LotR 314+ - To Catch an Orc
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I'm thinking about trying to beat To Catch an Orc this weekend playing solo. I don't intend on logging all the plays, maybe not any, we'll see how I feel about it later. I intend on using a few different decks to get a feel for the quest, starting with the Killer Deck.
I've played To Catch an Orc 9 times previously, but all of those plays were cooperative.
Game 314/10
Starting out with the Killer Deck just to get oriented with the quest. Right away I played it wrong by not advancing directly to Stage 2, which I figured out getting the loss on Round 3 when a shadow induced a second attack which took out Theodred. I did not use Theodred for questing in this play, which is probably an oversight. The next game I'm going to use the same deck, but read the quest cards more carefully and try to play it correctly.
Game 315/11
Again with the Killer Deck, this game went 4 rounds and turned into location lock with 2 enemies engages, only Henamarth out as an ally. Not so great, scoop.
Game 316/12
Went with a Mirlonde deck which starts at Threat 19. Sadly, I forgot that Rivendell Minstrel can find Song of Wisdom for me which would really help with resources. This deck might be hard to operate though, given that 20 cards are out of play right from the start. If
Anyway, went about 5 rounds and location locked really bad. Always seemed to end up 1 Will short of breaking even, so the time counters chewed me up. Turns out Mugash was at the bottom of the deck, which probably would have been a good thing!
Maybe Outlands next. Or Vilya.
Game 317/13
Using the Lake Town Vilya deck did not do a lot better, arguably worse. Location locked again, time counters filled up the staging area, resulting in 20 Threat for 9 Will. This means all the enemies are coming out…let's just fucking play it, someone beefed me about scooping at some point. Everyone is exhausted except Glorfindel, so undefended attacks. Yep. Location locked with 4 enemies engaged, Elrond is killed on the first attack which triggers another time counter effect. A good Vilya deck should beat this quest, maybe not progression though.
Game 318/14
Location locked again in 3 rounds, with 3 enemies coming out all at once with only Glorfindel ready. Scooping now. I think the key to this scenario is questing successfully on the first round. If that doesn't happen, I think the odds are pretty poor for catching up.
Methedras stacks, so getting two of them in staging with even one other location, it's an almost sure location lock. Broken lands prevents placing progress on staging locations.
A first round success would require pretty much getting a non-surge treachery.
Game 319/15
Vilya deck again. This time I'm going to use Denethor to cycle Methedras to the bottom of the deck, and hope there aren't two in a row.
That worked pretty well, cycled locations down after getting Methedras into the staging area from a surge train. Was able to quest successfully on every round. Having Arwen out first round certainly helped. However, I ended up getting Mugash out on the 4th round, whereupon he killed Denethor, which is a scoop. I wonder what else I'm missing here?