City of Ulfast again ( to the tune of Paul McCartney's Someones Knocking at the Door, somebodies ringing the bell)

Place heroes and contract side A. Search one ring and add inner strength to my hand. Put one ring on elrohir.

Draws- foe hammer, open the armory, elven light, ancestral armour, gondorian shield, the galhadrims greeting. Adds inner strength.

Mulligan- for gondorian shield, foe hammer, golden belt, steed of imladris, unexpected courage, golden belt.

Set up: set up quest. Search and add streets of ulfast to the staging area. Then use setup action on one ring again to search for inner strength.

[There's been some debate about how one ring works and when to use its effect. In my game I did it as per the new rules where you do it after cards are drawn. Alonewolf87 did it during hero placement but didn't mulligan it. This time I've done it as pre new Ruling but reckon you can still use the set up on the ring, but in that case you could take out every master card in your deck. I see why they made the new ruling now. It's a bit of a mess because neither way is ideal.]

Anyhoo.

Turn 1

Draws Rohan warhorse.

Plays golden belt on elrohir and elladan. Rohan warhorse (discounted) on elladan. Gondorian shield (discount) on elrohir. Discarded foe hammer to gain a spirit resource. Plays unexpected courage on elrohir.

Quest all in. 10. Stage the kings elite. Total 5 threat. 2 progress on stage 1.

Travel to streets of ulfast. Raises threat to 30.

Kings elite engages. Ready elrohir with unexpected courage.

Combat- Elrohir defends for 4. Shadow is extra vigil- no effect. I damage on elrohir. Add 1 resource to stage 1

Refresh: threat 31. 1 resource on stage 1(total 2)

Not looking good!

Turn 2.

Draw dagger of westernesse.

Plays steed of imladris (discount) on arwen. Dagger of westernesse (discount) on elladan. Inner strength on elrohir for 1.

Quest arwen and elrohir for 5. Stages shadow of fear side quest. Surges servant of Mordor which engages me and raises my threat (SQ) to 32 so servant makes an attack. Take it undefended. Shadow is side street so no effect. 2 damage on elladan. Servant surges and draws messenger from Mordor into the staging area. When revealed - choose to raise threat by 2. Now 34. (Just enough for messenger to engage) however the servant doesn't make another attack at his forced effect is limited to once per phase). 5 quest vs 5 threat. Makes 0 progress.

Ready elrohir with unexpected courage.

Engagement- Messenger from Mordor engages. SQ raises my threat to 35 so servant attacks. Elrohir defends and readies. Shadow is ulfast sentry so no effect. (Presumably as my threat increased in the engagement phase the game state has changed and I should make engagement checks against my new value of 35?) So... city guard is now engaged.

4 attacks coming now... 9att, 4att ,5att and 2att. And an attack each round in the refresh.

Scooped on turn 2.

This type of play from the encounter deck is what I mostly experience. I never seem to get the lucky breaks.

Chin up self... there'll be another attempt tomorrow 😁

however for those wondering...

Combat phase

Deals 4 shadow

Elrohir defends the kings elite and readies. Add 1 resource to stage 1. Shadow is catacombs- no effect. 0 damage.

Servant of Mordor attacks undefended. Shadow is kings lawn- no effect (phew) 2 damage on arwen.

Elrohir defends messenger from Mordor. Shadow is patrolling the streets ( +1 att per resource on stage 1. In this case +3) ( I could use inner strength to cancel this but that would raise my threat and give servant of Mordor a free attack.) So I accept 7 att vs 5 def. 2 damage on elrohir. (Total 3).

City guard attacks undefended ( throwing arwen under the horse and cart). Shadow is ulfast sentry - no effect. Arwen is destroyed along with the steed.

Elladan. attacks servant of Mordor for 5 and defeats him. Exhaust Rohan warhorse to ready elladan

Elladan attacks and readies against the kings elite. For 4 att dealing 2 damage.

Elladan attacks messenger from Mordor for 4 att dealing 2 damage.

Refresh threat now 36. Contract flips to side b. Adds 1 resource to stage 1 (4 total).

Turn 3

Draws a test of will

State of play. City guard is threat 5 and engagement value 25. He is engaged with me along with kings elite att 5 and messenger from Mordor att 4. Active location has 5 quest points and no progress.

I'm questing for 4 using unexpected courage to ready.

City guard will kill both heroes during the next two turns.

Now scoop.

I am sad that even this attempt didn't ended up well. I will try to share any suggestions I can come up with.

