I've been meaning to write a post of substance on here for a while, and with the current cycle's focus on narrative, it seems a good time. I finally got Steward's Fea this week, and completed a few times. While it's a little location heavy, I do really like the way it tries, in my view quite successfully, to tell a story, and this has been a really exciting thing to see in what FFG is doing now. It also got me wondering what had been people's best narrative moments? For me, this game is at it's finest when it throws up, just by mechanics sometimes, wonderful little stories.

I had a game of Into Ithilien playing two handed with the decks from the Second Breakfast articles (slightly modified). I was cruising along on stage 3b, and decided to go for it questing wise, and quested with most of the Rohan deck, and a good chunk of the archery deck. Of course, I revealed the treachery that pumps up the threat by 1 for each questing character (Watcher in the Woods - terrible planning on my part - I got Test of Will next turn…), and shot up from mid-30s threat to mid-40s immediately! And went straight to stage 4b, now as a seige from my threat levels. It looked really bad, and I struggled for two more turns, with my threat creeping up and my allies dying, until in one turn I got to 4 points off completing the stage, and the Rohan deck threated out. The staging area was clear, so that next turn I drew the Black Arrow, on 49 threat, my two Defenders of Rammas quested, and I hung back with two Envoys of Pelargir. I revealed two Haradrim Elite into the staging area, who immediately attacked and cut down the Envoys, leaving me two points off winning, with 49 threat. Legolas put his hands upon his bow, and shot down one of the Haradrim units with his black arrow, and I just, just, made it. It was awesome Way more awesome than owning the scenario.

Has anyone else had these kind of great narrative moments?

certainly- this is where i get most of my enjoyment from the game…i almost have a narrative going along in my head like an rpg.

i cant think of any specific ones of the top of my head as there have been so many….i think the best ones are when a character ends up in a situation similar to the books and their theme and ability just makes it perfect. im thinking gandalf rushing in to sacrifice himself, or when gimli clears the staging areas of orcs- i can almost see him swining his axe

rich

monkeyrama said:

Just had one this past weekend!

For context, I haven't been able to actively play this game for 4-5 months now… wife and I bought a house, hit the busiest three month's of the year at work, moved the family, etc…. So I wasn't sure how to jump back into the game after getting so behind. (I haven't even played any of my 2nd Hobbit encounters, Heirs of Numenor, let alone The Stewards Fear yet… it's been that long). My cards were an unorganized mess after moving into the new house, and I just didn't know the best route for jumping back into the game… After spending a day or two pulling everything out af a couple boxes and reorganizing them, I found the recent challenge that Leptokurt posted ("Solo Mono Challenge 2: Grasping Experience")… I figured it would be both an easy way to jump back into the game (since I was at least a little familiar with the scenario) and also a challenge (because of the twist that he put in the challenge rules)…

I played 5 games against his challenge (3 Spirit hands and 2 Leadership hands)… for both spheres, I had one game each that had amazing endings (in that they were nail-biters that came down to "win or lose" rounds). My favorite was the 2nd Leadership game I had that ended with me at 49 threat and facing the possibility of threating out of the game unexpectedly… I had been holding "For Gondor" in my hand (+1 attack for all characters) and had the personnel to go directly at the Watcher, but had the treachery card that discarded 3 resources from each hero (Bitter Wind)… TWO TURNS IN A ROW!… so without any resources during combat, I was unable to play it in order to get the necessary attack strength to beat him, so I left him in the staging areas and absorbed his 3 damage for a few rounds (which left my heroes looking pretty hagard!)… and the 2 rounds previous to that I had drawn tentacles which prevented me from engaging the Watcher optionally, and had managed to kill off my valuable allies before I was able to use my heroes to dispatch them… So I was stuck just under the threshold of attack that I needed to get that slippery bastard! I had entered the round at only 39 threat, and was thinking I was still in good shape, as long as I could keep the 2 resources needed to play my For Gondor…. So I pretty much decided to go for broke and only quest with 2 willpower in an attempt to keep all my toons able to attack… The encounter deck drops out a Stagnant Creek with the following text:

"When Revealed: Discard the top card of the encounter deck. If the discarded card is a Tentacle enemy, add that card to the staging area and raise each player's threat by 5."

What was the discard? A Tentacle of course. So, BAM, there's 5 threat. Now I'm at 44 threat. And with the Creek's 3 threat adding to the Watcher's 4 threat, that's 7 threat to my 2 willpower. BAM. Another 5 threat gets thrown on at quest resolution. So I shoot from 39 (with a chance at winning) to 49 (and only ONE final chance to win) just like that!

