Side Quest: Arkham Horror

Departing the realm of Middle-earth, I took a detour tonight into the world of H.P. Lovcraft's Cuthulu Mythos. Even before it's release, Arkham Horror: The Card Game was receiving positive press and speculation that it heralded the downfall of Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. The same designer (Nate French, along with Matthew Newman this time) took five years of lessons and combined them with a theme that is arguably more popular these days with the gaming crowd (at least publishers seem to think so). Now that is has been released, the word on the street is that Arkham Horror is indeed a strong contender for the title of best cooperative living card game published by Fantasy Flight Games.

My first impression? This is a fantastic game. The art does not appeal to me as much as LotR, and it has been years since I was into Lovecraft, but the gameplay itself was highly enjoyable. The designers directly state that they are looking to bring an RPG feel to the table and they succeeded. While not an open-world game, you are responsible for decisions that will not only impact the success or failure of the scenario but what that success or failure looks like. I found myself deciding between achieving a beneficial task or holding insanity at bay for my investigator. Either choice seemed positive and I had no idea which would have the bigger impact on future scenarios. That was exciting and refreshing: Having a list of available options that color the outcome of the quest instead of simply leading to a clean victory or defeat. Another positive was that the start deck I used was actually usable and able to defeat the introductory scenario (a sore point with LotR's own core set that frustrates 10/10 new players).

So has Lord of the Rings: the Card Game been made obsolete? No. I am not the first to state this, but Arkham and LotR are both very different types of games and neither should directly replace the other. Arkham does show lessons FFG has learned in designing living card game which would be great to see retroactively implemented in LotR. In fact, as has also been pointed out by others, you can see how different elements of Arkham were tested out in LotR over the past year (such as the travel mechanic of Temple of the Deceived and the how the ability on Galdor of the Havens is almost identical to the standard mulligan rule in Arkham). The basic fact in favor of LotR's continued existence is that, from what we hear, it is still making FFQ cold, hard cash. What I do think Arkham brings to the surface is the need for an LotR reboot. Five years of lessons can be used to make a smoother, more immersive experience. A way can be found to encourage more frequet social play (if not on a competitive front). And a re-boot allows new players an entry point into a game that has now grown very costly to complete.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game and Arkham Horror: The Card Game are both very welcome parts of my game collection. After I take time to discover the full Arkham core set, I have a feeling I will be quickly adding this to my LCG subscription and begin spending my game time hopping between the rich lands of Middle-earth and the mysteries of realms beyond.

Fellowship 2016: The Siege of Annuminas

Victory on the fourth attempt!


11/11/16 @ The Wizard's Chest

For my first Fellowship Event this year, I headed down to The Wizard's Chest in Denver. The greater Denver area has a fairly consistent LotR scene, including a Friday meet up at the Wizard's Chest. Their attendance for last year's event went above and beyond the amount of kits they reserved (a problem they accounted for this year), so a good size group was likely this year. 15 players showed up, splitting into five different tables attempting the Standard Game Mode.

That's me in the (bottom right) corner, 
That's me in the camera glare
Loosing my ability to bounce elves

The Deck

My usual tendency is to go into a quest as fully blind as a I can. Being that this would be a multiplayer event with time for only a few attempts, I decided to take a few quick peeks and keep my ears open for community advice. The need for healing stood out so I started thinking along those lines. The interaction between Hero Elrond and Dunedain Remedy intrigued me and seemed to have a lot of possibility for multiplayer (spoiler: this was an all-star in both attempts). On a separate note, I had been playing with some Silvan bounce decks. It hit me that both archetypes could likely be merged, especially with Galadhrim Healer. Now I could bring the needed healing, but in what should be a fun shell that could  help with questing and (hopefully) taking out and enemy or two.

Silvan Bounce House of Healing

Heroes
Celeborn
Elrond (Shadow and Flame)
Galadriel (Celebrimbor's Secret)


Allies
Naith Guide x3
Orophin x1
Galadhrim Healer x3
Galadhrim Minstrel x3
Ioreth x1
Warden of Healing x2
Galadhrim Weaver x3
Defender of the Naith x2
Gandalf (Core) x2

Attachments
Dunedain Remedy x3
O Lorien! x2
A Burning Brand x1
Light of Valinor x1
Mirror of Galadriel x3
Unexpected Courage x1
Nenya x2

Events
A Very Good Tale x3
Feigned Voices x3
Sneak Attack x2
The Houses of Healing x1
The Tree People x3
A Test of Will x2
Dwarven Tomb x2
Fair and Perilous x2

RingsDB Link

Attempt #1

Knowing we were looking at over 12 people attending, I was hoping to get in a game of Epic Mode. How often are you going to have a chance to get 12 LotR players together at one time? But most tables were hesitant to take on what they anticipated would be a higher difficulty before they became familiar with the quest. I can understand and respect that. And if the Epic Mode is more intense than Standard Mode, we likely would not have had much of a chance. Our table barely got going on our first attempt before we threw in the towel. The main issue here were two decks misfiring, one of which was mine. Elves were very much not bouncing. I basically just contributed a Dunedain Remedy. We still gave it a valiant attempt, with one player defending just about everything the deck could throw at him. Once his defender bit the dust, that was our signal to re-start.

Attempt #2

Silvan's were firing on attempt two! Almost every round featured some level of elven shenanigans. In fact, everyone's decks seemed to be doing well. A little too well, actually. By decimating any enemies that showed their heads, we made traveling to the copies of Gate of Annuminas in the staging area impossible. Not a huge issue as long as enemies were decimated, but rough on the threat if we kept an enemy or two engaged and flipped a good number during the staging step. In the end, despite the strengths of our decks, threat is what did us in. The nice thing is we were able to handle any enemies the deck threw at us, which was satisfying. Once again, a very strong defender with action advantage was a crucial piece of the success we had (paired with other defenders and some strong attackers). But with that the event drew to a close and I barely had enough energy to drag my defeated bones back home.


11/29/16 @ Haunted Game Cafe

The Haunted Game Cafe up in Fort Collins, CO, is the store I began building my Lord of the Rings: the Card Game collection through. The very first LotR community event was a preview of The Hunt for Gollum which I played at Haunted Game Cafe back in the day. They then began a subscription service which is still going on. We were able to get three players together for another round of Standard Mode attempts!

The Deck

Healing was a definite need during the first two attempts. And we had some great success dispatching any enemies foolish enough to come across our path. But location lock was a problem, as were the unforgiving treacheries that popped up. My goal this time around was to focus on helping more with our location problems through questing and direct progress, while keeping the healing sub-theme and adding a few ways to deal with treachery cancellation. (Note: I totally missed that Halfing Bounder needed a completed side quest to trigger it's effect, but we actually had one towards the end of our winning trip, when the bounder did his best work).

Run

Heroes
Arwen Undomiel (The Dread Realm)
Eowyn (Core)
Erestor (The Treachery of Rhudar)

Allies
Ethir Swordsman x3
Glorfindel (Flight of the Stormcaller) x1
Lorien Guide x1
Rhovanion Outrider x2
The Riddermark's Finest x3
Ghan-buri-Ghan x2
Ioreth x1
Ithilien Tracker x1
Quickbeam x1
Robin Smalburrow x2
Warden of Healing x3
Wellinghall Preserver x2
Treebeard x1

Attachments
Silver Harp x3
Thrors Key x3
Windfola x1
Asfaloth x1
Explorer's Almanac x3
Thror's Map x1

Events
A Test of Will x3
Strength of Will x3
Will of the Wext x3
Secret Paths x3
The Evening Star x3

Sets Used 
Core Set
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Antlered Crown
The Treason of Saruman
Across the Ettenmoors
The Treachery of Rhudar
The Dread Realm
The Grey Havens
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Drowned Ruins
The Flame of the West
Temple of the Deceived
A Storm on Cobas Haven

RingsDB Link

Attempt #3

The first couple of rounds honestly had a feeling of "Not again; this quest is brutal." I guess the previous attempts left a mark! But things started looking up rather quickly. While not giving the city any extra defense the first round, we were able to keep up with only modest threat increases and continued making our way through the quest. Questing was rough, though, even with my deck contributing 20-23 willpower for most of the final half (not amazing, but decent enough). What got us here was city damage. We seriously only needed 2-3 more strength on the city to have a victory in the bag. Rough to get so close and fail, yet encouraging that the end had been just within sight. Our evaluation was that we needed one deck to stay dedicated to attack & defense with the other two questing with as much power as they can.


