Dungeon Saga time once again! After banging our collective heads against the infuriating turnstile of Mission 6, we decided our SkypeBoot sessions were too precious for a repeat, and that's we'd jump ahead to the next one.
However, the completionist in me couldn't resist the chance to have one more swing at this Sisyphean quest. In the absence of any comrades, I could also try out the much-vaunted AI Rules for solo play.
Let's find out if the real problem with this level ... was other people.
Right, no messing about. I charge the Dwarf into the first corridor and throw his shoulder against the door. It resists his efforts and the Barbarian comes along to spare his blushes. The Elf dashes into the junction, while the Wizard nudges the Dwarf in after him with a Brisk Work.
In between every hero's turn, I'm flipping Overlord AI cards to see if he - that is, me - will Interrupt the action. For the most part, I don't - although in the Overlord's turn I thrown down some more bone piles, just to make the corridors even more crowded.
(although there seem to be far fewer Raise Dead cards than I would have expected - most of these Overlord Command cards can't do diddly squat)
The first spin of the corridors cut off the Wizard and Barbarian, while opening up the Revenant Room to the Dwarf and Elf.
The Wizard begins by opening the warded door and Corroding the Revenant, allowing the Dwarf to smash him to bones. The Elf picks off the Skeleton Archer and the Barbarian charges in to back up the attack. He whiffs against the second Revenant, but things are looking good so far.
The next spin of the corridor opens up the famous ConTroll Room, and once again traps the Wizard behind a door he can't realistically open.
I decide to play it cool: wiping out the last Dwarf Revenant with the fighters; sitting tight and recharging the Wizard's powers; shooting a pointless arrow at one of the Zombie Trolls.
The rooms spin again, finally allowing the Wizard to get moving - he dashes to the only Warded door, Shields himself and Corrode hexes the nearest Zombie Troll.
The Dwarf can't reach the ConTroll Room, but does jog into the junction. The Barbarian has longer strides and charges right into the hexed Zombie Troll, chopping him down for a couple of wounds (though he regenerates one).
The Elf also ducks into a quiet corner of the ConTroll Room and fires off another arrow that gets regenerated.
And then it's the Overlord's turn again (you may observe from the bone piles that stubbornly litter the dungeon that I was still drawing blanks for Raise Dead). The hexed Zombie Troll smashes a wound off the Barbarian, while his fellow Troll storms up to intercept both the Elf and Barbarian.
... and with a rear attack and an outnumbering, the Barbarian actually looks the more tempting target. Sure enough, another wound off him, and I'm starting to get concerned (since this game is not really part of our campaign, I didn't carry across any of the group's useful potions)
The next spin opens up the Armoured Zombie room and puts the Barbarian further away from help.
Rather than try and unite the group, I send the Dwarf off to deal with the Armoured Zombies, and hope the Barbarian can hold out.
The Barbarian's Whirlwind attack fails to dent his opponents - and now the Overlord AI cards start kicking in the Interrupts. The Zombie Trolls continue to pound away at him.
Poor Orlaf can't withstand the onslaught, and by the time the Overlord takes his turn, he's reduced to a pile of dungeon gristle.
Fifth time lucky, I'm going for a re-rack and let's conquer this dungeon!
I'm also chucking the Overlord AI cards - as not really worth the time expended. As long as you're playing both sides fairly (and why wouldn't you?), you don't need to refer to the Threat Recognition chart. The only real surprise factor an Overlord can bring is when he chooses to Interrupt - and as one-quarter of the AI deck is an Interrupt, a simple D4 roll after each hero's turn can solve that.
As before, the first spin of the corridor reveals the Dwarf Revenant room (and the Dwarf, who ended his last turn facing backwards, is now in position to strike - see what four games' experience can do for you?)
The Wizard kicks off with a Burn spell that removes one of the Revenants entirely...
... and then an Interrupt! Two bone piles rise up in the starting corridor (one of which risks a Free Strike from the Elf, but weathers it easily)
Having to deal with the two newcomers muddles up our heroes slightly - the Elf and Barbarian swap opponents and deal with them efficiently, but ends up with the Elf in the junction and the Barbarian in the corridor.
In my actual Overlord turn, I can only try to swamp the Dwarf with skeletons, but as usual, everything bounces off the Tank.
The spinning corridors opens up the Armoured Zombie Room (and seals off the Dwarf's room, but he's not going anywhere and smashes down the weaker Skeleton Archer). The remaining three heroes try to hex, shoot and, in the Barbarian's case, charge the two zombies, but to no avail.
