LotR 179 - The Lonely Mountain (3)

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I just had to get an afternoon cup of yaupon to make it today. Probably won't sleep well tonight, but whatever. I want to have everything ready to go for a game day tomorrow, which means I need to get the plants completely watered, and the bathroom clean. That will reduce my stress a lot tomorrow morning.

So we're back at The Lonely Mountain, and I do not recall any of the details about the quest. I'm using the Misty Mountain Grim dwarf deck.

Initial hand:

  1. Erebor Hammersmith
  2. Gandalf
  3. Protector of Lorien
  4. Unexpected Courage
  5. Veteran Axehand
  6. Erebor Hammersmith

Smaug and Lonely Mountain in the staging area.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 4, draw Orcrist.
  2. Planning: Play Orcrist on Gimli. Spend pipe to find Bilbo's Magic Ring.
  3. Quest: Skip.
  4. Travel: nothing to travel to.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 28.

Advance to Stage 2.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 7, draw Miner of the Iron Hills.
  2. Planning: Play Veteran Axehand, Erebor Hammersmith. Spend pipe to find Sting and play on Bilbo. Play Unexpected Courage on Bilbo.
  3. Quest: Bilbo, don't want to make a burgle attempt this turn, draw Desolation of Smaug, Threat 31.
  4. Travel: Desolation of Smaug.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none,
  7. Refresh: Threat 32.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 4, draw Zigil Miner and Boots from Erebor.
  2. Planning: Boots from Erebor on Gimli.
  3. Quest: Bilbo, draw Great Hall, Threat 36. Hrm. This looks like location lock imminent.
  4. Travel: None.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 8, draw Veteran Axehand and Song of Travel.
  2. Planning: Play Veteran Axehand, Erebor Hammersmith, Zigil Miner.
  3. Quest: Bilbo, Ori, Oin, Gimli, draw Weighed Down which gets a surge Pretending to Sleep. Well this sucks because I would have cleared Desolation of Smaug, but instead I get Threat 38. I'm going to travel to Stage 4A instead of spending pipes. This is bad. I'm going to lose for sure. I do not want to go to Stage 4. Ever.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Smaug engages.
  6. Combat: Veteran Axehand defends, shadow Desolation of Smaug for no effect, but has Burgle so attacks again, Veteran Axehand defends, shadow Belching Fire which also has Burgle, Veteran Axehand dead, again: Erebor Hammersmith defends, shadow Known to an Ounce, which also has Burgle, Erebor Hammersmith is dead, again: Erebor Hammersmith defends, shadow Hidden Path with no Burgle, but now I'm down to 4 dwarf and don't get the card draw. Bummer.
  7. Refresh: Threat 39.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 6, draw Erebor Record Keeper and Stand and Fight.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Ori, Oin, Bilbo, draw Dragon Spell attach to Bilbo. Will is 3 against staging threat 12, Threat 48. Womp womp, and that's without even drawing the surge, which is Known to an Ounce, discard Stand and Fight and Song of Travel. Threat 49. That's the game.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 50.

Womp womp.

Don't go to Stage 4.

I got stomped.

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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.