Attempt #4

Taking our analysis from the last attempt, one player opted to bring a dwarven army to the table. This would likely help with our questing needs, but also be able to provide some strong attack if needed. We quested for all we were worth right off the bat, allowing us to get some needed strength onto the city. The rest of the attempt proceeded in a similar positive fashion to the third one. The quest tried to throw it's usual bag of tricks at us, but we usually had an answer (thank you, Halfing Bounder) or were able to suck up the effect. When we were towards the end of stage 3, I was waiting for that sudden turn of fate that would signal another defeat. But we ended up in a "Do you want to kill that guy or want me to kill him?" position of strength and attempt #4 ended in a sweet victory!

The Recap
 
The Siege of Annuminas does not pull any punches. You need to quest hard, but your questing heroes can easily be damaged. Enemies are either huge, small with downsides (attacking instantly or surging), or mid-size with archery. Or huge with archery. And taking care of enemies is good (and needed), but location lock is very real here. In a sense, most quests end up sounding the same ("The locations are tough! The enemies are tough! The stages are tough!") and it can be hard to capture the nuances that truly make one quest a breeze and another a nightmare. Anuminas is definitely the latter. As for solo play? That is going to go on the far back burner!

But what about the fellowship? Grabbing a few other players and tackling a beast of a quest, trying to work out the puzzle of victory, is always a blast. Without a lot of multiplayer opportunities in my world, Fellowship Events are a welcome addition to my life no matter how punishing the quest is.

Deckbuilding: Let's Use Spirit Pippin!

Three weeks ago I began a fantastic, brand new job that involves an hour-long commute each way.  It has been years since I last listened to Rob Ingles' amazing unabridged reading of The Lord of the Rings. The last time was on a road trip and I remember how enhanced the scenery around me seemed as I listened to Tolkien's rich descriptions of Middle-earth. My knowledge of the trilogy has grown a bit rusty since then and this new commute seemed like the perfect time to dive back into the world of hobbits and goblins.

And what better time to re-start my saga campaign? It was almost two years ago that I first began working through The Black Riders and, despite 5/6 saga boxes being out yet, I still have not finished the final quest of The Road Darkens. I won't spend a whole lot of time going over fresh attempts at quests I have already written up (nor will I really keep track of the number of attempts it takes), but I will put up the decklists and any memorable moments. I am still deciding how to break this up, but I will likely go through a saga box and then alternate with a deluxe expansion or a cycle. That should keep me making progress on getting caught up with the current releases while helping my campaign
stay exciting for me.

(P.S.- This was also a great time to begin listening to The Grey Company's book club, which I do on the drive home, and I highly recommend the series for those working through the books, the saga quests, or both).

A Shadow of the Past

My goal going into A Shadow of the Past was to be as thematic as possible. No Bill, no daggers, no Gandalf, no Merry. And this was to be a pure sprint, with our heroes having no time and no interest in taking on the Black Riders. So who to call on when you do not want to engage everyone? Who can help save the day when you fail a hide test? Who do I have a hard time coming up with situations where I would ever want to use him? That's right! His time is here!

Let's Use Spirit Pippin!

Heroes
Pippin (Encounter at Amon Din)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Frodo Baggins (The Land of Shadow)

Allies
Celduin Traveler x3
Elven Jewler x3
Escort from Edoras x3
Silvan Refugee x3
Farmir (Core) x3
Rivendell Scout x3

Attachments
Ancient Mathom x3
Unexpected Courage x3
Celebrian's Stone x3
Good Meal x3
Resourceful x3

Events 
Children of the Sea x2
Courage Awakened x2
Ride Them Down x2
Timely Aid x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
A Good Harvest x3
Hobbit-sense x3

Sets Used
Core
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
The Steward's Fear
Th Druadan Forest
Encounter at Amon Din
The Black Riders
The Blood of Gondor
The Three Trials
Trouble in Tharbad
The Nin-in-Eilph
The Antlered Crown
Escape from Mount  Gram
The Land of Shadow

RingsDB Link

My first attempt with this deck was to build in all the hobbit shenanigans with Hobbit Pony (not the most thematic), Hobbit Pipe, Elevenses, and Smoke Rings. The goal was to portray our ill-equipped band strolling across the Shire and suddenly realizing their need to hide from the Black Riders. I also wanted to limit my allies to Noldor and a splash of Dunedain. It wasn't able to quite cut it, especially with 3-4 riders in the staging area. The next draft, above, featured some unthematic changes (Faramir, Celebrian's Stone, etc.) that still kept the general theme of the deck going and made it actually able to compete against the quest. Props to The Grey company for talking about Ride Them Down! in the context of The Black Riders. While it did not appear in my hand during this attempt, it was a solid addition to the deck and gave me a more thematic way of dealing with a Black Rider or two (meaning using willpower; not meaning the use of horses). The real all-star of this deck was the Celduin Traveler, though. Two of them coming down back-to-back in rounds 1 and 2 allowed me to quest just right to remain in the shire and get an early upper hand.

Hide tests really keep the game interesting. Even with overwhelming willpower, I still had to take a calculated risk on most rounds. Especially true for the round where I knew a Nazgul was coming up (thanks to the Timely Aid of the third Celduin Traveler), which would require a Hide 2 test, and yet I needed to make an additional Hide 3 test to get to Buckleberry Ferry.

Final Scoring
7 Completed Rounds x10: 70
Ending Threat: 28
Total Damage on Heroes: 0 (despite two copies of Have You Seen Baggins? out!)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 2 (Bag End, Mr. Underhill)
Total Score:100

Campaign Resolution
Choose Gandalf's Delay (burden)
Choose Mr. Underhill (boon) to stay attached to Frodo.



The Old Forest


My initial idea here was to use Spirit Pippin, Tactics Merry, and Frodo. Sam was going to be relegated to his ally form. This would allow me to get the martial benefits of tactics combined with secrecy benefits (and continue trying to make Spirit Pippin work). I was able to get to stage 3 and damage Old Man Willow enough, but the staging area soon got the best of me and it was a downhill battle from there. I played around with improving on this initial idea and ended up deciding to work on modifying Drop It Like It's Hobbit, the deck I used to first tackle The Old Forest. Spirit Merry was switched with his Tactics variant and Lore Pippin was swapped with Spirit. Lore cards were removed and a splash of Tactics cards were put in their place. This was just an initial draft, to be tested once and then refined, but it ended up making short work of The Old Forest.

Drop (Spirit Pippin) Like It's Hobbit!

Heroes
Merry (The Black Riders)
Pippin (Encounter at Amon Din)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Frodo Baggins (The Land of Shadow)

Allies
Beorn (Core) x1
Derndingle Warrior x2
Legolas x1
Bilbo Baggins x1
Glorfindel x1
Imladris Stargazer x3
Kili x1
Zigil Miner x2
Bill the Pony x1
Faramir (Core) x1
Fili x1
Keen-eye Took x1
Ered Luin Miner x3
Gandalf (Over Hill and Under Hill) x2
Treebeard (The Antlered Crown) x1

Attachments
Dagger of Westernesse x3
Good Meal x3
Wizard Pipe x1

Events
Unseen Strike x3
Elven-light x3
A Very Good Tale x3
Timely Aid x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
A Good Harvest x3
Hidden Cache x3

Sets Used
Core
The Hills of Emyn Muil
Khazad-dum
The Redhorn Gate
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Steward's Fear
Encounter at Amon Din
The Black Riders
The Morgul Vale
The Road Darkens
The Antlered Crown
The Treason of Saruman
Escape from Mount Gram
The Dread Realm
Flight of the Stormcaller
Temple of the Deceived


RingsDB Link

The decks performance this first time around could be due to its actual strength or just due to the luck of the draw.  Here is how the planning stage of round 1 went: Played A Good Harvest, picking Spirit. Played Kili from my hand, fetching Fili and putting him into play. Shuffled. Played Timely Aid and put Treebeard into play (exhausted). Shuffled. Played A Very Good Tale, exhausting Fili and Kili. Discarded Ered Luin Miner (putting him into play), Imladris Stargazer, and Derndingle Warrior (put both of them into play, with the warrior exhausted).The next two subsequent rounds saw Beorn and Gandalf joining the team.

Strength aside, there is obvious room for improvement. At least one more Wizard Pipe and/or the return of Gildor Inglorion is required to help with moving needed cards from my hand to the top of the deck. An Elven Jeweler or Steed of Imladris would help make use of any dead cards in my hand (which I had plenty of by the end of the game). But I am a "win more" type of player (thus Land of Shadow Frodo is my ringbearer of choice) and this playthrough scratched that itch.

