LotR 122 - We Must Away, Ere Break of Day (1)

Feb 22 2020

Round 1

Resource: 4, draw Dwarrowdelf Axe.
Planning: Veteran Axehand, Threat 28.
Quest: Thalin, Bilbo, draw Lots or None at All, no Trolls so Doomed 2 for Threat 30. Net 1 Progress.
Travel: none.
Encounter: A Suspicious Crow
Combat: Gimli defends, shadow Lots or None at All for no effect. Veteran Axehand kills it.
Refresh: Threat 31.

Round 2

Resource: 6, draw Dwarrowdelf Axe.
Planning: Dwarrowdelf Axe on Gimli.
Quest: Thalin and Bilbo, draw Lots or None at All. Too weird, I am going to shuffle the encounter deck. Threat 33, net +2 Progress.
Travel: none.
Encounter: none.
Combat: none.
Refresh: Threat 34.

Round 3

Resource: 9, draw Dwarven Tomb.
Planning: none.
Quest: Thalin and Bilbo, draw Wind-Whipped Rain, Dwarrowdelf Axe is discarded. Bummer. Net +2 Progress.
Travel: none.
Encounter: none.
Combat: none.
Refresh: Threat 35.

Round 4

Resource: 13, draw Hasty Stroke.
Planning: play Erebor Battle Master, Threat 34.
Quest: Nori, Thalin, Bilbo, draw Hobbit Lands. Net +3 Progress to clear stage 1.
Travel: Hobbit Lands.
Encounter: Bert and Tom.
Combat: Gimli defends Tom, shadow Troll Camp for no effect, Gimli takes 3 damage. Veteran Axehand defends Bert, shadow Roast 'em or Boil 'em to add Troll Camp to Staging Area, dead.
Refresh: Threat 35.

That's the game but I'm going to play out another round to see what happens.

Round 5

Resource: 14, draw Hasty Stroke.
Planning: none.
Quest: none, draw Hungry Troll, now all Trolls are in play with Threat +8 for 43, and I've had enough for now.

AAR

Some observations:

Citadel Plate is really critical, Gimli could take a couple of Troll hits with one, then rally back for the kill on a later round.
Don't care about Dwarven Tomb here, need to replace it.
Need more allies out earlier, need a lot of chumps. Snowborne Scout would be ideal with 1 cost, but I don't have Leadership. Will have to cruise the card base.

I think I'll need to either massively turtle to get the allies out, or keep the threat super low so that only one troll engages at a time. An interesting problem.

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.