23 minutes ago, asgardianphil said:

Draws- foe hammer, open the armory, elven light, ancestral armour, gondorian shield, the galhadrims greeting. Adds inner strength.

Mulligan- for gondorian shield, foe hammer, golden belt, steed of imladris, unexpected courage, golden belt.

One of the cards you really want to mulligan for is Elven-Light, the card draw it provides, letting you find faster the Restricted attachments is key. Also flipping the Contract at the latest on turn 2 is basically a must if you want a shot at winning this quest.

23 minutes ago, asgardianphil said:

Quest arwen and elrohir for 5. Stages shadow of fear side quest. Surges servant of Mordor which engages me and raises my threat (SQ) to 32 so servant makes an attack. Take it undefended. Shadow is side street so no effect. 2 damage on elladan. Servant surges and draws messenger from Mordor into the staging area. When revealed - choose to raise threat by 2. Now 34. (Just enough for messenger to engage) however the servant doesn't make another attack at his forced effect is limited to once per phase). 5 quest vs 5 threat. Makes 0 progress.

Ready elrohir with unexpected courage.

Little advice, you still have a Window action after sending everyone to the quest so you could have readied Elrohir before staging and took the Messenger attack (reading him again with his resource) to avoid raising the threat and getting engaged by the City Guard. Still a **** combat phase ahead but a little better.

23 minutes ago, asgardianphil said:

Set up: set up quest. Search and add streets of ulfast to the staging area. Then use setup action on one ring again to search for inner strength.

One of the possible good starting locations would be Crowded Market, low threat and useful effect. I realize you might want to keep it for later but it can give you an emergency escape when needed. Also Streets of Ulfast might start as lower threat but in this quest any threat increase has to be avoided.

Thanks for the advice mate.

I reply to your points and I have some questions about your game finally read it all.

Crowded market. I exclusively started with this location for about the first 20 or so games but travelling their always gave me a really bad enemy engaged with me. Often servant of Mordor or kings elite, the +20 was welcome but only ever bought a few spare turns. So I've been experimenting with other stating locations with kinder travel effects. Streets of ulfast is almost always going to be raise threat by 1. (Turn 1 or Servant of Mordor and kings elite could ruin that plan though).

Yeah, I missed the action window, readying Elrohir, its unexpected courage so why wouldn't you ready? 🤦‍♂️ and there's no action window during staging of surges just response and forced effect actions.

When I mulligan- it was to get more restricted cards in my hand. I thought there's no guarantee with elven light, and I had no weapon for foe hammer or silver Harp. My mulligan proved just as bad I think.

I really appreciate the advice and enjoyed your play through. Well done on the win by the way. I think this game hates me and will always throw the worst combos at me. I'm never so lucky. 🥺

On to the next attempt. I'll keep chipping away.

7 hours ago, asgardianphil said:

Crowded market. I exclusively started with this location for about the first 20 or so games but travelling their always gave me a really bad enemy engaged with me. Often servant of Mordor or kings elite, the +20 was welcome but only ever bought a few spare turns. So I've been experimenting with other stating locations with kinder travel effects. Streets of ulfast is almost always going to be raise threat by 1. (Turn 1 or Servant of Mordor and kings elite could ruin that plan though).

The risk with Streets of Ulfast (for this specific deck unless you get Elrond's Counsel) is that you will get to 30 threat and be forced to engage The King's Elite, which is (City Guard aside) the worst enemy of this deck since resource on the quest are the worst possible thing. Also you are not forced to travel to Crowded Market in the first turn (so you can avoid the risk of getting a bad enemy), you can leave it in the staging area for later.

7 hours ago, asgardianphil said:

When I mulligan- it was to get more restricted cards in my hand. I thought there's no guarantee with elven light, and I had no weapon for foe hammer or silver Harp. My mulligan proved just as bad I think.

Yeah both hands were mediocre to bad.

Yep, I never travelled to crowded market early every turn, but it did sit in the staging adding 2 threat and eventually when I needed to travel for the +20 the guaranteed enemy pull was never good. I thought at least with streets I should travel first turn and then it's out of the staging for a 1 threat increase.

So to keep things in flux, I've found a new deck to try, I'll get back to the Noldor deck if this attempt fails.

I've picked the Halls of Beorn Elfhelm three hunters mounted deck. Not sure why, just looked cool I guess and it claims to get 16 quest on Eowyn and huge defense and attack shenanigans with Grimbeorn.

Set up.

