Saga Quest 1: We Must Away, Ere Break of Day

Victory on the second attempt!

The Deck

I’ve played this scenario a few times (including earlier this year) and have managed to take out the trolls at least twice. What I’ve never done is burn out the encounter deck. So let’s go for it! I want to see a massive amount of willpower and I want to avoid some trolls, so let’s go for…

Secret Spirit

Heroes
Eowyn
Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)
Bilbo Baggins (Over Hill and Under Hill)

Allies
Escort from Edoras x3
Silvan Refugee x3
Bofur (The Redhorn Gate) x2
Arwen Udomiel x2
Ethir Swordsman x3
The Riddermark's Finest x3
Gandalf (Core) x3

Attachments
Light of Valinor x3
The Favor of the Lady x3
Ancient Mathom x3
Resourceful x3

Events
Courage Awakened x3
Burglar Baggins x3
A Test of Will x3
Elrond's Counsel x3
Dwarven Tomb x2
The Lucky Number x3
Children of the Sea x3

Sets Used
Core
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Druadan Forest
The Blood of Gondor
Trouble in Tharbad

The Journey

I had a good dance of wining on the first attempt, but got a little over-zealous in massing questing power and chose to get back Courage Awakened with my Dwarven Tomb vs. A Test of Will (which I had used three times so far). On the final (winning?) quest phase, Roast’em or Toast’em devastated my allies (including a boosted Arwen). Let’s see if I can make some wiser choices this time around…

Player Setup

Set staring threat to 14

Draw: Children of the Sea, The Lucky Number, Silvan Refugee, A Test of Will, Light of Valinor, Elrond's Counsel

Great opening hand. Really happy to see Silvan Reguee + Children of the Sea just sitting there. I learned my lesson with Roast 'em, Toast 'em the last game and will hold onto my allies until I'm ready to use them in one go (with A Test of Will handy to protect them).

Encounter Setup

Bilbo Baggins joins the heroes

Place trolls and Troll Cave to the side

Reveal: Cave Entrance

Round 1

Resource Phase

+1 Eowyn (1), +1 Glorfindel (1), +1 Bilbo Baggins (1)

Draw: Burgler Baggins

Nice! Great card to combine with The Lucky Number

Planning Phase

Play: Light of Valinor (Glorfindel -1). Attach to Glorfindel

Quest Phase

Commit: Glorfindel

I'm wanting to keep my questing low, hopefully staying in stage 1 until I get a nice resource pool and some great cards ready to throw down

Total willpower: 3

Reveal: A Nice Pickle. Doomed 1 (raise threat to 15). No encounter discard pile to manipulate yet, so no effect.

Total threat: 1

Place two progress on stage 1B (2/7)

Travel Phase

Travel to Cave Entrance

Encounter Phase

None

Combat Phase

None

Refresh Phase

Ready all

None to ready, really

Raise threat to 16

Round 2

Resource Phase

+1 Eowyn (2), +1 Glorfindel (1), +1 Bilbo (2)

Draw: Ethir Swordsman

Planning Phase

Play none

I don’t need an ally for defense or questing just yet and the best defense for Roast ‘em or Toast ‘em is simply to have no allies down.

Quest Phase

Commit: Eowyn

Total willpower: 4

Reveal: Hobbit-lands

Total threat: 1

Place 3 progress on Cave-entrance, exploring it

                              

Travel Phase

Travel to Hobbit-lands

Encounter Phase

None

Combat Phase

None

Refresh Phase

Ready all

Raise threat to 17

Round 3

Resource Phase

+1 Eowyn (3), +1 Glorfindel (2), +1 Bilbo (3)

Draw: Gandalf

Planning Phase

Play none

Quest Phase

Commit: Glorfindel

Total willpower: 3

Reveal: Lone-Lands

Total threat: 2

Place 1 progress on Hobbit-lands, exploring it. Draw: Ancient Mathom.

Travel Phase

Travel to Lone-Lands

Encounter Phase

None

Combat Phase

None

Refresh Phase

Ready all

Raise threat to 18

Round 4

Resource Phase

+1 Eowyn (4), +1 Glorfindel (3), +1 Bilbo (4)

Draw: The Favor of the Lady

Planning Phase

Play: Ancient Mathom (Eowyn -1). Attach to Lone-Lands.

Quest Phase

Commit: Eowyn

Total willpower: 4

Reveal: Wind-whipped Rain. Discard Light of Valinor, Ancient Mathom

That’s a shame to see, on both accounts

Total threat: 0

Place 3 progress on Lone-lands (Bilbo -1), exploring them (Bilbo +1).

Place 1 progress on stage 1B (3/7)

Travel Phase

None

Encounter Phase

None

Refresh Phase

Ready all

Raise threat to 19

Round 5

Resource Phase

+1 Eowyn (4), +1 Glorfindel (4), +1 Bilbo Baggins (5)

Draw: Ethir Swordsman

Planning Phase

Play none

Quest Phase

Commit: Eowyn

Total willpower: 4

Reveal: Lots or None at All. Raise threat to 21.

Place 4 progress on stage 1B, clearing it.

Alrighty, looks like I’m moving on!

Proceed to stage 2A, flip to 2B

Shuffle encounter discard into encounter deck (32 cards)

Place three unique trolls and Troll Cave in the staging area

Travel Phase

None

Encounter Phase

None

Combat Phase

None

Refresh Phase

Ready all

Raise threat to 22

Round 6
Resource Phase

+1 Eowyn (5), +1 Glorfindel (5), +1 Bilbo (6)

Draw: Children of the Sea

Planning Phase

Play: Ethir Swordsman (Eowyn -2)

Play: Ethir Swordsman (Eowyn -2)

Play: Silvan Refugee (Glorfindel -1)

Play: The Favor of the Lady (Glorfindel -2). Attach to Eowyn.

