LotR 41 - The Dead Marshes (5)

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Usually after a win I move the next scenario, but I want to dig a little deeper into the winning deck to see how it plays in a longer game. My hunch is that if the deck doesn't win within 5-6 rounds, it's probably not going to win. Hard to say without playing through a few times.

Specifically, I'm interested in the deck behaviour without Steward of Gondor. I'm curious whether it will be possible to get enough allies in play to quest and pass escape attempts.

Decklist built and published on RingsDB.

Initial hand after 1 mulligan:

  1. Snowbourn Scout
  2. Dunedain Mark
  3. Faramir
  4. Song of Wisdom
  5. Campfire Tales
  6. Protector of Lorien

Initial encounter is Evil Storm, no effect.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw Erebor Hammersmith.
  2. Planning: Scry Impassable Bog.
  3. Quest: Theodred, Aragorn, draw Impassable Bog, net +2 P, ready Aragon for Escape test, draw Impassable Bog, fail test.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 29.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 6, draw Snowbourn Scout.
  2. Planning: play Faramir. Scry Impassable Bog.
  3. Quest: Aragorn, Theodred, draw Impasaable Bog, net +1 P. Escape commit Aragorn and Faramir, draw The Lights of the Dead, fail.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 30.

Now in danger of Hill Troll.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 5, draw Strider's Path.
  2. Planning: Scry Pursued by Shadow, I'll take it. Play Erebor Hammersmith.
  3. Quest: Aragorn, Theodred, Faramir, Erebor Hammersmith, draw Pursued by Shadow, Threat 31 b/c Denethor not questing. Net +5 P. Ready Aragorn for Escape commit, draw A Wisp of Sheen, fail.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 32.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 6, draw Strider's Path.
  2. Planning: Scry The Brown Lands. How to deal with this. Strider's Path can pull it directly into the active location without resolving the effect, which is to put 1 P on it, so I'll need 6 P to clear the first stage. Question is do I want to do that now or wait another round? Play Protector of Lorien on Aragorn. Play Snowbourn Scout, will net 1 more P.
  3. Quest: Aragorn, Theodred, Faramir, Snowbourn Scout, Erebor for 8 Will, play Strider's Path to pull in the Brown Lands, net +6 P which clears The Brown Lands and Stage 1. Ready Aragorn for Escape commit, draw The Lights of the Dead which is Escape 5. Dang. I can't do it. Another R on Gollum.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

I'm not getting the cards I need out of my deck. Fortunately, the Encounter deck is not completely beserk. Yet.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 7, draw Song of Kings. Not what I need right now.
  2. Planning: Scry Evil Storm, no problem, can let that pass.
  3. Quest: Faramir, Theodred, draw Evil Storm. Escape commit Aragorn, Erebor, draw Despair, no effect.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 34.

Could be in real trouble now.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 10, draw Valiant Sacrifice.
  2. Planning: Scry Wolf Rider, send to bottom of deck as it's a surge card. Play Snowbourn Scout.
  3. Quest: Aragorn, Theodred. No choice here, I have to take the Threat increase as there is no way I could pass Stage 2 and beat 4 tokens on Gollum. Draw Treacherous Fog, discard Campfire Tales to call this net even. Escape commit Aragorn, Erebor, Faramir and Snowbourn Scout x 2, draw Giant Marsh Worm, 7 beats 2.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 35.

With 3 Gandalf I need one right now to pull this out. I think going forward maybe swap out Campfire Tales for Galadhrim's Greeting.

Also, I need to remember that Faramir bumps Will for the phase. So if he isn't played during Quest, he can be played for Escape.

  1. Resource: 12, draw Dunedain Quest. I need more allies.
  2. Planning: Scry Fens and Mires, play Dunedain Quest on Aragorn.
  3. Quest: Theodred, Aragorn, draw Fens and Mires, net 0 P but Fens and Mires can be cleared with Strider's Path. Escape commit Aragorn Faramir, Erebor, Snowbourn Scouts, draw Giant Marsh Worm. Excellent.
  4. Travel: Impassable Bog, I hate to do this, but I need time to get more allies on the table. This is just going to get a whole lot more time than I want.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Round 7

  1. Resource: 13, draw Steward of Gondor. Interesting. I think I can win this one, but it might go pretty long.
  2. Planning: play Steward of Gondor on Denethor, Song of Wisdom on Theodred. I need some freaking card draw. Scry Wargs. Crap. Now the damage starts.
  3. Quest: Aragorn, Erebor and Theodred, draw Wargs, net 2 P. Escape commit Aragorn, draw Fens and Mires, pass.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Wargs.
  6. Combat: Snowbourn Scout defends, draw Shadow The Lights of the Dead which has Escape 5 but no Shadow effect so Wargs go back in the Staging area. Play Valiant Sacrifice, draw Valiant Sacrifice and Dunedain Quest. No Ally card. They must be at the bottom of the deck. This is crazy.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Round 8

  1. Resource: 16, draw Snowbourn Scout.
  2. Planning: Play Snowbourn Scout. Scry Evil Storm, to the bottom of the deck… if a troll comes up it's pretty much game over.
  3. Quest: Aragorn, Theodred and Erebor for 6 W, draw Hill Troll. Crap. I don't have any way of inflicting damage on that thing. Wargs are coming back out as well. Ready Aragorn for defense, Escape check autofail.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Hill Troll, Wargs.
  6. Combat: Aragorn defends for Hill Troll, no Shadow, takes 4 Damage. Snowbourn defends Wargs, Shadow none, kills Snowbourn Scout and back to Staging. Play Valiant Sacrifice, draw A Burning Brand and Faramir.
  7. Refresh: Threat 38.

Round 9

  1. Resource: 19, draw Celebrian's Stone.
  2. Planning: play Celebrian's Stone and Dunedain Mark on Aragorn. Scry The Brown Lands. Good thing I have one more Strider's Path.
  3. Quest: Aragorn for 7 with Protector of Lorien discard spare Faramir, draw The Brown Lands, play Strider's Path to move to The Brown Lands putting Impassable bog back into Staging, ready Aragorn. Net 3 P, clear Brown Lands, clear Stage 2, make a victory check right now by drawing 5 (1) escape cards. Escape commit is Aragorn, Theodred, Faramir, Erebor, Snowbourn Scout for 12, draw 11 Escape!

AAR

Managed to win it after all! A pox on those wargs and that Troll. We got the Gollum out of there.

Good thing, too, as I was going to concede if I failed this one. I guess it just goes to show there is more than one way to win, and it's important to take advantage of whatever opportunities the cards deliver, instead of basing a strategy on what one needs the cards to deliver.

Score:

  • Rounds: 80
  • Threat: 38
  • Heroes: 0
  • Damage: 4

Total: 122.

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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.