Isengard has been unleashed. Theoden King has led his people to Helm's Deep where he and his captains hope against hope to survive the storm. Here is my playthrough report of Helm's Deep.

https://theroadlotr.wordpress.com/2018/07/25/helms-deep-play...

Great read! I just beat Helm's Deep myself in my nightmare campaign so it was very interesting reading such a different approach and way to take on the scenario. Your potent counter attacks against foes and constant readying with Merry is very impressive!

Very cool write-up! I enjoyed reading it a lot! I was also pleased to see someone put Erkenbrand and The Day's Rising to such good use. Did you ever use Erkenbrand's ability on the nastier shadow effects? The Warrior of Dunland reveal really hurt in Round 9!

Now I wanna go back and redo the campaign again. I only very narrowly beat Helm's Deep in my run through. This was cool to read!

8 hours ago, PsychoRocka said:

Great read! I just beat Helm's Deep myself in my nightmare campaign so it was very interesting reading such a different approach and way to take on the scenario. Your potent counter attacks against foes and constant readying with Merry is very impressive!

Thanks very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've been following your nightmare progression, and am really looking forward to reading about how you dealt with Helm's Deep. How did you tackle this scenario that was so different?

3 hours ago, monkeyrama said:

Very cool write-up! I enjoyed reading it a lot! I was also pleased to see someone put Erkenbrand and The Day's Rising to such good use. Did you ever use Erkenbrand's ability on the nastier shadow effects? The Warrior of Dunland reveal really hurt in Round 9!

Now I wanna go back and redo the campaign again. I only very narrowly beat Helm's Deep in my run through. This was cool to read!

I'm not going to lie, after the first round when I made a conscious decision to risk the shadow that turn, I clean forgot about his ability. I suppose the effects of all his attachments crowded out his own in my mind. Again, I'm really pleased you liked the report, I hope your own playthrough is as fun as I've found this one.

18 hours ago, RedSpiderr said:

Thanks very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've been following your nightmare progression, and am really looking forward to reading about how you dealt with Helm's Deep. How did you tackle this scenario that was so different? 

More because I am stubborn and don't like to drastically change my decks than anything ?... I brought next to no location control or tech against the quest. This meant I was unable to strategically clear locations from staging or during other phases (I actually could have tried to do this with Legolas at times and wish I had perhaps done so or at least considered this option..) like you did to remove them from staging and to avoid their nasty when explored effects triggering at the worst time. Locations simply piled up for me and made threat in the staging area very high very quick.

You also use followed in a very effective manner to reduce the threat of enemies and the staging area in general and the powerful readying from Merry allowed you to destroy foes with ease pretty early on. You really keep threat low in staging throughout the whole game compared to what I am used to when playing this quest! This time round I am playing Nightmare so it is obviously a little harder than the normal version but even still the most you really needed to quest for at any point was 25 (this was the total highest threat in staging in your game I believe) whereas I was facing similar levels of threat in staging pretty early on and it got far worse from there. Really liked the way your decks work to keep threat in staging low even against a quest like this one with all the additional reveals and whatnot.

Honestly my strategy is fairly straight forward and I only beat the quest by the absolute skin of my teeth with 4 progress on Stage 4B. I do utilize player side quests to great effect however and also try to play the long game, more than willing to remove a counter from Defense of Helm's Deep due to Night Without End rather than revealing additional encounter cards for example. I also don't take Poisoned Counsels and start at Stage 2B which really ramps the difficulty up at the start but will make the rest of my campaign more manageable.

On 7/27/2018 at 11:53 AM, PsychoRocka said:

More because I am stubborn and don't like to drastically change my decks than anything ?... I brought next to no location control or tech against the quest. This meant I was unable to strategically clear locations from staging or during other phases (I actually could have tried to do this with Legolas at times and wish I had perhaps done so or at least considered this option..) like you did to remove them from staging and to avoid their nasty when explored effects triggering at the worst time. Locations simply piled up for me and made threat in the staging area very high very quick.

You also use followed in a very effective manner to reduce the threat of enemies and the staging area in general and the powerful readying from Merry allowed you to destroy foes with ease pretty early on. You really keep threat low in staging throughout the whole game compared to what I am used to when playing this quest! This time round I am playing Nightmare so it is obviously a little harder than the normal version but even still the most you really needed to quest for at any point was 25 (this was the total highest threat in staging in your game I believe) whereas I was facing similar levels of threat in staging pretty early on and it got far worse from there. Really liked the way your decks work to keep threat in staging low even against a quest like this one with all the additional reveals and whatnot.

Honestly my strategy is fairly straight forward and I only beat the quest by the absolute skin of my teeth with 4 progress on Stage 4B. I do utilize player side quests to great effect however and also try to play the long game, more than willing to remove a counter from Defense of Helm's Deep due to Night Without End rather than revealing additional encounter cards for example. I also don't take Poisoned Counsels and start at Stage 2B which really ramps the difficulty up at the start but will make the rest of my campaign more manageable.

In that case I am impressed you were able to muster the questin power needed to rival the encounter deck, that’s an approach I’d never properly considered and am looking forward to seeing it in action!

I’d thought about using side quests to counter the enemies’ efforts, but I didn’t find room in my decks for them. I did have a copy of two of Gather Information for the occasion where the stars might align and I could utilise it to find a card, but alas they did not. What side quests did you go for? Were you able to complete many of them or was it just a means to avoid the Defense keyword? I should think Keep Watch or Rally the West might come in handy, but having never played with either I must confess to not really knowing how well they operate in practise.

My decks have Gather Information and Send for Aid, I managed to clear gather info on my actual win but never saw send for aid. It was useful both to avoid Defense keyword snd the actual side quest effect, I quested unsuccessfully against it either once or twice and this led to threat gain instead of progress which was crazy helpful considering i was only 4 progress from defeat on stage 4. During one of my losses i tried to clear both side quests but failed utterly on the second and this really hurt, side quests are super helpful but you gotta be real careful or they can do more damage than good!

Funny you mention Keep Watch as I specifically discuss how that would be a great side quest for Helms Deep, Delaying the Enemy (if you can actually clear it) couldbe amazing as well potentially taking out two Hosts of Isengard in the process! Should have my article up in the next day or two!

Night has fallen over the Hornburg. Only hope of the dawn promises any chance of relief or survival. Here is my Saga campaign narrative for Helm's Deep.

https://theroadlotr.wordpress.com/helms-deep/