I almost didn’t write this one. It is rated a 7 and definitely harder than the other two. If you’ve played Laketown there are definite similarities - which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Laketown is a good tough quest imo. There are only two stages and you start off the quest placing Captain Sahir and this ugly pirate who looks like Belatrix Lestrange and whose name begins with an N aside out of play. “I’ll deal with them when the time comes,” I say to myself, not bothering to read the cards.

So I tried the quest solo and was playing out stage 1. I had slowly managed to gain control of the board and get some decent willpower out. Dreamchaser had 6/12 damage on it, but I had figured out how to manage that ok. Then I made a big push to get to stage two and managed it. Changed to stage two and read the card. Put Captain Sahir engaged with the first player - that’s me - and N- engaged with the last player - that’s me too. And another pirate to the staging area too. (No problem, I have Boromir defending for 5 with a Burning Brand right?)

Then I read the cards for the Captain and his Tennille. “Wait, what?!” I read them again. And then I read the quest card. There must be some mercy here somewhere. After reading everything that triggers for the fourth time I take stock of my board and conclude I’m dead next turn regardless of what I do.

I don’t want to spoil this since once you know what is going to happen it is much easier to prepare for. I won my second game - after some sideboarding mind - at threat of 47. I didn’t draw very well I think but I still won. There is a definite formula to this one, at least in single player. In multiplayer I think that it would be much, much tougher.

At the end of the day I have to give a thumbs up to the box. Three very nice quests with decent to hard challenge. Some good player cards that open up new avenues - especially for multiplayer I think. Grappling hook may be my favorite card. My favorite quest is the first one, “the sailing quest”. I was a bit dubious about the mechanic, but it’s done really well.

Great job designers and playtesters! (Except that windward MEANS against the wind!)

Edit: It's DL6, not 7.

I thought that pirate girl was cute.

this ugly pirate

Eye of the beholder, I suppose.

@ took Please spoil it later I need your wisdom.

The Dunedain trap deck paired with a Noldor Spirit/Lore deck did really well against this quest though you do get punished a bit for keeping guys around, the over all benefits were worth it.

I thought that pirate girl was cute.

I will concede that ugly may have been too strong, but cute?

Moving on... Raven, I didn't want to give you the impression that there is an "easy mode" to it. I played it again with the same deck and just got stomped. It's a difficult - but fair - test. My solution was essentially Sloth's. **cough**ForestSnare**cough** We're so used to seeing "Cannot have attachments" on the boss monsters, but that line isn't there this time.

@took no I know you wasn't refering to easy mode I just wanted to pick your brain on how you beat it. Glad to know it wasn't some cosmic combo. Thanks for sharing I finally beat the first one can't believe I misread that last scenario card. But boy I do like that scenario.

I'm sure the Cannot have attachments are coming in the future AP's

It's a great box! I really enjoyed the first two quests, and third quest is good with a significant level of challenge for a four player game. We certainly struggled. We flipped to stage 2 with 11/12 tokens on the Dream-Chaser and only managed to not lose because of an extremely aggressive tactics deck with a pair of Gondolin blades in play to get enough progress tokens placed to finish an active location and put a few on the main quest stage to take off some of those burn tokens.

A+ box. The player cards are great, and the quests are a lot of fun. Outside of playing through the LotR saga, this box has probably been some of the most fun I've had playing this game.

I had all 3 forest snares in place during the first stage of the last quest, and while it is obviously the crux of the deck to keep things engaged with me, it also added pressure as they still count towards a passive effect on the quest card and were burning things at an accelerated rate. By the time I got to the captains coming out they had 8 resources on each of them. She was still 1 shotting my Dunedain sentinel guys so we just chump blocked until my bowman could take card of the real captain.

I had enough attack power to take out each pirate in one turn, but it required my threat to increase at a precipitous rate. All hail Strider. I saved my Forest Snares for the Captain and Tennille. During stage 2 the pirates no longer add burning. It was just a matter of time to drive off Sahir.

Forest Snare is excellent in this quest, sort of cheaty. The Ravager that starts in the staging area really messed things up for me in my two-handed game. I engaged him with the deck that could handle the attack at the time, but it couldn't kill him and so he ended up with 5 resources on him before he got a Forest Snare. Ouch. I went into stage 2 with 10 damage on Dream Chaser and I was also a little shocked when I read the Captain and Nas' cards - I played one more round and then scooped.

The quests where you have to get through the first stage as quickly as possible are always tough for me.

I just tanked the bosses, essentially, and quested through. Granted, I did throw Theodred under the bus with two undefended attacks in the second to last round. 1 HP left? Na'asiyah swinging for 10? Splat.

