I was overjoyed last week to see that a fifth duplicate tournament was being held over at BoardGameGeek. As a reminder, duplicate tournaments are ways for the community to play through the same quest using player and encounter decks that are dealt out in the exact same order. Each playthrough is often very different from others, with the differences being 100% due to player choices.
If you are playing this game as a solo player, you should be doing these tournaments when they come up. These are unprecedented ways to improve your game and be sharpened by other players, a luxury often not available to the solo player. For me, these activities help remind me how important each little decision I make is and the impact those decisions can have further down the line. While I recognized some of my miss-steps during the playthrough itself, I gain a lot looking at the top scores and seeing how they took on the quest that handily. It is also good to look at the examples of failed attempts (which includes some of my posts from previous tournaments) and see how a strong deck and favorable (enough) encounter deal are no match for poor tactical decisions.
So how did I fare? You can read the full write up here at the tournament's thread (my report is roughly halfway down the third page). I lived and I did not get the highest score, but there were plenty of players with better scores than mine. So I'm a player with a medium level of skill? No surprise there!
And the best part? It's still going on! You have tonight (Sunday, the 13th) and tomorrow (Monday, the 14th) to submit your report. Missed the tournament? No problem! These five tournaments are great activities for the beginning (or experienced) solo player. You know, for a fact, that this combination of player deck and encounter order can win. Not winning? Try to figure out why and see if there is a flaw in your playstyle that can be improved. Then take that knowledge, fire up a new quest, and show the dark lord who's boss.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Friday, November 27, 2015
Saga Quest 11: Journey in the Dark
Victory on the 4th attempt!
The Deck
There are a lot of things I wanted to do with this deck. I wanted a Ancestral Knowledge + Miner of the Iron Hills combo. I wanted Sneak Attack + Faramir + Ever Vigilant + Valiant Sacrifice. I wanted Erebor Hammersmith + A Good Meal/Ranger Provisions/The Long Defeat (as well as proving more Ancestral Knowledge support). I wanted Gandalf + Expert Treasure-Hunter + Protector of Lorien. And I wanted to see my heroes readying like crazy with Wingfoot + Shadowfax + Cram + Fast Hitch.
And then I ended up with a hot mess.
Not wanting to raise my starting threat, the main flexibility I had was in switching out Aragorn. Plenty of options to be had there! My first two attempts (one back in February and one last month) were simply tackling the quest with the same deck I used on The Ring Goes South. Fun, informative, but not wins. I then tried using Core Aragorn, focusing on some of the deckbuilding ideas I had for the Fellowship Event, but stalled out with a heavy location lock on stage 3. I became a bit obsessed about this and focused heavily on locations for the next build, returning to Loreagon. But I didn't go 100% in and maybe I should have. Instead of picking one strategy and really running with it, I wanted to mash up 3-4 complementary strategies. Other than crazy card draw (Expert Treasure-Hunter) and nothing to do with it, there was no strong combo focus realized. I think I was feeling the pressure of single-handed solo.
Going up against a quest with a single deck, the full burden for every element (questing, defending, attacking) rests on you. There are some fun, nitch little thing that I would like to give a shot, but I often worry about getting clobbered in the area my deck is weakest in. And Journey in the Dark demands that you deal well with all three of these areas (high-threat locations, high-attack enemies, and Archery). I made adjustments to shore up weak areas and in the process took away the power of any real combos or synergy I could have had.
There's a lot of "should've, would've" with this deck. I would have liked a better performance against the quest (with the Balrog either out of play or defeated), but I actually want to put this one behind me, take the win, and head off to the next build and the next quest.
Hot Mess for Moria
Heroes
Gandalf
Sam Gamgee
Aragorn (The Watcher in th Water)
Frodo Baggins (The Road Darkens)
Allies
Treebeard x1
Ranger of Cardolan x2
Envoy of Pelargir x2
Gimli x1
Bill the Pony x2
Faramir x2
Snowbourn Scout x2
Naith Guide x3
Bombur x1
Quickbeam x1
Elrond x1
Miner of the Iron Hills x2
Attachments
Song of Kings x1
Song of Wisdom x1
Shadowfax x1
Gandalf's Staff x1
Good Meal x3
Celebrian's Stone x1
Sword that was Broken x1
Steward of Gondor x1
Wingfoot x1
Protector of Lorien x1
Expert Treasure-Hunter x3
Events
A Good Harvest x2
Rear Guard x3
Word of Command x1
Secret Paths x3
Ancestral Knowledge x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
Sets Used
Core Set
The Hunt for Gollum
Conflict at the Carrock
The Hills of Emyn Muil
Khazad-dum
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
On the Doorstep
Heirs of Numenor
The Steward's Fear
The Black Riders The Treason of Saruman
The Dunland Trap
The Nin-in-Eilph
The Antlered Crown
The Road Darkens
The Wastes of Eriador
RingsDB Link
Rear Guard is fun, but really should have been Sneak Attack with all of the high-cost allies I had. The Songs both came into my hand and never made the board, so +1 to A Good Harvest or +1-2 to Ranger Provisions would have been much more welcome.
The Journey
Card draw and high willpower was to be had in plenty this run-through. But, alas, I was not able to escape the mines before The Balrog's appearance. Not confident in my ability to defeat him, I ran for the hills and took my burdens with me.
Previous Campaign Set-Up
Attach Noble Hero to Sam Gamgee.
Attach Mr. Underhill and The One Ring to Frodo Baggins (The Road Darkens).
Add Anduril to hand. Shuffle Glamdring, Sting, Mithril Shirt into player deck
Add Gandalf's Delay to the staging area.
Shuffle Overcome by Terror into encounter deck.
New Campaign Set-Up
Shuffle Pursued by the Enemy and Shadow of Fear into the encounter deck.
Add Grievous Wound and Overcome by Grief to the staging area.
Player Set-Up
Set Starting Threat to 34
Draw (5; Gandalf's Delay): Naith Guide, Faramir, Expert Treasure-Hunter, Celebrian's Stone, Frodo's Intuition
Top Card: Expert Treasure-Hunter
Not totally crazy about this opening hand, wanting to see either A Good Harvest or a Song, but starting off with Expert Treasure-Hunter x2 bods well for me getting most things I want fairly quickly.
Quest Set-Up
Set The Balrog, The Great Bridge, and Chamber of Mazarbul aside out of play.
Add Doom, Doom, Doom to the staging area. Place 10 damage tokens on it.
Choose and add Darkened Stairway to the staging area.
Always struggle between getting rid of the four-threat location or the quest-stalling Mines of Moria first. Hoping to get a little progress on the quest right away, Darkened Stairway it is.
Round 1
My Expert Treasure-Hunters start digging up the gold. Orc-Chieftain comes out right away, limiting the progress I can get out at first and creating a frustrating situation where I need to keep him alive until stage 2 (or fight him again).
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Expert Treasure-Hunter
Top Card: Wingfoot
Planning Phase
Play (from top of deck): Wingfoot (Aragorn -1). Attach to Aragorn.
Top Card: Shadowfax
Play: Expert Treasure-Hunter. Attach to Sam.
Play: Expert Treasure-Hunter. Attach to Aragorn.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Aragorn (2), Sam (4).
Total willpower: 9
Response (Wingfoot): Name "Enemy."
Reveal: Orc-Chieftain. Ready Aragorn (Wingfoot).
Total threat: 8
Place 1 progress on stage 1B (1/14).
Response (Expert Treasure-Hunter #1): Name "Attachment." Discard Shadowfax (add to hand).
Top card: Sting
Response (ETH #2). Name "Attachemnt." Discard Sting (add to hand).
Top card: Anduril
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (9/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Darkened Stairway
Encounter Phase
Engaged by Orc-Chieftain. Ready Sam.
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Orc-Chieftain. Attacks! Frodo defends. Spend 1 fellowship resource (Frodo -1), exhaust The One Ring, and raise threat to 36. This attack will deal no damage. Shadow: Moria Archer (no effect).
Aragorn + Sam declare an attack on Orc-Chieftain, dealing 1 damage (5/6).
I'll whittle him away a bit, but I don't want to take him out quite yet.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 37.
Round 2
Progress is placed, the Orc-Chieftain is kept at bay, and the march goes on...
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (2), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Anduril
Top Card: Faramir
Planning Phase
Play: Celebrian's Stone (Sam -2). Attach to Sam.
Play: Shadowfax (Gandalf -2, Aragorn -1)
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6), Aragorn (2), Frodo (2).
Total willpower: 13
Response (Wingfoot): Name "Enemy"
Reveal: Darkened Stairway
Total threat: 4
Place 2 progress on Darkened Stairway, exploring it. Discard: Overcome by Terror (no effect).
Place 7 progress on stage 1B (8/14)
Response (ETH #1): Name "Ally." Discard: Faramir (add to hand).
Top Card: Secret Paths
Response (ETH #2): Name "Event." Discard: Secret Paths (add to hand).
Top Card: Song of Wisdom
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (8/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Darkened Stairway
Encounter Phase
No new engagements
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Orc Chieftain.
Add Mr. Underhill to the victory display. Choose Orc Chieftain to not attack.
Discard shadow card (Deep Fissure)
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 38.
Round 3
Gandalf takes some heavy damage (a Grievous Wound, if you will) but the Orc-Chieftain is dispatched.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (2)
Draw: Song of Wisdom
Top Card: Secret Paths
Planning Phase
Play: Sting (Gandalf -1, Sam -1). Attach to Frodo.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6)
Total willpower: 9
Reveal: Ancient Guardroom
Play (from top of deck): Secret Paths (Aragorn -1). Target Ancient Guardroom.
Top Card: Naith Guide
Total threat: 0
Place 2 progress on Darkened Stairway, exploring it. Discard: Moria Orc.
Place 7 progress on stage 1B, exploring it.
Advance to stage 2A. Add Chamber of Mazarbul to the staging area. Flip to stage 2B.
Response (ETH #1). Name "Ally." Discard: Naith Guide (add to hand).
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (7/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Chamber of Mazarbul. Search encounter deck and add Moria Orc to the staging area.
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Encounter Phase
Engage Moria Orc
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to Orc-Chieftian, Moria Orc.
Orc-Chieftain attacks. Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard (encounter): Uruk from Mordor (threat: 2). Deal 2 damage to Orc-Chieftain (3/6). Spend 1 fellowship resource, exhaust The One Ring, raise threat to 40. This attack deals no damage. Shadow: Deep Fissure (no effect).
Moria Orc attacks. Undefended. Shadow: Thy Are Coming! No effect. Deal 3 damage to Gandalf (3/5). Attach Grievous Wound to Gandalf.
Gandalf + Aragorn declare an attack on Orc-Chieftain. Deal 1 damage to Gandalf (4/5).
A bit risky here, but there are no encounter cards that will directly damage Gandalf in this on (optional is a different story) and I want to see this orc dead.
Orc-Chieftain is destroyed. Place 1 resource on Stage 2B (1/3).
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 41.
Round 4
Locations are explored & traveled to and another orc is destroyed. No actual progress is made on the stage, though.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (2)
Draw: Gimli
Top Card: Mithril Shirt
Planning Phase
Play (from top of deck): Mithril Shirt (Frodo -1). Attach to Frodo.
Top Card: Treebeard
I had some other plans for my resources next turn, but I think I need to make way for an Ent.
Quest Phase
Commit: Sam (6), Aragorn (2).
Total willpower: 8
Response (Wingfoot): Name "Enemy."
Reveal: Fool of a Took! Doomed 1 (raise threat to 42). Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (6/10).
Reveal: Moria Archer. Deal 1 damage to Sam (1/3). Ready Aragorn.
Total threat:4
Place 4 progress on Chamber of Moria, exploring it and adding it to the victory display (5).
Response (ETH #1): Name "Ally." Discard: Treebeard (add to hand).
Top Card: Mine of the Iron Hills
Response (ETH #2): Name "Ally." Discard: Miner of the Iron Hills (add to hand).
Top Card: Elrond
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (5/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Ancient Guardroom. Discard: Mines of Moria (threat: 2). Raise threat to 44.
Encounter Phase
No engagements.
Combat Phase
Archery 2 (Moria Archer). Deal 1 damage to Sam (2/3). Deal 1 damage to Aragorn (1/5)
Deal shadow card to Moria Orc. Attacks! Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard: Many-Pillard Hall.(threat: 1). Deal 1 damage to Moria Orc (1/3). Shadow: Moria Archer (no effect). No damage dealt.
Aragorn declares an attack on Moria Orc, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 45.
Use Aragorn's ability to reset threat to 34.
Tough call on using this now or waiting one more turn. I would just hate for some strange combination to raise me past 50.
Round 5
The third enemy is defeated, but not enough progress on the stage to advance. Doom draws nearer...
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (2), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (2), +1 Frodo (2)
Draw: Elrond
Top Card: Gandalf's Staff
Planning Phase
Play: Miner of the Iron Hills (Aragorn -2). Discard: Grievous Wound.
