LotR 61 - Return to Mirkwood (4)

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After another several month hiatus, trying Return to Mirkwood again, and again with Beorn's Path 9 Return to Mirkwood deck.

I am not getting to play nearly as much as I would like, career commitments are trumping all game-related activity.

Here's the initial hand:

  1. Escort from Edoras
  2. Eagles of the Misty Mountains
  3. The Eagles are Coming!
  4. Eagles of the Misty Mountains
  5. Gondorian Spearman
  6. Gandalf

Kind of a weird hand, but I'm going to keep it.

The Encounter deck served up Despair, no effect.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw Quick Strike.
  2. Planning: none, save the resources
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Gollum's Bite, deal 4 D to Gimli. Ouch. Net +5 Progress on Through the Forest.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

Round 2

  1. Resources: 6, draw West Road Traveler.
  2. Planning: play Gondorian Spearman.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Woodman's Glade, net +3 Progress.
  4. Travel: Woodman's Glade, exhaust Gimli.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Need to play Gandalf next turn for Threat reduction and questing.

Round 3

  1. Resources: 7, draw Stand and Fight.
  2. Planning: play Gandalf, reduce to 32 Threat.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, Gandalf, draw Mirkwood Bats which are dealt with by Thalin right away. Net 9, Through the Forest is clear, start into Escape Attempt.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 5, draw Eagles of the Misty Mountains.
  2. Planning: none, save resources.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Gollum's Anguish, raise to 40 Threat. Net +5 Progress, clear Escape Attempt, start To the Elvin King's Halls. This sucks, I can't play cards from my hand, so unless I get very, very lucky, this would be the game.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 44.

I think this is the game, I need to get a couple of questing characters out before getting to Stage 3.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 8, draw Hasty Stroke.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Marsh Adder, Thalin puts 1 D on it. Net +2 on quest.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Marsh Adder.
  6. Combat: Gondorian Spearman defends which puts another D on Marsh Adder, Shadow card Mountains of Mirkwood, no effect, Gondorian Spearman dies. Gimli swings for 6, kills Marsh Adder.
  7. Refresh: Threat 48.

I'm going to pull the next card anyway, just to see what happens.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 11, draw Song of Travel.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Spider's Ring, net +2 Progress, this is just not going to happen, bummer.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Threat: 52.

And that's a wrap. This is a really hard quest to beat single handed. I think it needs to be mulliganed for Galadhrim's Greetings or something.

But I think I did pretty well all in all.

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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.