Put out contract forth the three hunters side A and heroes Elfhelm, Eowyn (spirit) and Grimbeorn the Old. Threat 30

Draws Steward of Gondor, Foe hammer, celebrians stone, open the armory, steward of gondor, gondorian shield.

Not going to mulligan this for the stewards, sheild combo and celebrains stone.

Set up quest and put crowded market in the staging area.

Turn 1

Draws silver Harp.

Plays celebrains stone (discount) on Eowyn. gondorian sheild (discount) on grimbeorn, open the armory (spirit resource) pulls round sheild and plays it on grimbeorn.

Quest eowyn and Elfhelm for 8 stages messenger from Mordor. He makes an immediate attack. Grimbeorn defends for 4. Shadow- ulfast sentry (no shadow). No damage. Spend 1 resource to respond grimbeorn attacks messenger and deals 3 damage. 5 threat vs 8 quest = 3 progress on stage 1.

No travel and no engagement

Refresh threat up to 31. Add 1 resource to stage one (total 1)

Turn 2

Draws armoured destrier.

Plays silver Harp on Eowyn (discount), armoured destrier on elfhelm (discount).

Quest eowyn and Elfhelm action: silver Harp +1 wp on eowyn. 9 quest points. Stages patrolling the streets- 1 resource on stage 1 (total 2). Choose option to prohibit progress. 7 threat vs 9 quest. No progress made.

No travel

Engages messenger from Mordor. Grimbeorn defends for 4. Shadow- crowded market (no shadow). No damage. Grimbeorn spends 1 resource to attack messenger. Destroys him.

Refresh threat now 32. Adds 1 resource to stage 1 (total 3). City guard now engagement 30.

Turn 3

Draws unexpected courage.

Saves the 1 resource on each hero for next turn.

Quest eowyn and Elfhelm and silver Harp +1 wp for 9. Stages guarded archway. 8 threat vs 9 qp = 1 progress on stage1 (total 4).

Travel to crowded market. Adds servant of sauron to staging area. (Its surge doesn't trigger as it wasn't revealed) but it engages me.

No other engagement (city guard now 50)

Combat. Grimbeorn defends for 4. Shadow- servant of sauron (no shadow). No damage. Grimbeorn spends a resource to attack it and destroys it.

Refresh threat up to 33. add 1 resource to stage 1 (total 4). CG 45

Turn 4

Draws a test of will.

Plays steward of gondor on grimbeorn. (Saving unexpected courage as I need a resource for a test of will. Some nasty treacheries in this deck. )

Exhaust steward to put 2 resources on grimbeorn. He's also gondor trait now too.

Quest eowyn and Elfhelm and silver Harp +1 wp on eowyn for 9 quest points. Stage shadow of fear side quest. Surges into guarded archway. 9 threat vs 9 quest points = 0 progress.

Refresh threat up to 34. Add 1 resource to stage 1(total 5). CG 35

Turn 5

Draws steward of gondor.

Plays unexpected courage on grimbeorn. Exhaust Steward of gondor to add 2 resources.

Is this the end?

Quest eowyn and Elfhelm and silver Harp +1 wp on eowyn for 9. Stages ulfast sentry. 12 threat vs 9 quest. Threat increases to 37.

Engagement. Ulfast sentry engages (raises threat to 38 SQ) and choose him to attack me. Grimbeorn defends for 5. Shadow- overwhelmed (raise threat by 2 or can't damage attacker. I choose the threat as CG will engage.) Save round shield for CG. 5 def vs 6 att = 1 damage. Spend 1 resource on grimbeorn to attack and destroy ulfast sentry.

Ready grimbeorn with UC.

Combat. Grimbeorn defends city guard. Def 5. Shadow- catacombs (no shadow). 9 att = 4 damage on grimbeorn. Killing him.

Scooped.

Hypothetically, If I'd have used round shield on the sentry...

No damage from the sentry. And 4 damage from city guard.

Refresh threat up to 39. Adds 1 resource to stage 1 (total 7)

Turn 6 alternate universe.

Draws elven light.

No restricted attachment so can't flip contract to access healing and extra quest power. This 50 card deck has 25 restricted attachments... what happened?

