I find myself in a position where several "lifestyle" games are fighting for my limited time & attention. And I want to enjoy each one at it's own pace, without any sense of rush or just getting to a point of completion. A few of those games are experiencing a bit of a downsizing in my life to allow me to enjoy them in more of a focused manner. For Lord of the Rings: the Card Game, that means ending this blog for the foreseeable future.
This game takes a long time for me to play. I'm not sure what it is, but my mental processor slows to a snail's pace while deckbuilding. Then I attempt a quest, fail horribly, and build again. That by itself takes long enough. Blogging about it (as short and mistake ridden as the posts are) adds another huge chunk to the time commitment.
Have I moved on from the game? Nope. My monthly (ha) subscription is still active and I am biting at the chomp to get Folco Boffin to the table. I am simply taking another long, indeterminate pause in chronicling my experiences with the game.
Lord of the Rings: the Card Game is a blast. We have a fun, challenging game with beautiful artwork and a creative design team. I look forward to the continued adventures in paper and digital mediums over the upcoming years.
See you around the community!
Friday, December 15, 2017
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Saga Quest 15: The Road to Isengard
Victory on the fifth attempt!
The Recap
Finally! The third quest of the third box is done, bringing me to the halfway point of the saga quests (halfway, due to the print on demand quests?). And I continued the pattern of taking a small eternity to get the final quest of each box knocked off.
This one took a bit for me to figure out, then in hindsight I wonder why it did. It requires power in the questing department (no real way to get around that) and the ability to take some punches. That still leaves a nice selection of archetypes that I would enjoy taking down this round.
The Journey
The Road to Isengard was a reminder of the drastic difference the right type of deck can make. I began with a Tactics Boromir/Gimli/Legolas build that, for all of Legolas' help in progressing through locations, ultimately threated out shy of victory. Attempts 2-3 mixed up the sphere but continued to try this hero line up with unfavorable results. The idea was in my mind to switch Tactics Boromir out for Tactics Eowyn, but I really did not want to take yet another permanent threat increase in my campaign (even though Eowyn would actually bring me to a net -1 threat until her attack is triggered). I played with the idea of backing up to Helm's Deep and re-trying with Eowyn (even though Boromir was a life saver there). But consistent willpower was a real need and I rarely needed Boromir's readying ability for combat. I finally bit the bullet, took the threat, and in Eowyn went! This resulted in a victory on attempt 4, but not a clean one. I had neglected to reveal an extra card with Orthanc's ability (which actually may have helped me, since locations were a bit lacking during stage 2). I re-set, re-loaded, and took attempt 5 to victory.
The first goal was to get two copies of Ent of Fangorn on my side. This went down successfully over two rounds on attempt 4. This time, I was able to get one Ent and a few resources on another. Now for the tough choice: Better to move on and be thankful for what I have or try one more round of attempts and add a third encounter card to the staging area? The decision was to move on, but it was not a comfortable decision. Two ents really did a lot of work during the fourth attempt and I was feeling the pain of not having that benefit this time around.
An early Anduril and Captain of Gondor on Aragorn helped make combat fairly easy. He eventually had The Sword that was Broken and Banner of Elendill, making this pretty much a voltron Aragorn deck more than anything else. This combined with Light of Valinor on Legolas gave me a bonus of seven willpower with no actions needed (five for most of the game, since The Sword that was Broken did not come out until a bit later). Eowyn's 4-6 (depending on the stage in the game) made questing a relative breeze and I was thankful for the extra three points she gave me.
Damage was plentiful and neither copy of Dunedain Remedy made a showing. There was at least one point where heroes would have to start dying if certain encounter cards were revealed, but an ally or two would come out beforehand for the sacrifice. This quest is challenging even with a decent deck.
Eventually my band of heroes made it to the final stage at the beginning of the quest phase. Enough progress was placed the following round to travel onto Orthanc and take out the many-coloured wizard (and Eowyn never even had to attack).
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 43
Total Damage on Heroes: 10 (Gimli: 3, Legolas: 3, Eowyn: 2, Aragorn: 2)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -1
Total Score:132
Campaign Resolutions
+1 starting threat
Palantir of Orthanc added to campaign pool
Previous Campaign Resolutions
+1 starting threat
Boon: Ho! Tom Bombadil! (added to starting hand)
Boon: Sting
Boon: Mithril Shirt
Boon: Glamdring
Boon: Anduril
Boon: Beyond All Hope attached to Sam Gamgee
Burden: Shadow of Fear added to campaign pool
Burden: Ill Fate added to campaign pool
The Deck
The first question for any relevant deck: Who does Steward of Gondor go on? If you get Narvi's Belt early, Gimli all the way. That would be plan A, but is a bit fragile with only one copy of the belt. If Steward takes a while to appear and you have Sword that was Broken in hand (or already on Aragorn), then you could consider Aragorn as a viable option. I wouldn't put it on Aragorn over Gimli if you only have Celebrian's stone. Whoever it is should likely also get Shield of Gondor.
You have a few artifacts to get onto Aragorn and three copies of Light of Valinor to put on Legolas. This should give you 3-7 willpower for "free," while still having some good defense & attack power. Eowyn will always be questing, popping up to attack a big baddy when needed. Gimli will main be on defense, but he has the quest power if you have thecoin cards.
Voltron-up your heroes a bit, get a few utility allies down, and get 'er done.
Take No Hobbits
Heroes
Gimli (Sands of Harad)
Legolas (Sands of Harad)
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Aragorn (The Flame of the West)
Allies
Errand-rider x1
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x2
Skinbark x1
Envoy of Pelargir x2
Gandalf (Core) x3
Ranger of Cardolan x2
Treebeard (The Antlered Crown) x1
Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x1
Dunedain Remedy x2
Dunedain Warning x1
King Under the Mountain x1
Narvi's Belt x1
Steward of Gondor x3
Sword that was Broken x1
Light of Valinor x3
Mirkwood Long-knife x1
Captain of Gondor x1
Gondorian Shield x1
Rivendell Blade x2
Banner of Elendil x2
Anduril x1
Glamdring (The Road Darkens) x1
Events
Captain's Wisdom x2
Sneak Attack x3
Unlikely Friendship x3
Tides of Fate x3
Goblin-cleaver x3
Hands Upon the Bow x3
RingsDB Link
The Recap
Finally! The third quest of the third box is done, bringing me to the halfway point of the saga quests (halfway, due to the print on demand quests?). And I continued the pattern of taking a small eternity to get the final quest of each box knocked off.
This one took a bit for me to figure out, then in hindsight I wonder why it did. It requires power in the questing department (no real way to get around that) and the ability to take some punches. That still leaves a nice selection of archetypes that I would enjoy taking down this round.
The Journey
The Road to Isengard was a reminder of the drastic difference the right type of deck can make. I began with a Tactics Boromir/Gimli/Legolas build that, for all of Legolas' help in progressing through locations, ultimately threated out shy of victory. Attempts 2-3 mixed up the sphere but continued to try this hero line up with unfavorable results. The idea was in my mind to switch Tactics Boromir out for Tactics Eowyn, but I really did not want to take yet another permanent threat increase in my campaign (even though Eowyn would actually bring me to a net -1 threat until her attack is triggered). I played with the idea of backing up to Helm's Deep and re-trying with Eowyn (even though Boromir was a life saver there). But consistent willpower was a real need and I rarely needed Boromir's readying ability for combat. I finally bit the bullet, took the threat, and in Eowyn went! This resulted in a victory on attempt 4, but not a clean one. I had neglected to reveal an extra card with Orthanc's ability (which actually may have helped me, since locations were a bit lacking during stage 2). I re-set, re-loaded, and took attempt 5 to victory.
The first goal was to get two copies of Ent of Fangorn on my side. This went down successfully over two rounds on attempt 4. This time, I was able to get one Ent and a few resources on another. Now for the tough choice: Better to move on and be thankful for what I have or try one more round of attempts and add a third encounter card to the staging area? The decision was to move on, but it was not a comfortable decision. Two ents really did a lot of work during the fourth attempt and I was feeling the pain of not having that benefit this time around.
An early Anduril and Captain of Gondor on Aragorn helped make combat fairly easy. He eventually had The Sword that was Broken and Banner of Elendill, making this pretty much a voltron Aragorn deck more than anything else. This combined with Light of Valinor on Legolas gave me a bonus of seven willpower with no actions needed (five for most of the game, since The Sword that was Broken did not come out until a bit later). Eowyn's 4-6 (depending on the stage in the game) made questing a relative breeze and I was thankful for the extra three points she gave me.
Damage was plentiful and neither copy of Dunedain Remedy made a showing. There was at least one point where heroes would have to start dying if certain encounter cards were revealed, but an ally or two would come out beforehand for the sacrifice. This quest is challenging even with a decent deck.
Eventually my band of heroes made it to the final stage at the beginning of the quest phase. Enough progress was placed the following round to travel onto Orthanc and take out the many-coloured wizard (and Eowyn never even had to attack).
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 43
Total Damage on Heroes: 10 (Gimli: 3, Legolas: 3, Eowyn: 2, Aragorn: 2)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -1
Total Score:132
Campaign Resolutions
+1 starting threat
Palantir of Orthanc added to campaign pool
Previous Campaign Resolutions
+1 starting threat
Boon: Ho! Tom Bombadil! (added to starting hand)
Boon: Sting
Boon: Mithril Shirt
Boon: Glamdring
Boon: Anduril
Boon: Beyond All Hope attached to Sam Gamgee
Burden: Shadow of Fear added to campaign pool
Burden: Ill Fate added to campaign pool
The Deck
The first question for any relevant deck: Who does Steward of Gondor go on? If you get Narvi's Belt early, Gimli all the way. That would be plan A, but is a bit fragile with only one copy of the belt. If Steward takes a while to appear and you have Sword that was Broken in hand (or already on Aragorn), then you could consider Aragorn as a viable option. I wouldn't put it on Aragorn over Gimli if you only have Celebrian's stone. Whoever it is should likely also get Shield of Gondor.
You have a few artifacts to get onto Aragorn and three copies of Light of Valinor to put on Legolas. This should give you 3-7 willpower for "free," while still having some good defense & attack power. Eowyn will always be questing, popping up to attack a big baddy when needed. Gimli will main be on defense, but he has the quest power if you have the
Voltron-up your heroes a bit, get a few utility allies down, and get 'er done.
Take No Hobbits
Heroes
Gimli (Sands of Harad)
Legolas (Sands of Harad)
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Aragorn (The Flame of the West)
Allies
Errand-rider x1
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x2
Skinbark x1
Envoy of Pelargir x2
Gandalf (Core) x3
Ranger of Cardolan x2
Treebeard (The Antlered Crown) x1
Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x1
Dunedain Remedy x2
Dunedain Warning x1
King Under the Mountain x1
Narvi's Belt x1
Steward of Gondor x3
Sword that was Broken x1
Light of Valinor x3
Mirkwood Long-knife x1
Captain of Gondor x1
Gondorian Shield x1
Rivendell Blade x2
Banner of Elendil x2
Anduril x1
Glamdring (The Road Darkens) x1
Events
Captain's Wisdom x2
Sneak Attack x3
Unlikely Friendship x3
Tides of Fate x3
Goblin-cleaver x3
Hands Upon the Bow x3
RingsDB Link
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Blog Clean Up
Time for a few house-keeping notes!
Formatting
I've noticed some major formatting errors in some posts (looking at you, The City of Corsairs). Just wanted to acknowledge that I've been seeing these and will work on going back and doing a little clean up in the near future. I may also take this time to add historic decks to RingsDB. TBD on that.
Community
Several months ago I saw that the links I had to various members of the community were gone. I likely clicked delete on that section without noticing it while doing a Stats update. The section is back and is starting to fill out more. Know some great resources I'm missing? Have a Lord of the Rings: LCG blog you run or are a fan of? Let me know and we'll get it on there!
Currently Tackling
Sometimes my updates come pretty rapidly. Other times not so much. This will give a quick description of what I'm currently working on in regards to LotR (or will serve as a general update venue).
Formatting
I've noticed some major formatting errors in some posts (looking at you, The City of Corsairs). Just wanted to acknowledge that I've been seeing these and will work on going back and doing a little clean up in the near future. I may also take this time to add historic decks to RingsDB. TBD on that.
Community
Several months ago I saw that the links I had to various members of the community were gone. I likely clicked delete on that section without noticing it while doing a Stats update. The section is back and is starting to fill out more. Know some great resources I'm missing? Have a Lord of the Rings: LCG blog you run or are a fan of? Let me know and we'll get it on there!
Currently Tackling
Sometimes my updates come pretty rapidly. Other times not so much. This will give a quick description of what I'm currently working on in regards to LotR (or will serve as a general update venue).
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Re-Do: Quests 22-25
It was in early 2014 that I decided to get back into the game.
I had been on an extended break. After a decided drop off in the frequency Lord of the Rings was hitting my table, I had heard about the difficulty of Heirs of Numenor. This seemed like a good a time as any to cancel my subscription and stop playing. LotR was bought as a co-op game for my wife and I, but spending significant time to deck build, set up, and get crushed was not proving to be the casual & relaxing game night we had hoped. Fortunately I learned something from my previous times liquidating card games and decided to just shelve this one in case my interest was peaked in the future. As Against the Shadow came out, the word on the street was still that the difficulty had increased and I was glad to be out. Fast forward a bit and I'm in Thailand when the bug to try the game out again hits me. A visiting friend kindly brings over my collection as well as a large order I put in for everything I was missing up to that point. Latter in the year is when this blog began (only three years ago?).
The blog set out to document my solo play-throughs, but I still wanted to give the game a crack at also being a co-op experience for my wife and I. The first two quests of the Against the Shadow Cycle, The Steward's Fear and The Druadan Forest, were beaten with my wife well before I knew I even wanted to do a blog. I wrote up what I could remember of them and figured I would re-attempt them some day. Well now is that day! It would be great get caught up with the Haradrim Cycle releases and realize I am truly caught up with the non-saga quests. The third and fourth quests of Against the Shadow, Encounter at Amon Din and Assault on Osgiliath, will also be getting solo redos.
