Greetings, readers! I hope that the holiday season finds you well. I always love this season of the year, as I have ample opportunity for delicious honey-cakes before it is comes time to hibernate. In the spirit of giving, and on behalf of The Grey Company and one very generous reader, I am pleased to announce a new contest. A reader by the name of David Gearhart has graciously donated a copy of Fog on the Barrow-downs and you, dear readers, have a chance to win this fine prize. As this is a copy of the Fellowship night kit, it also includes a much-sought copy of Aragorn, with alternate art.
For this contest, we want to hear your most epic story of bravery, specifically as it relates to making quest progress (active location or on the quest itself) in a single round. Please note that this does not have to be a traditional willpower-based quest. As we discussed on our most recent episode, Leadership is great at boosting willpower. But there is more to being heroic than just willpower. Prowess in Battle and Siege quests counts just as much for this contest.
As a giant bear, and troll-killing machine, I prefer battle quests myself. At the Battle of Five Armies (six if you count me), I had a chance to witness quite a few heroic deeds, so that epic tale should provide an excellent baseline for comparison. Pay heed, for the narrative is just as important to this contest as raw numbers. The most excited moments of a story are more than just quantitative, they are qualitative as well.
So come, fellow scribes, and submit your stories in the comments below. The Grey Company will be discussing our favorites before we record our live stream of The Battle of Five Armies on Sunday December 14th. Soon after that – assuming I haven’t gone rampaging off into the wilderness after seeing the last Hobbit movie – we will be announcing the winner. I want to stress that spelling and grammar are not part of the criteria, so those with English as a second language are invited to enter as well. As a bear, I find English to be a ridiculously clumsy language, so I can empathize with those that hail from far-off lands. Good luck to all who enter and we look forward to reading many great tales of heroism!
Hall of Beorn 
Hi,
Here is my submission. My story is not about massive landslides of progress tokens hammering the quest. In fact, just the opposite: it is about eking out a victory token by token, in the kind of razor’s edge game that I hope to play each time I sit down with Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, and Men. And bears too, of course.
The quest was Siege of Cair Andros. The game was played on January 28, 2013 (thank you, quest log). If you’re like me, maybe you haven’t played the Siege in awhile, so let me refresh: the quest starts with three Battleground locations in the staging area: The Citadel (11 quest points), The Approach (7), and The Banks (3). If you manage to explore these, you remove stages 2, 3, and 4 from the quest deck. But the encounter deck will try to place damage tokens on them, destroying them instead of exploring them. While on stage 1, damage from undefended attacks is placed on the lowest threat Battleground location in play.
In our 2 player game, our heroes were Beregond, Eleanor, and Glorfindel (S) along with Dain, Ori, and Gloin.
The battle report I had recorded left some plays out (like dwarven allies hitting the table), but it’s a pretty good approximation. The turns looked something like this:
Turn 1: Thror’s Map makes The Bank the active location (mind you, this game happened pre-errata). We fail to clear it, putting only 1 progress token down. We have to use Sneak Attack with Gandalf to destroy an enemy in the staging area, after staging, just to do that much.
Turn 2: Asfaloth comes out, goes on Glorfindel and finishes The Bank. Ancient Mathom was on The Banks before we cleared it, and nets three cards for the Beregond deck. Thror’s Map makes The Approach the active location. Arwen and a Winged Guardian get onto the table. Steward of Gondor goes on Ori. During questing, we quest hard and clear The Approach. We travel to The Citadel, our last Battleground. Things are progressing quickly, and there are several enemies on the table. Beregond and Dain have their work cut out for them. Beregond does not have his shield. There is now a Battering Ram in play, which we are forced to take undefended. 7 damage on The Citadel.
Turn 3: Unexpected Courage goes on Beregond and Light of Valinor on Glorfindel. The dwarf player plays Gandalf to lower threat. Gandalf quests. We quest heavy and, as luck would have it, The Citadel is not destroyed. We put *exactly* 11 tokens on it. Now there are no Battlegrounds in play, and we move directly to stage 5. This will have the Battle keyword thanks to our victory points. In the combat phase, we use Feint on the Battering Ram and clear out two other engaged enemies. There’s a copy of Southron Mercenaries (Archery 2 for a 2 player game) in the staging area, plinking away at us.
