LotR 188 - The Lonely Mountain (4)

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Back for another attempt at The Lonely Mountain. I'm thinking I'm going to rebuild my current (Misty Mountains Grim) deck to beat this one. I've lost pretty badly with this deck on the first three plays.

For this play I have my binders out and will build a sideboard as I play.

Initial hand:

  1. Erebor Hammersmith
  2. Sting
  3. Zigil Miner
  4. Unexpected Courage
  5. Protector of Lorien
  6. Feint

Not too bad, I'll keep it.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 4, draw Erebor Hammersmith.
  2. Planning: Play Sting on Bilbo, spend 1 R from Bilbo to get Magic Ring on him.
  3. Quest: Bilbo, Ori, Oin for 6 Will, draw Fighting Among Friends. I choose Spirit reducing to 4 Will, which is net +1 Progress. Since I quested successfully, I need to make a burgle attempt. From the Encounter deck draw Dragon Spell, Known To An Ounce which has Burgle The First player shuffles his deck and reveals the top card. He may discard 1 card from his hand which matches the revealed card's sphere and cost. Draw Zigil Miner, and discard Zigil Miner from my hand (bummer). Draw Thror's Golden Cup, attach to Bilbo, move to Victory Display and draw Veteran Axehand, Unexpected Courage, and Zigil Miner. This is interesting.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 28.

I also just figured out I made a mistake here: a successful burgle provides the option to advance to Stage 3. I did not do that here. Which is probably a good thing as I would have lost a hero to Smaug The Magnificent. Better to wait until getting some allies out.

This is where I want to fail questing repeatedly and control Threat via other means.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 7, draw Dwalin.
  2. Planning: Play Erebor Hammersmith, Zigil Miner, Veteran Axehand.
  3. Quest: Bilbo, Ori, Oin, draw Hidden Path for net +4 Threat: 32.
  4. Travel: Use Magic Ring to get a Resource (Threat 33) and travel to Hidden Paths.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 34.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 4, draw Stand and Fight and Galadhrim's Greetings.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Bilbo, Ori, Oin for 6 Will, draw Desolation of Smaug. Because Hidden Path is active, we can take 1 from Threat of each location yielding Threat 36. This is not good, we're looking at location lock now.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 8, draw Dwarven Tomb and A Burning Brand.
  2. Planning: Unexpected Courage on Gimli.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Ori, Oin, Bilbo for 8 Will, draw Dragon Spell to put on Gimli. This could actually be pretty cool, as Gimli can power up by spending resources and not having to risk getting attacked. Net +1 Threat for 38.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 39.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 10, draw A Test of Will and Orcrist.
  2. Planning: Orcrist on Gimli, Protector of Lorien on Bilbo.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Ori, Oin, Bilbo for 8 Will, draw The Great Hall. I think I'm in location lock. Let's count it up: Smaug for 3, The Lonely Mountain for 4, Desolation of Smaug for 3, and Great Hall for 4, total: 14 - 3 (Hidden Path) = 11, Threat 42. I can discard 3 to Protector of Lorien but that won't clear Hidden Path. I'm going to let the Threat in the unlikely case I get a chance to burgle again. This keeps my hand full of cards.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 43.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 14, draw Song of Travel and Erebor Hammersmith.
  2. Planning: Song of Travel on Gimli, play Dwalin. I could at this point play Galadhrim's, but I still have enough mojo to clear the location lock. I should scoop here, but I'm not going to.
  3. Quest: Gimli, Ori, Oin, Bilbo, draw Belching Fire induces a dragon attack, we'll say it's on Zigil Miner. Going to scoop now.

AAR

This wasn't a bad game at all. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with this quest now. I can see that it's beatable, the key is balancing the threat increase with the ability to choose when to advance to Stage 3. The non-Burglar increase Smaug gets makes this quite tricky.

I really need the questing power I get from Dain, so I'm considering rebuilding the Deeds of Dwarves deck. Dain also buffs the attack power which would be super useful against Smaug in Stage 3.

Sideboard:

  • The Lucky Number, which should combo really well with Protector of Lorien on Bilbo. I could have used this in Turn 5 to clear Hidden Path.
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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.