The Steward's Fear
Victory on the twelfth attempt!
Victory on the fifteenth attempt!
I forgot how truly hard this quest is! I'm pretty sure I beat it solo after a few attempts, but then failed attempt after attempt as I sought two decks that could consistently conquer this one. My goal was to find the perfect decks first and then invite my wife for an enjoyable, relaxed game. Pro tip: Relaxed + The Steward's Fear probably don't mix well! In any case, we eventually beat it together. Yet, despite knowing how many attempts I spend on The Steward's Fear, I still didn't quite remember the brutality this quest brings (at least for me). There are very few reveals from the quest deck that you are thankful to see.
After a failed attempt at a mono-leadership Gondor family build (Denethor, Faramir, Boromir), I went for a Lore/Leadership Denethor/Elrond/Glorfindel build that had a slight chance but was not looking good before I was called away and had to end the game. Then Libro Rojo posted about his newest creation, The Calephon's Dream, and I wanted to give it a shot. The deck rocked!
This final attempt did not feature the worst of the encounter deck and did feature pretty good draws from the player deck. There were not super-closed moments, but neither were there rounds where I felt the encounter deck didn't have a chance.
Notable moment:Playing A Test of Will to cancel the when reveled effect of Lurking in Shadows, banking on the fact that I could complete the quest the next round. I did beat it, but with one more threat in the staging area would have cost me the game.
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat:47
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 127
Original Post
The Druadan Forest
Victory on the first attempt!
Victory on the second attempt!
Man I love the switch-up is at the end! Needing to use your entire stat line in fairly rapid succession is an awesome twist. Once again, felt like I had just the right amount of power to make it but I was never fully out of the woods until I was fully out of the woods.
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 39
Total Damage on Heroes: 3 (Cirdan: 2, Denethor: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 127
Original Post
Encounter at Amon Din
Victory on the second attempt!
Victory on the third attempt!
As many have found out, this one feels like it should be a lot tougher than it ends up being. In this case, I did end up with an ally swarm that overwhelmed the encounter deck. Getting a bit cocky lead to more dead villagers than should probably have been allowed, but I was still within plenty of margin for the win.
Final Scoring
6 Completed Rounds x10: 60
Ending Threat: 32
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -5 (Gulat: 2, Secluded Farmhouse: 1, Gondorian Hamlet: 1, Burning Farmhouse: 1)
Total Score: 87
Rescued Villagers: 12
Dead Villagers: 5
Original Post
Assault on Osgiliath
Victory on the second attempt!
Victory on the third attempt!
Thought I would blow through this in two rounds, then my second staging step revealed a Ruined Tower. Round after round went by without something I could make active before the tower. A good number of strong enemies came out and right on their heal was Beorn to knock them off their rockers.
Had a good ally army starting to build, then The Master's Malice made short work of that. Nasty card. The choice came down to saving most of my allies or Denethor. Denethor won the day. Fortunately two Dunedain Remedy's came out to help Imrahil and Cirdan heal up.
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 45
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 125
Original Post
The Deck
After failing twice to come up with good deck for the Stewards Fear, I saw a post in the Facebook group about a deck that had ripped its way through the Against the Shadow Cycle. Libro Rojo had come up with a Cirdan/Denethor/Prince Imrahil deck he was really enjoying (for non-Spanish speakers, Google Translate does a decent job with his blog). A version of Denethor was in both decks I had tried so far and Cirdan is in a few of my favorite decks. But most importantly, I have really been wanting to try out a Tactics Prince Imrahil build.
There's a lot to love about this deck. You're questing big, able to defend decently (very decently once you get a Gondorian Shield on Denethor) and popping allies in and out. It was such a blast to play, and handled the quests so well, that I may tackle the remaining Against the Shadow quests this next week just for the fun of it.
The Calphon's Dreams - Los Suenos De Calphone v.3
Heroes
Cirdan the Shipwright
Denethor (Flight of the Stormcaller)
Prince Imrahil (The City of Corsairs)
Allies
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x2
Glorfindel (The Flight of the Stormcaller) x2
Hama (The Treason of Saruman) x3
Jubayr x1
West Road Traveller x2
Knight of the White Tower x2
Beorn (Core) x2
Boromir (The Road Darkens) x2
Defender of Cair Andros x2
Deorwine x1
Legolas (The Treason of Saruman) x2
Marksman of Lorien x2
Attachments
Light of Valinor x2
Unexpected Courage x2
Dunedain Remedy x2
Heir of Mardil x2
Steward of Gondor x3
Gondorian Shield x2
The Red Arrow x1
Narya x3
Events
A Test of Will x3
Elrond's Counsel x3
A Very Good Tale x2
Feint x3
Sideboard
Galadriel's Handmaiden x2
Stand and Fight x2
Knight of the White Tower x1
Dunedain Remedy x1
Marksman of Lorien x1
RingsDB Link
Libro Rojo's Blog
I had been on an extended break. After a decided drop off in the frequency Lord of the Rings was hitting my table, I had heard about the difficulty of Heirs of Numenor. This seemed like a good a time as any to cancel my subscription and stop playing. LotR was bought as a co-op game for my wife and I, but spending significant time to deck build, set up, and get crushed was not proving to be the casual & relaxing game night we had hoped. Fortunately I learned something from my previous times liquidating card games and decided to just shelve this one in case my interest was peaked in the future. As Against the Shadow came out, the word on the street was still that the difficulty had increased and I was glad to be out. Fast forward a bit and I'm in Thailand when the bug to try the game out again hits me. A visiting friend kindly brings over my collection as well as a large order I put in for everything I was missing up to that point. Latter in the year is when this blog began (only three years ago?).
The blog set out to document my solo play-throughs, but I still wanted to give the game a crack at also being a co-op experience for my wife and I. The first two quests of the Against the Shadow Cycle, The Steward's Fear and The Druadan Forest, were beaten with my wife well before I knew I even wanted to do a blog. I wrote up what I could remember of them and figured I would re-attempt them some day. Well now is that day! It would be great get caught up with the Haradrim Cycle releases and realize I am truly caught up with the non-saga quests. The third and fourth quests of Against the Shadow, Encounter at Amon Din and Assault on Osgiliath, will also be getting solo redos.
The Steward's Fear
Victory on the fifteenth attempt!
I forgot how truly hard this quest is! I'm pretty sure I beat it solo after a few attempts, but then failed attempt after attempt as I sought two decks that could consistently conquer this one. My goal was to find the perfect decks first and then invite my wife for an enjoyable, relaxed game. Pro tip: Relaxed + The Steward's Fear probably don't mix well! In any case, we eventually beat it together. Yet, despite knowing how many attempts I spend on The Steward's Fear, I still didn't quite remember the brutality this quest brings (at least for me). There are very few reveals from the quest deck that you are thankful to see.
After a failed attempt at a mono-leadership Gondor family build (Denethor, Faramir, Boromir), I went for a Lore/Leadership Denethor/Elrond/Glorfindel build that had a slight chance but was not looking good before I was called away and had to end the game. Then Libro Rojo posted about his newest creation, The Calephon's Dream, and I wanted to give it a shot. The deck rocked!
This final attempt did not feature the worst of the encounter deck and did feature pretty good draws from the player deck. There were not super-closed moments, but neither were there rounds where I felt the encounter deck didn't have a chance.
Notable moment:Playing A Test of Will to cancel the when reveled effect of Lurking in Shadows, banking on the fact that I could complete the quest the next round. I did beat it, but with one more threat in the staging area would have cost me the game.
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat:47
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 127
Original Post
The Druadan Forest
Victory on the second attempt!
Man I love the switch-up is at the end! Needing to use your entire stat line in fairly rapid succession is an awesome twist. Once again, felt like I had just the right amount of power to make it but I was never fully out of the woods until I was fully out of the woods.
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 39
Total Damage on Heroes: 3 (Cirdan: 2, Denethor: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 127
Original Post
Encounter at Amon Din
Victory on the third attempt!
As many have found out, this one feels like it should be a lot tougher than it ends up being. In this case, I did end up with an ally swarm that overwhelmed the encounter deck. Getting a bit cocky lead to more dead villagers than should probably have been allowed, but I was still within plenty of margin for the win.
Final Scoring
6 Completed Rounds x10: 60
Ending Threat: 32
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -5 (Gulat: 2, Secluded Farmhouse: 1, Gondorian Hamlet: 1, Burning Farmhouse: 1)
Total Score: 87
Rescued Villagers: 12
Dead Villagers: 5
Original Post
Assault on Osgiliath
Victory on the third attempt!
Thought I would blow through this in two rounds, then my second staging step revealed a Ruined Tower. Round after round went by without something I could make active before the tower. A good number of strong enemies came out and right on their heal was Beorn to knock them off their rockers.
Had a good ally army starting to build, then The Master's Malice made short work of that. Nasty card. The choice came down to saving most of my allies or Denethor. Denethor won the day. Fortunately two Dunedain Remedy's came out to help Imrahil and Cirdan heal up.
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 45
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 125
Original Post
The Deck
After failing twice to come up with good deck for the Stewards Fear, I saw a post in the Facebook group about a deck that had ripped its way through the Against the Shadow Cycle. Libro Rojo had come up with a Cirdan/Denethor/Prince Imrahil deck he was really enjoying (for non-Spanish speakers, Google Translate does a decent job with his blog). A version of Denethor was in both decks I had tried so far and Cirdan is in a few of my favorite decks. But most importantly, I have really been wanting to try out a Tactics Prince Imrahil build.
There's a lot to love about this deck. You're questing big, able to defend decently (very decently once you get a Gondorian Shield on Denethor) and popping allies in and out. It was such a blast to play, and handled the quests so well, that I may tackle the remaining Against the Shadow quests this next week just for the fun of it.
The Calphon's Dreams - Los Suenos De Calphone v.3
Heroes
Cirdan the Shipwright
Denethor (Flight of the Stormcaller)
Prince Imrahil (The City of Corsairs)
Allies
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x2
Glorfindel (The Flight of the Stormcaller) x2
Hama (The Treason of Saruman) x3
Jubayr x1
West Road Traveller x2
Knight of the White Tower x2
Beorn (Core) x2
Boromir (The Road Darkens) x2
Defender of Cair Andros x2
Deorwine x1
Legolas (The Treason of Saruman) x2
Marksman of Lorien x2
Attachments
Light of Valinor x2
Unexpected Courage x2
Dunedain Remedy x2
Heir of Mardil x2
Steward of Gondor x3
Gondorian Shield x2
The Red Arrow x1
Narya x3
Events
A Test of Will x3
Elrond's Counsel x3
A Very Good Tale x2
Feint x3
Sideboard
Galadriel's Handmaiden x2
Stand and Fight x2
Knight of the White Tower x1
Dunedain Remedy x1
Marksman of Lorien x1
RingsDB Link
Libro Rojo's Blog
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Looking Back: The Sands of Harad
Like The Grey Havens before it, Sands of Harad took the core fundamentals of the game and accentuated them with just enough thematic elements to place the player in the heart of the theme. Also like the last cycle, the new mechanic (temperature) was featured in the deluxe box but not excessively so.
Another feature I appreciated was the tendency of the encounter deck to have just the right answers for me, but not to the level where any style of deck was full prohibited (well, maybe a low will power, low ally deck for the final quest). I felt like I was playing against a competent player who new the meta and adjusted accordingly.
From a purely scenario mindset, The Sands of Harad is where I would point players to as the second box to attempt after the core.
Pro-tip: Make Dune references on your blog and the next day you'll find a motherload of Dune books at your local thrift store. Works for me 100% of the time!
Another feature I appreciated was the tendency of the encounter deck to have just the right answers for me, but not to the level where any style of deck was full prohibited (well, maybe a low will power, low ally deck for the final quest). I felt like I was playing against a competent player who new the meta and adjusted accordingly.
From a purely scenario mindset, The Sands of Harad is where I would point players to as the second box to attempt after the core.
Pro-tip: Make Dune references on your blog and the next day you'll find a motherload of Dune books at your local thrift store. Works for me 100% of the time!
Quest 57: The Long Arm of Mordor
Victory on the second attempt!
The Deck
The original build for this deck was eagle-heavy, which switched to ally good stuff prior to my first attempt. Combat was no issue and my heroes were handling questing just fine. But once I became location locked in stage 3, I realized I had almost no allies who could help out with the questing. The focus this time around was to blend the first two iterations of the deck with high-questing allies. Bofur is an odd inclusion, due to the lack of weapons, but two willpower for three cost in Tactics is value in and of itself. Mablung was the original third hero, but money was no issue during my second attempt so I went with Merry to get a little bit of a threat decrease and the addition of Halfling Determination to help even more with the willpower issue.
Red Menace
Heroes
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Hirgon
Merry (The Black Riders)
Allies
Beechbone x1
Bofur (Over Hill and Under Hill) x2
Defender of Rammas x3
Descendant of Thorondor x3
Eagles of the Misty Mountains x3
Grimbold x2
Gwaihir x2
Legolas (The Treason of Saruman) x1
Marksman of Lorien x2
Rumil x2
Soldier of Dol Amroth x3
Vassal of the Windlord x3
Winged Guardian x3
Yazan x2
Attachments
Book of Eldacar x3
Events
Close Call x2
Feint x3
Halfling Determination x3
The Eagles Are Coming! x3
The Hammer-stroke x1
Wait no longer x3
RingsDB Link
The deck performed as expected, with no card feeling wasted in my hand. Location lock was not a problem and all enemies were dispatched ASAP.
The Journey
Focusing on willpower-heavy allies pared with the already attack-heavy Tactics sphere made a big difference this time around.
Set Up and Round 1
I pick Firyal as my objective hero. The opening hand has two Soldiers of Dol Amroth, a Vassal of the Windlord, Eagles of the Misty Mountains, and Halfling Determination. A solid start! I play Marksman of Lorien, planning to take an undefended attack from the Sauron's Enforcers in the staging area and finishing it off. Enemy lock is another trap I do not want to fall into. Southron Boma hits the staging area, bringing me to two threat which still allows me to get a progress on stage 1B and get Eowyn back. I do take that undefended attack from the Enforcers, placing the damage on Hirgon, then take him out with the Marksman and move on.
