I finished the 3 quests on normal difficulty. As expected my deck is terrible, if I don't get Vilya, so I lost quite some games.

1) Flight to the Ford: Had to try 2 games without Vilya in my starting hand, what failed miserably, so I am only going to write some lines about the round I got it and didn't loose in round 3^^
Even in that game it was close (Frodo was down to 3 life) and the reveal cancel from fellowship Frodo was crucial. As the quest is quite a race, most attacks where tanked by my Frodo for threat which didn't bother me to much as the game should be over quickly and Merry managed to reduce my threat by 5 and one keen as lances by another 4.
Elrond and his ring took a few rounds setting things up, but once the breaking point was reached it was over quickly.
Had some trouble with a Nazgul during the early rounds as I held back some attackers for a one-shot (quite easy when nearly everything Vilya pulls has at least 2 attack), but it got the shadow card which returns it to the staging area. Twice. That was a lot of character actions wasted and would have made the run a lot easier as the Nazgul generates a good amount of threat too.
I didn't have to much trouble with the Witch-king in return, as he and most other Nazguls got washed away by wrath of the Bruinen.
Quests on a counter are always a little nerve wrecking for me and I tend to not like them, so I was happing to advance to:

2) The Steward's Fear: I opened with 3 loses (2 times no Vilya, which I now instant conceded after the first draw), the other time I got over-run by the encounter deck. I managed to win the next game, but during a final look at the game I noticed that I forgot to reveal the additional encounter cards unholy alliance forces you to reveal (so I literally played without a plot), what I couldn't count as a true win, so here is the final game (spoiler: I win :D):
My starting hand was god-like: Vilya, light and UC, played light quested with everyone and then used Vilya after questing. I revealed Gandalf, who I could have used to snipe the revealed dissident, however there was no new location and I had a little fear from the underworld card under the fourth star so I lowered my threat with Gandalf and used him to defend. Sadly the shadow cad returned the enemy to the staging area. Next turn I played courage on Elrond and brought Treebeard into play. For questing I cleared the fourth star and got a traitor from the underworld card. Managed to defend him and the dissident and got Steward of Gondor from Vilya, so Elrond was powered up completely. I played Gleowine as a chumpblocker too. Staging was great, market square and under the active location was the prisoner (objective that puts 2 resources on the active quest). After chump-blocking and sacrificing Gleowine I got a double kill on my two engaged enemies, what (in retrospective) is clearly the turning point of the game as I now were in full control with a fully operative Elrond and Treebeard.
I had to discard my hand though (at least only 3 cards), what ended up not mattering at all as I just played my drawn card every turn thanks to Elrond and a resourceful I got the next turn from Vilya. While clearing the locations (houses of the dead showed up, but was harmless, as I could easily exhaust all my characters, while no enemies where to be seen and treebeard had the potential for 3 actions), local trouble hit Elrond (who then neither used Vilya nor his response, which would helped my single warden heal of the damage from an umbar assassin).
After finishing stage one I got "Up in flames" as my plot (had 30 cards left in my deck, so a lot of time). Merry got some information from our prisoner and at the roots of the mindoluin I found another clue, which Merry grabbed again, so stage 2 was over in no time.
The villain turned out to be the daughter of Berúthiel. She was no match for me as I still was below 40 threat and could keep her engaged easily for the one round it took to kill her with my team. Following round I quested for the win.
I ended up with a total of two local troubles (Frodo and Elrond), -15 threat from three Gandalfs. The only plot/villain-combo that could have been dangerous would have been unholy alliance and the hand of Castamir with an ugly attack chain.

Finally with a clean win I moved to:

3) The wastes of Eriador: This was the quest I expected the best performance from my deck, as this is the longest quest by nature of the design, something playing into the hands of my deck. Got Vilya after a mulligan and nothing very tense or exciting happened all game long :(. The opening card reveal gave me the opportunity to grab an enemy of my choice from the encounter deck and everything went smoothly after that. Some notable things: I was forced to bring a side-quest into play (chose lost in the wilderness), which I wanted to clear the following round, what ended up being very lucky, as it not only worked, but during staging I got cold from Angmar which attached to the active quest and instantly removed itself this way :). During stage two I was forced to discard a non-objective ally once it became night by the effect on stage 2b, what happens at the end of the round. As Gandalf is also discarded at the end of the round I chose to trigger the night thing first and discard Gandalf, before he would do it himself (if this isn't allowed it wouldn't have mattered as there were about 15 other allies I could have discarded). Overkilled pack leader in the end by a lot.

It was fun, even though I don't think I will play this deck more often as other hero combinations should work better, while achieving the same goal (the Elrond+Vilya-Combo) and this one is really hit or miss, leading to games you either totally dominate and win without much fear or totally loose. Only the flight game was tense and that probably because of the ringbearer's life ticking down.
Maybe I will try the nightmare version of flight (it's the only of the three quests I have) before I scrap the deck.

Thanks for organising everything Seastan, was fun playing and bidding

On 04/04/2017 at 10:56 PM, PocketWraith said:

I put up a blog post earlier talking about how I approached the bidding and deckbuilding:

https://wardenofarnor.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/deckbuilding-challenge-the-middle-earth-hero-auction/

As mentioned at the end of the post, I'll be streaming my attempts at the quests 8pm (BST) this Sunday, on www.twitch.tv/pocketwraith.

Going live now! www.twitch.tv/pocketwraith

EDIT: Well, that went pretty well apart from my computer crashing in the middle of my first attempt at Wastes of Eriador. For all that a poorly thought out play lost me a hero on Flight to the Ford, Wastes was the only quest of the three which really posed a challenge, and even then I kind of crushed it once I was established. I'll sort out the youtube VOD in a bit.

