I'm getting wrecked early on

[TheAntsAreBack]

Hi, I'm looking for advice about where I'm going wrong. I'm only at Approach to Thistletop and I can't seem to beat this scenario to progress. I'm using a party of four (mostly trying Fighter, Paladin,(or Cleric) Mage and Rogue), but I'm getting nowhere. I'm running out of time with usually at least two or three locations remaining open.

 

I tend to spread out initially and try and be fairly aggressive with blessings for exploration but I'm a long way from feeling like I'm processing through the adventure.

Edited September 16, 2016 by TheAntsAreBack

[RedPred]

I think we all experienced that at the beginning, when our decks are not optimal or our builds are still evolving. We have to empower our effectiveness, mostly collecting better cards and with accurate builds (more useful before stronger).

 

So, some general advice are:

- look for stronger weapons and offensive spells with more dice and recharge ability

- look for better allies with more useful bonus and recharge ability

- look for items with exploration/heal/trap abilities

- add cures spells (2 is better than 1) if you can.

 

If you are using Ezren, you probably lack Charisma.

Try to evolve every char to make him self-sufficient.

 

If your builds are good then you simply need better cards, so don't surrender and farm scenarios with a lot of weapons and spells in the most advanced AD you can. Strong decks required long time mate

[kurtalb1]

Personally, I try to permanently close two locations as fast as I can.  With two locations closed, you can spread out your party to cover the remaining locations and be able to temporarily close if you need to (encountering the villain).  

 

Losing scenarios early on is not uncommon, so try not to get too discouraged.  If defeating the scenario starts to look hopeless, I definitely focus on acquiring boons that will benefit my characters in the long run; therefore improving their decks.

[MauGibrin]

Four tips:

 

- Avoid putting a character at a location he/she will have trouble closing. If you defeat the henchman and can't close the place, this might cost you several turns.

 

- It's risky to use a blessing as an extra exploration if your character will have trouble handling whatever he/she might encounter. Most of the banes you don't defeat stay on the deck, so you will have lost a blessing while gaining no time at all...

 

- Pay attention to the blessing on the top of the blessings deck; opportune use of the appropriate blessings will improve your chances of defeating banes and will help keep your characters healthy (well, with the exception of Ezren).

 

- Scouting ahead is one of the best abilities of the game. Augury, Spyglass and the abilities of Harsk, Ilsoari and Shalelu are incredibly useful. Even Sanctuary is not as bad as it seems. Best way to beat a scenario is to locate the villain without fighting him/her, position your characters appropriately and then go prepared for the final showdown...

 

Hope that helps!

 

Mauricio

Edited September 17, 2016 by MauGibrin

[TheAntsAreBack]

Cheers for replies guys, though at the moment I'm not sure I'm any further forward. Much of the advice I've seen here and elsewhere seems to be along the lines of "close locations fast, find the boss fast, get good boons etc" but great all seems easier said than done. I'll always position pcs with an eye on the location's closing conditions but it always seems to take too long to dig the henchmen out of their decks. I'm just runing out off blessing deck.

[Slide87]

could u use some of searching cards??detect evil,spyglass,kohl of "(don't remember) may help to find villains and henchmen also,take advantage of Ezren and Seelah powers,that make possible to explore faster

[Nathan Davis]

I feel your pain. This scenario is no joke! I've had my share of failures there. It sounds like you have a good team and a solid grasp of the strategy. So I'll try to hit things that I see people miss.

 

Cycle magic armor: All magic armor has a recharge on reset power. This means that when you want to end your turn, you can hit the phase icon that looks like a trash can and move your magic armor to your deck. Super helpful for Seelah, Kyra, and Val. Careful though. Having armor when you hit the villain can save you with a bury.

 

Speaking of Cycling: You have some characters that can move through their decks fairly well if you use character powers aggressively. Meri can recharge less useful cards with Sneak Attack and Val should discard/recharge weapons most of the time. Even if you have a combat well in hand cycling through your deck can be its own reward. Similarly, sometimes it's useful for Ezren to cast spells that aren't entirely helpful just to draw cards from his deck.

 

Seelah hates boons: and that's awesome! Seelah can clear the heck out of locations that have more boons in them. This Scenario is full of banes but some locations have more boons than others.

 

Bonus - Evasion is awesome! I think with that number of characters, this scenario includes the Guard Tower. Throw Meri at it. She has a reasonable Strength for closing, but the great thing is that she doesn't care about your start of turn bandit. Evade him every time with no consequences!

 

Hope that helps!!

[TheAntsAreBack]

Thanks for the excellent advice. I spotted how Meri can evade the first Guard Tower Bandit during my last few attempts and that's helping there. I'll look closely at magic armor cycling and discarding less useful cards. I hadn't thought of that. I've been trying to conserve cards as hit points.

[MauGibrin]

Thanks for the excellent advice. I spotted how Meri can evade the first Guard Tower Bandit during my last few attempts and that's helping there. I'll look closely at magic armor cycling and discarding less useful cards. I hadn't thought of that. I've been trying to conserve cards as hit points.

Try to observe in what shape your characters usually arrive at the end of the scenarios. Characters that still have 1/2 to two hands of cards still on the deck can probably discard useless cards with no consequences. Characters that are always down to the last few cards should probably be more careful doing that. And whenever you can recharge cards of little use, don't miss the opportunity of doing so (send Valeros to meet that bandit on the Tower if he has too many weapons, for example).

 

Cheers!

 

Mauricio

Edited September 18, 2016 by MauGibrin

[Faray]

I know your past the very beginning, but did you modify your starting decks? Even the starting cards can be improved with better starting cards (For example some chars have a short sword which is just weaker than a long sword that you can get at the start) 

 

How are you doing your skill feats? I find the first early ones are best used to improve your combat stat. As for power feats it depends, but I like to get anyone with 4 cards up to a 5 card hand limit, and go from there. 

 

Some advice for who you are using: 

Fighter- If you have multiple weapons in your hand, don't be afraid to discard them during a combat check. The fighter recharges them, so you don't lose them and it allows you to cycle your deck quicker. You want to make sure you keep one in hand however. 

 

Paladin- Here power to discard a card to add 1d6 is one of the best abilities in the game. Don't be afraid to use it often, as she has a lot of blessings, and they get recharged. If you are running low on time, using her crusade ability (Examine the top card, put on bottom if boon) is a good way to catch up on time. 

 

Cleric- Cure spells are better than her power because her heal power cost you a turn (No free explore). That being said it's still better than dying. I try to balance her with some attack spells, and some cures.

 

Mage- There isn't a mage, but I'm going to guess you mean Wizard. You want to take him to places that have spells, so he can take advantage of his multiple explores. Most of his spells should be attack spells, and maybe a detect magic (Unless you get augury which is a great exploration spell) The wizard is the only person with a high int score, so going to locations with a lot of items is good as well since if there are lots of potions he can get them. 

 

Rogue- Don't be afraid to put her at dangerous locations, she can evade almost every card (There are only a few that you can't evade) Shes great in spots with a lot of barriers since most require dex and that's her specalitly. Keep her by herself, and use backstab every chance you get (another great cycling option). 

[TheAntsAreBack]

Cheers for all the excellent and helpful advice. I feel like I'm mostly doing the right things, though I'm still not past this scenario. I'll persevere (I have to - I've bought the Runelords bundle and 100 chests!), and hopefully I'll get over this roadblock soon.