QotW: Flight to the Ford Results

Autumn is off on holiday this week, so you’ll have to do with an update from me instead! This week saw us all trying to get to Rivendell with a wounded Frodo. Let’s compare some stats to see how healthy Frodo actually was on average upon arrival at Imladris, and what Burdens everyone has earned!

Flight to the Ford Stats

Groups registered: 15
Total attempts: 19
Most attempts: 3
Average attempts per entry: 1.26

Total number of wins: 16
Win-rate: 84%

Average opinion on the quest: 4.0

Campaign Mode

There were only Burdens to be earned for this quest, more than one even if you are unlucky, but there are some clever ways you could use to avoid getting the burdens by putting them in the victory display. This does not count as “in play”,”in the encounter deck”, or “in the discard pile”. So they wouldn’t be added to the Campaign Pool. Unfortunately, it looks like some of our players didn’t get so lucky and were forced to take at least one Burden. One of the 15 even had to take two Burdens from this quest, for which we wish them: “Good Luck!”.

Achievements

There were two achievements for this scenario that you could obtain. They were:

Speedy Delivery

Complete the scenario where the Ring-bearer has at least 8 life.

Revealed in Wrath

Discard 6 or more Nazgul enemies when resolving the Forced effect on Ford of Bruinen.

Encounter card Opinions

It is an easy win for the favourite encounter card of this quest. The Ford of Bruinen washes away all engaged Nazgul during the final stage, freeing you from having to face so many enemies. It’s a great thematic win and nod to the books as well. The Ettenmoors and Troll’s Camp also received votes, as both locations provide helpful buffs to the players while they are still on the road.

As for least favourite, a lot of Nazgul-related cards were mentioned, as the enemies in this quest are quite dangerous. But the card with the most votes ended up being The Nine are Abroad. This treachery blanks the textbox of every character in play, making the rest of that round very difficult as you can no longer rely on the abilities of your heroes and allies. To make matters worse, the treachery even surges if there is a Nazgul in the staging area, which is quite common.

Cool moments that happened during the games

Merry single handedly taking out the initial Fell Rider with Unseen Strike and Halfling Determination.

I was so close to getting the Speedy Delivery achievement 😔 Frodo had 8 life, then in the last round I revealed a Pain Assailed Him that I couldn’t cancel because I had already used my two cancels canceling two copies of Rode Like a Gale so I could keep the Nazguls in the river and defeat them with the flood 😭

I was able to exactly clear The Storm Comes on turn 1. I still always forget both decks benefit from that…

The ford surprised five Nazgûl’s, one of them managed to escape though. Gandalf took care of him while the others made it to safety.

Due to some Fell Rider forced engagements, Sam was able to muster 8 defense against the With-king before the rest of the team took him down.

I was chump-blocking late game so often I thought I was playing another LCG. Not my style at all. Sorry, allies–I’ll do better next time.

With a small change in Aragorn skill set (his Leadership counterpart took over his Tactics one) I kept the Hobbit + Dunedain concept from the previous QotW going on. I worked towards the Revealed in Wrath achievement and I ended up having a very tense advancement to Stage 2 with 7 total Nazgul around. Between Mr. Underhill, Gandalf making a quick visit and the sacrifice of many allies I was able to fend off the enemies assault to the rush through the Bruinen.

I cheated to not get “Weight of the Ring” added as a burden. Somehow, I’ll find a way to live with myself.

My deck aims to damage and heal Treebeard regularly, so I was hoping for Eaten Alive, and that’s the very burden I drew! I ended up traveling to the Ford of Bruinen, but when I explored it, I’d already defeated all the enemies engaged with me. Should’ve not attacked for the theme. Frodo ended with 4 life, so my delivery was not speedy.

Drawing Piercing Cry when Ford of Bruinen is the active location never gets old.

Decklists used

https://ringsdb.com/questlog/view/53001

Woodmen and Burglar’s Turn: https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/20726

1. Beregond, Gandalf, Legolas. 2. Denethor, Eowyn, Galadriel, Thurindir https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/18922/birdmanssagafellowship-qotw

Glorfindel, Idraen, Arwen https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/550914 Sam, Fatty, Folco https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/543004

Spirit merry, pippin & Sam the man Grimbeorn, Beravor & Radagst and all the creatures

The Silvans and the Ents

Mildly Thematic Fellowship https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/20820

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/554171 tinkering with my deck from the Con to improve it for next year

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/552382

QotW Does the Sagas! https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/20652

A deck with custom Merry and Pippin to work well with hero Treebeard and ent allies

https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/20895

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/461366

Autumn will be back from her holiday next week, just in time to handle probably my favourite quest in the Saga, and one of my top-5 of the entire game: The Ring Goes South. This is a fantastic quest that deals with various iconic scenes from both the movie and the book. Once you have entered Moria, be sure to fill in the form here: https://forms.gle/RvQmosa7BNTpy5mYA

If you are only catching up to the QotW now and want to hop in as we leave Rivendell, first of all, welcome! This should be your campaign pool so that you can avoid having to play the first 3 (or 5) quests: Campaign Mode Quick Start

Boons: Mr. Underhill, Old Bogey-stories, Ho! Tom Bombadil!, Each player may choose one of the permanent boons from A Knife in the Dark.
Burdens: The Ring Draws Them, Panicked

For achievements, we get two that you can try to complete during your games. They are: