LotR 140 - We Must Away, Ere Break of Day (10)

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Some deck adjustments for A Hobbit Goes Adventuring resulted in version 1.3. As I recall, I added a lot more cheap allies to the deck, removing events which seemed to never get played. After this play, I'm almost sure to adjust it again.

Initial hand:

  1. Veteran Aexhand
  2. Forest Snare
  3. Veteran Axehand
  4. Citadel Plate
  5. Feint
  6. Miner of the Iron Hills

Encounter: Troll Camp.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 4, draw Erebor Battle master.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Oin and Ori, draw Troll Purse, net +1 Progress.
  4. Travel: Troll Camp.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 28.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 8, draw Erebor Hammersmith.
  2. Planning: Veteran Axehand, Miner of the Iron Hills.
  3. Quest: Ori, draw Hungry Troll for surge Suspicious Crow which surges from the discard pile, which is a treachery, which doesn't land in the staging area. Net +2 on Troll Camp.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Suspicious Crow
  6. Combat: Gimli defend, shadow Dreary Hills for no effect, Veteran Axehand kills.
  7. Refresh: Threat 29.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 8, draw Heavy Stroke and Test of Will.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Bilbo, draw Hobbit Lands for Net 0.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 30.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 12, draw Quick Strike and Galadhrim's Greetings.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Bilbo, draw Lone Lands for Threat 32. I need to quest through next turn to clear locations.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

WIll need to play Galadhrim's Greetings soon.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 16, draw Quick Strike, Zigil Miner.
  2. Planning: Zigil Miner, Veteran Axehand.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Oin, Gloin, Bilbo, draw Lots Or None At All, doomed Threat 35. Net +3 on Stage 1. Bummer.
  4. Travel: Lone Lands.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 16, draw Dwalin, Gandalf.
  2. Planning: Play Dwalin.
  3. Quest: Ori, Oin, draw Wind-Whipped Rain for no effect, clear Lone Lands for net 0 progress.
  4. Travel: Hobbit Lands.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Round 7

  1. Resource: 18, draw Erebor Battlemaster, Erebor Hammersmith.
  2. Planning: Play Erebor Hammersmith.
  3. Quest: Bilbo, draw Dreary Hills. Bummer. Threat 40.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 41.

Round 8

  1. Resource: 19, draw Heavy Stroke, Citadel Plate.
  2. Planning: Galadhrim's Greetings Threat 35
  3. Quest: Ori, Oin, Bilbo, Erebor HS, draw Lots Or None At All which clears Hobbit Lands. Threat 37. Draw Gondorian Spearman.
  4. Travel: Dreary Hills.
  5. Encounter: None.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 38.

Round 9

  1. Resource: 20, draw Radagast's Cunning and Quick Strike.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Oin, draw Hungry Troll for Surge No Campfire surge Hungry Troll surge Roast Em or Boil Em for 1 damage to each ally which pulls Zigil Miner to the discard. Dreary Hills is cleared randomly discard Forest Snare. Oops. I think I'm going to have to bring out Trolls next turn.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 39.

No Troll Camp is coming up, and I'm about out of time. I'm going play Gandalf next round and see what happens.

Round 10

  1. Resource: 23, draw Erebor Record Keeper and Forest Snare. If I can kill Bert I can snare the other two.
  2. Planning: Gandalf to reduce threat to 34, Citadel Plate.
  3. Quest: Ori, Oin draw A Nice Pickle, recycle 2 discard, Stage 1 clears, trolls come out, draw Strong Sack to Ori, Smelly Sack to Miner of the Iron Hills, Foul Sack to Gimli and that's almost surely the game.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: trolls.
  6. Combat: Gandalf defends from Tom shadow Cave Entrance for no effect, takes a hit; Feint on William with shadow Suspicious Crows for no effect, Axehand defends Bert shadow Troll Camp for no effect. Bummer on Troll Camp, can't desack without it.
  7. Refresh: Threat 42 as don't want the trolls back in staging area.

Round 11

  1. Resource: 20, draw Erebor Hammersmith and Miner of the Iron Hills.
  2. Planning: Erebor Hammersmith and fish out Forest Snare.
  3. Quest: Oin, Bilbo, draw Suspicious Crow.

I'm calling it here, there's no way I can dig out from this one.

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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.