This might be more of a session report, but I lumped it in general due to some of the questions that I had. I finally got one of my friends to play me and we played 3 games. It took all of about 15-20 minutes to remember why I loved this game. We decided to not play with the clock (See more on this later) as it had been a while since both of us had played. I jumped out to an early lead in the first two games we played (Basically by exploiting rules...running weak characters through the Colossus and being able to room chain effectively). The 3rd game was really close, I lost 5-4 (Never leave a fireball wand unprotected and never let your opponent use two of them). Some questions popped up during the game, I think we were able to resolve them, but I figured I'd ask anyway.

Banshee...really fun to use when used well. The scream is a bit pricey at 2ap, but it's so much fun pushing people into pits. Is the scream considered a range attack or a special ability? We went with special ability (And hence, the large shield didnt protect from it).

Colossus...Solid, not as good as the Troll. Can be fun to exploit the weakness of running between his legs. He's the one guy who gives the mentalist fits.

Backstabber...amazing in group combat and fun to use in positioning so your opponent has to perform group combat

Naga...might be the best retreiver in the game. I found if you could kill him early, do it.

Mentalist...mixed feelings on this guy. He seemed really strong early and then as we learned the character, there are ways to get around him. Once again, a pretty powerful character if you can position him for solo combat only (Unless it's the Colossus, which doesnt fear the mentalist at all)

Bow...seems much better than it really was. Maybe it's the rooms in Prison (More commentary later), but it seemed really hard to get a clear LoS off at a decent range. If you are in an adjancent space next to another character, can you still use the bow or must you close combat?

Large Shield...seemed rather limited to what it protected against. We decided Banshee scream and Fireball wand are NOT ranged attacks, so the only thing it protects vs is the bow (Which is hard to use)

Telescoping Spear...we were running into the same issues with the Spear as the bow as it was hard to get a space between the attacker and defender. What is fun is attacking through the arrow slits. We had the following situation occur

(B1)(Y1)
(B2)
sp
(Y2)

Y2 has the spear and attacks B2, initiating group combat.
If Yellow wins, B1 and B2 are wounded.
If Blue wins, Y1 is wounded, Y2 is ok and the spear is broken
Is this correct?

I found the rooms to be incredibly difficult compared to the original base game (Exception being the grey rooms in the original, they are painful as well). Im not saying this is a bad thing, just more challenging. The amount of walls and traps and doors made for a much longer game than I've been used to. My only complaint is with the rooms and there is an amount of luck as to who is in them and their positioning. I found that you can "trap" characters for a good bit of time if you are able to open rooms with your opponents characters in them. This is frustrating, but I guess there is a reason why the game is called "Prison". This can also happen in the other versions of the game, but it seemed like it was easier to free characters. I think some of the weapons/items would be better suited or used more effectively in a more open dungeon than the tiles that were given. Here's to hoping the expansions make good use of all the mixing and matching. After one or two plays, the timer really should be used as this game can greatly suffer from analysis paralsis. This is twofold, length of time for the game (Out first two games were abount and hour, but there were concessions at 3 points in each, the last game took 2.5 hours not using a clock) and the feel of the game totally changes and rewards planning and quick thinking with a timer. I loook forward to running the basic scenerios and teaching some new people the game to see if they are easy to teach the entire game with, reading over them, Id have to say yes. There better be expansions, cause DT is a great game and has solidified itself as one of my all time favorites.

I agree. The Banshee reminds me of the Ring of Repulsion from Dungeon Twister - Fire and Water - it's explicitly not an attack (you can use it against the Courtesan and, in fact, is about the only way to get rid of her).



Depends on what you're using the Telepath for. I use him to clean up the wounded. Use your Backstabber and someone else to wound the Colossus, and then send the Telepath in separately to take him out.



... and teaches the importance of movement and positioning. This makes her an EXCELLENT character for beginners to learn to use.



I think that overall, the Elf Scout is a better retriever, but I won't disagree that the Naga is the best in this box.



Like I said: I use him to clean up wounded characters. Since Wounded characters have Strength of 0 (including the Colossus), he excels at this.



Page 16 of the rulebook: "A miniature cannot use the Bow if it is adjacent to its target or any other enemy miniature." The Bow is tricky to use - and is more useful with expansions and some of the 1E rooms.



I believe you decided correctly. It also protects against the Crossbowman from Dungeon Twister - Mercenaries and the Crossbow from Dungeon Twister - Créatures Sylvestres (which also has an Elf Archer ... )



There is some odd formatting. When I read your post, it looked like B2 was directly below B1 - but when I'm replying, I see the correct formatting.

With the correct formatting, then you seem to be reading it correctly.



I've been playing a lot of Dungeon Twister - Fire and Water, and these are a breath of fresh air by contrast.



Seconded.

Eric

Yeah, B2 is to be under Y1, in a reverse, upside down L for the spear examples. Glad to see we made good choices in our rules decisions. And yes, Elf Scout is the best in the game at being a retreiver, with the Naga and Rogue close seconds, especially depending on the board (Arrow slits & pit traps, respectively).

Thanks for the reply Eric!

I like the Naga as well. He may be my favourite character from this edition. However, I suppose this is very dependent on the arrow slits and so would be lost in another setting.

I've put the bow to good use. My opponent has already learnt to hate it. You can repeatedly attack a character to have him waste his combat cards since you're safe from any harm. If he chooses to play a low card thinking you will not waste a combat card yourself and guesses wrong, he ends up wounded.
I did not find it particularly hard to get lines of sight. Of course, I'm not expecting to be able to target characters from the other side of the dungeon; as I said as long as I can initiate range combat it's something already.

I didn't like the telescoping spear at first but it's growing on me as I learn how to use it. For example, it is awesome combined with the Telepath. It's not really the ability to strike through arrow slits or even one square apart that I find excellent but rather the fact that you can't be wounded even if you lose the combat. As attacking with the spear is still considered close combat you can use the Telepath's ability to force your opponent to discard his highest combat card and all you will have lost yourself is the spear.

I agree that large shield is rarely put to use so far.

The Banshee is potentially great but it's been difficult to set up opportunities for its special ability. I understand it has to cost 2 AP as it would be way to strong at 1 AP considering you can push someone more than once if you like. But this means it's rarely been possible to push someone in a pit for me. Which is just as well since it's an automatic VP after all.

I hadn't thought of this use, yet! Very nice!

Eric