LotR 104 - The Watcher in the Water (1)

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First attempt at The Watcher in the Water using my tried-and-true Deeds of Dwarves deck.

Initial hand:

  1. Untroubled by Darkness
  2. Sneak Attack
  3. Second Breakfast
  4. Gandalf
  5. Longbeard Map-Maker
  6. Gandalf

Encounter deck, reveal two cards: Black Uruk.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw Ancestral Knowledge
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Ori for 3, draw Warg Lair, Threat 34.
  4. Travel: Warg Lair.
  5. Encounter: Thrashing Tentacle and Mountain Warg.
  6. Combat: Sneak Attack Gandalf to take out Mountain Warg. Dain defends agains Thrashing Tentacle, shadow Black Uruks for no effect, Thorin attacks Thrashing Tentacle, draw Grasping Tentacle and apply damage to Gandalf.
  7. Refresh: Threat 35.

Apparently Thrashing Tentacle stays engaged.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 5, draw Dori.
  2. Planning: play Gandalf, it's early, but with no other allies available, could be very hard to get past this round with tentacle already in play. Actually, Gandalf can take out Thrashing Tentacle directly with 4 hits.
  3. Quest: Ori for 3, draw Striking Tentacle. 1 Progress on Warg Lair.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Striking Tentacle.
  6. Combat: Dain defends against Striking Tentacle, shadow Knees of the Mountain for no effect, draw Black Uruks rendering attack as undefended, Dain takes 4 hits. Gandalf and Thorin kill Striking Tentacle.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 3, draw Narvi's Belt.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Ori for 3, draw Wrapped! and attach to Ori. I think this is the game as Ori will be leaving play after this. 2 Progress clears Warg Lair, 1 Progress on To the Wet-Door.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Well that's a slap in the face. I won't be getting the extra card draw from Ori, even if I'm able to get enough allies deployed.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 4, draw Narvi's Belt.
  2. Planning: none, nothing to do.
  3. Quest: none, draw Stagnant Creek, discard Thrashing Tentacle, Threat is now 5 + 5 for 47, I'm conceding here.
  4. Travel:
  5. Encounter:
  6. Combat:
  7. Refresh: Threat

AAR

I initially drew two encounter cards instead of just having the just the Thrashing Tentacle for Threat 2. The second card was Black Uruk, so I just reshuffled the Encounter deck.

This is a bona fide more difficult quest than the first two.

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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.