LotR 196 - The Battle of Lake Town (1)

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First play of The Battle of Lake Town. I'm using the Free People's Army deck which punked The Battle of Five Armies. I don't think it's going to do very well here, but it's the deck I have in hand, so let's see what we get.

Initial Hand:

  1. Horn of Gondor
  2. Gondorian Spearman
  3. Vassal of the Windlord
  4. Hail of Stones
  5. Stand and Fight
  6. Blade of Gondolin

Encounter: Scorching Blast for no effect.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw Westfold Horse Breeder.
  2. Planning: Play Westfold Horse Breeder, Blade of Gondolin, Horn of Gondor on Dunhere.
  3. Quest: Thalin, Westfold, draw Catching Fire, which is surge in this case, Catching Fire again, surge North Pier. Smaug targets the staging area, brings 7 Threat. Dang. Threat 36.
  4. Travel: North Pier.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Ok, this is going to be bona fide pretty brutal. It's either fast threating out, or losing a character per turn, which means getting more than 1 character per turn on average. Not quite sure where to go with this right now. Since I'll get a new version of Smaug each round, might as well play this out to the bitter end to see what happens.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 3, draw Hasty Stroke.
  2. Planning: Play Gondorian Spearman.
  3. Quest: Thalin, Westfold, Smaug targets player, draw Smaug the Mighty, Merchant's District for Threat 39. Smaug attacks Gondorian Spearman, shadow FIsherman's Dock, which goes into Staging area. Dang.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Smaug
  6. Combat: Beorn defends, shadow Merchant's District for 1 hit on Lake Town.
  7. Refresh: Threat 40.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 4, draw Landroval.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Thalin and Westfold, draw Smaug the Terrible into the staging area for +12 Threat and game over.

AAR

That didn't take long. Wasn't all that much fun either. Since I didn't really get how Smaug worked, I watched the first part of a podcast which sort of spoiled the quest with respect to how to beat 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.