LotR 242 - The Battle of Lake Town (5)

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The Battle of Lake-Town remains one of the tougher quests in the entire game, even after 11 years. Playing progression style let's me relive what the original players experienced.

From previous losses, some lessons learned:

  • Don't give up too soon. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it can't be won.
  • Exploit Elrond's ability to pay for any sphere allies.
  • Use Hasty Stroke when faced with an immediate loss.

Initial hand:

  1. Light of Valinor
  2. Snowbourn Scout
  3. A Test of Will
  4. Light of Valinor
  5. Gleowine
  6. Gandalf

Encounter: Great House, which is 6 Threat and resolves Burn Damage. By the Grim Rule, I'm going to count it's Burn value of 3 as well.

Round 1

Because I have A Test of Will in hand, I'm going to keep the Spirit resource available for spending.

  1. Resource: 3, draw Snowbourn Scout.
  2. Planning: Snowbourn Scout.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Theodred, Elrond for 8 Will. Draw Smaug the Mighty. Draw South Pier for 14 total, net +6 Threat, toss the extra Light of Valinor to Eowyn for +5 for Threat 35.
  4. Travel: South Pier.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Survived Round 1, not bad. Can I survive Round 2?

Round 2

  1. Resource: 6, draw Vilya.
  2. Planning: play Vilya, Light of Valinor on Elrond. Play Gleowine and draw Stand and Fight. Play Snowbourn Scout. This leaves me with one resource for A Test of Will if necessary.
  3. Quest: Elrond, Eowyn, Theodred for 8. Engage Smaug the Terrible defending with Snowbourn Scout with 5 Burn damage, shadow Scorching Blast to add 5 more Burn. Draw Scorching Blast for 5 more Burn, could cancel but I think I have room for it. Net +2 Progress.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Smaug.
  6. Combat: Snowbourn Scout defends, shadow Esgaroth Wharf for +2 and an additional attack. Let's exhaust Elrond/Vilya and what turns up: Sneak Attack, which I'd like to use with Gandalf as a defender but I don't have any Leadership resources. I do have a Stand and Fight, I'll bring back a Snowbourn Scout. This would otherwise be a loss. Shadow North Pier for no effect. Snowbourn's progress goes on South Pier which clears it.
  7. Refresh: Threat 37.

Round 3

This is as far as I've gotten on this quest so far.

  1. Resource: 4, draw Gleowine.
  2. Planning: Gleowine draws Snowbourn Scout, which goes into play.
  3. Quest: Eowyn, Theodred, Elrond for 8 Will. Engage Smaug the Magnifent, Snowbourn Scout defends, excess damage is 7 hits to Lake-Town. Draw Close to the Flame which deals one hit to each character in play. Net +2 Progress.
  4. Travel: Great House.
  5. Encounter: Smaug.
  6. Combat: Stand and Fight to bring in Snowbourn Scout, shadow Esgaroth Wharf for +1 and an additional attack after adding +6 Burn to Lake Town.

And that's the game.

Whoops, let's see what Elrond turns up: A Test of Will which is not useful, bottom of deck with it.

Basically, I need to be able to chump 3 allies per turn to keep Smaug out of staging.

For this game, having Great House as the initial reveal really hurt, 6 Threat is really a lot given Smaug's high threat.

Given my goal was to simply get through the first round, I'm pretty happy how this game turned out.

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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.