LotR 200-202 - Into Ithilien (6-8)

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Game day with the usual Lord of the Rings card game collaborator. We've heretofore been five times stymied by Into Ithilien, and we're bent on figuring out how this quest works. What's clear from the first five plays is that we must get through the first stage of the quest as quickly as possible. Since that is a "Battle" quest using Attack values instead of willpower for questing, deck construction takes a new twist.

For these games, he played the same deck as he played last time, but I used a completely different deck, based on my Free Peoples Army deck which I used to defeat The Battle of Five Armies. I swapped Beorn out of that deck for Beregond as my collaborator is always using Beorn.

Here are some quick notes from the games.

Game 200

Some initial card play was missed, with Fresh Tracks not being used at a point when it would be critically important. We bailed at Round 3 with 6 enemies in the staging area.

Game 201

This game started with a real bang, I had 2 Vassal of the Windlord cards out on the first round, and we almost cleared the quest. On the second round, Blocking Wargs came out and took all the eagles out of play which took Celador out of play. We scooped.

Game 202

I did a deck adjustment before starting our third game of the day. Dunhere was out with Elanor coming in. Three copies of A Test of Will went in. Treacheries have been a real issue with this quest, and A Test of Will is the main card for any mulligan.

But this proved to be the ticket. We cleared the first stage very quickly. The second stage required the Will questing, which both of these decks are very low of, so it took us several rounds of tight play to clear Stage 3 (Stage 2 is skipped if possible). Once we got to Stage 4, we had enough Defense value on the table to quest for 26, needing 15 to win. Drawing two enemies for 7 Threat wasn't enough for the evil forces of Sauron to vanquish our fellowship and we are now firmly entrenching in Cair Andros and ready to defend a siege.

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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.