Turn 4: The dwarf deck reached 5 dwarves last round, so now the dwarf player draws 2 cards. Battle is not good for us. Dain helps, but we just have more Defense power than anything else. At the end of this turn, there are 3 Southron Mercenaries, and we’ve only put 9 (of 15) progress tokens down. We use another Feint on the Battering Ram, then clear out another engaged enemy.
Turn 5: This is it, now or nothing. We quest all-in, anyone with any sort of attack power is thrown into the Battle. If we fail, we will be overrun in combat. 2 Battering Rams are added to the 3 Southron Mercenaries already in the staging area — 10 threat vs. our combined 16 questing power, giving us exactly the 6 progress tokens needed to finish the quest. Every single sword was needed that day.
The final score was 112: 40 (rounds) + 65 (threat) + 13 (damage on heroes) – 6 (Victory Points). A very tense game.
Reblogged this on Grey Company Podcast and commented:
New contest! Recount your own heroic deed and win a copy of Fog on the Barrrow-downs.
“Lord Alarcon asks the heroes to deliver a scroll to Faramir. The heroes agree when a band of ruffians appear, intent on intercepting the message…”
Glorfondel is the first to rise from the table, his hair free flowing and wild. Behind him two robed older gentlemen rise one after the other. A menacing Harbour thug appoarches them when he is blinded by a light so strong that even the eyes of Mordor must have seen it. The light is emanating from a third robed older gentleman.
“Saruman”, the two robed men behind Glorfindel whisper in unison.
“Follow me!” He says pushing thugs and commoners aside making a path for the heroes to follow.
“Gandalf, Elrond join me now!” Shouts Glorfindel as they push out into the street guides by the might of Saruman. They have in an instant left the Leaping Fish behind.
In a matter of seconds they are already fighting in the streets, but Saruman is nowhere to be seen and the Harbour Thug is in wild pursuit… Will they make it out of the city alive? Will Saruman return to aid them once more…
*I battle quested for 13 during the first round again a threat of 0 clearing out the active location and the first quest stage in one go.
Reblogged this on Tales from the Cards and commented:
New Grey Company contest! You can win a copy of Fog on the Barrow Downs!
This ended up getting longer than I expected, but here’s my entry, from a 3-player game I played last night. This isn’t so much a massive willpower push, as a tale of the noble efforts of one northern tracker who refused to lie down in the face of oblivion.
The journey through the Redhorn Gate had gone surprisingly well, a caravan of nine escorting the famous Arwen Undomiel over the mountains. Along the way, a small hoard of west road travellers, Zigil Miners, and even a few Dunedain had joined up for protection from the wargs who seemed to lurk behind every rock. Still, the Dunedain tracker had made three expeditions ahead to scout possible ways past Caradhras, and the weather wasn’t looking so good.
Over the Dimril Stair the party went, and then they hit the mountain itsself. In the first effort to climb it, a pair of Rocky Crags appeared where none had been expected, and a sudden snowstorm brought absolute devastation to the front scouts. 3 west road travelers, 2 zigil miners, 2 eagles, Thalin, and Dwalin all died under the brutal weather. Everyone could feel malevolent watchers in the rocky crags staring down, and a palpable feeling of threat went through the group. The tracker told them that he could scout out the crags and remove any threat lurking there, but not while the fierce snow continued to blow down off of Caradhras. The stoutest heroes again tried to clear the mountain, but again were driven back, this time with a pair of wargs on their heels.
Legolas prepared himself. If only he could kill both wargs (using the courage that enemies always found so unexpected, and the support of the eagles), he was pretty sure he could track them back and find a way past the mountain. Alas, it was not to be, the wargs tore the eagle apart, dealt a fatal wound to Dunhere, and fled.
The tracker saw that the party would never manage to get past the rocky crags and knowing full well that he could not survive the fury of the mountain, he marched out of camp to drive away the horrors that lurked there. Halfway, he collapsed under the weight of the snow, lacking the will to continue, when he heard a voice on the wind: “Stand and Fight! ” A hallucination? probably, but it got him up and pushed him the rest of the way to crags before he collapsed a second and final time, opening the path to the mountain and eventually to rivendell.
I am not a huge fan of Willpower quests but I do have a great story of defeating the last stage of a Knife in the Dark if that counts.
Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin left Bree not knowing what to expect (first time playing the quest blind). They had been dogged by Bill Ferny and had dealt with many dangerous treacherys, allways choosing to add more of the dangerous Black Riders to the hunt. The wilds were huge though, and the odds of finding one, let alone two Black Riders were very low. They made their way through the marsh and finally to Weathertop…where they were ambushed by the 7 Black Riders they had put on their trail!
