QOTW - Helm's Deep - Mildly Thematic

A Fellowship to tackle the quest Helm's Deep for the Cardboard of the Rings Quest of the Week.

My "Mildly Thematic" campaign means the only thematic condition for deckbuilding is that the key characters need to be present. That's it. The Fellowship for A Shadow of the Past can be found here and has a few more details on the campaign plans. The other campaign Fellowships can be found by searching for "Mildly Thematic" once they are published.

In this quest Aragorn and the heroes mount a valiant defence of the fortress of Helm's Deep against Saruman's army. The key characters are Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Théoden and Éomer. Additionally, Gamling, Háma and Ceorl are combatants, and Gandalf and Erkenbrand arrive to ensure victory for the Free Peoples.

With the thematic requirements set, there is a free change of heroes available. Théoden only has hero versions available, and since there are so many Rohan characters involved, it makes sense to run his version. Éomer and Erkenbrand similarly only have hero versions available, so they round out the Rohan deck heroes.

For the other deck I simply selected my three Permanent Boon-boosted heroes: the thematically appropriate Gandalf the White, and hangers-on Glorfindel and Sam Gamgee.

For these quests we don't get a choice of Fellowship hero - the Treason of Saruman version of Aragorn is required.

The begininng of this quest gives a tough choice - whether each player takes the Poisoned Counsels Burden. If you do, you also get a free turn and a free ally to start the quest. Otherwise, you get nothing except a really rough start from the encounter deck. For the long-term this is not really a choice - taking no Burdens is obviously preferable. However, the quest is made quite a lot easier by taking it. My goal was to get by without taking the Burden. In the end it took three attempts to get through this way, which I'm very happy with given the first two attempts both crashed and burned on turn 2. To give a flavor of what happened, by the end of Staging on my first attempt there was 28 threat in the staging area, including 5 enemies, I had already been attacked twice and there was also 4 archery coming my way. Not a recipe for success.

However, for my successful attempt, things went quite a bit better. I had great opening hands, including Wizard Pipe, Steward of Gondor, Jubayr, Need Brooks No Delay and Armored Destrier. These let me set up a defensive plan quickly and keep up the pace throughout. Additionally, the early encounter draws were a little more forgiving, although I was still engaged with 2-6 enemies for the majority of the game. After a long struggle, I was able to take control and completely clear the board of enemies on turn 6. This was achieved thanks to careful management of the locations Helm's Gate amd Deeping Wall to balance staging area threat with combat survival. The turns where I was able to play The Three Hunters were also crucial, giving me enough power to keep the board manageable. Lastly, shadow cancellation played a major part. Erkenbrand and Gandalf's Staff, as well as the aforementioned Jubayr and Armored Destrier kept enemy attacks largely toothless.

Most of the quest took place at Stage 3, and I was able to quest just right on a few occasions to prevent additional card reveals. By the last few turns I was largely going through the motions and hoping Night Without End didn't turn up - so much so that on the final turn when my Nemesis Devilry of Saruman showed up I just took it on the chin.

Even with that late reveal, I was still able to manage the Hold the Line! achievement for QOTW by never advancing to Stage 4.

Results:

Boons/Burdens earned: None!

Score: 162

8 full turns (80)
40 + 40 threat (80)
10 damage on heroes (10)
8 Victory Points (-8)

Campaign Log:

Heroes - Gandalf, Glorfindel, Sam Gamgee, Éomer, Erkenbrand, Théoden.

Boons - Old Bogey-stories, Ho! Tom Bombadil!, Noble Hero (Glorfindel), Tireless Ranger (Sam Gamgee), Andúril, Glamdring, Sting, Mithril Shirt, Leaf-wrapped Lembas, Three Golden Hairs, Beyond All Hope (Gandalf)

Burdens - The Ring Draws Them, Panicked, Overcome by Grief, Ill Fate

+1 starting threat penalty