Ultra-Campaign Playthrough Series, Part 4: The Oath

After escaping Dol Guldur last week and saying goodbye to the Core Set, I am continuing my ultra-campaign this week with The Oath, the fourth quest of my campaign and the fourth quest of the Mirkwood Paths mini-campaign. When first planning my ultra-campaign, I was most nervous about Journey Along the Anduin and Escape from Dol Guldur. Now that those are both in the rearview mirror with only one total loss on the books, I’m feeling more confident moving forward. These next two quests, found in the Dark of Mirkwood expansion pack, are not too notoriously difficult, so let’s hope I can continue collecting enough Victory Points to resurrect any heroes that die along the way!

The Oath: Deckbuilding

Deckbuilding Restrictions

With three quests down, there are now 3 heroes and 15 player cards that I am unable to use until the beginning of the next mini-campaign.

Required heroes:
- Aragorn (with the Valor permanent attachment)
- Theodred
Exhausted heroes:
- Denethor
- Eowyn
- Legolas
Exhausted player cards: 1x Horn of Gondor, 1x Citadel Plate, 1x Guard of the Citadel, 3x Celebrian’s Stone, 1x Snowbourn Scout, 1x Steward of Gondor, 1x Sneak Attack, 1x Henamarth Riversong, 1x Self Preservation, 1x Gleowine, 1x Wandering Took, 1x Dwarven Tomb, 1x A Test of Will

Heroes

Due to the exhaustion of Legolas last week, Aragorn and Theodred will be bringing on a new companion to help them out! Since I am still missing Eowyn, my deck clearly isn’t great at questing. For this reason, I decided to choose the only Core Set hero that comes close to Eowyn’s 4 willpower: Glorfindel. Now, this pick might be controversial. Core Set Glorfindel is notoriously a very middle-of-the-road hero, with a high starting threat of 12 and a healing ability that is usually too costly to use. However, his 3 willpower is needed, and I thought it would be fun to use a hero that is less frequently played with in a quest not known for difficulty. So, welcome Glorfindel!

Player Cards

When it comes to Leadership cards, my deck looks similar to the decks from the last couple of quests, since I have been routinely playing with two leadership heroes. I made sure to include as many copies as I could of cards like Gandalf, Steward of Gondor, Faramir, Snowbourn Scout, and Sneak Attack. Unfortunately, all three copies of Celebrian’s Stone have now been exhausted, so I was not able to include any copies in my deck!

Now that I am again playing with a lore hero, I can include some helpful utility cards like Gleowine and Henamarth Riversong, who help out with card draw and encounter deck scrying, respectively. Speaking of allies, Miner of the Iron Hills is once again useful due to the return of Caught in a Web. Next, I threw in a little bit of healing with cards like Lore of Imladris and Self Preservation, just in case. Finally, I included three copies of Protector of Lorien, Radagast’s Cunning, and Secret Paths to help me out with questing. Protector of Lorien allows me to discard cards to boost willpower, while the other two cards negate the threat of enemies and locations in the staging area. All three should be very useful without Eowyn. Overall, my deckbuilding wasn’t too extensive or quest-specific this week due to the relative generality of The Oath and the restricted card pool of the Core Set.

Find my full deck-list here.

The Oath: Playthrough(s)

Number of attempts to beat scenario: 1

Attempt Log

Attempt 1: SUCCESS

This quest is one that always feels in your control. To make matters even better, I started with a copy of Henamarth Riversong in play, so I always knew what the encounter deck was going to throw at me next. I also got fairly good encounter draws for the first half of the game and only started drawing enemies towards the end of the game. Miner of the Iron Hills got his time in the sun, swiftly cutting Theodred from a web. The only real danger was threating out: starting with a threat of 32 and raising my threat due to Eyes in the Dark got me up to 44 by the time the game was over.

Finally, you can’t have Lord of the Rings without Gandalf, and our friendly Istari once again joined the fellowship, this time to help them defeat the Goblin Troop to win the game. Unfortunately, it took me a total of 6 rounds, which means I had to add the Guilty Conscience burden card to my campaign pool.

Overall score: 102 (6 rounds, 44 ending threat, 3 VPs, 1 damage on heroes, and 0 total threat of dead heroes)

Campaign Notes

Ultra-Campaign Notes

I still have not lost any heroes, and I only have one total loss, back from Escape from Dol Guldur. However, I did earn 3 more VPs from the Goblin Trail, bringing my total up to 23.

0 Fallen Heroes
23 VPs
1 loss

Mini-Campaign Tracker (Mirkwood Paths)

Mendor remains in my campaign pool, and Mendor’s Support remains as a boon in my player deck. I gain the Fervor of Lore as a boon to be attached to a hero during set-up. Lingering Venom remains as a burden in the encounter deck, accompanied by the new Stalking Goblin and Guilty Conscience burdens. Valor is permanently attached to Aragorn.

Exhaustion: Aragorn is ineligible for exhaustion due to his permanent attachment. Theodred was randomly selected to be exhausted! He has been with us since our journey down the Anduin, but now it is time for Aragorn and Glorfindel to carry on without him.

Exhausted heroes: Denethor, Eowyn, Legolas, and Theodred
Newly exhausted player cards: 1x Faramir, 1x Gleowine, 1x Henamarth Riversong, 2x Silverlode Archer
All exhausted player cards: 1x Horn of Gondor, 1x Citadel Plate, 1x Guard of the Citadel, 3x Celebrian’s Stone, 2x Silverlode Archer, 1x Faramir, 1x Snowbourn Scout, 1x Steward of Gondor, 1x Sneak Attack, 2x Henamarth Riversong, 1x Self Preservation, 2x Gleowine, 1x Wandering Took, 1x Dwarven Tomb, 1x A Test of Will

I am now fourth-fifths of the way through my first mini-campaign. After the next quest, all of my exhausted heroes and player cards will become usable once again. Join me next week for the Caves of Nibin-Dum!