Play: Treebeard (Gandalf -2, Sam -1, Frodo -1).
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6)
Total willpower: 9
Reveal: Shadow of Fear. Doomed 1 (raise threat to 35). Surge.
Reveal: Many-Pillared Hall.
Total threat: 2
Place 3 progress on Ancient Guardroom, exploring it.
Place 4 progress on stage 2B (4/9).
Response (ETH #1). Name "Attachment." Discard Gandalf's Staff (add to hand).
Top Card: A Good Harvest
A fantastic card to see with all of these expensive cards in my hand!
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (3/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Many-Pillared Hall.
Encounter Phase
Engage Moria Archer. Ready Sam.
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Combat Phase
Archery 2. Deal 1 damage to Miner of the Iron Hills (1/2). Deal 1 damage to Tree-Beard (1/5).
Deal shadow card to Moria Archer. Attacks! Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard: Moria Orc (threat: 2). Deal 2 damage to Moria Archer (2/3). Shadow: We Cannot Get Out (assign 1 damage to a character). Assign 1 damage to Treebeard (2/5). No damage dealt.
Gandalf + Aragorn declare an attack on Moria Archer, destroying it. Place 1 resource on stage 2B (3/3).
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 36.
Round 6
Stage 3 is achieved, but The Balrog is just around the corner.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (2), +1 Treebeard (1)
Draw: A Good Harvest
Top Card: Snowbourn Scout
Planning Phase
Play (from the top of deck): Snowbourn Scout (Gandalf -1). Place 1 progress on Many-Pillared Hall (1/6).
Top Card: Rear Guard
Play: Naith Guide (Sam -2). Choose Frodo to not exhaust to quest this round.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6), Aragorn (2), Frodo (3; does not exhaust).
Total willpower:14
Response (Wingfoot): Name "Enemy."
Reveal:We Cannot Get Out (Assign 3 damage among characters). Assign 1 damage to Sam (2/3). Assign 1 damage to Treebeard (3/5). Assign 1 damage to Aragorn (1/5).
Total threat: 0
Place 5 progress on Many-Pillared Hall, exploring it.
Place 9 progress on stage 2B, clearing it.
Advance to stage 3A. Add The Great Bridge to the staging area. Reveal: Many-Pillared Hall. Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (2/10). Flip to side 3B.
Response (ETH #1): Name "Event." Discard: Rear Guard (add to hand).
Top Card: Ranger of Cardolan
Response (ETH #1). Name "Ally." Discard: Ranger of Cardolan (add to hand).
Top Card: Ranger of Cardolan
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (1/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to The Great Bridge
No Engagements or Combat
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 37.
Round 7
A Balrog is Come! And he takes out the first character of the quest (a Snowbourn Scout). And then he takes out the second character. This is going to happen a lot.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (2), Treebeard (2)
Draw: Ranger of Cardolan
Top Card: Song of Kings
Planning Phase
Play: A Good Harvest. Name: "Leadership"
Play: Faramir (Gandalf -1, Aragorn -1, Frodo -2)
It was tough deciding to play A Good Harvest this round, or hold out for the next one to get Faramir + Gimli out. Wanting to get my maximum 5 progress on stage 3B each turn, I opt for Faramir now.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6), Aragorn (2), Treebeard (2), Naith Guide (1).
Total willpower:14
Response (Wingfoot). Name "Enemy."
Reveal: They Are Comming! Doomed 2 (raise threat to 39). Shuffle encounter discard into deck. Discard: Darkened Stairway, Fool of a Took!, Grievous Wound, Moria Archer. Add Moria Archer to the staging area.
That was fitting treachery card.
Total threat: 3
Place 5 progress on The Great Bridge, exploring it and adding it to the victory display (9). Place 5 progress on stage 3B (5/15).
Response (ETH #1): Name "Attachment." Discard: Song of Kings (add to hand).
Top Card: Ancestral Knowledge
Response (ETH #2): Name "Event." Discard Ancestral Knowledge (add to hand).
Top Card: Steward of Gondor
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (0/10). Add The Balrog to the staging area. Engages the first player (ready Sam).
The Balrog attacks! Deal shadow card. Snowbourn Scout defends. Shadow: Shadow of Fear (defender does not count defense). Snowbourn Scout is destroyed.
Attach Overcome by Grief to Sam. Exhaust Sam.
Seven rounds in and I just lost my first character. Not too shabby.
Travel Phase
Travel to Many-Pillared Hall.
Encounter Phase
Engage Moria Archer.
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Combat Phase
Archery 2. Deal 2 damage to Faramir (2/3).
Deal shadow cards to The Balrog, Moria Archer.
Moria Archer attacks. Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard: They Are Coming! (no threat). Shadow: Darkened Stairway (no effect). No damage dealt.
The Balrog attacks. Miner of the Iron Hills defends. Shadow: Ancient Guardroom. Miner of the Iron Hills is destroyed.
Spend 2 of Treebeard's resources to ready him.
Gandalf + Treebeard declare an attack on Moria Archer, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 40.
Round 8
The Balrog continues his destruction, now aided by and Uruk from Mordor.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1), +1 Treebeard (1)
Draw: Steward of Gondor
Top Card: Ancestral Knowledge
Planning Phase
Play: Steward of Gondor (Sam -2). Attach to Sam.
Exhaust Steward of Gondor +1 Sam (2).
Play: Naith Guide (Sam -2). Choose Frodo to not exhaust to quest this round.
Play: Gandalf's Staff (Gandalf -1, Aragorn -1). Attach to Gandalf.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6), Aragorn (2), Frodo (3; does not exhaust), Treebeard (2)
Total willpower: 16
Response (Wingfoot): name "enemy."
Reveal: Uruk from Mordor. Makes an immediate attack. Deal shadow card. Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard: Overcome by Terror (no threat). Shadow: Moria Orc (raise threat by 1). Threat: 40. No damage dealt.
Ready Aragorn.
Response (ETH #1): name "Event." Discard Ancestral Knowledge (add to hand).
Top Card: Bombur
Response (ETH #2): name "Ally." Discard Bombur (add to hand).
Top Card: Word of Command.
Total threat:7
Exhaust Gandalf's Staff to add 1 resource to Frodo's pool (2).
Play: Frodo's Intuition (Frodo -2). Each hero gets +1 willpower. Draw (2): Word of Command, Ancestral Knowledge
Top Card: Good Meal
Updated willpower: 20
Place 6 progress on Many-Pillared Hall, exploring it. Place 5 progress on stage 3B.
Travel Phase
No Travel.
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Encounter Phase
Engaged by Uruk from Mordor.
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to The Balrog, Uruk from Mordor.
The Balrog attacks. Naith Guide #2 defends. Shadow: Many-Pillared Hall (+2 attack). Naith Guide is destroyed.
Uruk from Mordor attacks. Naith Guide defends. Shadow: Deep Fissure (no effect). Naith Guide is destroyed.
Gandalf + Aragorn + Faramir declare an attack on Uruk from Mordor, destroying it.
Woops! Forgot to have the Balrog attack at the end of the quest phase. We'll say Faramir met his end at the hand of one of these enemies. The Uruk would have taken 3 additional damage from Gandalf + Aragorn, priming him to be wiped out by Sting next round (if combat had happened).
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 41.
Round 9
Fancy footwork in the planning phase scores me a massive willpower boost that takes the stage by storm. The game is won, but at the cost of a four-burden addition to my campaign pool.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Treebeard (2)
Draw: Good Meal
Top Card: Envoy of Pelagir
Exhaust Steward of Gondor. +2 Sam (3).
Planning Phase
Play (from top of deck): Envoy of Pelagir (Gandalf -1, Sam -1). Add 1 resource to Sam's pool (3).
Top Card: Sword that was Broken.
Exhaust Gandalf's Staff to ad Sword That Was Broken to hand.
Top Card: Bill the Pony
Play: Sword that was Broken (Sam -3). Attach to Aragorn.
Play: Word of Command (Aragorn -1). Exhaust Gandalf. Search deck and add Frodo's Intuition to hand. Shuffle.
Top Card: Quickbeam
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Play: Good Meal. Attach to Frodo.
Play: Frodo's Intuition (discard Good Meal). All heroes get +1 willpower. Draw (2): Quickbeam, Rear Guard
Play: Quickbeam (Treebeard -2). Deal 1 damage to Quickbeam to ready him.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (5), Sam (8), Aragorn (4), Frodo (5), Treebeard (3), Quickbeam (3)
Total willpower: 28
Reveal: Moria Archer. Deal 1 damage to Quickbeam (2/3).
Total threat: 6
Place 5 progress on stage 3B, clearing it and winning the game!
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 41
Total Damage on Heroes: 7 (4 Gandalf, 2 Sam, 1 Aragorn)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -9
Total Score: 129
Campaign Resolution
Burden: Overcome by Grief (setup)
Burden: Grievous Wound (setup)
Burden:Pursued by the Enemy (shuffle)
Burden: Shadow of Fear (shuffle)
Phew. That is going to hurt later on! As well as necessitate a Conditional Attachment focus in future decks.
Previous Campaign Resolutions
Boon: Mr. Underhill attached to Frodo Baggins
Boon: Noble Hero attached to Sam Gamgee
Boon: Anduril, Mithril Shirt, Sting, Glamdring
Burden: Gandalf's Delay (setup)
Burden: Overcome by Terror (shuffle)
The Recap
The emotional feeling of the actual play-through has a major impact on how I view the quest. I didn't really care for my deck this time around, so that takes a bit of a shine away from Journey in the Dark. But would that have mattered? There was variation here (three ways to take on The Balrog resulting in two possible campaign resolutions) and the tricks of the encounter deck (Mines of Moria!!!) were enjoyable during my second run-through. I do take issue with quest elements that are fully up to the randomization of the deck and not player skill. In this one, it is waiting for three enemies to come out before you can advance past the second stage. There are player cards to deal with this (Shadow of the Past, A Light in the Dark), but it is a bit frustrating for the average deck.
Final verdict: Not going down as a favorite quest, but not a terrible one. Something to go up against with decks that do all things really well.
The Deck
There are a lot of things I wanted to do with this deck. I wanted a Ancestral Knowledge + Miner of the Iron Hills combo. I wanted Sneak Attack + Faramir + Ever Vigilant + Valiant Sacrifice. I wanted Erebor Hammersmith + A Good Meal/Ranger Provisions/The Long Defeat (as well as proving more Ancestral Knowledge support). I wanted Gandalf + Expert Treasure-Hunter + Protector of Lorien. And I wanted to see my heroes readying like crazy with Wingfoot + Shadowfax + Cram + Fast Hitch.
And then I ended up with a hot mess.
Not wanting to raise my starting threat, the main flexibility I had was in switching out Aragorn. Plenty of options to be had there! My first two attempts (one back in February and one last month) were simply tackling the quest with the same deck I used on The Ring Goes South. Fun, informative, but not wins. I then tried using Core Aragorn, focusing on some of the deckbuilding ideas I had for the Fellowship Event, but stalled out with a heavy location lock on stage 3. I became a bit obsessed about this and focused heavily on locations for the next build, returning to Loreagon. But I didn't go 100% in and maybe I should have. Instead of picking one strategy and really running with it, I wanted to mash up 3-4 complementary strategies. Other than crazy card draw (Expert Treasure-Hunter) and nothing to do with it, there was no strong combo focus realized. I think I was feeling the pressure of single-handed solo.
Going up against a quest with a single deck, the full burden for every element (questing, defending, attacking) rests on you. There are some fun, nitch little thing that I would like to give a shot, but I often worry about getting clobbered in the area my deck is weakest in. And Journey in the Dark demands that you deal well with all three of these areas (high-threat locations, high-attack enemies, and Archery). I made adjustments to shore up weak areas and in the process took away the power of any real combos or synergy I could have had.
There's a lot of "should've, would've" with this deck. I would have liked a better performance against the quest (with the Balrog either out of play or defeated), but I actually want to put this one behind me, take the win, and head off to the next build and the next quest.
Hot Mess for Moria
Heroes
Gandalf
Sam Gamgee
Aragorn (The Watcher in th Water)
Frodo Baggins (The Road Darkens)
Allies
Treebeard x1
Ranger of Cardolan x2
Envoy of Pelargir x2
Gimli x1
Bill the Pony x2
Faramir x2
Snowbourn Scout x2
Naith Guide x3
Bombur x1
Quickbeam x1
Elrond x1
Miner of the Iron Hills x2
Attachments
Song of Kings x1
Song of Wisdom x1
Shadowfax x1
Gandalf's Staff x1
Good Meal x3
Celebrian's Stone x1
Sword that was Broken x1
Steward of Gondor x1
Wingfoot x1
Protector of Lorien x1
Expert Treasure-Hunter x3
Events
A Good Harvest x2
Rear Guard x3
Word of Command x1
Secret Paths x3
Ancestral Knowledge x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
Sets Used
Core Set
The Hunt for Gollum
Conflict at the Carrock
The Hills of Emyn Muil
Khazad-dum
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
On the Doorstep
Heirs of Numenor
The Steward's Fear
The Black Riders The Treason of Saruman
The Dunland Trap
The Nin-in-Eilph
The Antlered Crown
The Road Darkens
The Wastes of Eriador
RingsDB Link
Rear Guard is fun, but really should have been Sneak Attack with all of the high-cost allies I had. The Songs both came into my hand and never made the board, so +1 to A Good Harvest or +1-2 to Ranger Provisions would have been much more welcome.
