Welcome & Introduction:

Welcome to my seventh Solo Player LOTR LCG Tournament. This week’s tournament rounds the bend toward home in a series of tournaments exploring the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. The idea behind this tournament is that for one week (Sunday – Saturday), everyone is invited to participate in playing a particular quest with particular deck building requirements in a Solo Player Tournament. You are then invited to record and post your final score, the heroes you used, and any additional narrative that you’d like to add.

Note: this is not a place to post results from the past. The tournament has a one-week lifespan, and only games played and recorded throughout this week are valid. As the week unfolds, I will keep this first post updated with the Top Ten results. (Each participant can occupy a maximum of one Top Ten spot at a time, so you’re welcome to try and best your own result throughout the week.) See also, The juicebox LOTR LCG Top Ten Hall of Fame.

Will you place in the Top Ten for the week? I hope you’ll participate and find out!

After the end of this week’s tournament, you are welcome to continue to post results to this thread if you continue to play this particular quest under these particular parameters. However, the Top Ten on this first post will not continue to be updated after the week is over, thus preserving (like a time capsule) the results from this week’s tournament. In the mean time, if you have ideas for a future tournament of the week, feel free to suggest them in the Ideas Thread.

And now… on to this week’s Solo Player Tournament!

Solo Player Tournament #7:

Quest: The Dead Marshes
Deck Parameters: 1-3 Core Sets + HfG, CotC, JtR, HoEM, & DM Adventure Packs
Number of Players: Solo Play – 1 Player/1 Deck

Top Ten:

1. muemakan ~ 25 (Éowyn, Frodo, Théodred)
2. Fatty ~ 27 (Éowyn, Frodo, Glóin)
3. leptokurt ~ 28 (Éowyn, Frodo, Glóin)
4. wraith428 ~ 30 (Théodred, Éowyn, Glorfindel)
5. Zjb12 ~ 31 (Éowyn, Frodo, Bilbo)
6. juicebox ~ 38 (Éowyn, Bilbo, Théodred)
7. plueschi ~ 40 (Éowyn, Prince Imrahil, Legolas)
8. Chac ~ 48 (Éowyn, Théodred, Aragorn)
9. galonso ~ 55 (Éowyn, Glóin, Beravor)
10.

Last Updated:

January 22, 2012 (12:02am) [FFG Time]

[This week’s tournament will run from January 15-21, 2012 and will officially close at the end of the week (midnight) as time-stamped by the FFG forum time clock.]

This time I am off to a good start:

Heroes: Eowyn, Imrahil & Legolas

Win on turn 2 (10)

Final threat 30

damage 0

victory points 0

score 40

plueschi said:

WOW! How'd you do that so quickly?

Wow, it only took me two games to beat my old record! I used the deck that I used against Emyn Muil and added Frodo.

Heroes: Théodred, Bilbo, Frodo

Heroes Threat: 27

Damage: 0

Rounds: 20

Victory Points: 0

Result: 47

A small recap of the game:

Setup: Evil Storm (discarded with no effect)

Round 1:

I had Sneak Attack in my starting hand, but Gandalf wasn't there. I thus decided to bringHenamarth Riversong into play and send all characters questing, including a sneaked in Escort from Edoras. The encounter deck reveald a Giant Marsh Worm. My WP was 9 vs 1 threat, so 8 progress tokens came on the quest card. Of course I lost the escape test, and 2 tokens were placed on Gollum. Escort from Edoras went back to my hand after the quest phase. Frodo got one extra resource via Théodred's response.

Round 2:

This time I played Escort from Edoras for real. Bilbo got attached Protector of Lórien. I sent Theódred, Frodo and the Escort questing. I got dealt Fens and Mires as encounter. 7 WP cs 3 threat meant that I could place 4 progres tokens on the quest card which completed stage 1B. I chose not to travel to Fens and Mires. Frodo goot another extra resource. My remaining combo had no problem to win the escape test.

Round 3:

I played Unexpected Courage on Bilbo. Then I sent Théodred and him questing and discarded 5 cards for PoL. Only Secret Paths remained in my hand. I had to encounter The Lights of the Dead. I decided not to commit any character for the escape test, so I had to rise my threat by one and add another token on Gollum.

After completing stage 2B I made the final escape test. I readied Bilbo and had thus a total WP of 9 against an escape value of 0. Game over, Gollum reday to be deliverage!

Zjb12 said:

If you look at my game and add the extra WP Plueschi got by using Èowyn and co, you should be able to figure it out.

Well I guess he remembered the boring Rhosgobel......

Win on turn 2 seems to be the key, then it will only depend on who gets the best encounters and can sneak more Gandalfs to lower the thread.....

And I am sure somebody will try to win on the first turn. But if that happens, I think he just didn´t shuffle his deck at all as you need 7 cards with your starting hand and first drawn card.

Maybe plueschi already tried it.....as he has Legolas as a Hero.

It´s a shame that, in order to win an escape test, you need to commit at least one character.......****.

leptokurt said:

Shouldn't the Escort have bounced to the discard pile from his own Forced before Sneak Attack could bring him back to hand?

I think dam is right. That's how I have always read escort from edoras too, and have never sneaked him unless desperate and really poor. He gets discarded after questing resolves, which might allow him to go back normally, but in DM, there is also the escape test that is part of the end of the quest phase, so I think he'd get discarded. But.... I could be wrong!

No, can´t return to your hand with sneak. You are right.

muemakan said:

Would that apply to any scenario do you think, or just DM?

Just double-checked Escort's card text. Isn't "after resolving the quest" and "at the end of the phase" the same thing? Both effects happen at the same time so I should be able to choose which effect to trigger. Or is it because "forced" effects overrule action effects?

plueschi said:

Can we get encounters? Did you kill somebody? How many escape tests did you make?

leptokurt said:

Forced effects happen before player actions.

muemakan said:

Thats what I thought, so that would mean it applies anytime sneak attacking escort from edoras during the quest phase.

Two more tries, better result:

Heroes: Éowyn, Frodo, Bilbo

Heroes Threat: 27

Damage: 0

Rounds: 10

Victory Points: 0

Result: 37

Setup: Eastern Crows, Giant Marsh Worm

Round 1:

Played PoL on Frodo, Riddermak's Pride as ally. Encounter was Evil Storm (which is wayyyyy better than Wargs). Everyone quested, I had 8 WP + 6 WP from PoL vs 2 threat and got to stage 2B. Of course I lost the escape test and Gollum got 2 markers.

Round 2:

Played nothing (drew Ride to Ruin and Éomund). Everyone but Èowyn quested (sounds somehow ridiculous), got Pursued by Shadows as encounter and raised my threat by 1. Discarded one card to use PoL and made 3 progress. Éowyn did the final escape test, using her action she had 5 WP. Got Heart of the Marshes and Brown Lands - 5 vs 1, victory!

Good job Leptokurt! I haven't even made a deck yet since my hobbits and I are playing khazad-dum again later today.

Zjb12 said:

Well KD isn't out in Germany yet. My RtM has just been sent by Amazon though, so I should be able to complete the tournament cycle.

I checked the new FAQ, Dam and Muemakan are both right. I had the example with Sneak/Beorn and sneak in mind, which has already been used in this tournament. Here is the passage why my play wasn't correct:

(1.09) Forced Responses
Forced responses resolve immediately when their
specified prerequisite occurs, and before any response
effects that also can be triggered off the same
prerequisite.
Example: Tower Gate (CORE 107) reads, "Forced:
After travelling to Tower Gate...." If a player wishes
to play a response such as Strength of Will (CORE 47)
after the players travel to Tower Gate, he must

muemakan said:

I wrote down every single action I did during that game as well as each card in hand etc.

But I prefer to only post these after the tournament is over (otherwise I won't stand a chance against most of you )

plueschi said:

No problem. I am just curious.

A typical sunday night. Watching football and playing Lotr.

So here´s my first entry for this week. Just finished 5 games with 3 won( 39 and 40) and 2 given up after failing to get enough willpower in turn one.

Heroes: Glorfindel, Eowyn and Frodo

Starting Hand: PoL, Gandalf, GG, Dwarven Tomb, Stand and Fight, Common Cause with Secret Paths as first card drawn.

Setup: Giant Marsh Worm ( that´s a nice one)

Turn 1:

Payed PoL on Glorfindel, send everyone questing.

Encounter 1: Pursuid by Shadow ( another nice one, yeah)

I discarded 4 cards to PoL ( kept GG and Gandalf )

13 Willpower against 13 threat and therefore stage 1 is done.

Escape Test its obviously lost and Gollum gets 2 tokens. ( card was Eastern Crows)

Turn 2:

Played Gandalf and my threat is down to 24 and sent Frodo and Glorfindel questing.

Encounter2: East Blight ( thank god this wasn´t the encounter last turn )

5 Willpower against 5 threat and stage 2 is done.

Final Escape test reveals a Giant Marsh Worm and Evil Storm…..so 2 against 8 from Gandalf and Eowyn. Gollum is mine!!!

Final threat is 24 and it took 1 round with 0 wounds.

Score: 34

muemakan said:

No worries mate, I totally understand your curiosity.

And it looks like my initial evaluation was wrong: I thought it would not be feasible to finish stage 1 in 1 turn, but Protector of Lorien proves me wrong

muemakan said:

Argh, I always forget it. I used 2 core sets and every Ap.

Heroes: Éowyn, Frodo, Glóin

Heroes Threat: 18

Damage: 0

Rounds: 10

Victory Points: 0

Result: 28

I will give a more detailed report once this tournament is over. It took me about 15 games to get here, in two of which I got thwarted by the encounter deck (in one I got Lights of the Dead in the final escape check - ouch!).

leptokurt said:

Did you get nightfall or two of the others that raise threat?