Victory on the third attempt!
Note: For readers who like the summaries but don't care for a play-by-play, look under each round for a brief summary of the action.
The Deck
I wanted to try a standard Tactics Boromir + Eagles deck, which I've heard for years is the perfect deck to go up against the Heirs of Numenor scenarios with. At least for this quest, it does seem to hold its own.
Flying Boromir
Heroes
Boromir (The Dead Marshes)
Hama
Theoden
Allies
Descendant of Thorondor x3
Eagles of the Misty Mountains x3
Vassal of the Windlord x3
Winged Guardian x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
White Tower Watchman x3
Knight of Minas Tirith x3
Attachments
Support of the Eagles x3
Blade of Gondolin x3
Horn of Gondor x2
Book of Eldacar x3
Events
Feint x3
Thicket of Spears x3
The Eagles Are Coming! x3
Close Call x3
Foe-hammer x3
Gondorian Discipline x3
Sets Used
Core
The Hunt for Gollum
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Dead Marshes
Return to Mirkwood
The Long Dark
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Druadan Forest
Encounter at Amon Din
Assault on Osgiliath
The Morgul Vale
The Dunland Trap
The Journey
Player Setup
Set starting threat to 32
Draw: Knight of Minas Tirith, Book of Eldacar, Blade of Gondolin, Eagles of the Misty Mountains, The Eagles Are Coming!, Blade of Gondolin
Happy to see the Blades there. Questing with willpower is not this decks strength, so I'll try to get those on Boromir by stage 3.
Encounter Setup
Make The Leaping Fish the active location
Attach Alcaron's Scroll to Theoden
Flip to 1B
Search encounter deck and add Harbor Thug to the staging area. Shuffle.
Round 1
With the help of The Eagles are Coming!, I get two Vassal of the Windlords into play and blow past the first Battle stage.
Resource Phase
+1 Boromir (1), +1 Hama (1), +1 Theoden (1)
Draw: Thicket of Spears
Planning Phase
Play: The Eagles Are Coming! Look at the top five cards of my deck and add Vassal of the Windlord x2 to my hand. Shuffle.
Wow, that is going to be fantastic for the first two battle stages.
Play: Vassal of the Windlord (Theoden -1)
Play: Vassal of the Windlord (Hama -1)
Play: Blade of Gondolin (Boromir -1)
Quest Phase
Discard (The Leaping Fish effect): Lurking in Shadows.
"The Leaping Fish Effect." Totally a band name.
Commit: Boromir, Hama, Theoden, Vassal of the Windlord x2
Battle. Total strength: 15
Reveal: Harbor Storehouse
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 33). Engaged by Harbor Thug.
Total threat: 1
Place 6 progress on The Leaping Fish, exploring it and adding it to the victory display.
Place 8 progress on stage 1B, clearing it.
Proceed to stage 2, flip to side B
Attach Alcaron's Scroll to Harbor Thug.
Travel Phase
Travel to Harbor Storehouse
Encounter Phase
No engagements
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Harbor Thug
Harbor Thug attacks. Boromir defends. Shadow: Zealous Traitor (no effect). Deal 1 damage to Boromir (1/5).
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 34). Boromir declares an attack on Harbor Thug, dealing 2 damage (2/3).
Refresh Phase
Ready all
Raise threat to 35
Round 2
Saving up my resources, I manage to put significant progress on stage 2 (giving up the Scroll to a Harbor Thug) before loosing both of my Vassal of the Windlords to a Zealous Traitor's engagement effect.
Resource Phase
+1 Boromir (1), +1 Hama (1), +1 Theoden (1)
Draw: Feint
Planning Phase
Play none
Saving up for Eagles of the Misty Mountains
Quest Phase
Commit: Boromir, Hama, Theoden, Vassal of the Windlord x2
Battle. Total strength: 15
Reveal: Zealous Traitor
Total threat: 2
Place 4 progress on Harbor Storehouse, exploring it
Place 9 progress on stage 2B (9/13)
Encounter Phase
Engage Zealous Traitor. Deal 1 damage to Vassal of the Windlord x2, destroying them.
That's sad to see, but I think I'll still be able to put the final touches on this stage next quest phase.
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Harbor Thug, Zealous Traitor
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 36)
Harbor Thug attacks. Boromir defends. Shadow: Pelargir Docks (no effect). Deal 1 damage to Boromir (2/5).
Play: Feint (Boromir -1). Choose Zealous Traitor to not attack.
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 37)
Boromir declares an attack on Harbor Thug, destroying it. Add 1 progress to stage 2B (10/13). Add Alcaron's Scroll to the staging area.
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 38).
Boromir declares an attack on Zealous Traitor, dealing 1 damage (1/2).
Refresh Phase
Ready all
Raise threat to 39
Round 3
Eagles of the Misty Mountains get to see play (a bit late, after loosing both Vassals last round) and a second Blade of Gondolin is put on Boromir. I manage to make it to stage 3 (putting the Scroll back on Boromir beforehand) and dispatch two enemies with Boromir for a total of 4 progress. I let Boromir take a little damage, giving up the Scroll to avoid stage 3's forced effect of enemy attacks.
