Far off the shadows of Sauron hung; but torn by some gust of wind out of the world, or else moved by some great disquiet within, the mantling clouds swirled, and for a moment drew aside; and then he saw, rising black, blacker and darker than the vast shades amid which it stood, the cruel pinnacles and iron crown of the topmost tower of Barad-dur. One moment only it stared out, but as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye; and then the shadows were furled again and the terrible vision was removed. The Eye was not turned to them: it was gazing north to where the Captains of the West stood at bay, and thither all its malice was now bent, as the Power moved to strike its deadly blow; but Frodo at that dreadful glimpse fell as one stricken mortally. His hand sought the chain about his neck.
These two quests are unique in the Saga in that they can be played Epic Multiplayer, with one team trying to stay alive as long as possible at the Black Gate while the other team tries to use that time to get the Ring safely to Mount Doom. Some of our Quest of the Week players played through this quests in that Epic Multiplayer mode, so we’ll be discussing them simultaneously.
Epic Multiplayer Stats
- Groups registered: 3
- Total attempts: 4
- Most attempts: 2
- Average attempts per entry: 1.3
- Total number of wins: 3
- Win-rate: 75%
The Black Gate Opens (Non-Epic) Stats
- Groups registered: 6
- Total attempts: 8
- Most attempts: 3
- Average attempts per entry: 1.3
Mount Doom (Non-Epic) Stats
- Groups registered: 7
- Total attempts: 18
- Most attempts: 4
- Average attempts per entry: 2.6
- Total number of wins: 7
- Win-rate: 39%
The Black Gate Opens
- Average opinion on the quest: 4.0
The overall favorite encounter card for The Black Gate Opens was Beleaguered Hills. This location can be very helpful to ensure that you can successfully quest (or don’t raise your threat by too much if you unsuccessfully quest) while you are overwhelmed with enemies. Very handy to have when you need it!
There were no encounter cards that got votes for in both the favorite and least-favorite categories.
There were no clear standout victors for least-favorite encounter card in The Black Gate Opens, but there were three nominations that got at least two votes: Hell-Hawk, The Hour of Doom, and Towers of the Teeth. Several players even nominated “All of them” or “Most of them” for least-favorite encounter card.
Mount Doom
Average opinion on the quest: 3.6
The most votes for favorite encounter card in Mount Doom was for Old Water-course. There’s only one of these in the deck, and it has victory points so once you explore it it’s gone for good, but this card can be such a boon. Especially because the Dire keyword makes threat reduction of this magnitude impossible via other methods.
There were no encounter cards nominated for both categories in this quest.
Just like with The Black Gate Opens, there was no clear winner for least-favorite encounter card for Mount Doom. The three cards to get at least two votes were Deep Shadows, Heavy and Tired, and The Lidless Eye.
Achievements
Here are the two achievements we had for The Black Gate Opens:
The Hour of Doom
Survive 8 or more rounds.
The Eagles are Coming!
Have 8 or more Eagle characters in play at the same time.
And here are the two achievements we had for Mount Doom:
Rip and Tear, Until it is Done
Destroy X or more enemies during the game, where X is three times the number of players plus 1.
The Final Stretch
Complete the scenario with 2 or more resources left on the campaign card.
Cool moments that happened during the games
I was able to keep my threat at 19 for Mount Doom through making Sam into a Fellowship hero with At the End of All Things, making fortitude tests a breeze. It was still a difficult quest, and I’m lucky I didn’t pull any high threat enemies until I was set up to take them on. Friend of Friends with 3 fast hitches and Strider definitely did some work too.
I’m giving these each a 4 but they’re definitely the best-rated quests that I’ll probably rarely ever play again. Suitably epic, but certainly brutal. He’s too weak to make the cut in the “least favorite encounter card” category, but Little Snuffler was *annoying*. Having one low-threat enemy (with surge!) constantly popping out and ruining my combat plans was pretty frustrating. MotK Rosie was super useful for Mt Doom. Not only was she able to contribute to Fortitude tests across the table, but she even got Heavy and Tired attached pretty early and could just ignore it since she wasn’t actually committing to any tests on her own, just boosting.
