QOTW: The Fate of Númenor

Among the Exiles many believed that the summit of the Meneltarma, the Pillar of Heaven, was not drowned for ever, but rose again above the waves, a lonely island lost in the great waters; for it had been a hallowed place, and even in the days of Sauron none had defiled it. And some there were of the seed of Eärendil that afterwards sought for it, because it was said among loremasters that the farsighted men of old could see from the Meneltarma a glimmer of the Deathless Land.
-Akallabêth

The Fate of Númenor Stats

Groups registered: 17
Total attempts: 28
Most attempts: 6
Average attempts per entry: 1.6

Total number of wins: 21
Win-rate: 75%

Average opinion on the quest: 2.9

Campaign Mode

Achievements

Here are the two achievements we had for this quest:

Scouting Party

Setup: Add 2 copies of Lost Island to the staging area (3 copies if there are 3 or 4 players in the game).

Chumps

Destroy 5 or more allies at once when resolving the “when revealed” effect on Curse of the Downfallen (10 or more in a 3 or 4 player game).

Double Dare [Dream-Chaser Campaign Guide Achievement]

Win The Fate of Númenor with 7 or more double-sided locations in the victory display.

Encounter card Opinions

There were 8 different cards that received nominations for favorite card this week. The winner, with 6 votes, was Steep Plateau. Low threat, beneficial effect for exploring it, no issue leaving it in staging the whole game if you’d prefer–what’s not to like? Even the art is top notch. If you’re playing Nightmare Mode, though, you’ll have to look elsewhere for a favorite card, as all three copies of this are removed from the encounter deck.

The two cards that received votes in both categories are wildly different cards. One of them–Curse of the Downfallen–is a highly impactful card that will either inform your deckbuilding or gameplay. The other–Mysterious Fog–is a boring card that basically doesn’t do anything.

It was a close race between Curse of the Downfallen and Ruins of Ages Past for least favorite encounter card, but the winner with 6 votes was Ruins of Ages Past. This card is not very likely to cause you to lose the game or be challenged in any significant way other than to test your attention span. This card just prolongs the game, especially in the second quest stage.

Things worth sharing from the games

7 copies of Lost Island and I found the Temple on the first try! And the first time I played this quest, it happened the same!

I had to exhaust nine allies when I traveled to Shrine of Morgoth

I ended the game with 2 Chariot Racers with Wild Stallions attached and had 5 to all stats.

Not really, smooth sailing, through the jungle.

Fortunatelly I was able to flip the contract (Fellowship) after a few turns. I waited until my deck was empty before engaging enemies like the Guardian of the Golden King, thus avoiding their nasty effects. Nightmare version was a bit more fun, but it still remains as one of my least favorite quests of the cycle.

Nothing remarkable to say. I find this quest a bit boring honestly. It usually takes more turns than I would like… and I really really hate those annoying Throngs of Unfaithful and the discard mechanics in general.

I had the brothers, Elladan and Elrohir, each riding a Wild Stallion. Aiided by Narya and Lords of the Eldar, nothing could stand in their way.

17 round game this time! I whiffed twice on A Very Good Tale in the first 5 turns (25 allies in the deck, exhausted Knight of the White Tower and Gandalf first time, Knight again and Veteran of Osgiliath second time). Those misses slowed the game a lot, but slowly but surely I was able to grind towards the win, killing the Revenant all 3 times along the way. I really enjoy how Dreamchaser manages to make quests focused on locations feel unique and fun.

Trying to develop my own home-brew Campaign rules that work for any random 5 quests. All good so far.

I used multiple west road travellers to be able to clear out more locations each round once I hit stage 2, including shoving the Shrine to Morgath so that I could find all of the locations that gave xp.

The Revenant kept popping up (I killed it three times), but I had enough of a board state built up to handle it. Once I advanced to stage 2, I used an upgraded Spyglass to travel to as many uncharted locations as possible for the added XP. Otherwise, the quest was mostly uneventful. One fun play was direct damaging a Throngs of the Unfaithful to death during the quest phase -> it went back to the top of the encounter deck to become a harmless shadow card.

Being able to put Glorfindel on the bottom of my deck was clutch in terms of dealing with an early copy of the guardian of the golden king. This was also my first nightmare victory (I haven’t tried too many as yet). A copy of corrupted fauna managed to remove all my questers and raise my threat by 20! It’s a good job I was cycling Elrond’s Counsel so had my threat down at 22 before that.

Decklists used

Noldor Dreams of Discard https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/600283

Mono lore – Great Hunt spam: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/599845

Perilous Dale/Noldor: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/520090

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/57989/magicsilvancouncil-2.0

A Burglar’s Turn Caldara deck: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/601364

Caldara on a bit of a voyage, https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/599149

Mordor’s simply-walkers (Hobbit deck with the Fellowship contract): https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/43628/mordorssimply-walkers-4.0

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/593579
https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/576138

Their Majesties (basic Gondor swarm): https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/45093/theirmajesties-1.0

Starlight on the Western Seas (Círdan, Arwen, Galadriel)

Leadership Gondor (Denethor, Boromir, Faramir)

Tried a new all-Rohan fellowship using a BOF deck with tonnes of Mounts and a Thengel deck with tonnes of Allies. I’ll share the Fellowship link in a future QOTW.

Same as Voyage across Belegear https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22429

Storm-Chasers (https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/43973/stormchasersrco-1.0) – an #RCO Noldor deck featuring Cirdan, Erestor, and Arwen & “(Skyward) Volley!!!” (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/597751) – a direct damage deck designed to take advantage of Skyward Volley and some other lesser-used direct damage effects.

Galdor, Cirdan, Arwen

Noldor https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/599402

Purple Dain, Arwen, Galdor Last aliance ally swarm. https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/524262

This week we’re tackling one of this cycle’s most challenging quests: Raid on the Grey Havens. Once you have completed the quest, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/9UhdcQvuuBMmgWGh9

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