Theme Saga 1.5: Old Forest and Barrow-Downs

Theme Saga continues! For an explanation of what this is about, see Theme Saga 1: A Shadow of the Past.

I'll say a little less about The Old Forest and Barrow-Downs, because they just aren't quite as interesting quests. I will say this: Old Forest earns me a mildly useful boon, and Barrow-Downs earns me an EXTREMELY useful boon. I'm going to take those, because on later quests I'm going to need all the help I can get.

I'm expecting Merry to be a lot more help in these quests, because nearly all enemies last time were Black Riders and I always use the Frodo Baggins One Ring effect to get rid of them. And on that subject, I've decided to use Frodo Baggins for both of these quests. Remember, the rules only require me to choose a hero named Frodo Baggins with the Fellowship sphere and the Ring-bearer trait. There are not many encounter cards that I can't at least tolerate in this deck, and I think his quest or attack boost will come in handy.

Summary: Old Forest is HARD!! I might have been able to do it with Elbereth, if I didn't care about damaging Old Man Willow, but I do care and I had to redesign this deck several times to get to this point. Either Fog on the Barrow Downs is much easier, or I was lucky, or my deck is just overdesigned for it.

The Old Forest

I always start by searching for a Deep Gulley, because I want 2 VP locations to get me to 5 fast. This is my sixth try: so far I've had a clearly poor deck, an unlucky start with a long slow slog to follow (4 enemies in staging!), and an incredibly good lucky start that brought me to Old Man Willow a bit before I was ready for him... and then two more long slow slogs (4 locations in staging! 3 enemies right when I started on Old Man Willow!). I've tinkered with the deck a bit each time, and I have a good feeling about this one. (Famous last words...)

My hand is iffy, but I see a lot of card draw so I keep it. Hobbit-sense, Gaining Strength, Deep Knowledge, A Test of Will, Lorien's Wealth, Cram... it's a risky way to start, but it'll be pretty good if it works. I draw Idle and advance to Shifting Trees, which is fine. Start of turn draws me Resourceful, then Idle draws me Good Meal and I am all set! Play Meal, Wealth, Resourceful on Frodo, Knowledge... and then I draw another Resourceful. Oh well. Another Meal for Merry, Pipe, Cram for Sam. My hand is two Determinations, a Sense, Gaining Strength, Test, and Resourceful. My threat is 22.

I'm going to try an experiment here, and quest only with Sam. The flop is Ending and Failing, so my experiment failed and I am forced to advance the quest stage, which brings Closing In Around Them... ugh. Exactly what I had hoped to prevent. I travel and go on, drawing another Cram. For right now, my card draw engine is stalled. I quest with everyone who isn't Merry, which has quickly become normal for this deck. Flop: Song of Sleep, which I Test, and a meaningless Lost and Witless, surging into Deep Gulley again. Clear the location, advance to Shifting Trees again, travel.

Now I draw Runes, and use it to find Knowledge and Wealth. I hate to do it, but I think I have to drop Hobbit-Sense. Pippin Gains Strength, plays Wealth without a Meal, and I Deep Knowledge. Now I have Galadhrim's Greeting using a Meal, unfortunately only taking me as low as 22, but at least Pipe gets me another card. Knowledge again, Runes again (drop Bill), Idle again - aha! finally an Intuition! Frodo has 5 bucks, so I play it gladly, then Runes and drop a Fast Hitch. I play a second Meal and two more Pipes, then Greeting with the Meal, and now I can play Resourceful again. I'll Second Breakfast that meal, then play the other Hitch, Bill, and both Resourcefuls.

As things stand on Turn 3, Frodo has a Ring, Bogey-Stories, Underhill, two Resourcefuls, Pipe, and one resource. Sam has a Hitch, two Crams, and a Pipe, plus Bill the Pony who I consider to be Sam's. Merry has Resourceful and a Pipe. Pippin has nothing at the moment, though he's been eating Meals. My hand is two Determinations, a Meal, an extra Bill, Elbereth, and Close Call. I stop and think about what's left in my deck, and then decide not to use Bogey-Stories. I'll want the Meal in play but I'm not sure where, and I'll want a bit more money, before I try to cycle into my first Will of the West. Questing with everyone that is not Merry.