Final Scoring
4 Completed Rounds x10: 40
Ending Threat:36
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 4 (Withywindle, Mr. Underhill, Old Bogey-stories)
Total Score: 80

Campaign Resolution
Earned Old Bogey-stories (boon)

Previous Campaign Resolutions
Boon: Mr. Underhill attached to Frodo Baggins
Burden: Gandalf's Delay added to staging area


Spirit Pippin Evaluation

The basic summary is that Spirit Pippin is as bad as you think he is.In A Shadow of the Past, he simply served as an emergency button for failed hide tests. In The Old Forest, he was there just for his sphere and to keep at least my hero selection thematic. And that's about it. I made these decks with him just to see what it was like but this beautiful art will likely sit in my binder until some errantra comes along.

Up Next: Let's tackle some Barrow-wights! The next step in the campaign and a quest I have yet to attempt.

Looking Back: Ringmaker Cycle

Celebrimbor's Secret and The Three Trials.

Not only is this the name of my new band, but these are the only two quests I really enjoyed out of the entire Voice of Isengard box + Ringmaker cycle. Part of that is my fault. In misunderstanding how Time X works on locations, I added a layer of punishment to the cycle that was not the designer's intention. I will add a little benefit to my doubt and classify this cycle as "My least favorite, but possibly better than I realize."

Note: Trouble in Tharbad was marked as a favorite quest as well, but that was more to do with the unique nature of getting your threat down to zero than anything else. I may consider changing that classification, or I may find that my new realization about Time X only solidifies my original choice.

Quest 36: The Antlered Crown

Victory on the Fourth Attempt?
Victory on the Seventh Attempt!

The Deck

Having picked up Flame of the West the week before my first attempt at The Antlered Crown, I tried my first attempt at a Tactics Eowyn / Spirit Beregond / Tactics Merry deck. No bueno. At least not the way I built it that time around (I have ideas for making that a stronger deck in the future). Location lock and floods of enemies were things during two attempts so I changed tactics (for Lore) and went in the direction of a Noldor/Dunedain willpower & action advantage route heavily supported by Tale of Tinuviel. Once again, a solid concept (I think) that just wasn't clicking right for me. One thing is that my allies were not full Noldor & Dunedain. In fact, I had some key Rohan support in there that I was reluctant to cut. Why not make that cheaper, helping to empty my hand, and use the Tale's spot to further support our Rohan friends? Putting Gamling to good use was on my back burner and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Santa's Antlers

Heroes
Theoden (The Treason of Saruman)
Arwen Undomiel (The Dread Realm)
Elrond (Shadow and Flame)

Allies
Gamling x2
Escort from Edoras x3
The Riddermark's Finest x3
Westfold Horse-breeder x3
Gleowine x1
Miner of the Iron Hills x1
Warden of Healing x3
Derndingle Warrior x3
Ceorl x1

Attachments
Herugrim x1
Light of Valinor x1
Snowmane x1
Steed of Imladris x1
Unexpected Courage x3
Asfaloth x1

Events
Dwarven Tomb x3
Elronds Counsel x3
Elven-light x3
Fair and Perilous x3
Helm! Helm! x2
Power of Orthanc x1
Ride to Ruin x2
Stand and Fight x2
The Evening Star x3

Sets Used
Core Set
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Shadow nd Flame
The Voice of Isengard
The Treason of Saruman
Escape from Mount Gram
Across the Ettenmoors
The Land of Shadow
The Dread Realm
The Grey Havens
Temple of the Deceived

RingsDB Link

The Recap

So, there is a question mark up there next to the victory.  What is up with that?

The deck performed well. The quest was hard but under control. Finally, the end was in sight! I was engaged with a Dunland Prowler, a Raven Warrior, and the Raven Chief. The Raven Chief had six damage sitting pretty on him. With a copy of Fair and Perilous in my hands and an Unexpected Courage on Theoden, I needed to survive one round of enemy attacks and I could swing for well more than I needed. A Derndingle Warrior, with boosted defense,  takes on the Raven Chief. Shadow card? No effect. Theoden takes on the Raven Warrior. Shadow card? No effect, but Theoden still takes on two damage. Finally Chief Turch, with three damage on him, faces down a two attack Dunland Prowler. Shadow card? Raven Skirmisher. Shadow text: "Attacking enemy gets +X Attack, where X is the Time X value on the active location." What's the active location? Raven War-camp, with a Time X value of 3. Chief Turch dies. Game over.

I like playing Halo on the Legendary setting. You come up against skirmish after skirmish where multiple, sometime an agonizing number, of attempts are needed before you can move on (if your goal is to take all the enemies out instead of running past them in a mix of bravery and terror). And what happens when you fail all of those initial attempts? Back to the previous checkpoint with you! Sometimes that checkpoint is a ways back, but it is always a reasonable distance and you do not have to let one skirmish cause you to replay the entire level. Lord of the Rings: the Card Game is not like that and those moments are the frustrating ones. You can get a handle on the initial and even middle part of the quests, then one false steps or twist of fate sends you right back to the start. This was a major problem I had with The Dunland Trap, the first quest in this cycle, where there was a brutal transition point near the end that wiped away much of your earlier progress in amassing forces.

So I decided to give myself the win. This shadow could have easily belonged to the Raven Chief and brought about the end of the Derndingle Warrior. Chief Turch's attack was not even needed! Elrond w/Fair and Perilous + Theoden had this under control. And I realized I had already given myself quite a handicap in this quest (and in this cycle).

The First Handicap: The Death of Arwen. As the final round began, I looked up to the quest stage and realized I forgot to take off the final time counter at the end of the last round. That means the Raven Chief should have attacked again! I was pretty sure I had enough of a board presence to take that into account, but I could not remember exactly what I had in place during the previous combat round and how it would have played out (a downside of eliminating the detailed notes in my write-ups!). My threat was low enough to soak up the threat of not questing the final round (I hoped) and Arwen was not needed to take out the Raven Chief, so I decided to let her go.

The Second Handicap: Time X Locations. Early on in this final attempt I was dealt the treachery Raising the Cry, which has the text: "Remove 1 time counter from each location in play. Place X time counters on each location in play with no time counters on it. X is the "Time X" value on that location. If there are not locations in the staging area, Raising the Cry gains surge." I looked at it with puzzlement. When is a location ever going to have zero time counters? Does that mean a location will have twice as many time counters? That doesn't sound like a punishment, nor does it fit the title of the card. That would be more like "Delaying the Cry." Then it hits me. I run to grab my Voice of Isengard rulebook and the truth is revealed: I have been playing Time X on locations incorrectly this entire cycle. Taking cues from the quest cards, which typically have you re-ad time counters when you reach zero, I had been placing fresh time counters on my locations after they were all removed. No wonder I found Time X a crazy, overly-punishing mechanic! No wonder so many of these quests were missing an element of fun for me! I'll have to make a back-burner note in my mind to take another crack at this cycle in the future and see if some of the quests shine a little more for me.

What did I think of the quest itself? It was actually pretty decent. Not one that struck a "How many cool decks can I test against this?" sort of note, but it was a thematic and appropriately difficult final quest for the cycle. There are some very punishing and nightmarish scenarios that can pop up, with your board getting flooded by enemies out of nowhere, but once again that is a thematic note and goes with the assigned difficulty level of 7. I will go back and attempt it again some day, especially now that I understand what Time X locations really mean...

Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 45
Total Damage on Heroes: 2 (Theoden)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 8 (Arwen)
Victory Display: -7 (Location, enemy)
Total Score:128

Edit: Returned with Santa's Antlers and got a good lead the third time around with a Derndingle Warrior and Warden of Healing down early. Kept Theoden up most of time and he plus Chief Turch took care of most enemies (with a Riddermark's Finest helping on occasion). I had actually switched out Helm! Helm! x2 and Ride to Ruin x1 with three copies of Hasty Stroke, since shadow effects were making blocking with Chief Turch too risky, but I never had to use one.

(Updated) Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 43
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -7 (Raven Chief's Camp, Raven Chief)
Total Score: 116

 

Print on Demand 3: Stone of Erech

Victory on the First Attempt!

The Deck 

Choosing a strong focus for my decks is a weak point. Solo play necessitates doing all things well and I want to accomplish this using all of the neat tricks at my disposal. Too often the result is a mess pulling in too many directions and doing nothing really well. The idea hit me to try a template, where I boil down the key things I want to do, and then branch out from there.