Nice work so far everyone. I haven't heard any reports yet from someone who is completely stuck by one of the quests, so it seems like people were pretty good at the bidding game.

Last weekend I did try the first quest (Flight) with the dwarves. I actually recorded turn-by-turn play, but its a lot to type. I lost, but I literally lost, by 1 quest point, on the final round. It was a sad day indeed. I'm going to try to get into it again soon, but with finals approaching it might be a few weeks until I can provide results.

Is that ok?

8 hours ago, jjohnson111 said:

Last weekend I did try the first quest (Flight) with the dwarves. I actually recorded turn-by-turn play, but its a lot to type. I lost, but I literally lost, by 1 quest point, on the final round. It was a sad day indeed. I'm going to try to get into it again soon, but with finals approaching it might be a few weeks until I can provide results.

Is that ok?

Of course! Sorry to hear about your close finish!

Oh it was still a great game! Learned a lot about what I need to do and such. The treachery "Power in Their Terror" ruined me mid-game...with so many dwarves at little HP (no hardy leadership on the table) they got beat down pretty quickly. I thought that was the straw there, and thought about scooping, but decided to push forth, and nearly came back. Was a great game!

Time to go against The Steward's Fear!

Deck (19 initial threat): Erkenbrand (6) + Dúnhere (5) + Bifur (8)

1st attempt

Everything that could go wrong, happened here -_-. My opening hand was terrible, so I took a mulligan and the new hand was... even worse!... I got a bunch of high-cost allies, and just one secrecy card plus Peace, and Thought to play with during the initial rounds. Peace and Thought didn't help much: I drew more high-cost cards, and so, my two turns of secrecy quickly abandoned me leaving little in return

4th or 5th round, and the encounter deck revealed my doom. Can you guess what happened? Of course: A Knife in the Back came in, and the randomly chosen ally is... Quickbeam >_> What's worse, is that I misread the text of this treachery, and for some reason I thought the hero that had to be damaged was also picked at random (which I know now that's not the case); the randomly chosen hero was Bifur, who had Steward of Gondor attached... yeah that was pretty much game (had I read the ruling properly, I would've chosen a full-health Dúnhere).

Despite losing a hero so early (and the most important one, given that Lore is the main sphere in my deck), I kept trying to see how far I could reach. Surprisingly, I did quite well considering the circumstances; I quickly drew a 2nd Steward of Gondor, so I could keep the pace with resources. This 2nd SoG was attached to Dúnhere, which allowed me to play several spirit allies. Progress was slow, but at least I was making some progress though.

Anyways, the encounter deck had no mercy and now the Underworld deck began to throw a bunch of Zealous Traitors into play, which obliterated my allies army. Severely damaged, I advanced to the 2nd quest stage, and the Plot revealed was the one that makes me discard my deck... I was able to reach this point despite losing a hero, access to Lore, and most of my allies, but the Plot put a clear death sentence: I still had plenty of progress to make, plenty of turns to overcome, and my deck had around 18 cards, so any chance of victory I could've had, dropped to a clear 0,00%... Still, I wanted to keep playing, until I blocked an enemy attack who had the shadow card that makes you discard your entire hand... yeah that was more that I could endure. After that, I just gave up.

Final result: Defeat...

2nd attempt

Quite the opposite this time; my deck worked wonders! First round: Dúnhere plays Resourceful on Erkenbrand (to play a SoG I had in hand during the next round), Bifur "steals" a resource from Erkenbrand, and plays a Ithilien Lookout for 1, and saves a lore resource to play Peace, and Thought by the end of the round. The encounter deck revealed Houses of the Dead this 1st round; tough card, but manage-able.

2nd round: With the previously played Peace, and Thought I drew a second Resourceful and Timely Aid. mmmm Steward will have to wait another round, because I want to play that Timely Aid while I'm still on secrecy; and that was a good call, since with Timely Aid I got Firyal into play! yesss!! the encounter card revealed this round is Storehouse; nothing to fear.

Next rounds: Steward comes down in round 3, and several allies (Ghân-buri-Ghân, Quickbeam, Arwen, Gléowine, several secrecy allies) begin to swarm the table. Faramir comes next, which completely solves the questing aspect of the game. No "A Knife in the Back" treacheries this time; no Zealous Traitors at sight. The Underworld deck was merciful this time, revealing two Clues, and Pickpocket enemies mostly which do little to no harm. Dúnhere had a lot of fun with these guys.

Progress was slow at first, but once my table was all setup with enough allies, things began to move fast later. Plot revealed: the one that makes me reveal two encounter cards during staging. It looked quite dangerous at first glance, but honestly it didn't hurt that much. The 2nd quest stage went down very quick thanks to the Clues around. Final stage: before advancing into it, I ask for OHaUH Gandalf's assistance to deal with the boss, and the boss revealed is Telemnar's Bane (the one that makes me discard cards from my deck). He attacks, kills a chumpblocker, and is immediately killed in return. Last round is easy: I quest with a total willpower of 43, and nothing can prevent me from claiming victory.

Final result: Victory

Turns: +100

Threat: +40

Dead Heroes: 0

Damaged Heroes: 0

Victory Display: -2

Total Score: 138

13 hours ago, Rajam said:

Way to push on after losing your Steward hero in that first attempt. I would have scooped right then.

