Finbar

Our Conan gaming group would like to recommend that the Halberd be understood to have the Reach capability *going forward*. (We realize that applying this capability retroactively, may be unbalancing, except in those scenarios which explicitly stated that it did.) By definition, a halberd is a polearm, with an average length of 5' to 6'. As Britannica puts it, "It enabled a foot soldier to contend with an armoured man on horseback; the pike head was used to keep the horseman at a distance, and the ax blade could strike a heavy cleaving blow to finish the opponent." If you've seen examples, you can appreciate why this is true. Accordingly, we would recommend that the halberd considered to have reach. Thanks for reading and considering

Thanks @Nesh-Shogta. How does this differ from the previous Book of Set, please?

This is an extremely imaginative, highly creative, and very challenging campaign. The mechanics that Ken has created for several of the scenarios are especially ingenious. I highly recommend printing or buying the maps and the other components (or proxying them) and playing this campaign.

Thank you Dan North for the work, and thank you Nesh-Shogta for bringing it to our attention.

Thank you, kindly, Nesh-Shogta for your suggestions. I hope that this has not done violence to your intentions for the scenario, and I appreciate your indulging all these questions on this thread. Appreciatively, Barry

@Roolz, Thank you for spending the time to dig that up and share it here. Thank you Nesh-Shogta and the rest on this thread for your indulgence and kindness in entertaining this question here. I hope that this has not been too out of place (next time, I will spin up a separate thread.) I hope you don't, but sometimes I encounter an OL intractable on a question, and need such source authorities. Thanks again, and kind regards, Barry

Hi @Ken Thanks for beginning with the statement of the two terms to assure we're on the same page, which we all at least are. It's just that so far he's not accepting our consensus on the interaction of the two. Yes, he's saying "a) the Sacrifice skill invalidates Circular Strike". He's adamant that unless we allow a single character (minion, esp.) the ability in the Sacrifice skill to absorb ALL the damage for a Circular Strike and protect everything behind it, we have invalidated Sacrifice. He says that makes Sacrifice "a useless skill for the OL and play balance is shot. " To reiterate to one of his quotes: " So, what you are saying is if a foot soldier stands in the way for leader/hero it still cuts through him, and still gets the leader hero. Then there is no use for sacrifice. It shaves a couple hits off a major attack." [sic] I could be persuaded to go along with the "b)" option, IF the OL (or Hero) whose character is being attacked, specified before the roll the full number of characters with Sacrifice to serve as meat shields (prespecification being a requirement) and then have Circular Strike go through them one at a time until either the strike was exhausted, or it finally cut into the initial target. This way, both Sacrifice and Circular Strike are honored, if that is to be the official ruling. Agreeing fully with your ballistics analogy, @Ken, I can't accept that Sacrifice completely vitiates Circular Strike with just one minion/character standing in the way as he asserts it must. Extending on that analogy, I'd frame it that one character can take on the full brunt of a single missle shot (spear, arrow, crossbow , bolt -- or bullet) or standard melee cut with any single-handed edged weapon, but not the equivalent of a fully automatic burst (esp. with a high caliber (50 ) machine gun that is spraying an entire mass or area. Again, I appreciate this discussion, and hope it is relevant to all. I certainly don't want to hijack a thread, yet this question has been the key to Scenario #6, the way this OL insists it be interpreted. I don't know if it's going to take an official clarification station from The Overlord forum, ex cathedra for him to be satisfied. Many thanks, Barry

@Roolz @Ken Et al: Unfortunately, our OL with the longest experience is digging in on this subject of Sacrifice. He states: Only if you want to make it easier on the heroes, which it seems some people would like to do. Take a valuable tool away from the Overlord, and make it easier for the heroes. It seems one designer supports it, I don't, as the company itself would have included it in errata. Which hasn't happen yet. So, what you are saying is if a foot soldier stands in the way for leader/hero it still cuts through him, and still gets the leader hero. Then there is no use for sacrifice. It shaves a couple hits off a major attack. It's a provision area attack, only if you get thru the first meat shield, or point of attack. Yes it is taking it away. I will agree it will greatly throw the balance in favor the heroes in situations. It will strip the Overlord the ability to protect his main boss. I would attack a guard kill them all in one sweep, no more protection, everyone else kills boss. A useless skill for the Overlord, balance in play is shot. Again, you cut threw minions first, with circular strike since they can't defend each other, leaving boss bare of any protection, making a useless skill for the minion. Boss can now be killed as you please. All other minions like bowman can't be protected, useless skill. I hold with you both, but you can see what I'm contending with. Any other thoughts? Do we need one of the authors or original designers on this? Thank you all for your time, help, and indulgence.