The only way through the quest was to defeat them and what could 4 hobbits do against 7 wraiths? They did not surrender or run away though! The Hobbits began feinting and striking while unseen to take them on one by one, using Frodo’s great intuition and Sam’s fast hitches to avoid having to engange all of the Riders at once. Pippin was a small target and it helped him dodge a Rider, however it could not save him from the Witch King and he fell. When all hope seemed losted and they were out of options to continue, Gandalf appeared to help defeat a wraith…and then he dissapeared only came back a second time to kill anouther.
Wounded, sore, and greaving the loss of Pippen, the hobbits finally defeated the last rider and made it through the quest.
Not sure if this counts as bravery, or dumb luck in the face of foolishness and naivety, but here is my tale. I have only the core set and the black riders and road darkens expansions to draw my decks from, and was about to complete, for the first time, the first quest of campaign mode. My two decks were a Spirit/Lore combo with Fatty, Pippin and Glorfindel, and a Tactics/Leadership deck with Sam, Merry and Aragorn. After 8 rounds, and a few threat bumps, player 1, Spirit/Lore, was sat on 36 threat, while player 2 was on 35. The Buckleberry Ferry was finally the active location, and the staging area was empty. Victory was in sight, and I must confess, I lost my head in my excitement.
I had gone all in for a final push to explore the ferry, commuting a total of 13 quest points, with Glorfindel, Gildor, Sam, Aragorn, and Frodo all committed. Player 1 draws ‘Crawling Towards Him’. Not wanting to fail the hide test and remove 8 from my quest, Frodo slips on the ring. The redraw brings out ‘Lure of the Ring’. Threat to 39. Surge brings out the second copy. Threat to 42. Surge brings out ‘Black Steed’. It is discarded, as there are no Nazgul in play. But it surges, and with it comes the third ‘Lure of the Ring’. Threat on 45. By this point I am panicking. What was a comfortable Threat margin has quite quickly ramped up to borderline terrifying. At this point, Fatty is weeping in the fetal position, while Glorfindel and Gildor are looking on edge. The surge brings out ‘Hunting for the Ring’. Doomed 2. Threat 47. Hide 2 Test. Merry and Boromir commit, scraping past for Deck 2. Deck 1 puts forward Pippin and Fatty. Success. Finally, player 2 reveals an encounter card. Evil Crow. The Ferry is explored. The game is won. As my heroes cross the river, the feeling of relief which was growing in the hearts is quelled by the call of some cruel bird upon the far bank. A reminder that their passing was not unnoticed, and the enemy hunts them still.
As a huge Tactics fan (and conveniently about to play it anyway) I opted to play The Battle of the Five Armies using a mono-red deck consisting of Beorn, Thalin, and Bard. I played with a friend who ran a tri-sphere deck with Thorin, Ori, and Nori. It was a long fight of questing and attacking, but as you (Beorn) want an account of questing I here record our quest phases in a manner akin to TftC’s campaign mode (what actually happened/story), although not nearly as well documented. Nonetheless, it made for a fun time and a great story. NOTE: This is liable to be a long entry and I apologize if I break the Internet. 😉
Quest Phase 1: Unfortunately, I did not write down who/what we committed. I do recall we chose 4B as our quest and committed barely enough to get two progress, and that we drew a Misty Mountain Eagle and two copies of Hidden Path. (Story: The fighting first began on Ravenhill, where an eagle sent by Gwaihir came to aid our heroes as they encountered two hidden paths swarming with foes.)
Quest Phase 2: Stage 3B, my specialty. I committed all of heroes for nine while friend probably committed a bunch of dwarves for a total of 17. We had a threat margin of 3 (that means three threat could enter in order to make progress). Dark Bats flew out of the encounter deck but were immediately slain by Thalin. The next card was Northern Slopes, allowing for one progress on the quest stage (minus a three-quest-point active location. (Story: Beorn led the charge down into the Dale, where Thalin slew several dark bats threatening one of the group before they found the northern slopes rising up before them. Not wanting to risk Ravenhill once more, they turned down a hidden path beside them instead.)