This is the deck I used

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/14898/alltheprettyhorses-1.0

Maybe it all comes down to the starting hand. If that's the case then I'm not sure I think that's a good design. Only to win on the best starting hand and a really lucky encounter draw. I don't think I'm a bad player (I'm certainly not the best) but this game should be achievable for mediocre players or good players with thematic decks. I've been playing through each quest once from the very first quest to this, only moving on when I get a flawless victory (ie no mistakes) and some quests have been beaten the first time but not many. Might surprise you to know it's taken me from January 2016 playing pretty much non stop. I've averaged about a month to 2 months per quest playing a few nights each week. I've only caught up to the latest release at the end of Wilds of Rhovanion and I'm behind again now. Sure I love the game. But it's **** frustrating. I don't like easy mode and find quite often it's no easier. Take this quest.. the side quests are ruthless and in easy mode they're not removed.

Anyway, rant over, any help is still welcome 😊

8 hours ago, asgardianphil said:

This 50 card deck has 25 restricted attachments... what happened?

You definitely had some bad luck with the draw here.

14 hours ago, asgardianphil said:

Yep, I never travelled to crowded market early every turn, but it did sit in the staging adding 2 threat and eventually when I needed to travel for the +20 the guaranteed enemy pull was never good. I thought at least with streets I should travel first turn and then it's out of the staging for a 1 threat increase.

So to keep things in flux, I've found a new deck to try, I'll get back to the Noldor deck if this attempt fails.

I've picked the Halls of Beorn Elfhelm three hunters mounted deck. Not sure why, just looked cool I guess and it claims to get 16 quest on Eowyn and huge defense and attack shenanigans with Grimbeorn

I think this is the problem. Your playing an extremely hard quest and picking a deck that 'looks cool.' It looks cool yes, but does it have lots of threat reduction? Is its starting threat low? Can one hero actually be able to defend city guard repeatedly? I think you do need to tech against this quest, and if you don't have huge amounts of threat reduction your gonna lose.

I have run threat reduction heavy decks against this quest but then have found another weakness cropping up

I ran a spirit frodo deck low starting threat) that would take the city guard damage and then reduce the threat.

I find the biggest problem for this quest is the resource mechanic of the city guard. The only way to stop it is to quest and clear the location.

So after so many decks where they are heavy in quest or threat reduction or combat or defense, no matter which too or three core mechanics I go for the resource mechanic is the undoing of it. Yet if I power through with high questing decks then the enemies coming out are too tough.

Yep this mounted deck looked cool, but the real reason I grabbed this one was the high will power it claims to achieve and the huge defense and attack grimbeorn could get to defend and take out enemies.

In my play though grimbeorn was kicking butt, however not getting out my last restricted item stalled my questing.

I've even tried chumping with imrahil decks and Lothiriel gondor decks. (I read alonewolfs threat in the strategy section)

It's just a matter of time before i do beat it. And while I'm frustrated I still love this game otherwise it would have gone on ebay long ago. At the moment I just feel putting one resource on the stage at the end of round would have been enough but all the other card effects that also adds resources makes the quest for me a difficulty 9 not a 6 as published.

I do have a a really good feel for this deck and will play it another time.

However, Mikegracey if you want to create me the deck you think would beat this quest then please do, and I'll play it here and post my results.

In fact I'm going to post every game I play here until I beat it (the poster who started the threat on win percentages take note 😁 )

Take care all.

31 minutes ago, asgardianphil said:

In my play though grimbeorn was kicking butt, however not getting out my last restricted item stalled my questing.

Yeah, that's why some Three Hunters Deck go for the One Ring road, just to be sure of having 1/6 restricted attachments from the get go. Their weakness against this quest is that they can't chump block.

33 minutes ago, asgardianphil said:

It's just a matter of time before i do beat it. And while I'm frustrated I still love this game otherwise it would have gone on ebay long ago. At the moment I just feel putting one resource on the stage at the end of round would have been enough but all the other card effects that also adds resources makes the quest for me a difficulty 9 not a 6 as published.

I do have a a really good feel for this deck and will play it another time.

However, Mikegracey if you want to create me the deck you think would beat this quest then please do, and I'll play it here and post my results.

I might put together a secrecy deck just to see how it fares against this quest, I will let you know.

New game

Set out eowyn (spirit), elfhelm, grimbeorn and forth the three hunters.

Draws, elven-light, captain of gondor, a test of will, strider, celebrains stone, steward of gondor.

Now this is a difficult decision because I only have 1 restricted item but I do have elven-light and steward and a test of will. All in all a good starting hand, but not a good three hunters starting hand. That said I'm keeping it and hope elven-light does it's thing.

Threat 30

Set up,- adds crowded market to staging

Turn 1

Draws foe hammer.

Plays celebrains stone (discount) on eowyn, plays strider on eowyn using grimbeorn resource.

