The Sunken Crypt

[Sup3rS0n1c]

Here's the last one:

Spoiler Alert!

The heroes all have moved into position. Tandros moves past the trigger spaces, releases Raelin, and returns.

New Round, Hero Initiative. Tandros moves and takes out a Grut.

The Arrow Gruts advance, attempting to wound Tandros but failing.

Kaemon Awa fells two Arrow Gruts.

Grimnak and the Blade Gruts move in, Chomping and using every attack they have, but still fail.

Theracus, carrying Erevan, moves toward Grimnak and deals three wounds.

Krug and the last Arrow Grut attack Erevan, but to no avail.

New round, Hero Initiative (yes, again ). Erevan makes three amazing four-dice rolls, and deals a whopping seven wounds to Krug.

However, Krug, with his ten attack dice, completely destroys Erevan's two defense.

Kaemon repays the favor and destroys Grimnak and a Blade Grut.

The two remaining Blade Gruts attack, one falling to Counterstrike and the other whiffing.

Kaemon Awa destorys the 1-life-left Krug and another Blade Grut.

New round, Hero Initiative (I dunno, it just happens. >.<) Kaemon Awa eliminates two Heavy Gruts.

The Heavy Gruts and Tornak rush Kaemon but don't even phase him.

Kaemon destroys the remaining Heavy Gruts.

As the only remaining order markers were on the Heavy Gruts, Kaemon attacks again, destroying Tornak and the stray ARrow Grut, winning the campaign for the heroes.

Very fun scenario, would definitely play it again. I have to say, though, this has definitely spurred in me a love of Kaemon Awa. He has officially become my new favorite Unique Hero.

Edit, to XnFM: Yeah, there's not really as much of a worry about overhangs in this, but if I do anything with overhangs again, I'll keep it in mind.

[Spectre007]

I just built the map in my basement for the guys come over later tonight. I'm really excited to try this adventure out.

Really well thought out scenario. I'll post back my thoughts after we get through it.

[Sup3rS0n1c]

I played it three players tonight. I was the enemy, versus the same figures (only they had an extra set of order markers). Really, I was on a roll with dice the entire time, though they breezed somewhat easily through the first three rooms. However, it went downhill for the heroes; heck, straight off of a cliff; when it got to the last room. I think that it should be toned down just a bit; maybe remove the Heavy Gruts? They were what really sealed the victory for me.

Well, besides Krug, but without him, the Arrow Gruts are worthless, aren't they? ^_^

[BadBird]

I also built this map this afternoon. I haven't played it yet but Scott I have to say you are genius, this is a very well laid out map. Its top notch, very well planned out A++.

How much work did you put into the final version of this map? I've played around with building some complex layered maps but they always need tons of tweaking and always seem somewhat chaotic in structure in the end. This map has a certain feel, feels... feels right.

[SgtHulka]

My son got up early yesterday and starting building this. Then he went to a birthday party and when he got back we finished building it. I found it to be a very challenging map to build. I mostly used base tiles for the "pink" sections instead of snow/lava/concrete/asphalt in order to try and keep the sides a uniform color. But I've only got two masterset ones and a big brick of assorted base tiles I bought off ebay. So by the second half of the map I was running out of colored tiles and having to unbuild back several levels to get the right color and substitute it. My recommendation is, before you start, set aside all the colored tiles you need, and then don't touch that pile for "pink" tiles. If I remember correctly at the end of the build instructions is a list of all the colored tiles you need.

Additionally, I found of the overhangs challenging to figure out, as well as a few of the 24-section roof/floor sections. I don't build a ton of custom maps, bit of a noob at it, so your milage may very. But I'd rank the map as "challenging" to build. It's a lot more like building a lego model than your typical map. For my son, building maps is his favorite part of the game, so this wasn't a problem or anything...just pointing it out. Also, at the end of the day, the map is REALLY well designed and relatively STURDY considering its intricacy.

So we finished the map, had dinner, and started playing. My son played the monsters against my daughter and I. My daughter chose Raelin, Ana, and Onatashi. I know Raelin is technically not allowed, but she's my daughter's favorite character and what can I say it pays to be daddy's little girl. I chose Kaemon Awa and Thorgrim.

