Temple of the Dragon

[belgarath]

Well my wife and son mad it through this remarkably well. They even activated the swamp and zombie horde at the same time and were able to defeat them all due to some great rolls by them and some really tragic rolls by me. We had a great time playing on this map though!

[SgtHulka]

I'm glad to hear the heroes won one!

[IshMEL]

I'm looking forward to trying this -- it looks epic! I have, however, a tragic lack of Wyrmlings and Zombies for the scenario. I'm thinking of re-doing the castle theme as the home of the Esenweins in Valhalla. I'd substituting the Skeletons of A or the Shades for the graveyard portion, and change the egg clutch to something like:

Tomb of the Esenweins (same stats)

Call of the Tomb
After revealing an order marker on this Army Card, you may take a turn with any small or medium Undead Army Card you control before taking a turn with the Tomb of the Esenweins. Any figure that is taking a turn must be within 12 clear sight spaces of the Tomb prior to its movement.

Undead Rising
After taking a turn with the Tomb of the Esenweins, you may roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 13 or higher, you may choose a previously destroyed Undead Squad figure from your army. If you roll a 20, you may choose a previously destroyed Undead Hero from your army. Place the chosen figure on a space containing a Glyph of Brandar, if possible.

Esenwein's Revenge (same)

(Yes, I am bringing this thread back from the dead, appropriately. Just thought I'd share the idea. Otherwise, nothing to see here, go about your business...)

[Lyrgard]

I played this scenario twice, and it was a blast. You can find the battle report of the first game here

I made an analysis on the french forum after playing, that I didn't translated yet. Some of the keys points :

The scenario :

The map :

The map is really great ! It is large and pretty. The possibility to remove the cimetary to be able to play on the room of the nest under is genius. Only drawback, non-flying double base figure would have too much problem moving around.

The objective :

I liked the objective that allow victory, defeat or draw. Even when victory is out of grasp, every player want to fight thoot and nails to get a draw.

The rules :

- The heroes resurrection system is really well done ! It is a clever diminushing return mechanism that work really well to wither the order marker advantage of the heroes and feels really appropriate to show tiredness of the heroes. I love it. Only thing, it is not said if you can resurrect a heroes the same turn he/her died, or if you can do it 15 rounds later. In my games, I ruled that the hero must be resurrected the next round, after it is too late.

- The rules of the apparition of the GM's armies are simple. A little problem appeared, thought, a problem of cluttering. Many time, only the first hero could be attacked by the monsters, so a tough hero, with a healer behind, could easilly protect the whole party while ranged heroes kill the monsters. It is especially true for the cimetary army. If I was to replay this scenario, I would rule the the GM can decide when to make his/her armies show up (for the cemetary, let the heroes go to the middle and then make the zombies appears !). Another possibility is to use flying/ranged monsters for the GM's armies.

- The treasure glyph's trap are really cool

- It is not said if the GM have a set of order marker for all his/her armies, or a set for each. I ruled that he have a set of order marker for each army, so if the heroes run and wake up more than one army at a time, they are doomed !

- The fortress gate is too hard to destroy. You could use many boring round to destroy it. Give it some initial wound, or remove its autoshield power.

- There is no time limit, so the heroes can take their time to heal themselves between fights. It is hard to put a time limit, but I added a rule that disable healing for all rounds where the GM has not army card to put order marker on.

- In the first game I played, I forgot the rule sayong that every figures on a player army has to be from the same general. It is better to apply it, it make the armies less strong.


Armies choice :

The Heroes

Some thoughts on the heroes I used :

- Kaemon Awa : Really really strong. Can be on the front with counter strike, or attack at range. Is vulnerable to attacks that ignore defense (like the black wyrmling for instance)

- Raelin : Really, really (too) strong ! +2 defense is too much on heroes like Kaemon Awa or Tandros

- Tandros : Really good hero. Good defense, can protect more vulnerable allies, can kill two figure per turn, can attack at range ! Too good to pass !

- Kelda : Good healer, but won't do much apart from that.

- Darrak Ambershard : The best way to spend 60 points here ! He is especially good in combination with Tandros to protect him. Moreover, he can disarm glyph's trap.

