1) Why are all the squares in the Treasury victory squares EXCEPT the ones with the treasure in it? Wouldn't being in those squares be more deterministic of who is "winning" or whatever that's supposed to represent? I *almost* submitted this as a bug, but for #2: 2) Just for feedback purposes and not to be a hater: I hate the final mission of this quest. I greatly admire the design/concept, but the level/difficulty is far higher than any other level 8, this is more like a 10. I've lost this mission probably 80% of the time. Usually the first run through I forget how hard it is (or erroneously think that since I'm level 10 it will be fine). But even on the retries, loaded up with movement cards, whirlwind, range, slide, whatever, etc it still blows. That's just my opinion. I don't find it fun, or even really challenging. That's sort of a definitional thing--I need a good deal of luck in card draws to beat it. Is randomly drawing the right cards a challenge...? Some might say yes, I say no. I guarantee that if you make this a difficulty 9 nobody's going to be exploiting it due to how easy it is. I have a party of humans and a party of dwarves. Maybe having Elves makes this a breeze, I don't know, but if you need an entire party of elves, that's still a flawed mission.
Yeah, I struggled a *lot*. Just about got through it yesterday as a level 9/10. Its tough as nails (or was for me). I took out the first guard as soon as I could (though lost my wizard), and then charged in. Only just made it. Its hard and I appreciate the design, but normally you cant afford to lose one person and still make the treasure room. Having elves doesnt help. What you need is free moves, or lots of moves. As a suggestion (though feel free to ignore) you could add one star to the enemy requirements giving you a bit more time to make it there?
I found the last mission quite easy, oddly enough! Maybe I was just lucky with draws. I killed the merc very quickly without losing anyone, and one dog was only just out of the tunnel. I never have much trouble with dogs (or pigs) for some reason, and unlike humanoid warriors there is no real reason to wait for them to come to you. They'll bite you just the same anyway. I killed the second dog in the tunnel, and Lord Stafford himself was harmless - I killed him with two rounds to spare. Perhaps the issue is people waiting for the dogs? It doesn't really gain you anything and in this mission it could cause you to lose on time. My advice would be: just push forward from the get-go. You want the merc to be coming to you, and you don't really care if you walk towards a dog (in a perfect world, for sure, maybe a bit of fancy footwork would be useful even against dogs - but in this scenario you don't have that luxury).
One star would help, that's a very simple solution. That might get it to a winnable rate closer to 50/50. Like you said, if one of your characters dies, you lose 2 stars, and that guard and those dogs will tear into level 8's. Bear in mind that you could conceivably be playing this mission at level 7. There's no freaking way.
I don't wait for dogs. Obviously you can't wait for anything in this mission, as it's effectively on a timer.
I did not find this mission too difficult with the trinity (Warrior/Wizard/Priest) but it is proving a bear for my 3 Wizard team. They are movers and shakers, but a headlong rush into a tunnel packed with bitey dogs is not their forte. I actually like the premise of needing to rush to the treasure room before the old man escapes with the goods, I am just not sure my ranged nuking crew is going to be able to clear this mission.
I found this a lot easier than I did Compass of Xor, but I think I was using my all elf party at the time.