(and now the Barbarian's stuck in a room where the zombies can mob up on him ... ulp)
It also opens out the ConTroll room, but since the lumbering brutes can't traverse the narrow junction, I'm trying something different and not worrying about them yet.
In my Overlord turn I make ineffectual attacks against the Dwarf and Barbarian, then lumber one of the Zombie Trolls forward, trying to cut off any likely exit.
It doesn't work as the next spin of the rooms frees up all the heroes, and places my Trolls in fairly useless positions.
The Barbarian finally gets his act together and kills an Armoured Zombie.
Not to be outdone, the Wizard uses his Focus feat cast Feet of Stone, then Burn on the nearest Zombie Troll. The Elf follows up with a Hail of Arrows that takes him down!
In the Overlord turn, I resurrect the pile of bones to outnumber the Dwarf - and promptly get it smashed up. The Armoured Zombie loses momentum against the Barbarian and the surviving Zombie Troll can only lumber forward menacingly.
The junction spins to put the final closed door between my heroes and the ConTroll Room, so I call on a bit of teamwork: the Elf shoots the Revenant, freeing the Dwarf to move back into the junction and smash open the door.
The Wizard uses Brisk Work to shove the Dwarf into the big room (yep we're going there), then Flamebolts the last Armoured Zombie, to allow the Barbarian to return to the junction.
Without any Raise Dead cards, there's not much for the Overlord to do but march up the Zombie Troll and fail to smash the Dwarf (now that's how you block a room!)
And then an unfortunate spin for the Overlord: the Zombie Troll now has his back to most of the party, while still facing the Dwarf. I hope they don't all rush in and take advantage...
Between the Wizard's hexes, the Elf's arrow and the Barbarian's charge, it's all over before the Dwarf gets to swing.
The Dwarf instead vents his anger on the nearest door, revealing a familiar room of Skeleton Warriors and bone piles.
As Overlord, I had now drawn a big Raise Dead card, which I put to immediate use to resurrect the whole room and sending them to intercept the doorway.
The room spins again before the Dwarf can get himself in a pickle, however, and it's the Elf who finds her back to the Skeletons.
(this is where a human Overlord with an Interrupt card may have leaped in - I wasn't rolling that many times on the D4)
Uninterrupted, the team goes into action: the Elf backs away, then shoots the lead Skeleton; the Barbarian dives into a corner and smashes another; the Wizard Burns a third into a bone pile; and the Dwarf rushes in to smash up a fourth.
As Overlord, I take the smallest act of revenge I can, and use my last Skeleton to rear-attack the Dwarf and actually get a Wound off him!
The Dwarf is able to finish off this lone Skeleton, while the Barbarian moves onto the next door and reveals the Ghost corridor.
This corridor contains a Warded chest, and as the Wizard is thus far unwounded, I'm feeling cocky enough to send him in alone to open it. He Brisk Works himself as far as possible, then casts Feet of Stone on one of the Ghosts (I'm not sure how that would work) to even the odds.
The Elf evens the odds considerable more when she pulls off a Trick Shot that vaporises the Ghost.
In the Overlord's turn, I send the final Ghost to start chipping wounds off the Wizard, but his Shield defence actually manages to repel my attack.
Wasting no time on the already-opened rooms (even though I have yet to open a chest), the Barbarian cracks apart the final door to reveal the third chest and a roomful of zombies.
The Dwarf gets to the chest in his room and breaks it open - no exit route, but a Haste potion that he immediately quaffs to get him back into the ConTroll room.
I score a couple of Overlord Interrupts, which allows me to push all the zombies towards the rooms bottleneck - although they are a bit stuck there with the Barbarian guarding the exit.
The Wizard manages to Burn the second Ghost, then get himself to the second chest and open it up. Still no way out, but a couple of potions, so he makes the return journey to the ConTroll Room (or at least to get in range of some spells).
The Heroes make short work of the blocking Zombies: with magic, arrows and axes, the path is cleared for the Dwarf to shrug off any blows and make a bee-line for the final chest.
He gets there and ... whiffs the attack.
So I spend the next turn knocking off the final Zombie while the Barbarian enters the room and opens up the chest.
The chest reveals a set of stairs leading down - and we're outta here!
