LotR 26 - Mirkwood 20 (Lore mono)

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Another attempt at Passage Through Mirkwood using a Lore mono deck this one from a single core set. I'd sort of like to win this one, then move on to Carrock and others in the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle.

If this Lore deck from a single core doesn't carry the day, I'll probably build a two set again, as I was playing on previous attempts.

Here's the initial draw:

  1. Secret Paths
  2. Radagast's Cunning
  3. Lore of Imladris
  4. Daughter of the Nimrodel
  5. Gleowine
  6. Lore of Imladris

I'll take it.

Time: 10:06

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw Erebor Hammersmith.
  2. Planning: play Gleowine, pay 2.
  3. Quest: Glorfindel, Beravor and Gleowine for 6 W. Draw Necromancer's Reach, damage to Gleowine, Beravor and Glorfindel. Play Radagast to neutralize Forest Spider Threat. Net 5 P on Flies and Spiders.
  4. Travel: Old Forest Road, ready Beravor.
  5. Encounter: Forest Spider.
  6. Combat: Denethor defends, Shadow is Chieftain Ufthak, no effect, and very glad to get rid of him from the Enounter deck. Beravor attacks, deals 1 D on Forest Spider.
  7. Refresh: Threat 31.

Time: 10:15

Round 2

  1. Resource: 3, draw Gandalf.
  2. Planning: none, save up to play Gandalf to reduce threat.
  3. Quest: Beravor and Glorfindel for 5 W. Draw Necromancer's Pass. Play Secret Paths to neutralize Threat. Net 5 P, clears Old Forest Road.
  4. Travel: Necromancer's Pass, randomly discard Gandalf and Daughter of the Nimrodel. Ouch.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Denethor defends against Forest Spider, Shadow is exhaust 1 character, which will be Gleowine. Note Had I used Gleowine in the Quest, Stage 1 would have been cleared, but it might have resulted in this attack being undefended. That probably would have been ok given I have Lore of Imladris, and put the attack on Glorfindel.
  7. Refresh: Threat 32.

Time: 10:24.

Round 3

This is not my fastest playthrough, and it's going to get slower as I do things like get the laundry done. But that's ok.

  1. Resource: 6, draw Dark Knowledge, usually a useless card, but since I don't have a Gandalf now, and I do have a fair number of Resources, I might just end up playing it.
  2. Planning: Erebor Hammersmith, pay 2 R.
  3. Quest: Glorfindel, Beravor and Denethor, just in case something burly comes out of the Encounter deck, draw Enchanted Stream, net 4 P, cleared Necromancer's Pass and Flies and Spiders. Exhaust Gleowine to draw Lorien's Wealth. Not that useful with Enchanted Stream coming up.
  4. Travel: Enchanted Stream.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Erebor defends, Shadow is none, 1 D to Erebor.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

Time: 10:34

Round 4

  1. Resource: 7, draw Secret Paths. Excellent.
  2. Planning: Attach Dark Knowledge to Denethor, pay 1.
  3. Quest: Beravor, Gleowine and Glorfindel, draw Dol Goldur Beastmaster. Net 4 P, clears Enchanted Stream and A Fork in the Road. Don't Leave the Path is next up, will choose Ungoliant's Spawn as the spider.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: . DGB doesn't come out until Threat 35. Ungoliant's Spawn comes out.
  6. Combat: Erebor defends, Shadow none, Erebor now 2 D. Denethor uses Dark Knowledge on Ungoliant Shadow card: Exhaust 1 character. This puts me in a bit of a bind, as Denethor was intending on defending, but he is the last card standing, so if he's exhausted the attack is undefended and I lose a hero for sure. I'll just do that.
  7. Refresh: Threat 34.

Time: 10:51

Round 5

  1. Resource: 7, draw Radagast's Cunning, this will nullify DGB, not that it matters.
  2. Planning: pay 2 for healing Glorfindel. Pay 1 from Glorfindel to get a hit point back for Erebor.
  3. Quest: Gleowine, try to reduce best as possible. Draw Black Forest Bats. Gleowine removed from Quest. Threat up to 37, now 4 enemies going to attack. Bad.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Black Forest Bats and Beastmaster come up. I can't win this now. Losing Gandalf so early in the game was a stupendous blow from which I wasn't able to recover.
  6. Combat: Glorfindel defends from Ungoliant's Spawn, Shadow +1, Glorfindel dead. Beravor defends against Dol Goldur Beastmaster, no Shadow, net 1 D. Erebor defends on Forest Spider, Shadow is Hummerhorns, 1 D to each character, Gleowine is dead, Forest Spider kills Erebor. Black Forest bats undefended, 1 D on Beravor, dead. Game over.

Time: 11:02

And I thought I was doing so well. I really needed some Gandalf and Forest Snares. I think it's probably pretty hard to win with mono Lore without having a couple of Forest Snares in play. As it turns out, Forest Snare was at the top of my draw deck.

Score:

Rounds: -50 Heroes: -30 VP: 0 Threat: -34

Total: -114

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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.