactics for our group:
1) Divide and Conquer (each character takes a location they are best capable of closing)
2) Turn order: Ala, Sel, Lir
3) If Ala has a Cure in hand, spam extra explores
4) Otherwise Ala, peeks as much as possible for prepping other character turns with Lir laying cover fire.
At least, that's the game plan. What'd you guys do and wish you did different?
It took 5 tries for my party of 6 using class decks to defeat the fifth scenario of the base set.
My main complaint about Runelords was that it was too easy, so I actually really like that. It forced us to pay greater attention, cooperate more, and dice rolls mattered more.
Sometimes randomness trumps tacics (dice, Henchmen locations, card draw, etc), but that makes it exciting.
Alahazra and Seltyiel can be a powerhouse combo. Lirianne is a good third character to add to the other two, in my opinion - it's interesting that others think so, too.
If you're having difficulty with a party that includes the first two, try heavily scouting - especially in a location deck that has Hirgenzosk. He's a nasty one and I hate him. Early on, he's really unbeatable...you have to just take it on the chin, soaking up the damage with powers or repairing the ship with the Craft skill to stay afloat. You won't come away with a ton of loot, but oh well.
If Alahazra can set up Seltyiel, he can really mow down the bad guys and avoid those things that would bring him to a quick end.
KL Sanchez wrote: Hirgenzosk is horribly rude, though... Combat 30 in the first scenario of the game? I have almost no shot at even coming close to making that check, unless I have Sel go in with a Rapier and spell, getting two Gorums and another two Blessings, a ranged shot from Lirianne, and maybe getting a Magic Weapon from himself and/or another person: 7d8, 1d6, and 5d4 +3 for a range of 16-82... and the average comes out to 44. (Whimper) You had a 99.939% chance to make your check. Remove a Gorum and you are still over 98%. When you roll that many dice, it is incredibly unlikely that you won't get an average result (particularly with relatively small dice, too).
Which makes me wonder, do you think it would be possible to solo?
Draight wrote: Which makes me wonder, do you think it would be possible to solo? The location that summons the combat 30 monster doesn't appear in solo play I think. I think someone like Damiel would have a fair shot at soloing the scenarios released so far (he might have trouble with the early scenarios requiring diplomacy checks, but remember that a potion of glibness is basic!)
Well we finally got around to playing the first scenario (some kinda flu bug around here) and was able to get through it with no significant issue. We played the same as we always do (other than new characters of course).
Two points of advice:
1) Help each other and healing is awesome.
2) Don't be greedy and try to loot locations, focus on the objective (defeat the villain).
Now a question of weither we played a specific situation correctly.
Encounter: Enemy Ship Henchman
Blessing Deck: Abadar
Using a blessing of the gods to mimic abadar would work for defeating the Enemy Ship, correct? Since Enemy Ship henchman is considered a barrier and it's check to defeat says 'see below'. Probably the only questionable move we made although it didn't matter since I failed to close the location at that point in time; leaving it and revisiting it for the sole purpose of temp closing in the endgame.
The check against the summoned ship is a check to defeat a ship, not a barrier, so Abadar would not work.
csouth154 wrote: The check against the summoned ship is a check to defeat a ship, not a barrier, so Abadar would not work. Oh well, my mistake then. But end result wouldn't have changed; wasn't able to close the location then and ended up temp closing to finish.
Our party of four (alchemist, swashbuckler, gunslinger, war priest) completed the intro adventure yesterday. We won the final scenario on the last possible turn. We encountered the Pirate Council twice early in the scenario, losing the first time, defeating them the second time. We closed two locations. When we closed the third one we found the council again leaving that location open. Damiel went to that location on his last turn. While the others successfully closed the other three locations he used his potion of Glibness to conclude a successful negotiation with the council to win the scenario.
I like how this set is more challenging that RotR. In the last scenario Jirelle was down to zero cards in her deck while on Shark Island. A fortunate heal kept her away from death and she was able to defeat the shark twice during her stay on the island.
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