LotR 18 - Passage Through Mirkwood 12

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Another crack at Mirkwood using a pure Tactics deck. This deck is the same as yesterday's deck listed here, with the addition of the remaining Tactics cards "Rain of Arrows", "Stand Together" and "Thicket of Spears." These are known to be pretty lame cards, at least in mixed decks, but I may be able to work with them here.

Playing on Normal mode to reduce the effect of location lock.

Initial hand:

  1. Dwarven Axe
  2. Blade Mastery
  3. Blade Mastery
  4. Rain of Arrows
  5. Blade of Gondolin
  6. Quick Strike

I'm going to time this game to see how long it takes to complete. It's 9:41 am, let's rock and roll.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw Dwarven Axe.
  2. Planning: Sword of Gondolin on Legolas.
  3. Quest: All, draw Necromancer's Reach, 1D to everyone. Net 1P.
  4. Travel: Old Forest Road, ready Legolas.
  5. Encounter: Forest Spider comes out.
  6. Combat: undefended, Shadow none, +3 D to Gimli. Play Blade Mastery on Legolas for 5 hits on Forest Spider, killed, +3 P on Old Forest Road, cleared.
  7. Refresh: 30 Threat.

Note: Mistake here, Blade of Gondolin only adds +1 against Orcs. I could have used Rain of Arrows here though.

Time: 9:47, ET: 6:08 minutes.

Gimli needs a Citadel Plate.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 4, draw Dwarven Axe.
  2. Planning: nothing right now.
  3. Quest: Gimli and Thalin, draw King Spider, net +1 P.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: King Spider comes out. Legolas defends.
  6. Combat: play Quick Strike and Blade Mastery, Legolas kills King Spider for +3 P. Three more to go and Stage 1 is clear.
  7. Refresh: Threat 31.

Time: 9:54, ET: 13:26.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 5, draw Feint.
  2. Planning: Dwarven Axe to Legolas.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Thalin, draw Forest Spider.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Forest Spider.
  6. Combat: play Feint, Forest Spider may not attack. Play Rain of Arrows for 1D, deal 4 hits for +3 D, Forest Spider is toast and +3 P clears "Flies and Spiders" Stage 1.
  7. Refresh: 32.

Time: 10:00, ET: 19:45.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 5, draw Feint, excellent.
  2. Planning: Dwarven Axe on Gimli.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Thalin, draw Necromancer's Pass. I don't have two cards to discard for travel. Net 0 P.
  4. Travel: don't have the cards.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: 33.

Time: 10:03, ET: 22:33.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 6, draw Swift Strike.
  2. Planning. none.
  3. Quest: Gimli and Thalin, draw Necromancer's Pass again. Crap. Threat 36.
  4. Travel. I think I'll hold.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Time: 10:05, ET: 25:07.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 9, draw Quick Strike.
  2. Planning.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Thalin, draw Great Forest Web, looking like Location Lock imminent. Threat 42.
  4. Travel: Exhaust Legolas for Travel.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: 43.

Time: 10:08, ET: 27:32.

Round 7

  1. Resource: 12, draw Veteran Axehand.
  2. Planning: play Veteran Axehand.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Thalin, draw Forest Spider, Threat 47.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Forest Spider.
  6. Combat: play Feint and Quick Strike, Veteran Axehand and Legolas take out Forest Spider, + 3 P, clears Great Forest Web.
  7. Refresh: 48.

I need to draw Gandalf this next card, or game is over.

Time: 10:13, ET: 32:21.

Round 8

  1. Resource: 13, draw Thicket of Spears.

That's it, game is over as I have 48 Threat, 4 available, and 6 in the staging area. Even for 0 Threat Encounter I'm at 50 Threat.

Time: 10:17, ET: 36:13.

AAR

First, the Elapsed Time (ET) for this game of 36:13 represents only the sitting down and playing of the rounds from start to finish. There is a certain amount of time for building the deck, setting up the game, and getting this writeup started, the writeup finished, and the game logged.

Score:

  • Rounds: -80
  • Threat: -50
  • Heros: 0
  • Victory points: 0
  • Damage: -6
  • Resources: +13

Total: -123.

I think I'd like to actually win this scenario using Tactics before moving on. With detailed notes would be worth a small post on BGG forum I think.

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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.