- Rhogar Dragonspine : Like Tandros, a really good asset ! A front line healer, with good defense, not so bad attack, and a ranged special attack ! Really good in this sort of scenario

- Guilty Mc Creech : Cheap and efficient hero. He is frail, but if the GM attack him, it means he is not attacking your others heroes !

I think it was the most powerfull combination possible with three armies of 200 points for this scenario. It is impossible to do it i you respect the "same general rule".

I thought of the following armies for a futur run :

- Jandar
Drake v1 + Raelin v1 (190points)
Drake v1 + Kelda (190points)

- Einar
Tandros Kreel + Martial la Hire (190points)
Kaemon Awa + Martial la Hire (190points)
Ana Karithon + Crixus (190points)

- Ullar
Sonlen + Theracus (200points)
Sharwin Wildborn + Atlaga (200points)

- Aquilla
Rhogar + Myrdinn (200points)
Rhogar + Darrak + Kira Jax (200points)


GM's armies

The GM has 5 armies, one for each zone. All are of 300 points, with the last of at 500 points. Some armies has imposed figures. Here are the armies I played, with comments

- The forest : 300points, 1x wolfs of badru OR 1x Anubian wolfs imposed

2x wolfs of badru
1x Werewolf lord
1x Isamu
290 points

Cool army. The wolfs of badru can jump on weaker heroes, and the werewolf can make the heroes panick

- The cimetary : 300points, 2x zombies imposed. The zombies start on the graves, the rest of the army on the lowest part of the map (really long to climb up for non flying figures)

2x zombies
1x Phantom Knights
1x Shades of Bleakwood
290points

The shades are hard to use, especially when the player can have three turn between every GM's turn. But you really need flying figure here.

- The stairs : 300points, no imposed figure

Pelloth
Estavira
2x deepwyrm drows
320points

I choose the drow for the shaddow tiles. But in the stair, the melee fight is only on 1 figure vs 1 figure. Can be quite long and boring. So I used Pelloth to detonate the drows, but it was not so great.
The next time, I would probably put :

Cyprien
2x phantom knight

Really cool for a dark tower, and with stealth flying, they can easilly go out of the stair to attack weaker heroes.

- The nest : 300points, 3x black wyrmlin + the nest (160 points) imposed, leaving only 50 points

3x black wyrmling
Le nid
1x goblins cutter

I liked the idea to use goblin cutters as the egg's nurses Deathreavers would probably be more efficient.

- The swamp : 500points, Othkurik imposed.

Othkurik
Wo-Sa-Ga
1x marrden nagrubs
2x marro drudge
1x Deathstalkers

I wanted to used figure I don't play a lot with. The drudge are not bad in the swamp, and Wo-Sa-Ga can be dangerous for heroes. The deathstalker have a good defense to block the heroes while the drudge fire.


Conclusion :

This scenario is really well done, attractive and with a pretty map. You can play it again with different armies, or trying different strategy (for instance, trying to go the swamp road first). The traps can really change the game, too. I loved it and would definitely recommend it.

Si cela en intéresse certains, je peux proposer une traduction en français du pdf du scénario

[IshMEL]

Merci Lygard for the review and the army ideas!

I had a few thoughts on the scenario tweaks you mentioned:

Order Markers. I like the sense of urgency of bringing in more OMs with the new armies. Here's an alternate idea:

Player 1 begins the game with an extra set of Order Markers. At the beginning of the game, place one numbered Order Marker with the Graveyard, Swamp, and Staircase armies. When that area is activated, Player 1 may use that Order Marker. Player 1 cannot place two of the same numbered Order Markers on the same Army Card (or cards if Common.) If all units in that area's army have been destroyed, remove the additional Marker.

The last sentence could be removed, so Player 1 would have a full second set by the end.

As for the "healing" rounds where Player 1 is just sitting there, what about:

At the end of a round in which Player 1 could not place Order Markers, place an Impending Doom marker on the Army Card of the Egg Clutch / Tomb of the Esenweins. For each marker on that card, add 2 to Player 1's initiative roll.

So as the adventurers hang around the castle, the monsters get more impatient.

Or the Wandering Monster option:

Roll the 20-sided die. On a 16 or higher, Player 1 selects an Army Card not exceeding 100 points whose figures have been destroyed, and places those figures adjacent to any opponent's figure.

