Opening Thoughts
Journey Along the Anduin is my favorite quest in the core box. It gives a better picture of the difficulty level that the average quest has in the remainder of the game. It's also a quest you need to go into with a plan (after your first attempt): How am I going to deal with that Hill Troll?
Re-joining on my journeys is Awkward Aragorn. This guy took hold of my heart in the Goodwill toy bin years back. My kids often ask me why I never take him out of his package. The reason is that it is easy to just plop the container down at the edge of the table. But I agree that it would be fun to put his accessories on him. So break free, awkward little buddy...
The Decks
Now that I tried out a few of the mono-sphere decks (which is just shuffling everything up), I wanted to see how the suggested dual-sphere decks play. These can be found on page 27 of the "Learn to Play" guide in the revised core. Each of the decks includes what I would consider the strongest cards from their spheres (A Test of Will, Steward of Gondor, Feint) and look balanced. Both look like they will do questing, defending, and fighting just fine. When playing two-handed, you can set up both decks to do everything well or have each deck really lean into a strength (such as questing or combat). The second method can backfire if that deck is forced to do an activity it is not focused on (such as taking on a tough enemy).
Here are the decklists for those with older collections:
Heroes
Allies
Events
Attachments
Lore & Tactics Deck
Heroes
Allies
Events
Attachments
The Quest
Setup
Looking at the campaign card, I really want to boon (Valor) and really, absolutely do not want the burden (Scarred). I know from experience that Escape from Dol Guldur is going to be a rough ride. Gaining an extra threat for each of my chump blockers will add up super quick. So I know going in that one goal is to try and not lose anyone to a hill troll.
My starting hand for Lore/Tactics has a feint. I'm not ecstatic about the rest, but I need to see that card about a Hill Troll. Spirit/Leadership gets me a Steward of Gondor (one of the most powerful cards in the game), a Sneak Attack (another top card), and a few allies. Easy keep for that one.
Initial set up gets me two enemies (Dol Guldur Beastmaster and Wargs) plus the Hill Troll. Not a staging area I'm crazy about.
Round 1
Lore/Tactics (LT) draws Mendor's Support, which is fantastic to see. I think this is going to let me get the troll in one shot, which is exactly the type of play I need to avoid that burden.
Steward goes on Aragorn, each team gets an ally down, and then I quest for seven. Flip: Evil Storm (no affect) and Driven by Shadow). Nothing extra added to the staging area is very good for what I am hoping this round to me. I pitch a card to Eowyn to match the eight total threat.
LT takes on the Wargs and Spirit Leadership (SL) takes on the Troll. LT targets the Hill Troll with Feint. Henamarth Riversong is declared as a defender against the Wargs, who take him out before retreating to the staging area. Mendor's Support is played and Mendor, Legolas, Aragon, Theodred, and a Guardian of the Citadel go in at the Troll for lethal. The un-revealed shadow was the Lingering Venom burden which is now in the discard. Very happy about how that round went.
Copies of Valor go on Legolas and Aragorn, who I expect to be the primary attackers for both teams.
Round 2
A few more allies down, including Farimir for the SL team. An all-star guy I'm excited to see now that my goal is to push hard with questing. Horn of Gondor goes on Legolas. Not sure about that play. Maybe Eowyn is a better target?
Initially questing for 10 (with Farimir held back to add another 5). The goal is for LT to take out the Wargs and possibly draw some cards with Beravor. Reveals: Treacherous Fog (no effect) and Necromancer's Grasp. You hate to see it. Fortunately everyone on SL has two or more hitpoints and lives. LT looses Riversong 2.0. Willpower is still 9 and I pitch a card to Eowyn, getting 6 points on the quest. I could put Farmir in, but this board state looks like it will allow me to take out the Chieftain.
LT engages the Chieftain and SL takes on the Wargs. Denethor defends against the Chieftain, who has two shadow cards with no effect. The Wargs go after Farimir. I'm going to switch around my plan to get the Chieftain within Quick Strike range for Legolas and remove the Wargs, who can be a pain. Blade Mastery goes on Beravor, who attacks the Chieftain alongside a Miner of the Iron Hills and gets three damage down. Legolas one-shots the Wargs, advancing the quest. Each player draws a card thanks to Mendor. I miss-remembered that enemies returned to the staging area for stage 2 and I am glad to see that is not the case. We'll take out that Chieftain real soon.