I'm not sure what this proves about this particular mission - maybe a 20% success rate does show it to be a little random. It felt like the spinning rooms were tactically favouring the heroes for once - although that might be because I knew they were coming and planned accordingly.
As the heroes, I managed to get them operating well as a team - which I think is the key to this dungeon in particular - although I do think that bickering and glory-hogging are far more characterful, fun and realistic aspects of team play.
The heroes certainly rocked the mission (on only the fifth time of asking) - not only for speed and efficiency, but the party ended up having taken only a single wound (on the Dwarf of all people). Again, this may be a fluke of everything rolling my way, which cut down on the poor Overlord's options.
For the Overlord, I'm not sure I could have done anything wildly different: the cards in my hand didn't favour me (I hadn't appreciated how difficult it can be to play the Overlord - though Kraken does project an air of evil omniscience). What you really miss is when to play your surprises - notably interrupts - and being able to target the weaker characters.
Generally, AI play is passable, but having the heroes know the dungeon layout in advance does take the exploration fun out of it (I guess that's where the random dungeon cards come in). It probably works better for a improvised dungeon, rather than one of the set missions.
But the important thing is: this damn mission can be put to rest. Our real campaign is skipping over it, and I've put my mind at rest that is can actually be beaten.
(although I have to confess: now it's done, it may be the most fun mission we've played so far)
A new mission is coming up soon - if you've made it this far down the post, thanks for sticking it out. It may have been a long haul, but at least you didn't have to play the same bleedin' dungeon five times over!
However, the completionist in me couldn't resist the chance to have one more swing at this Sisyphean quest. In the absence of any comrades, I could also try out the much-vaunted AI Rules for solo play.
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| Sunday, Monday .. happy days. |
Let's find out if the real problem with this level ... was other people.
Attempt 4: I'm Going In Alone
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| Here we go again, again. |
Right, no messing about. I charge the Dwarf into the first corridor and throw his shoulder against the door. It resists his efforts and the Barbarian comes along to spare his blushes. The Elf dashes into the junction, while the Wizard nudges the Dwarf in after him with a Brisk Work.
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| For ease of spinning, I placed the junction on a larger board tile |
In between every hero's turn, I'm flipping Overlord AI cards to see if he - that is, me - will Interrupt the action. For the most part, I don't - although in the Overlord's turn I thrown down some more bone piles, just to make the corridors even more crowded.
(although there seem to be far fewer Raise Dead cards than I would have expected - most of these Overlord Command cards can't do diddly squat)
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| Pictured; diddly squat |
The first spin of the corridors cut off the Wizard and Barbarian, while opening up the Revenant Room to the Dwarf and Elf.
The Wizard begins by opening the warded door and Corroding the Revenant, allowing the Dwarf to smash him to bones. The Elf picks off the Skeleton Archer and the Barbarian charges in to back up the attack. He whiffs against the second Revenant, but things are looking good so far.
The next spin of the corridor opens up the famous ConTroll Room, and once again traps the Wizard behind a door he can't realistically open.
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| Revealed: Tweedledum and Tweedledumber |
I decide to play it cool: wiping out the last Dwarf Revenant with the fighters; sitting tight and recharging the Wizard's powers; shooting a pointless arrow at one of the Zombie Trolls.
The rooms spin again, finally allowing the Wizard to get moving - he dashes to the only Warded door, Shields himself and Corrode hexes the nearest Zombie Troll.
The Dwarf can't reach the ConTroll Room, but does jog into the junction. The Barbarian has longer strides and charges right into the hexed Zombie Troll, chopping him down for a couple of wounds (though he regenerates one).
The Elf also ducks into a quiet corner of the ConTroll Room and fires off another arrow that gets regenerated.
And then it's the Overlord's turn again (you may observe from the bone piles that stubbornly litter the dungeon that I was still drawing blanks for Raise Dead). The hexed Zombie Troll smashes a wound off the Barbarian, while his fellow Troll storms up to intercept both the Elf and Barbarian.
... and with a rear attack and an outnumbering, the Barbarian actually looks the more tempting target. Sure enough, another wound off him, and I'm starting to get concerned (since this game is not really part of our campaign, I didn't carry across any of the group's useful potions)
The next spin opens up the Armoured Zombie room and puts the Barbarian further away from help.
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| "Get to da choppa!" |
Rather than try and unite the group, I send the Dwarf off to deal with the Armoured Zombies, and hope the Barbarian can hold out.
