LotR 103 - Road to Rivendell (1)

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After a surpising fast win at The Redhorn Gate, I find myself at the start of the second quest in the Dwarrowdelf series, Road to Rivendell.

I'll be using my Deeds of Dwarves deck, which has become quite reliable. It just needs a couple of turns to get going.

Initial hand:

  1. Miner of the Iron Hills
  2. Miner of the Iron Hills
  3. Narvi's Belt
  4. Kili
  5. Narvi's Belt
  6. Gloin

Initial encounter: Mountain Warg.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw Longbeard MM.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Arwen, draw Black Uruks, which sucks as the Threat increase is going to bring them into engagemnt. Threat 33.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Mountain Warg and Black Uruks.
  6. Combat: Dain defends Wargs, draw Undisturbed Bones, which would discard the defending ally, which would suck if the attack would have to be made undefended. Dain takes hit. Thorin defends Uruks, draw shadow Wild Bear for no effect, Thorin takes 2 hits.
  7. Refresh: Threat 34.

Hrm. Not looking so good.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 7, draw Erebor RK.
  2. Planning: Longbeard MM and Narvi's Belt on Thorin.
  3. Quest: Arwen, draw Pathless Country.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Longbeard defends Uruks, draw shadow Plundered Armory for no effect, Longbeard takes 2 hits. Dain defends Wargs, draw shadow Turbulent Waters for no effect, Warg back to staging. Thorin and Ori kill Black Uruks.
  7. Refresh: Threat 35.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 6, draw Dwalin.
  2. Planning: Kili and Fili, Erebor RK.
  3. Quest: Arwen, Ori and Kili for 7, draw Goblin Spearman.
  4. Travel: Pathless Country.
  5. Encounter: Goblin Spearman
  6. Combat: Fili defends Mountain Warg, draw shadow Followed By Night which returns Warg to staging area, i.e., no op. This thing is getting annoying, it's attritting me. Longbeard MM defends Goblin Spearman, and dies, shadow is Black Uruks with no effect unless undefended. Thorin and Dain kill Goblin Spearman.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 7, draw Second Breakfast and Unexpected Courage.
  2. Planning: Play Dwalin, Gloin.
  3. Quest: Arwen, Ori, Erebor RK for 7, draw Bitter Wind and discard all my resources. Bah. 4 Progress on Pathless Country.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Wargs.
  6. Combat: Dwalin defends, draw shadow Goblin Spearman, which is added to the staging area. Dwalin takes two hits. Thorin, Kili, and Gloin kill Mountain Warg. Finally.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 4, draw Untroubled by Darkness and Henamarth Riversong.
  2. Planning: Play Henamarth. Scry Barren Hills. Play Unexpected Courage on Thorin.
  3. Quest: Arwen, Thorin, Ori, Kili, Dwalin, and Erebor RK. Draw Barren Hills for net 11 and 9 Progress on quest, Pathless Country is cleared.
  4. Travel: Barren Hills.
  5. Encounter: Goblin Spearman.
  6. Combat: Gloin defends, draw shadow Goblin Spearman which goes to staging area lol. Gloin takes 1 hit. Thorin readies and kills Goblin Spearman.
  7. Refresh: Threat 38.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 6, draw Dwarven Tomb and Erebor Hammersmith.
  2. Planning: Scry Orc Ambush, which has a surge. Not going to quest for much this turn.
  3. Quest: Arwen, Ori, Erebor for 7, draw Orc Ambush surge Wild Bear, which is an Ambush card, but Barren Hills stops that. Net 7 Progress which clears Barren Hills. Since this is after the reveal, the guard against Ambush must surely hold…checking rules, seems to be ok.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Wild bear.
  6. Combat: Kili defends Wild Bear draw shadow Wild Bear for no effect, Kili takes 1 hit. Gloin defends Goblin Spearman, draw shadow Warg Lair for no effect, Gloin takes another hit. Thorin kills Goblin Spearman. Thorin and Dwalin put 3 hits on Wild Bear.
  7. Refresh: Threat 39.

Round 7

  1. Resource: 11, draw Kili and Ancestral Knowledge.
  2. Planning: play Erebor HS. Scry Ruined Road.
  3. Quest: Thorin, Ori, Arwen, Dwalin, Gloin, Erebor RK for 16, draw Ruined Road, net 15 which clears Stage 1. Put Goblin Gate in as active location.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Wild Bear already engaged.
  6. Combat: Kili defends, draw shadow Knees of the Mountain for no effect but Kili is dead for now. Thorin and Erebor HS kill Wild Bear.
  7. Refresh: Threat 40.

Round 8

  1. Resource: 14, draw Cram, Miner of the Iron Hills.
  2. Planning: Cram on Ori. Play Kili and Fili, Miner of the Iron Hills. Scry Goblin Spearman
  3. Quest: Thorin, Ori, Arwen, Dwalin, Gloin, Fili, Kili, Miner of the Iron Hills for 19, draw Goblin Spearman which ambushes and attacks. Erebor HS defends, draw shadow Warg Lair for no effect, EHS takes a hit. Net 16 Progress which clears Goblin Gate and stage 2. Stage adds Orc Raiders, which forces a discard of Cram and Narvi's Belt. No big deal. Just means will have to go an extra turn. I have enough quest power to stomp this next turn.
  4. Travel: Ruined Road, ready Ori. Nice.
  5. Encounter: all engaged.
  6. Combat: Dain defends Goblin Spearman, draw shadow Chieftain of the Pit, which forces another attack! Crap! Dain takes no hits. Goblin Spearman attacks again, draw Crebain shadow which puts Goblin Swordsman back into staging area. Thorin takes another hit. Erebor defends Orc Raiders, draw shadow Barren Hills which also returns it to staging area! Crap crap. EHS is dead.
  7. Refresh: Threat 41.

Round 9

  1. Resource: 13, draw Dwalin and Bifur.
  2. Planning: Play Bifur, draw Dori and Dori. Play Narvi's Belt and Dori and Miner of the Iron Hills. Scry Goblin Taskmaster.
  3. Quest: All but Dain for 26, draw Goblin Taskmaster, which engages, but net 21 wins the game.

AAR

I found this to be a really easy quest with the dwarf swarm, once I got it going. It took a few rounds to get it going, and I thought I was in real trouble coming out of round 3. Curious how this quest rates for difficulty.

This would be a good quest to try with a Hobbit deck I think. Not sure I can put one together yet.

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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.