The Deck
The original build for this deck was eagle-heavy, which switched to ally good stuff prior to my first attempt. Combat was no issue and my heroes were handling questing just fine. But once I became location locked in stage 3, I realized I had almost no allies who could help out with the questing. The focus this time around was to blend the first two iterations of the deck with high-questing allies. Bofur is an odd inclusion, due to the lack of weapons, but two willpower for three cost in Tactics is value in and of itself. Mablung was the original third hero, but money was no issue during my second attempt so I went with Merry to get a little bit of a threat decrease and the addition of Halfling Determination to help even more with the willpower issue.
Red Menace
Heroes
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Hirgon
Merry (The Black Riders)
Allies
Beechbone x1
Bofur (Over Hill and Under Hill) x2
Defender of Rammas x3
Descendant of Thorondor x3
Eagles of the Misty Mountains x3
Grimbold x2
Gwaihir x2
Legolas (The Treason of Saruman) x1
Marksman of Lorien x2
Rumil x2
Soldier of Dol Amroth x3
Vassal of the Windlord x3
Winged Guardian x3
Yazan x2
Attachments
Book of Eldacar x3
Events
Close Call x2
Feint x3
Halfling Determination x3
The Eagles Are Coming! x3
The Hammer-stroke x1
Wait no longer x3
RingsDB Link
The deck performed as expected, with no card feeling wasted in my hand. Location lock was not a problem and all enemies were dispatched ASAP.
The Journey
Focusing on willpower-heavy allies pared with the already attack-heavy Tactics sphere made a big difference this time around.
Set Up and Round 1
I pick Firyal as my objective hero. The opening hand has two Soldiers of Dol Amroth, a Vassal of the Windlord, Eagles of the Misty Mountains, and Halfling Determination. A solid start! I play Marksman of Lorien, planning to take an undefended attack from the Sauron's Enforcers in the staging area and finishing it off. Enemy lock is another trap I do not want to fall into. Southron Boma hits the staging area, bringing me to two threat which still allows me to get a progress on stage 1B and get Eowyn back. I do take that undefended attack from the Enforcers, placing the damage on Hirgon, then take him out with the Marksman and move on.
Round 2
I put a Vassal of the Windlord down just to get more of an ally presence. I could have played a Soldier of Dol Amroth, then a Vassal for free, but I need a resource to travel to the Sothron Boma. Questing for 7, I reveal another Boma and get 3 progress on stage 2B. Not quite enough yet. I spend my spare resource to travel to one of the Bomas.
Round 3
Using Firyal's peeking ability, I see a Uruk of Mordor on top of the encounter deck and choose to discard it. No allies with two willpower to defend against it right now. A Mordor Warg is revealed, so some combat will be necessary. Three progress goes on the active Southron Boma. I engage the Warg and chump with the Vassal, revealing Overrun by Orcs and splitting two damage between the Marksman and Eowyn. The Marksman gets one damage on the Warg and I move on.
Round 4
I lay down a Soldier of Dol Amroth followed by a second Marksman of Lorien. No resources to travel to the Southron Boma in the staging area, but I prefer the increased ally support for now. I quest for 7 and let a Forest Clearing resolve. The final progress is placed on the active Southron Boma and another progress on stage 2 (4/5). Forest Clearing becomes the active location. The Warge attacks the soldier, doing one damage to him, and is defeated by a Marksman.
Round 5
The Eagles Are Coming! nets me Vassal of the Windlord + The Eagles Are Coming!, which gets me Gwalhir. Another Soldier of Dol Amroth goes down, followed by a free Vassal. I quest with Fryal and Eowyn, seeing an Uruk of Mordor and deciding to discard it. Village Hut comes out. I have enough willpower to clear the Forest Clearining and stage 2, getting Hirgon back. Sauron's Enforces is selected to guard Merry. Traveling to the Village Hut gets me a Winged Guardian. The enforcers are taken out by two Marskman and a Soldier (after destroying another Soldier). The Savage Attack shadow effect puts an Uruk Warg-Rider into the staging area.
Round 6-10
Now it is just stalling and building my army. I try to guesstimate just enough questing to clear locations & keep my threat from increasing, while aiming low enough to stay at stage 3.
Round 11
I've kept the staging area clear enough that questing with a modest 9 is enough to launch me into the final stage. I could have quested with left, but I try to always quest with Hirgon to get is discount. Yazan comes in play thanks to that discount this round! Now I have a Sauron's Enforcers and the Uruk Chieftan to deal with. It's not a question of if I can, but how I want to do it. I sacrifice a Vassal to the Chieftan (adding that Vassal to my pump-up Eagles of the Misty Mountains) and a Soldier of Dol Amroth to the Enforcers, then take out the Enforcers with Yazan and Legolas and the Chieftan with two Marksmen (but isn't it a woman?) of Lorien, a Vassal (which will be added to the mega-Eagle) and Bofur.
Round 12
Now time to super-quest! I play Wait No Longer, hoping not to wiff, and pull out a Sauron's Enforcers. Knowing exactly what I have to deal with, I put everyone into questing and blow past stage 4. Victory!
Final Scoring
11 Completed Rounds x10: 110
Ending Threat: 32
Total Damage on Heroes: 2 (Hirgon: 2, Eowyn: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 144
The Recap
One hero. 3 resources. 1 threat already in the staging area. Two
There is quite a disadvantage at the start of this scenario, with a 3 willpower hero at most trying to quest past the Enforcers to get that first progress on the stage. While it never happened to me, I bet there have been quite a few negative play experiences where all hope was lost after that first quest phase (perusing forums proves that to be true). Since I never had that experience, this was actually enjoyable for me. I liked slowly building my forces up, both ally and hero. The end was just tough enough the first round (one copy of Wait No Longer or Hammer Stroke in hand would have put victory in my lap). The second attempt was a push-over, but I don't know if there would be a way to account for that without some other demoralizing inclusion. This quest felt tough, balanced, and enjoyable.
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