Resource Phase
+1 Boromir (1), +1 Hamma (2), +1 Theoden (2)
Draw: White Tower Watchman
Planning Phase
Play: Eagles of the Misty Mountains (Hamma -2, Theoden -2)
Play: Blade of Gondolin (Boromir -1)
Exhaust Boromir and attack Alcaron's Scroll to him.
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 40).
Quest Phase
Commit: Boromir, Ham, Theoden
Battle. Total strength: 9
Reveal: Collateral Damage. Discard: Pickpocket, Collateral Damage. Discard: Harbor Thug, Local Trouble.
Place 9 progress on stage 2B, clearing it.
Advance to stage 3.
Search the encounter deck and add Pickpocket to the staging area.
I have no resources to loose, I'm not too worried about the cards in my hand (there are a few that would work well for the next few turns), and I'd like an enemy I can dispatch this round.
Flip to side B.
Travel Phase
No travel
Encounter Phase
Engaged by Pickpocket
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to Pickpocket, Zealous Traitor
Zealous Traitor attacks. Eagles of the Misty Mountains defends. Shadow: City Street (+2 attack). Deal three damage to Eagles of the Misty Mountains (3/4).
Pickpocket attacks. Undefended. Random discard: Knight of Minas Tirith. Shadow: Market Square (discard all resources; none to discard). Deal 1 damage to Boromir (3/5). Attach Alcaron's Scroll to Pickpocket.
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 41).
Boromir declares an attack on Zealous Traitor, destroying it. Add 2 progress to stage 3B (2/15).
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 42).
Boromir declares an attack on Pickpocket, destroying it. Add 2 progress to stage 3B (4/15). Add Alcaron's Scroll to the staging area.
Refresh Phase
Ready all
Raise threat to 43
Round 4
Theoden's "+1 willpower to all printed Tactics heros" ability comes into its own here, helping me put 6 more progress on stage 3B.
Resource Phase
+1 Boromir (1), +1 Hama (1), +1 Theoden (1)
Draw: Gandalf
Planning Phase
Play none
Tough choice, debating between getting White Tower Watchman into play now and Gandalf later or Gandalf next turn. Threat is the determining factor, and that's going up prety quickly with my use of Boromir.
Quest Phase
Commit: Boromir, Hama, Theoden, Eagles of the Misty Mountains
Total willpower: 9
Reveal: Harbor Thug
Total threat: 3
Place 6 progress on stage 3B (10/15)
Travel Phase
No travel
Encounter Phase
Engaged by Harbor Thug
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Harbor Thug.
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 44).
And here is the riskiest part of this whole enterprise. I could easily loose Boromir this round, and possibly the game through that.
Harbor Thug attacks. Boromir defends. Shadow: Harbor Storehouse (deal addtional shadow card). Shadow #2: Harbor Thug (deal damage to hero with Alcaron's Scroll; scroll not currently attached). Deal 1 damage to Boromir (4/5).
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 45).
Boromir declares an attack on Harbor Thug, dealing 2 damage (2/3).
Refresh Phase
Ready all
Raise threat to 46
Round 5
Gandalf jumps in to lower threat and I quest to victory, throwing the Scroll back on Boromir at the last minute.
Resource Phase
+1 Boromir (2), +1 Hama (2), +1 Theoden (2)
Draw: The Eagles Are Coming!
Planning Phase
Play: The Eagles Are Coming! Look at the top five cards of my deck and move Eagles of the Misty Mountains to my hand.
I just wanted to see what came up. A Vassal of the Windlord would not have been terrible (for use as a chump blocker).
Play: Gandalf (Boromir -1, Hama -2, Theoden -2). Low threat by 5 (41).
Quest Phase
Commit: Boromir, Theoden, Eagles of the Misty Mountains, Gandalf
Total willpower: 12
Ready Boromir (raise threat to 42).
Exhaust Boromir to attach Alcaron's Scroll to him.
Reveal: Pickpocket
Total threat 3
Place 9 progress on stage 3B, clearing it and winning the game!
Final Scoring
4 Completed Rounds x10: 40
Ending Threat: 42
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Boromir 4)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -3
Total Score: 83
The Recap
I was expecting this quest to be much more brutal. As with The Battle of the Five Armies, I beat this one on the first attempt and then noticed an error: I had miss-read the Leaping Fish and thought you discard an encounter card at the end of the quest phase. Looking at my notes, I would have discarded a location, so there would likely have been little change to the playthrough. But it was such an early error I went for a re-do (failing on the second attempt).
Yes, I went for the obvious strategy of holding onto that scroll as little as possible (to be fair, I did not read up on the specifics of this quest first and was not approaching it with that in mind...it just makes sense). With that strategy in play and a deck that could bring high attack values, it really came down to my ability to overcome the willpower hurdle for the last round (cue Theoden's inclusion).
Was it just a case of the right deck for the right scenario? Maybe. Tactics Boromir certainly seemed indispensable. But the encounter deck never threw anything crazy at me and I think there are a variety of decks I could have brought here for a clean victory.
Favorite quest? No. Which is strange. It meets my criteria of not crazy difficult or too easy, but the quest just didn't "grab" me. Still, it was worth playing and I might return here for a multiplayer game some day.
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