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| Lone Dwarf! This always works! |
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| "I regret nothing! Except everything I just did!" |
Poor Orlaf can't withstand the onslaught, and by the time the Overlord takes his turn, he's reduced to a pile of dungeon gristle.
Game Over!
Okay, so that was a practice. My obvious and many errors aside, I've never played the Barbarian before, so hadn't appreciated that he has all the durability of a water balloon.Fifth time lucky, I'm going for a re-rack and let's conquer this dungeon!
I'm also chucking the Overlord AI cards - as not really worth the time expended. As long as you're playing both sides fairly (and why wouldn't you?), you don't need to refer to the Threat Recognition chart. The only real surprise factor an Overlord can bring is when he chooses to Interrupt - and as one-quarter of the AI deck is an Interrupt, a simple D4 roll after each hero's turn can solve that.
Attempt 5: For Real This Time
We start. We're in. That door is MATCHWOOD! Go team!
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| I have often walked down this street before... |
As before, the first spin of the corridor reveals the Dwarf Revenant room (and the Dwarf, who ended his last turn facing backwards, is now in position to strike - see what four games' experience can do for you?)
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| "Deja vu to you too." |
The Wizard kicks off with a Burn spell that removes one of the Revenants entirely...
... and then an Interrupt! Two bone piles rise up in the starting corridor (one of which risks a Free Strike from the Elf, but weathers it easily)
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| Well, it was worth a shot. |
Having to deal with the two newcomers muddles up our heroes slightly - the Elf and Barbarian swap opponents and deal with them efficiently, but ends up with the Elf in the junction and the Barbarian in the corridor.
In my actual Overlord turn, I can only try to swamp the Dwarf with skeletons, but as usual, everything bounces off the Tank.
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| The Tank got this one. |
The spinning corridors opens up the Armoured Zombie Room (and seals off the Dwarf's room, but he's not going anywhere and smashes down the weaker Skeleton Archer). The remaining three heroes try to hex, shoot and, in the Barbarian's case, charge the two zombies, but to no avail.
(and now the Barbarian's stuck in a room where the zombies can mob up on him ... ulp)
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| 'Ulp' indeed. |
It also opens out the ConTroll room, but since the lumbering brutes can't traverse the narrow junction, I'm trying something different and not worrying about them yet.
In my Overlord turn I make ineffectual attacks against the Dwarf and Barbarian, then lumber one of the Zombie Trolls forward, trying to cut off any likely exit.
It doesn't work as the next spin of the rooms frees up all the heroes, and places my Trolls in fairly useless positions.
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| Not that they can do much, until one hero is dumb enough to venture in alone. |
The Barbarian finally gets his act together and kills an Armoured Zombie.
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| Is he a CoNAN, or a Co-CAN'T? |
Not to be outdone, the Wizard uses his Focus feat cast Feet of Stone, then Burn on the nearest Zombie Troll. The Elf follows up with a Hail of Arrows that takes him down!
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| Shooting from the safety of the junction. It all seems so simple now. |
In the Overlord turn, I resurrect the pile of bones to outnumber the Dwarf - and promptly get it smashed up. The Armoured Zombie loses momentum against the Barbarian and the surviving Zombie Troll can only lumber forward menacingly.
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| And then lumbers sideways when the room spins. |
The junction spins to put the final closed door between my heroes and the ConTroll Room, so I call on a bit of teamwork: the Elf shoots the Revenant, freeing the Dwarf to move back into the junction and smash open the door.
The Wizard uses Brisk Work to shove the Dwarf into the big room (yep we're going there), then Flamebolts the last Armoured Zombie, to allow the Barbarian to return to the junction.
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| "We need a volunteer!" |
Without any Raise Dead cards, there's not much for the Overlord to do but march up the Zombie Troll and fail to smash the Dwarf (now that's how you block a room!)
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| He's here for a short time, not a good time. |
And then an unfortunate spin for the Overlord: the Zombie Troll now has his back to most of the party, while still facing the Dwarf. I hope they don't all rush in and take advantage...
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| Spoiler: they all rush in and take advantage. |
Between the Wizard's hexes, the Elf's arrow and the Barbarian's charge, it's all over before the Dwarf gets to swing.
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| It happened so fast, the picture got blurred. |
The Dwarf instead vents his anger on the nearest door, revealing a familiar room of Skeleton Warriors and bone piles.