Round 2
I put a Vassal of the Windlord down just to get more of an ally presence. I could have played a Soldier of Dol Amroth, then a Vassal for free, but I need a resource to travel to the Sothron Boma. Questing for 7, I reveal another Boma and get 3 progress on stage 2B. Not quite enough yet. I spend my spare resource to travel to one of the Bomas.
Round 3
Using Firyal's peeking ability, I see a Uruk of Mordor on top of the encounter deck and choose to discard it. No allies with two willpower to defend against it right now. A Mordor Warg is revealed, so some combat will be necessary. Three progress goes on the active Southron Boma. I engage the Warg and chump with the Vassal, revealing Overrun by Orcs and splitting two damage between the Marksman and Eowyn. The Marksman gets one damage on the Warg and I move on.
Round 4
I lay down a Soldier of Dol Amroth followed by a second Marksman of Lorien. No resources to travel to the Southron Boma in the staging area, but I prefer the increased ally support for now. I quest for 7 and let a Forest Clearing resolve. The final progress is placed on the active Southron Boma and another progress on stage 2 (4/5). Forest Clearing becomes the active location. The Warge attacks the soldier, doing one damage to him, and is defeated by a Marksman.
Round 5
The Eagles Are Coming! nets me Vassal of the Windlord + The Eagles Are Coming!, which gets me Gwalhir. Another Soldier of Dol Amroth goes down, followed by a free Vassal. I quest with Fryal and Eowyn, seeing an Uruk of Mordor and deciding to discard it. Village Hut comes out. I have enough willpower to clear the Forest Clearining and stage 2, getting Hirgon back. Sauron's Enforces is selected to guard Merry. Traveling to the Village Hut gets me a Winged Guardian. The enforcers are taken out by two Marskman and a Soldier (after destroying another Soldier). The Savage Attack shadow effect puts an Uruk Warg-Rider into the staging area.
Round 6-10
Now it is just stalling and building my army. I try to guesstimate just enough questing to clear locations & keep my threat from increasing, while aiming low enough to stay at stage 3.
Round 11
I've kept the staging area clear enough that questing with a modest 9 is enough to launch me into the final stage. I could have quested with left, but I try to always quest with Hirgon to get is discount. Yazan comes in play thanks to that discount this round! Now I have a Sauron's Enforcers and the Uruk Chieftan to deal with. It's not a question of if I can, but how I want to do it. I sacrifice a Vassal to the Chieftan (adding that Vassal to my pump-up Eagles of the Misty Mountains) and a Soldier of Dol Amroth to the Enforcers, then take out the Enforcers with Yazan and Legolas and the Chieftan with two Marksmen (but isn't it a woman?) of Lorien, a Vassal (which will be added to the mega-Eagle) and Bofur.
Round 12
Now time to super-quest! I play Wait No Longer, hoping not to wiff, and pull out a Sauron's Enforcers. Knowing exactly what I have to deal with, I put everyone into questing and blow past stage 4. Victory!
Final Scoring
11 Completed Rounds x10: 110
Ending Threat: 32
Total Damage on Heroes: 2 (Hirgon: 2, Eowyn: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 144
The Recap
One hero. 3 resources. 1 threat already in the staging area. Twomen mixture of men/women/creatures enter, one man or woman or creature leaves.
There is quite a disadvantage at the start of this scenario, with a 3 willpower hero at most trying to quest past the Enforcers to get that first progress on the stage. While it never happened to me, I bet there have been quite a few negative play experiences where all hope was lost after that first quest phase (perusing forums proves that to be true). Since I never had that experience, this was actually enjoyable for me. I liked slowly building my forces up, both ally and hero. The end was just tough enough the first round (one copy of Wait No Longer or Hammer Stroke in hand would have put victory in my lap). The second attempt was a push-over, but I don't know if there would be a way to account for that without some other demoralizing inclusion. This quest felt tough, balanced, and enjoyable.
The Deck
The original build for this deck was eagle-heavy, which switched to ally good stuff prior to my first attempt. Combat was no issue and my heroes were handling questing just fine. But once I became location locked in stage 3, I realized I had almost no allies who could help out with the questing. The focus this time around was to blend the first two iterations of the deck with high-questing allies. Bofur is an odd inclusion, due to the lack of weapons, but two willpower for three cost in Tactics is value in and of itself. Mablung was the original third hero, but money was no issue during my second attempt so I went with Merry to get a little bit of a threat decrease and the addition of Halfling Determination to help even more with the willpower issue.
Red Menace
Heroes
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Hirgon
Merry (The Black Riders)
Allies
Beechbone x1
Bofur (Over Hill and Under Hill) x2
Defender of Rammas x3
Descendant of Thorondor x3
Eagles of the Misty Mountains x3
Grimbold x2
Gwaihir x2
Legolas (The Treason of Saruman) x1
Marksman of Lorien x2
Rumil x2
Soldier of Dol Amroth x3
Vassal of the Windlord x3
Winged Guardian x3
Yazan x2
Attachments
Book of Eldacar x3
Events
Close Call x2
Feint x3
Halfling Determination x3
The Eagles Are Coming! x3
The Hammer-stroke x1
Wait no longer x3
RingsDB Link
The deck performed as expected, with no card feeling wasted in my hand. Location lock was not a problem and all enemies were dispatched ASAP.
The Journey
Focusing on willpower-heavy allies pared with the already attack-heavy Tactics sphere made a big difference this time around.
Set Up and Round 1
I pick Firyal as my objective hero. The opening hand has two Soldiers of Dol Amroth, a Vassal of the Windlord, Eagles of the Misty Mountains, and Halfling Determination. A solid start! I play Marksman of Lorien, planning to take an undefended attack from the Sauron's Enforcers in the staging area and finishing it off. Enemy lock is another trap I do not want to fall into. Southron Boma hits the staging area, bringing me to two threat which still allows me to get a progress on stage 1B and get Eowyn back. I do take that undefended attack from the Enforcers, placing the damage on Hirgon, then take him out with the Marksman and move on.
Round 2
I put a Vassal of the Windlord down just to get more of an ally presence. I could have played a Soldier of Dol Amroth, then a Vassal for free, but I need a resource to travel to the Sothron Boma. Questing for 7, I reveal another Boma and get 3 progress on stage 2B. Not quite enough yet. I spend my spare resource to travel to one of the Bomas.
Round 3
Using Firyal's peeking ability, I see a Uruk of Mordor on top of the encounter deck and choose to discard it. No allies with two willpower to defend against it right now. A Mordor Warg is revealed, so some combat will be necessary. Three progress goes on the active Southron Boma. I engage the Warg and chump with the Vassal, revealing Overrun by Orcs and splitting two damage between the Marksman and Eowyn. The Marksman gets one damage on the Warg and I move on.
Round 4
I lay down a Soldier of Dol Amroth followed by a second Marksman of Lorien. No resources to travel to the Southron Boma in the staging area, but I prefer the increased ally support for now. I quest for 7 and let a Forest Clearing resolve. The final progress is placed on the active Southron Boma and another progress on stage 2 (4/5). Forest Clearing becomes the active location. The Warge attacks the soldier, doing one damage to him, and is defeated by a Marksman.
Round 5
The Eagles Are Coming! nets me Vassal of the Windlord + The Eagles Are Coming!, which gets me Gwalhir. Another Soldier of Dol Amroth goes down, followed by a free Vassal. I quest with Fryal and Eowyn, seeing an Uruk of Mordor and deciding to discard it. Village Hut comes out. I have enough willpower to clear the Forest Clearining and stage 2, getting Hirgon back. Sauron's Enforces is selected to guard Merry. Traveling to the Village Hut gets me a Winged Guardian. The enforcers are taken out by two Marskman and a Soldier (after destroying another Soldier). The Savage Attack shadow effect puts an Uruk Warg-Rider into the staging area.
Round 6-10
Now it is just stalling and building my army. I try to guesstimate just enough questing to clear locations & keep my threat from increasing, while aiming low enough to stay at stage 3.
Round 11
I've kept the staging area clear enough that questing with a modest 9 is enough to launch me into the final stage. I could have quested with left, but I try to always quest with Hirgon to get is discount. Yazan comes in play thanks to that discount this round! Now I have a Sauron's Enforcers and the Uruk Chieftan to deal with. It's not a question of if I can, but how I want to do it. I sacrifice a Vassal to the Chieftan (adding that Vassal to my pump-up Eagles of the Misty Mountains) and a Soldier of Dol Amroth to the Enforcers, then take out the Enforcers with Yazan and Legolas and the Chieftan with two Marksmen (but isn't it a woman?) of Lorien, a Vassal (which will be added to the mega-Eagle) and Bofur.
Round 12
Now time to super-quest! I play Wait No Longer, hoping not to wiff, and pull out a Sauron's Enforcers. Knowing exactly what I have to deal with, I put everyone into questing and blow past stage 4. Victory!
Final Scoring
11 Completed Rounds x10: 110
Ending Threat: 32
Total Damage on Heroes: 2 (Hirgon: 2, Eowyn: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 144
The Recap
One hero. 3 resources. 1 threat already in the staging area. Two
There is quite a disadvantage at the start of this scenario, with a 3 willpower hero at most trying to quest past the Enforcers to get that first progress on the stage. While it never happened to me, I bet there have been quite a few negative play experiences where all hope was lost after that first quest phase (perusing forums proves that to be true). Since I never had that experience, this was actually enjoyable for me. I liked slowly building my forces up, both ally and hero. The end was just tough enough the first round (one copy of Wait No Longer or Hammer Stroke in hand would have put victory in my lap). The second attempt was a push-over, but I don't know if there would be a way to account for that without some other demoralizing inclusion. This quest felt tough, balanced, and enjoyable.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Quest 56: Desert Crossing
Victory on the second attempt!
Unlike the ally swarm of Outlands, the goal here is to simply have a few very strong allies pared with action advantage. Elrond was a no-brainer hero of choice, allowing me to pair with Kahliel to get Harad allies out much faster. This also allowed me to throw in Ally Arwen to beef up Jubayr's defense of three. Faramir was included to increase the action advantage of my allies.
Then we have Core Gandalf, Daeron's Runes, and Heed the Dream for card advantage. A huge strength of the Harad deck is having a use for duplicate unique cards in hand, which are usually dead cards you can only hope to get rid of with Daeron's Runes or a Noldor discard outlet. Now you have action advantage!
Strong Allies for Strong Heroes
Heroes
Elrond (Shadow and Flame)
Faramir (The Land of Shadow)
Kahliel
Allies
Firyal x3
Henamarth Riversong x2
Ioreth x1
Kahliel's Tribesman x3
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x2
Jubayr x3
Yazan x3
Southron Refugee x3
Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x1
Dunedain Remedy x2
Haradrim Spear x3
Steward of Gondor x3
Kahliel's Headdress x3
Vilya x3
Events
Daeron's Runes x3
Heed the Dream x2 A Very Good Tale x3
Captain's Wisdom x2
Sneak Attack x3
RingsDB Link
I held onto the Headdress for a few rounds, focusing on getting allies down, and loved it once it hit the table. One possibility for a future version of this deck is switching out Faramir and adding in Leadership Aragorn + Sword that was Broken for ridiculous willpower.
Dunedain Remedy never hit the table and would have been more desirable in hindsight than Ioreth. I would remove her and add a third remedy. I would also cut down Vilya to at least a two-of, maybe even a one of. Additional copies of Captain's Wisdom and Gandalf would be likely inclusions, although Ever Vigilant may have a place here.
My first attempt began on a terrible foot. I thought I had the encounter deck licked at the start with with two Sneak Attacks, two A Very Good Tales, and Jubayr + another ally in my opening hand. Except I whiffed on A Very Good Tale two times in a row, only getting a Kahliel's Tribesman to the table and ruining my early advantage. Now low on resources and cards to spend them on, I gave the quest a team try but was quickly overwhelmed by enemies that I did not have the means to deal with.
Attempt #2 was more cautious. When I began whiffing with Vilya, I shut down that strategy and focused my efforts elsewhere. Sneak attacks where held in hand to get Jubayr where he was truly needed: defending (until I had enough stored up to pay for him). Once I had the Big Three down (Firyal, Jubayr, Yazan), the encounter deck still stood a chance but was at a significant disadvantage.
Final Scoring
5 Completed Rounds x10: 50
Ending Threat: 39
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Faramir)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 93
The spice must flow!
The Deck
I am an Outlands fan. I know; I'm a terrible person. But extreme synergy appeals to me. This preference has made the Haradrim deck one I have really wanted to try out, even though the deck is not "complete" yet (with two more packs still to be released as of this writing).Unlike the ally swarm of Outlands, the goal here is to simply have a few very strong allies pared with action advantage. Elrond was a no-brainer hero of choice, allowing me to pair with Kahliel to get Harad allies out much faster. This also allowed me to throw in Ally Arwen to beef up Jubayr's defense of three. Faramir was included to increase the action advantage of my allies.
Then we have Core Gandalf, Daeron's Runes, and Heed the Dream for card advantage. A huge strength of the Harad deck is having a use for duplicate unique cards in hand, which are usually dead cards you can only hope to get rid of with Daeron's Runes or a Noldor discard outlet. Now you have action advantage!
Strong Allies for Strong Heroes
Heroes
Elrond (Shadow and Flame)
Faramir (The Land of Shadow)
Kahliel
Allies
Firyal x3
Henamarth Riversong x2
Ioreth x1
Kahliel's Tribesman x3
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x2
Jubayr x3
Yazan x3
Southron Refugee x3
Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x1
Dunedain Remedy x2
Haradrim Spear x3
Steward of Gondor x3
Kahliel's Headdress x3
Vilya x3
Events
Daeron's Runes x3
Heed the Dream x2 A Very Good Tale x3
Captain's Wisdom x2
Sneak Attack x3
RingsDB Link
I held onto the Headdress for a few rounds, focusing on getting allies down, and loved it once it hit the table. One possibility for a future version of this deck is switching out Faramir and adding in Leadership Aragorn + Sword that was Broken for ridiculous willpower.