Numbers could be adjusted of course.

[Lyrgard]

As for the order marker, takes care not to give too much to the GM. The ressurection rule will make the players lose order marker already. In fact, this game is all about the GM whittling away slowy the order markers of the players. if the players loses order markers and the GM gain some, it may be too hard. What I did was to have a set of order marker by army, so the players should be very carefull not to activate two of the GM's army at the same time !!

For the healing round, I'm not fond of the init boost. If I was the player and the only drawback I had to take turn to heal was an init boost for the GM, I'll take as much turn I need to heal.
But, what about combining the two idea ? As you said, put an marker on the Esenwein tomb every turn the GM doesn't have anything to do. For every 2 (3?) marker, the GM get an additionnal order marker to use (to a max of +3).
But be sure to make the fortress door weaker, or you may gain +3 order marker by the time they manage to bring it down !

I also like the wandering monster rules.

I REALLY like your idea to make it Esenwein castle and replacing the nest by a tomb !
With how many players do you intend to play ? I didn't tried the 1 GM and 2 players version. I believe the fact that the player has only two set of order marker far outweight the increased heroes army point, and make the scenario harder. How many player to you intend to have for this game ?
Will you make a little report ? I would super like to see a photo or two of your game

I also played the The sunken crypt scenario, by Scott, and it was at least as good as this one, if not a little better even, so if you like this one, be sure to give the sunken crypt a look ! I also have a report of this scenario in french, that I began to translate. I'll post it one day on my battle report thread, so stay tuned ˆ_ˆ

[IshMEL]

So we finished this game tonight. It was the largest map I'd built and the first time playing a D&D scenario. I was, of course, Player 1 / the GM and the boys were playing 2&3:

Ullar: Sonlen, Syvarris, WoA x 1, Wood Woads x 3 (my custom)
Aquilla: Darrak, Migol, Rhogar, Axegrinders x 1

The good guys won, but I had a great time losing!

After reading the scenario, they wanted to keep the Egg Clutch theme instead of the "Tomb of the Esenweins." Some Onyx Vipers made great Black Wyrmling proxies. I decided to test some of my customs out.

We decided that Players 2 and 3 could have three full turns after destroying Player 1. After that, Player 1 could activate the next area (but not the swamp.) The biggest complaint was how long it took to get all their guys across the bridge!

My first army:
Anubian Wolves x 2, Khosumet, Shadow Hound (custom), Dumutef

Dumutef is great for holding the bridge... while he lasts. The Shadow Hound died before I really got to test him out, but I did determine that "The Shadow Hound" is really fun to say in the deepest voice possible.

Graveyard Army: Sonya, Marcu, Isamu, Skeletons x 2. I have no Zombies so I used the Skeletons instead. Unfortunately I left Sonya in range of Syvarris to shoot across the chasm and she died before my first turn. Without Necromancy the Skeletons were a quick pile of bones.

Stairs Army: Mindflayers x 2, Slave of the Ilithids x 2. Another custom test with the Slaves, who didn't get to do much other than absorb wounds for their Masters. (Or, Filet Mignon Masterminds, as Player 2 liked to put it.)

In the interest of time, we destroyed the door pretty quickly. It's boring to have them just hammer on it.

Eggs: I added Siiv as my filler. My first time playing him. He died pretty dramatically, but that was about it.

Swamp: Othkurik, Havechs x 2, Be-Zak-Sa, Havech Incinerators (both customs). This was the most fun part of the scenario, trying to prevent their escape. I might have done it too, had the Havechs not blown themselves up. Be-Zak-Sa and the Incinerators got some actual playtesting in, and they were fun and look great with the Eradicators. It was really close, despite my getting crushed in the early stages, and like any good 'Scape game it hinged on a few rolls of the dice.

A few rules things that came up:

Walking Wounded: Doesn't specify heroes. I said a Squad could be brought back this way, although I think they probably shouldn't.

Endgame: The way the scenario's written, Players 2 and 3 can use Walking Wounded to get Heroes into the start zone and win. I think like Lygard it should be restricted to the next turn after a hero is destroyed, and would also advocate for disabling this rule once the egg clutch has been destroyed, or something like that.

All in all, a great scenario! Thanks Sgt Hulka!