My son placed Onatashi between the spiders. My daughter put her first two order markers on Onatashi, hoping that she'd win initiative and use phantom walk to escape. Unfortunately, she lost initiative, got webbed, and then quickly got killed by the spiders in the first turn. To make matters worse, both Raelin and Ana kept wiffing their defense dice against the Granite Guardians. By the end of round three, the forest guardians were all dead and the remaining heroes were inside the Crypt. Unfortunately, both Raelin and Anna had 3 wounds.

The next encounter was Sudema's Tomb. Ana set up on that high pillar area next to the stairs. Thorgrim and Raelin took point. The hope was that Raelin would win initiative and immediately fly to one of the Glyphs. Unfortunately, once again, both her players lost initiative.

The Bleakwood Shades rushed Thorgrim and Raelin, putting a wound on Thorgrim. Raelin activated, hoping to get healed enough to risk flying and disengaging. She didn't get healed (Ana's healing never worked in this game) so she attacked instead, and wiffed. Thorgrim wiffed as well. So it was the Shades' turn. And they sould devoured Raelin!

Now my poor daughter had lost two of her three heroes. But to make matters worse, Raelin's aura was powering the remaining two Shades of Bleakwood. Ana had the next order marker, and had originally planned to start turning undead, but instead use her height advantage to kill her friend Raelin.

From that point forward, between Ana's turn undead and Kaeman Awa's, well, awesomeness, the heroes made short work of the Shades and Sudema. Fortunately we took down Sudema fast enough that her stare of stone didn't work. But the damage was already done.

I couldn't leave my daughter with just one heroine, so I resolved to use the potion of resurrection on her. Originally I resurrected Raelin. But my son pointed out, after a careful reading of the rules, that HE would keep Raelin since he controlled her when she died. I agreed with that interpretation and we resurrected Onatashi, instead.

We got the Chest of Brandar and the Potion of Healing. Ana used the Potion of Healing to remove her three wounds, and now we've headed down the ladder to do battle with Khosumet and his friends. I have to say, it's looking pretty grim for the heroes. We'll probably finish the game today; I'll post the results.

Sorry, no pictures, not as pretty and exciting as supersonic's report.

[Spectre007]

Finally had a chance to play through the adventure. Great Job!! It definitely feels like a dungeon crawl.

A quick synopsis of how the game went. I played through as the defender. My wife/sister in law played as the Heroes.
The heroes consisted of:

Migol Ironwill
Finn the Viking Champion
Otonashi

Tandros Kreel
Kyntela Gwyn
Darrak Ambershard

The Granite Gargoyles right off the bat dealt 4 wounds to Tandros. The spiders each dealt a wound to Darrak Ambershard and Migol before they were slain. By the end of the 3rd round, Poor Migol was the only one who couldn't make it through the door before it sealed shut.

When the heroes encountered the shades/Sudema, Tandros rushed forward and dropped ones of the shades. This allowed him to move around and grab the potion treasure which in turn healed him 3 wounds. Otonashi went straight for Sudema dealing her 2 wounds. Darrak rushed in to grab the other treasure but could not kill a shade. Sudema in retaliation for the attack turned Darrak to stone before falling herself to Otonashi. Tandros revived Darrak using the vial of revival and together eliminated the remaining shades.

Theracus immediately encountered the party attempting to deal as much damage before being saved or killed. Otonashi immediately charged Khosumet along with Tandros who dealt 2 wounds to Khosumet. With the wounds already dealt, Otonashi slaid Khosumet releasing Theracus. The Anubian Wolves turned and killed Theracus in one swipe. Otonashi attempted to disable the trap on the treasure and failed, instantly teleporting himself to the Orcs.

Otonashi immediately jumped on the ice releasing the Dzu-Teh followed by Krug who was busy grinding his axe. The next round has Otonashi crushed from a sharpened axe. The orcs setup a defensive perimeter waiting for something to burst out from the shadows. Meanwhile the heroes hunted/killed the remaining wolves not before losing Tandros to their Fury. Kyntela and Darrak with the defenisve treasure in hand cautiously enter the orc cave.

