The Recap
Back in my Hunt for Gollum report (you know, way back twenty-one days ago), I mentioned there were two quests that had sentimental value for me. The Redhorn Gate is that second one.
For our fifth anniversary, my wife and I got to escape to a retreat down in Colorado Springs. During one of our free evenings, we headed over to a local Starbucks, busted out some dwarf decks, and tackled The Redhorn Gate. My wife still looks back on it as one of the most romantic nights of her life.
Or maybe that's just me.
Anyway, we had a blast of a time sipping on our fraps and taking out Snow Wargs. The pure, relaxed fun of that night stuck out as a great reminder of why I got this game.
And I love this quest for another reason. Most regular players have their favorite quest or two for trying out new decks. Passage Through Mirkwood is probably the most common, but Journey Down the Anduin comes second. For me, it's The Redhorn Gate. You get some nasty (but not overwhelming) enemies, some tough locations, and some hampering treacheries. Nothing is hopeless, but nothing is a push over. While not every deck would be able to pull out a victory, I mainly enjoy building well-rounded decks that can do most things well. The Redhorn Gate helps show if they live up to that standard or not.
The Deck
I considered going against this quest with a mono-Spirit dwarf deck, but remembered the effect of Caradhras ("When Caradhras is the active location, questing characters get -1 willpower") and the stage 3B effect ("Characters are discarded from play if their willpower is ever 0"). So if I'm going for dwarves, we need to bring Dain back in...
Leading the Dwarves, with Spirit!
Heroes
Dain Ironfoot
Balin
Nori
Allies
Dwalin x2
Fili x3
Kili x2
Longbeard Elder x3
Bofur (The Redhorn Gate) x2
Gloin x2
Zigil Miner x3
Gandalf x3
Attachments
King Under the Mountain x3
Hardy Leadership x2
Steward of Gondor x3
Celebrian's Stone x2
The Favor of the Lady x2
Song of Travel x3
Events
A Test of Will x3
Durin's Song x3
Untroubled by Darkness x3
Sneak Attack x3
A Very Good Tale x3
Sets used
Core Set
The Hills of Emyn Muil
Return to Mirkwood
Khazad-dum
The Redhorn Gate
Foundations of Stone
Shadow and Flame
Over Hill and Under Hill
On the Doorstep
After playing, Song of Travel was debatable in it's usefulness. The goal is to combine this with Steward of Gondor to play 3-cost Leadership and Spirit cards each turn. Could be replaceable with A Good Harvest, possibly.
The Journey
Attempt zero fell pray to an OCTGN crash, which is a shame because I was holding my own pretty well despite an Avalanche! during the setup (exhausting all my characters), followed by two back-to-back Snow Wargs in subsequent rounds. With all that, I still felt I had a win on my hands. Alas, it was not to be. I heard a rumor something might be going on with the internet in general in Asia (I'm in Thailand). Or not. Who knows? Anyways, I was hoping the internet would stay with me throughout the entirety of the next attempt and I was not disappointed.
In the actual finished round, there wasn't much to talk about. Mountain Warg was the only warg to show up (right at the beginning, due to flipping a Warg Lair during the setup). I kept him at bay by lowering my threat (via Nori's ability as I got dwarves into play), then took it out with Gandalf. Sneaking Gandalf in twice helped me overcome some of the larger questing hurdles. Celebdil showed up after a few rounds, saving me the effort of waiting around for victory points to show up.
My last two rounds had the deck questing for 17 willpower, using totally different means. The first time, I had my dwarves hindered by Caradhas's -1 willpower effect, but I was able to sneak in Gandalf and get two Songs of Durin out. The second time, Caradhas was in my victory display and the dwarves (+Arwen) were able to pull out the 17 all by themselves.
While this run-through was nothing to write home about, this is still a quest I love and will be returning to often.
Final Score
5 rounds completed x10: 50
Final threat: 35
Damage on heroes: 0
Threat of defeated heroes: 0
Victory Display: -5
Total: 80
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