QOTW: Escape from Mount Gram

Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light.
-The Hobbit

Escape from Mount Gram Stats

Groups registered: 15
Total attempts: 21
Most attempts: 3
Average attempts per entry: 1.4

Total number of wins: 16
Win-rate: 76%

Average opinion on the quest: 3.6

Campaign Mode

Who is Determined:

Eowyn, Grimbeorn
Celeborn
Elrond, Rossiel, Aragorn & Imrahil
Elladan, Elrohir, Celeborn, Legolas
Beregond, Lanwyn
Aragorn & Eowyn
Gandalf, Alatar, Pallando
No one.
Beravor, Amarthiul
Eomer, Haldir, Halldan

I’m not surprised in the least that nobody took Coruhaer. Sure, having a zero-cost ally with any stats is pretty alright, but what were the designers thinking for his ability? It’s so bad on his stats.

Which unique cards were left behind in Mount Gram:

None
Iarion’s Pendant, Ioreth, Elf Stone
None.
None! All rescued and/or in play
none 🙂
Gildor Inglorion, Haleth, Faramir
Treebeard
No one (/thing) left behind

Achievements

Here are the two achievements we had for this quest:

Quick Getaway

Raise a player’s threat by 10 or more when Southern Gate becomes the active location.

All Right Then, Keep Your Secrets

Allow 4 or more allies to be captured by a single Cruel Torturer.

Encounter card Opinions

The winner of favorite encounter card, with 7 votes, was the Prison Cell. This card works very differently in standard vs. nightmare mode (see below), but in both cases you will start the game with this in your staging area with 3 cards captured under it. This is very important to get your game going, whether that is getting to play a card for free (as in standard mode), or just getting those cards into your hand a little earlier (as in nightmare mode).

The only card to appear on both the favorite and least-favorite list was Jailor Gornákh himself. This is another card that is different depending on whether you are playing standard or nightmare mode. I quite like that this quest has a boss at the end, and in nightmare mode he is even kind enough to find all your missing heroes for you!

The winner for least-favorite encounter card was Feeble and Weary. This one is an interesting design–it’s essentially a redesign of the classic Necromancer’s Reach. However, you’re at least given a choice on this one: deal a bunch of damage out or fail the quest (more than likely). If you are using something like Strider early in the game to allow your only starting hero to quest without exhausting, this card can be a complete whiff early on when you’re still getting your footing. But later on in the quest this one hits hard. I think that is a hallmark of a well-designed encounter card.

Things worth sharing from the games

I decided to not alter my deck much, so as to have some stakes for losing the unique cards for the rest of the campaign. The one off boost from Cunning I used to ensure Radagast quested for enough to get back my second hero turn 1 each game. First game I never found Grimbeorn. I could’ve won at any time but eventually maxed out threat looking for him. Second game I turtled in 2b a bit longer and got all my heroes. In the end I lost Iarion’s Pendant (not sure how that will work with the plot!), Ioreth, and Elfstone. Not great but also nothing truly essential. Going to miss the Pendant!

Decided to make a deck that starts with 48 threat just because it’s something I could actually get away with for this one. The heroes are able to do just about everything themselves, and the capture deck is small, ensuring you find everyone quickly. The encounter deck didn’t stand a chance, and Jailor Gornakh was no match for Grimbeorn the Old and Treebeard.

Had to make a slight modification to one of my decks to actually make it possible to get the capture deck back. But its a really nice design, however – way too easy.

I appreciate that campaign mode gives you more side quests to help stall and rescue more characters, while also punishing you for completing those quests. Really ratchets up the tension; I was one turn away from threating out when I finally got my last hero out.

After slaughtering it by teching for this quest, I decided to see how my Dunedain deck would do with just 3x Strider added in as tech. Arwen was able to rescue Loragorn quickly, but I finally managed to rescue my last captured card, Amarthiul, on round 29. I got Jailor Gornakh under a Forest Snare in the planning phase after I’d revealed him, which meant I could just stall and wait to rescue all my deck. An early rescue of Henemarth Riversong meant I could build up on stage 2b for a while, so there wasn’t any real pressure on my boardstate. Still, a fun quest filling a very different design space than usual.

Opened my first cell and found Ally Glorfindel! Great find!

Both of my decks started very slowly, but Damrod was eventually able to join Arwen (who was being forced to defend a Cruel Torturer with just a solitary Honour Guard to keep her alive). Eowyn and Aragorn joined the group shortly after to ensure that I could Stop the Executions, Loot the Dungeons (hello, Berelind & Laermuin!), and Fend off Despair. By that point, my board state was good enough to finish the quest, but Beregond and Faramir were still stuck in the dungeons (and my threat was now going up by 6 per round), but a pair of late Dunedain Hunters and a strategic use of Distant Stars allowed me to fish out the final few cards of both Capture decks, rescue the heroes, and bolt for the exit!

My Easterling deck had a very small capture deck and got to start with Stone of Elostirion (Riddle-Game), so I was in a very good position there.

I started with 35 cards in my captured deck and was trying to get through them all. I ended up with 5 cards left after 18 rounds (I was really taking my time on stage 1). I rescued Beravor on the last round or two luckily, but had to leave Treebeard behind.

I was struggling to quest, but freeing Halbarad from a prison cell helped me to complete Loot the Dungeons. The 5 cards I rescued: Celebrían’s Stone, Sword that was Broken, Armored Destrier, Sarn Ford Sentry, and Gandalf. Suffice it to say, the game became much easier from there.

Decklists used

Radagast (starting hero), tactics Eowyn, Grimbeorn

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/57250/levelingmountgram-questoftheweek-1.0

Silvans

A slight modification of my tacrahil, gloin, Aragorn-deck & Elrond, Arwen, Rossiel

Arwen/Elladan/Elrohir (Three Hunters) Celeborn/Thranduil/Galadriel (Into the West)

Scouting Burglars https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/581558

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/56865/aaadnedain-1.0 with 3x Strider thrown in

Silly deck that has 47 starting threat: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/590885

Hobbit Pipes, Dunedain Side-Quest

Istari 🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️ https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22070

BoF: Beravor, Eowyn, Erkenbrand, Glorfindel https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/581051

Rainbow Dúnedain: Tactics Aragorn, Amarthiul, Beravor

Damrod, Haldan, Haldir Trap deck and Fastred, Eowyn, Eomer Rohan decj

Cirdan, Fastred, Dunhere

This week we play my favorite quest in the entire game: Across the Ettenmoors! Once you have completed the quest, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/ahNhzoL7d4AT8fc5A

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