The Dzu-Teh charged Krug and died to his rage after dealing him 5 damage. Darrak immediately charges to release Raelin. The Arrow Gruts, Krug and Heavy Gruts are waiting and make short work of Raelin. Tornak charges Kyntela Gwyn and shows her who's boss. Darrak manages to take out of a couple of Heavy Gruits before the forces overwhelm him.

Finally, Finn faces off with Tornak backed by Heavy Grut support and is unable to slay the beast. The orcs sound off their glory!

Overall we really enjoyed the scenario and learned that the attackers must really organize their forces. Every wound taken hurts and really has an affect on the outcome. I definately agree with Sup3rS0n1c that the final room is a bit overpowered. My suggestion for the Orc army would be: Grimnak, 2x Blade Gruts, 2x Arrow Gruts and a Troll.

Krug is way too overpowered for this as the heroes will most likely have several wounds on them.

Now we may not have played the scenario properly as the rules aren't quite clear on the transition stages between areas. I was wondering how everyone else played that. I set out markers showing the tiles where the trigger spots are. This allowed the attackers to setup their figures just before they triggered the new encounter. Do you guys show where they are or only tell them once they've walked on it.

Also, once a trigger is activated, this activates the defender for that encounter. In that case, does the defender have the new army available to use plus the remainder of the prior armies? This keeps the heroes from just running through however could cause the heroes to be taken from both sides.

If the trap is triggered in the 3rd area that teleports the figure to the orc cave, I understand that it activates the 4th area. Does this in turn makes the orcs, Raelin, the Dzu-Teh available to play in addition to the rest of the armies?

What hero combinations do you think would stand a chance against the scenario.

My ideal hero combination would be: Kaemon Awa & Erevan Sunshadow for ranged support. Darrak Ambershard and Master Win Chiu Woo for melee.

[Sup3rS0n1c]

Well, considering the setup of this scenario, Kaemon Awa is almost impossible to go without. His two attacks, reasonable survivability, and strong attacks make him ideal for most dungeon settings.

Anyways, though I understand the point of a huge last battle at the end, I think that it is definitely important to tone it down some. I like Spectre's idea, though only one squad of Blade Gruts may do just fine, and be more doable for the heroes.

[Scott]

I'm at gaming convention, so I don't have time to respond in full - but I will tomorrow. Clearly, I'm very excited and happy with all the responses and play The Sunken Crypt is getting. Way too cool!

[SgtHulka]

...and I would like to be the first to welcome our new robot overlords.

Here's a recap of our last two encounters. As a reminder, we descended the ladders down to Khosumet's realm with Kaeman Awa and Thorgrimm on one team, and Onatashi and Ana on the other. Thorgrimm had one wound, and he stepped onto the yellow activation space.

The heroes won initiative. Onatashi had the first order marker and took high ground, with Thorgrim charging the wolves in an attempt to engage them and prevent them from raising the alarm (I was using Wolves of Badru instead of Anubian Wolves). The Dumetef guard surprised the heroes by activating first, coming around the backside, and attacking Onatashi. One of his bases was on a road hex so he had a 5 attack and killed Oni (her second death). Unfortunately, Oni had the next order marker, so that one was burned. Then Kaeman Awa moved in and killed the Dumeteff.

Now the wolves activated, first bonding with Khosumet in another surprise maneuver to warn the orcs. Kaeman chased after him but didn't catch up. The next turn Khosumet hit the yellow space, the round immediately ended, and the Orcs were aware.

The next round Khosumet rushed Kaeman, who was now on high ground with a 5 defense. He counter-striked and killed Khosumet, freeing Theracus. Then a wolf of Badru pounced on Thorgrimm and killed him. Thorgrimm's warrior spirit inspired Kaeman, who subsequently killed the wolf. By this time the wolves were cleared out and, though, aware, the Orcs hadn't really made their move.