Last quest: The Wastes of Eriador

Deck (19 initial threat): Erkenbrand (6) + Dúnhere (5) + Bifur (8)

1st attempt

I can definitely see why this quest is considered hard. I have to admit I had more fun this time; I remember playing this quest a long time ago and not having the best impression, but things change for the best I guess. Anyways:

First turn: During setup I got the Cold from Angmar treachery, which makes me hurt a hero and blanks the text on damaged heroes. Erkenbrand got the hit. Next, time to play my cards, and btw I got a really good hand. Resourceful on Erkenbrand, Timely Aid -> Bofur (this was kinda disappointing, although Bofur helped a lot in the long run), and Risk some Light to control the encounter deck these first rounds. With the help of this event, I select the first encounter card to be revealed: a Rugged Country location, probably the least harmful card to see. Nice.

Next rounds: Nightfall comes, and no more secrecy. I have to reveal an encounter card... another Cold from Angmar. mmm Erkenbrand gets a second damage token. I don't do much the 2nd round besides playing Warden of Healing. Questing time: another treachery! it's Pressing Needs, which makes me search for a Side Quest. I choose Lost in the Wilderness. Yeah this card kidnaps my entire hand, but honestly I only had high-cost cards, so it's not too terrible.

After some more rounds I begin to establish my allies army. Arwen, Firyal, Celduin Traveler, Mablung, and Timely Aid -> Quickbeam (...). The encounter deck is gentle enough, and it doesn't throw much enemies. Only a Hunting Pack: a 40-cost enemy which stays in the staging area forever, and a couple of Northern Wargs, which are quickly two-rounded by Dúnhere.

With more allies coming in (Gildor, Galadhrim Minstrel, another Celduin Traveler), I can quest a ton during Day Time. Once I advance onto second round, I decide to put down OHaUH Gandalf. It's kind of a gamble: my threat is at ~28 and I'm just starting the 2nd quest stage. It does pay off though, because with the help of the wizard I "one-hit-KO" the 2nd stage when it's Day Time.

So, the last stage flips in. Definitely the most feared moment: the boss Pack Leader enters play; the Hunting Pack from the very beginning is still in the staging area, and the Night Time objective adds a third enemy... My allies army is strong and abundant though. A chumpblocker goes down defending against the boss, and the just-added enemy is defended without problems and killed asap in return. Time comes in: I play an Ithilien Lookout and scry the encounter deck to check how much questing I need to make. These scrying guys help a lot with the math. Anyways, I put the needed 5 progress on the last stage to be able to damage and kill the boss later. Night kicks in, more enemies added, but overall I have so many allies around, that blocking and killing is not really an issue. Day phase comes back. Gandalf leaves me because I don't need his extra threat anymore, and the last stage is cleared. Overall, this was a pretty solid victory; I felt I had control the whole time.

Final result: Victory

Turns: +90

Threat: +46

Dead Heroes: 0

Damaged Heroes: +3

Victory Display: -13

Total Score: 126

Was Steward's Fear supposed to be hard because it's a difficult quest or because it's obnoxious? I only had time for one playthrough but I think across 5 turns, I revealed 1 Enemy before threating out from location lock. Despite getting 4 Mounts out on the Elfhelm deck, and 5 Outlands Allies and four 0-point Victory cards with the Rossiel/Eleanor deck...

I'll try again tomorrow. I remember this quest being more enjoyable the first time.

3 hours ago, Network57 said:

Was Steward's Fear supposed to be hard because it's a difficult quest or because it's obnoxious? I only had time for one playthrough but I think across 5 turns, I revealed 1 Enemy before threating out from location lock. Despite getting 4 Mounts out on the Elfhelm deck, and 5 Outlands Allies and four 0-point Victory cards with the Rossiel/Eleanor deck...

I'll try again tomorrow. I remember this quest being more enjoyable the first time.

Yeah, I felt kind of the same way. I remember really enjoying this quest back in the day, but this time I just wasn't feeling it.

On 16/4/2017 at 2:19 AM, Rajam said:

1st attempt

Everything that could go wrong, happened here -_-. My opening hand was terrible, so I took a mulligan and the new hand was... even worse!... I got a bunch of high-cost allies, and just one secrecy card plus Peace, and Thought to play with during the initial rounds. Peace and Thought didn't help much: I drew more high-cost cards, and so, my two turns of secrecy quickly abandoned me leaving little in return

4th or 5th round, and the encounter deck revealed my doom. Can you guess what happened? Of course: A Knife in the Back came in, and the randomly chosen ally is... Quickbeam >_> What's worse, is that I misread the text of this treachery, and for some reason I thought the hero that had to be damaged was also picked at random (which I know now that's not the case); the randomly chosen hero was Bifur, who had Steward of Gondor attached... yeah that was pretty much game (had I read the ruling properly, I would've chosen a full-health Dúnhere).

Despite losing a hero so early (and the most important one, given that Lore is the main sphere in my deck), I kept trying to see how far I could reach. Surprisingly, I did quite well considering the circumstances; I quickly drew a 2nd Steward of Gondor, so I could keep the pace with resources. This 2nd SoG was attached to Dúnhere, which allowed me to play several spirit allies. Progress was slow, but at least I was making some progress though.

Anyways, the encounter deck had no mercy and now the Underworld deck began to throw a bunch of Zealous Traitors into play, which obliterated my allies army. Severely damaged, I advanced to the 2nd quest stage, and the Plot revealed was the one that makes me discard my deck... I was able to reach this point despite losing a hero, access to Lore, and most of my allies, but the Plot put a clear death sentence: I still had plenty of progress to make, plenty of turns to overcome, and my deck had around 18 cards, so any chance of victory I could've had, dropped to a clear 0,00%... Still, I wanted to keep playing, until I blocked an enemy attack who had the shadow card that makes you discard your entire hand... yeah that was more that I could endure. After that, I just gave up.

Final result: Defeat...

Welcome to my life. Consider it a win that you got to stage 2 in those circumstances.

