Quest 11: The Seventh Level

Victory on the third attempt

The Deck

And now the dwarven onslaught begins!

I first wanted to attempt this one with a mono Lore dwarf deck, but forgot about the high questing needs here. After a second (brief) attempt, I switched over to a mono Leadership dwarf deck and handily won the scenario (benefiting from a fairly easy series of reveals off the encounter deck).

Leadership of the Dwarves

Heroes
Balin
Dain Ironfoot
Thorin Oakenshield

Allies
Brok Ironfist x2
Fili x3
Gloin x3
Longbeard Elder x3
Longbeard Orc Slayer x3
Kili x2
Gandalf (Core) x3

Attachments
Hardy Leaderhip x2
King Under the Mountain x2
Tom of Atanatar x3
Cram x3
Celebrian's Stone x2
Steward of Gondor x2

Events
Durin's Song x3
Lure of Moria x3
Grave Carin x2
Sneak Attack x3
A Very Good Tale x3
Valiant Sacrifice x3

Sets Used
Core
Return to Mirkwood
Khazad-dum
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
Foundations of Stone
Shadow and Flame
Over Hilll and Under Hill
On the Doorstep
The Blood of Gondor

This is a pretty standard deck that functions well and gets the job done (especially for questing, as I found out). I would love to stick with this deck for a while, tweaking it a bit, but I'll try to mix things up over the upcoming quests.

The Journey

Player setup
Set threat to 32
Draw: A Very Good Tale, King Under the Mountain, Longbeard Elder, Tome of Atanatar, Fili, Drin's Song
Great! Fili + A Very Good Tale is the opening hand I was hoping for, allowing me to hopefully get 3-4 dwarf allies into play just this round. Man, that would be a great start for Escape from Dol Guldur, actually...

Encounter setup
Attach book of Mazarbul to Dain Ironfoot
Flip to stage 1B
Reveal: Goblin Swordsman

Round 1
Resource Phase
+1 Balin (1), +1 Dain Ironfoot (1), +1 Thorin Oakenshield (1)
Draw: King Under the Mountain

Planning Phase
Play: Fili (Balin -1, Dain -1, Thorin -1). Search deck and put Kili into play. Shuffle deck.
Play: A Very Good Tale. Exhaust Fili and Kili. Discard: Gandalf, Lure of Moria, Hardy Leadership, Longbeard Elder, Durin's Song. Put Gandalf into play. Deal four damage to Goblin Spearman, destroying it.
I was hoping for some dwarves, but this will do.

Quest Phase
Commit: Balin, Thorin Oakenshield, Gandalf to the quest.
Total willpower: 11
Reveal: Plundered Armoury
Total threat: 3
Place 7 tokens on stage 1B (7/15)

Travel Phase
Travel to Plundered Armoury

Encounter Phase
None

Combat Phase
None

Refresh Phase
Ready all
Raise threat to 33
Discard Gandalf

Round 2
Resource Phase
+1 Balin (1), +1 Dain Ironfoot (1), +2 Thorin Oakenshield (2)
Draw: Celebrian's Stone

Planning Phase
Play: Longbeard Elder (Balin -1, Dain -1, Thorin -1)

Quest Phase
Commit: Balin, Thorin, Fili, Kili, Longbeard Elder to the quest
Peak at top encounter card: Plundered Armoury
Place 1 progress on Plundered Armoury (active location)
Total willpower: 14
Reveal: Plundered Armoury
Total threat: 3
Place 1 progress on Plundered Armoury, exhausting it. No weapons or armour to attach.
Place 10 progress on stage 1B, clearing stage
Advance to stage 2A, flip to 2B
Alright, time to start questing like crazy!

Travel Phase
Travel to Plundered Armoury

Encounter Phase
None

Combat Phase
None

Refresh Phase
Ready all
Raise threat to 34

Round 3
Resource Phase
+1 Balin (1), +1 Dain Ironfoot (1), +2 Thorin Oakenshield (3)
Draw: Hardy Leadership

Planning Phase
Play: Celebrian's Stone (Thorin -2), attach to Balin
Play: Tome of Atanatar (Dain -1), attach to Thorin

Quest Phase
Commit Balin, Thorin, Fili, Kili, Longbeard Elder
Peak at top card of encounter deck: Undisturbed Bones (-1 willpower to Longbeard Elder)
Total willpower: 15
Reveal: Undisturbed Bones. Deal 3 damage to Fili, destroying him. Willpower reduced to 13.
Not terrible. I only lost two willpower and did not gain anything to "deal" with (enemy or location)
Reveal (due to stage 2B's text): Hidden Threat. Discarded.
Play: Durin's Song (Thorin -1). Add +2 willpower to Thorin
Discard Tom of Atanatar to play Durin's Song (Balin -1). Add +2 willpower to Thorin
Updated total willpower: 17
Total threat: 0
Place 2 progress on Plundered Armoury, exploring it. No weapons or armour to attach.
Place 15 progress on stage 2B (15/17)
We'll see what next turn reveals, but the path is open right now to put those last two progress on the stage!

Travel Phase
None

Encounter Phase
None

Combat Phase
None

Refresh Phase
Ready all.
Raise threat to 35.

Round 4
Resource Phase
+1 Balin (1), +1 Dain Ironfoot (1), +2 Thorin Oakenshiled (2)
Draw: Fili
Glad I make the right choice last round. I figured there are two of him left in this deck vs. one Kili, so a greater chance he'd make another appearance.

Planning Phase
Play: Fili (Balin -1, Dain Ironfoot -1, Thorin Oakenshiled -1). Kili is already in play.
If it did not look like things might end this round, I would actually hold Fili back and use Kili as a chump blocker or as a target for treacheries (then play Fili the following round, getting both dwarves back). For this round, I would play play King Under the Mountain and see if I could gain anything to boost my willpower a little. As it is, I'll take the guaranteed +2 willpower to push through the 1-2 cards to be revealed.

Quest Phase
Quest with: Balin, Thorin, Fili, Kili, Longbeard Elder
Peak at top card of encounter deck: Goblin Scout (-1 willpower to Longbeard Elder)
Total willpower: 15
Reveal: Goblin Scout
Reveal (due to stage 2B's text): Goblin Tunnels. Discard.
Total threat: 3
Place 12 progress tokens on stage 2B, clearing the stage and winning the quest

Final Scoring

3 completed rounds x10: 30
Final threat: 35
Damage on heroes: 0
Threat cost of defeated heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 65

The Recap

You need a way to put a massive amount of progress tokens on both stages of the quest (and quickly, especially for the second one). There are a variety of ways to do that, so there can be a bit of creativity in how you tackle the challenge. But the encounter deck can be pretty unpredictable, making any strategy questionable. The mono Lore deck might have won with the ways things turned out during my third attempt and the mono Leadership would probably have lost during the first attempt. Quest, travel, fight, repeat (or no fighting in the winning attempt). No variety or twist to really mix things up (beyond some Cave Trolls who are willing to come beat you up). All-in-all, this was an okay quest that will probably prove pretty forgettable for me.