Alpha Wolf

Welcome to the third in our series of Overlord strategy article for Terrors of London! 

Terrors of London is a competitive deck building game with a Victorian Horror theme. You will take on the role of an Overlord that has its own unique abilities and influence cards, and use the monsters of evil to claim victory over your opponent. The cards you’ll play fall into one of four factions, Undead, Mortals, Spirits, or Beasts and each Overlord has a special affinity with one of these factions.

With Terrors of London on its way to backers and its retail release coming this summer we’ve planned a series of strategy and match-up articles to cover each of the Overlords that you can choose from to claim dominion over the night!

These articles will cover the match-up strengths and weaknesses of each Overlord. For an introduction to the rules of Terrors of London, you can check out a How to Play video HERE!

The first recorded encounters with the wolf beast were in the Forest of Arden where Vikings discovered the beast in a cave. Thinking it to be the wolf god Fenris, they brought daily offerings of pigs, fowls, and humans to the opening of the cave. Before a battle with the Mercian King Æthelbald, a small army of Vikings came to the cave to ask for a blessing in the coming battle. The wolf beast, unsettled by this large intrusion of humans, charged from her cave and set about dismembering the army. The second encounter with the beast was in London, 1789.

When selecting Fenris as your Overlord you will most likely choose between two primary strategies depending on your opponent. Either path relies heavily on the effective use of use of her Overlord Ability to quickly acquire monsters from the street. The ability to take a monster from the street at a discount or by sacrificing some early damage to get a key monster is very strong and should be utilized as often as possible in the early to mid game.

Being able to collect key pieces from the street to form hordes, or increase your income and card draw makes Fenris a fun Overlord to play. Fenris allows you to play a hyper-aggressive game, selecting monsters and artifacts that allow you to quickly put on high amounts of damage and pressure. Alternatively, Fenris can play the long game and focus on her ability to stack huge amounts of Regeneration. Whichever strategy you choose, the decision is generally made before the game begins as it is heavily dictated by which influence cards you select to add to your deck.

You won’t be the only Overlord vying for control of the dark streets of Victorian London. Your opponent will also have their own strengths and weaknesses to exploit.

This may be the toughest match-up for Fenris out of the core game. Azazael is unmatched if the game goes long, even with the strong Regeneration that Fenris can bring to the game. This tends to force the Fenris player down the Hyper Aggression path, but with Azazael’s 50 Health allowing him to sustain early damage to set up for the mid to late game this can also be a challenge to whittle him down fast enough.

You will need to optimize your turns in this match-up and not waste any chance to deal damage. You’ll want to avoid using power to purchase monsters from the street with Fenris’ Overlord ability unless there is a particular key piece that you need on a turn. Focusing all your power on dealing damage as fast as possible and rush out a victory against Azazael is the key to this match-up. You may run out of steam in a long enough game if the streets don’t offer you great choices to add to your damage effects. Try to gain monsters with Muster to allow you to pile that damage on with more card draw each turn. Gain power fast, attack, attack, and attack.

The Lilith, Fenris match-up is pretty well balanced. The Lilith player will want to use her Claim ability to counterpunch with a heavy-hitter so you need to set the tone. You’re options for play here are pretty open, especially if the Lilith player doesn’t adapt to your play style, and a well played Fenris deck can win an aggressive game or a Regeneration focused one. That being said, you’re here to play an Alpha Wolf, so we’d have to give the slight edge to the aggression strategy!

Use your Overlord ability as usual to get those additional early game pieces to keep the pressure up on Lilith. If Lilith gets a little unlucky with the street not offering her any good options for her Claim ability to counter-punch, you can quickly overwhelm her defenses and end this game very fast! If you do choose the path of Regeneration, you’ll not only want to grab monsters that directly help you, but also disrupt her hoarding ability with her large monsters. Commit to a path, focus on aggression or disruption, and keep up the pressure to win this one.

This match-up is an interesting one for Fenris. Rather than completely commit to aggression or Regeneration we recommend that you take a more balanced approach. Both Fenris and Methuselah are very strong in the rush game and a well played Fenris game can out race Methuselah, but it’s risky. On the other hand, going a full Regeneration strategy against Methuselah is hard because of the non stop damage and pressure you will face in this game. A little bad luck or an unhelpful street and Methuselah will rip your doggy face off!

So go with a mid-range strategy here. Fenris has a more reliable economy than Methuselah, and focusing on smart purchases with a good combination of money, defense, and attack will provide you with a stable platform to go toe to toe in the early game and ultimately overcome the hyper-aggressive onslaught of Methuselah. Balancing your strategy, controlling the tempo, and keeping consistent with your monster purchases will give you the best chance to come out victorious.

Claim the Night!

Terrors of London will be hitting gaming tables everywhere later this spring as our Kickstarter backers receive their games, and it will be widely available at retail this summer!

You can Pre-Order your copy and either of the expansions directly from our shop, or contact your local retailer and ask them to bring the Victorian Horror to their shelves.