As good as only gaining two is I definitely recommend playing again and getting just the one (or even none) burden. It will help make the entire campaign more managable.
Playing 200 games in a year (or at least trying to)
This run through is more a 'darn the consequences' run since I plan to go back to playing solo after this so I probably won't revisit this combo again. Of course chances are that this decision will bite me on the rump before I'm finished the Road Darkens.
GAME 127 - THE RING GOES SOUTH
Heroes: Aragorn (Leadership), Beravor & Theodred and Dunhere, Eomer & Eowyn.
This one was troublesome. I managed to get into Moria (just) but Dunhere was killed by the Watcher in the Water. Added to that, I managed to gain Lust For The Ring as a burden. I'm guessing the luck which has got me through some of the scenarios has turned and it may only get worse.
GAME 128 - JOURNEY IN THE DARK
Heroes: Aragorn (Leadership), Beravor & Theodred and Dwalin, Eomer & Eowyn.
This one went so badly awry that I nearly threw the towel on three occasions. Eomer sacrificed himself after I had lost Theodred and Dwalin to Orc attacks. Finally, the last three heroes managed to get out of Moria but (due to a colossal miscalculation on my part) managed to complete the level with the Balrog still in play, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. If the game had continued past that turn I would likely have lost either Beravor or Aragorn the next turn, In the aftermath, Overcome By Grief, Grievous Wound, Pursued by the Enemy and Shadow of Fear were added to the Campaign Pool.
You are well under way, but there are not that many days left in 2014. Do you think you'll reach your 'goal'?
I didn't start until the 19th March so I should be able to complete at least 200 games by then (although I've had a lot less time to play games recently I'm going to have more time now, unless something else unexpected happens).
GAME #129 - A SHADOW OF THE PAST
Heroes: Denethor, Eowyn & Gimli.
This slightly odd combination worked very well, if a little slowly. Of the cards I expected to need the most only one (Unexpected Courage, thankfully in my opening hand) showed up. Unexpected Courage let me use Denethor's ability to filter the danger cards out of my way, which was handy since all of Frodo's resources were paying for the upkeep on Gildor Inglorion. Any enemies were dealt with by Gimli (with two Dwarven Axes and not bothering with the 'load Gimli up on damage cards and let him carve up the enemy' plan I originally had. All in all, a good first outing for this deck. In the aftermath I added The Ring Draws Them and Gildor Inglorion to my campaign pool. The final score was: Rounds (14): 140 + Threat: 42 - VP: 1 = 181.
Edited by silverthornGAME #130 - A KNIFE IN THE DARK
Heroes: Denethor, Eowyn & Gimli.
Another success, also another slow success. I didn't manage to get Unexpected Courage and thus Denethor spent most of the time doing nothing but scrying. This, alongside Frodo's ability and use of Hasty Stroke and A Test of Will managed to get me into a fight with the Witch-King having put no Nazgul into the deck. After that it was a case of using all the allies I had deployed to beat up the Witch-King and win the game. In the end, Skilled Healer went on Gimli, so that he can take more damage and buff up more. The score was: Rounds: (13): 130 + Threat: 43 - VP: 3 = 170. The scores may be high but at least I'm having less trouble than the last decks I tried.
GAME 131 - A SHADOW OF THE PAST
Heroes: Bifur, Dain Ironfoot & Gloin and Gimli, Nori & Thalin.
After dipping my toes back into solo play I decided to return to the relative safety of playing two-handed. The idea of two Dwarf-based decks worked well and everything seemed to click, apart from having five Locations in play when Stage 3A came into play. Dain did very little (which is his main purpose in life, the Spirit/Tactics deck dealt with any enemies and he was mostly there to make the other Dwarves better) and after a huge slog the game was complete. In the aftermath I took the boon Mister Underhill (it's better than having a Elf following them around like a love-sick puppy) and the Burden The Ring Draws Them. All in all a good start.
GAME 132 - A KNIFE IN THE DARK
Heroes: Bifur, Dain Ironfoot & Gloin and Gimli, Nori & Thalin.
Again, the two decks seemed to gel together well. Despite the long hard slog to the finish every hero made it out alive and Dain gained the Noble Hero card (so that the king of the Dwarves gets the Noble trait) and Gimli got the Skilled Healer card to boost his Hit Points and (potentially) the damage he can put out.
GAME 133 - FLIGHT TO THE FORD
Heroes: Bifur, Dain Ironfoot & Gloin and Gimli, Nori & Thalin.
Another hard thought victory with pretty much all the heroes injured to one degree or another and a huge amount of dead allies. Due to taking a ridiculous amount of attacks from Ringwraiths I managed to win the game with only one Burden in play, Fear of Discovery, which should make later games easier. Onwards to Rivendell.
GAME 134 - THE RING GOES SOUTH
Heroes: Bifur, Dain Ironfoot & Gloin and Gimli, Nori & Thalin.
