LotR 36 - The Hills of Emyn Muil (1)

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New quest, new deck, same general strategy: draw cards as fast as possible, and scry as much as possible. Once the deck is running, should be able to draw five cards per turn. Since the quest is a fairly long one, with lots of locations, it makes sense to get as many cards in play as fast as possible.

For this quest, I decided to plan carefully. Our band of searchers needs to know the lay of the land, and what we might expect to find out there. We know there is a lot of rugged terrain, and that the Eye is watching the area carefully as well, but there isn't that much other activity than a few bands of roving orcs. With so few Orcs in the area, it's no wonder Gollum finds it a refuge.

(By "plan carefully" I mean "examine the encounter deck.")

Initial draw:

  1. Valiant Sacrifice
  2. Strider's Path
  3. Protector of Lorien
  4. Henamarth Riversong
  5. Celebrian's Stone
  6. Steward of Gondor

Not bad, I'll take it.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw Song of Wisdom and Strider's Path.
  2. Planning: play Henamarth, scry Treacherous Fog, no big deal.
  3. Quest: All, would be nice to pull cards from Beravor, but don't want to risk the Threat increase this would induce. Draw Treacherous Fog, Threat 28.
  4. Travel: Amon Hen.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 29.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 6, draw Secret Paths and Sneak Attack.
  2. Planning: Steward of Gondor on Theodred, scry Impassable Chasm. Celebrian's Stone on Bilbo.
  3. Quest: Theodred and Bilbo, draw Impassable Chasm, net 0 P.
  4. Travel: Amon Hen, Beravor draw Faramir and Infighting.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 30.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 8, draw Forest Snare and Steward of Gondor.
  2. Planning: Henamarth scries Eastern Crows, which is a Surge card. Protector of Lorien on Bilbo. Play Faramir.
  3. Quest: Bilbo for 3, draw Eastern Crows and Impassable Chasm, Threat increases to 32.
  4. Travel: Amon Hen. Beravor draws Haldir of Lorien and Sneak Attack.
  5. Encounter: Eastern Crows.
  6. Combat: Faramir defends, draw Shadow Dol Goldur Orcs, no effect on Faramir with defense 2. Theodred kills Eastern Crows.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33. Bummer.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 10, draw A Burning Brand and Gleowine.
  2. Planning: Henamarth scries Orc Horse Thieves. Play Haldir with A Burning Brand. Song of Wisdom on Theodred, who can pay for Gleowine.
  3. Quest: Beravor, Theodred, Bilbo, Faramir, Gleowine for 10, draw Orc Horse Thieves, Amon Hen is cleared.
  4. Travel: none, we'll leave Amon Lhaw in the Staging area for now as it cancels Attachments, which would be very inconvenient.
  5. Encounter: Orc Horse Thieves.
  6. Combat: Haldir defends against Orc Horse Thieves, Shadow draw Slick Footing for no effect.
  7. Refresh: Threat 34.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 6, draw Haldir and Steward of Gondor.
  2. Planning: Henamarth scries Impassable Chasm, which will gain Surge as there is no active location. Bummer. That will slow down the questing this phase, but I don't need much. Forest Snare on Orc Horse Thieves.
  3. Quest: Bilbo and Theodred, draw Impassable Chasm with Surge Slick Footing. This has no effect as I have no progress out on anything. After resolving that, I get 2 P on the quest.
  4. Travel: none. Beravor draw Henamarth Riversong and Radagast's Cunning. Gleowine draw Grim Resolve. Interesting.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Haldir and Faramir can put 1 D on Orc Horse Thieves.
  7. Refresh: Threat 35. Bad.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 9, draw Rivendell Minstrel and Infighting.
  2. Planning: Henamarth scries Impassable Chasm, which will surge, so we can't exhaust everyone. Play Rivendell Minstrel. put Song of Kings in hand.
  3. Quest: Theodred, Rivendell Minstral and Bilbo, draw Impassable Chasm which surges to The Highlands, weak. Net 3 P on quest.
  4. Travel: Amon Lhaw. Beravor draws Secret Paths and Valiant Sacrifice. Gleowine draws Longbeard Orc Slayer.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Haldir defends because Forest Snare Attachment is negated by Amon Lhaw, Shadow is The Highlands for no effect.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Round 7