Round 3
IA Test of Will and Radagast's Cunning are in hand now, so the plan is to conserve resources and keep these up. Team SL gets another Guard of the Citadel down.
Questing for 12 to start with, with Faramir held back again. Aragorn gets Theodred's questing resource and uses it to ready. Three reveals this time: Necromancer's Pass, Dol Guldur orcs (Aragorn takes the damage), Gladden Fields. I use Faramir to add +5 willpower and get 9 on the quest. I could use Eowyn & Radagast's Cunning to get three more on, but I miscalculated and would need to get five more to put it within Legolas' range.
Travel to Gladden Fields. Team SL optionally engages the Dol Guldur Orcs. A Longbard Orc Slayer is sneak-attacked in to deal one damage to both Orc enemies. The Longbeard blocks the Orcs, taking one damage. Aragorn blocks the Chieftain, taking one damage. Legolas takes out the Orcs, putting two progress on the active location. Denethor and the Miner of the Iron Hills take out the Chieftain. Longbeard goes back into hand.
Raise threat by two each (Gladden Fields) and ready.
Round 4
Team LT gets down a second Miner and a Gondorian Spearman. Beravor gives Team SL two extra cards. Snowbourn Scout, Lorien Guide, and Lonbeard Orc Slayer go down. The Scout's resource complete The Gladden Fields.
Reveals: Pursued by Shadow (which gets negated by A Test of Will), Misty Mountain Goblins, Pursued by Shadow. LT raises threat by 5 and SL raises threat by 3. A card is pitched to Eoywn to complete stage 2. Mendor readies and we each get a card.
Now I need to reveal two cards per player, defeat all enemies, and we are done. Team SL gets a Wolf Rider, which surges into Necromancer's Pass, and a Massing at Night which reveals an Evil Storm and a Storm of Crows. The Evil Storm deals lethal damage to Aragorn, Faramir, Snowbourn Scout, a Guard of the Citadel, and the Gondorian Spearman. The Crows surge into Enchanted Stream. Team LT gets the Brown Lands and Banks of Anduin.
LT optionally takes the Wolf Rider. Then SL gets the Crows and LT gets the Misty Mountain Goblins. Crows go undefended and put one damage on Theodred. Goblins go undefended and put two damage on Beravor, Wolfs are defended by Denethor and do no damage. Mendor takes out the Crows, Legolas takes out the Goblins, and the two Miner's take out the Wolf Rider. Quest complete!
Resolution
No copies of Scarred obtained! With the amount of cards dealt that final round, I was dreading flipping another Hill Troll into the staging area. I did a peek afterwards and it was almost at the bottom of the encounter deck.
Whoever has the most damage is the prisoner in Escape Dol Guldur. I am going to use a modified version of the Back to Basics deck that utilizes one core. That uses Beravor and Theodred, both of who have three damage on them. I'll do some randomization on who gets Valor and then who gets taken prisoner.
Score: 117 (36 threat and 5 hero damage for LT, 36 threat and 5 hero damage for SL, 30 for three completed rounds, 12 for Deadagorn, -7 for the victory display).
Parting Thoughts
That was a blast. It's been a while since I've taken on "The Hill Troll Quest." As the medium quest of the core, it has ways to really throw a wrench in your best-laid plans (the Lore/Tactics deck had a 'flip two cards' turn into six cards!). Times like those really emphasize my preference to play it through. Even though a ton of cards were in the staging area, I only ended up with three enemies and all were very manageable. Moments like those also show why I am not following the +1 threat and dead heroes rules for the campaign. Heroes are a resource. At the end of a quest, it may be the best choice to take some heavy undefended attacks, put the damage on questing heroes, then finish off the baddies with whoever is still left. But I concede this is not thematic (unless you head-cannon that they 'fainted').
No comments:
Post a Comment