BUT without a tentacle on the table, I was able to get the Watcher out of the staging area… so he engages… and I have one chump blocker to eat up his attack… assuming I don't get a nasty shadow card of some sort… the shadow card has no shadow effect!… I end up being able to pull 2 resources off my heroes to play For Gondor… boosting my heroes and remaining allies to get me +2 attack over what I needed to finish off the Watcher before I threated out during the refresh phase!

I honestly felt like I had just been standing next to Aragorn on the shore, hacking away at crazy tentacles and furiously hoping that Gandalf figured that **** door out SOON!

So particularly for these quests with the "signature bad guys" from LOTR (Watcher, Balrg, Smaug, etc)… I think it feels SATISFYINGLY true to the content when we're able to have those games that both make you sweat like bullets to the end, but also leave you a chance at winning (or escaping) against them! I know from a game perspective it looks impressive when we luck into such great cards that we run through whatever encounter in only a few rounds with minimal "score" (for those that keep it), or equally unconsequential when we have such a horrible opening round draw that we lose practically in the 1st or 2nd round and just kinda have a "meh… whatever" response… (and there's NO-ONE who plays this game that doesn't have those every so often… anyone who claims otherwise isn't being honest)…

So I totally agree with your feelings of having those great "narrative moments", even if you aren't necessarily creating a deck specifically based around it (for those that appreciate the lore approach like I know Rich does…). Sometimes the deck just provides you with that perfect feeling of difficulty, challenge, accomplishment, and success, especially when it plays right into the feel of the established lore for that scenario!!

benhanses said:

It seems you have made an error… The Stagnant Crrek says to add the tentacle card on the table. So you had to count it's threat and you had gone up 50, unless it was the Wrapped treachery, that could prevent the killing of the Watcher….

On the topic: There are severall moments that kept my breath away….

I remeber that when me and my brothers were trying to beat MaO in a 4 player game, we had several of those moments either by having a lot of enemies on the stagging and still being able to win or by having some bad decisions that made losing the quest a certain fate and in an unexpected twist we made it….

CJ… you would be correct, of course.

I will have to check my notes again when I get home, since I am at work and trying to remember the 5 games I played this weekend from the top of my head… lol

I do remember having Stagnant Creek drop out on me at least once during the five games… lol … and I remember going from 39 to 49 threat on (what turned out to be) the final turn of the game… it may be that I am mistakenly putting the two occurances together in my mind without being able to accurately recall the order of events. Like I said, will check my notes when I get home from work! Thanks.

Either way, I really enjoyed those games from a thematic perspective, as the challenge of attempting them with only cards from a single sphere (or neutral cards) really made it feel more like a true effort going against the Watcher! As I told Leptokurt in his thread, I really appreciated his putting together a fun challenge for the game. It's fun to know that there are enough dedicated fans on this board that put some time into adding some interesting twists and elements into this game for themselves and other players!

Just yesterday we played our first game of The Stewart's Fear, which ended in a loss. But it was a very close game.

(spoiler alert: I have to discuss cards from the new AP, so don't read on if you haven't played it yet)

The first quest card was challenging, as there were many locations to exlpore in our pursuit of the conspiracy. Every time we explored one it seemed we gained leads to 2 or 3 more locations that needed to be investigated. We dscovered what we thought were the conspirator's hideout in the Roots of Mindolluin, but it turned out to be a false lead. On our return to the city, we found it and the surrounding countryside going Up in Flames. We raced to follow what thin leads we had, and quickly uncovered the mastermind behind the plot: the Daughter of Beruthiel. We defeated her easily, but our victory was short-lived. As we looked around us, the city lay burned to ruins. We could do naught but hang our heads in utter defeat.

A lot depends on the narrative of the adventure. JdTA is a good example how to translate the narrative into game mechanics. I had so many exciting games playing that scenario, especially when you draw another Hill Troll during the last stage. The new Battle and Siege keywords are a great way to increase both the game experience and the roleplay aspect. I love Peril in Pelargir just because I can feel how my fellowshi is fighting its way to the docks, being constantly attacked, robbed and pursued.

leptokurt said:

JdTA was one of the few early quests that really hit the nail on the head for me. It was always good to play, nice challenge etc, and actually varied how it felt in each stage. Some quests have just changed the number of cards etc. with each stage, which is a bit underwhelming. I'm not looking for intense stories (it is a card game, after all) but Foundations of Stone, and in particular Peril in Pelargir are just fantastic at blending mechanics into narrative feel. The new quest keywords are the highlight.

I also lost one game of The Steward's Fear having cut down the big baddie. It was a nice moment (in a way) to defeat the guy (can't remember which enemy it was) and still lose because the plot was bigger than he was! It's a great quest, so far I really enjoy it. It'll take something to knock PiP off the perch at the top though, because it's just so well designed.