The Mutiny

[AS223]

 

 

 

We’ve played the scenario several times, and it seems virtually impossible for the Overlord to win if all heroes focus on killing Zaporavo in the first round.

Each hero can reach him immediately, and if they commit their full power, there’s a high likelihood he’ll be defeated before the Overlord has any real opportunity to respond (aside from Guard reactions).

 

From that point on, the Overlord is left with two dead tiles in the river, and the heroes no longer need to go upstairs. As a result, the ballistas become irrelevant, since they can’t descend the stairs due to their bases being too large.

 

Are we missing something, or is this working as intended?

[MeanBone]

I assume the idea is indeed that old Zaporavo is supposed to get whacked pretty quickly in this one, but are you remembering to pay the point of movement on EACH stairway zone? For example, it costs one point to move onto the stairs zone on the deck board, and then an additional movement point to move from there onto the stairs zone on the hold board.

 

So yes, it's possible for Conan to reach Zaporavo on the first turn, by spending his maximum 4 gems for movement including hindrance penalties (or 2 or 3 if he gets some help clearing a path), but Hadrathus cannot reach him in one turn. Shevatas could get there also, and the two of them can kill Zaporavo pretty quickly with decent dice rolls, but it will probably take most or all of their remaining gems to do it if the Overlord spends on Guard and rolls OK. So they will need to spend the next turn resting and then find and free 4 slaves over the 5 remaining turns while fighting through pirates that can keep reinforcing. Since 5 of the 11 slave tokens are decoys, and the Overlord player can choose at the start where to place the real ones, it would make sense for the Overlord to place the real ones as far from Zaporavo as possible. Also, remember the Overlord can dredge the dead Zaporavo tiles by sacrificing gems to get those tiles out of the way.

 

If you still find the mission is too easy for the Heroes, perhaps change the required number of freed slaves to 5 instead of 4 (in addition to killing Zaporavo). This would require a trip back up to the deck if the Overlord makes both of those tokens on the deck real and not decoys. Another option would be to keep the requirement at 4 but to move one of the 9 tokens in the hold up to the deck.

Edited May 25, 2025 by MeanBone

[AS223]

Thanks for this detailed answer! 
yes the heroes will be out of gems after this move. But the overlord can not do much in his first turn, because the two blue pirates have to be killed to avoid hindering in the first turn and at least one archer. 
If Zaporavo got killed the river is snnot looking good with the blue pirates at position 1 and zaporavo at position 3. three of the remaining archers and the red pirates could try to fight the heroes under deck. That would be 6 gems, if they are still available - that means Zaporavo didnt guard.