Play: Gandalf (Glorfidel -2, Bilbo -3). Draw: The Riddermark’s Finest, The Lucky Number, Escort from Edoras

Quest Phase

Commit: Eowyn, Glorfindel (raise threat to 23), Bilbo, Eithir Swordsman x2, Silvan Refugee, Gandalf

Play: Elrond’s Counsel. Decrease threat to 20. +1 willpower to Eowyn.

Play: Children of the Sea x2 on Silvan Refugee

Play: Burglar Baggins (Bilbo -1). +2 willpower, attack, shield to Bilbo.

Play: The Lucky Number (Bilbo -1). +2 willpower, attack, shield to Eowyn.

Play: The Lucky Number (Bilbo -1). +2 willpower, attach, shield to Glorfindel.

Total willpower: 34

Reveal: Dreary Hills (31 cards remaining)

Total threat: 14

Discard 20 cards from the encounter deck (11 cards remaining)

Remove Troll Purse and Troll Key from the discard pile, adding them to the staging area, then attaching them to Bert

Shuffle Silvan Refugee back into the player deck

Travel Phase

Travel to Dreary Hills

Encounter Phase

None

Combat Phase

None

Refresh Phase

Ready all

Raise threat to 21

Discard Gandalf from play

Round 7

Resource Phase

+1 Eowyn (2), +1 Glorfindel (1), +1 Bilbo (1)

Draw: Courage Awakened

Planning Phase

Play: Escort from Edoras (Eown -1, Glorfindel -1)

Quest Phase

Commit: Eowyn, Glorfindel (raise threat to 22), Bilbo, Either Swordsman x2, Escort from Edoras

Play: Courage Awakened (Eowyn -1) to increase Eowyn’s willpower by 2

Total willpower: 21

Reveal: Dreary Hills (10 cards remaining)

Total threat: 14

Place 2 progress on Dreary Hills (discard The Riddermark's Finest from hand), exploring it
I could have discarded this earlier to trigger Eowyn's ability, but I have an idea for next round...

Discard 5 cards from the Encounter Deck (5 cards remaining)
Discard Escort from Edoras from play

Travel Phase

Travel to Dreary Hills

Encounter Phase

None

Combat Phase

None

Refresh Phase

Ready all

Raise threat to 23

Round 8
Resource Phase
+1 Eowyn (1), +1 Glorfindel (1), +1 Bilbo (2)
Draw: A Test of Will

Planning Phase
Play none

Quest Phase
What do you think? Should I go for the treasure? Maybe I burned too much of the encounter deck off already. Well, only one way to find out...
Commit: Eowyn, Ethir Swordsman #1

Reveal: Lots of None at All (4 cards left)
Play: A Test of Will (Glorfindel -1)
Total threat: 11
Raise threat to 26

Travel Phase
None

Encounter Phase
Engage Bert. Sack 1: A Worn Sack. Attach to Bilbo
Oh well, there goes the chance to get the Troll Key now. Guess I'll go for the win next turn.

Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Bert (3 cards left)
Bert attacks. Glorfindel defends. Shadow: A Suspicious Crow (move to top of Encounter Deck; 4 cards left). Deal four damage to Glorfindel.
Why a hero and not an ally? Likely the troll will not be boosted and Glorfindel can take the hit. Even if he does go down, I'll loose 3 willpower vs. 4 if I lost one of the Swordsman (it's own 3 willpower + the 1 it's contributing to the second Swordsman).

Refresh Phase
Ready all
Raise threat to 27

Round 9
Resource Phase
+1 Eowyn (2), +1 Glorfindel (1), +1 Bilbo (3)
Draw: Resourceful

Planning Phase
None

Quest Phase
Commit: Eowyn, Glorfindel (Raise threat to 28), Ethir Swordsman, Ethir Swordsman, Bilbo
Total willpower: 15
I'm doing this write-up a few days later and have zero idea why I did not commit Bilbo
Reveal: A Suspicious Crow. (3 cards remaining)
Reveal Lots or None at All from the encounter discard and add it to the staging area. Sack 1: A Tough Sack. Attach to Glorfindel.
Total threat: 9
Place 2 progress on Dreary Hills. Discard Resourceful from hand. Explore Dreary Hills.
Discard 3 cards from the Encounter Deck.
Proceed to stage 3A, flip to 3B
Remove all trolls and Sack cards from the game
Victory! 

Final Scoring

8 completed round x10: 80

Final Threat: 28

Total Damage on Heroes: 4

Total Threat of Destroyed Heroes: 0

Victory Display: 0

Total: 113

The Recap

Early in the game's creation, the goal was to create stories outside of the realm of the books, yet appeal to the fans of the books. Thus scenarios like Conflict at the Carrock and Watcher in the Water were made, which replicated scenarios better fitted for a saga expansion. Once the saga expansions became an idea, the designers had to revisit these iconic scenes and re-create them.

So how can they make the trolls different? How about taking away some of the easiest ways to deal with them: Forest Snare, direct damage (via Core Gandalf and other effects), and attacking them in one fell swoop with a bunch of heroes + allies. Want one of those tactics back? You need to choose which one is most important to you and take out that troll. Oh, but they engage at very different levels so you may not always have a choice.

And what about this concept of sacking, such a big thematic part of the party's encounter with the trolls in the novel? Let's make it more certain by sacking you whenever a troll engages, not simply making the odds higher by having Sacked! cards shuffled into the deck.

We now have two quests featuring players vs. a group of trolls that come off feeling very different. And there's the added variety of this quest where you can play it thematically (hope for daylight) or put a new spin on the story (taking the trolls out yourself).

All in all, this is a fun quest and one worth going back to again.