LotR 300 - Celebrimbor's Secret 1,2

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Josh came over to get started into Celebrimbor's Secret, the next to last adventure in the Ringmaker cycle. He's hot to wrap this up and get to Angmar Awakened. I am too for that matter. We'll get there in time, just might take a few sessions. We might do some Valar on this one.

Game 1 (299)

As usual, we went in blind. And as usual again, we got our asses handed to us. This quest is packed with Surge and Shadow effects, non of which are super deadly on their own, but few of which whiff. Death by a thousand cuts. I had Elrond beefed with Light of Valinor and Vilya, Shadow effects removed both.

Game 2 (300)

As noted, this is my 300th logged game of otR LCG. I'm a really slow player probably because I do log almost all of my solitaire games.

In any case, we didn't think we could do much worse on a second play than on the first play, and, indeed, we got through Stage 1 intact, albeit pretty tattered. The Elrond/Vilya deck never really got going, and I'm not sure if it's piloting error, or just not a good deck for this quest given the progression card pool. Maybe both.

We managed to get through maybe 2 rounds on Stage 2 before it was clear we were going to lose heros, and playing it out we did indeed lose both Glorfindel and Elrond. No way to win having made no progress and 11 Threat in the staging area.

AAR

We did some deck tuning between the plays, pulling out Galadhrim's and adding in Hasty Strokes. I also added A Burning Brand for Elrond, but I didn't get to play 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.