  1. Resource: 12, draw Gandalf and Gandalf. (!)
  2. Planning: Henamarth scries The Outer Ridge. Play Sneak Attack Gandalf to reduce Threat to 31. Play Song of Kings on Beravor, play Longbeard Orc Slayer.
  3. Quest: Theodred, Bilbo, Rivendell Minstrel, Haldir for 9, clears Amon Lhaw, which is good because attachments now work again.
  4. Travel: The Outer Ridge. Beravor draws Daughter of Nimrodel and Dunedain Quest.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Orcs are snared, Gandalf and Faramir put 3 D on Orcs. hehe.
  7. Refresh: Threat 32.

I forgot to deal a Shadow card on the snared Orc. Need to remember to do that next turn.

Round 8

  1. Resource: 12, draw Gandalf and Infighting.
  2. Planning: Scry Dol Goldur Beastmaster, which has Threat 35, hence not an issue for this round. Also, I intend on playing Infighting on that bad boy. Will probably do that this turn, because why not?
  3. Quest: Theodred and Bilbo for 5 total, draw Dol Goldur Beastmaster. This clears The Outer Ridge.
  4. Travel: The Highlands. Beravor draws Sneak Attack and Silverlode Archer. Gleowine draws Haldir of Lorien.
  5. Encounter: We will engage Dol Goldur Beastmaster, and play Infighting to send that dude right to the discard pile with the 5 Damage from Orc Horse Thieves.
  6. Combat: We can put more damage on Orc Horse Thieves just in case we get more Infighting. Shadow card is The Highlands, good to get that out of the way. Longbeard, Haldir and Faramir put 3 D on Orc Horse Thieves.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

Looks like I might get through the whole deck.

Round 9

  1. Resource: 17, draw Forest Snare and Gleowine. Lots of good cards to discard once I need to do that.
  2. Planning: Scry Orc Horse Thieves. Play Gandalf, Threat 28.
  3. Quest: Theodred, Bilbo, draw Orc Horse Thieves, clear The Highlands for 13 VP. Threat 30.
  4. Travel: none. Beravor draws Faramir and Forest Snare, Gleowine draws Rivendell Minstrel.
  5. Encounter: We'll pull down the Orc Horse Thieves since we have Gandalf already in play.
  6. Combat: Haldir defends, Shadow is Enchanted Stream which has no effect due to A Burning Brand. No effect on Haldir. Gandalf, Longbeard and Faramir swing for 7 putting net 5 D on Orc Horse Thieves. They will go another round, dammit. I'll leave the next ones in Staging I think.
  7. Refresh: Threat 31.

Round 10

  1. Resource: 18, draw Protector of Lorien and Dunedain Quest.
  2. Planning: Gleowine draws Rivendell Minstrel. Play Silverlode Archer. Scry Rockslide. Dang. This would have killed Bilbo. So I just don't put anyone on the quest. Problem solved.
  3. Quest: none, draw Rockslide.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Haldir defends Orc Horse Thieves, Shadow is The North Stair, bummer, would have liked to travel there. Faramir and Longbeard send them home. Other Shadow is The East Wall of Rohan. That's 6 VP lost to Shadow effects.
  7. Refresh: Threat 32, Beravor draws Protector of Lorien and Longbeard Orc Slayer.

Round 11

  1. Resource: 20, draw Radagast's Cunning and Celebrian's Stone.
  2. Planning: Play Longbeard Orc Slayer and Daughter of Nimrodel. Orcs go out of play. Scry Evil Storm. Will have no effect. Won't lose any more Locations to the Shadow cards.
  3. Quest: none.
  4. Travel: none. Beravor draws Daughter of the Nimrodel and Gleowine, Gleowine draws Self Preservation.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Shadow card is Orc Horse Thieves, good, not a location.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

Round 12

  1. Resource: 18, draw Radagast's Cunning and Valiant Sacrifice.
  2. Planning: play Self Preservation and Protector of Lorien on Haldir. Scry Necromancer's Reach, so long to Henamarth.
  3. Quest: none.
  4. Travel: none. Beravor draws Silverlode Archer and Ever Vigilant, Gleowine draws Ever Vigilant.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 34.