Quest Phase 3: This is where things got interesting. Stage 2B. I committed four Bard and Thalin, holding Beorn back for combat, while my friend committed eleven with numerous Dwarf allies and Bilbo. First card: Heedless of Order. We opt to switch to stage 3B, and although my friend’s total went down mine went up, evening out the loss to fourteen committed. This surges to: Gundabad Climber, who reduced our progress total on stage 4B to one. Because of Bolg, this also surges to: Heedless of Order again, proving the card’s title accurate. We went back to stage 2B (fifteen committed) and drew the surge card, which was Gundabad Archer. Finally, I got to draw my card, which turned out to be Weighed Down. Fortunately, this was cancelled by A Test of Will, and we made five progress. (Story: The battle’s focus turned to the Eastern Spur, where the men of Lake-town stood ready with grim expressions on their faces. They stood in orderly lines until the goblins broke their ranks. Then, heedless of order, they drove their enemy into the Dale, out which a climber from Gundabad scrambled to make siege on Ravenhill. and yet the heroes could do nothing. The Lake-men returned once more to the Spur, upon which the arrows of goblin archers rained down like rain from a thunderstorm. Disheartened, the friends of Gandalf almost gave up hope, weighed down by the sheer numbers of their adversaries. Indeed, they would have, had it not been for Nori’s impassionate speech: “Rise up, my friends! Do not give in to weariness! We shall make our last stand, for it is a test of our will; and we shall persevere!” Thusly roused, the soldiers of good fought with a newfound strength that surprises the servants of Sauron and caused them to retreat.)
Quest Phase 4: Stage 3B once more. I commit a newly-acquired Landroval along with Bilbo, Bard, and Thalin for ten while friend committed (once again) a rabble of Dwarves. First card: Fighting Among Friends. After much debate (but no fighting), we name Tactics, losing nine from the quest. Second Card: Gundabad Climber, which eliminated all of our progress on stage 4B and left four on 2B. Again, Bolg’s effect had it surge to: Weighed Down. I lose four, lowering our total to six vs. ten. Ouch. Fortunately, my friend had Durin’s Song in hand and Ziggy in play. My friend chose one and struck gold, giving the resource to Thorin before playing Durin’s Song on Thalin. Meanwhile, we each had a copy of Burglar Baggins in hand and Bilbo had two resources, which I joyously paid for the cards with. Our (cough* my *cough) grand total was twelve vs. ten, yielding us two progress on 3B. (Story: Once again our heroes found themselves in the Dale, and began to debate the best way to defeat the Enemy. This debate soon turned to a brawl among the dwarves, and it was up to Thalin, Bard, Landroval, and Bilbo to save the day. They turned to find another climber from the accursed mountain of Gundabad scaling Ravenhill, and yet they could do nothing, for they were weighed down with the enormity of their task. Suddenly, a Zigil miner began to sing a song of Durin, raising Thalin’s spirits. Simultaneously, Bilbo felt his Tookish side emerge and he recalled the exhilaration burgling from Smaug had brought him, and alongside the Dwarf he slashed at their adversaries and made progress against their foe.)
Quest Phase 5: Last round had been our turning of the tide in our favor, and we (finally) returned our focus to 4B, questing for 19. First card: Ravenous Warg. No biggie. Second card: A Vanguard of Bolg, which surged to yet another Gundabad Climber, which stole even more of our precious progress tokens. We made six progress. (Story: Back atop Ravenhill, the Elves’ spirits have been rekindled, even though a wave of enemies engulfed them. They raised their shields and absorbed many hits from pesky Gundabad orcs and wargs, which Beorn ate several minutes later.)
Quest Phase 6: 3B again. Unfortunately, we now had a pretty good clasp on victory, and our interest rate drops here. Nonetheless, we made an impressive show of questing for twenty. First card: Vanguard of Bolg, which every so kindly surged into Dark Bats, nullified by Thalin. Second Card: Hatred Rekindled fizzled, surging to another vanguard. Let’s just say Beorn had a lovely dessert after our ten progress which clinched the Dale as ours. (Story: The battle in the Dale continued, although our heroes now have the upper hand. Thalin slew another group of Dark Bats, and even the hatred of two vanguards of the repulsive Bolg could not hinder their superiority.)
Quest Phase 7: 2B again. We quested for 16 and drew Ravenhill; slightly worrying, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Second card: What is it with us and Fighting Among Friends? This time my characters had a fight (over who could kill/devour the next goblin) while my friend’s Leadership characters, well, took the leadership position (forgive the bad pun), and placed two progress on the quest even despite the loss of seven willpower. (Story: As the others quarreled upon near the foot of Ravenhill, Thorin led his faithful kinfolk to the Eastern Spur and defeated many of the enemy.)
