QOTW - The Passage of the Marshes - Mildly Thematic

A Fellowship to tackle the quest The Passage of the Marshes 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.

This quest rejoins Frodo and Sam as they tame Sméagol, before he leads them through the treacherous Dead Marshes. This is a very easy quest for my thematic requirements - Frodo and Sméagol come as part of the quest, meaning only Sam Gamgee is needed for inclusion in my decks.

Sam the Tireless Ranger is joined by a trio of heroes who have formed a Bond of Friendship - Argalad, Thorin Stonehelm and Eleanor. Argalad and Thorin both have direct damage abilities which I'm hoping will come in handy in a later quest. Thorin is also a very efficient attacker in his own right, while Argalad's ability to contribute to the quest on demand is deceptively useful. Eleanor comes as a sort of bonus hero thanks to the contract, but I know there will be treacheries that demand cancelation.

In the other deck, Gandalf the White and Glorfindel return, this time accompanied by Damrod. Damrod will be required in the next quest (and his ally version is not great), plus some traps for support can be really useful.

For this quest I brought along the Land of Shadow Frodo Baggins. There are some potentially dangerous Nazgûl enemies, so I want the ability to be more discerning about using the Ring, and also the extra stats can come in very handy in this quest.

The first stage has a tricky start with an angry Gollum to deal with. Not only is he surprisingly tough to defeat, but in multiplayer he attacks twice per round. I took two attempts this week because for Gollum's first Refresh phase attack he drew We Hates Them! as a shadow card and I was immediately down a hero. In the second attempt he was still annoying to deal with, taking 4 rounds to beat, but luckily his attacks were much less dangerous. We Hates Them was revealed a couple of times over the quest, duly canceled both times.

A tricky time with combat was something of a theme for the quest to start with. I didn't really have any problems with the Mire locations, but was left to deal with a constant stream of enemies, many of which took multiple turns to deal with. But eventually I had enough of a board state to push through, only narrowly failing to quest through the final stage in one round, with my cancelation cards keeping me safe from any last minute upsets.

Threat was also an issue, at least to start with. a few early threat raises meant the Bond of Friendship deck was soon over 40 and at serious risk of threating out, on top of Sam not getting his abiity to trigger very often. Taking the time to Double Back helped, as did the timely arrival of Elfhelm.

Regardless how the quest is won, quest resolution requires each player to choose between the Burden The Searching Eye or taking a +2 threat penalty. I intend to be using Gandalf for the remainder of the Campaign, so for one deck I took the burden, as he is very effective for mitigating its impact. I don't want to risk falling foul of the Burden's effect, so much as I'd rather not, for the other deck I opted for the threat penalty.

Results:

Boons/Burdens earned: 1x The Searching Eye

Score: 173

9 full turns (90)
38 + 47 threat (85)
0 damage on heroes (0)
16 Victory Points (-16)

Campaign Log:

Heroes - Damrod, Gandalf, Glorfindel, Argalad, Eleanor, Sam Gamgee, Thorin Stonehelm

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), Palantír of Orthanc

Burdens - The Ring Draws Them, Panicked, Overcome by Grief, Ill Fate, 1x The Searching Eye

+1 starting threat penalty (+2 additional penalty for one deck)