Lord of the Rings 12 - Mirkwood (8) with 3 sphere deck

Jun 4 2017

Setup

Encounter deck: easy.

Draw:

Stand and Fight
Stand and Fight
Steward of Gondor
Lore of Imladris
Gandalf
Snowbourn Scout

I don't think this is great, but it's not bad either. I'll go with it.

Round 1

Resource: 1 Leadership, 1 Lore, 1 Spirit, draw Test of Will.
No spend, need to save to get Steward of Gondor played.
Quest, Eowyn, Beravor commits for 6 Will, draw another Forest Spider, net 1 Progress.
Travel, Old Forest Road, ready Beravor.
Encounter, both spiders come out.
Combat: Beravor, no Shadow, 2 defense means 1 hit with Forest Spider +1 attack. no effect, Theodred Shadow discard 1 attachment, but I don't have any, no effect, excellent, but takes 2 hits. The spiders don't get any damage back, but we're doing ok so far I think.
Refresh, Threat 28.

Round 2

Resource: 2 Leadership, 2 Lore, 2 Spirit, draw Test of Will.
Planning: Play Steward of Gondor, recoup the 2 resources. Play Snowbourn place Progress on Old Forest Road.
Quest: Eowyn for 4. Since there is nothing in Staging, we'll leave Beravor open for card draw or defense. Draw Dol Goldur Orcs, Eowyn spends 1 to cancel with Test of Will. Excellent, except they're coming out to fight with Threat 10. Net 2 Progress, Old Forest Road is cleared.
Travel on Old Forest Road.
Encounter, Dol Goldur Orcs engage as well.
Combat, all defending: * Theodred: Shadow is +1, Theodred is eliminated. * Beravor: no effect. * Snowbourn: elmininated.
Refresh, Threat 29.

I think that's probably the game, 2 heros, no allies, 3 resources total right now, 3 enemies with no damage on the board. I'll take it another round to see what happens.

Round 3

Resource: 2 Spirit, 3 Lore, draw Hennamarth Riversong.
Planning: Play Gandalf, deals +4 damage to a spider (Mistake, spider has 1 defense, should be 3 damage). No resources left.
Quest, none, draw Ungoliant's Spawn, net -3 for Threat 31. Ungoliant doesn't come out this turn. (Mistake, forgot to advance threat last turn, should be 32.)
Travel: no locations available.
Encounter: all engaged.
Combat: * Gandalf takes undefended, needs some luck here…`shadow raises threat by 3, crap. Gandalf takes 4 hits, deals 3 damage to spider. * Beravor defends, Shadow no effect, no damage. * Eowyn attacks Dol Goldur Orcs for the kill.
Refresh, Threat 33.

Not going to make it. I don't have resources, or defense, Ungoliant will kill whichever hero it engages, and it has 9 hit points.

Round 4

Resource: 1 Spirit, 1 Lore, draw For Gondor!
Planning, play Stand and Fight to put Snowbourn back on the board.
Quest, no questing this round, Eowyn has to fight. Draw Necromancer's Pass, Threat to 39. Dang.
Travel: Necromancer's Pass, discard Henamarth Riversong and Lore of Imladris, probably the best 2 cards left in my hand.
Encounter: Ungoliant comes out.
Combat: * Ungoliant to Snowbourn, Shadow no effect, Snowbourn back to discard. * Eowyn defend on Forest Spider, Shadow, none, Eowyn takes 1 hit, Beravor finishes spider.
Refresh, Threat 40, dang.

I'm actually doing a little bit better than I thought, disregarding the errors so far have been in my favor. If I won this one (as if), I would definitely count it as a "polluted" win. Let's see how much further I can get.

Round 5

Resource: 1 Spirit, 2 Lore, draw Will of the West.
Planning: Stand and Fight for Snowbourn again.
Quest: Eowyn for 4 + 1 discard Will of the West for 5, draw Dol Goldur Orcs, 2 damage to Eowyn as she cannot play the cancellation from A Test of Will, she's out of the game, dead dead dead. Dammit. This was a calculated risk which didn't pan out.
Travel, already at Necromancer.
Encounter, Dol Goldur Orcs engage.
Combat: Snowbourn is toast, Beravor take 2 hits undefended, kills Dol Goldur Orcs. Ungoliant has no damage.
Refresh: Threat 41.

There is no way with 1 hero this scenario can be won, especially when that hero has 3/4 damage already.

I'm calling this game here.

AAR

Not sold on this deck. It certainly is weak when run-of-the-mill enemies appear. It has neither the questing nor the combat to make any progress. I may try another run with it, not sure.

What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

Have a solo game ready to play.
Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
Referee a game in progress.