On 4/17/2017 at 10:48 PM, Rajam said:

Last quest: The Wastes of Eriador

Deck (19 initial threat): Erkenbrand (6) + Dúnhere (5) + Bifur (8)

1st attempt

I can definitely see why this quest is considered hard. I have to admit I had more fun this time; I remember playing this quest a long time ago and not having the best impression, but things change for the best I guess. Anyways:

First turn: During setup I got the Cold from Angmar treachery, which makes me hurt a hero and blanks the text on damaged heroes. Erkenbrand got the hit. Next, time to play my cards, and btw I got a really good hand. Resourceful on Erkenbrand, Timely Aid -> Bofur (this was kinda disappointing, although Bofur helped a lot in the long run), and Risk some Light to control the encounter deck these first rounds. With the help of this event, I select the first encounter card to be revealed: a Rugged Country location, probably the least harmful card to see. Nice.

Next rounds: Nightfall comes, and no more secrecy. I have to reveal an encounter card... another Cold from Angmar. mmm Erkenbrand gets a second damage token. I don't do much the 2nd round besides playing Warden of Healing. Questing time: another treachery! it's Pressing Needs, which makes me search for a Side Quest. I choose Lost in the Wilderness. Yeah this card kidnaps my entire hand, but honestly I only had high-cost cards, so it's not too terrible.

After some more rounds I begin to establish my allies army. Arwen, Firyal, Celduin Traveler, Mablung, and Timely Aid -> Quickbeam (...). The encounter deck is gentle enough, and it doesn't throw much enemies. Only a Hunting Pack: a 40-cost enemy which stays in the staging area forever, and a couple of Northern Wargs, which are quickly two-rounded by Dúnhere.

With more allies coming in (Gildor, Galadhrim Minstrel, another Celduin Traveler), I can quest a ton during Day Time. Once I advance onto second round, I decide to put down OHaUH Gandalf. It's kind of a gamble: my threat is at ~28 and I'm just starting the 2nd quest stage. It does pay off though, because with the help of the wizard I "one-hit-KO" the 2nd stage when it's Day Time.

So, the last stage flips in. Definitely the most feared moment: the boss Pack Leader enters play; the Hunting Pack from the very beginning is still in the staging area, and the Night Time objective adds a third enemy... My allies army is strong and abundant though. A chumpblocker goes down defending against the boss, and the just-added enemy is defended without problems and killed asap in return. Time comes in: I play an Ithilien Lookout and scry the encounter deck to check how much questing I need to make. These scrying guys help a lot with the math. Anyways, I put the needed 5 progress on the last stage to be able to damage and kill the boss later. Night kicks in, more enemies added, but overall I have so many allies around, that blocking and killing is not really an issue. Day phase comes back. Gandalf leaves me because I don't need his extra threat anymore, and the last stage is cleared. Overall, this was a pretty solid victory; I felt I had control the whole time.

Final result: Victory

Turns: +90

Threat: +46

Dead Heroes: 0

Damaged Heroes: +3

Victory Display: -13

Total Score: 126

2nd attempt

This second and last attempt can be resumed in "total control". The MVP was the event Risk Some Light, easily. This card allows me to scry the first three cards from the encounter deck, move one to the bottom if I choose to, and return the cards to the encounter deck in the order I want. Usually it costs 3, but it's free under secrecy. I got the three copies in this run. One was in my opening hand, which meant "free" 1st turn.

The encounter card revealed on setup was the Rugged Country location, which honestly does nothing to worry about. After that, with the help of scrying (Risk Some Light, Firyal, Ithilien Lookouts and Celduin Travelers), every quest phase was free lol. I don't feel like going into much detail, since this 2nd attempt was pretty similar to the 1st one. Although it took me longer this time (in my 1st attempt I resolved the 2nd stage in one go; here it took me two Day phases to clear that same stage), I felt that this 2nd attempt was much easier. Scrying is just too good. Just to illustrate how powerful it is, an example: When the objective is flipped to Night Time at the end of the round, you have to reveal an encounter card. With the help of Risk Some Light, I chose the treachery Bitting Wind to be revealed. This treachery damages questing characters, but at the end of the round... it does literally nothing... and I did this twice.

Nothing much to add tbh... Near the end I got the side quest Lost in the Wilderness. It stole my whole hand, but by that point the quest was pretty much resolved anyways. I have to say that my opinion on this quest has 180'd and I consider it a really fun quest now.

Final result: Victory

Turns: +110

Threat: +44

Dead Heroes: 0

Damaged Heroes: 0

Victory Display: -3

Total Score: 151

---

Final words on my heroes and deck: Bifur is solid. Dúnhere is cool; it may sound weird, but it's the 1st time I try him (when I got the Core Set, I also got several APs so from the very beginning I've had plenty of heroes to pick from). Erkenbrand is meh. I hate his (lack of) traits, which aren't good at all imo for a defender. With Gondor trait you have Gondorian Shield. Hobbit trait -> You have Hobbit cloak, Fast Hitch. Dwarf, Silvan and Noldor are also better traits overall since they synergize better with other traits. Rohan offers so little... and Erkenbrand doesn't help at all with setups. His stats distribution is weird too.

Secrecy, scrying... I want these in all my decks lol. I've always been surprised by the lack of scrying capabilities in most of the decks published in Ringsdb. Firyal is awesome. And regarding secrecy: so many good cards with secrecy. Risk Some Light, Resourceful, Timely Aid... Just Resourceful on its own is enough reason to do the efforts for building secrecy decks. Overall, I think my next deck will be pretty similar to this one. I'll just change my heroes for Sam - Pippin - Merry (always wanted to try them), and keep most of the deck unchanged.

