LotR 14 - Mirkwood 10

Jun 5 2017

Setup

Encounter deck in easy mode.

Initial draw, 2 Gandalf, nope.

Mulligan:

The Galadhrin's Greetings
Will of the West
Forest Snare
Lore of Imladris
Gleowine
Erebor Hammersmith

Round 1

Resource: 1 each, draw Will of the West.
Planning: Beravor exhaust to draw Hasty Stroke and Steward of Gondor.
Quest: Eowyn 4 + 1 with second Will of the West discarded. Draw Great Forest Web, net 0 Progress.
Travel: Old Forest Road, ready Beravor.
Encounter: Forest Spider.
Combat: Beravor defends, Shadow is none, no Damage, Theodred attacks to deal 1 Damage to Forest Spider.
Refresh: Threat 28.

Round 2

Resource: 2 Lore, 2 Leadership, 2 Spirit, draw Stand and Fight.
Planning: Attach Steward of Gondor on Beravor, exhaust for 2 resources. Play Erebor Hammersmith for 2. Take a risk and exhaust Beravor to draw 2 more cards, Miner of the Iron Hills and Guard of the Citadel. Not great, but ok. The risk is losing Erebor, let's see what happens.
Quest: Eowyn + 1 discard Miner of Iron Hills for 5, draw DOl Goldur Orcs, 2 Damage to Eowyn. Net 1 Progress.
Travel: already on Old Forest Road.
Encounter: Dol Goldur Orcs come out.
Combat: Dol Goldur Orcs deal 2 Damage to Erebor. Forest Spider deal 1 Damage to Theodred.
Refresh: Threat 29.

Round 3

Resource: 4 Spirit, 1 Leadership, 5 Lore, draw Lore of Imladris.
Planning: Play Lore of Imladris on Eowyn, and on Erebor.
Quest: Eowyn for 4, draw King Spider, net 0 Progress.
Travel: on Old Forest Road.
Encounter: King Spider comes out. Now have 3 enemies.
Combat: all will defend, Dol Goldur Orcs 1 Damage on Erebor, King Spider Shadow removes Steward of Gondor from Beravor, which is a game-losing so Eowyn plays Hasty Stroke to cancel it, Beravor takes 1 Damage. Theodred takes another damage for 2 total.
Refresh: Threat 30.

Round 4

Too many enemies out. Time to deploy Forest Snare.

Resource: 3 Spirit, 2 Leadership, 4 Lore, draw Miner of the Iron Hills.
Planning: Play Guard of the Citadel. Stand and Fight for Miner of the Iron Hills. Play Forest Snare on King Spider.
Quest: Eowyn, Theodred 5 Will, draw Black Forest Bats, Theodred loses Quest will, net 1 Progress.
Travel: Still at Old Forest Road.
Encounter: Black Forest Bats come out.
Combat: Dol Goldur on Miner of Iron Hiills, Shadow deals extra hit, Miner is dead. Fuck. Balck Forest Bats no effect on Erebor. Guard of Citadel deals 1 Damafe to Dol Goldur Orcs. Forest Spider does no damage to Beravor. If I could clean out some of these enemies, I could quest pretty well at this point.
Refresh: Threat 31.

I'll get the Round 5 no problem. So many enemies with no way to handle them, and not making any progress on Quest.

Round 5

Resource: 2 Spirit, 2 Leadership, 4 Lore, draw Gleowine.
Planning: Play both Gleowine and draw 2 cards Gandalf and Northern Tracker. Not that useful. Need attachment power here. Can't play Gandalf this turn, not enough Resource.
Quest: Eowyn for 4, draw East Bight Patrol. Ok, that's probably the game, very hard to get around these fuckers as they hit for 3. Threat goes +1.
Travel: still at Old Forest Road.
Encounter: East Bight Patrol comes out.
Combat: East Bight Patrol Shadow to exhaust 1 character, but all are already exhausted in defending. Dol Goldur Orcs Shadow raises Threat by 4 to 35, Erebor takes another Damage. Forest Spider no effect on Beravor. Black Forest Bats on Theodred Shadow remove attachment, Steward of Gondor to discard, no Damage on Theodred. The hole is now too deep.
Refresh: Threat 36.

Round 6

I'm not quite par for the last game, as at this point I had ~6 Progress on the Stage 1. At the moment, I have no progress on Stage 1, and 5 enemies engaged, with no way to really kill any of them. I just keep getting attritted away as more enemies appear.

Resource: 4 Spirit, 3 Leadership, 1 Lore, draw Steward of Gondor(!).
Planning: Play Steward of Gondor on Beravor, exhaust for 2 resource. Exhaust Gleowine for 2 draw Lore of Imladris and Snowbourn Scout. Play Snowbourn, clear Old Forest Road. Play Gandalf to get rid of Forest Spider. If I can get 1 more enemy removed this turn…
Quest: Eowyn for 4, draw Necromancer's Pass, net +1 Threat for 37.
Travel. Can't afford the hit, will risk the Threat.
Encounter, nothing.
Combat: East Bight Patrol kills Snowbourn. Black Forest Bats no effect on Erebor. Dol Goldur on Beravor. Shadow is discard attachment, Steward of Gondor again. Dammit. Beravor takes no Damage. Gandalf handles Dol Goldur Orcs.
Refresh: Threat 38.

Round 7

Resource: 2 Spirit, 1 Leadership, 1 Lore, draw Test of Will.
PLanning: spending nothing this turn.
Quest: Eowyn and both Gleowin for 6, draw Forest Spider net 1 Threat for 39. Fuck.
Travel: Can't afford the discards this turn.
Encounter: Forest Spider engages.
Combat: Once again, 3 enemies, 3 defenders, can't get ahead. East Bight Shadow exhaust 1 character, but all already exhausted for defending, irrelevant, but Erebor is dead, so we're right back in the hole. Forest Spider on Beravor, no Shadow, no effect. Black Forest Bats on Theodred, no Shadow no effect.
Refresh: Threat 40.

I'm going to get at least 1 further round than last game, but I'm still super far behind on Progress, and my threat is already even, and I'm resource constrained.

Round 8

Resource: 3 Spirit, 2 Leadership, 2 Lore, draw Erebor Hammersmith. I can work with this.
Planning: Play Erebor, risk Theodred one more turn, otherwise Eowyn has to fight, and we'd be near 50 Threat in no time. Actually, playing Galadhrim's Greetings to reduce to 34 Threat.
Quest: Eowyn, both Gleowines for 6, draw Ungoliant's Spawn. And that's the game. I may get a round or two more, but there is no way I can survive that. Threat back to 36.
Travel: Will have to travel. Discard Will of the West and Northern Tracker for Necromancer's Pass.
Encounter: Ungoliant Spawn.
Combat: Ungoliant Spawn on Erebor, Shadow is discard Attachment, so the other Forest Spider loses Forest Snare, now we have 5 enemies engaged. Beravor takes 1 Damage from East Bight Patrol. Theodred takes 2 hits for 4 Damage total, he's dead. Black Forest Bats fo 1 Damage to Eowyn, King Spider does 3 Damage, Eowyn is dead. This leaves Beravor facing 5 enemies none of which have any damage.

I think this deck kind of sucks. It's certainly not an easy deck, given how I smashed the scenario with both Leadership and Spirit monodecks.

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.