This run-through was nowhere near as bad as the last time I played this. Thanks to the Skilled Healer on Gimli, he could take five points of damage from The Watcher, then hit back for 8, doing enough damage to retrieve Frodo, In the next turn I quested with just about everyone and blew through the Doors of Durin to win the scenario. Lust For The Ring came up as a Shadow effect so I dodged that burden.
GAME 135 - A JOURNEY IN THE DARK
Heroes: Bifur, Dain Ironfoot & Gloin and Gimli, Nori & Thalin.
This one was a slog. No hero was on less than two wounds (and I was massively grateful for Hardy Leadership). Nori was sacrficed (due to his being on one hit point and no healers in play or hand, so the odds of him surviving were low to non-existent). Despite that I managed to complete the quest, adding Pursued by the Enemy & Overcome By Grief to the campaign pool.
GAME 136 - THE BREAKING OF THE FELLOWSHIP
Heroes: Bifur, Dain Ironfoot & Gloin and Dwalin, Gimli & Thalin.
This was less of a slog than a blood-bath. Gloin was lost by a bad Shadow card (and Gimli notched up a ridiculous amount of dead Uruk's in revenge). In the end Ill Fate was added to the campaign pool and Nori & Bifur were captured.
All in, the new scenarios have been fun, if a little on the tough side. I'm lucking forward to eventually playing them again when I next get to this point when I start playing through the scenarios again.
Edited by silverthornHow was Nori captured if you did not use him as hero in your latest game?
I made a mistake reporting this (this is what happens when I didn't make notes like I normally do). Nori was sacrificed to the Balrog and Dwalin was captured with Bifur during the Breaking of the Fellowship
I was planning to try all the scenarios I've got (except for the Hobbit ones because they are before most of the heroes were born) solo tonight until I saw the release article for Nin-In-Elph ( http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5144 if you haven't seen it yet). I was thinking about doing a deck with LeaderGorn, Theodred and someone else and new hero fits well so I'll probably hold off until Tuesday or Wednesday when I'm likely to get it.
GAME 137 - PASSAGE THROUGH MIRKWOOD
Heroes: Beregond, Eowyn and Legolas.
Set-Up
I start off with a starting threat of 28. My starting hand is Hasty Stroke, Descendant of Thorandor, A Test Of Will, Song Of Travel, Radagast and The Eagles Are Coming. I choose to mulligan and get Escort From Edoras, A Test Of Will, Gandalf (Core), Vassal of the Windlord, Eagles of the Misty Mountains and Arwen Undomiel. It's not a great starting hand but it will have to do.
Quest stage 1A tells me to put a Forest Spider and Old Forest Road into the staging area for a total threat of 3.
The first thing to happen is all my heroes gain one resource each.(Beregond 1, Eowyn 1, Legolas 1) and draw The Galadhrim's Greetings.
In the Planning Phase I play Vassal of the Windlord (Legolas -1/0).
In the Quest Phase I exhaust Eowyn for a total Willpower of 4. The Staging draw is Black Forest Bats for a total threat of 4 but Black Forest Bats's ability removes Eowyn from the quest. I lose by 4 and my threat goes up to 32.
In the Travel Phase I travel to Old Forest Road and use it's ability to refresh Eowyn.
In the Encounter Phase, both Black Forest Bats and Forest Spider have lower Threat ratings than my threat total of 28 so they both attack.
As the Combat Phase begins I place a Shadow card on both attackers and the Forest Spider attacks Beregond and the Black Forest Bats attack Eowyn.
The Shadow card for the Forest Spider is Necromancer's Pass, no effect meaning that the Forest Spider's attack strength is 3 (thanks to the +1 it gains in it's first turn, no damage done). The Black Forest Bats's shadow card is Mountains Of Mirkwood, no effect. The Bats do one damage to Eowyn, which is stopped by her Defence strength.
Legolas attacks the Forest Spider for 3 damage, of which the Spider's defence counts for 1, leaving him on 2 Wounds.
With that the round ends and I refresh all my cards before putting my threat up to 33.
As turn two begins I have nothing in the Staging Area, Old Forest Road is the Active Location and I am engaged with Black Forest Bats & a Forest Spider (with 2 wounds remaining).
As the Resource Phase begins I place one resource on all my heroes (Beregond: 2, Eowyn: 2, Legolas: 1) and I draw The Eagles Are Coming. I immediately play it and look at the top 5 cards of my deck, looking for Eagle cards. Out of the 5 cards I only get another Vassal of the Windlord. The other 4 cards are shuffled into my deck.
In the Planning Phase I play another Vassal of the Windlord (Beregond -1/1 resource) and Arwen Undomiel (Eowyn -2/0 resources).
