Dungeon Lords - Tips & Strategies

Over the course of a year, you will likely hire two monsters for your dungeon. If the Payday event is occurring in the Spring or the Summer, it will be advantageous to hire your second monster after it occurs so you won’t have to pay twice.

Just be sure that you don’t completely miss the opportunity to hire. Pay attention to when other players will most likely be heading to the tavern to recruit and who will be First Player on those upcoming seasons.

Do not underestimate the abilities of the rooms. All of the first year production rooms give you something very valuable whether it is gold, food, traps, tunnels, happiness or more imps without spending a precious action to get them. Imps are a resource in this game too! Production rooms use idle imps and help you use this resource to the fullest. Double production in the second year is also HUGE!

The second year rooms are all about combat and victory points (VPs). You can never have enough VPs, so grabbing a VP room is never a bad thing. Grabbing one of these rooms also denies your opponents from getting more VPs. The heroes are usually much more powerful in the second year. Grabbing a room to give your monsters an extra boost in combat can be very helpful. It could mean the difference in coming out of combat in utter ruin or with minimal damage.

When you play against intermediate opponents you should most of the time be able to guess what will they play during the “orders” phase and react accordingly. There’s even TDD’s tip about that in the rulebook!

The problem appears when you play against skilled players or… against newbies. The later will probably select their orders more or less randomly. The former will calculate: “you think, that I think, that you think…” and they will play in an unpredictable (at least unpredictable to you!) manner.

In such cases try to apply the minimax rule: play orders that will gain you something valuable no matter what orders are played by your opponents. Imagine the worst combination of cards that can be used by them – and play against that combination. If you guess correctly – you will at least gain something. If they play differently, you can gain even more.

Note that this way of thinking is similar to the one used in Bridge – you usually aim not to get all the tricks you could get, but to maximize the chance of getting as much tricks as it is needed regardless of the opponents’ cards distribution. If you are good at Bridge you should easily become a master of the Dungeon Lords orders phase. Let the others weep it is “chaotic”.

THE THIRD YEAR

an extension for the game of Dungeon Lords

1) These rules expand the game for the players who want it to last longer. (Are there any? Sure, everyone wants bigger dungeons!) The extension adds the third year after the first two ones. So there is no scoring after the second year; instead the third one begins. Scoring happens after the third year and it uses the standard rules. During the third year rules from the second year are used with the exceptions described below. No additional components are being used.

2) Preparations:

2.a) Get all used trap cards and shuffle them into the traps deck.

2.b) Get all the monster and ghost cards that are not owned by the players (from both years) mix them all and form a stack. Note that it may happen there will be no monster or ghost to buy in later seasons of the third year!

2.c) Mix all unused rooms from the second year and form a stack. Then mix all unused rooms from the first year and put them on that stack. Note that there may be no room to buy in later seasons of the third year!

2.d) Get all unused and all discarded (“victorious” or “set free”) adventurers (excluding paladins) from both years. Count them. If there are less than 12 of them, there is a jail break: each player must free the strongest adventurer from their jail (excluding paladins again). Decide by the year and the glyph (or just by the background). If two or more heroes are equally powerful, it is up to the owner of the jail to decide which one to free. Mix all the adventurers (year does not matter) and form a stack.

2.e) For the 10 unused combat cards separate fast (blue) and slow (green) spells. Mix together fast spells from both years (fast deck) and slow spells from both years (slow deck). Then draw randomly four pairs: fast/slow (year does not matter). Put these pairs in order face down without looking at them. Note that it may happen that there will be only one combat/spell card for later seasons of the third year!

2.f) If the second year paladin is not imprisoned, use him in the third year too. Else if the first year paladin is not imprisoned, use him in the third year too. Else – what a pleasant surprise – there will be no paladin this year! All the third year adventurers including the paladin if he is present are considered to be fully healed regardless of their previous possible state.

2.g) Choose the starting player as in the beginning of the second year substituting words: “second” with “third” and “first” with “second”.

3) Order phase (differences only):

3.a) Reputation: if you are to peek a combat card you take a look at a pair of cards prepared for a given season.

3.b) Dig tunnels: there is no tunnel limit. If there are no tunnel tokens, use something else for the purpose. The same applies for using the room for digging a tunnel.

3.c) Recruit imps: there is no imp limit. If there are no imp figurines, use something else for the purpose. The same applies for using the room for making imps.

3.d) Buy traps: use the second year rules but discarded traps should be put at the bottom of the trap deck for further use if necessary.

3.e) Hire monsters or ghosts: if there are no more monsters and ghosts to hire, then this order becomes unusable (at least temporarily). However all discarded monsters and ghosts as well as ones not hired in a given turn are being put at the bottom of the stack, so they may appear in the tavern again.

3.f) Build rooms: if there are no more rooms to buy, then this order becomes permanently unusable. However rooms that are not bought in a given turn should be put at the bottom of the stack, so they may appear in the shop again.

4) For production, order retrieval, event, adventurer, paladin and end of round phases use the second year rules taking into account that there may be no paladin.

5) New adventurers’ skills in combat:

5.a) Warriors and paladins are more tough: they prevent the first fatigue point dealt to each of them each conquer step. If there is more then one conquering step in a combat round, prevention works separately for each of the conquering steps.

5.b) Thieves and paladins are better in disarming traps: if all the points of the trap primary damage is prevented, all additional effects – like extra damage, no spells/healing, no conquering – do not trigger and they are not applied.

5.c) Priests and paladins have a new oath: they heal each turn even if there was no monster or ghost attack.

5.d) Mages and paladins may cast two spells each turn: one slow spell and one fast spell (that’s why pairs of spells are prepared).

6) Combat resolution (differences only):

6.a) Trap step: use second year wordings on the trap cards. Remember the new disarming ability of thieves and paladins.

6.b) Fast spells step & slow spells steps: Check the magic level before each of them to determine if the appropriate spell is cast. A mage or a paladin could possibly be knocked down in meantime. Note that spell costs are not cumulative: to cast both spells during the first combat round a magic level of 1 is enough. Note also that the “Graffiti” spell has in fact no effect.

6.c) Healing step: It happens even if there was no fight!

6.d) Conquering step: If there are two combat cards for the turn, use the lower fatigue value. Take into account the new fatigue resistance of warriors and paladins. For example if the party is lead by a warrior with 1 hitpoint left followed by another warrior and there are 3 fatigue points to deal, then the first fatigue point is prevented, the second knocks down the first warrior and the third one is prevented again (as it is the first fatigue point dealt to that warrior that round).