QOTW: Flight of the Stormcaller

The sky itself was darkened, and there were storms of rain and hail in those days, and violent winds; and ever and anon a great ship of the Númenóreans would founder and return not to haven, though such a grief had not till then befallen them since the rising of the Star. And out of the west there would come at times a great cloud in the evening, shaped as it were an eagle, with pinions spread to the north and the south; and slowly it would loom up, blotting out the sunset, and then uttermost night would fall upon Númenor. And some of the eagles bore lightning beneath their wings, and thunder echoed between sea and cloud.
-Akallabêth

Flight of the Stormcaller Stats

Groups registered: 14
Total attempts: 21
Most attempts: 4
Average attempts per entry: 1.5

Total number of wins: 17
Win-rate: 81%

Average opinion on the quest: 4.2

Perfectly balanced. As all things should be.

Campaign Mode

Achievements

Here are the two achievements we had for this quest:

Mutiny

Whenever an effect gives a choice, always choose to go off-course.

Let the Storm Rage On

Stages 2B, 3B, and 4B gain: “When Revealed: Search the encounter deck and discard pile for a copy of Raging Squall and reveal it. Shuffle the encounter deck.”

Seek and Destroy [Dream-Chaser Campaign Guide Achievement]

Destroy the Stormcaller enemy in four or fewer rounds.

Rough week for achievements! Kudos to the one person who got an achievement this time.

Encounter card Opinions

For the second time this cycle we have Calm Waters appearing on the favorite encounter card list. This time there was no close competition with its 7 votes, although there were 6 other cards nominated. There’s not much to say here. This is one of the best locations in the entire game.

The card that appeared on both lists was Man Overboard. This treachery is a really nice revamp of the classic Dwarrowdelf card Sudden Pitfall. The addition of the clause limiting it to players contributing at least 8 willpower means that it is not likely to hit you on the very first round when you might only be questing with heroes. Also, it can be cancelled until you are at the worst heading, which is a nice facelift from Sudden Pitfall.

Each taking 3 votes, there was a three-way tie for least favorite encounter card: Man Overboard (discussed above), Raging Squall, and Vast Coastland. Raging Squall is definitely a card you have to plan around if you are questing with allies at all. Either make sure you are always on-course (a good idea anyway) or plan on bringing some condition removal. Vast Coastland has a massive 6 threat, but it is at least off-set by the fact that it is not added to the staging area but added to the Stormcaller’s area. While it’s in the Stormcaller’s area it doesn’t contribute its threat to the staging area until you are at the same stage as the Stormcaller, at which point you can immediately travel to it. If you discard this card off the top of the encounter deck when checking to see how much progress the Stormcaller makes, you might be in trouble!

Things worth sharing from the games

This is a good quest to use a Fellowship contract deck. With 5 unique characters from the begining, to flip the contract should only take a few turns… and the boost in willpower is almost an insta-lose for the Stormcaller.

I got the “Dream On” achievement using upgraded Calaerion and To Arms! to use the Dream-Chaser 4 times in a round!

Just when I thought the Stormcaller was going to run in stage 2, Legolas goes and finishes off a swift raider, dealing the final 3 damage and placing the final 2 progress on stage 2B.

When the Stormcaller was already at stage 4, I was still at stage 2! Had to do a massive sprint and then nuke the Stormcaller on one go, abandoning the quest for it — but I killed it just in time!

I played once on Nightmare and won* by the thinnest of margins on stage 4 (each of my ships was 1 damage away from destruction), only to realize several days later that the Stormcaller’s campaign effect should have prevented me from placing more than 9 progress on the quest each round, and there was no way I could have won had I remembered that restriction. C’est la vie. While playing on normal, I had one easy victory by catching the Stormcaller on stage 2, but that only earned me 3 XP, so I tried again and took my time, hoping to see Thunderstruck and Crowley before taking the Stormcaller down by combat. This came to fruition, and I was able to delay my questing (thematically, I interpret this as playing Cat & Mouse w/the Stormcaller while whittling down its escorts. This time, I was able to get to 8 XP :).

I was unlucky in my sailing test the first turn on stage 2 getting 0 symbols with 4 characters. I also got even worse weather during the encounter phase and combat. I thought id have to resign myself to not catching up on that stage, but the next turn I got back to good weather with 5characters sailing and managed to put the last 8 progress on the quest. Smooth sailing!

I missed with my throwing axe 😦 But it was still really useful, boosting Gandalf to 5 attack (6 once a shadow had me take a small attack undefended). It was a struggle to get on course at the beginning of the game, and I had two raging squalls attached to 2b, so that was tricky to manage, but I was eventually able to get past it and sail onwards.

Manage to destroy Thunderstruck and the Stormcaller in the same round! First time destroying the Stormcaller rather than catching it

Modification boons continue to be great discard fodder for Cunning Pirates!

Decklists used

Mordor’s simply-walkers (Hobbits + Gandalf fellowship) https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/43628/mordorssimply-walkers-4.0

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

Haldir/Legolas/Argalad (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/603087) Cirdan/Galadriel/Arwen (https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/13573/starlightonthewesternseas-1.0)

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

Radagast and Brand Son of ALeP at the End of all Things – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/601604

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.

Just Like Havens (Noldor deck with MotK Erestor) https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/55388/justlikehavens-6.0

Caldara on a bit of a journey

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

Arwen, Círdan, Galadriel

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

Leadership Gondor (Denethor, Boromir, Faramir)

Cirdan, Arwen, Galdor

This week we will set aside our differences with the corsairs to take care of the monster from the deep. Once you have completed the quest, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/LRdNhA5DkdioE2JaA

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