Quest 2: Journey Along the Anduin

Victory after eight plays

The Journey

The infamous Journey Along the Anduin. After most people breeze through Passage Through Mirkwood (I apparently struggled with that), they get here and think "Did I make a horrible mistake in purchasing this game?" Not me! Nope, I just got to think, "How have I played this game so long and can't get past this medium-level quest?"

The first lost came out of the blue. I had the idea of a Celeborn/Mirlonde Silvan trait secrecy deck. I know, right? But it sounded good at the time. Celeborn's Folly was a tounge-in-cheek deck name that came all too true. Took out the troll, got massive allies out, then saw my allies destroyed by Evil Storm and I threated out in stage 2.

Tweaked the deck. Tried it again. Got a horrible opening hand (on the mulligan) and was demolished in the first round.

Round 3. More tweaking, more threating out in stage 2.

Now I'm in shock, but blaming it on my crazy idea to make secrecy work on this quest (others have, btw). Enemies and locations blocking my way to progressing on the stage 2 quest seem to be the main obstacle. The solution seems to be dropping the secrecy act, going to tri-sphere, and getting Legolas to join the party. Celeborn's (Tactical) Folly is geared up and ready.

Fourth-Sixth attempt: Threat out in stage 2.

What. In. The. World.

Okay, not every deck can beat every quest. Maybe it's time to put it down and come back later with a fresh idea and a fresh deck. But I really would like make this deck work! I think it can!

Maybe seeing direct damage on the enemies (and indirect progress) was not the solution. Maybe I can quest around them! Alright, get ride of Tactics and swap in Spirit. Celeborn's (Spiritual) Folly is on the case.

Threat out, stage 2.

So, wait, what's going on here? I have a relatively fast deck that is pumping out allies and boosting them each turn. Taking on the troll is no problem. I even worked things out to start with a much lower threat!

The troll. I'm focusing too much on the troll. With my low starting threat and the Hill Troll's threat of 1, I can really wait out stage 1. That will allow me to either pour out a ton of allies or save them and build up resources for a massive surge in stage 2. Let's try it.

A few scary moments where I didn't leave enough defenders (including the need to waste a Sneak Attack on a Silverload Archer), but I arrive at stage 2 with a few allies down, a clean staging area, a Dol Guldor Orcs engaged with me, and ton of potential willpower in my hand (Naith Guide, Hemnarth Riversong, Silvan Refugee, Elrond's Counsel x2, Children of the Sea). Play my allies (picking Celeborn not to exhaust to quest, thanks to Naith Guide) and quest with everything I have, throwing down those Eldrond's Counsels but holding onto the Children of the Sea.

The moment of truth. Reveal 1: Necromancer's Reach. Man, that could really ruin my day...if I didn't have A Test of Will in Hand. Next. Reveal 2: Pursued by Shadow. Raise threat by 1. Blow past the 16 progress points needed.

Now onto stage 3. I only left one defender up and all my heroes are slightly damaged, so I need locations or treachery cards here. Flip a treachery card (forgot what, sorry, but it had no effect so I'm thinking Treacherous Fog or Evil Storm). Flip my second card: a Hill Troll. My threat's 25. We'll take care of him later. Block the orcs. Raise threat. Dispatch the orcs. Raise threat. Block the troll. Raise threat by four. Dispatch the troll.

End.

Final Scoring
7 rounds x 10: 70
Final Threat:31
Damage on Heroes: 5
Threat Cost of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Points: -11
Final Score: 95

The Deck

Celeborn's (Spiritual) Folly

Heroes
Celeborn
Mirlonde
Glorfindel (Spirit)

Allies
Henamarth Riversong x2
Mirkwood Runner x3
Silvan Tracker x3
Naith Guide x3
Silverload Archer x3
Silvan Refugee x3
Gandalf (Core) x3

Attachments
Asfaloth x3
Light of the Valinor x3
Ancient Mathom x3

Events
The Tree People x3
A Very Good Tale x3
Sneak Attack x3
Children of the Sea x3
Elrond's Counsel x3
A Test of Will x3
A Good Harvest x3

Sets Used
Core
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Dead Marshes
Return to Mirkwood
The Watcher in the Water
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Steward's Fear
The Drunadan Forest
The Blood of Gondor
Foundations of Stone
The Dunland Trap

Quite a bit more going on here than my Core-only deck from last time!

In playing around with deck options to pursue, I initially thought of pumping up a single character to take down the troll. Eomer and Merry stood out as possible ideas. In both cases, I would try to get a low starting threat and come in with an Unseen Strike or two. While reading BeatGuy's post on the beauty of Tree People, it struck me that the card combos really well with Sneak Attack and A Very Good Tale. Getting those combos going is a major hope for this deck.

Glorfiendel with his friends (Asfaloth and Light of the Valinor) are there to help with the location needs of the deck and the knocking off of needed enemies. I never actually got Light of the Valinor out in my two times playing this deck, though, and Glorfiendel still proved highly effective. I'm quick to cut a card if I can do well without it (like I did for Steward of Gondor, which didn't really do much to help me in my first seven attempts), but each shuffle of the cards brings about a new situation and some of those cards that don't see much use in one attempt may win the game the next time around.

Silvan allies, and large amounts of them, are a must. The low cost ones (Hemnarth Riversong and Silvan Refugee) are particularly nice to use with the The Tree People, while the high cost ones (everyone except Naith Guide) are great for A Very Good Tale. Haldir of Lorien is conspicuously missing, because he wasn't fitting well into either strategy (unless you pull him up with The Tree People).

When any of the three main versions of this deck work right, it's a blast to play (especially the secrecy one, in my opinion). But that's when it's working right. If it miss-fires (which it did on my second attempt), it can be a slow train wreck. So, while I liked a lot of the ideas in this deck (and may try some more goes at Journey Along the Anduin with the secrecy version in the future), it's not one I expect to use much in the future without a major overhaul.

The Recap

A little bit of perspective on a new strategy is what paid off here. The troll, with his high attack and difficulty to kill, was not the real enemy of this campaign for my decks: that was left to the quick buildup of enemies and locations (some of them pretty nasty) in the staging area. I only wish I had the flash of insight seven attempts earlier! But now that I've had it, I wonder if that original secrecy deck would have worked? Not going to try it right now (I've got Escape From Dol Guldur to get trounced by), but here's the deck list for my future memory and your potential play testing. Any suggestions?

Celeborn's Folly

Heroes
Celeborn
Mirlonde

Allies
Haldir of Lorien x1
Henamarth Riversong x2
Mirkwood Runner x3
Silvan Tracker x3
Naith Guide x3
Silverload Archer x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
Saruman x3

Attachments
Stewards of Gondor x2
Cram x3
Resourceful x3

Events
The Tree People x3
Peace, and Thought x3
Daeron's Runes x3
A Very Good Tale x3
Sneak Attack x3
Timely Aid x3
A Good Harvest x3

Sets Used
Core
The Dead Marshes
A Journey to Rhosgobel
Return to Mirkwood
Shadow and Flame
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Steward's Fear
The Drunadan Forest
The Voice of Isengard
The Dunland Trap