Quest 38: The Weather Hills

Victory on the 10th attempt!

The Recap

First Attempt: Brought a knife to a gun fight. This is not going to work!
Second Attempt: Need more healing!
Third Attempt: Doing well, but a bad block cost me it
Fourth Attempt: Location locked!
Fifth Attempt: That's just not going to work
Sixth Attempt: Total Missplay!
Seventh Attempt: Location Lock!
Eight: Missplay
Ninth: Stage 2, but threated out

After honestly a few months hiatis attempting this one, I came back to look at my notes and found the above journal of failure. The fifth attempt is a particular favorite of mine. This is actually what prompted my recent idea to netdeck for a bit and try out some of the great decks out there.

Weather hills does a great job attacking you in just about every way, especially with direct damage. While I know there must be (plenty of) non-Lore ways to tackle this one, the need to heal (often) should have you thinking along the lines of Lore unless you really want to buck the system and leave your mark on this world. I don't.

There are actually some really creative ways to make all that guaranteed damage work for you. Check out this forum topic on that. If I get in an experimental mode, I might want to try some of these out.

But I digress. Direct damage, punishment for exploring the active location, a (somewhat optional) clock on the final stage. Bring your A game to this one. Yet, with all that, it did not feel like the difficulty stamped out the fun for me. Is this my go-to for a relaxing session? No. But I wouldn't mind revising this one in the future to A) make a version of my personal deck work B) try some of the crazy "Yes, please damage my characters" possibilities.


The (Net)Deck

I Got an Elf-Stone Fir Y'Al by Seastan

Heroes
Damrod (The Land of Shadow)
Elrond (Shadow and Flame)
Mirlonde

Allies
Anaborn (The Blood of Gondor) x2

Firyal x3
Gelowine x1
Haldir of Lorien (Journey to  Rhosgobel) x1
Henamarth Riversong x1
Master of the Forge x3
Warden of Healing x2
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x3
Glorfindel (Flight of the Stormcaller) x1
Prince Imrahil (The Flame of the West) x2

Attachments
A Burning Brand x2
Elf-Stone x3
Entangling Nets x3
Forest Snare x2
Ranger Spikes x3
Steward of Gondor x3
The Fal of Gil-Galad x1
Unexpected Courage x2


Events
A Good Harvest x3
Daeron's Runes x3
Heed the Dream x3
Mithrandir's Advice x3


Sets Used
Core
Conflict at the Carrock
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Shadow and Flame
Heirs of Numenor
The Steward's Fear
The Druadan Forest
The Black Riders
The Blood of Gondor
The Dunland Trap
The Land of Shadow
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Flame of the West
Temple of the Deceived
The Mumakil

RingsDB Link

The deck I was hoping to succeed with also had the idea of traps, healing, and high willpower, but just wasn't pulling off the win. Seastan's deck still has some of that core heart behind it and seemed like the perfect netdeck to swap out for. And it has the bonus of using one of those sweet new Harad allies, Firyal.

There is a good strategy guide on the RingsDB listing which I recommend going over. I followed the initial steps and mullianged for A Good Harvest and Master of the Forge. Steward of Gondor came down pretty quickly and money was no object for the rest of the game. I did not end up killing of Mirlonde,  thus promoting Prince Imrahil, but there were a few times I kept her in mind as a damage soak for that purpose. It just never got that bad.

The deck took the win on the first try. With that, it did not feel totally overpowered. I had to put thought into my questing and engagement phases. And there were situations I saw in the previous attempts that may have put this deck into a bind. The deck struck that balance of being a blast to play, being strong enough to win, and yet being able to allow the encounter deck to still have tricks up its sleeve.


The Journey

Set Up
My opening hand had Firyal, Warden of Healing, two Elf-stones, and two copies of Ranger Spikes. That is not a bad showing! I was tempted to keep it, but Seastan highly recommends trying to land a Steward of Gondor ASAP and I had no way of pulling that out/off. My mulligan had A Good Harvest and Master of the Forge, which would help me get the Steward in good time, and Firyal was back. Time to party.

Round 1

Master of the Forge comes down but is only able to score me some Entangling Nets. Still not a bad play this round, so down the nets go. Henamarth Riversong also drops and helps me see I have a Tragic Discovery on the horizon. Mirlonde and Damrod quest to break through the active location, triggering an Angmar Captain to come out off the orc deck and get caught in my nets. He's still a force to be reckoned with and I decide to keep him in the staging area for now.

Round 2
Master of the Forge is able to dig up Steward of Gondor, which promptly goes on Elrond. I go against a Cornered Orc, letting Mirlonde take some damage during one of the attacks, and emerge the victor. Man, even with a relatively weak enemy, a double attack is just rough.

Round 3
Firyal hits the table and proves her worth right away, allowing me to avoid a side quest (Make Camp) this round. A Burning Brand goes on Elrond, who was already designated as my main blocker for the game anyway. The Angmar Captain comes down to play, being pretty neutered by his nets and the Brand.

Round 4
Not much of note this round, except the demise of the Captain.

Round 5
Gleowine -> Daeron's Runes -> Mithrandir's Advice -> Daeron's Runes makes me thankful I am not being punished for card draw in this quest. And then I heeded that dream to snatch Prince Imrahil. Strangely, I Elf-Stoned Haldir in this round instead of the Prince. I have no remembrance of this decision. A cornered orc, which I knew was coming (Thanks, Henamarth!) gets entangled in some nets and is just kind of pathetic. He dies.

Round 6
Ally Arwen joins the party. I Head the Dream again into Daeron's Runes into a Forest Snare. Warden of Healing begins undoing the little bit of damage done so far (mainly to Damron and Mirlonde). I finally use Elf-Stone to put Prince Imrahil into play, kill the final enemy I need to advance to stage 2, and now the race begins!

Round 7
I opt to remove a resource from Savage Counter-Attack instead of revealing another card, but only make 8 progress on the quest. Not going all-in yet.

Round 8
Draw my second copy of A Good Harvest, which allows me to slam down the two Unexpected Courages I've been keeping in hand and attach them to Elrond.  I put The Fall of Gil-Galad onto Mirlonde, just in case, but Warden is doing a good job keeping damage at bay. 20 willpower still only nets me 7 progress on the quest, but the end is in sight.

Round 9
Opting to remove a resource form Savage Counter-Attack for the third time puts me in the danger zone. Do any encounter effects just remove a resource? I don't think so, but it still feels risky. I go all-in for the quest, nothing crazy comes up, and victory is mine!


Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x80: 80
Ending Threat: 42
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -3
Total Score: 119