Terrors of London Strategy Series
Welcome to the fourth 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!
Lurking in the shadows is Methuselah, the bloodthirsty Overlord of the Undead Faction!
In Sumeria, there lived a man who wielded a great sword called the Sword of Methuselah. The sword had been forged to slay demons and spirits. After time, the man was corrupted by power and named himself after the sword. Azazael, the demon, sensed this corruption and offered him an immortal existence if he would cast the sword into the Infernal Chasm. He accepted the demon’s offer, and without the protection of the sword, the man’s heart was opened to evil and he spent centuries feeding off the life of mortal men. In 1856, whilst in London, he felt the presence of Azazael once more.
When choosing to play Methuselah, you’re deciding to strike fast, and strike often. Methuselah has two major factors that guide this Overlord’s strategy: low health, and superior card flow. At 40 Health, Methuselah has the lowest starting health of any other Overlord in the game. This low health can make Methuselah fragile to accumulated damage and huge attacks from high-cost monsters as you progress into the late game. However, with the low health you also have the ability to draw an additional card each turn, and replacing one from your hand. This cycling ability is invaluable in the early game to get your set up pieces and later to complete your horde combinations!
Low health and the ability to cycle through your deck faster than other Overlords makes hyper-aggression your main path to victory. Each of your Overlord Influence cards will either aid you in this early aggression with more card draw or straight power, or hinder your opponent with combined damage and regeneration or by destroying their artifacts or potential monsters from the street. You’ll want to be on the lookout for defensive and regeneration artifacts as well if the early game isn’t providing you with favorable conditions allowing you to survive longer to claim victory beyond the mid game.
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 match-up is a great stylistic battle of offense vs defense, Methuselah is the strongest Overlord in the early game, but Azazael is nearly unbeatable in a longer match. All out attack is going to be your only path to victory against this Overlord. Even with the health advantage that Azazael brings, you have a good chance of crippling a reckless Azazael player before they can even get set up. In a game like Terrors of London, where the street is randomly populated defensive strategies will often be less reliable than an effective offense.
However, if you dither and allow Azazael to hone his deck into an unstoppable machine there is little chance you’ll recover. Therefore, you need to keep up the early aggression. Attack that larger health pool early and often. If you play it right, Methuselah runs like a machine and may just steamroll the more cautious Azazael.
The battle between the vampire lord and the vampire hunter is an interesting match-up. These two characters have been hunting one another for centuries and therefore know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Your strategy will largely be determined by your opponent’s choices. If Lilith plays her most aggressive style, then so should you and you’ll trade strikes in a race to the finish. However, if Lilith plays a more balanced and defensive strategy, then you should prepare to hinder her ability to get her heavy hitters and play a more balanced game.
Methuselah always has the edge in the early game rush, however if Lilith staves off your onslaught and turns the corner with a big monster or two, she can finish you rather quickly as you burn out. By focusing on less than peak aggression in this match-up when Lilith plays a more balanced game, you can maintain a steady level of damage that will typically be enough to win! Observe your opponent so you can adjust to her strategy and focus on which strategy you will need to triumph!
Both Methuselah and Fenris are very aggressive Overlords and this will be a savage fight! You’ll typically have the edge in a race against a rush strategy Fenris due to your superior card draw, but as you approach the mid-game, Fenris is a very real threat. You’ll want to focus on aggression and speed while taking the right opportunities to disrupt the monster choices available from the street. Either buy or Destroy key pieces for the Fenris player to prevent her from completing her Hoards.
If the early game doesn’t go as optimally as you would like and you can disrupt and stave off Fenris’s mid-game dominance you will have a good chance to overwhelm in the late game. Focus on your superior card draw and disruption to prevent Fenris from building an optimal deck. Fenris’s strength is in the sheer number of monsters that can be added to hoards, so even though a disruption strategy may be enough, you’ll want to keep up that attack pressure at every opportunity.
Claim the Night!
Terrors of London will be hitting gaming tables everywhere this summer! If you missed out on the campaign, you can place an order here using our shop or pick one up at the many conventions we’ll be attending starting with Gen Con!
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.