Dunedain Remedy never hit the table and would have been more desirable in hindsight than Ioreth. I would remove her and add a third remedy. I would also cut down Vilya to at least a two-of, maybe even a one of. Additional copies of Captain's Wisdom and Gandalf would be likely inclusions, although Ever Vigilant may have a place here.
The Journey
My first attempt began on a terrible foot. I thought I had the encounter deck licked at the start with with two Sneak Attacks, two A Very Good Tales, and Jubayr + another ally in my opening hand. Except I whiffed on A Very Good Tale two times in a row, only getting a Kahliel's Tribesman to the table and ruining my early advantage. Now low on resources and cards to spend them on, I gave the quest a team try but was quickly overwhelmed by enemies that I did not have the means to deal with.
Attempt #2 was more cautious. When I began whiffing with Vilya, I shut down that strategy and focused my efforts elsewhere. Sneak attacks where held in hand to get Jubayr where he was truly needed: defending (until I had enough stored up to pay for him). Once I had the Big Three down (Firyal, Jubayr, Yazan), the encounter deck still stood a chance but was at a significant disadvantage.
Final Scoring
5 Completed Rounds x10: 50
Ending Threat: 39
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Faramir)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 93
The spice must flow!
The Recap
Once again, it was the small thematic elements that sold this quest for me: Temperatures rising, desert creatures that felt well balanced, locations that were often punishing but still needed to be passed through. I truly felt like my heroes were traveling across the deadly lands of Arrakis. And there was an interesting variety in the various stages: Increasingly hot weather was always detrimental, but in unique ways. I look forward to undertaking this deadly journey again.Sunday, September 10, 2017
Quest 55: Escape from Umbar
Victory on the third attempt!
The Deck
Argalad is a hero I have played with before but wanted to use more effectively. I see the key to him as A) keeping enemies in the staging area enough to knock them out over a few rounds or B) having a variety of ways to damage enemies while in the staging area and using Argalad as an additional point of that. Flipping through my binders this weekend, Fastred caught my eye. I know I recently gave him a mediocre review. This was due to feeling his three defense would lead to him being an ineffectual blocker and thus not useful for consistently throwing enemies back to the staging area. Consider me converted to the cause! A little buffing (Gondorian Shield, Captain of Gondor, Ally Arwen) and he works like a charm. While a quick perusal of RingsDB will see Fastred teamed with Dunhere (a great combination), I wanted to use him + Spear of the Citadel to tag-team enemies with Argalad. With the usually low amount of enemies appearing in a solo game, this should take care of attacking. The best offense is a good defense, right? I think that's how it goes.
Now to deal with questing. Argalad "kind of" quests, in removing the threat of an enemy (if there is one). Throw Light of the Valinor on him and he will often be pulling double duty. Since I wanted access to tactics for a few reasons (Fastred's equipment + Bow of the Gladhrim for Argalad), Tactics Eowyn was a no brainer. She can carry a chunk of the early questing and help out if a big attack is needed in a pinch. Add in Silvan Refugee to help with questing (since we hopefully won't be loosing anyone along the way) and Warden of Healing to help with the archery damage, then we're off to the races!
Take You With Me
Heroes
Argalad
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Fastred
Allies
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x3
Silvan Refugee x3
Honour Guard x3
Henamarth Riversong x2
Ioreth x1
Ithulien Tracker x3
Warden of Healing x2
Attachments
Ranger Bow x3
Bow of the Galadhrim x2
Captain of Gondor x2
Gondorian Shield x2
Spear of the Citadel x2
Light of Valinor x2
Unexpected Courage x2
Events
Daeron's Runes x3
Secret Paths x2
Goblin Cleaver x2
Hail of Stones x2
A Test of Will x3
Tides of Fate x3
A Good Harvest x3
RingsDB Link
The deck worked as desired. Enemies were fairly neutralized, threat was lowered, and a quest was won. But there are some major changes I would make for attempt #3 with this one. Being tri-sphere, I was very reserved in my resource costs. I ended up with a fairly light hand and some very rich heroes. While I may regret removing A Good Harvest, I would at least take it down to a one-of. In would go two copies of Arrows from the Trees. I would also add one or two high-cost Lore & Spirit allies and replace Hail of Stones with Hasty Stroke. Those changes should help firm up the key Argalad/Fastred strategy. Oh, and OG Gandalf. He is right there with the direct damage theme.
The Journey
My first attempt at escaping from Umbar was done alongside my wife, after a long hiatus of co-oping Lord of the Rings. While we had fun, the enemy swarm + archery damage finally did us in. My two attempts tonight were done IRL without my computer open (on purpose), so this is more of an overview than a true write-up.
On both solo attempts, I went for Port of Harad as my stating location. Hopefully I would have no more than one enemy engaged with me at any time, letting me deal as little damage as possible due to the Port's travel effect. This worked. Umbar Square came up right behind it, several times, and I opted to deal with the travel effect and keep moving forward. Same with Haradrim Estate. My willpower did not have a ton of room for growth so avoiding location lock was a priority.
On my first attempt, I would only keep Fastred up for defense. Then I dealt with a Southron Soldier at the start of stage 2 who made an immediate attack (since there were no resources to remove) and was dealt Enemy Pursuit as a shadow card (granting another attack). Shoot. While Fastred was able to bounce the Soldier back to the staging area, thus avoiding a third attack, I still had the second attack to deal with and no hero who could survive the attack. Eowyn had not used her ability yet, so I readied her (though it pained my heart) and had her defend. She survived, but victory was not to be had that attempt.
I wizened up on the second attempt and always tried to have at least one ally up (a usually strategy for me, but I was getting cocky). It also helped that I drew two Honour Guards, although they primarily served the purpose of removing archery damage and then soaking some up themselves. That was the kicker this time around. I ended up only putting one progress on stage 2 the final quest phase, which is all I needed. If that had not worked out, it was time to start looking heroes to archery damage.
Both quests featured terrible moments with Enemy Pursuit. This card always seemed to come up when I had 13-14 progress on stage 1 and was anticipating strolling onto stage 2. With the squishy heroes and light allies I'm packing in this, removing the progress is the only real choice. The first attempt did feature a satisfying moment where Enemy Pursuit removed all progress and I was still able to progress to stage 2 the following round.
Final Scoring
10 Completed Rounds x10: 100
Ending Threat: 30
Total Damage on Heroes: 7 (Argalad: 3, Eowyn: 2, Fastred: 2)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 137
The Recap
My first gut is that this quest felt very thematic. But how much of that is just in my head? What was really different here than the typical quest? Enemies and locations came out, enemies were fought and locations were explored. This is usually the type of thinking I have before taking a break for a bit (which is not the plan now). Despite that pessimistic viewpoint, this really did feel like the theme was there. Maybe it was the type of enemies (with the focus on archery and removing your progress). Maybe it was the type of locations (bringing out more enemies or temporarily averting the threat while you squeeze through a narrow alleyway). Like most games (such as Halo that I have fired up right now), the core elements of the game are basically the same and it is the nuances and shading that brings out the different themes. Escape from Umbar did this from me and I will look forward to fleeing this city again in the future.
The Deck
Argalad is a hero I have played with before but wanted to use more effectively. I see the key to him as A) keeping enemies in the staging area enough to knock them out over a few rounds or B) having a variety of ways to damage enemies while in the staging area and using Argalad as an additional point of that. Flipping through my binders this weekend, Fastred caught my eye. I know I recently gave him a mediocre review. This was due to feeling his three defense would lead to him being an ineffectual blocker and thus not useful for consistently throwing enemies back to the staging area. Consider me converted to the cause! A little buffing (Gondorian Shield, Captain of Gondor, Ally Arwen) and he works like a charm. While a quick perusal of RingsDB will see Fastred teamed with Dunhere (a great combination), I wanted to use him + Spear of the Citadel to tag-team enemies with Argalad. With the usually low amount of enemies appearing in a solo game, this should take care of attacking. The best offense is a good defense, right? I think that's how it goes.
Now to deal with questing. Argalad "kind of" quests, in removing the threat of an enemy (if there is one). Throw Light of the Valinor on him and he will often be pulling double duty. Since I wanted access to tactics for a few reasons (Fastred's equipment + Bow of the Gladhrim for Argalad), Tactics Eowyn was a no brainer. She can carry a chunk of the early questing and help out if a big attack is needed in a pinch. Add in Silvan Refugee to help with questing (since we hopefully won't be loosing anyone along the way) and Warden of Healing to help with the archery damage, then we're off to the races!
Take You With Me
Heroes
Argalad
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Fastred
Allies
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x3
Silvan Refugee x3
Honour Guard x3
Henamarth Riversong x2
Ioreth x1
Ithulien Tracker x3
Warden of Healing x2
Attachments
Ranger Bow x3
Bow of the Galadhrim x2
Captain of Gondor x2
Gondorian Shield x2
Spear of the Citadel x2
Light of Valinor x2
Unexpected Courage x2
Events
Daeron's Runes x3
Secret Paths x2
Goblin Cleaver x2
Hail of Stones x2
A Test of Will x3
Tides of Fate x3
A Good Harvest x3
RingsDB Link
The deck worked as desired. Enemies were fairly neutralized, threat was lowered, and a quest was won. But there are some major changes I would make for attempt #3 with this one. Being tri-sphere, I was very reserved in my resource costs. I ended up with a fairly light hand and some very rich heroes. While I may regret removing A Good Harvest, I would at least take it down to a one-of. In would go two copies of Arrows from the Trees. I would also add one or two high-cost Lore & Spirit allies and replace Hail of Stones with Hasty Stroke. Those changes should help firm up the key Argalad/Fastred strategy. Oh, and OG Gandalf. He is right there with the direct damage theme.
The Journey
My first attempt at escaping from Umbar was done alongside my wife, after a long hiatus of co-oping Lord of the Rings. While we had fun, the enemy swarm + archery damage finally did us in. My two attempts tonight were done IRL without my computer open (on purpose), so this is more of an overview than a true write-up.
On both solo attempts, I went for Port of Harad as my stating location. Hopefully I would have no more than one enemy engaged with me at any time, letting me deal as little damage as possible due to the Port's travel effect. This worked. Umbar Square came up right behind it, several times, and I opted to deal with the travel effect and keep moving forward. Same with Haradrim Estate. My willpower did not have a ton of room for growth so avoiding location lock was a priority.
On my first attempt, I would only keep Fastred up for defense. Then I dealt with a Southron Soldier at the start of stage 2 who made an immediate attack (since there were no resources to remove) and was dealt Enemy Pursuit as a shadow card (granting another attack). Shoot. While Fastred was able to bounce the Soldier back to the staging area, thus avoiding a third attack, I still had the second attack to deal with and no hero who could survive the attack. Eowyn had not used her ability yet, so I readied her (though it pained my heart) and had her defend. She survived, but victory was not to be had that attempt.
I wizened up on the second attempt and always tried to have at least one ally up (a usually strategy for me, but I was getting cocky). It also helped that I drew two Honour Guards, although they primarily served the purpose of removing archery damage and then soaking some up themselves. That was the kicker this time around. I ended up only putting one progress on stage 2 the final quest phase, which is all I needed. If that had not worked out, it was time to start looking heroes to archery damage.
Both quests featured terrible moments with Enemy Pursuit. This card always seemed to come up when I had 13-14 progress on stage 1 and was anticipating strolling onto stage 2. With the squishy heroes and light allies I'm packing in this, removing the progress is the only real choice. The first attempt did feature a satisfying moment where Enemy Pursuit removed all progress and I was still able to progress to stage 2 the following round.
Final Scoring
10 Completed Rounds x10: 100
Ending Threat: 30
Total Damage on Heroes: 7 (Argalad: 3, Eowyn: 2, Fastred: 2)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 137
The Recap
My first gut is that this quest felt very thematic. But how much of that is just in my head? What was really different here than the typical quest? Enemies and locations came out, enemies were fought and locations were explored. This is usually the type of thinking I have before taking a break for a bit (which is not the plan now). Despite that pessimistic viewpoint, this really did feel like the theme was there. Maybe it was the type of enemies (with the focus on archery and removing your progress). Maybe it was the type of locations (bringing out more enemies or temporarily averting the threat while you squeeze through a narrow alleyway). Like most games (such as Halo that I have fired up right now), the core elements of the game are basically the same and it is the nuances and shading that brings out the different themes. Escape from Umbar did this from me and I will look forward to fleeing this city again in the future.
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Looking Back: The Dreamchaser Cycle
I am Southern Californian, born and raided. More specifically, San Diego county. While I am far from that part of the land now, love of the sea is still in my blood. And growing up in SolCal has the added benefit of Disneyland being a significant part of my childhood (and, heck, adulthood), with it almost hard wired into me to make Pirates of the Caribbean my first stop in the early morning. Something about the cool, crisp morning air makes it feel like you are on the dock waiting to board your ship (and that line gets crazy-long later in the day, so it's pretty practical as well).
The Dreamchaser Cycle had the promise of sea-fairing and swash-buckling, with a middle-earth twist, and I think it lived up to it. There were not many quests that I marked down as favorite, but I truly loved the cycle as a whole piece. A strong theme ran through this one that made the quests feel more connected than the previous cycles. And theme is where this one had me hook, line, and sinker.
Will I one-off quests from this cycle down the line? Maybe. Will I sit down for a series of sessions to tackle the whole thing back-to-back? Definitely.
The Dreamchaser Cycle had the promise of sea-fairing and swash-buckling, with a middle-earth twist, and I think it lived up to it. There were not many quests that I marked down as favorite, but I truly loved the cycle as a whole piece. A strong theme ran through this one that made the quests feel more connected than the previous cycles. And theme is where this one had me hook, line, and sinker.
Will I one-off quests from this cycle down the line? Maybe. Will I sit down for a series of sessions to tackle the whole thing back-to-back? Definitely.
