by Chronosone
One thing I will add. I think the competitive mode does a wonderful sendup to the original. For those looking for an experience like the original in my 5+ plays I found it to be superior to the original Dark Tower. For those that want the competitive mode to feel more like the co-op mode, but with a competition, that is not what they planned or said the competitive mode would be. I feel it does exactly what RG said it would do. Using treasure on each other to meddle in each others plans is a very enjoyable aspect without dominating the whole experience. Go into competitive mode with a race mentality just like the original which was essentially a race to a random number generator battle.If the app kept more player states data the game would feel to much like an APP game. I feel RG found the sweet spot for an APP assisted board game.
As far as difficulty goes we have played 15+ games including the alliance expansion and won perhaps 60% of them. Some are impossible and some are very easy. We always pick random. We either really suck or the game is balanced correctly. Harder settings are always welcome. I find the easiest way to increase difficulty is spread the advantages around so you can't just focus on one. Usually the games we lost had this among the monsters.
The power skulls from the expansion also add a nice level of difficulty.