---

Last: Thanks to seastan for running this. The bidding part was super fun. My first attempt was to build an Elrond-Tactics Imrahil deck (for Vilya - Imrahil's ability - A Very Good Tale combo). After losing them, secrecy was the next target. I really wanted Celeborn, to gain more willpower and put Unlikely Friendhip in my deck along with Bifur... welp, I guess this is how things work out with bids around right? Quests were fun too. Looking forward for the next auction!

3 hours ago, Rajam said:

Scrying is just too good. Just to illustrate how powerful it is, an example: When the objective is flipped to Night Time at the end of the round, you have to reveal an encounter card. With the help of Out of the Wild, I chose the treachery Bitting Wind to be revealed. This treachery damages questing characters, but at the end of the round... it does literally nothing... and I did this twice.

This is a really nice tactic! Thanks for the write-up. One note though - I think the card you keep talking about is Risk Some Light, not Out of the Wild.

2 hours ago, Seastan said:

This is a really nice tactic! Thanks for the write-up. One note though - I think the card you keep talking about is Risk Some Light, not Out of the Wild.

It's definitely Risk Some Light, yep. Don't know why I confused them, I've never used Out of the Wild in any deck. Thanks for the correction, I'll fix my post

With finals over as of yesterday, I sat down to finally get down to business. Dwarves pulled it out against the Flight to the Ford - guess their stubby little legs can outrun the Nazgul after all (cause they certainly weren't riding horses).

I pushed it really hard, used Frodo's ability when needed to save my low health dwarven allies, and even washed away the Witch King. I ended up simply beating the quest by questing super hard - I had a timely "Untroubled by Darkness" which helped boost the willpower of the board state pretty high.

Onward we go later this weekend!

If you want to restart the auction (may be not now because this one is too recent) I will be happy to participate :).

I finally got around to using my mono-tactics deck against the "easy" quest, Flight to the Ford. I've published the deck (Dori/TaBoromir/TaTheoden) here:

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/5604/middle-earth-hero-auction-23-threat-1.0

I was a little worried about this one -- the deck has Dunedain Hunter and Wait No Longer, but this quest only has Nazgul enemies and they're pretty tough. Still, if mono-Tactics can't take down Nazgul, who can? I choose the Black Riders Frodo for my ringbearer, since that's the only cancellation option I can get.

Opening hand was 2x Winged Guardian, Support of the Eagles, Treebeard, Book of Eldacar, and Wait no Longer. I gladly keep this, because Support of the Eagles + Winged Guardian means Boromir can defend for 6 -- even Nazgul have a tough time getting through that. Plus I can't resist Treebeard, and in this quest (thanks to Frodo) I can put Treebeard in play on turn one, if I'm willing to delay the defensive setup.

Turn 1: (Threat 23, Life 15)

I drew the Eagles are Coming, played that and pulled in Gwaihir. I use everyone's resources and put Treebeard into play exhausted.

Facing three threat (Fell Rider + The Last Bridge), I send Boromir, Frodo and Theoden (7 wp). I plan to engage the Fell Rider rather than let him drain Frodo's life, so I want Dori + Boromir for defense -- it'll be another two turns before I get Guardian + Support in place.

The Enemy Upon Us is revealed and has no effect (no engaged enemies), so it surges into a copy of the Ettenmoors. 5 threat vs 7 wp gets stage 1 progress to 2/15). I travel to the Ettenmoors, which will cost me a life next turn but prevents shadow cards.

I engage the Fell Rider, and Boromir + Dori defend. No damage.

Turn 2: (Threat 25, Life 14)

I draw Envoy of Pelargir. Bilbo's resource comes in handy again, as I play the Envoy and put one of the resources back on Boromir, giving me 3 tactics resources still. This enables me to play the Winged Guardian.

I send Frodo, Boromir, Theoden, and Envoy (8 wp). Dori's being reserved so that Dori + Boromir + Treebeard can take out the Fell Rider (combined 9 attack).

I reveal another Fell Rider, for 3 total threat. 5 progress clears Ettenmoors (damaging Frodo) and gets quest progress to 4/15.

I travel to the Last Bridge, revealing the Burden "Weight of the Ring". This requires me to exhaust the ring or reveal an additional encounter card. I will exhaust the ring in every following turn, so Frodo's ability is completely nerfed.

I had a plan to get rid of a Fell Rider, and I'm not going to drop it just because another one shows up. I'll gamble with the Guardian instead. I engage the second Fell Rider, have the Guardian defend one, taking no damage and paying to keep him around with my last resource. Boromir defends against the other, without Dori's help he takes 2 damage (3/5 hp). Then Boromir + Dori + Treebeard take down a Fell Rider. We're down to one Fell Rider and the staging area is empty, plus a Winged Guardian in play and the ability to play Support of the Eagles next turn. Life is good.

Turn 3: (Threat 28, Life 12)

I draw Dunedain Hunter. Feeling cocky, I play Support of the Eagles and Dunedain Hunter -- with 6 defense I fear no ringwraiths. He whiffs.

I want to take the other Fell Rider down, so again I send Theoden, Boromir, Frodo, and Envoy for 8 wp.

I reveal Pale Blade and attach it to the Fell Rider. I laugh at 5 attack. It surges into another Ettenmoors. With 6 progress I clear the bridge and am now at 6/15. I travel to Ettenmoors, ensuring no nasty shadows will stand in the way of taking this one down.

Combat is now deterministic, Boromir defends for no damage and then Boromir/Dori/Treebeard dispatch another Fell Rider. Empty staging area, no engaged enemies.