Another one of the quests from this box that's probably easier with a few extra people, though. It makes it easier to find the locations you need to move past stage 1. The bosses then aren't engaged with the same player. And they probably have fewer resources since you won't have to stall out stage 1 for as long as I did.

Tried this quest solo with the Cirdan/Arwen/Beregond line up from the last quest, not knowing what this encounter deck had in store. Defeat came soon in 2B when I too had that Skipper double-take when I saw the boss text (Wh-what?!?) Won this on my first try solo swapping out Beregond for Damrod. Thematically I like to try to keep the same deck together for all three quests in an expansion, but could not conceive how to do it here. I was pleased to limit the changes to one hero.

I spent many rounds painstakingly getting my allies out while keeping the Corsair count to a minimum. Elf-stone worked perfectly getting Beorn and OHUH Gandalf to the table while conserving resources for Forest Snare and Lords of the Eldar.

2B began by chump-blocking with all three of my Sailors who were all previously readied by Elwing's Flight. I played that the Sailor's were all finished questing so all died in combat. I thought for a moment that because they had been committed to the quest that they might not take damage in combat, but that can't be right, right? Either way, helped by Lords of the Eldar, Cirdan, Treebeard, Galdalf, Galdor, Damrod and boosted Beorn took out Sahir.

Next turn put Forest Snare on Na'asiyah and cleaned up locations over the course of two rounds.

Kudos to the designers for keeping the game fresh with fun, new mechanics and player cards that were easy to integrate and play without waiting for new APs to augment them. The Noldor discard mechanics make deck building a bit easier for average types like me. No need for perfect synergy when you have consistent card draw and the need for discard fodder.

Grey Havens was my favorite expansion to experience for the first time. Thematic wins and great surprises.

I thought for a moment that because they had been committed to the quest that they might not take damage in combat, but that can't be right, right?

Characters committed to the quest are considered committed to the quest until the end of the quest phase, but not beyond. When combat rolls around no-one is committed to the quest any more.

I had to switch over to Easy Mode to get a solo win against this one. Depending on what location comes up in set-up and what comes out in the first staging, you're likely dealing with 10-12 threat with a 4-attack, 3-defense, 5-hit point enemy (Sahir's Ravager) lurking in the wings. By the time I got over that first hump (if I did), it was usually with out enough build-up to withstand the smackdown of Sahir's Advance (both boss enemies + 1 more card) that comes when you flip to Stage 2A.

The extra resource at the start and a couple of the tougher cards pulled from the deck didn't make this quest "easy" by any stretch, but gave my heroes a fighting chance. A battalion of five engaged Corsairs ate through all of my allies while I kept whittling down Captain Sahir, but was just able to escape with a win. My hero line-up was Lore-agorn, Eowyn, and Arwen (a little deck I'm working on called Aragorn's Love Triangle) and it can be pretty fun!

I would echo the sentiment that this is a great out-of-the-box experience. Yes, it takes a game or so to get used to the new mechanics (and the board state in this final scenario reminded me of the fiddly resource accounting that took place with the Dunlendings and "Time" in the Voice of Isengard / Ring-maker cycle). That said, it's not unwieldy or overly cumbersome, the story is great, and after 60+ adventures, it's amazing that the base game mechanics can still deliver a fresh theme -- the ships and pirates feel decidedly different as enemies than what we've encountered before. Great work FFG!

the board state in this final scenario reminded me of the fiddly resource accounting that took place with the Dunlendings and "Time" in the Voice of Isengard / Ring-maker cycle.

Just as I feared. I still love the theme though.

I'm just curious because I'd forgotten about this issue until just now - did anyone else notice some instructions were missing from the 2A quest card?

When Revealed : Add Na’asiyah and Captain Sahír to the staging area, enemy side faceup. Each player reveals the top card of the encounter deck. Place resources on Na’asiyah and Captain Sahír equal to the amount of damage on The Dream-chaser. Add 1 resource to each other Raider enemy in play.

Note "Each player reveals the top card of the encounter deck." doesn't have any further instructions as to what to do with it. So if it isn't a treachery or have a "when revealed" effect, it doesn't technically do anything. We've played the quest several times with 2-4 players, and each time we added the revealed cards to the staging area - which we assume to be the intention of the effect. Just curious if anyone else noticed that was missing or if they just added "and add it to the staging area" without realizing it?

I'm just curious because I'd forgotten about this issue until just now - did anyone else notice some instructions were missing from the 2A quest card?

When Revealed : Add Na’asiyah and Captain Sahír to the staging area, enemy side faceup. Each player reveals the top card of the encounter deck. Place resources on Na’asiyah and Captain Sahír equal to the amount of damage on The Dream-chaser. Add 1 resource to each other Raider enemy in play.

