The Three Trials 16:352

Previous:
Next:
Tags

Another crack with Chad's deck.

Loss on location lock.

Setup: Boar Guardian and Cave Barrow.

This one went 8 or 9 rounds and location locked at 40 Threat. Everything but Asfaloth in play, with location after location coming out one after another, and the Cave Barrow location active. There were two Treacheries, which of course both were one which requires removing a Time Counter or putting the active location back into staging. A couple of Grim Foothills(?) to prevent progress on Cave Barrow, and that was that.

Setting up checklist

This is a checklist to help set this quest up rapidly. The order of the Trials is taken from Chad's recommendation for how to play this deck.

Setup

  • Set aside Guardians, Barrows, Keys, and Hallowed Circle.
  • Advance to Trial of Intuition

Trial of Intuition

Side 2A

  • Randomly choose a Guardian, reveal it and add to the Staging Area.
  • Randomly choose a Barrow, reveal it and add to the Staging Area.
  • Shuffle in the Encounter discard pile if applicable.
  • Shuffle the Guardian Key into the bottom 10 cards of the Encounter deck.

Side 2B

  • Guardian engages (first player?), resolve engage effects (Pippin draws a card).
  • Discard Encounter cards on successful questing instead of placing progress on the quest.
  • When Key is acquired, Guardian and Barrow go to Victory Display.
  • Advance to Trial of Perserverance.

Trial of Perserverance

Trial of Strength

Previous:
Next:
Tags

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.