LotR 203-206 - The Siege of Cair Andros (1-4)

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My usual collaborator and I take on The Siege of Cair Andros. This quest is rated pretty difficult by the community, right up there with Escape from Dol Guldur for two-player games. We're going into it blind, and have no idea whether our decks will manage it or not.

Game 203

We went 3 rounds on this one, with the Mumak coming out and stomping us. The initial quest stage is Siege questing, and we just didn't have enough to get through Stage 1 in the first couple of rounds. Looks like aggro questing is the way to go here. Anyways, we were swarmed and we scooped.

Game 204

One of the treacheries put all the Battleground locations back in the deck, which meant we'd have to quest through all the stages unless we got really lucky. Beregond eliminated in first or second round, we scooped.

Game 205

We did better on this game, cleared The Banks location to remove Stage 2 automatically. Still had to scoop.

Game 206

This game almost went the distance. We even made to Stage 5, and if we had not been at 49 threat, we might have been able to pull off the win. We ended up doing some deck tuning after the previous game, with both of us adding in various eagles and Defender of Ramma, with the notion that we both mulligan for having at least one Defender of Ramma or Winged Guardian, both of which defend for 4 and are excellent for siege questing. So good in fact that we cleared Stage 1 on the first round, then found that Stage 2 requires Willpower questing, of which we had very little. This caused our threat to more or less +10, which is a lot in any game, but with the amount Doomed cards, really hurts in this quest. We were able to remove Stage 2 via clearing The Banks with Legolas, but not before the threat damage was inflicted.

Once having Stage 2 removed, even with our threat in the mid-to-high 40s, we still blasted through getting to Stage 5 with 49 threat. So close! We're now confident we can beat this quest, even though it may take a few more tries.

Not bad for a short afternoon.

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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.