I had been on an extended break. After a decided drop off in the frequency Lord of the Rings was hitting my table, I had heard about the difficulty of Heirs of Numenor. This seemed like a good a time as any to cancel my subscription and stop playing. LotR was bought as a co-op game for my wife and I, but spending significant time to deck build, set up, and get crushed was not proving to be the casual & relaxing game night we had hoped. Fortunately I learned something from my previous times liquidating card games and decided to just shelve this one in case my interest was peaked in the future. As Against the Shadow came out, the word on the street was still that the difficulty had increased and I was glad to be out. Fast forward a bit and I'm in Thailand when the bug to try the game out again hits me. A visiting friend kindly brings over my collection as well as a large order I put in for everything I was missing up to that point. Latter in the year is when this blog began (only three years ago?).
The blog set out to document my solo play-throughs, but I still wanted to give the game a crack at also being a co-op experience for my wife and I. The first two quests of the Against the Shadow Cycle, The Steward's Fear and The Druadan Forest, were beaten with my wife well before I knew I even wanted to do a blog. I wrote up what I could remember of them and figured I would re-attempt them some day. Well now is that day! It would be great get caught up with the Haradrim Cycle releases and realize I am truly caught up with the non-saga quests. The third and fourth quests of Against the Shadow, Encounter at Amon Din and Assault on Osgiliath, will also be getting solo redos.
The Steward's Fear
Victory on the fifteenth attempt!
I forgot how truly hard this quest is! I'm pretty sure I beat it solo after a few attempts, but then failed attempt after attempt as I sought two decks that could consistently conquer this one. My goal was to find the perfect decks first and then invite my wife for an enjoyable, relaxed game. Pro tip: Relaxed + The Steward's Fear probably don't mix well! In any case, we eventually beat it together. Yet, despite knowing how many attempts I spend on The Steward's Fear, I still didn't quite remember the brutality this quest brings (at least for me). There are very few reveals from the quest deck that you are thankful to see.
After a failed attempt at a mono-leadership Gondor family build (Denethor, Faramir, Boromir), I went for a Lore/Leadership Denethor/Elrond/Glorfindel build that had a slight chance but was not looking good before I was called away and had to end the game. Then Libro Rojo posted about his newest creation, The Calephon's Dream, and I wanted to give it a shot. The deck rocked!
This final attempt did not feature the worst of the encounter deck and did feature pretty good draws from the player deck. There were not super-closed moments, but neither were there rounds where I felt the encounter deck didn't have a chance.
Notable moment:Playing A Test of Will to cancel the when reveled effect of Lurking in Shadows, banking on the fact that I could complete the quest the next round. I did beat it, but with one more threat in the staging area would have cost me the game.
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat:47
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 127
Original Post
The Druadan Forest
Victory on the second attempt!
Man I love the switch-up is at the end! Needing to use your entire stat line in fairly rapid succession is an awesome twist. Once again, felt like I had just the right amount of power to make it but I was never fully out of the woods until I was fully out of the woods.
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 39
Total Damage on Heroes: 3 (Cirdan: 2, Denethor: 1)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 127
Original Post
Encounter at Amon Din
Victory on the third attempt!
As many have found out, this one feels like it should be a lot tougher than it ends up being. In this case, I did end up with an ally swarm that overwhelmed the encounter deck. Getting a bit cocky lead to more dead villagers than should probably have been allowed, but I was still within plenty of margin for the win.
Final Scoring
6 Completed Rounds x10: 60
Ending Threat: 32
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -5 (Gulat: 2, Secluded Farmhouse: 1, Gondorian Hamlet: 1, Burning Farmhouse: 1)
Total Score: 87
Rescued Villagers: 12
Dead Villagers: 5
Original Post
Assault on Osgiliath
Victory on the third attempt!
Thought I would blow through this in two rounds, then my second staging step revealed a Ruined Tower. Round after round went by without something I could make active before the tower. A good number of strong enemies came out and right on their heal was Beorn to knock them off their rockers.
Had a good ally army starting to build, then The Master's Malice made short work of that. Nasty card. The choice came down to saving most of my allies or Denethor. Denethor won the day. Fortunately two Dunedain Remedy's came out to help Imrahil and Cirdan heal up.
Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 45
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: 0
Total Score: 125
Original Post
The Deck
After failing twice to come up with good deck for the Stewards Fear, I saw a post in the Facebook group about a deck that had ripped its way through the Against the Shadow Cycle. Libro Rojo had come up with a Cirdan/Denethor/Prince Imrahil deck he was really enjoying (for non-Spanish speakers, Google Translate does a decent job with his blog). A version of Denethor was in both decks I had tried so far and Cirdan is in a few of my favorite decks. But most importantly, I have really been wanting to try out a Tactics Prince Imrahil build.
There's a lot to love about this deck. You're questing big, able to defend decently (very decently once you get a Gondorian Shield on Denethor) and popping allies in and out. It was such a blast to play, and handled the quests so well, that I may tackle the remaining Against the Shadow quests this next week just for the fun of it.
The Calphon's Dreams - Los Suenos De Calphone v.3
Heroes
Cirdan the Shipwright
Denethor (Flight of the Stormcaller)
Prince Imrahil (The City of Corsairs)
Allies
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x2
Glorfindel (The Flight of the Stormcaller) x2
Hama (The Treason of Saruman) x3
Jubayr x1
West Road Traveller x2
Knight of the White Tower x2
Beorn (Core) x2
Boromir (The Road Darkens) x2
Defender of Cair Andros x2
Deorwine x1
Legolas (The Treason of Saruman) x2
Marksman of Lorien x2
Attachments
Light of Valinor x2
Unexpected Courage x2
Dunedain Remedy x2
Heir of Mardil x2
Steward of Gondor x3
Gondorian Shield x2
The Red Arrow x1
Narya x3
Events
A Test of Will x3
Elrond's Counsel x3
A Very Good Tale x2
Feint x3
Sideboard
Galadriel's Handmaiden x2
Stand and Fight x2
Knight of the White Tower x1
Dunedain Remedy x1
Marksman of Lorien x1
RingsDB Link
Libro Rojo's Blog
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