Quest with eowyn and elfhelm and discards elven-light for 11 wp. Stages we've been seen! Choose to raise threat by 1 to 31. (Saving eowyns resource for elven-light) 3 threat vs 11qp = stage 1 explored. Reveal stage 2. Choose to reveal a card from encounter deck. Overwhelmed (doomed 1) threat goes up to 32 when revealed effect doesn't affect me.

Plays elven-light from discard pile. Draws round shield.

No travel

No engagement

Refresh threat up to 33. Adds one resource to stage 2( total 1) CG 40.

Turn 2

Draws open the armory

Plays round shield on grimbeorn. (Saving eowyns resource for elven-light and grimbeorn for his ability and elfhelms towards Steward. If no enemies or treachery comes up then I can spend those resources on elven-light and open the armory)

Quest as before and discards elven-light for 11 WP. Stages the kings elite. 7 threat vs 11 qp = 4 progress on stage 2. (Total 4).

No travel

Kings elite engages. Grimbeorn defends for 3. Shadow is kings lawn (no shadow) 2 damage on grimbeorn and 1 resource on stage 2 (total 2 CG 35) grimbeorn spends his resource to attack kings elite. 3 damage on kings elite.

Pay to play elven-light and draws open the armoury.

Refresh threat goes up to 34. Adds 1 resource on stage 2. (Total 3 CG 30)

Turn 3

Draws war axe

Plays steward of gondor on grimbeorn. Exhaust it to add 2 resources to him. Grimbeorn plays open the armory draws gondorian shield which he plays on himself for a discount. Pays for war axe on himself. (He has one resource left).

Quest eowyn, Elfhelm and discard elven-light for 11 wp. Stages ulchors agent. When revealed effect increases my threat by 3 to 37. (All enemies are already going to engage me so not worth using test of will. Think this is game over now. ) 9 threat vs 11 qp = 2 progress on stage 2 ( total 6).

Travel to crowded market. CG 50. Draws servant of sauron. He engages me.

Engagement. ulchors agent engages.

Grimbeorn defends kings elite for 5 shadow- catacombs (no shadow) he adds 1 resource to stage 2 (total 4) grimbeorn spends a resource to kill kings elite.

Servant of sauron makes an undefended attack. Shadow - patrolling the streets + 4 attack. Kills elfhelm.

Ulchors agent makes an undefended attack. Shadow is messenger from Mordor +1 att. Kills eowyn.

Grimbeorn sacks off ulfast and runs for the hills.

Scooped.

Next I'll try a chumping deck with threat reduction.

6 hours ago, asgardianphil said:

However, Mikegracey if you want to create me the deck you think would beat this quest then please do, and I'll play it here and post my results.

In fact I'm going to post every game I play here until I beat it (the poster who started the threat on win percentages take note 😁 )

Take care all.

If you look at my first post on this topic you will get a good idea of the deck I was using. I have never posted a deck before, I just don't. But my heros are listed and my strategy is pretty simple. Put down willpower with ethir swordsmen, silver circlet and pelagir shipwrights, lower threat with greetings, elronds council and damrod (with Lothiriel). The biggest issue is attack. Thats why I play knights of belfalas. I heard people say they synergize with Lothiriel but I dont know why you would toss away a 2 cost 2 att ally. Between 3 of them, gandalf ally and Glorifindel, enemies can be handled.

I don't own City of Ulfast, so I haven't tried it, but I had a friend use this deck to beat it...

https://www.ringsdb.com/decklist/view/14699/monotacticsdeck-1.0

After looking back at the encounter deck (ans seeing how 1/4 of the cards can raise you threat one way or another) perhaps a good card to put in some deck (besides some threat reduction) would be Free to Choose, so you can easily nullify the threat increase. I might make a deck around that, perhaps a Dale one with a fully stocked Guardian of Esgaroth as main defender.

@asgardianphil I actually had a couple of good games and wins with this slighty modified version of my old Gondor Erestor swarm deck (it's slighty not thematic due to the inclusion of Erestor, but for the rest it has a strong Gondor theme)

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/15225/gondor-erestorinulfast-1.0

Thanks for the continued support guys.

Some more info: I started this quest on 19th Feb just after I got the pack , it pretty much came straight after wrath and Ruin due to that pack being delayed for us in the UK. One of my first decks against this encounter was a Lothiriel deck as she was brand new and I loved her art and ability. I have a WhatsApp message dated 28th feb where I posted the deck I used to my mates. This was the deck

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/14693/herecomesthebride-1.0

Here comes the bride.