I was one of the many super-excited when Tactics Eowyn was revealed. Brewing ideas began popping up in my head, with the foremost one being the mass-slaughter of trolls at the Carrock. For some reason, pairing her up with Spirit Glorfindel seemed like a natural fit (probably because paring anyone up with Spirit Glorfindel is a good place to start for a strong deck). Doing a little bit of basic math, I realized I could add in Galadriel and still stay in secrecy (and be greatly aided in staying there). After throwing a few ideas around, I settled on my template concept and ended up with this:

Super Secret Tech (draft)

Heroes
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Galadriel (Celebrimbor's Secret)
Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)

Ally
Derndingle Warrior x3
Galadriel's Handmaiden x3
Elven Jewler x3
Envoy of Pelargir x3

Attachment
Rivendell Blade x3
Rohan Warhorse x3
Ancient Mathom x3
Mirror of Galadriel x3
Unexpected Courage x3
Nenya x3
Resourceful x3

Event
Foe-hammer x3
Unseen Strike x3
Dwarven Tomb x3
Elrond's Counsel x3
Power of Orthanc x2 

Sets Used
Core
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Redhorn Gate
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
The Voice of Isengard
The Dunland Trap
Celebrimbor's Secret
Escape from Mount Gram
The Flame of the West

RingsDB Link

Does it accomplish every last thing I want it to? No. Light of Valinor is an obvious addition to make. But this is a good start that should be able to handle most things a quest will throw out. A strong focus was put on equipping Glorfindel and Eowyn with fancy attachments, mainly because I want Eowyn to swing as many times as possible during her final showdown with the trolls.

Now to make the changes!

Elven Jewler is there to help solve the issue of "dead" unique cards in my hand. We do not need three of her. Ally Arwen can help my Derndingle Warrior's block even better and a Westfold Horse-breeder might be able to help fetch those much-desired horses.

Attachments gets quite a shake-up. Unexpected Courage can get Eowyn readying, so one Warhorse will be fine. I'll switch in Snowmane since I need her willpower (especially in that final round) and Asfaloth for the fun of it (since Galadriel can lay down the Lore once she has her ring). With my low threat, one Rivendell Blade and one Dagger of Westerness would be a good arsenal for Glorfindel. Light of Valinor is still needed and Nenya, while a necessary part of the operation, should be easy to find with the Mirror of Galadriel. One attachment spot is still open, after getting rid of both Blades, but I feel pretty happy how things are looking in this section. Instead I'll give that spot to events and throw in a copy of Daeron's Runes to help find the pieces I need.

Finally, the rest of the events. The White Council is in here to help with readying and resource fixing in a pinch, but the main function is to help get cards back to be fished out with Galadriel's Mirror (especially if they were discarded due to the Mirror's fickleness). Will of the West can help with getting those cards in a well, so we'll put in one of those. Power of Orthanc, Fair and Perilous, and Ride The Down all have uses in a deck like this. The Mirror can grab them for us, then Dwarven Tomb can give multiple uses of the one we need most. And now for The Hammer-stroke. A big hope for this deck is eliminating all four trolls in one turn. To do that, they need to be engaged simultaneously. We'll drop out another hammer to make it the right tool fit.

Now is this deck any less of a mess than the attempts I used to make? I think so. Starting with a template and making strategic decisions creates more of a toolbox than a disaster. Or so I hope...

Super Secret Tech

Heroes
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Galadriel (Celebrimbor's Secret)
Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)

Allies
Derndingle Warrior x3
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x1

Elven Jewler x1
Galadriel's Handmaiden x3
Westfold Horse-breeder x1
Envoy of Pelargir x3 

Attachments
Dagger of Westernesse x1
Rivendell Blade x1
Rohan Warhorse x1
Ancient Mathom x3
Light of Valinor x1
Mirror of Galadriel x3
Snowmane x1
Unexpected Courage x3
Asfaloth x1
Nenya x2
Resourceful x3 

Events
Foe-hammer x2
The Hammer-stroke x1
Unseen Strike x2
A Test of Will x1
Dwarven Tomb x3
Elrond's Counsel x2
Fair and Perilous x1
Power of Orthanc x1
Ride Them Down x1
Will of the West x1
Daeron's Runes x1
The White Council x2

Sets Used
Core
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Redhorn Gate
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
The Black Riders
The Blood of Gondor
The Voice of Isengard
The Dunland Trap
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Antlered Crown
Escape from Mount Gram
Across the Ettenmoors
The Land of Shadow
The Flame of the West

RingsDB Link

So how did it work out? Four less trolls in the wild lands of Middle-earth! Two Unexpected Courages, a Rohan Warhorse, and The White Council gave Eowyn the action advantage she needed to get the job done.

Not saying it went perfectly. I could not find Nenya for the first 3-4 rounds for the life of me, which significantly hurt my ability to blow past through the first stage at the rate I wanted. The staging area started getting a bit concerned, but that was easily solved once Nenya was back on the scene.

And even with a win there are changes I would want to make. Galadriel's Handmaiden is a great card, but Galadriel herself + Elrond's Counsel provided more than enough threat reduction for this deck. Celduin Traveler would have been more of a welcome sight, allowing me to get a few peeks at the encounter deck. I would fully switch those out. And instead of taking out a copy of Nenya, let's leave all three of those in and take out a copy of Resourceful.


The Recap

After an exhilarating victory at the Carrock, I wanted to seek out a new challenge for this deck. Finishing up the Ringmaker cycle was a natural choice, but I was also naturally too lazy to put the encounter deck together (a new storage solution implemented since then should eliminate this excuse). Stone of Erech was sitting on top of my collection and won by the wide margin of, "Why not?".

This quest was a blast. Stone has a counter-strategy for every strategy. Such as lowering willpower, blocking events, dramatically raising threat, etc. It comes off as very well-rounded in its approach to hinder your progress but did this without seeming too brutal. When it turned out I could not use Eowyn's ability on the final boss, it was more amusing than frustrating. But was it the quest I enjoyed or was I simply really enjoying my deck? Hard to tell sometimes!

The progression from Dusk to Eventide to Midnight is similar to the Time X mechanic from the Ringmaker cycle. Even though the progression to each new stage is permanent, I found it less punishing and not as much of a joy-killer as Time X.

The final victory was satisfying, featuring a battle quest with 29 attack committed (Fair and Perilous x3, due to two Dwarven Tombs and help from The White Council). It just took me a while to get there! I intended on letting loose during round 10, but revealed Haunted Valley and all of my heroes lost the ability to sphere-match for the round. Round 11? Haunted Valley. Round 12? Shadow Man, stopping me from playing events for the round. Revealing a Vale of Shadows, with seven quest points at Midnight, was actually a relief!


Final Scoring
12 Completed Rounds x10: 120
Ending Threat: 21
Total Damage on Heroes: 3 (Galadriel)

Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -6
Total Score: 138

Print On Demand 4: The Old Forest

Victory on the Second Attempt!

The Recap

Well I certainly have found my new go-to quest for testing decks with a strong location focus. A few similarities to The Hills of Emyn Muil here, but executed much better (and thus making that quest less likely to see any play, although I hear the nightmare version is fun). I want to come back to The Old Forest with a bag full of the location-focused tricks Lore and Spirit have been gathering.

My first attempt featured a lot of wandering around and a location lock. I worked around this on attempt two by adding Mr. Underhill and Old Bogey-stories to the victory display at a non-essential time, bringing me up to the needed five victory points to proceed onward. On both attempts, Wall of Trees was a fantastic starting location for a deck designed to quest strong right off the bat.

It took me two rounds to get through stage 3B. I saw the staging area, quested with all my might, then somehow missed the fact that the stage had 18 quest points! That honestly seemed like it was going to be game-over for me, with a few enemies and Old Man Willow in the staging area. But my band of hobbits survived by the skin of their teeth and onward we moved!


Now let's talk about the art of this set. Not everything here is jaw-dropping, but when it is those jaws just hit the floor. Just look at Swaying Without the Wind by Jake Bullock. This piece is hidden away as a treachery in a print-on-demand set? Shame for everyone without it (which was me up until recently) and joy for us!