As the Quest Phase begins I exhaust Eowyn (for 4) and Arwen Undomiel (for 2, Arwen adding +1 defence to one of the Vassal of the Windlords for this turn) for a total Willpower of 6. The Staging draw is Forest Gate, for a total threat of 2. I make 4 progress, using 3 to explore Old Forest Road and put 1 progress on Stage 1B.
In the Travel Phase I travel to Forest Gate, allowing me to draw 2 cards. These are Gondorian Shield and Light of Valinor. Both cards will be going straight into play next turn.
Since there are no Enemies in the Staging Area I go straight to the Combat Phase, adding a shadow card to Black Forest Bats and Forest Spider. The Black Forest Bats engage one of the Vassals of the Windlord and the Forest Bats engage Beregond.
The Black Forest Bats shadow card is The Necromancer's Reach for no effect. The attack strength is 1 against the Vassal of the Windlord's augmented 1 defence, no damage.
The Forest Spider's shadow card is Caught In A Web, no effect and a nasty Treachery out of play. The Forest Spider does 2 attack, woefully inadequate compared to Beregond's 4 defence
Legolas attacks the Forest Spider for 3 damage, doing 2 damage to the Spider and killing it. Legolas's ability adds 2 progress to Forest Gate,
The other Vassal of the Windlord attacks the Black Forest Bats for 3 damage, killing them but causing the Vassal to the discarded.
At that point, with nothing in the staging area or engaged with me I refresh all my cards and increase my threat to 34.
At the beginning of turn 3 I add one resource to all my heroes (Beregond: 2, Eowyn: 1, Legolas: 2) and draw Eagles of the Misty Mountains.
In Planning I play Light Of Valinor (Eowyn -1/0 resources) on Legolas meaning that he can quest without exhausting. He may only quest for 1 but every little helps. I also play Eagle of the Misty Mountains (Beregond -2/0 resources, Legolas -2/0 resources).
In the Quest phase I exhaust Eowyn for 4, Legolas quests for 1 without exhausting and Arwen exhausts to quest for 2 (while adding 1 to Beregond's defence for this turn). This gives me a total Willpower of 7.
The Staging draw is another Forest Spider for a total Threat of 2, 5 progress is made. 2 goes on Forest Gate, exploring it and 3 goes onto Stage 1B, leaving me with 4 of the needed 8 progress.
There are no locations to travel to so I move onto the Encounter Phase where the Forest Spider's threat is low enough for it to engage me.
The Spider engages Beregond. The Shadow card is Enchanted Stream for no effect. The Spider attacks for 3 which doesn't penetrate Beregond's 4 defence.
Legolas and the Vassal of the Windlord attack the Forest Spider for a combined attack of 6, killing it and adding 2 progress to stage 1B. Whereas the Vassal would normally go to the discard pile Eagles of the Misty Mountains's ability means that the Vassal goes under the Eagles adding 1 to the Eagle's attack and defence.
With the combat over all my cards refresh and my threat goes up to 35.
As turn 4 begins I add a resource to all my heroes (Beregond: 1, Eowyn: 1, Legolas: 1) and draw Radagast. He will be useful when I get the resources to pay for him.
In the Planning phase I play Gondorian Shield on Beregond (Beregond -1/0 resources). This card puts Beregond's defence up to 6.
In the Quest phase I exhaust Eowyn for 4 and Arwen for 2, adding 1 to Beregond's already prodigious defence for the round. This gives a total Willpower of 6. The Staging draw is Dol Goldur Beastmaster for a total Threat of 2. 4 Progress is made, 2 completes Stage 1B and the other 2 is lost.
Stage 2A has no game text, Stage 2B only needs 2 progress to complete but when it is completed I have to randomly select one of the two Stage 3's.
The Dol Goldur Beastmaster's threat is low enough that it engages me.
In the Combat Phase I have to add 2 Shadow cards to the Dol Goldur Beastmaster. He engages Beregond. The Shadow cards are Great Forest Web, no effect and Ungolient's Spawn, this is possibly the worst Shadow effect in the quest as it immediately increases my threat to 39 and, unfortunately I have nothing to stop it. After that the Beastmaster's attack is 3 to Beregond's 7 defense.
Legolas and the Eagles of the Misty Mountains attack the Dol Goldur Beastmaster for 7 attack, killing it. Legolas's ability adds 2 progress to Stage 2B, completing it.
I shuffled the two stage 3B and drew “Don't Leave The Path”. This is bad as it means that I have to search the Encounter Discard pile for Ungolient's Spawn and put it into my Staging Area. On the up side, all I need to do is defeat it to win the quest. The problem is that it's a tough spider to beat.
With the end of the Combat phase I refresh all of my cards and increase my threat to 40.
Turn Five begins with all my heroes getting a resource (Beregond: 1, Eowyn: 2, Legolas: 2) and I draw a Escort From Edoras.