Quest 53: A Storm on Corbas Haven
Victory on the First Attempt!
The Deck
Yes, this Spirit Pippin Deck Soloed Cobas Haven was too intriguing a name to pass up. The deck was renamed in its later form, but I still knew which quest I would be using this one on.
My previous experience with Spirit Pippin was that he is good for a sphere match, is eclipsed by Spirit Merry, and is otherwise forgettable. But A Storm on Corbas Haven is actually the perfect quest to see this much-maligned hero card shine. Corsair enemies are a pain and having a way to semi-nullify the boarding keyword is a great tool to have in your bag of tricks. Trust Seastan to take a card I thought was pretty much useless and make it a key piece of my strategy!
Spirit Pippin Goes Sailing
by Seastan
Heroes
Bilbo Baggins (The Hunt for Gollum)
Pippin (Encounter at Amon Din)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Allies
Anfalas Herdsman x3
Gelowine x1
Henamarth Riversong x1
Quickbeam x1
Warden of Healing x3
Bofur (The Redhorn Gate) x1
Ethir Swordsman x3
Galadhrim Weaver x3
Galadriel's Handmaiden x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
Saruman x3
Treebeard (The Antlered Crown) x1
Attachments
Good Meal x3
Events
Daeron's Runes x3
A Test of Will x3
The Galadhrim's Greeting x3
Sneak Attack x3
Sets Used
Core
The Hunt for Gollum
The Redhorn Gate
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Heirs of Numenor
The Steward's Fear
Encounter at Amon Din
The Black Riders
The Voice of Isengard
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Antlered Crown
The Treason of Saruman
The Treachery of Rhudar
Check out Seastan's notes on the deck at Rings DB!
RingsDB Link
The Journey
Set-Up
As Seastan recommended, I chose Narlenya as my ship and Sea-ward Tower as my objective. It became guarded by the Coast of Anfalas. Creative location that requires you to devote a ship objective to travel to or will punish you if you are not using your ships well and sail poorly.
Round 1
Daeron's Runes allow me to get another ally (Galadriel's Handmaden) in hand. I end up keeping her in hand for now but get Quickbeam and a Snowbourn Scout in play. Sailing for four succeeds! But questing for 9 fails by one point. With my threat slightly increase, I head for Cobas Haven (guarding The Beacon).
Round 2
The ally army grows with Errand-rider and Anfalas Herdsman. Sailing with 5 keeps in in fair weather and questing for 15 gets my heroes past Cobas Haven and onto...another Cobas Haven.
Round 3
More allies, more successful sailing, more successful questing. Now it's time to start getting tactical! I engage a Scouting Ship and avoid the boarding (thanks, Cobas Haven!). Two damage goes on it right away (thanks, Stage 1B and fair weather!). No shadow effect and my team is able to put four more damage on it.
Round 4
I use The Beacon to get a Dol Amroth Warship on my side, then sail and quest almost past stage 1 (7/10 progress down). The Scouting Ship gets a little damage onto Narlenya before being destroyed.
Round 5
Ethir Swoardsman hits the table, I sail for five, and...fail! I am now one step off course. Questing on to stage 2, I am facing a Heavy Cruiser guarding The Beacon and I still have a Coast of Anflas guarding the Sea-ward Tower. It's time to free that guy up! Travel to the Coast then use two Sneak Attacks on Gandalf (Encounter and Combat phases) to get rid of the Heavy Cruiser.
Round 6
I drop my threat, preparing to let Spirit Pippin's abilities see some action. Questing all out for 8 and...FAIL! I did get one hit and am only at -1, but still not comfortable being in my second round of bad weather. Questing goes well and the Sea-ward Tower is now undefended, so hopefully future sailing tests will be smooth...sailing.
Round 7
I finally put Faramir down (I've had him for a bit). With the Dreamchaser and Sea-ward Tower on my side, I commit six characters/ships to the quest for a total of eight chances. Survey says...three hit! Back on course and ready to stomp face. The Raider's Assault comes out during staging, causing a Corsair Skirmisher to guard The Beacon. I engage the skirmisher. An Umbar Raider attempts to board me and is bounced back to the staging area. The skirmisher is defeated and commandeered by my team. Stage 2 is almost defeated (11/16 progress).
Round 8
I commit five to the sailing test, reaveal seven cards, and get the one hit that I need. My crew breaks through stage 2 and now has to Break Through the Fleet! The Umbar Raider attempts to come down to play and Spirit Pippin says "Nope." I take an undefended attack from the Raider Flagship, putting the damage on the Corsair Skirmsher, and advance to the next round.
Round 9
How should I break through the fleet: Quest or Battle? I have a sizable force amassed, but their strengths are definitely in the willpower area. First, let's make sure we stay in calm waters. I look at six encounter cards for the sailing test and...WIFF! One mark off course. Hopefully that won't bite me in the quest phase. I throw everything have at it and quest for 34. A wild Fog Bank appears (good thing I did not choose the tactical route), the threat in the staging area is raised to 8, and my forces break through to victory!
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 37
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -1 (Belfas Islet)
Total Score: 116
The Recap
I love that you can engage and (try to) defeat the raider flagship as early in the quest as you would like. I mean, good luck with that, but it is possible.
The difficulty definitely seemed to ramp up with this one, especially with the sailing tests. Seastan put in his notes that he always tried to commit at least seven to each quest. I didn't always get there and began regretting that in the second half. This was actually refreshing! Sailing is a fun mechanic which I pretty much had licked, only failing the occasional test in previous quests. Now committing eight and still failing? That adds a nice level of tenseness to each round (and frustration if you did not pack enough allies).The haven definitely felt stormy here.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Quest 54: The City of Corsairs
Victory on the Fifth Attempt!
The Deck
I decided a few weeks ago that I would take on The City of Corsairs using a brand-spanking new netdeck destined to cause errata...
Solo combo deck +90% win rate, usually on turn one
Heroes
Allies
Attachments
Events
Sideboard
Sets Used
Check out notes from Rouxxor and others at RingsDB
And read the detailed deck notes at Hall of Beorn
0 Completed Rounds x10: 0
Ending Threat: 39
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -1 (Justice Shall Be Done)
Total Score: 38
The Recap
Let's be honest: This was more of a deck test than an play through that gave a real feel for the quest. But playing this deck is a game in and of itself. While the combo is there, just waiting to be unleashed, you do need to find the right order to play your cards in to get the initial conditions set up.
Still, I was able to appreciate what I saw of the quest while moving at super-speed. Mixing up sailing & sea warfare with a land battle keeps the player on their toes (and brings in interesting challenge to deckbuilding). Corsairs are nasty enemies and I can see that, with any deck that is not a turn-one victory, this would be a quest to bring your best well-rounded deck to.
The Deck
I decided a few weeks ago that I would take on The City of Corsairs using a brand-spanking new netdeck destined to cause errata...
Solo combo deck +90% win rate, usually on turn one
by Rouxxor
Heroes
Bifur (Khazad-dum)
Bilbo Baggins (The Hunt for Gollum)
Denethor (Flight of the Stormcaller)
Allies
Erebor Hammersmith x3
Erebor Record Keeper x3
Ered Nimrais Prospector x3
Dwarven Sellsword x3
Gloin (On the Doorstep) x1
Gandalf (Core) x1*
Attachments
Legacy of Durin x1
Scroll of Isildur x1
Rod of the Steward x1
Tome of Atanatar x1
Good Meal x3
Events
Daeron's Runes x3
Deep Knowledge x3
Heed the Dream x2
Lorien's Wealth x3
Mithrandir's Advice x2
Ravens of the Mountain x1
Out of the Wild x1*
Gaining Strength x1
Legacy of Numenor x3
Lure of Moria x2
Second Breakfast x1
We Are Not Idle x3
Justice Shall Be Done x1
The Seeing Stone x3
Sideboard
Heed the Dream x1*
Mithrandir's Advice x1*
Erestor (The Treachery of Rhudaur)
Legacy of Durin x2
Lore of Imladris x1
Needful to Know x1
Risk Some Light x1
The Evening Star x3
Durin's Song x1
Gaining Strength x1
Song of Battle x1
Song of Travel x1
Dunedain Pathfinder x1
Born Aloft x1
Sets Used
Core
The Hunt for Gollum
Conflict at the Carrock
Khazad-dum
The Redhorn Gate
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
Foundations of Stone
Shadow and Flame
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Blood of Gondor
The Morgul Vale
The Voice of Isengard
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Drowned Ruins
A Storm of Cobas Haven
Check out notes from Rouxxor and others at RingsDB
RingsDB Link
And read the detailed deck notes at Hall of Beorn
Hall of Beorn Link
Rouxxor has set up a masterpiece of a deck that can beat almost any quest. But here's the catch: This one falls in the "almost" category. To beat The City of Corsairs, you need to destroy Captain Sahir. On my first attempt I got up to that point with a smile on my face and joy in my heart. Then I counted how much attack strength I had on the board. Then I just looked a little sad.
As is, this deck can muster only 13 attack. The absolute best-cased scenario requires 14 to defeat The City of Corsairs. Fortunantly Rouxxor included a sideboard with two options for you: Dunadain Pathfiner and Gandalf. Gandalf is designed to be combined with Song of Battle and Born Aloft for an infinite damage loop, but we just need to play him once. This can get us up to 18 attack strength in a best-case scenario. My first attempt was not a best-case and I ended up with 9 resources on Captain Sahir, requiring 21 attack strength to destroy him. This is why I also added in the sideboard card of Out of the Wild: To eliminate all but one card from the encounter deck and skip dealing shadow cards.
Another route would be to leave the deck as is, not play Justice Shall Be Done, and defeat Captain Sahir during round 2. A great theory that I personally was not able to pull off. Justice Shall Be Done provided cruicial resource acceleration for me. But that might just be a skill-level limitation.
The Journey
Rouxxor built his deck well and you tinker with it at your own risk. I had no problem establishing the initial combo settings (empty deck with Tomb of Atanatar in my hand, all dwarfs out, and the necessary cards in my discard pile) both times I ran the deck as-is. After my adjustments, it took me three attempts before I could successfully re-establish the combo setting. Maybe this could happen under other circumstances, but it certainly seemed like a correlation to me.
Since you only truly care about stage 3 &4, I recommend seeing if you can get the combo set up before even bringing out the encounter deck.
Now, once your deck is empty and everything is in it's place, begin implementing the infinite resource combo. I went through the entire combo a single time, to make sure I understood it and to see it in action, and then acted as if I did it X times (where X = infinity).
Time to play Gandalf and get that threat down a bit (not that it should matter).
And now for the infinite progress combo. As above, I did this once then clicked through the quest stages and arranged the staging area & encounter decks as each stage directed. For stage 3A, pick a Corsair Infiltrator as your raider (they don't have an ability to gain extra resources). Add 1 resource. Pick Streets of Umbar as your location. For stage 4A, pick another Corsair Infiltrator as your raider. Add 1 resource to each raider and to Captain Sahir.
Now, start looping Out of the Wild. Follow the same instructions given in looping Ravens of the Mountains (skip step 5&6 which is built around readying Bifur). As with both of the above, do this loop once and then add all but one encounter card in the deck to your victory display. I picked a second Streets of Umbar to remain.
Your staging area should have: Streets of Umbar, The Shattered Monument, Corsair Infiltrator (2 resources), Corsair Infiltrator (1 resource). The encounter deck should just have Streets of Umbar (or whatever card you picked).
Proceed to the quest phase. Quest with just enough power, then loop Tomb of Atanatar / Second Breakfast / Lure of Moria to ready everyone.
The Infiltrator's engage you. No shadow cards dealt. Sacrifice the Prospector's to enemy attacks. Destroy both Infiltrator's, adding their resources to Captain Sahir (who should have four total), then loop Tomb/Breakfast/Lure to ready everyone and attack the captain for 17.
Proceed to victory dance.
Final Scoring
0 Completed Rounds x10: 0
Ending Threat: 39
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -1 (Justice Shall Be Done)
Total Score: 38
The Recap
Let's be honest: This was more of a deck test than an play through that gave a real feel for the quest. But playing this deck is a game in and of itself. While the combo is there, just waiting to be unleashed, you do need to find the right order to play your cards in to get the initial conditions set up.
Still, I was able to appreciate what I saw of the quest while moving at super-speed. Mixing up sailing & sea warfare with a land battle keeps the player on their toes (and brings in interesting challenge to deckbuilding). Corsairs are nasty enemies and I can see that, with any deck that is not a turn-one victory, this would be a quest to bring your best well-rounded deck to.
(note: posted out of order, but it is taking me forever to sit down and finish the other write-up)
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Quest 52: The Drowned Ruins
Victory on the First Attempt!
The Deck
The idea of taking on a modern quest with just the core set (and a single core at that) has intrigued me ever since I heard of Xanalor's deck. I tried this deck out towards the end of the Angmar Awakened cycle and was stomped by the encounter deck. This time around I stomped back.
This deck is a great reminder of how many cards in the core set are still relevant in decks today. Guard of the Citadel is really the only card I would not consider putting in a modern deck, and even that may have a place in a dedicated Gondor build (which I have not experimented with much).
It was funny to be expecting additional copies of cards, having owned two cores since the first month of the game and three since last year. I had three Gandalf's in my hand near the end of the game and was waiting for my "final" Sneak Attack to come up, forgetting that I had already played the only two in the deck.
Back to Basics - A Killer Deck Using Cards From 1 Core Set
by Xanalor
Heroes
Beravor
Eowyn (Core)
Theodred
Allies
Erebor Hammersmith x2
Gelowine x2
Henamarth Riversong x1
Miner of the Iron Hills x2
Eowyn x2
Faramir (Core) x2
Guard of the Citadel x3
Beorn (Core) x1
Gandalf (Core) x3
Attachments
Forest Snare x2
Unexpected Courage x1
Steward of Gondor x2
Events
Lore of Imladris x3
A Test of Will x2
Dwarven Tomb x1
Hasty Stroke x2
Stand and Fight x3
The Galadhrim's Greeting x2
Will of the West x2
For Gondor! x1
Sneak Attack x2
Check Xanalor's notes on the deck at RingsDB
RingsDB Link
The Journey
Round 1
Thought I was toast right away and almost scooped. First quest phase had an Ancient Depths revealed, causing a Twisting Hollow to enter the staging area. Loosing one ally each turn seemed unbeatable, but then I realized I could keep in the staging area and quest around the threat. Location lock was a real thing (especially now that I had three double sided locations) and I hoped I could start building up some serious forces.