The Journey
Card draw and high willpower was to be had in plenty this run-through. But, alas, I was not able to escape the mines before The Balrog's appearance. Not confident in my ability to defeat him, I ran for the hills and took my burdens with me.
Previous Campaign Set-Up
Attach Noble Hero to Sam Gamgee.
Attach Mr. Underhill and The One Ring to Frodo Baggins (The Road Darkens).
Add Anduril to hand. Shuffle Glamdring, Sting, Mithril Shirt into player deck
Add Gandalf's Delay to the staging area.
Shuffle Overcome by Terror into encounter deck.
New Campaign Set-Up
Shuffle Pursued by the Enemy and Shadow of Fear into the encounter deck.
Add Grievous Wound and Overcome by Grief to the staging area.
Player Set-Up
Set Starting Threat to 34
Draw (5; Gandalf's Delay): Naith Guide, Faramir, Expert Treasure-Hunter, Celebrian's Stone, Frodo's Intuition
Top Card: Expert Treasure-Hunter
Not totally crazy about this opening hand, wanting to see either A Good Harvest or a Song, but starting off with Expert Treasure-Hunter x2 bods well for me getting most things I want fairly quickly.
Quest Set-Up
Set The Balrog, The Great Bridge, and Chamber of Mazarbul aside out of play.
Add Doom, Doom, Doom to the staging area. Place 10 damage tokens on it.
Choose and add Darkened Stairway to the staging area.
Always struggle between getting rid of the four-threat location or the quest-stalling Mines of Moria first. Hoping to get a little progress on the quest right away, Darkened Stairway it is.
Round 1
My Expert Treasure-Hunters start digging up the gold. Orc-Chieftain comes out right away, limiting the progress I can get out at first and creating a frustrating situation where I need to keep him alive until stage 2 (or fight him again).
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Expert Treasure-Hunter
Top Card: Wingfoot
Planning Phase
Play (from top of deck): Wingfoot (Aragorn -1). Attach to Aragorn.
Top Card: Shadowfax
Play: Expert Treasure-Hunter. Attach to Sam.
Play: Expert Treasure-Hunter. Attach to Aragorn.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Aragorn (2), Sam (4).
Total willpower: 9
Response (Wingfoot): Name "Enemy."
Reveal: Orc-Chieftain. Ready Aragorn (Wingfoot).
Total threat: 8
Place 1 progress on stage 1B (1/14).
Response (Expert Treasure-Hunter #1): Name "Attachment." Discard Shadowfax (add to hand).
Top card: Sting
Response (ETH #2). Name "Attachemnt." Discard Sting (add to hand).
Top card: Anduril
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (9/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Darkened Stairway
Encounter Phase
Engaged by Orc-Chieftain. Ready Sam.
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Orc-Chieftain. Attacks! Frodo defends. Spend 1 fellowship resource (Frodo -1), exhaust The One Ring, and raise threat to 36. This attack will deal no damage. Shadow: Moria Archer (no effect).
Aragorn + Sam declare an attack on Orc-Chieftain, dealing 1 damage (5/6).
I'll whittle him away a bit, but I don't want to take him out quite yet.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 37.
Round 2
Progress is placed, the Orc-Chieftain is kept at bay, and the march goes on...
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (2), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Anduril
Top Card: Faramir
Planning Phase
Play: Celebrian's Stone (Sam -2). Attach to Sam.
Play: Shadowfax (Gandalf -2, Aragorn -1)
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6), Aragorn (2), Frodo (2).
Total willpower: 13
Response (Wingfoot): Name "Enemy"
Reveal: Darkened Stairway
Total threat: 4
Place 2 progress on Darkened Stairway, exploring it. Discard: Overcome by Terror (no effect).
Place 7 progress on stage 1B (8/14)
Response (ETH #1): Name "Ally." Discard: Faramir (add to hand).
Top Card: Secret Paths
Response (ETH #2): Name "Event." Discard: Secret Paths (add to hand).
Top Card: Song of Wisdom
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (8/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Darkened Stairway
Encounter Phase
No new engagements
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Orc Chieftain.
Add Mr. Underhill to the victory display. Choose Orc Chieftain to not attack.
Discard shadow card (Deep Fissure)
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 38.
Round 3
Gandalf takes some heavy damage (a Grievous Wound, if you will) but the Orc-Chieftain is dispatched.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (2)
Draw: Song of Wisdom
Top Card: Secret Paths
Planning Phase
Play: Sting (Gandalf -1, Sam -1). Attach to Frodo.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6)
Total willpower: 9
Reveal: Ancient Guardroom
Play (from top of deck): Secret Paths (Aragorn -1). Target Ancient Guardroom.
Top Card: Naith Guide
Total threat: 0
Place 2 progress on Darkened Stairway, exploring it. Discard: Moria Orc.
Place 7 progress on stage 1B, exploring it.
Advance to stage 2A. Add Chamber of Mazarbul to the staging area. Flip to stage 2B.
Response (ETH #1). Name "Ally." Discard: Naith Guide (add to hand).
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (7/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Chamber of Mazarbul. Search encounter deck and add Moria Orc to the staging area.
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Encounter Phase
Engage Moria Orc
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to Orc-Chieftian, Moria Orc.
Orc-Chieftain attacks. Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard (encounter): Uruk from Mordor (threat: 2). Deal 2 damage to Orc-Chieftain (3/6). Spend 1 fellowship resource, exhaust The One Ring, raise threat to 40. This attack deals no damage. Shadow: Deep Fissure (no effect).
Moria Orc attacks. Undefended. Shadow: Thy Are Coming! No effect. Deal 3 damage to Gandalf (3/5). Attach Grievous Wound to Gandalf.
Gandalf + Aragorn declare an attack on Orc-Chieftain. Deal 1 damage to Gandalf (4/5).
A bit risky here, but there are no encounter cards that will directly damage Gandalf in this on (optional is a different story) and I want to see this orc dead.
Orc-Chieftain is destroyed. Place 1 resource on Stage 2B (1/3).
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 41.
Round 4
Locations are explored & traveled to and another orc is destroyed. No actual progress is made on the stage, though.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (2)
Draw: Gimli
Top Card: Mithril Shirt
Planning Phase
Play (from top of deck): Mithril Shirt (Frodo -1). Attach to Frodo.
Top Card: Treebeard
I had some other plans for my resources next turn, but I think I need to make way for an Ent.
Quest Phase
Commit: Sam (6), Aragorn (2).
Total willpower: 8
Response (Wingfoot): Name "Enemy."
Reveal: Fool of a Took! Doomed 1 (raise threat to 42). Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (6/10).
Reveal: Moria Archer. Deal 1 damage to Sam (1/3). Ready Aragorn.
Total threat:4
Place 4 progress on Chamber of Moria, exploring it and adding it to the victory display (5).
Response (ETH #1): Name "Ally." Discard: Treebeard (add to hand).
Top Card: Mine of the Iron Hills
Response (ETH #2): Name "Ally." Discard: Miner of the Iron Hills (add to hand).
Top Card: Elrond
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (5/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Ancient Guardroom. Discard: Mines of Moria (threat: 2). Raise threat to 44.
Encounter Phase
No engagements.
Combat Phase
Archery 2 (Moria Archer). Deal 1 damage to Sam (2/3). Deal 1 damage to Aragorn (1/5)
Deal shadow card to Moria Orc. Attacks! Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard: Many-Pillard Hall.(threat: 1). Deal 1 damage to Moria Orc (1/3). Shadow: Moria Archer (no effect). No damage dealt.
Aragorn declares an attack on Moria Orc, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 45.
Use Aragorn's ability to reset threat to 34.
Tough call on using this now or waiting one more turn. I would just hate for some strange combination to raise me past 50.
Round 5
The third enemy is defeated, but not enough progress on the stage to advance. Doom draws nearer...
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (2), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (2), +1 Frodo (2)
Draw: Elrond
Top Card: Gandalf's Staff
Planning Phase
Play: Miner of the Iron Hills (Aragorn -2). Discard: Grievous Wound.
Play: Treebeard (Gandalf -2, Sam -1, Frodo -1).
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6)
Total willpower: 9
Reveal: Shadow of Fear. Doomed 1 (raise threat to 35). Surge.
Reveal: Many-Pillared Hall.
Total threat: 2
Place 3 progress on Ancient Guardroom, exploring it.
Place 4 progress on stage 2B (4/9).
Response (ETH #1). Name "Attachment." Discard Gandalf's Staff (add to hand).
Top Card: A Good Harvest
A fantastic card to see with all of these expensive cards in my hand!
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (3/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to Many-Pillared Hall.
Encounter Phase
Engage Moria Archer. Ready Sam.
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Combat Phase
Archery 2. Deal 1 damage to Miner of the Iron Hills (1/2). Deal 1 damage to Tree-Beard (1/5).
Deal shadow card to Moria Archer. Attacks! Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard: Moria Orc (threat: 2). Deal 2 damage to Moria Archer (2/3). Shadow: We Cannot Get Out (assign 1 damage to a character). Assign 1 damage to Treebeard (2/5). No damage dealt.
Gandalf + Aragorn declare an attack on Moria Archer, destroying it. Place 1 resource on stage 2B (3/3).
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 36.
Round 6
Stage 3 is achieved, but The Balrog is just around the corner.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (2), +1 Treebeard (1)
Draw: A Good Harvest
Top Card: Snowbourn Scout
Planning Phase
Play (from the top of deck): Snowbourn Scout (Gandalf -1). Place 1 progress on Many-Pillared Hall (1/6).
Top Card: Rear Guard
Play: Naith Guide (Sam -2). Choose Frodo to not exhaust to quest this round.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6), Aragorn (2), Frodo (3; does not exhaust).
Total willpower:14
Response (Wingfoot): Name "Enemy."
Reveal:We Cannot Get Out (Assign 3 damage among characters). Assign 1 damage to Sam (2/3). Assign 1 damage to Treebeard (3/5). Assign 1 damage to Aragorn (1/5).
Total threat: 0
Place 5 progress on Many-Pillared Hall, exploring it.
Place 9 progress on stage 2B, clearing it.
Advance to stage 3A. Add The Great Bridge to the staging area. Reveal: Many-Pillared Hall. Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (2/10). Flip to side 3B.
Response (ETH #1): Name "Event." Discard: Rear Guard (add to hand).
Top Card: Ranger of Cardolan
Response (ETH #1). Name "Ally." Discard: Ranger of Cardolan (add to hand).
Top Card: Ranger of Cardolan
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (1/10).
Travel Phase
Travel to The Great Bridge
No Engagements or Combat
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 37.
Round 7
A Balrog is Come! And he takes out the first character of the quest (a Snowbourn Scout). And then he takes out the second character. This is going to happen a lot.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (2), Treebeard (2)
Draw: Ranger of Cardolan
Top Card: Song of Kings
Planning Phase
Play: A Good Harvest. Name: "Leadership"
Play: Faramir (Gandalf -1, Aragorn -1, Frodo -2)
It was tough deciding to play A Good Harvest this round, or hold out for the next one to get Faramir + Gimli out. Wanting to get my maximum 5 progress on stage 3B each turn, I opt for Faramir now.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6), Aragorn (2), Treebeard (2), Naith Guide (1).
Total willpower:14
Response (Wingfoot). Name "Enemy."
Reveal: They Are Comming! Doomed 2 (raise threat to 39). Shuffle encounter discard into deck. Discard: Darkened Stairway, Fool of a Took!, Grievous Wound, Moria Archer. Add Moria Archer to the staging area.
That was fitting treachery card.
Total threat: 3
Place 5 progress on The Great Bridge, exploring it and adding it to the victory display (9). Place 5 progress on stage 3B (5/15).
Response (ETH #1): Name "Attachment." Discard: Song of Kings (add to hand).
Top Card: Ancestral Knowledge
Response (ETH #2): Name "Event." Discard Ancestral Knowledge (add to hand).
Top Card: Steward of Gondor
Remove 1 damage token from Doom, Doom, Doom (0/10). Add The Balrog to the staging area. Engages the first player (ready Sam).
The Balrog attacks! Deal shadow card. Snowbourn Scout defends. Shadow: Shadow of Fear (defender does not count defense). Snowbourn Scout is destroyed.
Attach Overcome by Grief to Sam. Exhaust Sam.
Seven rounds in and I just lost my first character. Not too shabby.
Travel Phase
Travel to Many-Pillared Hall.
