Then Ar-Pharazôn hardened his heart, and he went aboard his mighty ship, Alcarondas, Castle of the Sea. Many-oared it was and many-masted, golden and sable; and upon it the throne of Ar-Pharazôn was set. Then he did on his panaply and his crown, and let raise his standard, and he gave the signal for the raising of the anchors; and in that hour the trumpets of Númenor outrang the thunder. Thus the fleets of the Númenóreans moved against the menace of the West; and there was little wind, but they had many oars and many strong slaves to row beneath the lash.
–Akallabêth
The Hunt for the Dreadnaught Stats
- Groups registered: 5
- Total attempts: 8
- Most attempts: 3
- Average attempts per entry: 1.6
I think this is probably the first time that a Quest of the Week has had a majority of entries be 4 player games!
- Total number of wins: 5
- Win-rate: 63%
You will notice that the difficulties of this quest are different than most quests. This quest is unique for many reasons, one of which is that it includes three difficulty-setting cards that give different setup instructions and different effects on it for different difficulties.
- Average opinion on the quest: 4.4
Note: we had an 11-player epic multiplayer game of The Hunt for the Dreadnaught, but it looks like only 3 people from that game submitted an entry.
There are several reasons that I think The Hunt for the Dreadnaught improves so much on the mechanics of the Dream-Chaser cycle. One is that, although there are ships, the quest does not have the sailing keyword. Another, as illustrated here, is that none of the ships are “auto-includes” like the Nárelenya is in Dream-Chaser. Instead they are each quite different and interesting.
Achievements
Here are the achievements we had for this quest:
Armada of the Free Peoples
Complete the scenario where there are X or more ship-objectives in play, where X is 2 more than the number of players.
Corsair Roulette
When the players prepare their fleet, each player randomly selects one of the unique ship-objectives to control.
Nobody completed either of the achievements this week. My table at the epic multiplayer event got close to getting “Armada of the Free Peoples”– we had all four of the Gondorian Warships in the deck, but we saw all but one of them as shadow cards.
Encounter card Opinions
For those who have not played this quest, it is extremely fun. Among many reasons why is the fact that there are several beneficial locations in the deck and one of them, Belfalas Shipyard (the winner of the favorite encounter card this week), lets you upgrade your ship. The stats of the ships increase when you upgrade them, but their unique ability also gets a facelift and they often have a one-time bonus for flipping them. To illustrate, I was using the Silent Mist during our playthrough, and when you upgrade that ship it lets you search your discard pile or collection for up to 2 events and add them to your hand.
There were no encounter cards that appeared on both lists this week.
With two votes, the winner for least favorite encounter card was the Captain of the Haven. This enemy is one of six unique boss-level Corsairs that can board your ship when you take on the Dreadnaught. This one has truly monstrous stats, attacking for 8, and also showcases the Pillage X keyword, which causes you discard X cards from the top of your deck after he attacks. Most of the time that keyword is not too much of a danger, but this enemy introduces a new loss condition for the engaged player based on that!
Things worth sharing from the games
I played this as part of the epic multiplayer event. Everyone’s decks worked well, there were two of us who had a lot of willpower and attack and two with lots of defense and attack. My deck used Eithiliant to grant Aragorn the Hobbit trait, which made my deck easier to build than using The Last Alliance. I managed to get Thorongil on spirit Merry early to boost him to 5 attack and able to ready another character (tactics Aragorn) when they both destroy an enemy. I still used him mainly to reduce my threat at the beginning, but I managed to get an Unexpected Courage on him to both reduce my threat and ready Aragorn. In one round, I used Aragorn, Merry, and a Rosie-boosted Sam to take down a Black Sails, readied Aragorn and pulled a War Galley, destroyed it, then pulled another War Galley (already wounded) and destroyed it with Sam, who had 6 attack by this time. That move also netted me a few cards from Pippin. I was about to play Hour of Wrath at the end of the game to take out every non-immune enemy, but another table dealt the last damage to the Dreadnaught when we got to the combat phase.
Playing a Dunedin deck for ship scenarios I thought would be a good idea. Little did I know about Pillage. All the enemies I engaged kept forcing me to discard from my deck. Then I got Captain of the Haven to pillage 8. Thankfully I was not eliminated from the game.
Rushing through stage 1 is a bad strategy. Do not recommend.
I used the Silent Mist to play a discounted Grim Resolve like 4 turns in a row.
One of the best quests; one with helping locations that don’t cheese the quest but feel thematic and fair
Decklists used
A deck designed to quest and attack https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/610737
Gizlivadi’s “All That is Gold Does not Glitter” Deck. Includes Amarthiul, Aragon, and Halbarad.
https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/609901
Mono-Leadership Gondor
Alatar & Pallando – Two hunters and Riddle Game
This week we start the cycle that many people (me included) consider to be the best cycle of quests in the game’s run. Once you have completed Escape from Umbar, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/3JeEoLXEdZwb5FAQ8
And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have:
It’s Getting Crowded Back Here
Have 3 or more enemies underneath a single Narrow Alleyway.
Bigger and Badder
Stage 1A should read “Setup: Each player adds 1 different location to the staging area and puts 1 copy of Southron Archer into play engaged with them” instead of Umbar Senty.
Vision Of The Palantir 