Solo Thematic Campaign: Fog on the Barrow Downs 1.0

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• 1.0

The Campaign

I’ve been part of 2, 3, and 4 player campaigns but I’ve never sat down and run my own solo campaign. I won’t be recording or blogging this campaign as others have recently done that (I’m in the middle of a YouTube thematic campaign with Mr Underhill right now) and I want to play rather quickly through the entire set of quests but I will play in “strict” campaign mode and trying to build as thematically as I can.

I can’t promise the decks I publish in this series will be totally optimized or super teched against each quest for a 90% win ratio, but I hope they will be decent thematic decks that could provide a good experience for people looking to play the campaign in a thematic manner.

The Deck

No change in the hero lineup from the last two quests and the bones are still the same. I've removed most of the allies and added more events. Rosie sticks around to inspire Sam to greatness and the Halfling Bounder is there to stop the Frozen by Fear and Chill Fog treacheries.

I added Unseen Strike, Tighten Our Belts and Shadow of the Past along with a copy of Staff of Lebethron. Tighten Our Belts was helpful once, but you don't want to play it if not necessary because Chill Fog can wreck you if you don't have cards to play to keep your excess resource count down. Song of Hope is another great thematic and effective choice for this quest.

Master of the Forge is a major thematic concession here but I needed some card draw! He never stuck around very long before getting thrown under an Ancient Barrow.

If the new spoiled Ho! Tom Bombadil card was out, I would put it in here just for theme's sake! Get two Tom's in the encounter deck!

The Experience

I used Mountain of Fire Frodo Baggins to give me some resource flexibility again. This only took one play and it was a solid win. Shadow of the Past is great tech in this quest you can be sure to not fall down a Barrow when you aren't expecting it. Gildor came up as a shadow card near the end and I was able to put him back on top of the encounter deck and make one of my last turns of the game super easy. I had a moment where Tom Bombadil came out to help me while in the Barrow which made for a great gaming moment.

Unseen Strike proved not very necessary since the Dagger of Westernesse came up early.

Going Forward

I earned the Ho! Tom Bombadil! boon which I plan to keep in the campaign pool until The Land of Shadow box.

Next is Knife in the Dark and I plan to swap out a hero so I can use Aragorn. I'm just going to eat the +1 threat which doesn't feel great but I really want to use Aragorn in that quest.

You can see final board states to my successful games on my Twitter account.

1. Shadow of the Past
2. The Old Forest
3. Fog on the Barrow Downs
4. Knife in the Dark
5. Flight to the Ford
6. The Ring Goes South
7. Journey in the Dark
8. Breaking of the Fellowship
9. The Uruk-Hai
10. Helm's Deep
11. The Road to Isengard
12. The Passage of the Marshes
13. Journey to the Crossroads
14. Shelob's Lair
15. Passing of the Grey Company
16. The Siege of Gondor
17. The Battle of the Pelannor Fields
18. The Tower of Cirith Ungol
19. The Black Gate Opens
20. Mount Doom