During The Black Gate Opens, I was able to play both Need Drives Them and Oath of Eorl in a single round. This allowed me to defeat a Nazgûl of Mordor and a Gorgoroth Hill-troll before they attacked, and use that tempo to keep going for a few more rounds. In Mount Doom, during a successful Fortitude test, I took a gamble and used Leaf-wrapped Lembas in the action window just in case another test was required – and it was! it would have certainly resulted in a loss if I got that wrong.
Gollum showed up during the Fortitude test to travel to Mount Doom. Sam defended with Sting, and had to use the Phial of Galadriel because of a terrible shadow effect. The theme in the sagas is just perfection.
I played five-handed epic multiplayer. I shamelessly used some jank at The Black Gate to buy myself some time.
In my failed attempt I managed to bury a troll under the reeking moat with a Strider’s path. That was fun, but didn’t make me win the game 🙂 In my winning game I boosted Grimbeorn with an unexpected courage and support of the eagles and took the troll down that way instead. It was just close and exciting.
For Mount Doom Spirit Legolas, Cirdan, Narya, and Leadership ally Faramir were the MVPs.
I’m sure I made plenty of mistakes trying to pilot 3 decks against 2 quests simultaneously, with plenty of triggers to keep track of. But I lasted 10 rounds, and Gollum was discarded in my final Fortitude test to destroy the One Ring. Perfect.
Even without epic multiplayer mode, Doom Hangs Still was used twice to not raise my threat from questing to help me get nine tokens on The Black Gate. Meanwhile, Mount Doom was certainly thematic, as it felt like I needed the blessing of the Valar to succeed.
Favor of the Valar saving my life to give me one more round
Decklists used
I made a thematic deck that bends some rules to beat Mount Doom with Frodo and Sam, found here https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/55886/thematicmountdoom-1.0
Black Gate: Outlands (Hirluin, Ld. Imrahil, Erestor) and Eagles (T. Glorfindel, Arwen, Radagast) Mt. Doom: Hobbits (L. Pippin, Sam, MotK Rosie) and 3H (Haldir, Sp. Legolas, T. Eowyn)
Mildly Thematic Fellowships The Black Gate Opens: https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21862 Mount Doom: https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21866
Black Gate Opens: Grimbeorn, Gildor, Arwen Three Hunters (Grimbeorn’s Saga); Mount Doom: Fellowship Hobbit Secrecy (A Weary Pilgrim)
Black Gate: Dale, Outlands, and Mono Leadership jank https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21790 Mount Doom: Minstrels and Three Hunters https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21791
Grey wanderer singing Sam, The Wild creatures & Gandalf, discarding Dain & LEomer. https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21871
Beregond, Gandalf, Legolas and Denethor, Eowyn, Galadriel, Thurindir for The Black Gate. I swapped Galadriel for Cirdan and Thurindir for Haldir for Mount Doom: https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21845/birdmanssagafellowship-qotw-mountdoom
At the End of All Things https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21780
I used a custom Merry and Pippin with Treebeard with both, but completely retooled it for Mount Doom. I added a Gandalf, Elrond, and tactics Eowyn in for Black Gate.
The end of Mount Doom in campaign mode offers a difficult choice: physically destroy one of your copies of The One Ring to win the campaign, or keep the card and lose the campaign. I loved hearing from people in the Discord server as they were agonizing over their choice. It feels so thematic to have to make the hard choice just like Frodo did. As LCG players we all love our cards and it hurts to destroy them!
This week we return home to the Shire to find that things are not quite how we left them! A Long-Extended Party’s The Scouring of the Shire will be our final quest in the Saga. Once you have completed the quest, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/MsPDRmSQnzTumNvq7
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 Scouring of the Shire:
Boons: Old Bogey-stories, 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 Skill boons from The Uruk-Hai, Palantir of Orthanc, Brace of Coneys, Esquire of Gondor, Esquire of Rohan
Burdens: None
And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have:
Grima’s Choice
Win the scenario with Grima as one of the heroes.
No Pipeful to a Beggar
Win the scenario without ever using an Action ability on quest stage 1B or 5B.
Join the Revolt
Complete all available encounter side quests before advancing from quest stage 3B to 4A.
Vision Of The Palantir 