But it is Romana Kendelic's art on Song of Sleep, Lost and Witless, and Ending and Failing that really caught my eye. I immediately though, "Hey, that's the Courage Awakened / Free to Choose artist!" but how little did I know. Doing a search at Hall of Beorn revealed how prolific Ms. Kendelic has been in her contributions to the game. Little did I realize that this artist I was appriciating is the very same one who produced the Merry I was using to go against the quest.

Final Scoring
5 Completed Rounds x10: 50
Ending Threat: 35
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Sam 3, Frodo 1)
Note: Bill the Pony was in play, giving Sam that extra hitpoint.
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -7 (Mr. Underhill 1, Old Bogey-Stories 1, Withywindle 3, Deep Gulley 2)
Total Score: 82

I did not earn Old Bogey-stories on this victory attempt, not realizing the value in attacking Old Man Willow. Definitely an accomplishment I hope to make in the future as it is also a beautiful piece of art and will be useful in situations where I am drawing into cards that do not fit my exact situation (duplicate uniques, too much of the wrong sphere is a multi-sphere deck, that one missing combo piece, etc.).



The Deck

While reading The Secondhand Took's article on hobbit art, I was inspired to use Keen-eyed Took for a hobbit-themed discard deck. Ered Luin Miner is a card I have been itching to play with since opening him last month and this seemed like a perfect match. Ironically (or maybe not), the Took ended up being a pretty weak link the deck and was reduced to a one-of. While his ability + deck manipulation can help get the right card discarded, you're paying two resources for a privilege in a deck that has many other ways to grant the same favor.

Imladris Stargazer, Gildor Inglorion, and Wizard Pipe will help you in getting the right allies to the top of your deck for some Timely Aid, Expert Treasure-hunter(ing), or a reciting of A Very Good Tale. Good old Zigil Miner will dig up some resources for you in the meantime. You then have Elven-light, Hidden Cache, Ered Luin Miner, and Glorfindel who are begging to be tossed out with the trash.


Drop It Like It's Hobbit

Heroes
Merry (The Wastes of Eriador)
Pippin (The Black Riders)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)

Allies
Bilbo Baggins (The Road Darkens) x1
Glorfindel (Flight of the Stormcaller) x1
Imladris Stargazer x3
Kili x1
Zigil Miner x2

Barliman Butterbur x1
Gildor Inglorion x1
Gelowine x1
Henamarth Riversong x1
Mablung (Land of Shadow) x1
Mirkwood Explorer x1
Quickbeam x1
Warden of Healing x1

Bill the Pony x1
Faramir (Core) x1
Fili x1
Keen-eyed Took x1

Ered Luin Miner x3
Gandalf (Over Hill and Under Hill) x2
Treebeard (The Antlered Crown) x1

Attachments
Expert Treasure-Hunter x2
Good Meal x3
Wizard Pipe x1

Events
Elven-light x3
A Very Good Tale x3
Timely Aid x3
A Good Harvest x3
Hidden Catche x3
Frodo's Intuition x3

Sets Used
Core Set
The Hills of Emyn Muil
Khazad-dum
The Redhorn Gate
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Black Riders
The Morgul Vale
The Road Darkens
The Antlered Crown
The Treason of Saruman
The Wastes of Eriador
The Land of Shadow
The Dread Realm
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Thing in the Depths
Temple of the Deceived


RingsDB

This deck seems like a bit of a jumble, but so far it has been consistently spamming out allies once it hits its rhythm.

There is a lot of alteration that can be made here, if you are willing to let go of the amazing name. The Hobbit theme is honestly pretty optional. Take out Bill the Pony, Barliman Butterbur, Good Meal, and Frodo's Intiution. You now have 8 card spots free and can use any combination of sphere-relevant heroes. The entire Lore sphere is fairly optional as well. Expert Treasure-hunter is nice to have, but not fully needed.

Quest 35: Celebrimbor's Secret

Victory on the sixth attempt!

The Deck

From the story section of The Nin-in-Eliph, I knew I would be going up against Orcs this time around. Great! Time to break out the tactics orc-hate! I put in Legolas and a few other Tactics-centric ways to get progress out. I did not realize how much questing strength this quest would actually require. Coming just 1-2 progress sort of clearing The Secret Chamber, I lost momentum and could not get that final progress on before the chamber was destroyed.

Separately, I have been working on some decks for my wife and I to use. After a crushing defeat vs. Shadow of the Past, I decided to do a bit of play testing to make sure the decks actually work well before we make another attempt. She's a fan of Elves so I went for a Silvan theme (even though two of the heroes are Noldor). While my eventual intent was to simply splash some spirit into my tactics deck for the next attempt of Celebrimbor's Secret, this seemed like as good a time as any to playtest the Silvan deck I was building for my wife. 

Silvan Survival

Heroes
Celeborn
Galadriel
Glorfindel

Allies
Naith Guide x3
Orophin x2
Galadhrim Weaver x3
Galadriel's Handmaiden x3
Silvan Refugee x3
Defender of the Naith x3
Gandalf (Core) x3

Attachments
Cram x3
O Lorien x3
Light of Valinor x2
Mirror of Galadriel x2
Unexpected Courage x2
Nenya x2

Events
Feigned Voices x3
Sneak Attack x3
Valiant Sacrifice x3
Fair and Perilous x3
Island Amid Perils x3

Sets Used
Core Set
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Druadan Forest
The Blood of Gondor
The Dunland Trap
The Three Trials
Trouble in Tharbad
The Nin-in-Eilph
Celebrimbor's Secret
Across the Ettenoors
The Treachery of Rhudar

RingsDB Link

You're looking for Nenya or Mirror of Galadriel in your opening hand, along with 1-2 allies to get you started. Then bounce things, boost things, and recover things (via Galadriel's Handmaiden and the shuffle from Mirror of Galadriel).


The Recap

I do not mind loosing against a quest the first time. My goal is to take a deck I think will function well in most circumstances, combine it with a quest I know little to nothing about, and see what beautiful child they create. Usually it's a monstrosity.

I do take issue with miss-plays: Missing a line of text or keyword that results in a playthrough being invalidated. The above six attempts represent one standard failure (using mono tactics with low willpower), three missplays, one error in judgement (letting locations freely stack under The Orc's Search), and a victory.

Let's talk about the error in judgement, because I think it has some relevance to others going up against this one. My second attempt was a pretty handy win, but I realized I neglected to set out a location of my choice (I was playing on OCTGN and forgot that set up pieces with player input like that do not automatically generate). Figuring attempt three would be easy as well, I allowed a couple of locations to be damage unto destruction and placed in The Orc's Search. In fact, I encouraged it several times! My thought was that it would clear up the staging area (which it did) and I would rush to victory so fast that the increased threat of Bellach and the increase in my own threat at the end of the round would be negligible. Wrong! Very wrong. Painfully wrong. One of the biggest tips I can give is, as far as it is within your power, do not let locations build up under The Orc's Search. Fully prevent it if you can! With that, I wonder how brutal this particular quest becomes as you add players. The last thing I ever wanted was more encounter cards to be revealed, giving me either locations to be damage or effects to cause the damage.

This is a fresh and exciting quest for me. While the Time X keyword is used almost too much in the Ringmaker Cycle, I like that it has a bit more of an optional consequence here. Is it bad to run out of time? Depends. How does your staging area look? I also love the creativity of the encounter deck "questing" against you. Who will explore a location first? Will the enemy discover The Secret Chamber before you? And then it wraps up with a good old boss fight.

This does seem like a solo quest to me, though. Not that multiplayer can't win (or have fun). But if I am ever in a playgroup that wants to throw down Celebrimbor's Secret, I am likely going to cluck under my teeth, wrap my fingers on the table, take a deep breath, look my fellow players in the eye and tell them, "I need you to accept the fact that you're likely going to die." And be they willing, we will ride to ruin.

Campaign Progress Update: Journey in the Dark

The Recap

As I documented in my post on Journey in the Dark, I was not satisfied with my deck or experience playing Journey in the Dark earlier this year. Sure, I won, but I accumulated all four burdens and had a pretty "meh" time playing. Hoping to improve both my experience with the quest and my campaign pool, I went at it again a few weeks ago with a new version of my "Hot Mess for Moria" deck. It was a blast! Now, I did not have reveal after reveal of Mines of Moria, so that helped ease the frustration of the quest. The deck got out quite a few allies until my horde by the end was pretty sizable, giving the Balrog little chance of survival. I did sacrifice Gandalf and earned that thematic satisfaction.