In the Planning Phase I play Gandalf (Beregond -1/0 resources, Eowyn -2/0 resources, Legolas: -2/0 resources) and immediately cause 4 damage to Ungolient's Spawn, leaving it with 5 wounds remaining.
In the Quest phase I exhaust Eowyn for 4 and Arwen for 2 (adding 1 to Beregond's defense) for a total of 6 willpower. The Shadow draw is The Necromancer's Reach which does 1 damage to Eowyn and Arwen Undomiel. The Threat total is 3 so I make 3 progress. This is meaningless since the quest only ends when the Ungolient's Spawn dies.
Since there are no locations in play I go straight to the Encounter Stage. The Ungolient's Spawn immediately engages Beregond. The Shadow card is Necromancer's Pass, no effect. The Ungolient's Spawn does 5 damage against Beregond's 7 defence. No damage.
In return, Legolas, The Eagle of the Misty Mountains and Gandalf attack the Spawn for 11 damage, 4 more damage than was needed to kill it and end the game.
As far as the game went everything seemed to go to plan. Playing solo means that I could steadily deal with everything that came my way. All my heroes did what they were there to do admirably and I have no complaints about the deck.
As far as scores go, the deck scored as follows:
Completed Turns (4): 40.
Threat: 40.
Threat of Dead Heroes: 0.
Damage on Surviving Heroes: 1 (Eowyn).
Victory Points: 0.
Total; 81.
Edited by silverthornGAME 138 – JOURNEY DOWN THE ANDUIN
Heroes: Beregond, Eowyn & Legolas
I'm using the same deck as the last game, but hoping for a Gondorian Shield in my opening hand this time. As per usual my starting threat is twenty eight. My opening hand is Winged Guardian, Vassal of the Windlord, Eagles of the Misty Mountains, Gondorian Shield, Unexpected Courage and Citadel Plate. All in all it's got the card I most needed so I'll keep it.
Stage 1A requires me to play the top card in the encounter deck, namely Driven By Shadow. This has no effect but surges. The replacement is Banks of the Anduin.
Stage 1B tells me to search the encounter deck for a Hill Troll and add it to the staging area. It also says that I cannot pass to stage 2A unless I make eight progress and kill the Hill Troll. The Banks of the Anduin and the Hill Troll make for a total threat of two in the staging area.
Turn one begins with me adding one resource to all my heroes (Beregond: One, Eowyn: One, Legolas: One) and drawing Light of Valinor. This makes for a top class opening hand.
In the Planning phase I spend one resource from Eowyn to play Light of Valinor on Legolas, play Gondorian Shield on Beregond for free and one resource from Legolas to play Vassal of the Windlord. That leaves me with some important cards in play but no resources.
As the Quest phase begins I exhaust and commit Eowyn for four willpower and commit Legolas for one willpower, giving me a total of five willpower.
The staging draw is The Brown Lands, which is pretty much the worst card I could have hoped for. It is a five threat location which means that the threat total is seven. This means that I lose by two and put my threat up to thirty, meaning that the Hill Troll will be engaging me this turn. I'm so glad I got a Gondorian Shield out.
In the Travel phase I travel to the Brown Lands, which allows me to immediately place one progress token on it and explore it. The Brown Lands goes straight into the discard pile.
During the encounter phase I have no choice but to have the Hill Troll engage me.
The Hill Troll gains a shadow card and attacks Beregond. The shadow card is Eastern Crows, which adds one to the Hill Troll's attack, boosting it to seven. Against Beregond's six defence it does one damage.
In retaliation Legolas and the Vassal attack the Troll for six, doing three damage to it and leaving it with six more wounds. I then discard the Vassal.
At the end of turn one I refresh all my cards and increase my threat to thirty one.
At the start of turn two I add one resource to all my heroes and draw The Eagles Are Coming.
At the start of the Planning phase I play the Eagles are Coming, which allows me to draw the top 5 cards of my deck and add any cards with the Eagle keyword into my hand. The cards are Gandalf (Core), Hasty Stroke, Song of Battle, The Eagles Are Coming and Support of the Eagles. The last two go into my hand and the rest are shuffled back into the deck.
I then play the new The Eagles Are Coming and draw Black Arrow, Song of Battle, Gwalhir, Feint and Hasty Stroke. Out of those only Gwalhir goes into my hand. The rest are shuffled back into the deck.
After all that I spend the resources on Beregond and Legolas to play Winged Guardian.
In the Quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn for four willpower and commit Legolas for one willpower, giving me a total of five willpower.
The staging draw is Dol Goldur Orcs, for a total threat of three. I put the two progress on Stage 1B. The Orcs also do two damage to Legolas.
In the Travel phase I travel to Banks of the Anduin.
In the encounter phase I am forced to engage the Dol Goldur Orcs.