I loved the deck but found that I quickly ran out of allies in my hand and the turns where I failed to draw an ally was crippling.

As MikeGracey says, it needed to be a dedicated threat reducer and it wasnt.

I do like window shopping for premade decks to save me a bit of time, I do make my own decks but it takes me quite a while to refine. So quite often I'm playing someone elses deck. (Afterall that's why they post them 😁 )

I've also found a deck from Seanstan that i want to play as it claims to take down large enemies and he's fixed it so the dale synergy gets going quite quickly.

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/12498/daleforcewins-1.0

Dale force wins.

So I'm going to play bobbiemacbobfaces deck first followed by alonewolf87's gondor deck just posted, then seanstans dale force deck.

Hopefully I'll get a game in tonight

Thanks again for all you messages on here. I'm really enjoying the community spirit you're all showing me, a fellow ringer, in beating this quest. 👍

You'll definitely want to do a few deck changes to make my deck work... More chumps and stuff

New game.

I made a couple of changes to the deck but only from those cards recommended in the side deck options.

I changed the stick around Gandalf cards for regular gandalf as the threat increase is too much in a quest already ramping up threat.

I got rid of the side quests as I can never get the encounter card side quests done in the quest so I think side quests help the city guard countdown all the more. 2 born aloft (hopefully to use on Gandalf or descendents) and eagles of the misty mountains to use when the descendants are discarded.

Set out heroes- eowyn (tactics), theoden (tactics), and hirgon.

Draw cards- knight of mines tirith, born aloft, boromir, born aloft, the red arrow, grimbold.

Keeping this hand.

Set up: Threat 27 (eowyns discount) put crowded market in staging.

Turn 1

Draws legolas.

Plays red arrow on hirgon.

Quest: eowyn, theoden and hirgon for 12 wp. Stages guarded archway. 5 threat vs 12 qp. = 7 progress. Determined quested successfully so hirgon responds playing Grimbold (discounted). 5 progress on stage 1 clearing it.

Stage 2 revealed. Choose to reveal a card. The kings lawn.

Travels to kings lawn. Adds 1 resource to stage 2 (total 1 CG 40).

Refresh: threat goes up to 28. Adds 1 resource to stage 2 (total 2 CG 35)

Good first turn. I realise I shouldn't have played the red arrow, I missed its action was a valour action (doh!) And i could have got borromir or legolas out. Still, having the red arrow 1 wp and a 2 quest grimbold still helps.

Turn 2

Draws knight of mines tirith.

Quest: all in for 14 wp. Stages streets of ulfast. Threat 10 vs 14. = sucessfully quested so hirgon responds by discounting in borromir, then 4 progress on kings lawn.

This generally happens: when I play a tactics deck mostly locations show up and when I play the same quest switching to questing enemies show up. 😀

I'm in danger of being locked out.

No engagement or combat.

Refresh: increases threat to 29. Adds 1 resource to stage two (total 3 CG 30)

Turn 3

Draws eagles of misty mountains.

Quest: eowyn, theoden, Hirgon and grimbold for 14. Stages kings elite. Threat 15 vs 14 qp. unsuccessfully quested. No hirgon response. threat goes up to 30.

Engagement. Kings elite and city guard engage.

Discard grimbeorn to prevent kings elite attacking.

Borromir defends city guard for 1. Shadow (ulchors agent) +1 and raise threat if destroys a character. 10 att kills boromir. Threat goes up to 31.

Action: Ready eowyn threat increases to 34 and attack with 10 kings elite killing him.

Refresh: threat goes up to 35. Add 1 resource to stage two ( total 4. CG 25).

Turn 4

Draws legolas.

Plays knight of minas tirith. Leaving 1resource on each hero. (Playing eagles would not be the best play, even with his will power I'm only drawing even with the 14 threat in the staging which means hirgon cant do his thing and I'm facing a city guard attack every turn.

Quest all in bar knight for 12 wp. Stages catacombs... (really; another location!) 18 threat vs 12. Unsuccessfully quested. Threat goes up to 41. In valour.

City guard attacks. Knight of mines tirith defends for 1. Shadow (side street) no effect. Kills knight.

Refresh: threat goes up to 42. Add 1 resource to stage 2 ( total 5)

Turn 5

Draws Gandalf (a wizard is never late... nor early. . )

Plays legolas.... hehe only joking. Plays gandalf (leaves 1 resource on hirgon) which one guys, which response do I trigger? Cards or threat?... well I'm not clearing stage 2 anytime soon so reducing a high threat by 5 won't matter so I draw: defender of cair andros, the free peoples and oath of eorl.