This quest was beaten fair and square previously, so I am not going to increase the number of attempts it took me to beat it, but I am going to update my campaign pool with the new adjustments:

Boons
Mr. Underhill (attached to Frodo Baggins)
Noble Hero (attached to Sam Gamgee)
Anduril, Mithril Shirt, Sting, Glamdring (one in opening hand, others shuffled)

Burdens
Gandalf's Delay (setup)
Overcome by Terror (shuffle)
Overcome by Grief (setup)
Shadow of Fear (shuffle)

Fallen Heroes
Gandalf

The Old Forest and Fog on the Barrow-Downs have made their way into my collection recently. I plan on tackling them with the heroes and campaign pool I had accumulated at that point (which means I can go with Merry/Pippin or Merry/Pippin/Sam). If I earn the accompanying boons, I will add those to the campaign pool moving forward.


The Deck

Another Hot Mess for Moria

Heroes
Aragorn (The Watcher in the Water)
Gandalf (The Road Darkens)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)

Allies
Dori (Over Hill and Under Hill) x1
Galdor of the Havens (The Treachery of Rhudaur) x1
Gildor Inglorion x1
Henamarth Riversong x1
Mablung (The Land of Shadow) x1
Quickbeam x1
Warden of Healing x2
Anborn (The Land of Shadow) x1
Bill the Pony x1
Eldahir x1
Erestor (The Long Dark) x1
Faramir (Core) x1
Gimli (The Treason of Saruman) x1
Ingold x1
Beorn (Core) x1
Envoy of Pelargir x3

Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x1
Steward of Gondor x1
Sword that was Broken x1
Elf-stone x2
Expert Treasure-hunter x1
Fast Hitch x2
Gandalf's Staff x1
Good Meal x3
Narya x1
Shadowfax x1
Wizard Pipe x1

Events
Captain's Wisdom x3
Timely Aid x3
Heed the Dream x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
A Good Harvest x3

Sets Used
Core
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Dead Marshes
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Black Riders
The Road Darkens
The Nin-in-Eilph
The Treason of Saruman
The Wastes of Eriador
The Treachery of Rhudaur
The Land of Shadow
The Grey Havens
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Thing in the Depths

RingsDB Link

Get some allies out. Heed that dream. Destroy the monster. Rescue the princess Istari something.

Quest 51: Temple of the Deceived

Victory on the Second Attempt!

Talk about "semi-chronological," eh? Skipping from quest 34 to 51!

I, and I trust I do not stand alone in this, have been itching to get my hands on Temple of the Deceived since it was first announced. That is a very rare occurrence for me. There are other quests that have grabbed my interest but it is usually the player cards I am chomping at the bit for. Temple had such a unique, board-game like feel to it that I wanted to stop my blog in its tracks and take a crack at this one.

The Deck

There's a level of satisfaction in using cards that come with a quest to tackle that quest. Rohan horses is an archetype I have been playing around with a bit this year, so hero Elfhelm made me justifiably excited to return to that archetype. Adding in Tactics and Spirit gives quite a few horse to choose from, with the Charge of the Rohirrm and Westfold Horse-breeder being natural accompaniments. I wrestled with how many Rohan-centric cards to add in and went with Astonishing Speed, since a massive and dramatic questing phase would be needed to wrap up the quest. Oh, it's worth noting that this draft of the deck was made after my first play-through. The initial deck was brimming with cheap Rohan allies and cheap allies are not favored in this quest (there are still a few in the below decklist, though).


I considered using the new dwarf, Ered Luin Minder, as he fulfills the needs of 3-cost allies (this scenario punishes you for allies costing 2 and under), multi-sphere resource management woes, and a chance of combing with A Very Good Tale. In the end I went with an (almost) pure Rohan course, with the exception of Beorn for fun.

Pretty basic goal with this deck: Get a horse on everyone, load up Eowyn with resources, and pump out allies. Chumping with allies will allow Eomer (equipped with a mount) to take out any enemy that pops up. Save at least one Astonishing Speed for an astonishing last round.

You Get A Horse

Heroes
Elfhelm (Temple of the Deceived)
Eomer
Eowyn (Core)

Allies
Cerol x2
Eothain x2
Beorn (Core) x1
Deorwine x2
Westfold Outrider x3
Eomud x2
Gamling x2
Hama (The Treason of Saruman) x2
Westfold Horse-breeder x3


Attachments
Amored Destrier x2
Steward of Gondor x3
Rohan Warhorse x3
Snowmane x1
Steed of the Mark x2

Events
A Very Good Tale x3
Captain's Wisdom x2
Charge of the Rohirrim x3
A Test of Will x3
Astonishing Speed x2
Elven-Light x3
A Good Harvest x3

Sets Used
Core
Conflict at the Carrock
Return to Mirkwood
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Steward's Fear
The Morgul Vale
The Voice of Isengard
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Treason of Saruman
The Land of Shadow
The Dread Realm
The Thing in the Depths
Temple of the Deceived

RingsDB Link

The deck actually miss-fired. Steward of Gondor did not show up until the final round. A Very Good Tale and Elven-Light never made an appearance. Yet the deck more than held its own, which probably speaks more to the strength of Eowyn and Eomer than anything else. Elfhelm's contribution was welcome, and it was fun to use him, but I likely would have done just as well with Spirit Theoden.


The Recap

For my first attempt against Temple of the Deceived I messed up at the set-up. Being told to use the Ruins of Numenor encounter set from The Grey Havens, I picked out all the Lost Island cards that had the Ruins of Numenor expansion symbol. The problem? Just take a look at the Lost Island cards that come with Temple of the Deceived. What do you see on their Lost Island side? The Ruins of Numenor expansion symbol. They all have it! Their actual expansion symbol is on the back of the card. Told to set up all 15 Lost Island cards, I simply dealt out the appropriate number and chalked it up the extra four cards to intended randomization and set them aside. Fortunately one copy of Cursed Island was a part of the map I built (the other one was set aside). After beating the quest, I asked around on the appropriate subreddit and was shown the error of my ways. Now removing any The Fate of Numenor cards (goodbye Shrine to Morgoth!), I reset the map and began anew...

For my second attempt, the encounter deck kind of handed me a victory. I flipped to reveal a Jungle Path Jagged Cliffs* in the upper left and a Cursed Temple in the lower right during the opening set-up. Starting at the Jungle Path (a great location to start at), I discovered a Winding Caverns bridging the two locations. Taking my time and building my forces, I went down to the Cursed Temple, dispatched the Temple Guardian (I had two ways to chose from by that time, allowing me to keep one in reserve for future use), made my way back to the Winding Caverns and jumped three spaces over to a Drowned Graves. With two Rohan Warhorses on Eomer and a few allies to expend chump blocking, three undead foes were easily removed. Using the Gate Key I found that the adjacent Temple of the Deceived card was The Grotto's Entrance. Ran over, took a chump block from the Temple Guardian, and quested like crazy (thank you Astonishing Speed) for a victory.

I usually pay little attention to the difficulty level, but this seemed far easier than I felt it would be. Seeing the "DL = 4" made sense: The quest is not a total breeze but you will not be wracking your brain on how to beat it. On future attempts I actually intend up the challenge by mirroring my erroneous setup: Placing one Cursed Temple in the card pool and one to the side, I will randomly deal out the appropriate number of Lost Island cards with The Fate of Numenor included. I will also place a stipulation on myself that the heroes cannot win if the Temple Guardian is still in play. Does this massively increase the difficulty? No, but it will have an impact. Honestly, I got pretty lucky and even reshuffling the encounter deck might give me all the difficulty I need. Temple of the Deceived is decent as a 4 but I would love it even more as a 5 or 6.

*Note: I actually had a Jungle Path in the upper left and miss-read what "not considered to be in the staging area" implied in terms of travel. Figured a re-do was needed, but checked the cards and Jagged Cliffs would have played out exactly as reported. We'll fudge that for now. But this does show that simply re-shuffling the island may give the added complexity I want.

Final Scoring
9 Completed Rounds x10: 90
Ending Threat: 41
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Elfhelm 4, Eowyn 4)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display:0
Total Score: 135

Time to Reformat

Recently I pulled out the card table, unrolled my playmat, and got to work re-tackling Journey in the Dark. It was a blast! It has been a while since it was just me, the cards, and a good time. That memory was fresh in my mind while listening to the Grey Company Podcast episode 41 today, where everyone took turns recounting what adventures they had been going up against recently. I realized how much playtime I am missing due to the work I put into my detailed quest logs and how counter that is to the original purpose of this blog: to get me playing more!