Round 2
I had taken a hand full of two-drops and no Steward. Pretty risky for a deck I had not had success with before. The pay off came this round when I was able to drop Gleowine, Unexpected Courage, Sneaky Gandalf (for card draw), and put a resource on Captain Sahir. I was able to get over the initial threat of location lock and Beravor began filling up my hand with sweet cards.
Round 3
Steward finally makes it to the table, as well as a few more allies (another Guard and a Northern Tracker). Another resource on the Captain. I'm still keeping locations on their Grotto side with the hopes of building up an ally army before progressing to stage 2.
Round 4
More allies, another resource on the Captain, but this time I decide to flip the active location over and reveal a Sunken Temple.
Round 5
Sneaky Gandalf comes in to drop my threat and help my team quest for 21, moving the Sunken Temple to the victory display!
Round 6
Gandalf is gone, but Faramir drops in so willpower has basically become a non-issue and location lock is not a threat hovering over me. My first enemy, Throngs of the Unfaithful, comes out and surges into a Curse of the Downfallen that does some damage to most of my allies (and kills off Riversong). Na'asiyah easily defends the Throngs (This is a great enemy for a Dunadain deck to go against, btw).
Round 7
Another Curse of the Downfallen decimates my ally forces, but Faramir (and the very high willpower Captain Sahir) comes through for me. Two locations in the victory display!
Round 8
The third location gets added to the victory display and Captain Sahir, my questing all-star and steady resource sink, shows his true colors and takes out Faramir. A Drowned Dead comes out to cause trouble as well.
Round 9
Faramir #2 hits the table and Gandalf shows up to one-shot the Drowned Dead (Modal Gandalf should be the name of this play-through). Shrine to Morgoth gets 15 progress on it.
Round 10
It's just a matter of seeing if a nasty surprise comes off the encounter deck at this point. No surprise and victory is mine!
Final Scoring
9 Completed Rounds x10: 90
Ending Threat: 41
Total Damage on Heroes: 3 (Eowyn)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -11
(Sunken Temple: 2, Sunken Temple: 2, Twisting Hollow: 2, Shrine to Morgoth: 5)
Total Score: 123
The Recap
Like Temple of the Deceived before it, The Drowned Ruins keeps you on your questing toes. And, also like the preceding quest, choices are given to how you proceed through the quest. Yet both quests feel very distinct and thematically separate in spite of that. I'm a fan of variety, including having the encounter deck hamper me in creative ways, so this was an enjoyable one to tackle. Definitely one for the questing decks, at least based on my play through.
The Deck
The idea of taking on a modern quest with just the core set (and a single core at that) has intrigued me ever since I heard of Xanalor's deck. I tried this deck out towards the end of the Angmar Awakened cycle and was stomped by the encounter deck. This time around I stomped back.
This deck is a great reminder of how many cards in the core set are still relevant in decks today. Guard of the Citadel is really the only card I would not consider putting in a modern deck, and even that may have a place in a dedicated Gondor build (which I have not experimented with much).
It was funny to be expecting additional copies of cards, having owned two cores since the first month of the game and three since last year. I had three Gandalf's in my hand near the end of the game and was waiting for my "final" Sneak Attack to come up, forgetting that I had already played the only two in the deck.
Back to Basics - A Killer Deck Using Cards From 1 Core Set
by Xanalor
Heroes
Beravor
Eowyn (Core)
Theodred
Allies
Erebor Hammersmith x2
Gelowine x2
Henamarth Riversong x1
Miner of the Iron Hills x2
Eowyn x2
Faramir (Core) x2
Guard of the Citadel x3
Beorn (Core) x1
Gandalf (Core) x3
Attachments
Forest Snare x2
Unexpected Courage x1
Steward of Gondor x2
Events
Lore of Imladris x3
A Test of Will x2
Dwarven Tomb x1
Hasty Stroke x2
Stand and Fight x3
The Galadhrim's Greeting x2
Will of the West x2
For Gondor! x1
Sneak Attack x2
Check Xanalor's notes on the deck at RingsDB
RingsDB Link
The Journey
Round 1
Thought I was toast right away and almost scooped. First quest phase had an Ancient Depths revealed, causing a Twisting Hollow to enter the staging area. Loosing one ally each turn seemed unbeatable, but then I realized I could keep in the staging area and quest around the threat. Location lock was a real thing (especially now that I had three double sided locations) and I hoped I could start building up some serious forces.
Round 2
I had taken a hand full of two-drops and no Steward. Pretty risky for a deck I had not had success with before. The pay off came this round when I was able to drop Gleowine, Unexpected Courage, Sneaky Gandalf (for card draw), and put a resource on Captain Sahir. I was able to get over the initial threat of location lock and Beravor began filling up my hand with sweet cards.
Round 3
Steward finally makes it to the table, as well as a few more allies (another Guard and a Northern Tracker). Another resource on the Captain. I'm still keeping locations on their Grotto side with the hopes of building up an ally army before progressing to stage 2.
Round 4
More allies, another resource on the Captain, but this time I decide to flip the active location over and reveal a Sunken Temple.
Round 5
Sneaky Gandalf comes in to drop my threat and help my team quest for 21, moving the Sunken Temple to the victory display!
Round 6
Gandalf is gone, but Faramir drops in so willpower has basically become a non-issue and location lock is not a threat hovering over me. My first enemy, Throngs of the Unfaithful, comes out and surges into a Curse of the Downfallen that does some damage to most of my allies (and kills off Riversong). Na'asiyah easily defends the Throngs (This is a great enemy for a Dunadain deck to go against, btw).
Round 7
Another Curse of the Downfallen decimates my ally forces, but Faramir (and the very high willpower Captain Sahir) comes through for me. Two locations in the victory display!
Round 8
The third location gets added to the victory display and Captain Sahir, my questing all-star and steady resource sink, shows his true colors and takes out Faramir. A Drowned Dead comes out to cause trouble as well.
Round 9
Faramir #2 hits the table and Gandalf shows up to one-shot the Drowned Dead (Modal Gandalf should be the name of this play-through). Shrine to Morgoth gets 15 progress on it.
Round 10
It's just a matter of seeing if a nasty surprise comes off the encounter deck at this point. No surprise and victory is mine!
Final Scoring
9 Completed Rounds x10: 90
Ending Threat: 41
Total Damage on Heroes: 3 (Eowyn)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -11
(Sunken Temple: 2, Sunken Temple: 2, Twisting Hollow: 2, Shrine to Morgoth: 5)
Total Score: 123
The Recap
Like Temple of the Deceived before it, The Drowned Ruins keeps you on your questing toes. And, also like the preceding quest, choices are given to how you proceed through the quest. Yet both quests feel very distinct and thematically separate in spite of that. I'm a fan of variety, including having the encounter deck hamper me in creative ways, so this was an enjoyable one to tackle. Definitely one for the questing decks, at least based on my play through.
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Saga Quest 14: Helm's Deep
Victory on the first attempt!
The Deck
Building a brand new deck for a quest usually gives me pause: Will the basic fabric of this quest and the deck I'm building even be compatible? Fortunately I went with athree four hunters build that did not include Tactics Legolas (who would have gone to waste here). Still a very tactical build, even if there is a rainbow of spheres present. A big goal here is to get two additional races out (Ents being a one) and play The Free People's for value. Only one trick, but a fun one to pull off.
Emo Helm
Heroes
Boromir (The Dead Marshes)
Gimli (The Sands of Harad)
Legolas (The Sands of Harad)
Aragorn (The Treason of Saruman)
Allies
Bofur (Over Hill and Under Hill) x1
Derndingle Warrior x2
Skinbark x1
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Wather) x1
Warden of Healing x1
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
Treebeard (The Antlered Crown) x2
Attachments
Captain of Gondor x1
Gondorian Shield x3
Rivendell Blade x2
Narvi's Belt x2
Steward of Gondor x3
Light of Valinor x1
Unexpected Courage x2
A Burning Brand x1
Banner of Elendil x1
Events
Foe-hammer x3
Hands Upon the Bow x3
Captain's Wisdom x2
Sneak Attack x3
Unlikely Friendship x3
A Test of Will x3
The Free Peoples x3
Sets Used
Core
Conflict at the Carrock
The Dead Marshes
Khazad-dum
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Shadow and Flame
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
The Steward's Fear
TheAntlered Crown
Escape from Mount Gram
The Land of Shadow
The Thing in the Depths
The Flame of the West
The Sands of Harad
Beneath the Sands
RingsDB Link
The Journey
Note: I thought I had kept my OCTGN notes on this one somewhere, but apparently I was wrong...
This was a good example of reaping rewards for persevering just a little bit more even when the game seems over. Due to being a bit over-eager with my Boromir use, I came super close to threatening out. I was about to fold & start over, when Gandalf poked his little grey head out. He gave me just enough threat reduction to make it through one more quest stage, get the last progress on The Defense of Helm's Deep, and see those sweet words for a Boromir deck: "If there are no enemies in play, the players win the game." While Boromir won the day, the general victory felt thematic with Ents + The Free Peoples pulling some serious weight.
Final Score
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 49
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Aragorn: 3, Boromir: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 133
The Recap
Changes in the basic mentality of the game are always welcome to me, so reversing who is trying to advance the quest (you or the encounter deck) was a neat twist. Definitely not a quest for decks trying to win by speeding through!
The Deck
Building a brand new deck for a quest usually gives me pause: Will the basic fabric of this quest and the deck I'm building even be compatible? Fortunately I went with a
Emo Helm
Heroes
Boromir (The Dead Marshes)
Gimli (The Sands of Harad)
Legolas (The Sands of Harad)
Aragorn (The Treason of Saruman)
Allies
Bofur (Over Hill and Under Hill) x1
Derndingle Warrior x2
Skinbark x1
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Wather) x1
Warden of Healing x1
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
Treebeard (The Antlered Crown) x2
Attachments
Captain of Gondor x1
Gondorian Shield x3
Rivendell Blade x2
Narvi's Belt x2
Steward of Gondor x3
Light of Valinor x1
Unexpected Courage x2
A Burning Brand x1
Banner of Elendil x1
Events
Foe-hammer x3
Hands Upon the Bow x3
Captain's Wisdom x2
Sneak Attack x3
Unlikely Friendship x3
A Test of Will x3
The Free Peoples x3
Sets Used
Core
Conflict at the Carrock
The Dead Marshes
Khazad-dum
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Shadow and Flame
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
The Steward's Fear
TheAntlered Crown
Escape from Mount Gram
The Land of Shadow
The Thing in the Depths
The Flame of the West
The Sands of Harad
Beneath the Sands
RingsDB Link
The Journey
Note: I thought I had kept my OCTGN notes on this one somewhere, but apparently I was wrong...
This was a good example of reaping rewards for persevering just a little bit more even when the game seems over. Due to being a bit over-eager with my Boromir use, I came super close to threatening out. I was about to fold & start over, when Gandalf poked his little grey head out. He gave me just enough threat reduction to make it through one more quest stage, get the last progress on The Defense of Helm's Deep, and see those sweet words for a Boromir deck: "If there are no enemies in play, the players win the game." While Boromir won the day, the general victory felt thematic with Ents + The Free Peoples pulling some serious weight.
Final Score
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 49
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Aragorn: 3, Boromir: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 133
The Recap
Changes in the basic mentality of the game are always welcome to me, so reversing who is trying to advance the quest (you or the encounter deck) was a neat twist. Definitely not a quest for decks trying to win by speeding through!
Friday, July 21, 2017
First Impressions: The Black Serpent
There are two write ups in the queue waiting to be finished, but I just got my grubby hands on The Black Serpent and I wanted to finally do something that has been on my mind for a while: A first impression player card review.
This is right out of the gate. The box is sitting to my left with the seal remove and the clamshell just cracked. Here we go!
Fastred
Alright, so I saw this guy on someone's Facebook post yesterday (which is how I knew the pack was out, since my FLGS had their shipment delayed). Spirit Rohan is great, but the stats are not crazy impressive to me 1 willpower, 2 attack, 3 defense, 3hp. Bounce to the staging area and reduce my threat. I'm thinking of combos with Spirit Merry to lower that threat. Or what about lore Faramir, who would get an attack boost? Still, enemies are often going to have 3+ attack, plus whatever is hiding in their shadow card. Three hit points does not give me a lot of confidence in defending those attacks. Ally Arwen can help. Other than that, I'm struggling thinking of consistent Spirit defense boosters right now. I did see Tales from the Cards used this guy, Tactics Eowyn, and someone else (Dunhere?) for some success. I'm not salivating over Fastred, but he's not Spirit Pippin either.
Song of Hope
Resources = Willpower. Nice. Being Leadership and requiring consistent resources makes me think of Leadership Denethor bringing this with him to slap on the designated quester. Heck, the existence of Steward of Gondor will likely make this a staple for me in any deck with Leadership.
Bursting into Song
Why yes I am. Ready heroes with songs? Into the Elfhelm horse deck you go. Any other applications would probably only happen if I look down at my decklist and realize I have a good handful of songs.
Defender of Cair Andros
A 4 cost situational Tactics ally? First glance says "Pass." But let's think about this. The 1 willpower and 1 attacks gives him some utility early on. At 30+ threat, he can defend decently (I'm much more of a fan when an ally has three defense and three hit points, vs a hero). At 40+ he's a great defender with a Spear of the Citadel tacked on. We'll change that "Pass" to a "Maybe."
Oath of Erol
Full of good attackers and short on defenders? Well, then hopefully you drew this card! When this was spoiled a bit ago I thought of using it in a Hama deck as a back up in case Thicket of Spears didn't make it into my hand. May still try that one out.
