The Sorceror's Tower : In which we kick glass cannon butt
One problem I have with Lasting Tales are its unprotected sorcerers. Thematically, it makes sense for a sorcerer to be all fight, low defense, and arrogant enough that it doesn't need minions, but
RAW, heroes can each attack first before the sorcerer can fight back. The
AI doesn't have minions protecting elite spellcasters, so you may want to add this
AI rule to keep sorcerers from being blown to bits and stabbed before it has a chance to fight back. This makes the game more challenging, of course.
In any case, the scenario is unique in that it divides the board into four smaller quadrants, as the heroes teleport from one to another, finding the sorcerer's orbs to weaken him (reduce his resistance). Besides the Rogue Wizard, as adversaries, we chose a Vampire Lord (spellcaster) and Wraiths (melee minions). The scenario is tough because the minions spawn on the same quadrant as the heroes -- no walking two feet to get to the fight!
The game starts challenging, with two groups of adversaries on the board. Well, when you've selected two adversary groups, you start the game with all your enemies nearby! Thankfully (?) I thematically set up the board suchthat the Vampire Lord was protecting one of the orbs (so powerful it makes ivy grow upwards!) to capture behind a three-story tower that separated him (no
LOS) to the heroes, while the wraith minions went after us. Nothing like combat in the first turn!
After a challenging fight (minions are nasty!), we went after the Vampire Lord. Busting open the door, the wizard threw a lightning bolt at him, then the paladin shimmied down a ladder and punctured him while he was in bat form. Silly Vampire! After obtaining the orb, we teleported into another quadrant with another challenging fight with a bunch of minions, as the paladins became punching bags, while the wizard, who had the Fleet of Foot spell, went after the orb and grabbed a scroll from a treasure chest while she was at it. Clerics are sure good at keeping paladins alive!
The climax of the game was tense, but kinda dumb. Before activating a sorcerer, you roll on its Magic Table. While this works sorta well, the Rogue Wizard chose... Teleport! This moved him closer to us, avoiding all that terrain that was protecting him. No doubt, his arrogance and confidence that his minions on the board would protect him would, well, protect him. One lightning bolt and paladin who had the Hate(Sorcerer) ability later, he found out otherwise.