Going on to the combat phase I add a shadow card to Dol Goldur Orcs and Hill Troll. The Hill Troll attacks Beregond, the Shadow card is Evil Strom, no effect and the Troll's six attack does no damage to Beregond.
The Dol Goldur Orcs attack the Winged Guardian, the Shadow card is Wargs, boosting the Orcs attack to three, insufficient to break through the Winged Guardian's four defence. I am forced to discard the Guardian.
Legolas attacks the Dol Goldur Orcs for three damage, killing them and adding two progress to The Banks of the Anduin.
To finish off turn two I refresh all my cards and increase my threat to thirty two.
Commencing turn three I add one resource to all my heroes and draw Radagast.
In the planning phase I spend the two resources on Eowyn to play Unexpected Courage in Beregond.
In the quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn for four willpower and commit Legolas for one willpower, giving me a total of five willpower.
The staging draw is Pursued By Shadow, which raises my threat to thirty three. This give a total of zero threat. I put one progress on Banks of the Anduin, exploring it and placing it back on top of the Encounter deck, and put four progress on Stage 1B, putting it on six progress of the eight I need.
There are no locations to travel to and no unengaged enemies so the combat phase begins with a shadow card being placed on the Hill Troll before it engages Beregond. The Shadow card is the Banks of the Anduin I put on top of the encounter deck, which has no effect. The six damage the Hill Troll inflicts is matched by Beregond's defence. I then use Unexpected Courage to refresh him.
Beregond and Legolas attack the Hill Troll for four damage, doing one wound and putting him on four wounds.
At the end of the round I refresh all my cards and increase my threat to thirty four.
At the start of turn four I place one resource on all my heroes and draw Arwen Undomiel.
During planning I spend two resources each from Beregond and Legolas to play Eagles of the Misty Mountains.
As usual, in the quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn for four willpower and commit Legolas for one willpower, giving me a total of five willpower.
The shadow draw is Necromancers Pass, for a total threat of three. I add two progress to Phase 1B for a total of eight threat. All I need to do to complete it is kill the Hill Troll, something which is turning out to be a problem.
In the travel phase I travel to the Necromancers Pass which means that I have to discard two random cards from my hand. The cards are Gwalhir and Support of the Eagles, which is not good.
Due to there being no enemies in the staging area, the combat phase starts with Hill Troll gaining a shadow card and attacking Beregond. The Shadow card is Banks of the Anduin for no effect. The Hill Troll's six attack does no damage to Beregond and I use Unexpected Courage to refresh him.
In retaliation, Legolas, Beregond and the Eagles of the Misty Mountains attack for six, doing three damage to the Hill Troll and leaving it on seven wounds.
At the end of the round I refresh all my cards and increase my threat to thirty five.
As turn five begins I add a resource to each of my heroes and draw Radagast.
In the planning stage I spend the two resources on Eowyn to play Arwen Undomiel.
In the Quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn for four and Arwen Undomiel for two, adding one defence to Beregond, then commit Legolas for one making a total willpower of seven.
The staging draw is Misty Mountain Goblins for a total threat of two. Of the five progress made, two explores Necromancers Pass and the other three are ignored.
As there are no locations in the staging area the encounter phase means that I engage the Misty Mountain Goblins.
At the start of the combat phase I add a shadow card to the Hill Troll and the Misty Mountain Goblins who both engage Beregond. The Hill Troll's shadow card is Misty Mountain Goblins, which removes one progress from Stage 1A. The Hill Troll's six attack does no damage compared to Beregond's buffed seven defence.
I use Unexpected Courage to refresh Beregond then the Misty Mountain Goblins attack him, removing another progress from stage 1A. The shadow card is Gladden Fields, no effect. The Goblin's two attack does nothing.
Legolas and the Eagles of the Misty Mountains attack the Hill Troll for five attack, doing two damage and finally killing it.
The Hill Troll goes into my Victory Display, earning four Victory Points and Legolas adds two progress to stage 1A finishing it.
Moving on to stage 2B I have to reveal two cards in the quest phase and I can only optionally engage enemies. I have to put sixteen progress on the quest to progress,
To end turn five I refresh all my cards and increase my threat to thirty six.
At the start of turn six I add one resource to all my heroes and draw Support of the Eagles.
During planning I spend two resources from Beregond to play Citadel Plate on Beregond.
In the Quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn for four and Arwen Undomiel for two, adding one defence to Beregond, then commit Legolas for one making a total willpower of seven.
The staging draws are, firstly Eastern Crows for one threat which surges to another Hill Troll (darn it) for one threat. The second draw is another Necromancers Pass for three, giving a threat total of five. Two progress is placed on stage 2B.
In the travel phase I travel to Necromancers Pass, discarding Support of the Eagles and one of the Radagast's in my hand.