Quest Phase 8: 4B now, to clinch it. We sieged it for 20 and prepared for the worst after my friend played Expecting Mischief. First card: A Wolf-rider, most conveniently destroyed by our Thalin/Expecting Mischief combo. Nevertheless, it surged into Northern Slopes. Second Card: Ravenous Warg. No problem there as we make eight progress. (Story: Our brave heroes seize Ravenhill as their own and declare it free from enemy hands as the last two adversaries flee the area.)
Quest Phase 9: This is it, don’t worry; our last round (sniff). 2B for the win, questing for 18. First Card: Another Wolf-rider which surges to YET ANOTHER GUNDABAD CLIMBER. Second Card: Just take a guess here. Yup, another Climber, which strips us down to our bare minimum of clearing 4B. We place nine on stage 2B for grand totals of 11, 10, and 8 progress tokens on the stages, respectively. (Story: Our heroes made their final stand on the Eastern Spur, despite the Baggins-ish part of Bilbo. They face three servants of Bolg: a Wolf-rider and two Gundabad Climbers, both of which tear down soldier in the Dale and atop Ravenhill. And yet the friends of Gandalf persevered to the last, slaying the accursed Bolg and sending his evil minions back into the Abyss from whence they came.)
Whew! That was a long one. Even I did not expect it to be that long of an entry. Thanks for the contest Beorn. Keep it going!
P.S. I believe I set a record for most defenses with Beorn (four) without him taking even a single point of damage.
P.P.S. I somehow neglected the score. Oops! here it is: 61 (threat total) + 3 (damage on heroes) + 90 (nine rounds) – 3 Victory Points = 151.
This game was played a little while ago, back in August, so I’m relying on the quest log and my interpretation of things. I believe it was a two-player game, and my partner was playing a Brand, Hama, Thalin deck, and I played a Glorfindel (FoS- and is it any question the root word for his name is glory?), Pippin (BR), Sam deck against Into Ithilien.
(Story) This marked their seventh hour in Ithilien. The group risked some light several times to find their way through the forest, led by Glorfindel. Southrons had hounded the heroes’ path, and a Mûmak trumpeted behind them as they and their companions emerged from the dreadful forest. “Look!” cried Brand. “Cair Andros!” Indeed, looming in front of them was the great fortress of Gondor. Two figures, sent forth by Faramir, joined the heroes. “Defend yourself! Gildor, hurry!” Gandalf ordered, for it was he and the Elf Gildor who had arrived. Everyone followed the Elf as he led the weary group towards Cair Andros, closely followed by the Mûmak and Haradrim from the south. Seemingly out of nowhere, wargs sprang to block their path. Alas, for Pippin, Hama, a winged Guardian, Arwen, an Erebor Hammersmith, and the ever-trustworthy Ithilien Lookout could not escape their claws. An eagle of the Misty Mountains found courage in his brother’s sacrifice, and Brand, although he faltered, had the support of the Eagles. At the rear, two of their comrades became lost amidst the adversaries. But, determined to deliver their message to Faramir, the heroes pressed on and entered the island fortress.
(Reality): Yep, apparently we lost six characters due to those lovely “random” wargs, as I phrased it in the quest log. I do not know exactly how many characters were in play so that we could quest for thirty, but we did. The lost companions are not specified, but I do know that we lost ten from the quest. I think we won that round, but still, a great demonstration of how the encounter deck can really wreck your plans.
The elves crept like shadows through the ruins of the once-great city of Osgiliath. They had been sent ahead of the coming Gondorian army to flank the Enemy’s forces, infiltrating the city and attacking from either side as Boromir led his men in an assault on the city’s crumbling front gate. Legolas, Haldir, and Mirlonde picked their way silently to one side of the main thoroughfare, while Celeborn and Glorfindel headed to the other.
It seemed the Enemy’s forces were massed in what was once the King’s Library. If the coming army could retake that library as well as the Ancient Harbor nearby, the city would be theirs again. Surveying the battlefield, the elves counted their enemies. Only a few uruk soldiers had been left to guard the city.
“This is going to be easier than we thought,” Legolas remarked in a hushed whisper. The others nodded. After a moment, a new thought began to form on the elves’ faces. Mirlonde was the first to put this thought into words.
“We can take this city—the five of us. Why wait when we can have the element of surprise?” In response, Haldir nocked an arrow to his bow, and with a wry grin he took aim. The next moment, one of the uruk soldiers fell.