Turn 4: (Threat 31, Life 11)

I draw another copy of Wait No Longer. But I'm not ready to use it just yet. Plus I'd like to get Gwaihir in play.

With no enemies in play, I send everyone but the Winged Guardian questing (12 wp).

I reveal Pale Blade -- no Nazgul. It surges into another Fell Rider. With 10 progress I clear Ettenmoors and am now at 13/15 progress.

I engage the Fell Rider, ready Boromir to defend, and take no damage.

Turn 5: (Threat 33, Life 9)

I draw the Eagles are coming, and play it -- it whiffs.

For questing, I play Wait No Longer -- if it hits, I only need 2 wp to clear the quest and then everybody else can work on the wraiths. It hits and finds another Fell Rider. I send Frodo and he places 2 progress since no cards are revealed. Stage 1 is cleared -- stage 2 comes out and out comes Ford of Brunien and the Witch-King.

I travel to the Ford of Brunien and reveal Piercing Cry -- I choose to bring back a Fell Rider from the discard, since I want enemies to stay in the deck for my other Wait No Longer. I place the Fell Rider engaged with me and engage the Witch King.

I now have three Fell Riders and the Witch King engaged. Nearly everybody is ready, but eliminating wraiths doesn't mean much with the Ford as the active location; I just need to survive.

Boromir defends against the Witch King, with Dori's help (8 defense) and takes no damage. Ordinarily Boromir can't defend against the Witch-King, but Theoden has raised his willpower to 2 instead of 1.

Boromir then readies and defends against Fell Rider #1, then Fell Rider #2, then Fell Rider #3, then Fell Rider #3 again (shadow effect). Aside from running threat up, there's no damage. Treebeard/Envoy/Theoden hit the Witch-King to damage him just because they can, but I'm counting on the Ford to clear him away.

Turn 6: (Threat 38, Life 8) -- four wraiths engaged.

I draw Support of the Eagles, but I play Gwaihir.

For the quest phase I play Wait No Longer, which finds a Ringwraith and has him engaged. There will be no reveal, and there will soon be no enemies, so I send everyone but the Winged Guardian for 14 wp. The Ford is cleared, discarding five ringwraiths and getting progress to 8/15.

Turn 7: (Threat 39, Life 7) -- no enemies, no active location, nothing in staging.

I draw my final copy of Wait No Longer -- but since pulling a wraith out will add 15 to the quest points needed, I choose not to use it here. I send everyone but Winged Guardian and Dori (in case a wraith comes out, Boromir + self-readying Treebeard + Dori can take it down) for 12 wp.

Rode Like a Gale is revealed, but has no effect and surges. Power in their Terror comes out, reducing the willpower of my allies and destroying my Winged Guardian and the Envoy (0 wp allies take 2 damage). That reduces my willpower to 9, but with no location and an empty staging area that's enough progress to finish stage two. Frodo is saved!

Took a run at Steward's Fear with my deck. There's two particular difficulties that I feared coming into it:

1) "Wait No Longer" isn't as powerful because enemies are few and it could whiff -- until the underworld deck is shuffled in, and then it's filled with obnoxious engagement effects.

2) Local Trouble on Boromir is devastating. At least the first copy goes on Theoden, and starting at 23 threat I have plenty of threat to spare. Or so I thought.

After a mulligan I ended up with a hand that includes one of my key cards (Gondorian Shield), but otherwise wasn't too exciting -- Envoy of Pelargir, Winged Guardian, Beechbone, Gwaihir, and two copies of Wait No Longer.

Turn 1: (23 threat, 0/4 stage one)

I draw another Winged Guardian, I play the envoy (net 1) and one Winged Guardian.

I send everyone but WG (8 wp), but City Street surges into False Lead and no progress is made.

Turn 2: (24 threat, 0/4 stage one)

I draw a Sterner Than Steel, which with Gondorian Shield could come in handy some time. I play Beechbone, coming into play exhausted.

Once again I send everyone who can help quest (8 wp), a Market Square comes out and I only place 3 progress on Fourth star.

Turn 3: (25 threat, 0/4 stage one)

I draw another copy of Sterner Than Steel. I could've sworn I shuffled.... I play my other Winged Guardian -- I'm not sure why I would do this with one already in play and resources needed for Gwaihir, but that's what my notes say.

I send everyone but the WG for 10 willpower. Knife in the Back is revealed, but luckily discards a Winged Guardian (0 damage). With 5 threat in staging, I easily clear Fourth Star, and draw a Eagles are coming. The Underworld card is a Lossornach Bandit, so wasting my resources on a duplicate Guardian isn't so bad after all. I travel to City Street and engage the bandit, defending with Boromir (26 threat), but no point in counterattacking against his 3 defense.

Turn 4: (27 threat, 1/4 stage one)

I draw another Eagles are Coming. I now have two of them, might as well play them -- copy one whiffs. copy two whiffs. I save my resources hoping to Gwaihir down.

With not much progress needed, I reserve Theoden for attack and send the rest (7 wp). Storehouse is revealed, that allows City Street to be cleared (2/4) and I travel to Market Square.

Winged Guardian defends, Boromir (threat 28) and Theoden eliminate the bandit.

Turn 5: (29 threat, 2/4 stage one)

I draw Grimbold and play Gwaihir, bringing the other WG back into play for the turn. With only storehouse in staging, I save Boromir and Gwaihir in case an enemy comes out and send the others for 8 wp. Lurking in the Shadows is revealed for no effect, so it surges into Houses of the Dead -- 2 progress is enough to clear Market Square (3/4 stage one). I travel to the 4-threat, 2-underworld Houses of the Dead, exhausting my characters with no combat needed. One winged Guardian back to hand.