Round 13

  1. Resource: 19, draw Daughter of the Nimrodel and Ever Vigilant.
  2. Planning: Play Henamarth Riversong with Protector of Lorien Attachement. Scry The North Stair. Play Rivendell Minstrel. Gleowine draws Secret Paths.
  3. Quest: Rivendell Minstrel x 2 and Bilbo, draw The North Stair and The Necromancer's Pass.
  4. Travel: The North Stair.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 35, Beravor draws Dunedain Quest and Strider's Path.

Round 14

  1. Resource: 19, draw Faramir, which is last card in the deck.
  2. Planning: Scry Necromancer's Pass, now have 2 of these with total 6 threat, and I don't want to discard anything yet. So I'll just quest around it. Play Daughter of the Nimrodel.
  3. Quest: I need 9 to clear The North Stair. Bilbo, Theodred, Rivendell Minstrell x 2, Daughter of Nimrodel x 2.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Time to play Gandalf maybe?

Round 15

  1. Resource: 22. No more cards.
  2. Planning: Daughter of Nimrodel, Silverlode Archer. Scry Shores of Nen Hithoel. A job for Strider's Path. Play Rivendell Minstrel.
  3. Quest: Need 6 + 2 to clear Necromancer's Pass and Hithoel. Rivendell Minstrel x 3, Bilbo for 9, draw The Shores of Nen Hithoel and play Strider's Path to get there immediately. This now resolves for 18 VP on quest locations and net 1 on stage. Hopefully we'll find another quest location soon.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Round 16

  1. Resource: 17.
  2. Planning: Scry Evil Storm, time for Gandalf to drop in. Sneak Attack Gandalf, Threat 32. Not sure what else he can do, but we need the threat down or will lose crap ton of allies, which will make it that much harder to quest and finish.
  3. Quest: Rivendell Minstrel x 2.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

Round 17

  1. Resource: 22.
  2. Planning: Scry The Outer Ridge.
  3. Quest: Rivendell Minstrel x 3, draw The Outer Ridge, play Strider's Path to get there right now, resolve for 20 VP and that's a win.

AAR

Score:

  • Rounds: 170
  • Threat: 33
  • Heroes: 0
  • Damage: 0
  • VP: -20

Total: 183.

The Encounter deck for Hill of Emyn Muil is very heavy on locations and treachery, and doesn't have that many enemies in it. The main bad boy is Cheiftain Ufthak, with a few Dol Goldur Orcs and Beastmasters tossed in. The Emyn Muil itself brings in Orc Horse Thieves, which have a lot of hit points, but aren't especially powerful.

The worst Treachery is probably Pursued by Shadow, given an "allies heavy" strategy. Driven by Shadow is pretty nasty as well.

The key to the deck is scry scry scry. Without Henamarth scrying early on, things could get ugly fast. Denethor might be a good substitute for Theodred, provided a good Leader Hero in Theodred's place.

I could probably have used about half this deck and succeeded, but with the amount of card draw, an extra 10-15 cards doesn't matter that much. On the other hand, I didn't draw Driven by Shadow or Pursued by Shadow, or Chieftain Ufthak. Had I drawn those and taken serious damage, the outcome could have been very different.

One major mistake in this play was leaving the snared Orc Horse Thieves in play too long. While it was pretty brilliant to use Infighting, it also sucked up some valuable locations dealt as Shadow cards, which likely drew the game out an extra 2-3 turns.

All in all, I'm a little surprised I knocked this thing out on my first play. I guess it means I'm getting the hang of it.

The Lore/Leadership deck for Emyn Muil

All Hands to Emyn Muil!

Main Deck

Hero (3)

Ally (26)

Attachment (22)

Event (22)

3 Heroes, 70 Cards. Cards up to The Hills of Emyn Muil.

Decklist All Hands to Emyn Muil!.

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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.