LotR 139 - We Must Away, Ere Break of Day (9)

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Again for the Hobbit, iterating on A Hobbit Goes Adventuring (1.2). The deck actually has 48 cards in it, but the page is showing 52. I don't feel like vetting the deck, I'd rather play. I'll fix it after this game.

Initial hand:

  1. Erebor Battlemaster
  2. Forest Snare
  3. Feint
  4. Master of the Forge
  5. Feint
  6. A Test of Will

Not too bad.

Encounter: More like a grocer, no effect as don't have any pipe resources.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 4, draw Stand and Fight. I was going to take this out of the deck and decided not to. It's not what I want to see right now.
  2. Planning: none, save money.
  3. Quest: Ori, draw Troll Camp for net -1, Threat 28.
  4. Travel: Troll Camp to help stall.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 29.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 8, draw Hasty Stroke. Need…allies…
  2. Planning: none, saving…
  3. Quest: Ori, draw Troll Key, 2 progress on Troll Camp.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 30.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 12, draw Heavy Stroke.
  2. Planning: Erebor Battlemaster.
  3. Quest: Ori, draw Hungry Troll, surge Roast 'Em or Boil 'Em. Good thing I didn't have Master of the Forge out. That cleared Troll camp, sadly.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 31.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 13, draw Quick Strike. I'm going to lose this game soon if I don't start getting allies in play. These are all late game cards which are critical, in the late game.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Ori, draw Lots or None At All. Threat 33.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 34.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 16, draw Citadel Plate.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Ori, draw Suspicious Crow. Net 1 Progress. Reveal A Nice Pickle, put 2 discards on bottom of Encounter.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Suspicious Crows.
  6. Combat: Gimli defends, shadow Cave Entrance for no effect, Oin gets the kill.
  7. Refresh: Threat 35.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 21, draw Stand and Fight. :/ Looks like I'm drawing all of my non-ally cards first.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Ori, draw Hungry Troll surge Hungry Troll surge A Nice Pickle and both Hungry Trolls go back to the bottom of the deck.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Round 7

  1. Resource: 25, draw Galadrihms Greetings. Jeebus.
  2. Planning: none, I'll play Galadrhims in an action window if necessary.
  3. Quest: Erebor Battlemaster, draw Lot's or None At All Threat 38.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 39.

Round 8

  1. Resource: 29, draw Master of the Forge. :/ Amazing. It's like I don't have any dwarf allies at all.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Erebor, draw Troll Camp, Threat 42.
  4. Travel: Troll Camp.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 43.

Round 9

  1. Resource: 33, draw Fili! Fili! Goddamn! Fili! FML.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Erebor, draw Troll Camp, Threat 46.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 47.

Round 10

  1. Resource: 37, draw Kili.
  2. Planning: Play Kili, Galadrims x 2, Threat 35.
  3. Quest: Ori and Kili, draw Lone Lands, Threat 37. Need to quest next round to just clear Troll Camp.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 38.

Round 11

  1. Resource: 32, draw Erebor Record Keeper and Dwalin.
  2. Planning: Play Erebor Record Keeper and Dwalin. If I can lower threat with Gandalf, I might have a crack at this thing.
  3. Quest: Oin, Ori, Bilbo, Fili, draw Roast 'Em or Boil 'Em, I don't think so, Test of Will that thing away. Net +1 on Troll Camp.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 39.

Round 12

  1. Resource: 36, draw Unexpected Courage twice, which is ironic as I can't pay for even one of them right now. I want another 2-3 allies out before handling the trolls.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Ori, Oin, Dwalin, Fili, Bilbo draw Suspicious Crow which pulls Roast 'Em or Boil 'Em back from discard, which kills both Erebors. :/ Net +1 on Troll Camp.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Crows
  6. Combat: Gimli takes undefended, shadow Roast 'Em or Boil 'Em which means I need to find another Troll Camp and add it to the Staging area. That's it, location locked and when I clear Stage 1 I'm going to threat out anyway. Gimli takes 1 hit and kills the crows.
  7. Refresh: Threat 40.

With 8 Threat in Staging, I'm almost surely location locked. Let's see what happens anyway, maybe I'll draw some Gandalfs or something.

Round 13

  1. Resource: loads, draw Zigil Miner and Quick Strike.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: all, draw but Gimli, draw No Campfire, take the surge for Wind whipped Rain. Heh, no attachments, no effect. Net -1 for Threat 41.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 42.

Round 14

  1. Resource: loads, draw Thror's Map and Song of Travel.
  2. Planning: play Song of Travel on Gimli. Play Thror's Map on Gimli, exhaust to swap Troll Camps. Now we have a fresh Troll Camp with no Progress, it can suck up some quest progress, although it's probably too late for that. Good thinking though. Also play Zigil Miner. Hrm, with the Stand and Fights, I can bring back the Erebors. Let's do it.
  3. Quest: All but Gimli and Erebors for Troll Purse.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 43.

Round 15

  1. Resource: loads, draw Erebor Hammersmith and Radagast's Cunning.
  2. Planning: Play Hammersmith. Pity I didn't have Forest Snare in the discard, I'm looking for that combo one day.
  3. Quest: Oin, Ori, Bilbo, Dwalin, Fili, Hammersmith, Zigil, draw Suspicious Crow for net 0. Top of discard is Wind Whipped Rain, no effect as it doesn't go into the staging area.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 44.

Round 16

  1. Resource: lots, draw Veteran Axehand, Dwalin.
  2. Planning: play Veteran Axehand.
  3. Quest: Same as before, I'm in location lock, bummer. Draw Hobbit Lands. Net 0.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 45.

Round 17

  1. Resource: ???, draw Veteran Axehand and Miner of the Iron Hills.
  2. Planning: Play Miner of the Iron Hills, Unexpected Courage on Bilbo.
  3. Quest: Same as before, I need Gandalf to break it I think. Draw Lots or None At All, Threat 47. Net 0.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 48.

Playing it out.

Round 18

  1. Resource: ???, draw Erebor Hammersmith and Test of Will.
  2. Planning: Erebor Hammersmith, Swap the location back out, I should have done that to get out of location lock!
  3. Quest: Same as before with Will 11, draw Lots or None At All play Test of Will to negate. Still in the game… clears Troll Camp.
  4. Travel: Troll Camp.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 49.

If I don't draw a Gandalf, it's game over.

Round 19

  1. Resource: ??? resources, draw Gondorian Spearman and Quick Strike.

AAR

I need to get Dwarven Tomb in my hand so I can control threat by recycling Galadrhims.

This was a weird one. I think I could have done better had I used Thror's Map more effectively to help control location lock versus buffering progress. Something to think about for next game.

I'm going to deck build before I play again.

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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.