Skipping Escape from Dol Gondor for now, we move on the the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle.
I played a few games, tweaking the deck, to beat Battle at Laketown. In the interest of keeping my number of changes as low as possible, I made a couple of changes to the main deck:
Out: Landroval, Gwaihir
In: Northern Tracker, Cloak of Lorien
Setup:
I mulligan a no-Vilya hand into:
Vilya
Hidden Cache
Northern Tracker
Bilbo
Arwen
Light of Valinor
Expert Treasure Hunter on top
Encounter deck starts with Old Wives Tales, exhausting all 3 of my heroes! At least there is no threat in the staging area.
Round 1 (36 Threat, clear staging area)
Play Wizard's Pipe off the top, revealing Elrond's Counsel. Play Arwen from hand, and move to Questing.
Quest for 3 (playing Counsel on Arwen). Staging reveals Flooding (doomed 1, surge, no effect) and Hunting Warg (1 threat, 3 attack). Add 2 progress, and look at top 3. Ravenous Hawk engages me, and I play Watched Path (and make it the active location), rather than a guarded Clue. The Warg also engages, and I have to fight two 3-attack enemies.
Arwen defends the first, giving herself a bonus. She is then Pursued by Shadow, returns to my hand, and I must take the attack undefended. 3 damage on Galadriel.
Second attack is undefended, shadow card is Hunters (no clues, so no effect). 3 damage on Elrond.
Hunting Wargs forces me to search the deck and add a Hunters to the staging area.
Refresh, and move on to
Round 2 (35 Threat, Hunters in staging area, 2 3-attack foes to deal with)
I have a Dwarven Tomb atop my deck, which will get back the Counsel, and allow me to avoid engaging the Hunters this turn. Gandalf pays for that, revealing Gildor Inglorian. I play Vilya, use it to play Gildor, and move to quest.
Gildor quests for 4. Encounter card is the Old Ford (1 threat for now) so my questing is successful by 1. No engagements, and we move on to the two 3-str attacks. Since I don't have the Attack power to eliminate either enemy, I will just defend each of them. Neither shadow card has an effect, and I take no damage. Galadriel exhausts just for the -1 Threat (I can't draw the card, due to Watched Path)
Round 3 (32 Threat, 3 threat in staging, +1 for every additional ally I play)
I play my freshly drawn Nenya, Silvan Refugee off the top, and a Light of Valinor on Elrond. Also, my two Expert Treasure Hunters finally come out to play.
Quest for 5 (keeping Gandalf ready) against 4 threat, then exhaust to play Beorn off the top. (oops, that's +1 threat) That reveals Daeren's Runes, which I can't productively play right now.
Staging gives me The Trail Goes Cold - making the total threat 8. Galadriel exhausts to add 4, getting me 1 progress this turn. Just enough to trigger Expert Treasure Hunter, and I use the Pipe before hand to swap in a Hidden Cache for +2 resources on Elrond. My new top card is Zigil Miner, so I should have plenty of resources going forwards. I look at 3, and play Relentless Hunters, which does nothing (not staging step, so no surge), rather than reveal Old Wives Tale and lose resources and Gandalf.
Block the first attack with the Refugee, no important shadow effect. Refugee dies.
Block second attack with Gildor, who is Pursued By Shadow back to my hand. Gandalf takes 3 undefended damage.
Gandalf and Beoren team up to kill the Hawk, leaving me with only one engaged enemy.
Round 4 (33 Threat, 5 + X in staging area, 1 enemy engaged)
Spend 4 resources for the Northern Tracker, then quest with Gandalf, Elrond, and him (7 willpower against 7 threat). Staging is an additional Hunters.
Before resolving the quest, I pipe Gildor to the top, Vilya him into play, and then activate him to look at Unexpected Courage, Refugee, Hasty Stroke. Swap Hidden Cache for Unexpected Courage, put Refugee on top. Exhaust Nenya for +4 willpower, passing by 1. (+2 resources to Elrond, leave Hasty Stroke on top from Expert Treasure Seeker).
Look at top 3, engage another Hawk, and add Eaves of Mirkwood to staging.
Now that I have 2 enemies again: defend one with Tracker (1 damage) and one with Beoren (remove progress from quest, 0 damage).
Round 5 (34 Threat, 9 in staging area assuming Tracker quests, 2 enemies engaged)
Riversong off the top (revealing Elfhelm). Arwen from hand. Unexpected Courange on Gandalf.
Quest with Gandalf, Elrond, Arwen, Riversong, Tracker (completing Old Ford), and Gildor for 13 against 9. Staging reveals a new Watched Path. I play Elfhelm off the top, pipe Beoren for the Cache, and take Cache and Unexpected Courage into hand, revealing a Cloak of Lorien. I reveal another Restless Hunters, for no effect. Exhaust Galadriel for -1 Threat (to 33, dodging the Hunters) and no card draw.