I choose not to optionally engage any enemies so the combat phase begins with me putting a shadow card on Misty Mountain Goblins before they attack Beregond, removing one progress from phase 2B. The shadow card is Massing at Night, which tells me to draw another shadow card. The second shadow card is The Brown Lands for no effect. The Misty Mountain Goblins do two attack against Beregond's seven defence,
Legolas and the Eagles of the Misty Mountains kill the Misty Mountains Goblins and add two progress to Necromancers Pass, exploring it.
At the end of turn six I refresh all my cards and increase my threat to thirty seven.
As turn seven begins I add a resource to all my heroes and draw Horn of Gondor.
In the planning phase I spend one resource from Legolas to play the Horn of Gondor on Eowyn and three resources from Legolas and one resource from Eowyn and Beregond to play Radagast. This also empties my hand.
The quest phase sees me exhaust and commit Eowyn for four, Arwen Undomiel for two and Radagast for two as well as committing Legolas for one, giving me a total of nine.
The staging draws are Evil Storm, which does one damage to all my characters and Treacherous Fog, which has no effect. This means a total threat of two and seven progress going on stage 2B, leaving me on eight of sixteen needed progress.
In the encounter phase I optionally engage the Eastern Crows. They gain a shadow card and attack Beregond. The shadow card is another Eastern Crows and makes their attack two against Beregond's buffed seven defence.
In return, Legolas attacks and kills the Eastern Crows, adding two progress to stage 2B and the Horn of Gondor adds one resource to Eowyn. The Eastern Crows are shuffled back into the encounter deck.
After refreshing all my cards I increase my threat to thirty eight.
At the start of turn eight I add one resource to all my heroes and draw Gandalf (Core).
In planning I spend all the resources on Beregond, Eowyn and Legolas to play Gandalf then use his ability to draw three cards, Eagles of the Misty Mountains, Rivendell Blade and Song of Travel. I then spend one resource from Eowyn to play Song of Travel on Legolas.
In the quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn for four, Arwen Undomiel for two and Radagast for two as well as committing Legolas for one, giving me a total of nine.
The staging draws are Wolf Rider for one who surges, Gladden Fields for three and Pursued By Shadow which increases my threat to forty one. I'm really heart-sick of the lack of encounter negation cards I've drawn. The threat total is five meaning that four progress goes on Stage 2B.
In the Travel phase I travel to Gladden Fields.
I decide to optionally engage the Hill Troll, who then gains a shadow card before attacking Beregond. The shadow card is Enchanted Stream, which does nothing. The Hill Troll's six attack is repulsed by Beregond's seven defence.
In retaliation Legolas, Eagles of the Misty Mountains and Gandalf attack the Hill Troll for nine, doing seven damage and leaving it with two wounds left.
At the end of the round all my cards refresh and Gandalf leaves play. My threat then increases (thanks to Gladden Fields) to forty three.
Turn nine begins with me adding one resource to all my heroes and drawing Song of Battle.
In the planning phase I spend one resource from Legolas to play Rivendell Blade on him, then spend one resource from Beregond to play Song of Battle on Eowyn.
In the quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn, Radagast and Arwen Undomiel and commit Legolas for a total of nine willpower. The staging draws are another Gladden Fields for three and Goblin Sniper for two. The total threat is six so three progress explores Gladden Fields.
In the travel phase I don't travel. I then decide not to optionally engage any enemies which brings me to the combat phase. The Hill Troll gains a shadow card and attacks Beregond. The shadow card is The Necromancers Reach for no effect. The Hill Troll's six attack does nothing to Beregond.
Legolas, using the Rivendell Blade to knock the Hill Troll's defence to one, attacks the Hill Troll with the Eagle of the Misty Mountains and kills it. Legolas's ability adds two progress to stage 2B and completes it as well as adding a resource to Eowyn through Horn of Gondor. The Hill Troll goes into the Victory display and gives me a total of eight victory points.
Stage 3B tells me to add two cards to the staging area Defiance, which does nothing and Treacherous Fog, which makes me discard the Eagles of the Misty Mountains from my hand. I also skip the staging step of the Quest phase from now on. All I have to do is kill the Goblin Sniper and the Wolf Rider to complete the quest.
At the end of the combat phase the Goblin Sniper does one damage to Beregond before I refresh all my cards and increase my threat to forty four.
Turn ten begins with me adding one resource to all my heroes and drawing another Arwen Undomiel.
Since I already have a Arwen in play I skip the planning and travel stages and exhaust and commit Eowyn (then discard the Arwen in my hand to add one willpower) and Radagast for a total of seven willpower.
The threat total in the staging area is still five so no progress is made.
In the encounter stage the Wolf Rider engages me.
In the combat phase the Wolf Rider gains a shadow card. The Wolf Rider attacks Beregond and the shadow card is Evil Storm for no effect. The Wolf Rider's two attack is insufficient to damage Beregond. In response, Legolas kills him, adding one resource to Eowyn thanks to Horn of Gondor.