Encounter Phase
Engage Moria Archer.
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Combat Phase
Archery 2. Deal 2 damage to Faramir (2/3).
Deal shadow cards to The Balrog, Moria Archer.
Moria Archer attacks. Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard: They Are Coming! (no threat). Shadow: Darkened Stairway (no effect). No damage dealt.
The Balrog attacks. Miner of the Iron Hills defends. Shadow: Ancient Guardroom. Miner of the Iron Hills is destroyed.
Spend 2 of Treebeard's resources to ready him.
Gandalf + Treebeard declare an attack on Moria Archer, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 40.
Round 8
The Balrog continues his destruction, now aided by and Uruk from Mordor.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1), +1 Treebeard (1)
Draw: Steward of Gondor
Top Card: Ancestral Knowledge
Planning Phase
Play: Steward of Gondor (Sam -2). Attach to Sam.
Exhaust Steward of Gondor +1 Sam (2).
Play: Naith Guide (Sam -2). Choose Frodo to not exhaust to quest this round.
Play: Gandalf's Staff (Gandalf -1, Aragorn -1). Attach to Gandalf.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (3), Sam (6), Aragorn (2), Frodo (3; does not exhaust), Treebeard (2)
Total willpower: 16
Response (Wingfoot): name "enemy."
Reveal: Uruk from Mordor. Makes an immediate attack. Deal shadow card. Frodo defends. Exhaust Sting. Discard: Overcome by Terror (no threat). Shadow: Moria Orc (raise threat by 1). Threat: 40. No damage dealt.
Ready Aragorn.
Response (ETH #1): name "Event." Discard Ancestral Knowledge (add to hand).
Top Card: Bombur
Response (ETH #2): name "Ally." Discard Bombur (add to hand).
Top Card: Word of Command.
Total threat:7
Exhaust Gandalf's Staff to add 1 resource to Frodo's pool (2).
Play: Frodo's Intuition (Frodo -2). Each hero gets +1 willpower. Draw (2): Word of Command, Ancestral Knowledge
Top Card: Good Meal
Updated willpower: 20
Place 6 progress on Many-Pillared Hall, exploring it. Place 5 progress on stage 3B.
Travel Phase
No Travel.
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Encounter Phase
Engaged by Uruk from Mordor.
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to The Balrog, Uruk from Mordor.
The Balrog attacks. Naith Guide #2 defends. Shadow: Many-Pillared Hall (+2 attack). Naith Guide is destroyed.
Uruk from Mordor attacks. Naith Guide defends. Shadow: Deep Fissure (no effect). Naith Guide is destroyed.
Woops! Forgot to have the Balrog attack at the end of the quest phase. We'll say Faramir met his end at the hand of one of these enemies. The Uruk would have taken 3 additional damage from Gandalf + Aragorn, priming him to be wiped out by Sting next round (if combat had happened).
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 41.
Round 9
Fancy footwork in the planning phase scores me a massive willpower boost that takes the stage by storm. The game is won, but at the cost of a four-burden addition to my campaign pool.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Treebeard (2)
Draw: Good Meal
Top Card: Envoy of Pelagir
Exhaust Steward of Gondor. +2 Sam (3).
Planning Phase
Play (from top of deck): Envoy of Pelagir (Gandalf -1, Sam -1). Add 1 resource to Sam's pool (3).
Top Card: Sword that was Broken.
Exhaust Gandalf's Staff to ad Sword That Was Broken to hand.
Top Card: Bill the Pony
Play: Sword that was Broken (Sam -3). Attach to Aragorn.
Play: Word of Command (Aragorn -1). Exhaust Gandalf. Search deck and add Frodo's Intuition to hand. Shuffle.
Top Card: Quickbeam
Exhaust Shadowfax to ready Gandalf.
Play: Good Meal. Attach to Frodo.
Play: Frodo's Intuition (discard Good Meal). All heroes get +1 willpower. Draw (2): Quickbeam, Rear Guard
Play: Quickbeam (Treebeard -2). Deal 1 damage to Quickbeam to ready him.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf (5), Sam (8), Aragorn (4), Frodo (5), Treebeard (3), Quickbeam (3)
Total willpower: 28
Reveal: Moria Archer. Deal 1 damage to Quickbeam (2/3).
Total threat: 6
Place 5 progress on stage 3B, clearing it and winning the game!
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 41
Total Damage on Heroes: 7 (4 Gandalf, 2 Sam, 1 Aragorn)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -9
Total Score: 129
Campaign Resolution
Burden: Overcome by Grief (setup)
Burden: Grievous Wound (setup)
Burden:Pursued by the Enemy (shuffle)
Burden: Shadow of Fear (shuffle)
Phew. That is going to hurt later on! As well as necessitate a Conditional Attachment focus in future decks.
Previous Campaign Resolutions
Boon: Mr. Underhill attached to Frodo Baggins
Boon: Noble Hero attached to Sam Gamgee
Boon: Anduril, Mithril Shirt, Sting, Glamdring
Burden: Gandalf's Delay (setup)
Burden: Overcome by Terror (shuffle)
The Recap
The emotional feeling of the actual play-through has a major impact on how I view the quest. I didn't really care for my deck this time around, so that takes a bit of a shine away from Journey in the Dark. But would that have mattered? There was variation here (three ways to take on The Balrog resulting in two possible campaign resolutions) and the tricks of the encounter deck (Mines of Moria!!!) were enjoyable during my second run-through. I do take issue with quest elements that are fully up to the randomization of the deck and not player skill. In this one, it is waiting for three enemies to come out before you can advance past the second stage. There are player cards to deal with this (Shadow of the Past, A Light in the Dark), but it is a bit frustrating for the average deck.
Final verdict: Not going down as a favorite quest, but not a terrible one. Something to go up against with decks that do all things really well.
Monday, November 16, 2015
Fellowship Event 2015: Murder at the Prancing Pony
Victory on the first attempt!
Last week, I marked my return to the game after a very long hiatus by recounting an amazing play through of The Ring Goes South. You may have noticed that I have a trademark quirk of tiny mistakes with big ramifications. Well, I may have set my starting threat just a wee low when the game began. With Loragon on my team, unused the whole game, I probably could have fixed this in retrospect. But let's just forget that refresher happened (I removed the post) and mark my return with this here bad boy...
The Journey
I returned to the US from Thailand just about a month ago and wrote my LGS to ask if they still had room for the 2015 Fellowship Event. "I don't think we're hosting any event," they said. Uh-oh. In Thailand at the time with no strong LotR:tcg presence at stores I knew, I had already missed out on the 2014 event and was not wanting to miss out yet again. With only weeks to go, I sent out feelers to the surrounding area and found three possibilities within a 90 minute drive. Available space and prize support helped lower the decision down to Adventurer's Quarter down in Arvada, CO. Five of us showed up and the event organizer, who had participated in a separate event on Friday, stepped back to provide support (reminding us of terrible effects we might forget) while the remaining four of us began our investigation.
I was nervous to go to this, in all honesty. Being primarily a solo player, I was just waiting to come face-to-face with crucial multiplayer rules I had forgotten. Or general rules, for that matter, having not read the most recent FAQ. And this was a fully brand-new deck I would be trying out (see below). What if it was total flop? Or I was "that guy" who drug the whole team down? Groundless fears! The playgroup quickly introduced themselves, casually chatted about their LotR experience up to date, then got down to business. All of us had complimentary decks, with one player bringing Hobbits (Leadership/Lore/Tactics), another bring Rohan (Spirit/Leadership), and another bringing a Tactics/Leadership deck focused on allies entering and leaving play. I brought Treebeard + Silvan heroes + threat cost management to the table. Our decks were pretty complimentary and everyone was excited to see how the other players' decks would fare.
We began with a slew of enemies from the encounter deck. After setting up and going through our first quest phase, the event organizer said he had not seen a more dire-looking set up during any of his three games Friday night. Our eyes went a bit wide at the staging area, but we (surprisingly to us) cleaned the clocks of every enemy waiting for us. This pattern kept going on: big threats during the quest phase that were readily defeated during the combat phase. Towards the end of stage 2, it seemed like we had this quest pretty much in the bag.
Then we flipped to stage 3.
If you look at the below picture, you can see how many locations were left in the staging area at the end of the game. Most of those were revealed during the transition from stage 2 to stage 3 and stayed there over the next two rounds. But we managed to pull off successful quest phases two times! The final round, all four players had access to a way to boost the willpower significantly. We flew past the immensity of these locations with room to spare and cards unused! The biggest decision we faced at the end was which hero the Rohan player should sacrifice (sorry, Eowyn).
We did make a mistake as a group: After guessing the wrong suspect, we only added the poor falsely accused troll to the staging area and did not face the actual murderer + location until the following round. Would this have done us in? Unsure. We took on everything the deck threw at us pretty handily and our hobbit player took out the troll at his leisure. I'm still going to count this as a win, with the caveat that our recorded score probably needed to be a bit higher and a solo re-do will be in order.
Mistake or not, this was an amazing time of multiplayer goodness. These were great players and it was simply a blast of a quest. While I will continue my solo adventures on this blog, I also plan to expand my LotR gaming circle going forward.
Team Score: 151
The Deck
This deck marks the beginning of me really exploring deck-buildling theory. Early on, I got the basic idea of splitting my cards fairly evenly among the spheres I was playing (1 leadership hero should result in roughly 1/3 leadership cards in my deck) and the idea that you don't want a ton of expensive cards clogging up your hand, no matter how amazing they are. I had also settled on my standard 20 allies, 15 attachments, 15 events pattern fairly early (for average decks not trying to pull of some amazing combo or tricky strategy...which I rarely do). Then I played Magic: the Gathering for the last few months, specifically the limited format where the concept of mana curve was drilled into my head. You play cards in Magic using mana which most often comes from land cards. Since you can only play one land per turn (typically), you often want to have a one-cost card on the first turn, a two-cost card on the second turn, and on and on (hopefully winning fairly early). I started thinking how this would apply to Lord of the Rings, since this game has a set generation of one resource per hero per turn. Taking away resource-adding and cost-reducing effects, could I implement a "curve" in my deck? I think there are many ways to utilize this sort of thinking. Here is how I went about it:
Since you can have up to three of most cards, I decided to try my strategy out on a set of singleton cards and then multiply that three times to make my deck. That gives a result of 16 unique cards (plus 2 extra, which I will get to). I took that number and divided it by three again, representing the number of heroes I would be using, giving me 5 (plus a bit). So my goal would be to plot out my ideal five rounds of play, imagining that I could utilize every resource (which would take a bit of card draw) and purchase roughly a card per resource (mixing 0, 1, 2, and 2+ cost cards to achieve this effect).
Next, I took a look at the type of deck I wanted to work on. A few ideas were playing around in my head. Having just received most of the last year's worth of product, I was itching to get bring some Ents to the table. Before thinking through this curve concept, I threw together an Ent/Eagle mash up with Beorn and Legolas as supporting heroes. The sample draws were not impressing me and I went back to the drawing board. Knowing some of the group members were talking about brining willpower and combat-heavy decks, I thought of going mono-Lore and controlling the encounter deck as much as possible. Finally I decided to mix all of this together, with Haldir replacing Beorn to support Legolas and Treebeard. I looked through my Tactics and Lore cards, pulling out everything I would be excited to play in the deck and used that as my starting pool for the build. With this hero set-up, I would be looking at 1/3 Tactics cards and 2/3 Lore cards.
I then thought about what a normal round of play needs to accomplish. Not fully knowing the decks my co-players would bring to the table, I wanted to contribute to the three major areas of questing, defense, and attack. So I would try to hit all three areas with my playable cards each round. This could be done in creative ways, such as counting healing in the defense category. Hands Upon the Bow (my favorite card to used with Ranged characters) could count as all three: eliminating threat in the staging area while also circumventing the need to defend. Looking at my selected pool, I laid out the ideal round 1 play: Quickbeam, Don't Be Hasty, and Rivendell Blade. There are plenty more zero-cost cards I would love to play in my first round, but keep in mind that I was really aiming to build a 50 card deck on the principle of 3 cards x 5 rounds x 3 sets. It actually ended up plotting out as 6-7 rounds, since playing 3 cards/round was not always practical (there area only so many zero-cost cards worth playing). I did not limit myself to only low-cost cards, but this type of build limited my "high" cost cards (only 1 two-cost Tactics card and 1 three-cost Lore card made the cut). I also kept my eye on my favored 20/15/15 split and made sure not to go too far over or under in any category, often "playing" a set of ally/attachment/event each round.
Now I had my singleton pool. I put three of them together and ended up with 44 cards (only having two core sets, I only have two copies of Henamarth Riversong). I added in Favor of the Valar to count as 1 round of play, then used the remaining 5 spots to plot out two full rounds of play.