Ana rushed out and freed Raelin from her soul prison. Then the two of them jumped back on the other side of the wall, taking cover from arrow gruts, while Kaeman took point with his bow. Kaeman rained death on the approaching orcs, dropping both Grimnak and Tornak, until Krug arrived. Krug's first attack was counter-striked for 4 damage. But against Krug's second attack (now at 6 dice) Kaeman wiffed and was killed. From that point forward things went south fast. Raelin, Ana and Theracus tried to make a stand, gaining the high ground on Krug. While Krug and his blade grut friends killed Ana, Raelin tried to grab a glyph. Sadly, it was trapped and Raelin took a wound. Finally she grabbed the +1 attack rune and, with high ground, tried to take down the wounded Krug from high ground (5 attack versus 3 defense). The dice weren't with her and Krug took first her, and then Theracus, to the underworld. The heroes had failed.

Really fun scenario, thanks so much for building it, Scott. As others have mentioned, Krug may well be too much. On the other hand, the heroes had some really bad luck in this game, and all the way until the second Raelin was killed they had a chance to squeak out a win. So I'm not ready to declare it unbalanced. But I also don't think it's easier on the heroes then it is on the monsters.

Also there were some pretty bush league mistakes we (the heroes) made. We didn't realize we could have used Brandar's Chest to free the first Raelin when she was soul devoured. We might have been able to save her if we had. And the Raelin/Ana/Onatashi team just wasn't very strong.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Sup3rS0n1c

I have to say, though, this has definitely spurred in me a love of Kaemon Awa. He has officially become my new favorite Unique Hero.

I didn't get a chance to playtest with Kaemon Awa, but I can see how he would rock. The big champs in our playtests were Migol Ironwill (almost unkillable!) and Sonlen (until he got chomped!).

Originally Posted by Sup3rS0n1c

Well, besides Krug, but without him, the Arrow Gruts are worthless, aren't they? ^_^

Pretty much - unless you want to use Mimring instead of Krug

And thanks again, Sup3rS0n1c, for the awesome photo-play reports! I was very excited to see Tandros risk the falling damage to get the drop on the Dungeon Crew.

Originally Posted by BadBird

How much work did you put into the final version of this map? I've played around with building some complex layered maps but they always need tons of tweaking and always seem somewhat chaotic in structure in the end. This map has a certain feel, feels... feels right.

Thanks!!! I built the top half of the map trying to figure out how much I could sink a castle into the terrain. After a few attempts (two hours?), I got it right and Virtualscaped it. This is where I actually learned how to use Virtualscape, so that took a lot longer than it would take me now. Then I added the bottom level in VS and tweaked which terrain types would be visible and where. Then I rebuilt the whole thing from scratch using the VS instructions, tweaking a few things in the process (including the ladder supports). Finally, I went back in and changed all the unseen terrain for pink tiles. All in all, it took about a week of my free time for the build parts.

Originally Posted by SgtHulka

My recommendation is, before you start, set aside all the colored tiles you need, and then don't touch that pile for "pink" tiles. If I remember correctly at the end of the build instructions is a list of all the colored tiles you need.

Good tip, I'm adding that to the revised version. Thanks!

Originally Posted by SgtHulka

Originally I resurrected Raelin. But my son pointed out, after a careful reading of the rules, that HE would keep Raelin since he controlled her when she died.

Sorry, that wasn't my intent. I'm making the following change to the Resurrection entry on the first page: "...that unit still belongs to the player that started the campaign with it."

Originally Posted by Spectre007

Poor Migol was the only one who couldn't make it through the door before it sealed shut.

Yikes! Clearly that had a big impact on how the rest of your game went, but it's awesome to see scenario things that didn't happen in our playtests go off. It's very cool that the heroes soldiered on without Migol, that's a big hit.

Originally Posted by Spectre007

Otonashi attempted to disable the trap on the treasure and failed, instantly teleporting himself to the Orcs...Otonashi immediately jumped on the ice releasing the Dzu-Teh

That's fantastic! Considering that Darrak with his trap abilities was in the other Hero Player army, this is a great example of the players competing for the treasures. And then Otonashi turns certain doom into an advantage by winning initiative and using movement abilities...totally surprising and exciting!

Originally Posted by Spectre007

I set out markers showing the tiles where the trigger spots are. This allowed the attackers to setup their figures just before they triggered the new encounter. Do you guys show where they are or only tell them once they've walked on it.

