Session - Dungeon Lords

14th of April 2011 (Thursday)

Game(s) played:
Dungeon Lords




Player(s):
Da Panda
Milo
Mo
Nitsuj

As I was going to be out of town for the weekend, the “sibs" (my siblings gaming group) requested for a night of late gaming in order to scratch the itch. After twelve facebook comments later, we decided on Citadels and Dungeon Lords (much to the dark mutterings of Milo who has never played Dungeon Lords… What can I say, we’re a competitive bunch of crazies who play to win the facebook bragging post).

Da Panda arrived late (as usual) and after a round of heckling by the ever loving siblings we decided to open the night with Dungeon Lords straight up. Nitsuj (me) spent some minutes explaining each phase to Milo with the occasional add-ins from the other players (Da Panda: “Aiyo once you play you will know" & Mo: “… … …"). And we were off!

During Year 1:

Da Panda seemed to be moving towards a “More Production Rooms, More Resources" strategy, I think it was because she was caught unawares by the Pay Day & Tax events. At the end of the year, she had a sizable amount of resources, 1-2 traps, 1 Slime & 2 Witches (I think?) and no blood tokens.

Mo took a “More Titles, More Points" strategy (which I should have realized earlier), keeping pace with Da Panda by trying to always have “just that one more" tunnel, imp, room & resource whilst keeping the Paladin off his back. At the end of the year, he similarly had a sizable amount of resources, no traps (I think), 3-4 monsters and no blood tokens.

Milo adopted a “Follow The Advice Of Others" strategy. Although we didn’t really help her with choosing actions, Milo is a natural gamer for some reason and was never that far behind. At the end of the year, she had very little food & gold, 2 traps, 1 Slime & 1 Ogre and no blood tokens (!).

I went for “Give Me Big Powerful Monsters" and having a dungeon that would survive Pay Day & Tax (we didn’t play with the other Event Cards, as Milo is a new player) mainly to bash the Pallys and gain an extra 10 points. In hindsight, I should have monitored my evil-ness and let the Pally wreck havoc in Mo’s dungeon but c’est la vie. I think I played the worst 1st year as I was the only one to get shut out once in the action phase and I lost a monster in Pay Day due to lack of food. At the end of the year, I had no food & 1 token of gold, 1 trap, 2 Vampires & 1 Witch and no blood tokens (although it was a close thing).

Battle Scenes:
Da Panda
Round 1
In the midst of a production room (I forget which), the heroes entered the dungeon led by a typical Warrior archetype (muscles and no brains) and got instantly turned into a chicken by a passing Witch who felt slightly peckish. The remaining 2 Wizards failed their initiative roll (upon discovering that their tank is now pecking worms in the dirt) and the defending Slime activated its alternative powers of elephant glue preventing the room from being taken over by the Hero Party.

Round 2
Breaking themselves out of the Slime glue, the Wizards took a look around and seeing no one in sight, Wizard no. 1 took one step and performed a failed bunshin no jutsu (ninja cloning technique) when a swinging guillotine happened to be in the way. Wizard no. 2, showing admirable dexterity, jumped backwards and trod on another Witch’s brand new Prada slip-ons and immediately got turned into … another pair of brand new Prada slip-ons.

Combat Summary
Rooms Conquered: 0
Heroes Captured: 3

Mo
To be honest, I don’t really remember what he used but I remember that at the end…

Combat Summary
Rooms Conquered: 1
Heroes Captured: 3

Milo
I don’t really remember either… Except that she had thieves in her party which prevented the traps from being played.

Combat Summary
Rooms Conquered: 2
Heroes Captured: 3

Nitsuj
Round 1
The party of adventurers were being led by the Paladin, an annoying armoured do-gooder from the realms beneath the sun, and the party rampaged past the first tunnel unhindered with the lead Paladin taking some damage when the Wizard miscanted the last syllable of his “Light" spell and set the Paladin’s hair on fire instead.

Round 2
The party came upon a startled Witch in the “imp mating room", who also miscanted the last syllable of her “Grease" spell and jet forth a fountain of petroleum instead. Overtaken by his fanatical fervour to smite the evil witch, the Paladin charges forgetting that his hair is on fire, result? Kaboom. Getting up from being thrown to the floor, the remaining party of heroes took stock of themselves and realized that one of their number is missing. All the thief remembered seeing was a swish of a dark cloak and the white of the eyes of the Wizard before the Paladin became a mini supernova.

Round 3
With extreme apprehension, the remaining two adventurers approached the exit of the room. The leading Warrior realizing his torch was running low, started to ask the thief for the spare, only to discover that he now stood alone in the dank musty corridor.

Round 4
As the last remaining hero inched his way to the end of the dungeon, his mind melting from the increasing pressure and fear reducing him to a mindless, gibbering fool… albeit a very rich, mindless, gibbering fool who looted the dungeon and survived.