Flop: Falling Branches, so Bill dies, which is why I quest with him. Since I have 4 VP already, I'll search for Strange Woods now, and then reveal the new stage to be Closing In Around Them again. Ew. Oh well, I'm reasonably well set up now. I travel and go on, drawing a Dagger.

I expect to see Old Man Willow soon, so I need to get this show on the road. I play Bill again, wave goodbye to that Meal I was saving, and use Bogey-Stories. Oh - I'd forgotten my hand is shuffled in, not discarded! That'll make this much easier. The free mulligan gives me Determination, Intuition, Greeting, Song, and two Daggers. Excellent! Pippin gives Frodo Battle, Frodo gives Sam two daggers and his Intuition. Sam gives Sam a cloak, and now only Merry has money. My hand: Determination, Greeting, Close Call, West, Elbereth. I'm pretty pleased with myself at this point. Everyone who is not Merry quests.

Flop: Wall of Trees, then Grasping Root. Merry responds, then the active location clears, then 1 progress is shunted to the Wall. I have 5 VP from locations, so I go to 3A, and travel to Withywindle because I want it gone ASAP. Conveniently, I found an enemy, so I engage it to trigger Sam and Pippin, drawing Boots. My threat is 19. Sam blocks Old Man Willow, whose shadow card is Tom Bombadil, which amuses me. Close Call brings me to threat 20, then he Hitches and blocks the Root, bye bye Deep Gulley. I would rather spend Cram than Elbereth, so Sam just kills it with his daggers.

Round 5, things are getting interesting. I draw Meal, let Merry eat it to Greet the Galadhrim, then give Sam his boots. Checking... my deck contains Wealth, Intuition, and Cram. I'm okay with using one of these Will of the West now, but I need to use both Determinations first. I could really use the Intuition quest boost, too... but I quest with everybody, not bothering with Merry's response. Flop: Army of Flies surge, Deep Gulley, Oppressive Forest. That is problems. I must exhaust the ring for +2 willpower, AND use a Determination which is my one card for the round, so now I quest for 14, just barely clearing Withywindle. I travel to Oppressive Forest, because I need that gone immediately, and now I can play cards again.

With my threat of 15, I engage Flies just so Sam can gain a defense. I guess, less threat in staging is good too. *FOOTNOTE, see also below: I forgot to discard an attachment. My story should be retconned, so that I discard a Cram and then spend Mr. Underhill instead.

I block Old Man Forest, no shadow (Grasping Root), and play Determination for the bonus. I discard Deep Gulley from victory, bringing my threat to 17. Hitch and block the flies, with no shadow effect (Swaying Without Wind), and this is a little silly but I'll do it. Because I'm about to shuffle my deck, I spend Elbereth to get rid of it, so that my threat doesn't jump to 30 or 40 from using it later. Spend Cram, Sam attacks Willow for 8, putting 4 damage on.

Round 6, I draw Wealth, and debate. Actually, I don't need to debate: playing Will of the West won't get me any new cards this round, so there's no reason to. Quest with everybody, flop Long Trailer, put 2 progress on Oppressive. Engage to boost Sam, then block both enemies with Hitch, taking three damage: Willow is 5 attack to my 4 defense, and I have Falling Branches and Strange Woods as shadows OW!! I gain 1 threat by discarding Withywindle from victory, and I have no attacks to be made.