Why The Quest Logs? The secondary purpose for this blog is to serve as a resource for fellow mediocre solo players. Think a quest can't be beat one-handed solo? Think again! But it is one thing to simply say "No, you can totally beat that" and another to show the work (number of attempts made), planning (decklist), and strategy (the breakdown) that goes into that. Hopefully this has helped other players improve their game, but I know some early comments felt the quest logs were a bit tedious (which led to the inclusion of infrequent commentary notes).

What Will Replace the Logs? The recap sections of the blog posts have been, frankly, a bit unnecessary. Moving forward, I will still detail and explain the deck I won the ques with and then hae a recap section that includes my final score, a more detailed review of the quest, and highlights from my play-throughs. These highlights will focus not only on memorable moments I was proud of (or ashamed of), but will also try to highlight challenges or advantages a solo player has when going up against this specific quest.

So that's the new plan. This blog gets enough traffic to make me happy but is not a major player by any means. It is my assumption that removing the quest logs will have little impact on readers while having a major impact on how frequently the game hits my table. If you do feel the quest logs have been a significant draw to you, please do let me know and I will consider some other solutions.

Thanks for going down this journey with me!

Quest 34: The Nin-in-Eilph

Victory on the seventh attempt!

The Deck

Swampwater

Heroes
Cirdan the Shipwright
Eowyn (Core)
Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)

Allies
Curious Brandybuck x3
Elven Jewler x3
Emery x3
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Pelargir Shipwright x3
Saruman x3
Westfold Horse-breeder x3

Attachments
Herugrim x3
Light of Valinor x3
Map of Earnil x3
Snowmane x3
Unexpected Courage x2

Events
A Test of Will x3
Dwarven Tomb x2
Elven-light x3
Fair and Perilous x3
Power of Orthanc x1
Ride Them Down x3

Sets Used
Core

Foundations of Stone
Heirs of Numenor
The Blood of Gondor
Assault on Osgiliath
The Treason of Saruman
The Voice of Isengard 
The Antlered Crown
The Wastes of Eriador
Escape from Mount Gram
Across the EttenmoorsThe Dread Realm
The Land of Shadow
The Grey Havens

Rings DB Link


Lord of the Rings: the Card Game has decently-sized card pool now. Large enough that I sometimes forget cards exist, especially if they from an expansion I have not interacted with too much. That is the case with The Antlered Crown player cards, since I purchased that and most of the Angmar Awakened cycle at the end of last year (and the blog clearly shows I have not played much since then). While I have been utilizing quite a few cards from that purchase (just look at the above decklist), sometimes a card slips past the radar.

My initial experience being slaughtered on the first attempt (I think I brought a Leadership/Tactics Gondor deck to the party) showed me that massive willpower was going to be required. Subsequent attempts taught me that a reliable way to dispatch enemies almost instantly was crucial, as each of the few enemies present here proved quit a pain to keep around for any significant time. I tweaked my deck here and there, almost coming to the point of jumping ship for a new strategy between attempts four and five, when I re-discovered the beautiful piece of arsenal that is "Ride them Down." Wait, I can re-direct all of that massive willpower I'm throwing at the quest to take out an unwelcome enemy after it is revealed? Sign me up!

I never actually had to use "Ride them Down" in my final attempt, but its presence in my hand gave me a much more confident feel throughout the game. Before re-discovering the card, there was a chance my deck could pull of the win but plenty of ways it could fail. With the card in hand, there were ways the encounter deck could get the better of me but I held a significant advantage over the quest. That is the fun-zone for me. I do not mind loosing, but I do mind being in position where I have not quite figured out the puzzle of the quest and my only hope is to scrape by.



The Journey

Player Setup
Set starting threat to 26
Draw: Map of Earnil, Snowmane, A Test of Will, A Test of Will, Elven Jeweler, Light of Valinor
Light of Valinor + A Test of Will x2 (x3 with the Map, practically) is nice, but I want more ally support than just the Jeweler.
Mulligan: Snowmane, Elven-light, Westfold Horse-breeder, Curious Brandybuck, Saruman, Ride Them Down
Drawing Westfold Horse-breeder and Snowmane is less than optimal (I would rather see Herugim and the Horse-breeder), but hopefully I can get some more discard fodder along with my chump blocker.
 Encounter Setup
Take control of Nalir. Set Ancient Marsh-dweller inside. Search encounter deck and add Fen of Reeds to the staging area. Flip to side 1B. Advance to random stage 2A. Forced (Fen of Reeds): Exhaust Nalir. Raise threat by one (27). Flip to side 2B: A Forgotten Land (cannot play more than 1 card/round). Time 3 (add three time counters).

Round 1
Resource Phase
+1 Cirdan the Shipwright (1), +1 Eowyn (1), +1 Glorfindel (1)
Draw: Curious Brandybuck
Draw (Cirdan): Emery
Discard (Cirdan): Curious Brandybuck

Planning Phase
Discard three (player deck) to put Emery into play: Curious Brandybuck, Map of Earnil, Elven Jewler.
This doesn't count as my one card played/round. I'm going to save that for Ride Them Down, if needed.

Quest Phase
Commit: Cirdan (4), Eowyn (4), Glorfindel (3; raise threat to 28), Emry (1)
I feel comfortable leaving no-one up, knowing that Ride Them Down should be able to knock any enemy out, if needed.
Total Willpower: 12
Reveal: Fen of Reeds
Total Threat: 4
Discard Elven Light to give Eowyn +1 willpower for the phase.
Updated Willpower: 13
Play: Elven Light (from discard; Glorfindel -1). Return Elven Light to hand. Draw: Fair and Perilous. 
Place 9 progress on stage 2B (9/13).

Travel Phase
Travel to Fen of Reeds #1

No Engagements or Combat

Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 29.
Forced (Nalir): Raise threat to 30.
Remove 1 time counter from stage 2B (2/3). 

Round 2
Resource Phase
+1 Cirdan the Shipwright (2), +1 Eowyn (2), +1 Glorfindel (1)
Draw: Pelargir Shipwright
Draw (Cirdan): Pelargir Shipwright
Discard (Cirdan): Curious Brandybuck
I think that's all three in the discard now! Definitely a card to re-evaluate, since I'm eager to pitch them when it comes down to it.

Planning Phase
None.
Still saving that one play for Ride Them Down, just in case. I would rather be a little lower on my willpower right now and yet able to knock out something if needed.

Quest Phase
Commit: Cirdan (4), Eowyn (4), Glorfindel (3; raise threat to 31).
Leaving Emery up this time, in case I get the stage 3B that causes Ancient Marsh-Dweller to engage me.
Total Willpower: 11
Reveal: Stinking Bog
Total Threat: 3
Place 3 progress on Fen of Reeds, exploring it
Place 5 progress on stage 2B (14/13), exploring it. Advance to random stage 3A. Forced (Fen of Reeds): Exhaust Nalir. Raise threat by 1 (31). Add Ancient-Marsh Dweller to the staging area. Flip to side 3B: Creatures of a Forgotten Age (enemies in the staging area get -20 engagement cost). Time 3 (add 3 time counters).

Travel Phase
Travel to Fen of Reeds.

Encounter Phase
Engage Ancient Marsh-Dweller.

Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Ancient Marsh-Dewller. Attacks! Emery defends. Shadow: In Need of Rest (no effect). Emery is destroyed.
Love seeing In Need of Rest as a shadow and not an encounter card! 

Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 32.
Forced (Nalir): Raise threat to 33.
Remove 1 time counter from stage 3B (2/3).  Place 1 resource on Ancient Marsh-Dweller (1).

Round 3
Resource Phase
+1 Cirdan the Shipwright (3), +1 Eowyn (3), +1 Glorfindel (2)
Draw: Map of Earnil
Draw (Cirdan): Dwarven Tomb
Discard (Cirdan): Elven-Light

Planning Phase
Play: Westfolt Horse-breeder (Eowyn -1). Look at top 10 cards (player deck) and add nothing to hand. Shuffle.
Play: Pelargir Shipwright (Cirdan -1, Eowyn -1, Glorfindel -1).
Play: Elven-light (from discard; Cirdan -1). Return Elven-light to hand. Draw: Herugrim.
Got my Eowyn combo in hand!

Quest Phase
Commit: Cirdan (4), Eowyn (4), Glorfindel (3; raise threat to 34).
Total Willpower: 11
Reveal: Off Track. Attach to Fen of Reeds (active location). Surge.
Reveal: Stinking Bog.
Total Threat: 2
The nice thing is having low threat in the staging area. The hard thing is attaching Herugrim to Eowyn will lower her stats.
Place 5 progress on Fen of Reeds, exploring it (and discarding Off Track).
Place 4 progress on stage 3B (4/16).