The encampment plunged into chaos. Orcs were falling left and right to an unseen enemy that had seemingly surrounded them. The Lieutenant of Mordor barked orders, trying desperately to mobilize his men. And then, in the midst of the scattered army of Orcs and Southrons, there was a blinding flash and a terrible booming voice which sent them all scrambling.
—-
Boromir marched his army to war, the standard of Gondor billowing in the wind as his men tramped proudly behind him. When the ruined gate of Osgiliath came in sight, he gave the signal. “For Gondor!” his men cried as they charged into the city, Boromir in front.
But something was wrong. It was too quiet. Where were the enemy orcs? The cries of the men died down to an eerie silence as they found the city deserted. A panic rose in Boromir’s heart—it must have been a trap set by the Enemy to ensnare them!
But then another sound broke the quiet. Was that… singing? As he rounded a corner he saw a small party sitting around a makeshift campfire. It was the group of elves he had sent to help with the attack, as well as another figure he hadn’t expected to see.
“Gandalf?” he said with bewilderment. The old wizard let out a hearty laugh. “Ah! Boromir, you’re here just in time. We’re about to have soup.”
“But how did you…?” Boromir could not finish his question.
“The Lady Galadriel sent me, of course. She said you would be in need of some aid. And so here I am,” he said, turning back to the soup and giving it a stir. “Come, Boromir, sit and eat with us!” Gandalf beckoned. Boromir stared, speechless in disbelief.
The wizard peered out from under the brim of his hat at the baffled men filtering in behind Boromir. Gandalf frowned.
“Although I don’t think we’re going to have enough soup for everyone.”
—-
This story emerged from a game my wife and I played a few nights ago of Assault on Osgiliath. That’s the quest from the Against the Shadow cycle where the only victory condition is that you clear (and “control”) all of the Osgiliath locations. It was an especially memorable game because we had looked at the encounter cards ahead of time and were a little worried that this was going to be a particularly difficult quest for our pair of Silvan decks to handle. As it turned out, however, we were able to win the quest on our first try by the second round.
My wife was playing a Glorfindel (S), Galadriel, Celeborn deck and I was playing a Legolas, Haldir, and Mirlonde deck. We chose the King’s Library (which has a nasty travel effect) and the Ancient Harbor (which receives progress only by exhausting heroes) as our locations, and a pair of relatively innocuous Uruk Soldiers to start out the quest.
We got a little lucky and got only enemies during the first staging. I used Thror’s Map to skip the travel effect of The King’s Library and make it the active location. We exhausted Galadriel and Legolas to put some progress on the Ancient Harbor. It was the second round that felt really epic though.
I played Gandalf, which allowed me to lower my threat to 20. That gave me the ability to play Risk Some Light as a secrecy card for free. The top three cards of the encounter deck were The Lieutenant of Mordor (who wasn’t particularly scary this early in the game) the Orc War Camp (which has a terrible 5 threat) and an Osgiliath location. I dropped the Osgiliath location to the bottom of the deck, which meant we would have to overcome a hearty 13 threat (plus 3 quest points on the active location).
Neither of had been able to get any allies out (unusual for our Silvan decks) except for Gandalf. But as we sat and did the math, we got pretty excited: Nenya let us add Galadirel’s willpower to Gandalf’s (8), Celeborn (3), Glorfindel (3), and Mirlonde (2) gave us exactly the 16 progress needed to clear out The King’s Library.
Then all we had to do was exhaust Legolas, Haldir, and Glorfindel (who was still ready due to the Light of Valinor) to put the last 3 progress on the Ancient Harbor, clearing the last Osgiliath location. We had won in two rounds!
The mental image of a handful of elves (and Gandalf) retaking Osgiliath on their own in just a few moments left us laughing aloud over what Boromir’s response might be. We’ll remember that playthrough for a long time, to be sure.
Thanks for giving me an excuse to share our little moment of joy with others!
Hope I’m not too late! This is my submission! Note that I am a relatively new player, and only have the Mirkwood Cycle and Khazad-dum, so my decks will only contain cards from those packs.
Recently, I decided to play through Journey Down the Anduin again using a deck I created that I call… Prince Imrahil and the Eagles. (Okay, not such a creative name!) A Tactics/Leadership deck, the deck used Prince Imrahil, Thalin, and Legolas as heroes, and a lot of eagle allies to take advantage of Imrahil’s ability. I also used this opportunity to use a card not commonly played, and probably considered slightly underpowered compared to other cards that have come out recently: the Keen-Eyed Took. This tale of bravery concerns two of these hobbits!