Turn 6: (30 threat, 3/4 stage one)

I draw my last Winged Guardian and play Grimbold. Only storehouse is in staging, but I need 4 progress to progress, so Theoden, Dori, Envoy, Beechbone and Grimbold go for 10wp. False Lead is revealed, no progress.

Turn 7: (31 threat 3/4 stage one)

I draw a Gondorian Shield and play nothing. I send the same crew as last time for 10 wp.

Unwelcome Discovery is revealed, discards the prisoner, and surges. Unwelcome Discovery is revealed, adds a pickpocket to staging and surges. Local Trouble comes out and attaches itself to Theoden. Houses of the Dead is cleared (4/4), adding Lossarnoch Bandit and Zealous Traitor to staging. Stage 2 reveals the plot Unholy Alliance, two reveals per turn -- with a crippled Theoden and a near-useless hand, not what I was hoping for. Roots of Mindolluin becomes the active location.

I decide to engage the Zealous Traitor first to save the life of Grimbold, but he destroys my Winged Guardian and Envoy. The bandit takes my resources away.

Boromir defends against the pickpocket, Winged Guardian is discarded from hand.

Boromir (32 threat) defends against the bandit.

Boromir (33 threat) defends against the traitor.

Boromir (34 threat) attacks the bandit with Gwaihir and kills him.

Boromir (35 threat) attacks the pickpocket and kills him. Theoden readying in the refresh phase takes me to 36 threat.

Turn 8: (37 threat, 0/4 progress)

With Theoden in local trouble, I'm not feeling good about my situation. I draw Close Call, and bitterly regret adding it from sideboard instead of Secret Vigil, which would come in handy right about now.

I play Wait No Longer, hoping to reduce the damage from the double reveal. I find an Underworld Dissident, so it doesn't whiff.

I still think I need Theoden's willpower, so I send all three heroes (38 threat) along with Grimbold and Gwaihir, saving Beechbone -- since he's damaged he can use his ability to help kill things. That's 10 willpower.

Sewers is revealed, adding an underworld card to Roots. Roots is cleared (1/4), and the underworld cards are the Secret Map and Scrap of History. That really couldn't have gone better, I ready Boromir (39 threat) and claim the Secret Map, adding it to the victory display to progress to Stage 3. The Villain is Daughter of Beruthiel. I travel to the Sewers.

Three enemies and Boromir + Beechbone can't quite take care of the Daughter. If I use Beechbone's ability this turn, he can knock off the daughter next turn. It doesn't occur to me that I can discard Grimbold to keep Daughter engaged by preventing her attack (and incidentally keeping her out of staging). Boromir defends against the traitor (40 threat), the dissident (41 threat) and the daughter (42 threat), using a Sterner than Steel to cancel a +2 attack boost and taking one damage. Beechbone attacks the dissident and takes another damge to kill him with his ability. The daughter goes to staging and Theoden's readying turns threat to 44.

Turn 9: 44 threat, 0/15 progress stage 5.

Grimbold still doesn't occur to me, so I don't think I can kill the daughter without 50 threat. Well, if I must threat out, I'll take the daughter out first.

I draw Legolas -- great card, but not what I need right now. I play my Winged Guardian. Then in the quest phase, I play my Wait no Longer -- it reveals all sorts of nasty enemies I don't want to engage, but has a pickpocket so I pick him up.

I send Boromir, Grimbold, Boromir, and Gwaihir for 8 wp). Market Square is revealed, so no progress makes it to the main quest. (Actually, knowing it was the last turn I didn't bother clearing the sewers and travelling to Market Square.

Beruthiel engages me again. I defend with Winged Guardian (destroyed) and keep her engaged (threat 48).

I take traitor undefended and put 3 damage on Theoden.

I take pickpocket undefended and put 1 damage on Dori, Legolas discarded from hand.

Boromir readies (threat 49), Beechbone and Boromir (threat 49) attack the daughter and Beechone takes damage to give her 3 damage -- Daughter destroyed.

At the end of turn the threat is raised to 50 and I threat out.

If I'd remembered Grimbold's ability I could've been only at 46 threat with an empty staging area -- but with two reveals per turn and Theoden having Local Trouble, I don't like my odds of getting the 15 progress I need, especially with two enemies still outstanding and an encounter deck full of nasty engagement effects. The eagle I really needed in play on turn 8 was Landroval (not in my deck), as Theoden could've taken undefended damage until he died (losing local trouble), then come back to life ready to help Boromir/Beechbone finish off the Daughter.

My next crack at this quest will include Secret Vigil. Hopefully Support of the Eagles will decide to come out.

hey seastan this is a fantastic idea! do you maybe wanna do it again? I would love to join, if you do do it again that is.

Tried three more times against Steward's Fear, and none of them got as far as my first attempt. I'll spare you the complete play-by-play, but here's the place where things went from bad to worse:

Attempt #1 -- This went bad right at the beginning. My initial hand I didn't like, but my mulligan had great combat potential with a Winged Guardian, a Vassal of the Windlord, and a Support of the Eagles. No potential questers, though, so I was reliant on my 7-willpower starting hero combo.

In turn #1 that took a hit, as a City Street surged into a Houses of the Dead (empty to 6 threat in 2.5 seconds), so I placed only one progress on Fourth Star instead of clearing it. In turn 2 I didn't draw a quester, so I played my Eagle combo and sent the same 7 wp. Meanwhile, the deck revealed Unwelcome discovery (pickpocket), surging into Market Square, no progress and threat raised by 2.

I was doomed at that point, though I staved off location lock for a bit by playing Wait No Longer for two consecutive turns, then managed to actually place progress with Bofur's help (up to 10 willpower questing now). But out of Wait No Longer, the locations kept coming, and when on Turn 7 even a Gandalf play (14 willpower questing) raised my threat, I gave it up.