Round 7, draw Intuition and breath a sigh of relief, because now the only card in my deck is a Cram. Play West, Intuition, Meal, Wealth, Gaining Strength for Pippin, Breakfast, Meal, Wealth, Greeting for three Pipes, Knowledge, Idle, Runes (drop Test of Will), Intuition again, Knowledge, Runes (drop Greeting), Knowledge, Idle, Runes (drop Bill). Wow, I did not expect that to go that fast. I have one card left in my deck, and by looking through my 16-card hand and my 20-card discard, I know it is Frodo's Intuition. Play Hitch and two Cram on Sam, Cram on Frodo, Meal on Pippin, Meal on Merry. Everything else can wait.

Quest with four Hobbits, DOUBLE Intuitive, for 17, but leave Bill back. Army of Flies surges into Wall of Trees, and this is excellent. I'm making 9 progress, so 3 clears the Oppressive, 3 clears a Wall of Trees, and 3 goes on the other Wall of Trees. Travel to Deep Gulley - now I need to play Greeting, and I'll use a Meal with it, so that my threat drops to 15. I engage Flies, triggering Sam.

Old Man Willow eats Bill (no shadow: Lost and Witless), discard Wall of Trees for 1 threat, and then Sam blocks Flies (The Ring Draws Them - excellent!) and Long Trailer (Song of Sleep). I don't need to Elbereth so I won't bother: Sam is ready from his two Hitches, and Frodo plays two Determinations. Now I attack for 10, and spend a Cram to do it again, killing Trailer.

At this point, I've just realized I neglected the Forced text on Flies, twice, see Footnote above. I'll drop the Cram off of Frodo for this second one, but I'm going to press on, and later I'll see if I can piece together what should have happened. Best case scenario, I discarded a Cram or Meal and got it back from Will of the West. More likely, I have 2 more resources than I should have, or I made a free attack I couldn't have. Worst case, I actually dropped one of the Pipes, and the entire end-of-deck cycle should be redone. But here's what I'll do this time: Sam spends two bucks on Hobbit-Sense, which Old Man Willow is immune to, and I didn't need to make those extra two blocks just now. I'm going to pretend that that should have worked last time, turns out it did. Since I didn't block, I can use both Hitches to kill the Trailer and the Flies, and put 6 damage on Willow anyway. Frodo still has his Cram, just in case.

New round, draw Intuition (which Pippin could have done already when I engaged last round) and my deck is empty. Here's Bill and Will of the west. Now here's Intuition, Wealth with a Meal, Meal, Greeting (3 Pipes), Idle, Breakfast, Meal, Wealth, Idle. Runes, drop Wealth. Runes, drop Greeting. Knowledge. I think I'm fine now, but I plop a meal on Merry for later. Quest for 14 with everybody and one Intuition. Long Trailer, vs 6 threat, 4 clears Gulley, 1 clears Wall, 3 on the quest. I will Hitch Sam, block the tree, discard each Ally in my hand (bye Bill), and Close Call the 1 damage. Engage to trigger Sam and Pippin, then block both with one Determination (Misleading Path again, and Grasping Root), and then Hitch again and Cram to kill both of them. Willow is still here, but he has 14 damage on him now.

I now have two Knowledges in hand, but I don't need them, because I Gain Strength on Frodo and Intuit twice (even though my deck has run out before the second one). Cram Sam, and Merry drops Greeting with a Meal because why not, and then I quest for 18 including Bill. Flop: Ending and Failing, which lets me finish the quest. My hand: two Test, two Knowledge, Elbereth, one Determination, Sense, Idle, Runes, Bill.

Score!
8 completed rounds = 80
Total combined Threat = 17
Total damage on Heroes = 3
Cost of dead Heroes = 0
Victory points = 8 (Gulley, Bogey-Stories, Strange Woods, Oppressive Forest, Deep Gulley, Wall of Trees)
TOTAL SCORE = 92

I forgot to use Mr. Underhill, which is another way I could have gotten around forgetting to discard my Cram when engaging Flies. I'll take the 1 VP hit as my penalty for failing the rules, and count this as a success.