No travel or engagements

Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Ancient Marsh-dweller. Attacks! Westfold Horse-breeder defends. Shadow: Off Track (no effect). Westfold Horse-breeder is destroyed.
Farewell, you breeder of none.

Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 35
Forced (Nalir): Raise threat to 36.
Remove 1 time counter from stage 3B (1/3).  Place 1 resource on Ancient Marsh-Dweller (2).

Round 4
Resource Phase
+1 Cirdan the Shipwright (2), +1 Eowyn (2), +1 Glorfindel (2)
Draw: Power of Orthanc
Draw (Cirdan): Emery
Discard (Cirdan): Elven-light

Planning Phase
Discard three (player deck) to put Emery into play: Herugrim, Envoy of Pelargir, Fair and Perilous.
Play: Pelargir Shipwright (Cirdan -1, Eowyn -1, Glorfindel -1).

Quest Phase
Commit: Cirdan (4), Eowyn (4), Glorfindel (3; raise threat to 37), Shipwright #1 (3), Shipwright #2 (3).
Total Willpower: 17
Trying to "go big or go home" here, with the hopes of defeating stage 3 and having Ancient Marsh-Dweller returned to the staging area. It will then attack and I will be in trouble if it gets to attack again, but what is life without risks?
Reveal: Finger of Glanduin
Total Threat: 5
Place 12 progress on stage 3B, exploring it. Advance to stage 4A. Return Ancient Marsh-Dweller to the staging area. Attacks! Deal shadow card. Emery defends. Shadow; Giant Swamp Adder (no effect). Emery is destroyed. Flip to side 4B. Time 2 (add 2 time counters).

Travel Phase
Travel to Finger of Glanduin.

No encounters or combat.

Refresh Phase
Ready all. Raise threat to 38.
Forced (Nalir): Raise threat to 39.
Remove 1 time counter from stage 4B (1/2). Place 1 resource on Ancient Marsh-Dweller (3).

Round 5
Resource Phase
+1 Cirdan the Shipwright (2), +1 Eowyn (2), +1 Glorfindel (2)
Draw: Ride Them Down
Draw (Cirdan): Pelargir Shipwright
Discard (Cirdan): Ride Them Down

Planning Phase
This is it! I have pieces of my various win conditions in hand, but I think I'm going to Fair and Perilous my way out of this.
Play: Map of Earnil (Glorfindel -1). Attach to Cirdan.

Quest Phase
Commit: Eowyn (4), Glorfindel (3; raise threat to 40).
Total Willpower: 7
Reveal: Hall of Eyot
Total Threat: 11
Discard Ride Them Down to give Eowyn +1 willpower.
Updated Willpower: 8
Raise threat to 43.

No Travel

Encounter Phase
Engage Ancient Marsh-Dweller.

Combat Phase
Deal shadow card to Ancient Marsh-Dweller. Attacks! Pelargir Shipwright #2 defends. Shadow: Low on Provisions (+2 attack). Pelargir Shipwright is destroyed.
Play: Fair and Perilous (Glorfindel -1). Choose Cirdan, giving him +4 attack (6).
Discard Map of Earnil. Choose Fair and Perilous (Eowyn -1). Choose Cirdan, giving him +4 attack (10).
Play: Dwarven Tomb (Eowyn -1). Return Fair and Perilous to hand.
Play: Fair and Perilous (Cirdan -1). Choose Cirdan, giving him +4 attack (14).
Cirdan declares an attack on Ancient Mash-Dweller, destroying it and adding it to the victory display (5).
VICTORY!

Final Scoring
4 Completed Rounds x40: 40
Ending Threat: 44
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -5
Total Score: 79


The Recap

The teaser for this one, which presented various routes through the swamp and a menacing creature waiting to attack you, appealed to me more than the actual quest did. The Three Trials actually presented more of what I had hoped to find here in The Nin-in-Eilph. The quest did make use of the cycles Time X keyword in a pretty massive way. At first I saw this as a flavor win, but the more I think about it the more I felt the quest was a mad rush through the swamp vs. the tiring slog the art and flavor text seemed to suggest.

As a solo player, there was a healthy challenge in deck-building here: Can you combine massive willpower with the ability to defend large attacks and deal significant damage? I am sure I made this harder on myself than necessary, since I stuck to my mono-Spirit guns on attempt #2 and up.

That final round did give me the adrenaline rush I love so much from this game. While I had a good board presence and hand, the right combination of treachery and shadow cards could have landed me in very hot water. Instead, I was able to swing for a massive kill with one hero. That was memorable!

Artist Spotlight: Preston Stone

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is beautiful. I'm not going to speak in hyperbole and say that I love every single piece of art, but I can honestly say I love most of them. The game is full of hundreds (thousands?) of cards that impress me and help immerse me in the world of Middle-earth. I sometimes pause (less often than I care to admit) to pick up an encounter card and just admire the detail that went into one of many cards in one of many quests.

Last week I was at the closing of a midnight prerelease for another game (hint: probably the only one that does midnight prereleases) waiting for prizes to be distributed before I could go home and get some needed rest (false: I went grocery shopping, hung out with my family, and then finally crashed). A couple of guys were talking next to me, including one who had stood out due to an awesome pull he made from one of his packs. Bits of their conversation floated over and, as the board game industry was mentioned and projects that could be discussed and not discussed, I realized this guy I had noticed before was doing art for games. Consider my interest peaked! Then he mentioned Fantasy Flight Games. Then he went through a small list, ending with Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. I had been slowly turning in the general direction of the conversation and I'm basically salivating with excitement and anticipation now. When there was an appropriate moment, I asked him for his name and what work he had done on the game. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Preston Stone.

(Preston's on the right. I assured him he looked just fine 

after 9 hours of gaming, which began at midnight).

In the interesting timey-wimey world of art commissioning, Preston is a fairly newcomer to players of the game. He had two pieces in the Agmar Awakened cycle and one piece featured in the Grey Havens deluxe box. But for Preston, these are pieces he completed and turned in a while a go. He had to think a bit about all the pieces he did. He remembered one with ghostly wargs, one with a guy being pulled from a ship, and he was not sure if a sword he had done went to print yet or not. Let's see what could be dug up:

White Warg (The Wastes of Eriador #21)

Daechanar's Brand (The Treachery of Rhudar #110)

Lingering Malevolence (The Grey Havens #34)

(Note: All images were lifted from The Hall of Beorn. Big thanks to The Second Hand Took for helping me learn how to use Beorn's tools to look up an artist. This game has a great community!).

I am not an art critic. My eye is pretty rough and my taste is along the lines of "I like that" or "eh." Ranking these three cards, I'm going to go for: Daechanar's Blade, Lingering Malevolence, and White Wargs. I do think they're all good pieces.

For the Blade, there is something about the clarity of the clean lines that emphasizes the horror of what you are seeing. At the same time, the lighting and placement of the blade draws your eye to the proper focus of the piece.

For Lingering Malevolence: Who would have thought you could summon up feelings of claustrophobia in a sea-based adventure? Preston told me this was actually part of a larger piece and he was sad to see the whole thing not used. I'm torn between sympathy for the artist and the judgement call of really just freaking out the player if they stare at the card too long. Imagine yourself in that guy's place! I will say, though, that the art and text of the card are a perfect pair but the name seems a bit out of place for one-time, harsh effect. Or maybe the name and art are perfect (for a condition attachment?) but the text is out of place. In any case, the card serves its purpose of freaking me out both artistically and in the way it may wreak my game plan.

White Warg has a great eerie feel to it, with the purples and muted tones. The card mentions nighttime effects (spoiler!) and this is an animal I would not want to face on a winter camping trip (which is basically what our heroes are doing, right?). The art conveys movement and you can just see that warg slowly creeping toward you in the night.

Now Preston does have more up his sleeve than just the shivers, as you can see over at his Deviant Art page (Forest Romp is a personal favorite). He even has at least one more Lord of the Rings piece (likely not for the game).

Preston was a great guy to chat with. Besides getting my question answered about the pieces he did, I got to hear what it is like to be an artist and the hopes he has for increasing his work. Now I have even more reason to pause, pick up a card, and admire the effort that went into bringing me the quality gaming experience that Lord of the Ring: The Card Game is.