LotR 129, 130 - We Must Away, Ere Break of Day (4, 5)

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Still not sold on A Hobbit Goes Adventuring deck, but it's playing a few more times to figure out what's weak.

Initial hand:

  • Gondorian Spearman
  • Feint
  • Unexpected Courage
  • Feint
  • Burglar Baggins
  • Resourceful

I don't think I want to use Resourceful in this deck. It's super expensive at 4, with Secrecy 3, and I'm too far from getting my threat below 20 to matter. Getting rid of it will free up a slot.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 4, draw A Test of Will
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Nori, Thalin, draw Lone-Lands for 0 net.
  4. Travel: Lone-Lands
  5. Encounter: Suspicious Crows
  6. Combat: Bilbo defends, shadow Troll Purse, no effect. Gimli kills Suspicious Crows.
  7. Refresh: Threat 30.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 8, draw A Test of Will
  2. Planning: Unexpected Courage on Gimli.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Thalin, Bilbo, draw Lots or None at All, Threat 32. Net +4 clear Lone-Lands +1 Progress.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 9, draw Gandalf.
  2. Planning: Play Gondorian Spearman.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Nori, Thalin, Bilbo, draw No Campfire, draw Roast 'Em or Boil 'Em, destroy Gondorian Spearman. Bummer. Net +6 to clear stage 1. Interesting. Add all the Trolls to the staging area. With 33 Threat, two of them are coming out.

I'm scooping it here and doing some adjustment on the deck.

Next deck:

  • Replace Resourceful with another Tactics Bofur and Zigil Miner.
  • Replace 1 Burglar Baggins with another Zigil Miner.

This results in A Hobbit Goes Adventuring v0.6 deck. Let's play it.

Initial hand:

  • Citadel Plate
  • A Test of Will
  • Quick Strike
  • Foe-Hammer
  • Fili
  • Burglar Baggins

Encounter: Troll Camp.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 4, draw Dwalin.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Nori, Thalin, draw Hobbit Lands for Threat 30.
  4. Travel: Hobbit Lands
  5. Encounter: none
  6. Combat: none
  7. Refresh: Threat 31

Round 2

  1. Resource: 8, draw Bofur.
  2. Planning: play Bofur, Threat 30 from Nori.
  3. Quest: Nori, Thalin, Bofur, Bilbo, draw Troll Camp. Dang. No net Threat increase though.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 31

Round 3

  1. Resource: 9, draw Feint.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Nori, Thalin, Gimli, Bilbo, Bofur, draw Troll Key. Net +2 clears Hobbit Lands, draw Veteran Axehand and +1 P on stage 1.
  4. Travel: Troll Camp.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 32.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 13, draw Heavy Stroke.
  2. Planning: play Veteran Axehand, play Dwalin, Threat 30.
  3. Quest: Nori, Thalin, Bofur, Bilbo, draw Hungry Troll for surge Cave Entrance, net +2 on Troll Camp.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 31.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 14, draw Stand and Fight.
  2. Planning: Citadel Plate on Gimli.
  3. Quest: Nori, Thalin, Bofur, Bilbo, draw A Nice Pickle for Threat 32. Troll Camp cleared, another +1P on quest.
  4. Travel: Cave Entrance.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 14, draw Unexpected Courage.
  2. Planning: Unexpected Courage on Gimli.
  3. Quest: Nori, Thalin, Bilbo, draw Cave Entrance, net 0P.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 34.

Round 7

  1. Resource: 16, draw Citadel Plate.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Nori, Thalin, Bilbo, Bofur, draw Hobbit Lands for net +1.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 35.

Round 8

  1. Resource: 20, draw A Test of Will.
  2. Planning: Citadel Plate on Gimli.
  3. Quest: All but Axehand, draw Lots or None At All, Threat 37.
  4. Travel: Hobbit Lands.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 38.

Round 9

  1. Resource: 20, draw Kili.
  2. Planning: Play Kili, Fili, Threat 36.
  3. Quest: All but Gimli and Axehand for 9 Will, draw Wind-Whipped Rain, and that's the game because I don't have enough chumps to block. Crap. Let's asterisk and see what happens. Draw Hungry Troll for surge Lots Or None At All, which is Doomed 2. Actually, with Wind-Whipped Rain, I would only be facing two Trolls on this turn, instead of 3. I got impatient! Anyways, net +5 which clears Hobbit Lands, draw Gondorian Spearman, and clear stage 1. All the trolls come out.
  4. Travel: Troll Camp.
  5. Encounter: Trolls. 4 sacks: Gimli, Bofur, Dwalin, Thalin. Dang. At least Bilbo is unsacked and can remove sacks next turn.
  6. Combat: Veteran Axehand defends, shadow Hungry Troll, spend 2 resources from Bilbo to negate, Axehand is dead. Gimli takes next two undefended: shadow More Like a Grocer which we (sadly) cannot negate, and Dreary Hills for no effect.
  7. Refresh: Threat 39 + 3 for 42.

Round 10

  1. Resource: 15, draw Foe-hammer.
  2. Planning: Gondorian Spearman, remove Gimli's sack.
  3. Quest: Nori, draw Dreary Hills, Threat 46.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Spearman defends Tom shadow A Nice Pickle, the Spearman is no more. Fili defends William, shadow Lone-Lands for no effect, Fili is dead. Kili defends against Bert shadow Roast 'Em Or Boil 'Em which puts another Troll Camp in the staging area. Gimli 12 to Bert, and 12 to Tom, getting rid of these two.
  7. Refresh: Threat 47.

I have 9 Threat in the Staging area, there is no way I can must that amount of quest.

AAR

There are a couple of things I could have done, such as playing Feint to buy another turn from a Troll attack. This would have let me save a chump, or alternatively another quest point or two. I think this deck will do it. May need to tweak it just a little more, if I could find another couple of useful allies which were not expensive.

I also had Quick Strike in hand, which means I could probably have dispatched William before Quest phase on the following turn. Basically, pretty much any other card and better play and I would have beat it this time around. In fact, with Quick Strike, I would have been able to hit William in the Action Window at the end of the Refresh Phase. That would leave Gimli exhausted going into the next round, but with all Trolls dead, who cares?

This deck can beat this quest. I'm still going to get another ally or two in it.

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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.