Fearless Scout
Cantrip + Scout trait. Not really exciting to me. I remember a card that cares about Scouts questing. Would work well there. I would need to look at the ally pool to see if this has implications for Tactics Prince Imrahil.
Rally in the West
Hello multi-player all-star! A whole table getting +1 willpower? Worth including that hero that fetches a side quest just for this guy. Even solo I wouldn't mind this type of consistent, untouchable willpower increase.
Dunedain Pipe
Oooh, I like this one. You still get to "keep" the unwanted card in your deck (because it shouldn't be fully unwanted if it's in your deck) and you're not risking shuffling the temporarily unwanted card away only to have it be what you draw (at least not risking drawing that exact copy).
Old Toby
...is more flexible than I am. This picture makes me uncomfortable. The card itself is fine. I haven't done a fully dedicated pipe deck, but now with four pipes and two cards that care directly about them, I may have to give this a spin.
Southron Refugee
The full Harad deck is another one I haven't tried yet. Stackable reduction is good incentive to try! Auto-include with that archetype.
Well that is a nice pack of player cards. With the exception of Defender of Cair Andros, everything strikes me as having a clear place and I look forward to seeing them there.
This is right out of the gate. The box is sitting to my left with the seal remove and the clamshell just cracked. Here we go!
Fastred
Alright, so I saw this guy on someone's Facebook post yesterday (which is how I knew the pack was out, since my FLGS had their shipment delayed). Spirit Rohan is great, but the stats are not crazy impressive to me 1 willpower, 2 attack, 3 defense, 3hp. Bounce to the staging area and reduce my threat. I'm thinking of combos with Spirit Merry to lower that threat. Or what about lore Faramir, who would get an attack boost? Still, enemies are often going to have 3+ attack, plus whatever is hiding in their shadow card. Three hit points does not give me a lot of confidence in defending those attacks. Ally Arwen can help. Other than that, I'm struggling thinking of consistent Spirit defense boosters right now. I did see Tales from the Cards used this guy, Tactics Eowyn, and someone else (Dunhere?) for some success. I'm not salivating over Fastred, but he's not Spirit Pippin either.
Song of Hope
Resources = Willpower. Nice. Being Leadership and requiring consistent resources makes me think of Leadership Denethor bringing this with him to slap on the designated quester. Heck, the existence of Steward of Gondor will likely make this a staple for me in any deck with Leadership.
Bursting into Song
Why yes I am. Ready heroes with songs? Into the Elfhelm horse deck you go. Any other applications would probably only happen if I look down at my decklist and realize I have a good handful of songs.
Defender of Cair Andros
A 4 cost situational Tactics ally? First glance says "Pass." But let's think about this. The 1 willpower and 1 attacks gives him some utility early on. At 30+ threat, he can defend decently (I'm much more of a fan when an ally has three defense and three hit points, vs a hero). At 40+ he's a great defender with a Spear of the Citadel tacked on. We'll change that "Pass" to a "Maybe."
Oath of Erol
Full of good attackers and short on defenders? Well, then hopefully you drew this card! When this was spoiled a bit ago I thought of using it in a Hama deck as a back up in case Thicket of Spears didn't make it into my hand. May still try that one out.
Fearless Scout
Cantrip + Scout trait. Not really exciting to me. I remember a card that cares about Scouts questing. Would work well there. I would need to look at the ally pool to see if this has implications for Tactics Prince Imrahil.
Rally in the West
Hello multi-player all-star! A whole table getting +1 willpower? Worth including that hero that fetches a side quest just for this guy. Even solo I wouldn't mind this type of consistent, untouchable willpower increase.
Dunedain Pipe
Oooh, I like this one. You still get to "keep" the unwanted card in your deck (because it shouldn't be fully unwanted if it's in your deck) and you're not risking shuffling the temporarily unwanted card away only to have it be what you draw (at least not risking drawing that exact copy).
Old Toby
...is more flexible than I am. This picture makes me uncomfortable. The card itself is fine. I haven't done a fully dedicated pipe deck, but now with four pipes and two cards that care directly about them, I may have to give this a spin.
Southron Refugee
The full Harad deck is another one I haven't tried yet. Stackable reduction is good incentive to try! Auto-include with that archetype.
Well that is a nice pack of player cards. With the exception of Defender of Cair Andros, everything strikes me as having a clear place and I look forward to seeing them there.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Redo: Temple of the Deceived
Victory on the third attempt!
The Journey & Recap
My first time around beating Temple of the Deceived came with the realization that I had missplayed Jungle Path and traveled to a location I should not have been allowed to. While it looked like my victory would not have been affected, I felt it was worth a shot redoing this one. Plus, I love the unique layout of this quest.
This attempt was pretty uneventful and quick (if fighting off the Temple Guardian three times can be uneventful). I started off at a Drowned Graves, moved to a Winding Caverns, and hopped right over to a Cursed Temple. After that I moved to a Temple Halls, then down to The Grotto's Entrance. No Jagged Cliff/Jungle Path shenanigans to worry about.
A fun moment was being at the Cursed Temple, with it's downside of keeping everyone but Eowyn tapped down, and having a ready Eomund to block with, die, and ready his friends. Then, just a few rounds later, the quest ended with a very Rohanesque casting of Astonishing Speed as our heroes and allies galloped off to victory!
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 38
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -4 (Temple Guardian)
Total Score: 114
The Deck
My Rohan horse deck was a blast to play the fist time I journeyed around the island. I did want to add a few more mounts, such as A-Rod and Winfola. Songs were also conspicuously missing from the deck the first time around (I did not think of the implications of those with Elfelm's ability). Perfectly refined? Not yet. Fun? Yup. It doesn't spam the allies, like my usual preferred plan, but gives you just the right number while watching Eowyn & Eomer do their respective things.
You Get a Horse v.2
Heroes
Elfhelm (Temple of the Deceived)
Eomer
Eowyn (Core)
Allies
Ceorl x1
Errand-rider x3
Deorwine x1
Westfold Outrider x3
Eomund x2
Gamling x2
Hama (The Treason of Saruman) x2
Westfold Horse-breeder x3
Gandalf (Core) x2
Attachments
Armored Destrier x2
Steward of Gondor x2
Arod x1
Firefoot x1
Rohan Warhorse x2
Herugrim x1
Snowmane x1
Steed of the Mark x1
Winfola x1
Song of Battle x1
Song of Kings x1
Events
A Very Good Tale x2
Captain's Wisdom x2
Sneak Attack x2
Charge of the Rohirrim x2
A Test of Will x2
Astonishing Speed x2
Elven-light x3
Sets Used
Core
The Hunt for Gollum
Conflict at the Carrock
The Dead Marshes
Return to Mirkwood
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
The Steward's Fear
The Morgul Vale
The Voice of Isengard
The Dunland Trap
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Treason of Saruman
The Land of Shadow
The Dread Realm
The Thing in the Depths
Temple of the Deceived
A Storm on Corbas Haven
RingsDB Link
Monday, July 3, 2017
Quest 50: The Thing in the Depths
Victory on the Fourth Attempt!
The Deck
Knowing this was going to be more of a tactical quest, I was looking for a Dunedain deck to try out. I kind of found one. The Eagles Comeback Album has a few Dunedain in the line up but is, as the title hints, primarily an Eagles deck. It developed a nice board state rather quickly, but the questing power wasn't quite what I needed (or at least what I was able to use effectively). A.C.E. was up to the willpower challenge, but not the tactical aspect. Ally swarm had my focus. Quad Sphere Dwarf Swarm caught my eye...until I realized it had done so last month. Then I came across a deck I had heard mentioned several times: Seastan's Everything* Costs 2. Exactly what I was wanting!
Everything* Costs 2
Heroes
Arwen Undomiel (The Dread Realm)
Beregond (Heirs of Numenor)
Galdor of the Havens (The Grey Havens)
Allies
Bilbo Baggins (The Road Darkens) x1
Ethir Swordsman x3
Galadriels' Handmaiden x2
Zigil Miner x3
Galadhon Archer x3
Honour Guard x3
Mithlond Sea-watcher x2
Erebor Hammersmith x2
Ered Nimrais Prospector x2
Gleowine x1
Quickbeam x1
Warden of Healing x3
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Attachments
Unexpected Courage x3
Raven-winged Helm x2
Spear of the Citadel x2
Protector of Lorien x2
Ranger Spikes x2
Events
Elven-light x2
Will of the West x2
The Evening Star x3
Hidden Cache x3
Sets Used
Core Set
Khazad-dum
The Long Dark
Heirs of Numenor
The Steward's Fear
The Morgul Vale
The Road Darkens
The Nin-in-Eilph
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Treason of Saruman
The Wastes of Eriador
The Dread Realm
The Grey Havens
RingsDB Link
The Journey
Attempt 1 was a reminder of how brutal location lock can be. I let a few slip past me and then, largely due to Quarter Deck, found myself in a hole there was no digging out of. At least combat went well!
Attempt 2 was death by tentacles. Learning (part of) my lesson on location lock for this quest, I dashed into battle with the beast. Things were looking like they might work out after all, until the following quest phase occurred - Reveal: Eye of the Beast. Surge. Reveal: Crushing Arm. Surge. Reveal: Lashing Tentacles.
Attempt 3 was a lesson in learning the wrong lessons. So wary of location lock, I forgot that this deck has more of a tactical weakness and rushed passed the first stage. While A.C.E. can start spitting out the allies, The Thing in the Depths can spin up tentacles much faster. As with attempt 2, there was a slight glimmer of hope that was quickly crushed.
Attempt 4 was a return to my Attempt 1 strategy, with the exception that this time I kept the locations moving. And my threat! I spent so much time building my army that I let myself get into the low 40's before moving on. Even then that first battle vs the tentacles was tense. I had five ungrapple from a Quarter Deck and enter the staging area at once. Two were Crushing Arms which attacked immediately (and one attacked an additional time) and two were Grasping Arms that tapped down two of my allies. I was able to take the eight attacks and take down two of the Grasping Arms. After that, it was more a matter of watching my threat climb each round and hoping I could get to 11 damage on the Thing before I reached 50. Revealing a From the Depths and not hitting a single enemy was a bummer. Then a Thrashing Arm came out and victory was mine!
Final Scoring
12 Completed Rounds x10: 120
Ending Threat: 45
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -15 (Helm of the Stormcaller: 5, The Thing in the Depths: 10)
Total Score: 84
The Recap
The Thing in the Depths really brings out the puzzle aspect this game can have to it. Exactly how much willpower should you bring to the table? How much attack & defense? How many allies? You can answer all of those by bringing a deck that excels in all three areas (the route I took) or try to find a deck that hits that balance just right. Might be a fun challenge some day.
The Deck
Knowing this was going to be more of a tactical quest, I was looking for a Dunedain deck to try out. I kind of found one. The Eagles Comeback Album has a few Dunedain in the line up but is, as the title hints, primarily an Eagles deck. It developed a nice board state rather quickly, but the questing power wasn't quite what I needed (or at least what I was able to use effectively). A.C.E. was up to the willpower challenge, but not the tactical aspect. Ally swarm had my focus. Quad Sphere Dwarf Swarm caught my eye...until I realized it had done so last month. Then I came across a deck I had heard mentioned several times: Seastan's Everything* Costs 2. Exactly what I was wanting!
Everything* Costs 2
Heroes
Arwen Undomiel (The Dread Realm)
Beregond (Heirs of Numenor)
Galdor of the Havens (The Grey Havens)
Allies
Bilbo Baggins (The Road Darkens) x1
Ethir Swordsman x3
Galadriels' Handmaiden x2
Zigil Miner x3
Galadhon Archer x3
Honour Guard x3
Mithlond Sea-watcher x2
Erebor Hammersmith x2
Ered Nimrais Prospector x2
Gleowine x1
Quickbeam x1
Warden of Healing x3
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Attachments
Unexpected Courage x3
Raven-winged Helm x2
Spear of the Citadel x2
Protector of Lorien x2
Ranger Spikes x2
Events
Elven-light x2
Will of the West x2
The Evening Star x3
Hidden Cache x3
Sets Used
Core Set
Khazad-dum
The Long Dark
Heirs of Numenor
The Steward's Fear
The Morgul Vale
The Road Darkens
The Nin-in-Eilph
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Treason of Saruman
The Wastes of Eriador
The Dread Realm
The Grey Havens
RingsDB Link
The Journey
Attempt 1 was a reminder of how brutal location lock can be. I let a few slip past me and then, largely due to Quarter Deck, found myself in a hole there was no digging out of. At least combat went well!
Attempt 2 was death by tentacles. Learning (part of) my lesson on location lock for this quest, I dashed into battle with the beast. Things were looking like they might work out after all, until the following quest phase occurred - Reveal: Eye of the Beast. Surge. Reveal: Crushing Arm. Surge. Reveal: Lashing Tentacles.
Attempt 3 was a lesson in learning the wrong lessons. So wary of location lock, I forgot that this deck has more of a tactical weakness and rushed passed the first stage. While A.C.E. can start spitting out the allies, The Thing in the Depths can spin up tentacles much faster. As with attempt 2, there was a slight glimmer of hope that was quickly crushed.
Attempt 4 was a return to my Attempt 1 strategy, with the exception that this time I kept the locations moving. And my threat! I spent so much time building my army that I let myself get into the low 40's before moving on. Even then that first battle vs the tentacles was tense. I had five ungrapple from a Quarter Deck and enter the staging area at once. Two were Crushing Arms which attacked immediately (and one attacked an additional time) and two were Grasping Arms that tapped down two of my allies. I was able to take the eight attacks and take down two of the Grasping Arms. After that, it was more a matter of watching my threat climb each round and hoping I could get to 11 damage on the Thing before I reached 50. Revealing a From the Depths and not hitting a single enemy was a bummer. Then a Thrashing Arm came out and victory was mine!