Attempt #2 -- This one I was feeling good about this one at the beginning of turn 4:

Threat 28, 2/4 progress on stage one, prisoner in the staging area, no enemies engaged, only storehouse in the staging area. Boromir has a Gondorian Shield *and* a Support of Eagles on him, with an Eagle of the Misty Mountain and an Honour Guard in play. I sent 10 willpower to the quest, which would clear my sewers if the encounter deck revealed 5 or less.

City Street came out (2 threat) surging into

Unwelcome Discovery, revealing Zealous Traitor (2 threat) surging into

Unwelcome Discovery, revealing Umbar Assassin (4 threat) surging into

Dunedain Dissident, (3 threat)

Whose stupid idea was it to make Unwelcome Discovery a surge card! I think Zealous Traitor or Umbar Assassin would be quite enough to reveal on their own. I take one threat and can't afford to optionally engage both the Traitor and the Assassin. Then a shadow returns the dissident to staging leaving 9 threat there before the reveal -- by turn 7 I had cleaned up the enemies and had progressed to stage 2 (Unholy Alliance!) but my threat had skyrocketed and a copy of Local Trouble had attached itself to Theoden. Game over.

Attempt #3 I took an opening hand that had 2x Support of Eagles despite having no actual Eagles in it, believing an Eagle would show up quickly and also thinking Treebeard could be a big asset. This was probably foolish, since with Treebeard's cost he can't help until stage 3, and given that the other five cards were not immediately useful at all (2x Support of Eagles, Secret Vigil, Book of Eldacar, Stern as Steel). Still, things weren't so bad at the beginning of turn 3 -- 4/5 progress on Fourth Star, 27 threat, Treebeard now ready, Grimbold and Envoy also out, so a potential for 12 willpower -- but since I still had no defensive help for Boromir, he was getting banged up, and I had two Market squares in staging (6 threat) and a Bandit still engaged. I ended up having to use Treebeard's action advantage for defense instead of helping Boromir kill things. I resorted to Feint and Book of Eldacar for feint -- with the result that when I finally drew an Eagle on turn 6 (Eagle of the Misty Mountains), I couldn't play it. I managed to clear the sewers that turn (Local Trouble on Theoden, yet again...), but clearing the sewers added a Bandit and Traitor. With three enemies and Boromir still only at 2 defense, I gambled on taking one of them undefended, and a shadow made it hero-killing. Even with Local Trouble I'd have to get rid of Dori instead of Theoden, but with Dori & Grimbold gone and no ability to play Eagles of Misty Mountains next turn, I scoop.

I'll give this quest one more shot before dropping to semi-easy. This deck has good initial questing, but it's not a deck that will ever generate the massive questing necessary to overcome location lock.

Some cards not in my deck or sideboard that I think could potentially help: Landroval (Local Trouble counter), Steward of Orthanc (non-unique 2-wp for 3 resources, with optional card draw -- came out after my deck was built). Delay the Enemy and a single copy of Keep Watch -- player side quests are beautiful against this quest because progress is otherwise wasted on the first two stages, and this deck can battle quest more easily than willpower quest.

12 hours ago, SauronTheGreat said:

hey seastan this is a fantastic idea! do you maybe wanna do it again? I would love to join, if you do do it again that is.

If he doesn't do it in the next week(s?) I probably would do it by myself :).

11 hours ago, dalestephenson said:

Great write-ups, keep them coming!

You seem to have some threat issues, which makes sense given that it's a Boromir deck that starts at 33. Did you consider Favor of the Valar at all when building? Wastes of Eriador might prove difficult here as well - lots of enemies and an extra treat every other turn. But thankfully no Local Trouble.

9 hours ago, Rouxxor said:

If he doesn't do it in the next week(s?) I probably would do it by myself :).

I have no plans to do it again anytime seem. I am too busy with other things at the moment. Feel free to run one yourself with my blessing.

I will say though, that while a couple people mentioned they would like me to start another one, I'm not sure everyone here is itching to do it again (still quite a few people haven't done write-ups) and for this kind of thing to work well you need a lot of active participants.

Because of the auction I start at 23 instead of 33. With 27 threat to burn I didn't consider Favor of the Valar and even relegated Secret Vigil to the sideboard.

The funny thing is that the last time I beat Steward's Fear, I did it with a Dori fellowship where Dori and Boromir were in a 33-threat deck -- and the questing heroes for both decks *combined* only amounted to 6 willpower, while this one starts at 7. However, the access to spirit and leadership gave Boromir readying options without raising threat, plus I had LoGlorfindel and Asfaloth to avoid location lock.

Wastes of Eraidor will be tough, but Dunedain Hunter and especially Wait No Longer will be better there. There's no less than seven enemies that either surge or have an obnoxious "when revealed" effect, and those are the enemies those two cards love the most.

23 hours ago, Seastan said:

I have no plans to do it again anytime seem. I am too busy with other things at the moment. Feel free to run one yourself with my blessing.

I will say though, that while a couple people mentioned they would like me to start another one, I'm not sure everyone here is itching to do it again (still quite a few people haven't done write-ups) and for this kind of thing to work well you need a lot of active participants.

Thanks. It is true that I need something like 20 players, approximately what you have this time, for having a real discussion around heroes choice. About the one who don't report don't hope too much: many will never post it. So I will not wait for that. When I will have a lot of time I will set up a new thread and see if I can find my 20 players. And because of those who don't play until the end, and since some may want to play stridder I think about putting like among 2.5 heroes per players. This will bring real pressure among the heroes choice.