There definitely shouldn't be "secrets" in this scenario. I'll make that clear in the revision. Setting out trigger space markers (you could use Marvel glyphs symbol-side up it you have enough) is a great idea!

Also, there's a difference between Adventure Area 2's Trigger Spaces and those in Adventures Areas 3 and 4. I'm not sure from reading the battle report if everyone's picking up on that. I'll work on that in the revision, but basically in the latter two areas the round doesn't end until the end of the current player's turn so they can still move and possibly attack with the current unit after they've crossed a Trigger Space.

Originally Posted by Spectre007

In that case, does the defender have the new army available to use plus the remainder of the prior armies? ...

If the trap is triggered in the 3rd area that teleports the figure to the orc cave, I understand that it activates the 4th area. Does this in turn makes the orcs, Raelin, the Dzu-Teh available to play in addition to the rest of the armies?

Yes and yes - the more the merrier! Of course you start getting into OM management issues on all sides so the new units could be as much a hindrance as an advantage.

Originally Posted by SgtHulka

So I'm not ready to declare it unbalanced. But I also don't think it's easier on the heroes then it is on the monsters.

That's where I'm at right now too. My first playtest was way too easy for the heroes and in subsequent runs I tweaked it down until I thought the Enemy Player would win between 30% and 50% of the time. The Heroes getting to act twice as often is still a big advantage if they coordinate well, but all this independent play is a better determinent of how difficult it really is.

So I'm going to change the difficulty words in the revision. Ultimately, it's a dungeon crawl and not a balanced tournament map, so the fun is more important to me and it sure seems like everyone is having fun! I based the difficulty on the D&D Master Set's Campaign Scenario where my eight-year-old had to play most of the rooms twice before he won through and he didn't beat the final room even with a full crew on the second attempt. Compared to that, The Sunken Crypt is still a bit easier, I think, but there's not the history to go off of as there would be with a BoV type map/scenario.

Compared to The Sunken Crypt, what difficult would you assign the D&D Master Set Campaign Scenario?

[Scott]

FYI - Revised file uploaded to both locations. Thanks again for all the feedback! This is a pretty minor revision, just with the things I mentioned in the post above.

[SgtHulka]

Originally Posted by Scott

Compared to The Sunken Crypt, what difficult would you assign the D&D Master Set Campaign Scenario?

I've only played each scenario once, but I'd rank them about even. I thought the heroes would cake walk it, since they have twice the order markers, but in practice that's at least partially off-set by the monster player's use of bonding heroes and squads and Krug's double attack.

My take on heroes:

Kaeman Awa: Kaeman Awa is really good in this scenario, because of his double attack and because ranges are so short (it's very easy to get within his 4 special attack range). But he's also got a glass jaw (only four life). That wouldn't be so bad if you could team him with Ana, but he's too expensive to have both Ana and Kaeman on your team. And if Ana's on the other team, she can't heal Kaeman. I liked Kaeman + Thorgrimm because it gave Kaeman 5 base defense with counterstrike. If I was the monster player, I'd probably try to put as many wounds on Kaeman as possible with the Granite Guardians. That's easier said then done, of course, but every wound counts and they're the only figures until the end that have a ranged attack and therefore won't risk getting counterstriked.

Ana: I found Ana to be very ineffective. Her Protection from Evil aura and Healing word only effect "figures you control". That means she's no help at all to your ally. And at 100 points there aren't too many high-life figures you can team up with her to take advantage of healing word. The one exception might be Ana + Sir Denrick. I should think Sir Denrik's giant killer and extra attack die against disengaging figures would really help him tie down Krug.

I should think that Spectre007's team of Migol and Finn would be really effective, pumping Migol's attack to 3 with deadly strike. And like Thorgrimm, losing Finn's not such a bad thing because you just stick his spirit on Migol. And Migol looks like he would be the perfect Krug killer with his one shield defense. Too bad in Spectre's game he didn't make it through the door in time.

I'd also be interested to see how Moriko+Kumiko+Otanashi would do. Moriko and Kumiko both have multiple attacks per order marker, just like Kaeman Awa, and I could see ghost walk really helping out since glyph-grabbing is pretty important in this scenario.