The final step was substitutions. I allowed myself to make a fully even exchange: same cost, same category, same targeted effect. An example would be taking out one copy of Elrond and adding in Wellinghall Preserver. While Elrond has additional effects, both were primarily included for the upkeep and care of Treebeard. Rivendell Blade was there to help Legolas be awesome, so one was replaced with a Rohan Warhorse. Sometimes matching the targeted effect was not fully possible, but in general the substitutions went well.
The result of all this is a deck list that, looking at it spelled out, appears to be a mess I would never have built before. All these x1 and x2 cards seem random and haphazard with no real justification. Some real auto-include cards did not make the cut (i.g. Burning Brand for Lore, Boomed and Trumpeted for Ents, and Gandalf for every deck ever). But everything was planned out to a degree that actually playing the deck was a blast. I usually had a card or two that was just perfect for an area of need each round. The only "unplayable" card I had the entire night was Distant Stars. And that was only because my Ithilien Trackers never surfaced and Haldir was too valuable each round to exhaust for the card's effect. Expert Trackers never made it into my hand (chose to discard at least one via Daeron's Runes) and would have suffered from the same problem, so that whole group could be possibly replaced. Everything else was welcome, either as a drawn card or as a card I would have been happy to see come up (although my co-players were a bit bummed that Warden of Healing did not make an appearance, with that feeling mitigated by The Long Defeat).
Now that this theory has shown some fruit, I look forward to implementing it further and thinking through the complicated implications of resource-generating and cost-reducting effects.
Tree-Hugging Elves (courtesy of our event organizer)
Heroes
Treebeard
Haldir of Lorien
Legolas
Allies
Ithilien Tracker x2
Elrond x2
Quickbeam x3
Wellinghall Preserver x1
Henamarth Riversong x2
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Dunedain Hunter x3
Defender of Ramas x3
Vassal of the Windlord x1
Attachments
The Long Defeat x2
Wingfoot x1
Ent Draught x1
Lembas x2
Favor of the Valar x1
Song of Wisdom x1
Black Arrow x1
Arod x1
Rohan Warhorse x1
Rivendell Blade x2
Secret Vigil x2*
Events
Daeron's Runes x3
Distant Stars x1
Expert Trackers x2
Secret Paths x3
Don't Be Hasty x2
Foe-hammer x1
Feint x1
Hands Upon the Bow x2
Sets Used
Core
Conflict at the Carrock
The Dead Marshes
Road to Rivendell
Foundations of Stone
Shadow and Flame
Over Hill and Under Hill
On the Doorstep
Heirs of Numenor
The Road Darkens
The Voice of Isengard
Trouble in Tharbad
The Nin-in-Eilph
The Antlered Crown
The Treason of Saruman
The Lost Realm
Escape from Mount Gram
Across the Entmoors
The Battle of Carn Dum
Note: My original build had Blade of Gondolin in this spot. Talking with our event organizer well before the game, conversation turned to Secret Vigil and I realized I needed to make a last-minute switch.
The Recap
A challenging quest with variety in the gameplay and an openness to creative deckbuilding? Count me in, every time! This quest essential mixes of The Steward's Fear (which I loved) and A Knife in the Dark (which I did not love) and knocks it out of the park. And reinforces the correct viewpoint that Bill Ferny is basically the worst person ever. There is honestly an emotional high from a great multiplayer experience last night, but even after the stars fade from my eyes I have a feeling this will be a treasured quest in my collection.
Last week, I marked my return to the game after a very long hiatus by recounting an amazing play through of The Ring Goes South. You may have noticed that I have a trademark quirk of tiny mistakes with big ramifications. Well, I may have set my starting threat just a wee low when the game began. With Loragon on my team, unused the whole game, I probably could have fixed this in retrospect. But let's just forget that refresher happened (I removed the post) and mark my return with this here bad boy...
The Journey
I returned to the US from Thailand just about a month ago and wrote my LGS to ask if they still had room for the 2015 Fellowship Event. "I don't think we're hosting any event," they said. Uh-oh. In Thailand at the time with no strong LotR:tcg presence at stores I knew, I had already missed out on the 2014 event and was not wanting to miss out yet again. With only weeks to go, I sent out feelers to the surrounding area and found three possibilities within a 90 minute drive. Available space and prize support helped lower the decision down to Adventurer's Quarter down in Arvada, CO. Five of us showed up and the event organizer, who had participated in a separate event on Friday, stepped back to provide support (reminding us of terrible effects we might forget) while the remaining four of us began our investigation.
I was nervous to go to this, in all honesty. Being primarily a solo player, I was just waiting to come face-to-face with crucial multiplayer rules I had forgotten. Or general rules, for that matter, having not read the most recent FAQ. And this was a fully brand-new deck I would be trying out (see below). What if it was total flop? Or I was "that guy" who drug the whole team down? Groundless fears! The playgroup quickly introduced themselves, casually chatted about their LotR experience up to date, then got down to business. All of us had complimentary decks, with one player bringing Hobbits (Leadership/Lore/Tactics), another bring Rohan (Spirit/Leadership), and another bringing a Tactics/Leadership deck focused on allies entering and leaving play. I brought Treebeard + Silvan heroes + threat cost management to the table. Our decks were pretty complimentary and everyone was excited to see how the other players' decks would fare.
We began with a slew of enemies from the encounter deck. After setting up and going through our first quest phase, the event organizer said he had not seen a more dire-looking set up during any of his three games Friday night. Our eyes went a bit wide at the staging area, but we (surprisingly to us) cleaned the clocks of every enemy waiting for us. This pattern kept going on: big threats during the quest phase that were readily defeated during the combat phase. Towards the end of stage 2, it seemed like we had this quest pretty much in the bag.
Then we flipped to stage 3.
If you look at the below picture, you can see how many locations were left in the staging area at the end of the game. Most of those were revealed during the transition from stage 2 to stage 3 and stayed there over the next two rounds. But we managed to pull off successful quest phases two times! The final round, all four players had access to a way to boost the willpower significantly. We flew past the immensity of these locations with room to spare and cards unused! The biggest decision we faced at the end was which hero the Rohan player should sacrifice (sorry, Eowyn).
We did make a mistake as a group: After guessing the wrong suspect, we only added the poor falsely accused troll to the staging area and did not face the actual murderer + location until the following round. Would this have done us in? Unsure. We took on everything the deck threw at us pretty handily and our hobbit player took out the troll at his leisure. I'm still going to count this as a win, with the caveat that our recorded score probably needed to be a bit higher and a solo re-do will be in order.
Mistake or not, this was an amazing time of multiplayer goodness. These were great players and it was simply a blast of a quest. While I will continue my solo adventures on this blog, I also plan to expand my LotR gaming circle going forward.
The Deck
This deck marks the beginning of me really exploring deck-buildling theory. Early on, I got the basic idea of splitting my cards fairly evenly among the spheres I was playing (1 leadership hero should result in roughly 1/3 leadership cards in my deck) and the idea that you don't want a ton of expensive cards clogging up your hand, no matter how amazing they are. I had also settled on my standard 20 allies, 15 attachments, 15 events pattern fairly early (for average decks not trying to pull of some amazing combo or tricky strategy...which I rarely do). Then I played Magic: the Gathering for the last few months, specifically the limited format where the concept of mana curve was drilled into my head. You play cards in Magic using mana which most often comes from land cards. Since you can only play one land per turn (typically), you often want to have a one-cost card on the first turn, a two-cost card on the second turn, and on and on (hopefully winning fairly early). I started thinking how this would apply to Lord of the Rings, since this game has a set generation of one resource per hero per turn. Taking away resource-adding and cost-reducing effects, could I implement a "curve" in my deck? I think there are many ways to utilize this sort of thinking. Here is how I went about it:
Since you can have up to three of most cards, I decided to try my strategy out on a set of singleton cards and then multiply that three times to make my deck. That gives a result of 16 unique cards (plus 2 extra, which I will get to). I took that number and divided it by three again, representing the number of heroes I would be using, giving me 5 (plus a bit). So my goal would be to plot out my ideal five rounds of play, imagining that I could utilize every resource (which would take a bit of card draw) and purchase roughly a card per resource (mixing 0, 1, 2, and 2+ cost cards to achieve this effect).
Next, I took a look at the type of deck I wanted to work on. A few ideas were playing around in my head. Having just received most of the last year's worth of product, I was itching to get bring some Ents to the table. Before thinking through this curve concept, I threw together an Ent/Eagle mash up with Beorn and Legolas as supporting heroes. The sample draws were not impressing me and I went back to the drawing board. Knowing some of the group members were talking about brining willpower and combat-heavy decks, I thought of going mono-Lore and controlling the encounter deck as much as possible. Finally I decided to mix all of this together, with Haldir replacing Beorn to support Legolas and Treebeard. I looked through my Tactics and Lore cards, pulling out everything I would be excited to play in the deck and used that as my starting pool for the build. With this hero set-up, I would be looking at 1/3 Tactics cards and 2/3 Lore cards.
I then thought about what a normal round of play needs to accomplish. Not fully knowing the decks my co-players would bring to the table, I wanted to contribute to the three major areas of questing, defense, and attack. So I would try to hit all three areas with my playable cards each round. This could be done in creative ways, such as counting healing in the defense category. Hands Upon the Bow (my favorite card to used with Ranged characters) could count as all three: eliminating threat in the staging area while also circumventing the need to defend. Looking at my selected pool, I laid out the ideal round 1 play: Quickbeam, Don't Be Hasty, and Rivendell Blade. There are plenty more zero-cost cards I would love to play in my first round, but keep in mind that I was really aiming to build a 50 card deck on the principle of 3 cards x 5 rounds x 3 sets. It actually ended up plotting out as 6-7 rounds, since playing 3 cards/round was not always practical (there area only so many zero-cost cards worth playing). I did not limit myself to only low-cost cards, but this type of build limited my "high" cost cards (only 1 two-cost Tactics card and 1 three-cost Lore card made the cut). I also kept my eye on my favored 20/15/15 split and made sure not to go too far over or under in any category, often "playing" a set of ally/attachment/event each round.
Now I had my singleton pool. I put three of them together and ended up with 44 cards (only having two core sets, I only have two copies of Henamarth Riversong). I added in Favor of the Valar to count as 1 round of play, then used the remaining 5 spots to plot out two full rounds of play.
The final step was substitutions. I allowed myself to make a fully even exchange: same cost, same category, same targeted effect. An example would be taking out one copy of Elrond and adding in Wellinghall Preserver. While Elrond has additional effects, both were primarily included for the upkeep and care of Treebeard. Rivendell Blade was there to help Legolas be awesome, so one was replaced with a Rohan Warhorse. Sometimes matching the targeted effect was not fully possible, but in general the substitutions went well.
The result of all this is a deck list that, looking at it spelled out, appears to be a mess I would never have built before. All these x1 and x2 cards seem random and haphazard with no real justification. Some real auto-include cards did not make the cut (i.g. Burning Brand for Lore, Boomed and Trumpeted for Ents, and Gandalf for every deck ever). But everything was planned out to a degree that actually playing the deck was a blast. I usually had a card or two that was just perfect for an area of need each round. The only "unplayable" card I had the entire night was Distant Stars. And that was only because my Ithilien Trackers never surfaced and Haldir was too valuable each round to exhaust for the card's effect. Expert Trackers never made it into my hand (chose to discard at least one via Daeron's Runes) and would have suffered from the same problem, so that whole group could be possibly replaced. Everything else was welcome, either as a drawn card or as a card I would have been happy to see come up (although my co-players were a bit bummed that Warden of Healing did not make an appearance, with that feeling mitigated by The Long Defeat).
Now that this theory has shown some fruit, I look forward to implementing it further and thinking through the complicated implications of resource-generating and cost-reducting effects.
Tree-Hugging Elves (courtesy of our event organizer)
Heroes
Treebeard
Haldir of Lorien
Legolas
Allies
Ithilien Tracker x2
Elrond x2
Quickbeam x3
Wellinghall Preserver x1
Henamarth Riversong x2
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Dunedain Hunter x3
Defender of Ramas x3
Vassal of the Windlord x1
Attachments
The Long Defeat x2
Wingfoot x1
Ent Draught x1
Lembas x2
Favor of the Valar x1
Song of Wisdom x1
Black Arrow x1
Arod x1
Rohan Warhorse x1
Rivendell Blade x2
Secret Vigil x2*
Events
Daeron's Runes x3
Distant Stars x1
Expert Trackers x2
Secret Paths x3
Don't Be Hasty x2
Foe-hammer x1
Feint x1
Hands Upon the Bow x2
Sets Used
Core
Conflict at the Carrock
The Dead Marshes
Road to Rivendell
Foundations of Stone
Shadow and Flame
Over Hill and Under Hill
On the Doorstep
Heirs of Numenor
The Road Darkens
The Voice of Isengard
Trouble in Tharbad
The Nin-in-Eilph
The Antlered Crown
The Treason of Saruman
The Lost Realm
Escape from Mount Gram
Across the Entmoors
The Battle of Carn Dum
Note: My original build had Blade of Gondolin in this spot. Talking with our event organizer well before the game, conversation turned to Secret Vigil and I realized I needed to make a last-minute switch.