Combat Summary
Rooms Conquered: 4
Heroes Captured: 1 Paladin & 2 Heroes

During Year 2:
Da Panda picks up more traps and an additional dragon, further expanding her dungeon and yet surviving the Pay Day and Tax events. In hindsight she should’ve picked up more point scoring rooms but at this point it looked like Da Panda would remain in the lead. At the end of the year, she had a sizable amount of resources, 1-2 traps, 1 Dragon, 1 Slime & 2 Witches and no blood tokens.

Mo matches Da Panda tunnel for tunnel and imp for imp to stay in the lead for titles and manages to amass more resources whilst picking up additional traps and a golem along the way. At the end of the year, he had a huge bundle of resources, no traps, 4-5 monsters and no blood tokens.

Milo attracted to the muscle power picks up the Demon the minute it shows up, giving up her Slime to attract it to her dungeon. At the end of the year, she had very little food & gold, 1-2 traps, 1 Demon, 1 Witch & 1 Ogre and no blood tokens.

Nitsuj went for both the Demon and the Golem whilst expanding his decimated dungeon, balancing between the need for expansion to gain wealth and having to pay land tax to the Ministry of Dungeons to prevent gaining any blood tokens. At the end of the year, I had very little resources, 1 trap, 1 Demon, 1 Golem, 2 Vampires & 1 Witch and no blood tokens.

Battle Scenes:
Da Panda
Round 1
Big and brawny, the lead warrior steps onto a false floor and fall into a pit of spikes. Not dead yet, he looks up only to see the evil glint in the eyes of a 7 foot dragon before its flaming breath washes over him cooking him to a tender meatiness. The wizard, a coward by nature, tries to sneak out the back way and fails to notice the Witch and her new slip-ons… Poof! Thereby further expanding her collection of footwear.

Round 2
The healer, realizing his doom, attempts to pray a teleport spell to whisk him back to his order’s temple. Just as he’s about to incant the final incantation, he turns to ice and is frozen forever in time by the Wild Magic of another Witch who discovered the wonders of refrigeration.

Combat Summary
Rooms Conquered: 0
Heroes Captured: 3 Heroes

Mo
Again for some strange reason I don’t remember what happened in Mo’s phase (I guess I monitor those not so familiar with the game more to make sure everything’s going well).

Combat Summary
Rooms Conquered: 3
Heroes Captured: 3 Heroes

Milo
I don’t remember Milo’s either, but I know the Demon made short work of the leading warrior and the Ogre bashed the wizard’s head in so hard it showed up as a 4 on the seismograph. The remaining hero managed to ransack a few rooms before succumbing to hunger and thirst and expiring on the floor.

Combat Summary
Rooms Conquered: 4
Heroes Captured: 3 Heroes

Nitsuj
Round 1
Paladin Sr, upon hearing what had happened to Paladin Jr, came a tromping into the dungeon. His too high helmet kept brushing loose flagstones in the ceiling of the first tunnel, resulting in falling rocks and some cuts and bruises. Coming into the next room, the party notices the Witch in the corner who seemed a little bigger with visible sparks of magic dancing of her fingertips. The Paladin could barely utter the words “Smite the evil –“ before the Demon flashes in an spears him in the gut. The Warrior, being the second in command, takes up the war cry but in a flash of motes and lights, is turned into dust.

Round 2
Despite the empowering energies of the room to the remaining Vampire and Witch, the ensuing battle only takes out the next hero, leaving the last hero to run rampart throughout the dungeon and leaving to sing songs of his bravery and exploits.

After the dust had settled, the four Dungeon Lords gathered in the meeting room of the Ministry of Dungeons where a MoD official walks in with the results of the Ministry’s review of each dungeon as well as the licenses for Dungeon Lords who pass the test. The official clears his throat and starts with the handing out of titles for the year:

The Lord of Dark Deeds – Nitsuj
The Lord of Halls – Mo / Milo
The Tunnellord – Mo
The Monsterlord – Nitsuj
The Lord of Imps – Mo / Da Panda (edit: sorry my bad, tot it was just Mo)
The Lord of Riches – Mo
The Battlelord – Da Panda

Using a score track, the official indicates the final scores as follows:

Da Panda exults in her victory whilst Mo & Nitsuj whisper dark mutterings, trying to go over the last two years to recall any instances of cheating or bribery. Alas, it is not to be and an hour later, Da Panda makes the following post on the underground networking site of Facebook:

winnnerrrrrrr! winnneeeeerrrrrrr! WINNA WINNA WINNA WINNA WINNA (copied from the old one) 12397 times in a row WINNNEEERRRRR !!!! all the way frommm ELLAYY weighing 110 pounds DEFENDING CHAMPION!

Until the next gathering of the Dungeon Lords… …