Having slew the Hill Troll, the heroes were able to board a raft allowing them to travel down the river. (That is, I had proceeded to stage 2B of the scenario.) Nevertheless, the heroes were exhausted and found it difficult to muster the willpower necessary to continue on their journey. Having encountered a Marsh Adder in stage 1 of the scenario, and having quested unsuccessfully for two turns to take care of the Hill Troll, I was struggling with a very high threat of 45. Tactics cards are not known for my willpower, and I was only mustering up around 8 willpower each turn, questing using Thalin, Imrahil, an Eagle of the Misty Mountains, two Keen-Eyed Tooks and a Dunedin Watcher. As two cards were being revealed in the staging area this stage, there was constantly around 4-6 threat after staging, and I was making only 2 to 4 progress every turn — I was only inching towards the 16 progress needed to complete stage 2B. As threat was randomly rising, I was starting to feel really hopeless! Imrahil had the support of the Steward of Gondor, and Legolas had a Horn of Gondor, and neither of them lacked resources: Imrahil in particular had stocked up already 10 resources from exhausting Steward of Gondor every turn; however, I had no cards in my hand and no way of getting any more except for at the end of the refresh phase. I knew I needed to get more willpower quickly, or I would lose.
Knowing this, I decided to use Keen-Eyed Took’s ability. I returned Keen-Eyed Took to my hand, discarding a second copy of Steward of Gondor from the top of my deck (this had been revealed to me last turn, as I had only played one of the Keen-Eyed Tooks last turn). I then replayed Keen-Eyed Took, revealing a Song of Kings — not what I needed! This was completely useless to me at the moment. I returned Keen-Eyed Took to my hand again, discarding the Song of Kings. I replayed it again — revealing a Support of the Eagles. While normally this would be a really attachment, this gave me no additional willpower. Again, I returned Keen-Eyed Took to my hand, discarding the Support of the Eagles, and replayed the Took for the third time. The top card of my deck was… Faramir (Core set)! I immediately played him.
Faramir inspired the two Keen-Eyed Tooks, the Dunedain Watchers, the Eagles of the Misty Mountains, generating 14 questing power. Finally, some progress! Unfortunately, the encounter deck wasn’t very kind to me during this time. My team powered through an extremely ill-timed Brown Lands (5 Threat, 1 Progress needed), which stalled their progress. The next turn, I made a lot of progress, but unfortunately flipped up The East Bight. I was forced to travel to it. The turn after this one, I was at a threat of 47. it at first seemed that I had enough questing power to complete the quest and get through the East Bight, but my team was hit by Despair (a treachery card that removes 4 progress from the current quest). As a result, I ended up being 2 progress tokens shy of completing the quest. The same turn, a Misty Mountain Goblins appeared, which removed another progress token from the quest when it attacked (now I was 3 progress tokens shy). My Winged Guardian, with its 4 defence, was able to defend against its attack, but I returned Keen-Eyed Took to my hand to ready Prince Imrahil, allowing him to team up with Legolas to dispatch the Misty Mountain Goblins. Legolas’s ability allowed me to put two progress tokens on the quest, leaving me one progress token away from completing stage 2B!
The next turn, I was finally able to complete stage 2B. I was now at a threat of 48. With stage 2B completed, my heroes easily dispatched the last few enemies to win the game.
Long story short, the Keen-Eyed Tooks were amazing this came. In a faction with little card draw, they were able to find Faramir for me and, with Faramir’s help, were able to quest for 2 willpower each turn. Moreover, their ability to return to my hand at any action window allowed me to take full advantage of Imrahil’s amazing stats, letting me to use him for questing without having to be worried about not having enough defenders or attackers. As Imharil had Steward of Gondor attached, I could keep replaying the Tooks every turn to find out what cards were coming next — it was a great combo, and Keen-Eyed Took was awesome in this deck!
Recently, I decided to play through Journey Down the Anduin again using a deck I created that I call… Prince Imrahil and the Eagles. (Okay, not such a creative name!) A Tactics/Leadership deck, the deck used Prince Imrahil, Thalin, and Legolas as heroes, and a lot of eagle allies to take advantage of Imrahil’s ability. I also used this opportunity to use a card not commonly played, and probably considered slightly underpowered compared to other cards that have come out recently: the Keen-Eyed Took. This tale of bravery concerns two of these hobbits!
