LotR 341 - Deadman's Dike 2

Jul 6 2024

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We resume our travail in The Lost Realm with Deadman's Dike. Neither of us believed we could be this 7 difficulty quest on our first attempt, and in fact we were hoping we wouldn't end up spending Q3 working through it.

Game 340/1: Our hopes seemed dashed right from the start, when Elrond was taken out on the first round with a high attack enemy/shadow combination. Brutal. Since it was the first round, we broke for lunch, being that time anyway.

Game 341/2: After lunch, with no great expectations, we rolled on to a second game. As it turned out, I started or drew into the killer combo for my Elrond/Vilya deck: Stargazer, Light of Valinor, Unexpected Courage, and Vilya were in play by the end of Round 2. Since the main conceit of Deadman's Dike is having the Encounter deck mill the player's decks, the way to play the EV combo is in the Planning Phase. Have Stargazer do its thing and arrange at least the top card for draw, and the card put into play with E/V. Faramir and Northern Tracker both came out in this way, and it helped to beat the quest. We were both surprised.

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.