QOTW: The Battle of the Pelennor Fields Results

And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.

And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns. In Dark Mindolluin’s sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.

The Battle of the Pelennor Fields Stats

Groups registered: 12
Total attempts: 31
Most attempts: 7
Average attempts per entry: 2.6

Total number of wins: 14
Win-rate: 45%

Average opinion on the quest: 4.8 (making it the highest-rated quest of the saga so far, just beating out Breaking of the Fellowship)

Campaign Mode

Of the 11 players who played campaign mode, all 11 reported that they earned Esquire of Gondor. However, only 9 reported that they earned Equire of Rohan, meaning that for two groups, either they opted to not put that card into play (not sure why you wouldn’t), their esquire of Rohan was defeated, or they didn’t understand how this works. Whoever you are, I hope you didn’t lose a hero!

Achievements

Here are the two achievements we had for this quest:

I Am No Man, Take Two

Destroy the Witch-King using only Eowyn and Merry as attackers.

That Still Only Counts as One

Destroy 2 or more Mumaks.

Encounter card Opinions

No consensus was reached for favorite encounter card. We got 12 submissions for this question, and 10 different cards named! That is certainly the mark of a very good quest, when everyone finds a different card to love, whether it is for mechanics, art, or theme.

The cards to be submitted as candidates for favorite and least-favorite encounter card were Siege Tower, The Rammas is Breached, Shadow of Mordor, Dread and Despair, and The Black Serpent. I’ve noted before that I believe it is a good sign for a quest’s design when there are a lot of cards that are in this “controversial” category. It means the quest has lots of engaging mechanics and theme to latch onto and it makes you make interesting decisions.

Just like with favorite encounter card, there were 10 different cards submitted for least favorite encounter card, and no consensus reached!

Cool moments that happened during the games

I got Beorn in early, thanks to a skinchanger, to help with an attack on the wraiths. Dain was happy to defend, found a bit of cash and a dwarf while doing it. The threat started to go up, but the War Mumaks helped with that.

Three Hunters is a weird choice for this quest, but I added Relic of Nargothrond and three copies of Hidden Cache and Will of the West. At least when stage 2 milled ny deck, I gained 6 resources and had a nice shield to show for it.

With a beefed-up Beregond ready by the time I made it to 2B, I was able to engage both wraiths and stall there for 6 rounds while getting things set up. When I first attempted this quest solo a few years back, I flipped a 0-cost ally for stage 2, which made for a very different experience.

I had a strong start and was able to stall on Stage 2 for several turns with some side quests. After that, the remainder of the quest was no trouble, and I ended with just three damage on Minas Tirith.

Woodman attachments that only attach to Acrive Locations are BAD TECH against this. At 3B the active has already been cleared so there’s no Active to attach things like Elf Stone and Put Off Pursuit to. Haldan can’t Quest for free. Etc.

I used Oath of Eorl for the final confrontation with the Witch-King so I could attack him before he attacked in the combat phase. It felt so thematic.

A well timed The Free People’s turned the tide in the middle of stage 3. Eowyn helped put some damage on The Witch-King. I ended with 5 resources on Grond and 24/50 damage on Minas Tirith.

I was about to give up as the locations and enemies kept piling up in the staging area, but I was saved by Aragorn and his banner of Elendil. The banner really changed everything!

Decklists used

Grimbeorn, Mablung & Radagast and all the creatures – Gandalf, SpDain & Glorfindel

Grimbeorn, Arwen, Gildor Three Hunters

Variant on Seastan’s Make Safe the City: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/569602 Elves and Beornings: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/547576

Mildly Thematic Fellowship https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21679

Chad’s thetmaic youtube series https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/38092/2023thematicsagathebattleofthepelennorfields-1.0

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

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

Beregond, Gandalf, Legolas, and Denethor, Eowyn, Galadriel, Thurindir https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21321/birdmanssagafellowship-qotw

Galadriel, Thranduil, Beregond + Treebeard, Mablung & Tacowyn

https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21214

LeDenethor, TacBeregond, LeBoromir; Gandalf, Elrond, MOTK SpBilbo.

This week we return to Frodo and Sam. Well, mostly we return to Sam (or whoever you decide to make The Last of the Company). Don’t forget to add those Wraith on Wings to the staging area during setup! Once you have completed your playthroughs of the quest, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/2wEzA51Qm8Zfnt2k6

If you are using the quick start for campaign mode, either because you didn’t get a chance to play all the quests before this one and still want to play campaign mode, or because you want to use the community’s shared campaign pool, this is what your campaign pool looks like going into The Tower of Cirith Ungol:

Boons: Old Bogey-stories, Ho! Tom Bombadil!, Each player may choose one of the permanent boons from A Knife in the Dark, Sting, Mithril Shirt, Glamdring, Anduril, Each player may choose one of the Gift boons from Breaking of the Fellowship, each player may choose one of the Skill boons from The Uruk-Hai, Palantir of Orthanc, Brace of Coneys, Esquire of Gondor, Esquire of Rohan
Burdens: The Ring Draws Them, Panicked, Overcome by Grief, Ill Fate, each player gets 1 copy of The Searching Eye, A Heavy Burden, 1 Wraith on Wings for each player

And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have: