QOTW - The Scouring of the Shire - Mildly Thematic

A Fellowship to tackle the quest The Scouring of the Shire 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.

And so the final quest of the campaign is here. Frodo Baggins and his companions return to the Shire to find that not all is well. The story features a number of characters from the Shire who are featured in the Hobbit deck.

So Sam once again leads a Bond of Friendship Hobbit deck, now featuring Merry, Pippin and Tom Cotton. This deck is more ally-focused, which works much better this time around. The thematically appropriate Raise the Shire can put in a lot of work here. Other featured characters are Bill the Pony, Rosie Cotton, Lily Cotton, Young Tom and Robin Smallburrow.

The other deck is the final outing for returning trio Éowyn, Gandalf and Glorfindel. As always, their excellent stats, especially is highly valued.

This quest uses a unique version of Frodo Baggins, who is no longer Ring-bearer traited. This does mean that most of the sphere cards are no longer useable, although fortunately Frodo's Intuition is still good for the Hobbit deck.

The quest starts with a couple of interesting choices: which new Boons to pick, and how nice to be to Saruman. I opted to take Bright Mail for Tom Cotton and Star-like Gem for Merry, shuffling Heightened Stature into the deck. Then I donated 2 resources to Saruman.

This quest is killer when it comes to threat. The Hobbit deck is well equipped to deal with this, especially with the Boon on Merry meaning he could quest without exhausting. The other deck relied a little more on luck and drawing into threat reduction. In general, I tried to prioritise taking alternative punishments to threat raises where possible.

Stage 2 was completed without major incident. Tom Cotton was equipped well enough to defend even a Gang of Ruffians, and his boost to allies meant I could destroy them as well. At Stage 3 I completed two side quests, after which the threat increases became too much so I chose to advance.

Stage 4 did not pose a challenge either, as I was well equipped by this time to deal with a few Ruffians. Finally, it took two turns to put sufficient progress on Stage 5, with one final turn to deal with Gríma's Choice, meaning the end of Saruman.

Results:

Boons/Burdens: All Burdens removed from the Campaign pool.

Score: 150

8 full turns (80)
40 + 29 threat (69)
3 damage on heroes (3)
2 victory points (-2)

Campaign Log:

Heroes - Éowyn, Gandalf, Glorfindel, Merry, Pippin, Sam Gamgee. Tom Cotton

Boons - Mr. Underhill, 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, 2x Brace of Conies, Army of the Dead, Esquire of Gondor (Glorfindel), Esquire of Rohan (Gandalf), Bright Mail, Heightened Stature, Scatha's Horn, Star-like Gem

Burdens - The Ring Draws Them, Panicked, Overcome by Grief, Pursued by the Enemy, Ill Fate, 1x The Searching Eye, A Heavy Burden, 2x Wraith on Wings

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

Enemies under the Black Gate: 2x Oliphaunt

Resources on the Corsair Fleet: 5

Resources on the Black Gate: 7

The One Ring Card: Destroyed

Unlocked: Into the West

Total campaign score: 2,824