The Recap
A challenging quest with variety in the gameplay and an openness to creative deckbuilding? Count me in, every time! This quest essential mixes of The Steward's Fear (which I loved) and A Knife in the Dark (which I did not love) and knocks it out of the park. And reinforces the correct viewpoint that Bill Ferny is basically the worst person ever. There is honestly an emotional high from a great multiplayer experience last night, but even after the stars fade from my eyes I have a feeling this will be a treasured quest in my collection.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Saga Quest 10: The Ring Goes South
Victory on the fourth attempt!
It's been a long time. Not only since I posted, but since I had time to sit down and complete one of the new (to me) quests in my collection. I'll save more for the recap, but it was worth the wait and I had a blast!
The Deck
Being allowed the ability to freely switch out characters made the deck-building wide open for this quest. At first, I tried keeping Merry & Sam, switching only Pippin out for Aragorn (Watcher in the Water). It didn't work. In fact, I got slaughtered twice in a row. In hindsight, I would suggest switching out Merry for Legolas.
Then I read on a forum (sorry, it's been a while and I can't remember which post) the opinion that this quest wanted to steer you towards Gandalf, Sam, and Aragorn (Core). I'm not sure how Sam figured into that equation, but questing for four (having the Noble Hero boon attached) gave him an automatic spot in any deck I was going to go for. I just wasn't tickled about the idea of a starting threat of 34.
I looked over my leadership cards (since this build would necessitate at least the majority of cards coming from here) and saw two cards I never really used to their full ability: Grave Cairn and Rear Guard. Grave Cairn + Sneak Attack + Gandalf (Core) is a great combination, but not viable if I'm using hero Gandalf. After my two defeats, I knew some serious questing power would be needed for this one and thus Rear Guard would be a perfect fit to include.
Next I thought about attachments. There were so many I wanted to include! But so many of those were unique, or limited to 1/character (Wizard's Pipe). Could I get away with including x1 of such great cards? If I included Galadriel x3, maybe so. Master of the Forge would be great for that strategy as well, but I would have to move him to the top of my deck and wait until Gandalf had two resources. But wait! Why not include Herald of Anorien? Going for Doomed 2 with an already high threat is risky, but this deck was meant to be fun so let's have fun.
Even with high willpower, there are some terrible high-threat locations and enemies that can come jumping out. Enemies I can at least take care of in one turn. Locations might build up in the staging area. In goes Secret Paths. Once again, can I guarantee getting it to the top of my deck for Gandalf to use (ironically, it ended up in exactly that spot during attempts 3 and 4)? Let's put in one copy of Song of Wisdom as a back-up.
I think we're ready to rumble.
Heroes
Gandalf (The Road Darkens)
Sam Gamgee
Aragorn (Core)
Ally (21)
Galadriel (The Road Darkens) x3
Master of the Forge x2
Bill the Pony x3
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Herald of Anorien x3
Naith Guide x3
Snowborn Scout x3
Faramir x1
Attachment (17)
Wizard Pipe x1
Sword that was Broken x1
Good Meal x3
Gandalf's Staff x1
Celebrain's Stone x1
Heir of Mardil x1
Dunedain Mark x3
Dunedain Warning x2
Steward of Gondor x1
Song of Kings x1
Song of Wisdom x1
A Burning Brand x1
Event (12)
Flame of Arnor x3
Secret Paths x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
Rear Guard x3
Sets Used
Core
The Hunt for Gollum
Conflict at the Carrock
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
Shadow and Flame
Heirs of Numenor
The Black Riders
The Road Darkens
The Dunland Trap
Trouble in Tharbad
Celebrimbor's Secret
Note: Master of the Forge is definitely an all-star here, working great with Gandalf's abilities and Galadriel (before or after she is played).
The Journey
Set starting threat to 34
Campaign Set-up
Switch out Merry and Pippin for Gandalf and Aragorn (Core).
Add Anduril to my hand. Shuffle Sting, Mithril Shirt, and Glamdring into my deck.
Quest Set-up
Set Lust for the Rings, Redhorn Pass, Doors of Durin, and Watcher in the Water to the side. Shuffle encounter.
Starting Hand
Naith Guide x2, Wizard Pipe, Mithril Shirt, Good Meal
Top card: Bill the Pony
I considered doing a mulligan, but Wizard Pip + Anduril is going to be a great combination during stage 1. And two rounds of Naith Guides is nothing to sneer at.
Flip to side 1B
Round 1
After getting Anduril on Aragorn for free, I blaze past Redhorn Pass and take out both of the Hound of Sauron's that pursued me.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Bill the Pony
Top Card: Naith Guide
Well, three rounds of an unexhausted Gandalf will be nice.
Planning Phase
Play: Naith Guide from top of deck (Sam -1, Gandalf -1). Choose Gandalf to not exhaust to quest this round.
Top Card: Herald of Anorien
Play: Bill the Pony
Play: Good Meal. Attach to Frodo.
Play: Wizard Pipe (Frodo -1). Attach to Gandalf.
Exhaust Wizard Pipe to switch Anduriel (from hand) with Herald of Anorien (from deck)
Stage 1B Forced Effect: Put Anduril face-up in front of me. Choose to play it for 0 cost. Attach to Aragorn.
Top Card: Glamdring
Choose to shuffle Lust for the Ring into the encounter deck.
Threating out is what did me in during attempt #3. While any boon is one to regret, I'll just have to work around it.
Proceed to stage 2. Make Redhorn Pass the active location.
Reveal (encounter): Hound of Sauron. Surge.
Reveal: Hound of Sauron. Surge.
Reveal: Storm of Howls. Choose to give each Warg enemy -20 engagement cost.
Flip to side 2B.
Quest Phase
Commit Gandalf (does not exhaust), Sam, Aragorn, Frodo to the quest. Total willpower: 12.
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Eregion. Total threat: 5
Place 6 progress on Redhorn Pass, exploring it and adding it to the victory display (1). No damage on card.
Place 1 progress on stage 2B (1/8).
Travel Phase
Travel to Eregion.
Encounter Phase
Engage Hound of Sauron #1. Place 1 damage on Eregion (1).
Engage Hound of Sauron #2. Place 1 damage on Eregion (2).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to Hound of Sauron x2.
Hound of Sauron #1 attacks. Naith Guide defends. Shadow: Howling Warg (+1 attack, 1 damage on active location if character is destroyed). Naith Guide is destroyed. Place 1 damage on Eregion (3).
Hound of Sauron #2 attacks. Aragorn defends. Shadow: Howling Warg (+1 attack, 1 damage on active location if character is destroyed). Two damage dealt to Aragorn. Exhaust Anduriel to declare an attack on Hound of Sauron #2 with Aragorn, destroying it.
Gandalf and Bill the Pony declare an attack on Hound of Sauron #1, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 35.
Round 2
Holding back allies to avoid loosing them via Eregion's leave-play effect, I make a little progress on the quest and take out one of the two additional Hounds that came at me this turn.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Glamdring
Top Card: Dunedain Mark
Planning Phase
Play Dunedain Mark from top of deck (Gandalf -1). Attach to Gandalf.
Top Card: Bill the Pony
Play: Glamdring (Sam -1, Frodo -1). Attach to Gandalf.
Quest Phase
Commit Sam, Aragorn, Frodo, Bill. Total willpower: 10
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Hound of Sauron. Surge.
Reveal: Hound of Sauron. Surge.
Reveal: Hills of Holin.
Total threat: 4
Place 4 progress on Eregion, exploring it. Must discard 3 allies. Discard Bill the Pony (no other allies in play).
Place 2 progress on stage 2B (3/8).
Travel Phase
Travel to Hills of Hollin
Encounter Phase
Engage Hound of Sauron. Place 1 damage on Hills of Holin (1). Ready Sam (+1 willpower, attack, defense).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Hound of Sauron. Attacks! Gandalf defends. Shadow: Crebain from Dunland (no effect). Place 1 damage on Gandalf.
Aragorn declares an attack on Hound of Sauron, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 36
Round 3
Trying to balance strong questing vs. holding back enough blockers to handle Great Warg Chief + Hound of Sauron + one additional warg, I fail advancing the quest by 1 progress. I compensate by taking out the Hound of Sauron.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Bill the Pony
Top Card: Envoy from Pelargir
Planning Phase
Play: Envoy from Pelargir (Gandalf -1, Frodo -1). Add 1 resource to Sam's pool (2).
Top Card: Dunedain Warning.
Play: Bill the Pony
Play: Naith Guide (Sam -2). Choose Gandalf to not exhaust to quest this round.
Quest Phase
Commit Gandalf (does not exhaust), Sam, Aragorn, Frodo, Naith Guide. Total willpower: 13
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Redhorn Foothills. Total threat: 5
No! I knew there would be a risk of a 4-threat location or enemy, but I was really hoping for a 3 at most. It was risk between questing with one more ally vs. having one more ally to defend during stage 3.
Place 4 progress on Hills of Hollin, exploring it. Raise threat by 1 to 37.
Place 4 progress on stage 2B (7/8)
Travel Phase
Travel to Redhorn Foothills.
Encounter Phase
Engage Hound of Sauron. Place 1 damage on Redhorn Foothills (1). Ready Sam (+1 willpower, attack, defense).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Hound of Sauron. Attacks! Bill the Pony defends. Shadow: Hills of Holin (no effect). Bill is destroyed.
Aragorn declares an attack on Hound of Sauron, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 38
Round 4
Questing heavily, I advance to stage 3 and defend against Great Warg Chief + Howling Warg with no ability to damage them this time round. Master of the Forge makes it into play and the mining of attachments + re-arranging of the player deck begins!
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Dunedain Warning
Top Card: Master of the Forge
Exhaust Wizard Pipe to exchange Mithril Shirt for Master of the Forge.
Planning Phase
Play: Mithril Shirt (Frodo -1). Attach to Frodo.
Top Card: Secret Paths
Play: Herald of Anorien (Sam -1, Aragorn -1). Give Doomed 2 (raise threat to 40) to put Master of the Forge into play.
Quest Phase
Commit Gandalf, Sam, Aragorn, Frodo. Total willpower: 12
Reveal: Tree-Crowned Hill. Total threat: 3
Place 5 progress on Redhorn Foothills, exploring it. Randomly discard (put both cards face down and used a dice program, assigning even/odd): Dunedain Warning
Place 4 progress on stage 2B, clearing it. Advance to stage 3.
Search encounter deck and add Great Warg Chief.
Travel Phase
Travel to Tree-Crowned Hill
Encounter Phase
Engage Great Warg Chief. Place 1 damage on Tree-Crowned Hill (1). Discard (encounter): Snowdrifts, Storm of Howls, Howling Warg. Put Howling Warg into play, engaged with me. Add 1 damage to Tree-Crowned Hill (2).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to Howling Warg, Great Warg Chief.
Howling Warg attacks. Place 1 damage on Tree-Crowned Hill. Herald of Anorien defends. Shadow: Hills of Holin (no effect). Herald is destroyed.
Great Warg Chief attacks. Bill the Pony defends. Shadow: Redhorn Foothills (no effect). Bill the Pony is destroyed.
Exhaust Master of the Forge to look at my top 5 cards and add Dunedain Mark to my hand. Shuffle deck.
Top Card: Sword That Was Broken
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 41
Round 5
Aragorn becomes the Steward of Gondor and I take out the Great Warg Chief.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Sword That Was Broken
Top Card: Steward of Gondor
Planning Phase
Play: Steward of Gondor (Gandalf -1, Sam -1). Attach to Aragorn.
Top Card: Frodo's Intuition
Exhaust Steward of Gondor. +2 Aragorn (3).
Play: Naith Guide (Aragorn -2). Choose Gandalf to not exhaust to quest this round.
Quest Phase
Commit Gandalf (Does not exhaust), Sam, Aragorn, Frodo. Total willpower: 12.
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Redhorn Foothills. Place 1 damage on it (1). Total threat: 4
Play: Frodo's Intuition (discard Good Meal to lower cost by 2 to 0). Updated willpower: 16. Draw: Rear Guard, Rear Guard.
Top Card: Flame of Arnor.
Place 6 progress on Tree-Crowned Hill, exploring it. Exhaust 3 characters: Naith Guide x2, Envoy of Pelargir.
Place 6 progress on The Hunt Is Up! (2/12).
Travel Phase
Travel to Redhorn Foothills.
Encounter Phase
No engagements.
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to Howling Wargs, Great Warg Chief.
Add Mr. Underhill to the victory display (2). Choose Great Warg Chief not to attack this round.
Howling Wargs attack. Place 1 damage on Redhorn Footills (2). Gandalf defends. Shadow: Regiments of Crows (undefended damage goes on active location). No damage dealt.
Play: Flame of Arnor from top of deck (Frodo -1). Ready Gandalf. Discard: Bill the Pony to give Gandalf +2 attack.