Actually not sure Gandalf is going to help. As I need another defender for city guard. Threat is 20 in staging so I'm not questing well.

Quest: all in for 12. (Not Gandalf) draws patrolling the streets: adds 1 resource to stage 2 (total 6) choose option to prevent progress on quest. Now 22 threat vs 12 qp. Threat goes up to 52.

Game over.

Enjoyed the deck. With all these decks you get in a good first 2 turns and you think this is it; it's going well. Then the resources start to ramp up on whichever stage and it signals the end. I know I was brutally unlucky with the locations.

Turn 5 or 6 is generally all I'm getting to and never past stage 2.

Just realised I couldn't have used Gandalf to reduce threat anyway due to guarded archway. So looks like drawing three cards was the only option. Also if I'd have quested with Gandalf then I'd have taken city guard undefended. It was a Kobayashi Maru scenario situation . 😉

29 minutes ago, asgardianphil said:

I know I was brutally unlucky with the locations.

Yeah, 3 locations in 4 turns it's brutal

6 hours ago, asgardianphil said:

Enjoyed the deck. With all these decks you get in a good first 2 turns and you think this is it; it's going well. Then the resources start to ramp up on whichever stage and it signals the end. I know I was brutally unlucky with the locations.

Thank you for trying it! I'm sure there are cards from cycles I don't have yet that could make it even better tuned to this quest. Sounds like City of Ulfast is hard and fun. I'm looking forward to picking it up.

On 3/31/2020 at 9:59 AM, Alonewolf87 said:

I might make a deck around that, perhaps a Dale one with a fully stocked Guardian of Esgaroth as main defender.

Tried a couple of games with the Dale deck but it does not fire its engines fast enough for this quest. In the second game I had a fully stocked Guardian of Esgaroth with 8 defense and 7 hit points to tank the City Guard but then I lost in questing power since I didn't saw any Valiant Determination. Too bad, but it was fun.

In my experiences for now the most effective deck seems to be the Gondor-Erestor swarm one, consistently fast in the first couple of rounds (for now at least) and with good enough questing (when Visionary Leadership hits the board which usually is no later than turn 2) and attack power (and more than enough chump blockers for the City Guard).

Trying Bobby's deck again before moving on to the next deck but with some more changes. I've taken out

2 Vigilant defenders, 2 the free peoples, justice shall be done, 2 skin barks and 1 oath of work and put in 3 flight of the eagles, 2 eagles of the misty mountains, 3 meneldors,

Adding more quest, direct progress and boost for misty eagles.

Hirgon works with eagles whereas imrahil doesnt. (Was contemplating imrahil swap but that would change the deck too much).

Set up heroes

Draws grimbold, last stand, eagles of the misty mountains, arid, born aloft, marksmen of lorien.

Keeping this hand.

Setup add crowded market to staging.

Reduce threat by 3 to 27

Turn 1

Draws knight of mines tirith

Quest all in for 11 wp. Stages catacombs. Threat 7 vs 11 wp (successfully quested. Hirgon responds plays discounted eagles of the misty mountains. Then 4 progress on stage 1.

Travel to catacombs. (Discards kings lawn)

Refresh threat goes up to 28. Add 1 resource to stage 1 (total 1 CG 40)

Turn 2

Draws legolas.

Quest with eowyn, hirgon, theoden and eagles of... for 13 wp. Stages patrolling the city treachery. Resolves travel effect of catacombs. Discards we've been seen. Phew! Theat 4 vs 14 wp quested successfully so hirgon responds playing grimbold discounted. 10 progress made. Clears catacombs and stage 1. Reveals stage 2 and chooses to raise threat by 5 to 33.

Refresh. Threat goes up to 34 add 1 resource to stage 2 (total 2 CG 40)

Turn 3.

Draws meneldor.

Quest with eowyn, hirgon, theoden, eagles of... and grimbeorn for 15 wp. Stages under guard treachery as there is no active location I discard cards untill.. side street is discarded and added to staging. Threat 7 vs 15 wp quested successfully so hirgon responds playing discounted legolas. 8 progress on stage 2.

Travel to side street. Effect is to add catacombs to the staging area.

Refresh. Threat increases to 35. Add 1 resource to stage 2 (total 2 CG 35)

Turn 4.

Draws melendor again. (Looking great)

Plays arod on legolas. Plays melendor and adds 2 resources to catacombs. Play born aloft on melendor.