Having slew the Hill Troll, the heroes were able to board a raft allowing them to travel down the river. (That is, I had proceeded to stage 2B of the scenario.) Nevertheless, the heroes were exhausted and found it difficult to muster the willpower necessary to continue on their journey. Having encountered a Marsh Adder in stage 1 of the scenario, and having quested unsuccessfully for two turns to take care of the Hill Troll, I was struggling with a very high threat of 45. Tactics cards are not known for my willpower, and I was only mustering up around 8 willpower each turn, questing using Thalin, Imrahil, an Eagle of the Misty Mountains, two Keen-Eyed Tooks and a Dunedin Watcher. As two cards were being revealed in the staging area this stage, there was constantly around 4-6 threat after staging, and I was making only 2 to 4 progress every turn — I was only inching towards the 16 progress needed to complete stage 2B. As threat was randomly rising, I was starting to feel really hopeless! Imrahil had the support of the Steward of Gondor, and Legolas had a Horn of Gondor, and neither of them lacked resources: Imrahil in particular had stocked up already 10 resources from exhausting Steward of Gondor every turn; however, I had no cards in my hand and no way of getting any more except for at the end of the refresh phase. I knew I needed to get more willpower quickly, or I would lose.
Knowing this, I decided to use Keen-Eyed Took’s ability. I returned Keen-Eyed Took to my hand, discarding a second copy of Steward of Gondor from the top of my deck (this had been revealed to me last turn, as I had only played one of the Keen-Eyed Tooks last turn). I then replayed Keen-Eyed Took, revealing a Song of Kings — not what I needed! This was completely useless to me at the moment. I returned Keen-Eyed Took to my hand again, discarding the Song of Kings. I replayed it again — revealing a Support of the Eagles. While normally this would be a really attachment, this gave me no additional willpower. Again, I returned Keen-Eyed Took to my hand, discarding the Support of the Eagles, and replayed the Took for the third time. The top card of my deck was… Faramir (Core set)! I immediately played him.
Faramir inspired the two Keen-Eyed Tooks, the Dunedain Watchers, the Eagles of the Misty Mountains, generating 14 questing power. Finally, some progress! Unfortunately, the encounter deck wasn’t very kind to me during this time. My team powered through an extremely ill-timed Brown Lands (5 Threat, 1 Progress needed), which stalled their progress. The next turn, I made a lot of progress, but unfortunately flipped up The East Bight. I was forced to travel to it. The turn after this one, I was at a threat of 47. it at first seemed that I had enough questing power to complete the quest and get through the East Bight, but my team was hit by Despair (a treachery card that removes 4 progress from the current quest). As a result, I ended up being 2 progress tokens shy of completing the quest. The same turn, a Misty Mountain Goblins appeared, which removed another progress token from the quest when it attacked (now I was 3 progress tokens shy). My Winged Guardian, with its 4 defence, was able to defend against its attack, but I returned Keen-Eyed Took to my hand to ready Prince Imrahil, allowing him to team up with Legolas to dispatch the Misty Mountain Goblins. Legolas’s ability allowed me to put two progress tokens on the quest, leaving me one progress token away from completing stage 2B!
The next turn, I was finally able to complete stage 2B. I was now at a threat of 48. With stage 2B completed, my heroes easily dispatched the last few enemies to win the game.
Long story short, the Keen-Eyed Tooks were amazing this came. In a faction with little card draw, they were able to find Faramir for me and, with Faramir’s help, were able to quest for 2 willpower each turn. Moreover, their ability to return to my hand at any action window allowed me to take full advantage of Imrahil’s amazing stats, letting me to use him for questing without having to be worried about not having enough defenders or attackers. As Imharil had Steward of Gondor attached, I could keep replaying the Tooks every turn to find out what cards were coming next — it was a great combo, and Keen-Eyed Took was awesome in this deck!
Oops, accidentally copy-pasted my response twice in my last post.. so, ignore the repeated part! 😦
Ack, also noticed that I actually made a mistake while telling the story. I forgot that, after scrying Faramir from the top of my deck, I actually had to wait a turn until I drew Faramir during the next resource phase. So the turn I started with in my story must have been the turn with 44 threat.
Wow, amazing use of the Keen-eyed Took. Timmy Mo! I haven’t used that little guy in a loooong time. More evidence that even the smallest can change a game.