At the end of the combat round the Goblin Sniper does one damage to Radagast before I refresh all my cards and increase my threat to 45.
At the start of turn eleven I add one resource to all my heroes and draw Radagast.
I skip the planning and travel stages and exhaust and commit Eowyn (then discard the Radagast in my hand to add one willpower) and Radagast for a total of seven willpower.
The total threat is five so no progress is made. In the encounter phase I engage the Goblin Sniper.
After adding a shadow card, the Goblin Sniper attacks Beregond. The shadow card is Chieftain Ufthak for no effect. The Goblin Sniper does two attack against Beregond's seven defence, then Legolas kills it, ending the game.
This quest was a lot tougher than Passage Through Mirkwood, mostly because I was lacking in certain cards. I think I'll stick with this deck when I tackle Escape From Dol Goldur.
In the end, the score was:
Completed turns (11): 110
Threat: 45
Damage on surviving heroes: 7.
Victory Points: 8.
Total: 154.
Edited by silverthorn
I just realised from watching one of the Cardboard of the Rings game videos on Youtube that I've been playing Horn of Gondor for years
. Basically I've been counting dead enemies as characters but from the sound of it that's wrong.
"Characters" = allies and heroes. Sorry
Gosh darn it to heck. I use Horn of Gondor all the time and never noticed that enemies aren't characters. I must have read it in the rules but it mustn't have stuck.
GAME 139 – ESCAPE FROM DOL GOLDUR
Heroes: Beregond, Eowyn, Legolas
For this game I made some changes to the deck, removing the Eagles for other cards and putting some wound negation cards and more threat reduction cards into the deck. Although Dol Goldur is one of the more difficult quests I hope the changes might work.
As per usual, my starting threat is twenty eight. My starting hand is Bofur, Veteran Axehand, Gondorian Shield, Gondorian Spearman, another Gondorian Spearman and Elrond's Counsel. Despite my not knowing who I'll have available at the start of the game I'll stick with this hand.
Stage 1A tells me to search for the three Objective cards and put them into the staging area. Since all three have Guarded I have to place a card from the top of the Encounter Deck on each of them, Gandalf's Map gains Hummerhorns, Dungeon Torch gains Under the Shadow which has no effect and is discarded and Shadow Key gains Endless Caverns, which increases my threat to twenty nine and surges, adding Eyes of the Forest. It discards the Elrond's Counsel from my hand.
Flipping to Stage 1B, I have to randomly select one of my heroes to be a captive. The random selection is Beregond, which is pretty much the second worst possible option. Thankfully I put a few good defensive allies into the deck.
With a feeling that this is not going to end well, I move on to turn one.
Turn one begins with me adding one resource to all my heroes and drawing Close Call. In the planning phase I do nothing.
In the Quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn for a total of four willpower. The Staging draw is Caught In A Web, which only makes things more complicated as it means I have to select a hero to only be able to refresh if I spend two resources from him. This will have to go on Legolas. The threat total is two meaning that two progress goes onto Stage 1B.
In the Travel phase I travel to Endless Caverns.
The Hummerhorns engagement cost is higher than my threat so it stays in the staging area so I skip the combat phase before refreshing Eowyn and increasing my threat to thirty.
Turn Two begins with me adding a resource to my heroes and drawing Rivendell Blade, a useless item because it will only play on Legolas.
In the planning phase I spend the two resources on Legolas to play Veteran Axehand.
In the Quest phase I again exhaust and commit Eowyn for four willpower. The staging draw is Dungeon Jailer for a total threat of two, meaning that I add two of three progress to Endless Caverns.
Since both the Dungeon Jailer and the Hummerhorns have higher threat values than mine I don't optionally engage them and after refreshing Eowyn increase my threat to thirty one and end the turn.
Turn three begins with me adding a resource to my heroes and drawing Black Arrow, another currently useless attachment.
The planning phase passes without incident and in the quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn again for a total of four willpower. The staging draw is Cavern Guardian who increases my threat to and makes a total threat of four. No progress is made.
In the encounter phase the Cavern Guardian's threat is low enough that he engages me, adding a shadow card. The shadow card is Mountains of Mirkwood for no effect as he attacks the Veteran Axehand. His two attack does one of two wounds on the Veteran Axehand and after refreshing my cards and increasing my threat to thirty three the turn ends.
As turn four begins I again add one resource to my heroes and draw Elrond's Counsel, a handy card at this point.
As the planning phase commences I do nothing so play proceeds to the quest phase where I commit Eowyn for four and play Elrond's Counsel to boost my willpower to five and lower my threat to thirty. The staging draw is Necromancers Pass for a total threat of five. Again,, no progress is made.