Quest eowyn, hirgon, theoden, eagles of..., grimbeorn and melendor for 17 wp. Stages streets of ulfast. Action window use born aloft to return melendor to my hand and put 2 progress on catacombs clearing it. Then eagles grabs melendor and puts it under face down. Reclaculate wp. Is now 15. Threat is 8 vs 15 wp = 7 progress. 3 on side street and 4 on stage 2 clearing it.

Stage 3 revealed. Choose the city guard attack option, can't raise threat again. Wasted arod now. Legolas defends for 1. Shadow (under guard) doesn't trigger as no active location. Legoland arod dies and

travels to streets of ulfast. Threat goes up to 36.

Refresh, threat goes up to 37. Adds 1 resource to stage 3. (Total 1 CG 40)

Turn 5 (never been this far before. But turn 5 is where it all goes wrong )

Draws melendor again again.

Quest with eowyn, hirgon, theoden, eagles and grimbeorn for 15 wp. Stages messenger from Mordor. When revealed option. I choose to raise threat to 39. Threat in staging 6 vs 15 wp quested successfully so hirgon plays discounted meneldor. ( 2 progress on active location) 9 progress made. Clears streets of ulfast and 6 progress on stage 3

No travel

Engagement. Messenger from Mordor engages.

Combat. Meneldor defends for 1. Shadow (cat and mouse) no shadow. Kills meneldor and he puts 2 progress on crowded market in staging clearing it. Eagles of misty mountains claims it as it goes out of play. (Two cards under eagles now.)

Refresh. Threat increases to 40. Add 1 resource to stage 3 (total 2 CG 35)

Turn 6

Draws eagles of misty mountains.

Quest with eowyn, hirgon, theoden and grimbeorn for 13 wp. Stages the kings elite. Threat 6 vs 13 wp. Quested successfully so hirgon responds playing knight of minas tirith discounted. 7 progress made on stage 3 (total 13).

Engagement. Kings elite engages and city guard is engaged.

Action: discards grimbeorn to cancel king elites attack.

Eagles of misty mountains defends messenger from Mordor for 4 def. Shadow (ulfast sentry) no shadow.

Minas trith knight defends against city guard.shadow (patrolling the streets) +2) 11 att kills knight.

Refresh increases threat to 41. Add 1 resource to stage 3 (total 3 CG 30).

Turn 7

Draws eagles of the misty mountains (this deck was definitely shuffled well)

Plays marksman of lorien (chooses kings elite for def reduction).

Quest eowyn, hirgon and theoden for 11 wp. Stages servant of sauron which engages me. Surges into we've been seen chooses to raise threat by 3 to 44. Servant of sauron is forced to attack . Take undefended. Shadow (catacombs) no shadow. 2 damage on eowyn.

Threat is 4 vs 11 wp. Quested successfully so hirgon responds playing meneldor discounted. 7 progress made clearing stage 3.

Reveal stage 4. Adds ulchors agent to staging (doesnt trigger when revealed). CG 45.

Engagement ulchors agent engages.

Deals shadow cards

Take servant of Mordor undefended. Shadow (streets of ulfast) return attacker to staging. But he then engages again.

Melendor defends kings elite for 1 def. Shadow (kings lawn) no shadow. Kills meneldor and eagles of misty mountains grabs it. Adds 1 resource to stage 4 (total 1 CG 40)

Marksman of lorien defends messenger from Mordor for 0. Shadow (kings elite) makes additional attack. Kills marksman. Plays last stand to put 3 damage on messenger.

Additional attack from messenger from Mordor Defended by eagles of misty mountains for def 5. Shadow ( crowded market) no shadow.

Ulchors agent attacks undefended. Shadow (extra vigil) no effect. 3 damage on theoden.

Refresh. Threat increases to 45. Add 1 resource to stage 4. (Total 2 CG 35)

Turn 8

Draws knight of minas tirith.

Going to scoop. Got to make 20 progress on stage 4 and 20 damage on a 4 def city guard immune to card effects. have 4 enemies engaged already. 1 ally out and 3 heroes with 2 heroes 1 hp from death. Only getting out 1 other ally per turn. card draw and resource gen is not currently enough.

Tough but inevitable end. I really had hope mid game. I saved eowyns attack ability for city guard but even if I had used it earlier on the kings elite it wouldnt have helped later in the long run against city guard.

Till the next time.

Next deck will be Gondor- Erestor in Ulfas.

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