Fog on the Barrow-Downs

It doesn't get much better than this: Pipe, Intuition, Runes, Bill, Resourceful, Good Meal! Draw is Fast Hitch. I'll let Sam make Frodo Resourceful, and I don't need Intuition this round anyway. Saving Runes as well, because the odds of drawing another Resourceful are slim. The turn itself is boring, and by the end of second round planning I have three Pipes in play, and my hand is Dagger, Gaining Strength, my second Intuition, second Good Meal, Resourceful, two Wealths, and a Second Breakfast. My threat is 26, but unfortunately I haven't found Greeting yet, although in two turns I've used Intuition and Wealth, two Knowledge, and two Runes (discard: West, and one Dagger).

I quest with everyone but Merry and Bill, for 10. Chill Fog discards my 4 resources and sets my threat to 30. Travel to Stone Ring. In round 3, Frodo with his one Resourceful can Gain Strength, and then I play Intuition, Meal, Wealth, Idle, Meal for Merry. I debate - should I wait for a Cram? - then play Second Breakfast anyway, and keep another Meal in hand. I'm at 32 threat, and my hand still has two Resourceful, Dagger, Wealth, Test, Meal, two Greeting, Elbereth, West, Intuition. Merry and Frodo each have one buck, but I want to make sure I have Test ready. I'll Greeting later if I don't use it, so I can trigger three Pipes. Questing for 10 again, I get another Stone Ring, so I use the Greeting and my Pipes get me Greeting, Cram, Song. Next round I Greeting again, my threat is 22... if not for this quest stage's text, I'd be at 19 now and have my new Resourcefuls. Questing brings me Ancient Barrow, so Bill is borrowed for a bit.

As round 5 begins, I have 24 threat and 7 progress on the quest. This is slow going, but I haven't seen any enemies yet, at all, so I'm safe. I already have Song of Battle, so I'll take a Dagger; I'm holding a Greeting and a Wealth, but I'm entirely out of Meals. I'm also out of Intuition, so questing will slow down. From my deck I still haven't seen Boots, Close Call, and my last copy of several cards I don't really need: Test, Bill, Knowledge, Determination, Idle. I think I need to wait before I use West, so that I have that Close Call in hand, and some things to draw more cards with. I think I have to take a gamble, and quest with Merry this time, for 9 total. Flop: Dark-Wight, but I clear the location precisely and get Bill back. Sam's Cloak lets him block just fine (no shadow effect: Long Groping Arm), and Fast Hitch plus a Determination plus Frodo's Cram plus Bill lets me kill it.

Round 6 I don't need to quest for as much, but the flop is Tom Bombadil, so Merry still isn't helping much. I have 15 on the quest, but need to clear the Circle; I travel, engage the Dark Wight I just killed, block (Dreadful Song), then kill it with the help of Merry and Tom Bombadil. Round 7 I clear the Circle, go on, travel to Standing Stones and get stuck in a Great Barrow. I end up with a Cold Wight, play Determination to take no damage (Dreadful Song again), and with that and Hitch and Merry I just barely kill it.

Merry gains a buck at the start of the round, so I can finally Will of the West with my deck empty. I draw a bazillion cards, and eventually decide to pay Sam's three resources plus one from Frodo to give Merry Resourceful. I also have my second Dagger now, my second Hitch on Sam, and all of my Cram. The rest of the game is ridiculously easy; I never actually used Elbereth, and I never even needed Close Call with the way my Determinations worked out.

Score!
10 completed rounds = 100
Total combined Threat = 4
Total damage on Heroes = 0
Cost of dead Heroes = 0
Victory points = 12 (Hollow Circle, Great Barrow, Standing Stones, Mr. Underhill)
TOTAL SCORE = 93

I remembered Mr. Underhill this time, but I never thought of Old Bogey-Stories, which might have gotten me earlier threat reduction and Resourceful. I didn't look closely, but there were many times it would have actually hurt me. I also regret discarding a Dagger to an early Runes, although my other options were probably worse. I took no damage, but there were several times I needed Cram and such where the Dagger would have made it trivial.

Stay tuned for #2: A Knife in the Dark!