QOTW: Escape from Umbar

”Tis said that there were dealings of old between Gondor and the kingdoms of the Harad in the Far South; though there was never friendship. In those days our bounds were away south beyond the mouths of Anduin, and Umbar, the nearest of their realms, acknowledged our sway. But that is long since. ‘Tis many lives of Men since any passed to or fro between us. Now of late we have learned that the Enemy has been among them, and they are gone over to Him, or back to Him — they were ever ready to His will — as have so many also in the East.’
–Damrod, The Two Towers

Escape from Umbar Stats

Groups registered: 17
Total attempts: 75 (wow!)
Most attempts: 20
Average attempts per entry: 4.4

Total number of wins: 40
Win-rate: 53%

Average opinion on the quest: 4.3

Achievements

Here are the achievements we had for this quest:

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.

Encounter card Opinions

The clear winner for favorite encounter card was Narrow Alleyway. This location is low threat, low quest-points, and has a beneficial effect. Not only that, but it is charming, highly thematic, introduces interesting decision points, and can give you much needed breathing room at the beginning of the quest. Very lovely art, too.

I was very pleased to see that the only card to appear on both lists this week was the highly contentious, much-discussed, story-creating side quest: Southron Champion. For those that don’t know, Caleb Grace is a huge Indiana Jones fan. You can see traces of the influence of that franchise all across this game, and this is one of the more overt references. The scene is from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones is confronted with a swordsman on the streets of Cairo. There was an entire fight scene choreographed, but Harrison Ford was so tired from the filming that he pulled out his prop revolver and fired a blank at the stunt performer instead, ending the fight before it started. Unfortunately with this side-quest, we don’t have as simple of a solution. The only real way to “trick” this quest is to lose the Champion in the Narrow Alleyway and ensure that he stays there the entire game.

There was a two-way tie for most disliked encounter card between the aforementioned Southron Champion and Southron Archer. The archer is a hefty threat, with Archery 2, the ability to snipe one of your allies when he engages, and a beefy 7 attack needed to dispatch him. If you leave him in the staging area, make sure you have plenty of healing to offset his archery!

Things worth sharing from the games

It was a fairly straightforward game. One highlight was being able to use Yazan’s ability to deal one damage and finish off a damaged Umbar Sentry, then activate haradrim spear to kill a Southron Soldier all in one combat phase.

Southron Champion came on the would-have-been-the-last-turn to upgrade an Umbar Sentry as the final boss of the quest

Ents are so good against archery, I also love how it allows them to use some of their stats on the turn they enter play. Also the eagle deck was very powerful when I played that, as I could often just put archery on an eagle and then pull it back to my hand to “heal” it.

After soaking a lot of archery, I was able to use a combination of Ioreth, The Long Defeat, and Warden of Healing to clear all of the damage…only to have Enemy Pursuit come out and place 15 damage right back onto my characters during the final round. Nevertheless, with both engaged enemies caught in Forest Snares, I had little difficulty in achieving victory during combat.

This was my first physical game of LOTR by myself in almost 3 months! Great quest to come back to. I did torture myself a little by playing a 100 card Council of the Wise deck that shuffles a couple times a round.

The Perilous Voyage Gondor Deck is silly. My final round (only turn 6) had me questing for 26 without having to exhaust a single character. The standard 50 card version is still better, but it was kinda fun trying to see if I could make a deck that felt like it actually utilized that contract well, since I don’t use it often.

One of my plays was my 6000th logged play on BGG.

We got Rosie’s willpower to 15 and Sam became a brutal machine. Working on an hero alt art now to have as community Con swag.

During the first of my two games I had Aragorn set up with Arod, Steed of the North, Roheryn, Rohan Warhorse, Unexpected Courage, and Support of the Eagles…aka “the dream.”

An early Silvan Tracker made archery a complete non-issue. I also steadily decreased my threat, with Galadriel, Council of the Wise, and a few Silvan cards providing excellent threat reduction.

West Road Traveler and the Hidden Way kept letting me place all engaged enemies under Narrow Alleyway.

So much damage! I had to restart quite a few times because I couldn’t keep up with all the archery.

Between Radagast and Faunith I was able to cycle eagles quickly, beefing up my packs of Eagles of the Misty Mountains to 7/7 monsters. Radagast’s staff let me defend with the same eagle multiple times, while the others swooped in for the kill.

I’ve been waiting two years to get to this quest, and it did not disappoint. I’ve played this scenario over and over and over again the past week and a half. I only have about a 1/4 win rate, but that’s due in large part to me really wanting to experiment with new decks, force myself to play with unplayed cards that usually get overlooked for their more over-powered sibling cards (i.e., I’m using Desperate Defense to ready Beregond instead of Unexpected Courage) and not letting myself use any treachery or shadow cancellation.

Decklists used

BGamerJoe’s “Harad Needs No Steward” deck. Features Cirdan, Kahliel, and Thurindir. https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/8351/harad-needs-no-steward-1.0

Tried two types of decks: Outlands/Harad Mono Leadership and Ranger Traps

Bond of Friendship Beorn and Hobbits – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/599050

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/53257/whereeaglestellthetales-1.0 once and https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/59/awaken-the-ents-solo-1.0 twice

2-handed Gimli, Thranduil, Amarthuil (sidequests and dunedain) + Legolas, Beravor, Glorfindel – location control Fastred Dunhere + someone & Argalad and pipes Galadriel-decks

“Would that Boromir Had Lived…” – A fellowship based around the sons of Denethor (Boromir (T), Aragorn (T), Mablung, https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/566880; Faramir (L), Eowyn (T), Damrod, https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/533741)

EDH (Estel. Dúnedain. Harpist.): https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/609340

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/612057 (NeutraGorn, Denethor, Ingold Perilous Voyage Gondor Deck) for about half the games, and then my Secret Con of the Rings Deck™ for the other half

Last Alliance of Dale and Harad. Played it once with a Grey Aragorn deck and once with a Rohan 3 Hunters Staging area attack deck

Testing a MotK Rosie deck (my out of town partner played a Hobbit deck)

Gwaihir, Radagast ATEoAT & Aragorn, Arwen, Elfhelm Mounts https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/17792

Silvan Council of the Wise https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/57989/magicsilvancouncil-2.0

Woodmen of the Desert: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/612939

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/610073, https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/610357, https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/611715

Rossiel: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/550840

[Faunith/Prince Imrahil(Le)/Radagast](https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/613447)

The Beacons are Lit in Umbar https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22821

This is a fitting time of year (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) to be playing this next quest. Grab a glass of cold lemonade and turn on your AC, it’s time for a Desert Crossing. Once you have completed the quest, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/RmXBUAwbqdbH4PwW7

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