Final Scoring
12 Completed Rounds x10: 120
Ending Threat: 45
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -15 (Helm of the Stormcaller: 5, The Thing in the Depths: 10)
Total Score: 84
The Recap
The Thing in the Depths really brings out the puzzle aspect this game can have to it. Exactly how much willpower should you bring to the table? How much attack & defense? How many allies? You can answer all of those by bringing a deck that excels in all three areas (the route I took) or try to find a deck that hits that balance just right. Might be a fun challenge some day.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Quest 49: Flight of the Stormcaller
Victory on the Second Attempt!
The Deck
After taking a break for a little over a month, my return via Flight of the Stormcaller started off rough last night. The netdeck I was trying out was based around a combo that never showed. Then the encounter deck decided to throw out just about every stop possible. I had all three copies of Sahir's Escort in play by the time I advanced to stage 3 and I was fully off course. Not an enjoyable experience.
While I do want to stretch my deck-building muscles again soon, my highest priority was getting my excitement for the game started. A.C.E. was such a fun deck for me during The Grey Havens box that I decided to make a few minor tweeks (switching out Song of Wisdom for a second copy of Elrond's Council) and give it another run.
The Journey
With Gandalf in my starting hand, the start was explosive. I prioritized staying on course, then blew past the first stage. I decided to go off-course during Round 2 when Sudden Storms arose, but committed four characters + the Dream-chaser turned up three positive results for the sailing test and got me back to calm seas.
The Stormcaller just crawled along the whole time. During both Round 1 & 2, the discarded encounter card was a treachery. A far different play than attempt #1!
Final Scoring
2 Completed Rounds x10: 20
Ending Threat: 29
Total Damage on Heroes: 3 (Arwen: 1, Cirdan: 1, Erestor: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display:0
Total Score: 62
The Recap
Flight of the Stormcaller really helps show me how much a certain play experience can color my overall opinion of a quest. After attempt #1, I felt this quest had too many moving parts and was frustrating to crack. After attempt #2, I felt it was an enjoyable challenge for a quest-heavy deck with an optional path to try a deck that can quest well and fight very well (a path I would not mine exploring one day in the future).
This quest hit a lot of points for me: Strong theme overall and in key card,s (Jagged Reef is amazing), different victory paths the player can choose, and a moderate level of difficulty. I'm not going to mark this one down as a favorite yet, mainly due to the trauma of last night's attempt, but look forward to making more of a martial attempt in the future as well as seeing if my questing-focused decks can get the job done faster than the Stormcaller.
Friday, May 26, 2017
Saga Quest 13: The Uruk-hai
Victory on the First Attempt!
The Deck
The first big decision I had was to keep Sam or not to keep Sam. Thematically he should not be here, but he is not specifically excluded in the rule book and I only get one free hero addition. Sam + a hero + Aragorn I can see working. Another hero + Aragorn with no Sam does not seem like it would be setting me up for success. Eventually I want Legolas & Gimli to join the party. I go with Legolas to increase the attack value of the party and help with location removal & quest resolution.
The next step is to figure out where I want the deck to go. Playing some of the top decks on RingsDB gave me a greater appriciation for card draw and resource acceleration. I tried to cram as much of that in as possible and had almost no room for allies.My first real draft of this deck was a bit of everywhere, with a lot of 2x cards and not enough of a clear strategy.This is the second version and tightens down on a few of the resource and draw paths while still keeping a healthy amount of allies in the list.
Hunt with a Hobbit
Heroes
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Legolas (Core)
Aragorn (The Treason of Saruman)
Allies
Bill the Pony x2
Dwarven Sellsword x2
Errand-rider x2
Gimli (The Treason of Saruman) x1
Skinbark x1
Gandalf (Core) x3
Steward of Orthanc x3
Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x1
Heir of Mardil x1
Steward of Gondor x3
Sword that was Broken x1
Black Arrow x1
Blade of Gondolin x3
Rivendell Blade x2
Banner of Elendil x1
Keys of Orthanc x2
Events
Captain's Wisdom x3
Legacy of Numenor x3
Sneak Attack x2
Foe-hammer x1
Halfling Determination x2
Hands Upon the Bow x3
The Three Hunters x2
The Free Peoples x2
Sets Used
Core
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
Shadow and Flame
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
On the Doorstep
The Black Riders
The Voice of Isengard
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Treason of Saruman
The Land of Shadow
The Thing in the Depths
The Drowned Ruins
The Flame of the West
Race Across Harad
Beneath the Sand
Rings DB Link
Note: I leave Mithril Shirt out, not having a Ringbearer to attach it to, and choose Glamdring to be in my starting hand.
The Journey
Love the campaign setup here! Big fan of getting Gandalf's Delay off of my chest.
Removed:Boon: Mr. Underhill
Removed:Gandalf's Delay
Removed:Burden: Panicked
Round 1
Got off to an explosive start. Keys of Orthanc on Sam, Legacy of Numenor played, Sword that was Broken on Aragorn, Glamdring on Legolas. One resource on Legolas with Hands Upon the Bow in hand! Ended up loosing Hands Upon the Bow to a revealed Snaga, but picked up another one due to Glamdring's card draw after defeating said Snaga. Only one enemy in play meant a minor increase of one to the pursuit value (now 11).
Round 2
Get a Steward of Orthanc and Dwarven Sellsword down, then blow past the first quest stage. Probably a little too quickly, since I have to deal with Ugluk now. I choose to put a Isengard Uruk, placing the damage on my allies, then take it out with Hands Upon the Bow & Legolas (reducing the pursuit value to 10). Aragorn has enough resources to ready himself and he defends against Ugluk, taking 3 damage.
Round 3
Black Arrow gets drawn and slammed down onto Legolas. I put a little progress on the quest and Grishnakh comes out to capture Boromir. Then I have a big decision to make: Do I use the Phial of Galadriel or loose a hero? I peeked ahead at the campaign resolution, so it really comes down to picking up a skill boon (Intimidation catching my eye the most) or getting Beyond All Hope attached to a hero. I can't let Aragorn die or I loose the quest. I need Legolas to defeat Ugluk. I could sacrifice Sam. This means loosing Noble Hero, Old Bogey Stories, and Phial of Galadriel. So Phial is leaving no matter what. I don't really utilize Old Bogey Stories, so that won't be missed. Beyond all Hope is an upgrade over Noble Hero, but I do like having the Noble trait on Sam. Intimiation + Glamdring on Legolas would make him a powerhouse but a Rivendell Blade would get the same job done (just at the cost of a resource and assuming I draw it). I would like to have a well-rounded Sam for the eventual move when I pair him up with Frodo, so whatever kills him will apparently make him stronger. Undefended attack, with damagae assigned to Sam & destroying him. Then Legolas then does 10 damage to Ugluk, destroying him in turn. Pursuit value is reduced to 9. Grishnakh then destroyes an Envoy, increasing the pursuit value back to 10.
Round 4
A few more allies come down and, boosted, by Aragorn, my willpower this quest phase is in the teens. A second Snaga came out, discarding Ho! Tom Bombadil! and resulting in only one threat in the staging area. Victory for our heroes & rescue for Boromir!
The pursuit value is only at 10. Samwise Gamgee is brought back, Beyond All Hope.
Final Scoring
3 Completed Rounds x10: 30
Ending Threat: 27
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Aragorn: 3, Legolas: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 8
Victory Display: -4 (Black Arrow, Ugluk)
Total Score: 65
Campaign Resolution
Removed:Boon: Old Bogey-stories
Removed:Boon: Phial of Galadriel
Removed:Boon: Noble Hero
Boon: Beyond All Hope attached to Sam Gamgee
Previous Campaign Resolutions
+1 starting threat
Boon: Ho! Tom Bombadil! (added to starting hand)
Boon: Sting
Boon: Mithril Shirt
Boon: Glamdring
Boon: Anduril
Burden: Shadow of Fear added to campaign pool
Burden: Ill Fate added to campaign pool
The Recap
This seemed to go a lot smoother than it should have. To the point that I re-read every important card (quest cards, campaign set up, Ugluk) to make sure I was not missing something major (and I won't be surprised to realize one day I goofed up). While my deck was a blast to play, the quest was such a push over that it was not too memorable. This is a good example of why solo games work best when they lean towards the more difficult side of the spectrum (with medium difficulty being key for me).
I will say I spoke one quest to soon about the campaign mode. Taking away a set of boons & burdens and then giving a non-penalized hero addition made this deck building experience feel fresh and exciting. I am actually looking forward to continuing my campaign now!
The Deck
The first big decision I had was to keep Sam or not to keep Sam. Thematically he should not be here, but he is not specifically excluded in the rule book and I only get one free hero addition. Sam + a hero + Aragorn I can see working. Another hero + Aragorn with no Sam does not seem like it would be setting me up for success. Eventually I want Legolas & Gimli to join the party. I go with Legolas to increase the attack value of the party and help with location removal & quest resolution.
The next step is to figure out where I want the deck to go. Playing some of the top decks on RingsDB gave me a greater appriciation for card draw and resource acceleration. I tried to cram as much of that in as possible and had almost no room for allies.My first real draft of this deck was a bit of everywhere, with a lot of 2x cards and not enough of a clear strategy.This is the second version and tightens down on a few of the resource and draw paths while still keeping a healthy amount of allies in the list.
Hunt with a Hobbit
Heroes
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Legolas (Core)
Aragorn (The Treason of Saruman)
Allies
Bill the Pony x2
Dwarven Sellsword x2
Errand-rider x2
Gimli (The Treason of Saruman) x1
Skinbark x1
Gandalf (Core) x3
Steward of Orthanc x3
Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x1
Heir of Mardil x1
Steward of Gondor x3
Sword that was Broken x1
Black Arrow x1
Blade of Gondolin x3
Rivendell Blade x2
Banner of Elendil x1
Keys of Orthanc x2
Events
Captain's Wisdom x3
Legacy of Numenor x3
Sneak Attack x2
Foe-hammer x1
Halfling Determination x2
Hands Upon the Bow x3
The Three Hunters x2
The Free Peoples x2
Sets Used
Core
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
Shadow and Flame
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
On the Doorstep
The Black Riders
The Voice of Isengard
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Treason of Saruman
The Land of Shadow
The Thing in the Depths
The Drowned Ruins
The Flame of the West
Race Across Harad
Beneath the Sand
Rings DB Link
Note: I leave Mithril Shirt out, not having a Ringbearer to attach it to, and choose Glamdring to be in my starting hand.
The Journey
Love the campaign setup here! Big fan of getting Gandalf's Delay off of my chest.
Removed:
Removed:
Removed:
Round 1
Got off to an explosive start. Keys of Orthanc on Sam, Legacy of Numenor played, Sword that was Broken on Aragorn, Glamdring on Legolas. One resource on Legolas with Hands Upon the Bow in hand! Ended up loosing Hands Upon the Bow to a revealed Snaga, but picked up another one due to Glamdring's card draw after defeating said Snaga. Only one enemy in play meant a minor increase of one to the pursuit value (now 11).
Round 2
Get a Steward of Orthanc and Dwarven Sellsword down, then blow past the first quest stage. Probably a little too quickly, since I have to deal with Ugluk now. I choose to put a Isengard Uruk, placing the damage on my allies, then take it out with Hands Upon the Bow & Legolas (reducing the pursuit value to 10). Aragorn has enough resources to ready himself and he defends against Ugluk, taking 3 damage.
Round 3
Black Arrow gets drawn and slammed down onto Legolas. I put a little progress on the quest and Grishnakh comes out to capture Boromir. Then I have a big decision to make: Do I use the Phial of Galadriel or loose a hero? I peeked ahead at the campaign resolution, so it really comes down to picking up a skill boon (Intimidation catching my eye the most) or getting Beyond All Hope attached to a hero. I can't let Aragorn die or I loose the quest. I need Legolas to defeat Ugluk. I could sacrifice Sam. This means loosing Noble Hero, Old Bogey Stories, and Phial of Galadriel. So Phial is leaving no matter what. I don't really utilize Old Bogey Stories, so that won't be missed. Beyond all Hope is an upgrade over Noble Hero, but I do like having the Noble trait on Sam. Intimiation + Glamdring on Legolas would make him a powerhouse but a Rivendell Blade would get the same job done (just at the cost of a resource and assuming I draw it). I would like to have a well-rounded Sam for the eventual move when I pair him up with Frodo, so whatever kills him will apparently make him stronger. Undefended attack, with damagae assigned to Sam & destroying him. Then Legolas then does 10 damage to Ugluk, destroying him in turn. Pursuit value is reduced to 9. Grishnakh then destroyes an Envoy, increasing the pursuit value back to 10.
Round 4
A few more allies come down and, boosted, by Aragorn, my willpower this quest phase is in the teens. A second Snaga came out, discarding Ho! Tom Bombadil! and resulting in only one threat in the staging area. Victory for our heroes & rescue for Boromir!
The pursuit value is only at 10. Samwise Gamgee is brought back, Beyond All Hope.
Final Scoring
3 Completed Rounds x10: 30
Ending Threat: 27
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Aragorn: 3, Legolas: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 8
Victory Display: -4 (Black Arrow, Ugluk)
Total Score: 65
Campaign Resolution
Removed:
Removed:
Removed:
Boon: Beyond All Hope attached to Sam Gamgee
Previous Campaign Resolutions
+1 starting threat
Boon: Ho! Tom Bombadil! (added to starting hand)
Boon: Sting
Boon: Mithril Shirt
Boon: Glamdring
Boon: Anduril
Burden: Shadow of Fear added to campaign pool
Burden: Ill Fate added to campaign pool
The Recap
This seemed to go a lot smoother than it should have. To the point that I re-read every important card (quest cards, campaign set up, Ugluk) to make sure I was not missing something major (and I won't be surprised to realize one day I goofed up). While my deck was a blast to play, the quest was such a push over that it was not too memorable. This is a good example of why solo games work best when they lean towards the more difficult side of the spectrum (with medium difficulty being key for me).
I will say I spoke one quest to soon about the campaign mode. Taking away a set of boons & burdens and then giving a non-penalized hero addition made this deck building experience feel fresh and exciting. I am actually looking forward to continuing my campaign now!
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