Note "Each player reveals the top card of the encounter deck." doesn't have any further instructions as to what to do with it. So if it isn't a treachery or have a "when revealed" effect, it doesn't technically do anything. We've played the quest several times with 2-4 players, and each time we added the revealed cards to the staging area - which we assume to be the intention of the effect. Just curious if anyone else noticed that was missing or if they just added "and add it to the staging area" without realizing it?

1.45 of the FAQ: (1.45) “Reveal” vs “Reveal and add” Any time encounter cards are “revealed” from the encounter deck, the players should follow the rules for staging as explained on page 14 of the rulebook and rule (1.39) of this document. If a card effect uses the phase “Reveal and add to the staging area”, it means the same as simply using the word “reveal”, and the above steps should still be followed (i.e. treachery cards should still be discarded after resolving its effects, unless otherwise indicated by the card’s text).

Thanks. I don't remember ever reading that particular entry before.

Just played this quest the other night for the first time.

Absolutely loved it, possibly my favourite in the box (Fate of Numenor is a close second but is just not hard for my decks at all and I absolutely steamroll it like Amon Din, Passage and other easier quests) as it has a nice balance of difficulty, mechanics and theme.

I had the Dream Chaser on 8 aflame tokens when I got to stage 2 (built up forces for AGES and tried to clear every aflame location I could and keep staging free of enemies as well, also cleared the Send for Aid side quest in the first few turns)

So Na'aisayah or whatever her name is had 8 attack and defense!!! Elrohir with Cloak of Lorien, two warnings and Lembas easily defended against her then healed with Lembas and defended Sahir without taking damage. Even with her 8 defense Na'aisayah was defeated right away and only Sahir was left to destroy. I managed to do so over the course of several turns ( I focused on removing damage tokens on aflame locations and clearing as many other enemies at the same time) and then got the last of the damage off the Dream Chaser the following turn. At one point it was on 11 damage due to treacheries and I got extremely nervous but by questing successfully I was able to take it back down to a reasonable level.

Certain raider enemies are pretty **** nasty especially the one that takes a token from each hero when it engages you and gets +1 def for each resource on it. That card is awful against my decks and can easily net 2 to 3 resources each time. Luckily I kept threat for both decks below 40 so was able to engage them on my own terms. Cards like Miruvor and Lembas allow my decks to easily use up all of Elrohir's resources (and allow the raider to take 1 or no resources) and still defend multiple times with him. Miruvor is the best as you can ready him and add a resource allowing an extra 2 defenses.
By the end I only allowed two ships to burn down.

Really loved this quest and to me it is a harder more punishing version of Amon Din!

Think about it, aflame locations and ships placed under The Havens Burn (rather than burning buildings and dead villagers/rescued villager tokens), nasty enemies trying to spread the fire/destruction
( Corsair/Umbar Raiders as opposed to Orcs and Craven Eagles) and a nasty Boss enemy/enemies at the end that directly ties their strength to the amount of tokens on an objective (how many dead villagers there are as opposed to how many damage tokens are on the Dream Chaser).

Its a harder more punishing version (have to reveal cards when cards are placed underneath the havens burn and if you let a certain amount burn you instantly lose!) where there are two bosses at the end rather than one, tougher enemies with nastier effects and locations (ships!) that have some much nastier effects if they burn down as well. This is amazing as Encounter at Amon Din is one of my favorite quests but is just way too easy, the nightmare version is unfortunately extremely difficult (only played it once or twice but it was INSANELY hard those few attempts) so this new quest is just perfect! Going to play this one again real soon!

By the way, now that I have cards in my very own hands and I can observe art in fullest hirez possible, I reverse my judgement regarding the pirate girl. She's not cute. She's gorgeous.

Her character is pretty **** cool too, have you read the narrative text in the new box yet?

Now I did. I wonder what would happen between them in the end.

Regardless, it seems I won't be writing "in character" ( ) report of this quest, my deck simply does not fit there. And I think, this quest is a huge game design disaster when evaluated it's scalability to the number of players.

3 cards in the staging during setup + 1 during the first quest phase? Seriously? I have 9 willpower on the board just from my heroes and I can't outquest this stuff. And then I still need to fight. And, there is second stage which, aside from everything else, introduces two huge enemies, which are supposedly need to be spread among different players, but guess what? Yes, if you're solo - you'll get them all to yourself. And, like that was not enough for you, you still reveal a card from the encounter deck. Have fun. I bet Glaurung would enjoy the **** out of this quest.

I don't say it can't be beaten, I just don't feel like re-tailoring my entire deck to match this quest at the moment, so I'll move to Angmar for now.

I'm still trying to beat this one pure solo... will try a third deck this week (Elrond, Arwen and Legolas).

It's pretty tough and tense.

... and it's not working, I can't last 3 turns.

I think this one needs a power deck... anyone had success with Gandalf hero?