‘You know little of the lands beyond your bounds. Peace and freedom, do you say? The North would have known them little but for us. Fear would have destroyed them. But when dark things come from the houseless hills, or creep from sunless woods, they fly from us. What roads would any dare to tread, what safety would there be in quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the Dúnedain were asleep, or were all gone into the grave?’
–Aragorn, the Fellowship of the Ring
Here we are at the start of a new quest of the week campaign cycle! This is an exciting time; let’s see how our first quest went.
Intruders in Chetwood Stats
- Groups registered: 21
- Total attempts: 54
- Most attempts: 10
- Average attempts per entry: 2.6
- Total number of wins: 28
- Win-rate: 52%
- Average opinion on the quest: 3.5
Campaign Mode
Achievements
Here are the two achievements we had for this quest:
Ain’t No Party Like an Orc War Party
Defeat an Orc War Party in the first round.
Who Needs a Map?
Setup: Set Lost in the Wilderness aside, out of play.
Quest 1B gains: “Forced: At the end of the first quest phase, reveal Lost in the Wilderness and add it to the staging area.”
Lost in the Wilderness gains: “Cannot leave play.”
Encounter card Opinions
There were two encounter cards that tied for most-liked encounter card. With still only four each (there were a lot of different nominations!), they were Chetwood Forest, and the key card for this quest: Orc War Party. Both cards are specific to what this quest is trying to do: keep enemies in staging area (they don’t make engagement checks) and raise your threat for leaving them there. Chetwood Forest allows you more opportunities to engage those enemies, whereas the Orc War Party is a hefty enemy that you will have to think twice before engaging. It’s great to see people responding favorably to the core mechanics of the quest.
The only card to appear on both the favorite and least-favorite lists for this quest was Rescue Iârion. This one is tricky because it introduces a new loss condition: once the time counters are gone, you lose the game. If you are blocked from completing this when you need to, that is bad news!
And with a whopping 9 votes, the least favorite encounter card for this quest was Sudden Assault. It’s easy to see why. Horrible art, horrible (potentially game-ending) effect, and it can’t be cancelled. Why did they make this card.
Cool moments that happened during the games
I was hoping to be in position to play Revealed in Wrath at the end to blank an Orc War Party and eliminate that win condition, but I never drew it :(. My decks performed quite well and I was able to get Thalion to hero status before the end.
I was in a tough spot after questing so and so for a while with the fear of a location lock ahead. I had to both save the innocent (with taking damage on Gloin as my defense strategy) and Rescue Iarion within two turns. Luckily I could dream Faramir into existance to turn the tide!
Finished in four rounds. I had two enemies engage me on round one from Orc Ambush, otherwise I would’ve been able to take out Orc War Party. Alas, the war party was killed round two with a feint. Eomer was attacking for 7 with Lothriel’s and Firefoot’s ability boosting him. Faramir made a fast appearance on round three through “stand and fight” to boost the questing deck for a quick and decisive victory on round four.
Gagger Gamgee was used almost every time to yell at the war party that was trampling his fields. At no point did any war party get an attack off due to Gaffer and Feigned voices.
I started the game by adding 4 damage to Protect the Innocent to get the additional resources. In round 3 I revealed Weight of Responsibility with 3 side quests in play and managed to handle that OK. In round 8 I placed 33 progress on the main quest thanks to Leadership ally Merry and The Free Peoples.
Was my first time playing with Autumn’s Woodmen fellowship after reading about it a lot, and I loved it. Also my Dwarves/ Dunedain deck was only created because I thought of the name “DuneDain Ironfoot” while zoning out at work, so I was pleasantly surprised I managed to get a win with that deck.
I think the No-hand Noldor Deck is coming along nicely
After clearing a side-quest during the quest phase (and rescuing Iârion) my easterlings and haradrim placed 15 progress on the main quest just with their abilities and Emissary of the East.
I got my favorite combo in my Last Alliance of Rohan and Eagles deck to fire off: 1. Exhaust the contract and target The Muster of Rohan 2. Play The Muster of Rohan and grab 4 Rohan/Eagle allies 3. Contract readies in refresh phase 4. Exhaust the contract before the end of the round to stuff all the Rohan and Eagle allies under Eagles of the Misty Mountains.
Nobody got damaged!
Aragorn riding 4 horses is always a good time. Tactics Aragorn also helps counter some of the “return this enemy to the staging area” effects in the quest.
Delayed winning to remove the last point from Protect the Innocent then proceeded to reveal Rescue Iârion, Orc War Party and Sudden Assault.
Decklists used
Arwen, Lore Aragorn, Beravor
I used a two-handed fellowship representing an interrupted double date to Lake Evendim (Aragorn & Arwen: “The Lord & Lady of Evendim” and Faramir & Eowyn: “Date Night Orc Hunt”)
https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22071/zombiezedinangmarqotwcampaign
Tactics Eowyn, Grimbeorn the Old and Radagast
Dunedain Side-Quest deck, Hobbit Pipes deck
Ironwill212’s “Ladies and Gentlemen” Deck. A fun two-handed build with the couples of middle earth fighting together. https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/18702/ladiesandgentlemenrco
Standard Bree deck, Gondor Valour Deck (Angbor the Fearless, Beorn, Ingold)
My wife ran a Hobbit deck, and mine was my Galadriel/Teleporno AteoT deck.
BOF – Beravor, Eowyn, Erkenbrand, Glorfindel https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/581051
Twice with a Rohan/Eagles fellowship, once with Autumns Woodmen fellowship, and twice with a last alliance of dwarves and Dunedain
Noldor no cards in hand deck with Legacy of Gondlin and no Erestor. (Decklist will be posted when its in a good spot) Also tried a blue wizards deck but couldn’t get my head around it fully and flopped.
Istari 🧙♂️🧙♂️: https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22070
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/56269/eaglesattheendofallthings-1.0
Last Alliance of Rohan and Eagles https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/439751
Elrond Arwen Rossiel – gloin, imrahil, aragorn
Scouting Burglars: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/581558
Dunedyin’ with Spirit in Angmar https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22085
https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/56446/silvannobility-1.0 Pretty basic Silvan deck, no surprises or twists (for now!)
Aragorn Mount Deck https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/497112
Arwen/Elladan/Elrohir (Three Hunters) Galadriel/Celeborn/Thranduil (Into the West)
This week we pursue the scattered remains of the Orc War Party into the hills. Bring some cloaks and hot soup, it’ll be a cold one! Once you have completed the quest, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/QdwbhPvEQG7AASyo7
And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have:
Weathered Mountaintop
Have a Weathered Hilltop with at least 5 threat in the staging area (at least 10 threat if there are 3 or 4 players in the game).
Not Bothered by the Rain
Complete the scenario without healing any characters.
Vision Of The Palantir 