Top Card: Herald of Anorien.
Gandalf + Aragorn declare an attack on Great Warg Chief, destroying it.
Exhaust Master of the Forge to search the top 5 cards of my deck and add nothing to my hand. Shuffle deck.
Top Card: Snowbourn Scout
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 41
Round 6
Galadriel + Sword That Was Broken makes a great combo. Advancing to stage 4, I temporarily lose Frodo and then lose two allies to Howling Wargs x2. Ignoring the wargs, I get six damage on the Watcher and Frodo rejoins the gang.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Snowbourn Scout
Top Card: Good Meal
Exhaust Steward of Gondor. +2 Aragorn (3).
Exhaust Master of the Forge. Search top 5 cards of my deck and add Gandalf's Staff to my hand. Shuffle.
Top Card: Galadriel.
Yes! Exactly what I was hoping for. Attempt #3 featured Sword That Was Broken + Galadriel as well.
Planning Phase
Exhaust Wizard Pipe to switch Sword That Was Broken with Galadriel.
Play: Galadriel (Sam -1, Aragorn -2). Look at top 5 cards. Attach Sword That Was Broken to Aragorn. Put remaining cards back in the following order (top to bottom): Envoy of Pelargir, Galadriel, Good Meal, Master of the Forge.
Play: Envoy of Pelargir (Gandalf -1, Frodo -1). Add 1 resource to Sam's pool.
Quest Phase
Commit Sam, Aragorn, Frodo, Galadriel. Total willpower: 16
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Howling Wargs. Total threat: 2.
Place 5 progress on Redhorn Foothills, exploring it. Discard 2 random cards (using dice again for 5 cards, rerolling on 6): Gandalf's Staff, Rear Guard.
Place 9 progress on stage 3B, clearing it. Advance to stage 4.
Make Doors of Durin the active location.
Add Watcher in the Water to the staging area. Flip Frodo (+attachments) upside down and add under Watcher in the Water.
Flip to side 4B
Travel Phase
No travel
Encounter Phase
Engage Howling Wargs. Place 1 damage on Doors of Durin (1).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Watcher in the Water, Howling Wargs x2.
Watcher in the Water attacks. Envoy of Pelargir #1 defends. Shadow: Eregion (discard attachment). Discard Wizard Pipe. Envoy of Pelargir is destroyed.
Howling Wargs #1 attacks. Place 1 damage on Doors of Durin (2). Envoy of Pelargir defends. Shadow: Snowdrifts (no effect). Envoy of Pelargir is destroyed.
Howling Wargs #2 attacks. Place 1 damage on Doors of Durin (2). Naith Guide #2 defends. Shadow: Lust for the Ring (no effect). Naith Guide is destroyed.
Gandalf + Aragorn + Naith Guide #1 declare an attack on Watcher in the Water, dealing 6 damage (11 attack vs. 5 shield).
Regain control of Frodo, exhausted with 1 damage on him.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 42.
Discard Galadriel from play.
Round 7
Sword That Was Broken + Rear Guard x2 (goodbye Snowbourn Scouts!) allows me to blow past the staging area and place 22 progress tokens on the Doors of Durin. Victory!
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Galadriel
Top Card: Good Meal
Exhaust Steward of Gondor. +2 Aragorn (3).
Exhaust Master of the Forge. Look at top 5 cards and add Good Meal to hand. Shuffle deck.
Top Card: Rear Guard.
Planning Phase
Play: Galadriel (Sam -2, Aragorn -1). Look at top 5 cards. Put Song of Wisdom into play, attached to Aragorn. Put remaining cards back in the following order (top to bottom): Snowbourn Scout, Rear Guard, Galadriel, Envoy of Pelargir.
Play: Snowbourn Scout from top of deck (Gandalf -1).
Play: Snowbourn Scout from hand (Aragorn -1).
Play: Good Meal. Attach to Sam.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf, Sam, Aragorn, Frodo, Galadriel, Naith Guide. Total willpower: 22
Play: Rear Guard (Aragorn -1). Discard Snowbourn Scout to give each hero +1 willpower. Updated willpower: 26.
Play: Rear Guard (discard Good Meal to lower cost to 0). Discard Snowbourn Scout to give each hero +1 willpower. Updated willpower: 30.
Reveal: Eregion. Total threat: 8.
Place 22 progress on Doors of Durin, exploring it and clearing the stage.
Final Scoring
6 Completed Rounds x10: 60
Ending Threat: 42
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (1 Gandalf, 2 Aragorn, 1 Frodo)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -2
Total Score: 10
Campaign Resolution
Boon's Anduril, Mithril Shirt, Sting, and Glamdring earned (one added to hand and the rest shuffled into player deck each quest)
Lust for the Ring is not attached to a hero and thus not earned!
Previous Campaign Resolutions
Boon: Mr. Underhill attached to Frodo Baggins
Boon: Noble Hero attached to Sam Gamgee
Burden: Gandalf's Delay added to staging area
Burden: Overcome by Terror shuffled into the encounter deck
The Recap
What's not to love? A great helping hand to start with (a boon-in-hand and a card in play for solo players). two rounds of vicious fights against the wargs, and a face-off against the Watcher and the Doors of Durin. Plenty of variety and fun for this player! And it was challenging. After getting destroyed twice, I had to sit back and put some good thought into the right deck. Once I had that, it wasn't a guaranteed win but I wasn't slaughtered either.
Thematically? I think this was a home-run. The first stage features tough decisions for multiplayer or simply a great bonus for solo players. Looking at the perspective of the fellowship vs. the perspective of Frodo, that fits. The next two stages have locations that increase in danger the longer you hang around, with wargs making those locations only more threatening. The wargs themselves seem well-balanced to me (I'm much more inclined to think a evil wolf from the forest could possibly take Aragorn out vs. some shady thug in a bar). But the fourth stage is really where the designers were tested. They already tackled the Watcher before. Yet this time, having only one stage to work with, I think they got much closer to the mark.
The riddles in the original Watcher in the Water quest required a very specific build, deck/encounter manipulation, or good luck to win. Likewise, you could go all-out and simply kill the watcher (or you can cheat with Black Arrow + The Fall of Gil-Galad + Flame of Arnor for the most unthematic victory ever!). Was that ever really a realistic option for the fellowship? No. Here, you have to rescue Frodo from the Watcher (thematic) without being able to kill the watcher (thematic) and overcome the challenge of the doors (thematc). It would have added more theme to remove all warg enemies, have Frodo start taking damage, and still incorporate some sort of riddle into the Doors. But you can't have it all and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
The Black Riders had a great opening followed by two quests that were okay. The Road Darkens likewise has opened strong and I'm eager to see how good the follow-up is.
It's been a long time. Not only since I posted, but since I had time to sit down and complete one of the new (to me) quests in my collection. I'll save more for the recap, but it was worth the wait and I had a blast!
The Deck
Being allowed the ability to freely switch out characters made the deck-building wide open for this quest. At first, I tried keeping Merry & Sam, switching only Pippin out for Aragorn (Watcher in the Water). It didn't work. In fact, I got slaughtered twice in a row. In hindsight, I would suggest switching out Merry for Legolas.
Then I read on a forum (sorry, it's been a while and I can't remember which post) the opinion that this quest wanted to steer you towards Gandalf, Sam, and Aragorn (Core). I'm not sure how Sam figured into that equation, but questing for four (having the Noble Hero boon attached) gave him an automatic spot in any deck I was going to go for. I just wasn't tickled about the idea of a starting threat of 34.
I looked over my leadership cards (since this build would necessitate at least the majority of cards coming from here) and saw two cards I never really used to their full ability: Grave Cairn and Rear Guard. Grave Cairn + Sneak Attack + Gandalf (Core) is a great combination, but not viable if I'm using hero Gandalf. After my two defeats, I knew some serious questing power would be needed for this one and thus Rear Guard would be a perfect fit to include.
Next I thought about attachments. There were so many I wanted to include! But so many of those were unique, or limited to 1/character (Wizard's Pipe). Could I get away with including x1 of such great cards? If I included Galadriel x3, maybe so. Master of the Forge would be great for that strategy as well, but I would have to move him to the top of my deck and wait until Gandalf had two resources. But wait! Why not include Herald of Anorien? Going for Doomed 2 with an already high threat is risky, but this deck was meant to be fun so let's have fun.
Even with high willpower, there are some terrible high-threat locations and enemies that can come jumping out. Enemies I can at least take care of in one turn. Locations might build up in the staging area. In goes Secret Paths. Once again, can I guarantee getting it to the top of my deck for Gandalf to use (ironically, it ended up in exactly that spot during attempts 3 and 4)? Let's put in one copy of Song of Wisdom as a back-up.
I think we're ready to rumble.
Heroes
Gandalf (The Road Darkens)
Sam Gamgee
Aragorn (Core)
Ally (21)
Galadriel (The Road Darkens) x3
Master of the Forge x2
Bill the Pony x3
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Herald of Anorien x3
Naith Guide x3
Snowborn Scout x3
Faramir x1
Attachment (17)
Wizard Pipe x1
Sword that was Broken x1
Good Meal x3
Gandalf's Staff x1
Celebrain's Stone x1
Heir of Mardil x1
Dunedain Mark x3
Dunedain Warning x2
Steward of Gondor x1
Song of Kings x1
Song of Wisdom x1
A Burning Brand x1
Event (12)
Flame of Arnor x3
Secret Paths x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
Rear Guard x3
Sets Used
Core
The Hunt for Gollum
Conflict at the Carrock
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
Shadow and Flame
Heirs of Numenor
The Black Riders
The Road Darkens
The Dunland Trap
Trouble in Tharbad
Celebrimbor's Secret
Note: Master of the Forge is definitely an all-star here, working great with Gandalf's abilities and Galadriel (before or after she is played).
The Journey
Set starting threat to 34
Campaign Set-up
Switch out Merry and Pippin for Gandalf and Aragorn (Core).
Add Anduril to my hand. Shuffle Sting, Mithril Shirt, and Glamdring into my deck.
Quest Set-up
Set Lust for the Rings, Redhorn Pass, Doors of Durin, and Watcher in the Water to the side. Shuffle encounter.
Starting Hand
Naith Guide x2, Wizard Pipe, Mithril Shirt, Good Meal
Top card: Bill the Pony
I considered doing a mulligan, but Wizard Pip + Anduril is going to be a great combination during stage 1. And two rounds of Naith Guides is nothing to sneer at.
Flip to side 1B
Round 1
After getting Anduril on Aragorn for free, I blaze past Redhorn Pass and take out both of the Hound of Sauron's that pursued me.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Bill the Pony
Top Card: Naith Guide
Well, three rounds of an unexhausted Gandalf will be nice.
Planning Phase
Play: Naith Guide from top of deck (Sam -1, Gandalf -1). Choose Gandalf to not exhaust to quest this round.
Top Card: Herald of Anorien
Play: Bill the Pony
Play: Good Meal. Attach to Frodo.
Play: Wizard Pipe (Frodo -1). Attach to Gandalf.
Exhaust Wizard Pipe to switch Anduriel (from hand) with Herald of Anorien (from deck)
Stage 1B Forced Effect: Put Anduril face-up in front of me. Choose to play it for 0 cost. Attach to Aragorn.
Top Card: Glamdring
Choose to shuffle Lust for the Ring into the encounter deck.
Threating out is what did me in during attempt #3. While any boon is one to regret, I'll just have to work around it.
Proceed to stage 2. Make Redhorn Pass the active location.
Reveal (encounter): Hound of Sauron. Surge.
Reveal: Hound of Sauron. Surge.
Reveal: Storm of Howls. Choose to give each Warg enemy -20 engagement cost.
Flip to side 2B.
Quest Phase
Commit Gandalf (does not exhaust), Sam, Aragorn, Frodo to the quest. Total willpower: 12.
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Eregion. Total threat: 5
Place 6 progress on Redhorn Pass, exploring it and adding it to the victory display (1). No damage on card.
Place 1 progress on stage 2B (1/8).
Travel Phase
Travel to Eregion.
Encounter Phase
Engage Hound of Sauron #1. Place 1 damage on Eregion (1).
Engage Hound of Sauron #2. Place 1 damage on Eregion (2).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to Hound of Sauron x2.
Hound of Sauron #1 attacks. Naith Guide defends. Shadow: Howling Warg (+1 attack, 1 damage on active location if character is destroyed). Naith Guide is destroyed. Place 1 damage on Eregion (3).
Hound of Sauron #2 attacks. Aragorn defends. Shadow: Howling Warg (+1 attack, 1 damage on active location if character is destroyed). Two damage dealt to Aragorn. Exhaust Anduriel to declare an attack on Hound of Sauron #2 with Aragorn, destroying it.
Gandalf and Bill the Pony declare an attack on Hound of Sauron #1, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 35.
