LotR 69 - Return to Mirkwood (12)

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Trying the new deck for a second time: The Eagles Are Leaving!. This deck is similar to Beorn's deck, sans eagles, and not limited to single core card counts.

Initial hand:

  1. Quick Strike
  2. Northern Tracker
  3. Unexpected Courage
  4. Gandalf
  5. Stand and Fight
  6. A Test of Will

Sure why not.

Initial Encounter: Great Forest Web.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw The Galadhrim's Greetings.
  2. Planning: none, save resources.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Attercop Attercop. Game over.

Reset with new shuffle of Encounter deck. We'll keep the same hand for now.

Initial encounter: Gollum's Anguish.

Hrmph. That puts this game in the toilet as well. We'll try it anyway.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw The Galadhrim's Greetings.
  2. Planning: none, save resources.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Woodman's Glade. Threat 37, but net +5 Progress on quest.
  4. Travel: Woodman's Glade, exhaust Gimli.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 41.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 6, draw Song of Travel.
  2. Planning: play Song of Travel on Thalin, play The Galadhrim's Greetings, Threat 35.
  3. Quest: Thalin, Eowyn, draw Wood Elf Path. Woodman's Glade cleared, add two more on quest for 7, discard Northern Tracker for 8.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 39.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 5, draw Gondorian Spearman.
  2. Planning: Unexpected Courage on Gimli.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Wolf Rider surge Great Forest Web. discard Gondorian Spearman for net +2 on quest.
  4. Travel: Great Forest Web, exhaust Gimli.
  5. Encounter: Wolf Rider.
  6. Combat: Undefended, Shadow Wargs, +2 damage for 4 damage on Gollum. Gimli refreshes and kills.
  7. Refresh: Threat 43.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 6, draw Dwarven Tomb.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Thalin, Eowyn, draw The Brown Lands, Threat 44.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 48.

Probably should have quested Gimli here.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 9, draw Escort from Edoras.
  2. Planning: this is where I now need the Northern Tracker! Play Gandalf. Threat 43.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, Gimli, Escort from Edoras, draw Goblin Sniper. Will is 11, 8 in staging, 2 for Great Forest Web, +1 net on quest.
  4. Travel: The Brown Lands.
  5. Encounter: Goblin Sniper.
  6. Combat: Gimli defends, draw Despair, Gimli gets no defense.
  7. Refresh: Threat 47.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 7, draw Escort from Edoras.
  2. Planning: play Dwarven Tomb, play The Galadhrim's Greetings. Threat 41.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw The Brown Lands! Threat 42.
  4. Travel: The Brown Lands.
  5. Encounter: Goblin Sniper engaged.
  6. Combat: Gimli defends, Shadow The Spider's Ring, no effect on defended attack. Gimli attacks to kill Goblin Sniper.
  7. Refresh: Threat 45.

Round 7

  1. Resource: 7, draw Citadel Plate.
  2. Planning: play Citadel Plate on Gimli.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Dry Watercourse. Discard Stand and Fight and Fight for net +3 and stage 1 is cleared.
  4. Travel: Dry Watercourse.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 49.

Round 8

  1. Resource: 5, draw Stand and Fight.
  2. Planning: play Escort from Edoras.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Thalin, draw Mountains of Mirkwood.
  4. Travel: Wood Elf Path. Suck up some quest points to get allies played.

And that's it because I'm going to threat out.

This could have been a pretty good game if I hadn't had the Gollum's Anguish as the first draw. That really put me behind the power curve on threat control. I'd have two more turns otherwise. Probably still wouldn't win it given where I am on Round 8 with questing, but still not bad otherwise.

What's ironic is that a couple of my earlier plays probably would have been wins with this deck.

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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.