The Antlered Crown - 10:361

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It took 9 tries for my usual collaborator and I to beat this coop, hence this is my 10th play, albeit my first solitaire play. I'm using Deeds of Dwarves deck again because why not? It did really against the last two quests. Let's see how it works agains this one.

Initial hand:

  1. Longbeard Orc Slayer
  2. Narvi's Belt
  3. Unexpected Courage
  4. Narvi's Belt
  5. Gandalf
  6. Dori

This is not a very good opening hand, but it's not bad either. Narvi's Belt is such an important card that I'm going to keep it, and having Unexpected Courage sweetens it.

Round 1

  1. Resource: 3, draw Dwalin.
  2. Planning: none.
  3. Quest: Thorin, Ori for 7 Will, reveal Raising The Cry which removes a time counter from Raven War Camp. Net +4 progress.
  4. Travel: Raven War Camp.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 32.

Remove 1 Time Counter, 2 remaining on quest.

Round 2

  1. Resource: 6, draw Gandalf.
  2. Planning: I'm going to play Gandalf, have him draw 3 cards: Kili, Sneak Attack, and Erebor Hammersmith.
  3. Quest: Thorin, Ori, Gandalf for Will 11, reveal Raven War Camp.
  4. Travel: Raven War Camp.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 33.

Note: I could have used Chief Turch for questing and cleared Stage 1 this round. Bummer.

Round 3

  1. Resource: 4, draw King Under the Mountain.
  2. Planning: Play Erebor Hammersmith.
  3. Quest: Thorin, Ori, Chief Turch, ERH for 10 Will, reveal Old Hatreds which surges Raven Skirmisher. This clears Stage 1. Dunland Prowler added to Staging.
  4. Travel: None.
  5. Encounter: Skirmisher and Prowler
  6. Combat: Dain defends Skirmisher, shadow Raven Village dealing 2 more shadows from Raven deck: Dunland Raider which whiffs, Dunland Berserker which forces another attack. Senak Attack Gandalf to defend, shadow Driven Back which has no effect. Prowler on Thorin undefended, shadow Raven Warrior which whiffs. Two hits on Thorin, draw 3 cards Sneak Attack, Daeron's Runes, Durin's Song. Daeron's Runes draw Dwalin and King Under the Mountain, discard Longbeard Orc Slayer.
  7. Refresh: Threat 34.

Remove 1 time counter.

Round 4

  1. Resource: 4, draw Second Breakfast.
  2. Planning: None.
  3. Quest: Thorin, reveal Raven Skirmisher.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Raven Skirmisher.
  6. Combat: Gandalf Sneak Attack to take out Dunland Prowler. Gandalf defends Raven Skirmisher, shadow Fierce Folk which has no effect on Gandalf. Turch defends Skirmisher, shadow Raven Country which assign X damage on characters I control where X is the number of Time Counters on the active location. There is no active location, but I would put them on Gandalf anyway. Lol. Thorin kills one skirmisher, Ori and ERH kill the other.
  7. Refresh: Threat 35.

I'm actually fine with playing all this Gandalf early on as I've not had very good dwarf cards up until now, and it's going to be another turn before I can play them.

Remove 1 Time counter.

Round 5

  1. Resource: 6, draw Bifur.
  2. Planning: Narvi's Belt on Thorin. Play Dori.
  3. Quest: Ori, Bifur, reveal Raven Village. Net +2 Progress.
  4. Travel: Raven Village.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: none.
  7. Refresh: Threat 36.

Remove Time Counter draw Dunland Tribesman.

Round 6

  1. Resource: 5, draw Ancestral Knowledge and Daeron's Rune.
  2. Planning: Daeron's Runes draw Durin's Song and Dwarven Tomb. Discard King Under the Mountain. Play Kili and Fili.
  3. Quest: Ori, Dori for 5 Will, reveal Fierce Folk and cannot play events for the rest of the round. That's fine. Also Doomed Three so the Dunland Tribesman are both coming out. Cards: Erebor Hammersmith, Kili, Henamarth Riversong. Location is cleared, no net progress.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: Dunland Tribesman x2.
  6. Combat: Let's give up Fili and Kili and see about getting them back hopefully not drawing another Fili for a turn. Kili defends, shadow Raven War Camp which has no effect. Kili defends, shadow Raven War Camp which has no effect. Lucky! Now let's see if I can kill these doobers. I need 10 total in 2 sets of 5. Can't do it unless I use Durin's Song, but I can't because Fierce Folk. Whatever.
  7. Refresh: Threat 40.

Rmove Time Counter.

Round 7

  1. Resource: 6, draw Miner of the Iron Hills and Erebor Hammersmith.
  2. Planning: Play Dwalin and Erebor Record Keeper.
  3. Quest: Thorin, Ori, ERK, Dori for Will 11, reveal Raising The Cry for surge Wild Men of Dunland. Net +11 to Stage 2.
  4. Travel: none.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Dain defends, shadow Dunland Battlefield for 2 hits total on Dain. Chief Turch takes out Dunland Tribesman.
  7. Refresh: Threat 41.

Asterisk: I forgot to surge after Wild Men of Dunland. It won't matter in the long run probably, would have just added a couple more turns as this one is almost in the bag.

Round 8

  1. Resource: 8, draw Miner of the Iron Hills, Untroubled By Darkness.
  2. Planning: Play Henamarth and Fili, King Under the Mountain on Dain, draw Gloin and discard Narvi's Belt. Scry Raven Warrior.
  3. Quest: Ori, ERK, which clears Stage 2.
  4. Travel: Raven Chief's Camp.
  5. Encounter: Raven Warrior, Raven Chief.
  6. Combat: ERH defends Raven Chief, shadow Raven Village draw shadows Dunland Chieftain and Dunland Raider, discard King Under the Mountain. Dwalin defends, shadow Driven Back which has no shadow, Dwalin is kaput. Buncha folks kill Raven Warrior.
  7. Refresh: Threat 42.

Round 9

  1. Resource: 6, draw Daeron's Runes and Gloin.
  2. Planning: Daeron's Runes draw Parting Gifts and Untroubled by Darkness. Play Gloin. Scry Raven Country. Durin's Song on Thorin.
  3. Quest: Thorin, Gloin, Kili, play Untroubled By Darkness, Reveal Raven Country. This clears Raven Chief's Camp.
  4. Travel: Raven Country.
  5. Encounter: none.
  6. Combat: Fili defends Raven Chief, shadow Raven Warrior discard Narvi's Belt. ERK readies Thorin. Turch for 3, Thorin for 3 + 1 + 2, Ori for 2 + 1, Dori for 2 + 1 is 14, need 14 and that's a win.

AAR

This is a slight asterisk due to forgotten to surge Raven Warrior. I don't think it would have changed much, just made the game go a turn or two longer. Then again, this deck is not well tuned with useless cards like Second Breakfast, and no Steward of Gondor, etc. I did remember to operate the time counters effectively.

This was much harder in co-op, I think due to the difficulty of location control, which I stayed on top of for this game. Location lock in this quest is a nightmare as it triggers all sorts of adversity as the time counters trigger.

Actually I just now see that Turch should have removed a time counter from Raven Country after he attacked. No big deal, it would not change the outcome.

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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.