QOTW: The Siege of Annúminas

This past week we did an interlude standalone between Angmar Awakened and Dream-Chaser cycles: The Siege of Annúminas. This is a particularly thematic standalone for pairing with the Angmar Awakened cycle because it is about the Rangers of the North defending their ancestral city of Annúminas from an army from Angmar. We even had an achievement for playing this quest using players’ earned boons and burdens from their completed Angmar campaign.

The Siege of Annúminas Stats

Groups registered: 7
Total attempts: 10
Most attempts: 3
Average attempts per entry: 1.4

Total number of wins: 7
Win-rate: 70%

Average opinion on the quest: 3.1

Achievements

Here are the three achievements we had for this quest:

You Shall Not Pass

In epic multiplayer mode, defeat every Host of Angmar during the round it enters play.

Behind Strong Walls

Complete the scenario where Annúminas’s city strength is 10 or more (20 or more if playing epic multiplayer mode).

Angmar Reawakened

Complete the scenario using your boons, burdens, and campaign log from your completed Angmar Awakened campaign.

Encounter card Opinions

It comes as little surprise that the most favorite encounter card was the Dúnedain of Annúminas. Reminiscent of the Ranger of the North player card, this helpful ally can be found in the encounter deck willing to lend a hand when the going gets tough. And he even has a helpful shadow effect!

The two encounter cards to appear on both the favorite and least-favorite lists were Caught in the Press and Weary Warriors. These two treacheries’ effectiveness is going to depend entirely on your fellowship. If you have few allies and lots of healing, these two will not be that hard for you to deal with, but if you have little healing and lots of low-health allies these two treacheries will make this quest very difficult for you.

The solution to the previous two treacheries seems to be to play fewer allies and focus more on attachments (e.g. with Forth the Three Hunters). However, the most-disliked card in this set will disrupt that plan too. Sorcery of Carn Dûm punishes you for having lots of attachments, especially if you have very little healing/soak or are relying on a particular expensive attachment.

Things worth sharing from the games

Having no allies and reliable shadow cancellation (A Burning Brand) definitely makes this quest easier in solo.

Dunedain of Annuminas is ordinarily a great card to get as a shadow… however, I already had enough defense and was planning on using Armored Destrier to ready my hero and get rid of a shadow. That didn’t work out how I had hoped.

It was very thematic using Andúril for this quest to help the Dúnedain defend their ancient capital. I even had to reforge it once because it got discarded from a Sorcery of Carn Dûm (I used Stalwart to get it back, not Reforged, though). What was less thematic was that it was Pallando wielding Andúril.

I lost badly twice, and it was looking likely to be three loses in a row. Out of desperation, I used Beravor to draw extra cards and stumbled upon my salvation: Determination and Descendants of Kings. Between these two cards I was able to quest heavily to get the remaining quest points on stage 3, then ready 6 characters to finish off the Lieutenant of Angmar.

I discarded into a Host of Angmar when going to Stage 2a, which meant I was churning out some chumps to take his attacks each quest phase. I was still able to build up and get the win, but in single player without epic multiplayer mode at least, it felt more like just a really hard quest than a fun quest.

The Noldor made short work of the hordes of Angmar.

First, I loved how the theme and mechanics of this quest worked together to make it feel like you were preparing for and then undergoing a siege. Second, I loved so much of the art in this quest, especially the locations and the objective. It makes me want a physical copy of the quest. In my playthrough, I was mostly able to keep the board clear of enemies so I Annuminas didn’t take much damage. I also had plenty of healing (2x Warden of Healing, Laermuin, Ioreth) so the Weary Warriors and Caught in the Press treacheries didn’t hit very hard. I never saw a Host of Angmar, but I was ready for him with a 6-def, 5-hp Erkenbrand and a 5-def, 5-hp Guardian of Rivendell.

Decklists used

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/597953

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

Four Istari and Their Emotional Support Himbo 🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🏋‍♂️ https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22361

Rainbow Dúnedain (the same deck I used for the Angmar Awakened campaign)

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/57834/thespirityearnsfortheminesrcofriendly-1.0

“The Elven-wise” Noldor deck: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/429119

BoF: Beravor, TaEowyn, Erkenbrand, SpGlorfindel

This week we start our next campaign cycle: Dream-Chaser. Once you have completed Voyage Across Belegaer, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/X1muMTBA4WZuuBac9

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