Round 2
Holding back allies to avoid loosing them via Eregion's leave-play effect, I make a little progress on the quest and take out one of the two additional Hounds that came at me this turn.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Glamdring
Top Card: Dunedain Mark
Planning Phase
Play Dunedain Mark from top of deck (Gandalf -1). Attach to Gandalf.
Top Card: Bill the Pony
Play: Glamdring (Sam -1, Frodo -1). Attach to Gandalf.
Quest Phase
Commit Sam, Aragorn, Frodo, Bill. Total willpower: 10
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Hound of Sauron. Surge.
Reveal: Hound of Sauron. Surge.
Reveal: Hills of Holin.
Total threat: 4
Place 4 progress on Eregion, exploring it. Must discard 3 allies. Discard Bill the Pony (no other allies in play).
Place 2 progress on stage 2B (3/8).
Travel Phase
Travel to Hills of Hollin
Encounter Phase
Engage Hound of Sauron. Place 1 damage on Hills of Holin (1). Ready Sam (+1 willpower, attack, defense).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Hound of Sauron. Attacks! Gandalf defends. Shadow: Crebain from Dunland (no effect). Place 1 damage on Gandalf.
Aragorn declares an attack on Hound of Sauron, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 36
Round 3
Trying to balance strong questing vs. holding back enough blockers to handle Great Warg Chief + Hound of Sauron + one additional warg, I fail advancing the quest by 1 progress. I compensate by taking out the Hound of Sauron.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Bill the Pony
Top Card: Envoy from Pelargir
Planning Phase
Play: Envoy from Pelargir (Gandalf -1, Frodo -1). Add 1 resource to Sam's pool (2).
Top Card: Dunedain Warning.
Play: Bill the Pony
Play: Naith Guide (Sam -2). Choose Gandalf to not exhaust to quest this round.
Quest Phase
Commit Gandalf (does not exhaust), Sam, Aragorn, Frodo, Naith Guide. Total willpower: 13
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Redhorn Foothills. Total threat: 5
No! I knew there would be a risk of a 4-threat location or enemy, but I was really hoping for a 3 at most. It was risk between questing with one more ally vs. having one more ally to defend during stage 3.
Place 4 progress on Hills of Hollin, exploring it. Raise threat by 1 to 37.
Place 4 progress on stage 2B (7/8)
Travel Phase
Travel to Redhorn Foothills.
Encounter Phase
Engage Hound of Sauron. Place 1 damage on Redhorn Foothills (1). Ready Sam (+1 willpower, attack, defense).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Hound of Sauron. Attacks! Bill the Pony defends. Shadow: Hills of Holin (no effect). Bill is destroyed.
Aragorn declares an attack on Hound of Sauron, destroying it.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 38
Round 4
Questing heavily, I advance to stage 3 and defend against Great Warg Chief + Howling Warg with no ability to damage them this time round. Master of the Forge makes it into play and the mining of attachments + re-arranging of the player deck begins!
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Dunedain Warning
Top Card: Master of the Forge
Exhaust Wizard Pipe to exchange Mithril Shirt for Master of the Forge.
Planning Phase
Play: Mithril Shirt (Frodo -1). Attach to Frodo.
Top Card: Secret Paths
Play: Herald of Anorien (Sam -1, Aragorn -1). Give Doomed 2 (raise threat to 40) to put Master of the Forge into play.
Quest Phase
Commit Gandalf, Sam, Aragorn, Frodo. Total willpower: 12
Reveal: Tree-Crowned Hill. Total threat: 3
Place 5 progress on Redhorn Foothills, exploring it. Randomly discard (put both cards face down and used a dice program, assigning even/odd): Dunedain Warning
Place 4 progress on stage 2B, clearing it. Advance to stage 3.
Search encounter deck and add Great Warg Chief.
Travel Phase
Travel to Tree-Crowned Hill
Encounter Phase
Engage Great Warg Chief. Place 1 damage on Tree-Crowned Hill (1). Discard (encounter): Snowdrifts, Storm of Howls, Howling Warg. Put Howling Warg into play, engaged with me. Add 1 damage to Tree-Crowned Hill (2).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to Howling Warg, Great Warg Chief.
Howling Warg attacks. Place 1 damage on Tree-Crowned Hill. Herald of Anorien defends. Shadow: Hills of Holin (no effect). Herald is destroyed.
Great Warg Chief attacks. Bill the Pony defends. Shadow: Redhorn Foothills (no effect). Bill the Pony is destroyed.
Exhaust Master of the Forge to look at my top 5 cards and add Dunedain Mark to my hand. Shuffle deck.
Top Card: Sword That Was Broken
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 41
Round 5
Aragorn becomes the Steward of Gondor and I take out the Great Warg Chief.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Sword That Was Broken
Top Card: Steward of Gondor
Planning Phase
Play: Steward of Gondor (Gandalf -1, Sam -1). Attach to Aragorn.
Top Card: Frodo's Intuition
Exhaust Steward of Gondor. +2 Aragorn (3).
Play: Naith Guide (Aragorn -2). Choose Gandalf to not exhaust to quest this round.
Quest Phase
Commit Gandalf (Does not exhaust), Sam, Aragorn, Frodo. Total willpower: 12.
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Redhorn Foothills. Place 1 damage on it (1). Total threat: 4
Play: Frodo's Intuition (discard Good Meal to lower cost by 2 to 0). Updated willpower: 16. Draw: Rear Guard, Rear Guard.
Top Card: Flame of Arnor.
Place 6 progress on Tree-Crowned Hill, exploring it. Exhaust 3 characters: Naith Guide x2, Envoy of Pelargir.
Place 6 progress on The Hunt Is Up! (2/12).
Travel Phase
Travel to Redhorn Foothills.
Encounter Phase
No engagements.
Combat Phase
Deal shadow cards to Howling Wargs, Great Warg Chief.
Add Mr. Underhill to the victory display (2). Choose Great Warg Chief not to attack this round.
Howling Wargs attack. Place 1 damage on Redhorn Footills (2). Gandalf defends. Shadow: Regiments of Crows (undefended damage goes on active location). No damage dealt.
Play: Flame of Arnor from top of deck (Frodo -1). Ready Gandalf. Discard: Bill the Pony to give Gandalf +2 attack.
Top Card: Herald of Anorien.
Gandalf + Aragorn declare an attack on Great Warg Chief, destroying it.
Exhaust Master of the Forge to search the top 5 cards of my deck and add nothing to my hand. Shuffle deck.
Top Card: Snowbourn Scout
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 41
Round 6
Galadriel + Sword That Was Broken makes a great combo. Advancing to stage 4, I temporarily lose Frodo and then lose two allies to Howling Wargs x2. Ignoring the wargs, I get six damage on the Watcher and Frodo rejoins the gang.
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (1), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Snowbourn Scout
Top Card: Good Meal
Exhaust Steward of Gondor. +2 Aragorn (3).
Exhaust Master of the Forge. Search top 5 cards of my deck and add Gandalf's Staff to my hand. Shuffle.
Top Card: Galadriel.
Yes! Exactly what I was hoping for. Attempt #3 featured Sword That Was Broken + Galadriel as well.
Planning Phase
Exhaust Wizard Pipe to switch Sword That Was Broken with Galadriel.
Play: Galadriel (Sam -1, Aragorn -2). Look at top 5 cards. Attach Sword That Was Broken to Aragorn. Put remaining cards back in the following order (top to bottom): Envoy of Pelargir, Galadriel, Good Meal, Master of the Forge.
Play: Envoy of Pelargir (Gandalf -1, Frodo -1). Add 1 resource to Sam's pool.
Quest Phase
Commit Sam, Aragorn, Frodo, Galadriel. Total willpower: 16
Ready Aragorn (Aragorn -1).
Reveal: Howling Wargs. Total threat: 2.
Place 5 progress on Redhorn Foothills, exploring it. Discard 2 random cards (using dice again for 5 cards, rerolling on 6): Gandalf's Staff, Rear Guard.
Place 9 progress on stage 3B, clearing it. Advance to stage 4.
Make Doors of Durin the active location.
Add Watcher in the Water to the staging area. Flip Frodo (+attachments) upside down and add under Watcher in the Water.
Flip to side 4B
Travel Phase
No travel
Encounter Phase
Engage Howling Wargs. Place 1 damage on Doors of Durin (1).
Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Watcher in the Water, Howling Wargs x2.
Watcher in the Water attacks. Envoy of Pelargir #1 defends. Shadow: Eregion (discard attachment). Discard Wizard Pipe. Envoy of Pelargir is destroyed.
Howling Wargs #1 attacks. Place 1 damage on Doors of Durin (2). Envoy of Pelargir defends. Shadow: Snowdrifts (no effect). Envoy of Pelargir is destroyed.
Howling Wargs #2 attacks. Place 1 damage on Doors of Durin (2). Naith Guide #2 defends. Shadow: Lust for the Ring (no effect). Naith Guide is destroyed.
Gandalf + Aragorn + Naith Guide #1 declare an attack on Watcher in the Water, dealing 6 damage (11 attack vs. 5 shield).
Regain control of Frodo, exhausted with 1 damage on him.
Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 42.
Discard Galadriel from play.
Round 7
Sword That Was Broken + Rear Guard x2 (goodbye Snowbourn Scouts!) allows me to blow past the staging area and place 22 progress tokens on the Doors of Durin. Victory!
Resource Phase
+1 Gandalf (1), +1 Sam (2), +1 Aragorn (1), +1 Frodo (1)
Draw: Galadriel
Top Card: Good Meal
Exhaust Steward of Gondor. +2 Aragorn (3).
Exhaust Master of the Forge. Look at top 5 cards and add Good Meal to hand. Shuffle deck.
Top Card: Rear Guard.
Planning Phase
Play: Galadriel (Sam -2, Aragorn -1). Look at top 5 cards. Put Song of Wisdom into play, attached to Aragorn. Put remaining cards back in the following order (top to bottom): Snowbourn Scout, Rear Guard, Galadriel, Envoy of Pelargir.
Play: Snowbourn Scout from top of deck (Gandalf -1).
Play: Snowbourn Scout from hand (Aragorn -1).
Play: Good Meal. Attach to Sam.
Quest Phase
Commit: Gandalf, Sam, Aragorn, Frodo, Galadriel, Naith Guide. Total willpower: 22
Play: Rear Guard (Aragorn -1). Discard Snowbourn Scout to give each hero +1 willpower. Updated willpower: 26.
Play: Rear Guard (discard Good Meal to lower cost to 0). Discard Snowbourn Scout to give each hero +1 willpower. Updated willpower: 30.
Reveal: Eregion. Total threat: 8.
Place 22 progress on Doors of Durin, exploring it and clearing the stage.
Final Scoring
6 Completed Rounds x10: 60
Ending Threat: 42
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (1 Gandalf, 2 Aragorn, 1 Frodo)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -2
Total Score: 10
Campaign Resolution
Boon's Anduril, Mithril Shirt, Sting, and Glamdring earned (one added to hand and the rest shuffled into player deck each quest)
Lust for the Ring is not attached to a hero and thus not earned!
Previous Campaign Resolutions
Boon: Mr. Underhill attached to Frodo Baggins
Boon: Noble Hero attached to Sam Gamgee
Burden: Gandalf's Delay added to staging area
Burden: Overcome by Terror shuffled into the encounter deck
Sweet victory!
With this sight being especially sweet.
The Recap
What's not to love? A great helping hand to start with (a boon-in-hand and a card in play for solo players). two rounds of vicious fights against the wargs, and a face-off against the Watcher and the Doors of Durin. Plenty of variety and fun for this player! And it was challenging. After getting destroyed twice, I had to sit back and put some good thought into the right deck. Once I had that, it wasn't a guaranteed win but I wasn't slaughtered either.
Thematically? I think this was a home-run. The first stage features tough decisions for multiplayer or simply a great bonus for solo players. Looking at the perspective of the fellowship vs. the perspective of Frodo, that fits. The next two stages have locations that increase in danger the longer you hang around, with wargs making those locations only more threatening. The wargs themselves seem well-balanced to me (I'm much more inclined to think a evil wolf from the forest could possibly take Aragorn out vs. some shady thug in a bar). But the fourth stage is really where the designers were tested. They already tackled the Watcher before. Yet this time, having only one stage to work with, I think they got much closer to the mark.
The riddles in the original Watcher in the Water quest required a very specific build, deck/encounter manipulation, or good luck to win. Likewise, you could go all-out and simply kill the watcher (or you can cheat with Black Arrow + The Fall of Gil-Galad + Flame of Arnor for the most unthematic victory ever!). Was that ever really a realistic option for the fellowship? No. Here, you have to rescue Frodo from the Watcher (thematic) without being able to kill the watcher (thematic) and overcome the challenge of the doors (thematc). It would have added more theme to remove all warg enemies, have Frodo start taking damage, and still incorporate some sort of riddle into the Doors. But you can't have it all and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
The Black Riders had a great opening followed by two quests that were okay. The Road Darkens likewise has opened strong and I'm eager to see how good the follow-up is.
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