Arwen defends the first attack (bonus to herself) - no shadow effect, she takes 1 damage
Second attack goes undefended - one extra shadow card, but no effect. Gandalf takes 3 damage.
Gandalf + Elfhelm finish off the Hunting Wargs. Beoren activates his rage, and pounds the Hawk - no enemies engaged!
Riversong tells me the top card of the deck is The East Bank. My new top card is Will of the West.
Round 6 (34 Threat, 9 in staging assuming Tracker quests)
Exhaust Gildor to look at Counsel, Treasure Hunter, and Beoren. Swap Counsel for Hidden Cache.
Play Zigil Miner, and mill off Cache and Treasure Hunter for 4 resources, leaving Beoren on top to be played later.
Using my accumulated resources, play Refugee, Bilbo, and Unexpected Courage (Elrond) from hand. Exhaust Courage and Vilya to play Beoren off the top. Use Gandalf's resources to play Unexpected Courage off the top on Galadriel. Pipe to swap Vilya and the Counsel from hand, and it's time to quest.
Counsel off the top, quest with Gandalf, Elrond, Tracker, Arwen (bonus to Bilbo) and the non-kneelers for a total of 14 against a known 12 to be revealed. Galadriel adds 4, finishing the active location, and adding 5 to stage 1 (6/8 complete).
I finally reveal a Signs of Golem, guarded by Hunter's Lookout. Make Watched Path the active location, and optionally engage one Hunter.
Beoren defends, no shadow effect, he takes 1 damage. Gandalf, Elrond, Elfhelm, and Riversong team up and take out the Hunter. Galariel lowers my Threat by 1.
Refresh, move the Signs over to the Hunter (from the Nightmare Card effect), and move to
Round 7 (31 Threat, still 9 in staging, A Test of Will, Hasty Stroke, and Will of the West all in hand, though)
Play Warden of Healing off the top, and move to Quest. My piles of Spirit allies add up to 17 Willpower, when the Heroes are added in. Staging is just another Eaves of Mirkwood, so I make 6 progress, just enough to finish the location (I can draw cards again!) and stage 1 of the quest.
Before that happens, though, I activate Gildor and take a peek at the top 3, and move Boromir to the top (play with Vilya). I reveal The Old Ford for my 1-of-3, and take Gildor and Runes into hand from my deck. With all the Watched Paths gone, I exhaust Galadriel to draw, mill off a Cache with Zigil Miner, and then play 2 Runes (discarding Vilyas each time).
Make Old Ford the active location, and engage the Hunters.
Boromir defends. No shadow effect (another Clue), so he takes 1 damage (and readies). Boromir, Beoren, Gandalf, and Elrond combine to take out the hunter - no enemies in play means I will be able to claim the Clue next turn. Riversong tells me a West Bank is coming up. Warden heals Eldrond and Galadriel for 2 each, refresh, and use Miner to mill off a Hidden Cache before
Round 8 (31 Threat, no enemies)
Play Faramir from hand. Play Ring of Brahir and Burning Brand on Elrond. Pipe a Northern Tracker to the top, and play with Vilya. Play Warden of Healing off the top.
Quest for 27 after exhausting Faramir (2x tracker, Faramir, Arwen (buff Elrond), Refugee, Bilbo, Warden, Gandalf, Elrond) This also clears out several locations. Reveal the West Bank as my choice of 2, then reveal a Hunters, making the total staging threat 9. 18 progress is more than enough to move on to stage 3.
I also draw a Flame of Anor, Cloak of Lorien, Dwarven Tomb (exhaust Galadriel).
Block the 4 attack hunters with 4 defense Elrond, cancel shadow with A Burning Brand. Gang pile to kill them off. Exhaust both wardens to heal all my Heroes to full. Riversong tells me my next encounter card is West Bank. To win, all I need is to quest for 16 next turn.
Round 9:
Draw the last card in my deck. Play as many Elrond's Councel as I can to lower my Threat:
1 from hand
1 Dwarven Tomb from hand
Will of the West to re-shuffle
1 from deck in the Resource phase
1 from deck in the Planning phase (after manipulating with Zigil Miners and Gildor and Galadriel)
1 from deck in the Quest phase
2 Dwarven Tomb from hand in the Quest phase
for a total of -21 threat, leaving me at 9.
Also, play 2 Flame of Anor for no particular reason.
Final Score: 8 rounds + 9 threat + no damage/heroes lost - 2 Flame of Anor VP = 87
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