LotR 226,227 - The Morgul Vale 1,2

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My usual collaborator and I are back after it, attempting to wrap up Against The Shadow with the last quest The Morgul Vale. We haven't played in a month or so, it felt a little cold jumping back into it.

The Morgul Vale has a reputation for being a difficult quest, and from our two plays today, it seems warranted.

Game 1

First round loss, too many enemies, too few allies. We scooped it.

Game 2

We managed to get a good way into Stage 2 on this game, after a start where one of the shadows put everything back into the enncounter deck on Turn 1. This was somewhat beneficial as it allowed us build a bit of board state before advancing to Stage 2.

Stage 2 went pretty well for a while, then we went under with too many enemies and not enough allies.

I'm running a pretty decent tri-sphere deck, and I think I'm going to change to a pure Tactics deck to proceed further. No progress needs to be put on quest stages, just kill the "Captain" at each stage to progress. Seems like the fast this can be done the better the game is going to go.

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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.