Ok so the overlord preview is up.  Good information and lots of cards.  Discuss.

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp

Interesting stuff.

First of all, turn summary cards, yummy.  Now I don't have to keep creating and uploading turn summary cards (i have one for the first edition if needed).

Overlord cards

For the Cataclysm Campaign in the 1st edition, I had a lot of fun seeing the heroes sweat over the time pressure of losing conquest tokens, so it will be interesting to see what keeps heroes from dilly dallying in the 2nd ed.

I really like the idea of the customization, especially if heroes use the same strategy over and over (Bogran shielding or breach and clear blast spamming).

Monster cards

Monster ability rules on the cards, even more yummy!  Now I don't have to create any monster ability summary-- you know the drill.

The group number looks like it will balance the difficulty between 2 and 4 heroes.  Despite a monster being stronger in the 1st ed, that extra hero getting that extra attack appeared easier for the heroes, and I had listed how many monsters would appear based on the number of players in Cataclysm JotD.

Traits seem neat as well, since each quest can have a theme or similar monsters, and might mean that heroes have to change their gameplay to suit the situation than what they are used to and learn something new.

It's looking like not all the quests will be find named boss and kill them, if the barely readable quest in the preview is anything to go by. Plus the OL is guaranteed spawns every turn the heroes can not prevent that will get to act before the heroes do, so that should keep some pressure up.

 It looks like my wife will enjoy playing the overlord even more now thanks to the customization options.

The most important piece of information gleaned from this, that the converted first edition cards are indeed integrated into second edition quest content.

I thought they may be very limited, but the preview shows us how easily they can interract with Second edition.

I am more excited now than I initially was.

Is it July yet?

Is it?

Is it!!?

At first I didn't know how this would work, but after looking over the latest OL preview it is all starting to make sense.  Now I just want to see how they categorized all of the enemy units.  From the few they showed they kinda make sense, but I would argue that some of them can fit into more categories then just two.  Maybe down the road they might have one that would be able to be played in all types. 

The one thing that really stuck out in my mind was the updated sorcerers card.  It has a feat type move just like the heroes and it is named summon.  From the little that I was able to make out on the card behind the sorcerers card it states something on the lines of:  Choosing a monster to summon in an empty space.  That is a cool ability that I did not see coming from a unit like him.  Our OL hated using the sorcerers before since he has the worst luck with them, but maybe this will redeem themselves. 

I am still not clear on how the OL wins against the heroes.  Right now it looks like to me that if the heroes don't finish the objectives they lose.  More of a RPG vibe then the first edition.  I hope that the next preview will be more clear cut on the winning and losing conditions of the game.  Otherwise, I have no clue what next weeks preview will look like.  Any ideas? 

I am also impressed with them for releasing a new updated hero card from the first edition on their facebook page every week.  At least they give us some power with our votes.  Granted the one I voted for came in second.  Hopefully this week my vote for Ispher will help him win. 

kerred said:

Dilly-dallying in what way?

OL CARDS

 Somewhat, i was stuned with the "overloard draw one card at the start of his turn" but when i look closly on some cards, there are mechanic "hero resists your card, draw a new one".

I am also happy, that you can modify your deck much further then in 1E. It seems that you now make much more strategic decisions abour your deck build.

LIEUTNANTS

They are alive… weee :)

MONSTER GROUPS

Well, that is a nice move! Encounters will now have more thematic sense :)

Deleted post. Deleted post.

Deleted post. Deleted post. 

No line of site for spawning…

No Conquest points…

This ain't your Daddy's shotgun, cowboy!

I think I need clarification on what the "Monster Group Limitation" icons mean.

Does it mean the following: 2:1 ratio, 3:1 ration & 4:1 ratio. Therefor meaning: you could have 4 goblin archers with 2 heroes, 9 goblin archers with 3 heroes and 16 goblin archers with 4 heroes.

Is that right?

Kozanator said:

You could have 2 goblin archers minions with 2 heroes, 3 goblin archers minions with 3 heroes and 4 goblin archers minions with 4 heroes.

Minions are white figures.

And with each group you could have 1 master goblin archer. Red goblin archer figure.

 The group limit numbers are not ratios.  They are simply how many of each type (minion and master) you can have with a given number of heroes.

Thank you for the clarification. That sounds much better.