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| Remember this fiasco from Attempt 3? |
As Overlord, I had now drawn a big Raise Dead card, which I put to immediate use to resurrect the whole room and sending them to intercept the doorway.
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| Ah yes, the fiasco is all coming back to me. |
(this is where a human Overlord with an Interrupt card may have leaped in - I wasn't rolling that many times on the D4)
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| Gosh, it's an easier room to clear when you actually think ahead. |
As Overlord, I take the smallest act of revenge I can, and use my last Skeleton to rear-attack the Dwarf and actually get a Wound off him!
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| Wounded the Dwarf! Pin a medal on that decaying ribcage! |
The Dwarf is able to finish off this lone Skeleton, while the Barbarian moves onto the next door and reveals the Ghost corridor.
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| I ain't afraid of no corridor. |
This corridor contains a Warded chest, and as the Wizard is thus far unwounded, I'm feeling cocky enough to send him in alone to open it. He Brisk Works himself as far as possible, then casts Feet of Stone on one of the Ghosts (I'm not sure how that would work) to even the odds.
The Elf evens the odds considerable more when she pulls off a Trick Shot that vaporises the Ghost.
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| Boxcars for the ghostie. |
In the Overlord's turn, I send the final Ghost to start chipping wounds off the Wizard, but his Shield defence actually manages to repel my attack.
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| Oh come on! Not even the Wizard? |
Wasting no time on the already-opened rooms (even though I have yet to open a chest), the Barbarian cracks apart the final door to reveal the third chest and a roomful of zombies.
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| Aha! And thus I launch my surprise attack of ... four zombies. |
The Dwarf gets to the chest in his room and breaks it open - no exit route, but a Haste potion that he immediately quaffs to get him back into the ConTroll room.
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| "I'd hate to think you had to face all four of those zombies without me." |
I score a couple of Overlord Interrupts, which allows me to push all the zombies towards the rooms bottleneck - although they are a bit stuck there with the Barbarian guarding the exit.
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| Oh no. They're swarming. Help. |
The Wizard manages to Burn the second Ghost, then get himself to the second chest and open it up. Still no way out, but a couple of potions, so he makes the return journey to the ConTroll Room (or at least to get in range of some spells).
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| Basically just chillin' |
The Heroes make short work of the blocking Zombies: with magic, arrows and axes, the path is cleared for the Dwarf to shrug off any blows and make a bee-line for the final chest.
He gets there and ... whiffs the attack.
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| Chest typical. |
The chest reveals a set of stairs leading down - and we're outta here!
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| Oh yeah. |
Back at the Tavern - raise the mead horns in triumph!
I did it - and with four Overlord cards to spare, which is actually within the Timed Task limits too. |
| Quadruple fist pump. |
I'm not sure what this proves about this particular mission - maybe a 20% success rate does show it to be a little random. It felt like the spinning rooms were tactically favouring the heroes for once - although that might be because I knew they were coming and planned accordingly.
As the heroes, I managed to get them operating well as a team - which I think is the key to this dungeon in particular - although I do think that bickering and glory-hogging are far more characterful, fun and realistic aspects of team play.
The heroes certainly rocked the mission (on only the fifth time of asking) - not only for speed and efficiency, but the party ended up having taken only a single wound (on the Dwarf of all people). Again, this may be a fluke of everything rolling my way, which cut down on the poor Overlord's options.
For the Overlord, I'm not sure I could have done anything wildly different: the cards in my hand didn't favour me (I hadn't appreciated how difficult it can be to play the Overlord - though Kraken does project an air of evil omniscience). What you really miss is when to play your surprises - notably interrupts - and being able to target the weaker characters.
Generally, AI play is passable, but having the heroes know the dungeon layout in advance does take the exploration fun out of it (I guess that's where the random dungeon cards come in). It probably works better for a improvised dungeon, rather than one of the set missions.
But the important thing is: this damn mission can be put to rest. Our real campaign is skipping over it, and I've put my mind at rest that is can actually be beaten.
(although I have to confess: now it's done, it may be the most fun mission we've played so far)
A new mission is coming up soon - if you've made it this far down the post, thanks for sticking it out. It may have been a long haul, but at least you didn't have to play the same bleedin' dungeon five times over!
Evil Omniscience is definitely my shctick. I'm glad I project it convincingly.
ReplyDeleteNicely done on attempt five. Or was it six? Ask yourself, punk.
Maybe we'll try this one again when we've retired...
ReplyDelete