In the encounter phase the enemies in the staging area have higher threat's than mine so they stay there for now and play proceeds to the combat phase where I add a shadow card to the Cavern Guardian. He attacks the Veteran Axehand and the shadow card is Enchanted Stream for no effect. The two damage is enough to kill the Veteran Axehand before Legolas attacks the Cavern Guardian for three, killing him and adding two progress, one explores the Endless Caverns, releasing the Shadow Key. I increase my threat to thirty two to attach the Shadow Key to Legolas, who will now take a point of damage every turn.
At the end of the turn I spend the two resources on Legolas to refresh him then add one wound from the Shadow Key, refresh Eowyn and increase my threat to thirty three whilst hoping that I might draw a Spirit card next turn.
As turn five begins I add a resource to my heroes and draw another Gondorian Spearman. It appears that the fates are conspiring against me.
In the planning stage I play the Black Arrow and Rivendell Blade on Legolas for a total of one resource from Legolas.
In the Quest phase I risk exhausting Eowyn and Legolas for a total of five willpower. The staging draw is another Caught In A Web. This has to go onto Eowyn and it pretty much cripples my heroes. On the something resembling bright side it makes for a total threat of five so I don't actually lose the quest phase.
In the travel phase I travel to Necromancers Pass and discard two random cards, namely Gondorian Spearman and Close Call. Wondering if this game can actually get any worse, I bypass the encounter and combat phases before adding a damage to Legolas and spending two resources from Eowyn to refresh her before increasing my threat to thirty four.
Turn six begins with me adding a resource to all my heroes and drawing A Test Of Will. While it's a Spirit card it's also a card which is conditional. Regardless I proceed to the Planning phase where I risk spending the two resources on Legolas to play a Gondorian Spearman.
In the quest phase I exhaust and commit Eowyn for a total of four willpower. The staging draw is The Necromancers Reach, which I spend one resource from Eowyn to play A Test Of Will to get rid of. The total threat is two so I make 2 progress, exploring the Necromancer's Pass.
Bypassing the encounter and combat phases, I end turn six by increasing Legolas's damage to three of four wounds and spending two of Eowyn's resources to refresh her before increasing my threat to thirty five.
As turn seven commences I add a resource to my heroes and draw Spear of the Citadel. I'm pretty sure I actually put Spirit cards into this fershlugging deck. Regardless, I proceed to planning where nothing happens.
In the quest phase I again exhaust Eowyn for four willpower. The staging draw is another Endless Caverns which increases my threat to thirty six and surges, adding Mountains of Mirkwood to the staging area. The total threat is five, meaning that I have unsuccessfully quested, meaning that Dungeon Jailer's text kicks in shuffling the unclaimed Dungeon Torch back into the encounter deck.
At this point, with Legolas about to die at the end of the turn and no light at the end of the tunnel (unless it's a Uruk with a flamethrower). I decided to concede the game. I'm going to build a Leadership/Lore deck and try this baby two-handed since I honestly can't figure out how to beat it single player.
GAME 140 - ESCAPE FROM DOL GOLDUR
Heroes: Beravor, Eowyn and Legolas & Aragorn, Bifur and Theodred
I've give up on the whole writing up the games since it turns a fun half-hour or so into four or five hours of soul-crushing writing. Suffice to say that playing the game two-handed made it winnable although it did end up with Bifur both the prisoner at the start and dead at the end. alongside Beregond. All in all, a hard-won victory and a pair of decks which will probably need some modification although I'm starting to think that it's just that my card draws were appalng in both games.
GAME 141 - PASSAGE THROUGH MIRKWOOD (PROGRESSION)
Heroes: Denethor, Eowyn, Gimli.
I managed to complete this quest using only core set cards while forgetting completely about putting Unexpected Courage on Denethor so that he could scry for the next card to go into the staging area. The deck is a little rough but the hero combo seems to work.
GAME 142 - HUNT FOR GOLLUM
Heroes: Beravor, Eowyn and Legolas & Aragorn, Bifur and Theodred
This game went a lot better than the previous couple of games. Cards turned up when I needed them (including a Light of Valinor which went on Legolas on turn one and I completely forgot about until the last turn when I was one willpower short of completing the game and I noticed it
). All in all, the Leadership/Lore deck was rolling out twenty four willpower per turn by the end of the game (thanks to Sword that was Broken and Faramir). As it turns out I was right about the decks being not so much flawed as just my having really bad luck with card draw.
GAME 143 - CONFLICT AT THE CARROCK
Heroes: Beravor, Eowyn and Legolas & Aragorn, Bifur and Theodred
This was a struggle, I decided to hold off on using the four Core Gandalf's split between my decks to wound the Trolls as they came down one at a time into combat with Legolas's deck. All in all, it went well but I'm pretty much back to playing decks which I've used a lot in the past. I'm working on a solo deck with Gandalf as a hero and probably a completely different deck for the next game i play.