@Ken, @Roolz Thanks for your responses on Sacrifice. Every time this skill and its application has come up in scenarios, regardless of who was playing, the OL at the time interpreted as that *one* character with Sacrifice could absorb ALL the damage, regardless of the type of strike or attack. I, myself, have questioned that without prevailing, and you can imagine, having to kill every last single Bossonian Guard -- or whoever has that skill -- one at a time, regardless of how many hit points you can bring to bear, is well, a BEAR. 😉 And a very long, protracted battle. I also believe that it's thematic (and has verisimilitude) if a minion can sacrifice himself for a superior/retainer/henchmen, but rather fatuous to use that to protect another minion, or a whole band of them. This ain't Beau Geste 😉 Thanks, again, gents!

Also, I'm curious how everyone interprets this section: Find a secret passage : A Hero must succeed on a complex Manipulation roll (difficulty 1, without the thieves' tools or skill bonus) to determine whether or not there is a secret passage in a room. Use the secret trap token. Chests : simple Manipulation. 1 grappling hook (essential to descend into the pit). It's clear that Ageera must be killed and drop the key in the area she dies, which (not "she") opens the red door to get to the chest to get to the grappling hook to be able to descend. The question is, do the Heroes search just that room for the secret passage from that point, or any room? Cannot they not just add Manipulation dice or reroll in a room?

As @Roolz has encouraged me to share my questions with the group, here goes. (I generally keep questions with the developer private out of respect.) Once again, congratulations to Nesh-Shogta on completing such a imaginative and artistic campaign of large scope and length. By way of introduction I'm part of a group that often play tests for Ken Myri, Dan Mauric, and Matt Sullivan -- not to drop names but to give you an idea of our experience level. We are a team of retired and active military (combat soldiers) and myself, a long time combatant in martial arts, so we bring all that knowledge and experience of combat with us into the game. We have been known to surprise the designers with our all-in, combat team approach, bringing tactics like bounding overwatch into it. Sometimes we're the ones surprised, as we have been with several of the scenarios in this campaign, which we have been able to win, sometimes on replay, but only by the skin of our teeth. (We had started with the original version, have shifted to 2.1) On this latest one, 6 - Kushite Hunters, we have not yet been able to find a winnable solution for the Heroes. We've played through it twice, and walked through it a 3rd time and a 4th time, but couldn't find a convincing way to kill Ageera to get the key to open the red door. Perhaps we're missing something? We first tried evading the patrol on its initial rounds and then engaging the Kushites, but couldn't dispatch enough of the Kushites in time to get to Ageera, because three of them can bodyguard him with Sacrifice and a good set of hit points and then the patrol reappeared who all have Sacrifice, so Ageera was able to flee the quickly overwhelmed heroes (all the Bossonian Guards having Sacrifice.) We tried defeating the guard first, but because again they each have Sacrifice, they could Sacrifice for each other and no sweeping actions or multiple attacks at once would work. (Not to mention that the OL has a strong gem reserve, with an equally strong recovery rate to defend attacks.) Did you intend for them not to be able to Sacrifice for each other, as one of them at a time can absorb all the attacks into himself? There are 8 of to defeat, along with the Archers and Othryades (who’s no pushover), and regardless of which angle or vantage point we approached it from, before the Kushites emerge, the heroes were pretty spent and still haven't dispatched all the guards, archers, and Othryades. Then, again, Ghayour, Shafiah, and N'gora all have Sacrifice and a lot of hit points before Ageera can even be touched, and he can soon sprint away once any number of the guard show up with their Sacrifice, too, and the Heroes are so encumbered by the mass they can’t catch and dispatch him for the key. What are we missing in this ingeniously constructed scenario which we find way overmatched for the heroes with the number of characters with Sacrifice and the time constraints, please?

I can do that. 🙂

Nesh-Shogta, Sands of Despair is both an esthetic and imaginative creation of a campaign, impressive in its scope and scale. I've got some questions about several of the scenarios, that I'd like to PM you about if I may Best regards and best wishes for continued success, Barry

NICE! You continue to outdo yourself, Ken.

Looking forward to playtesting this one as soon as we finish The Burning Heart of Ahriman, Ken😀