QOTW: Race Across Harad

But wherever the mûmakil came there the horses would not go, but blenched and swerved away; and the great monsters were unfought, and stood like towers of defense, and the Haradrim rallied about them.
–The Return of the King

Race Across Harad Stats

Groups registered: 12
Total attempts: 33
Most attempts: 5
Average attempts per entry: 2.8

Total number of wins: 14
Win-rate: 42%

Average opinion on the quest: 3.9

Achievements

Here are the achievements we had for this quest:

Merely a Mirage

Setup: Search the encounter deck for both copies of Desert Oasis and remove them from the game.

Speedrun

Complete the scenario before the Orcs reach stage 4.

Big congratulations to the person who got the Speedrun achievement. That one is no joke!

Encounter Card Opinions

I actually have something to talk about this week instead of just a beneficial location! There was a two way tie for favorite encounter card between Desert Oasis (no surprise here) and Tamed Mûmak. We’ve already discussed the Desert Oasis in the article for Desert Crossing, but it’s especially good here because it is the only way to heal damage from the Tamed Mûmak, which is immune to player card effects. Speaking of the Tamed Mûmak, it feels good to finally have one of these hulking behemoths on our side for once! I love the design of this quest that if you want to make a lot of progress you need to quest with the Mûmakil, but when you need to keep them ready for combat you are limited in the progress you make. Very thematic and very smart design.

The one controversial card this week is the Uruk Chieftain. There was a little bit of confusion that people explored in the discord this week, so it’s important to keep in mind that the Chieftain will engage you if you are at the same stage as the orcs, even if nobody is engaged with any Orc enemies. Zero can be the most. His design makes for a very engaging bit of pressure as the orcs catch up to you and start attacking you. You also can’t damage him until the very end of the quest, so he is applying pressure constantly.

There were a lot of different cards nominated for least favorite this week, but the only three to get multiple votes (and they each got 2) were Harad Road, Sandstorm, and Uruk Warg-Rider. Harad Road is a very interesting, brutal location that is very similar to the Vast Coastland location from a very mechanically-similar quest: Flight of the Stormcaller. Both are very high threat locations that go to the Bad Guy Stage instead of the staging area. That means that if you are at the same stage as the enemies, it immediately starts contributing its threat. However, there is one very important difference here: in Flight of the Stormcaller, the enemies only quest based on the threat of The Stormcaller, whereas in Race Across Harad, the orcs quest based on the total threat of all cards in the Orcs Area. So revealing Harad Road makes the Orcs quest a LOT faster.

Things worth sharing from the games

Uruk Pursuers got revealed in my first round, and I then discarded Harad Road to bring the Uruk Chieftain into stage 2 on the first round, setting up the pattern of the game: every time I’d advance, the orc I would bring out plus the discarded card would be enough for the Uruk Chieftain to come immediately with me. There wasn’t a single round where he wasn’t engaged with me in the combat phase until I traveled to River Harnen and destroyed him. That made for a tense quest, but eventually I was able to pull it off, with some Host of the Galadhrim recursion for the last three rounds. I’m just glad the Uruk Chieftain never got any Warg mounts.

These games felt like a blur due to the constant pressure of keeping pace with the encounter deck (a theme that really hits home well), but I remember a few highlights: -Using Thror’s Key early to nerf a Blistering Erg -Getting stuck with Uruks of the Eye early and never having the time to clear it -Dropping in Rumil to insta-kill Uruk of Mordor to avoid having to defend it

Uruk Chieftain had a Mordor Warg attached almost the entire game, making things really difficult. Then a Racing Warg got revealed and would have attached to him, but I couldn’t deal with that so I had to cancel the When Revealed. Better to deal with the Racing Warg on its own than to have it make the boss that much bigger.

With this lot of high WP characters I quickly finished the first stages but the orcs quickly got up to speed. We were even progression wise on stage 4 when I also had the location to get through. I smashed through it on one go and the Orcs landed on 19 progress on their stage. Phew! The fighting was never an issue with this much fire power. The Elves deck was great fun, and a great use of Thranduil and Eomer on his steed.

I got my Fellowship contract flipped very early which contributed to good questing all game long. I had accumulated 6 enemies in the orc area when they finally caught up to me on stage 4. I was able to defend all 5 enemies that came to me that first turn and start whittling away at them while I quested through stage 4. Wilyador was defending the Uruk Chieftain thanks to the contact + Narya. The orcs had placed 18 progress on 4D when I finally won.

I did the math and realized that the Orcs in the Orc area were placing 18 progress themselves. Thankfully, I discarded a treachery, allowing the heroes time to cross the River Harnen and achieve the Speedrun achievement!

I only cheated once, at the end of a long game that had to be paused for 6 hours while my kids were up. Once resumed, and two more hours in, while being harried and harassed by the Orcs staging area the whole game, I had just enough turns left to put 20 quest points on 4B and then travel and complete River Harnen, while Uruk Chieftain, in legendary bullshit-mode, was riding two different wargs for 7 threat. I needed one more round of questing and just had to survive one more post-quest phase flip to 4D, and anything other than 5 threat, I’d be safe. And of course I flip Harad Road, with 5 threat. Game-ending. If Uruk Chieftain is going to cheat by riding 2 wargs, I’m going to cheat, shuffle up, and re-draw.

Decklists used

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

True Solo – “The Elven-Wise” (Cirdan, Erestor, Arwen; https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/429119) Two-Handed – “Elven-Wiser” (“The Elven-Wise” + Celeborn, Galadriel, Thranduil; https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/21272)

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

Isengard: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/610073

Tried two brilliant decks made by others: The swords of Noldor reforged (without SOG) and The elves must take action

GreyAragorn, Gilraen Halbarad. Bear Traps (Osbera, Beorn, Damrod). Staging Area Hunters (Herubrand, LdEomer, Fastred). Last Alliance North and South (LdBrand, Lanwyn, Kahliel). New BOF deck inspired by Silmarillion (Galdor, Gilraen, SpDain, Thorin S).

Creature Fellowship https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/58818/theriseofwilyador-1.0

Autumn’s Into the West + Fellowship: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/53612/alldogsgotovalinorbeyondthewest-1.0

Argalad, Pippin w pipes, Arwen + Fastred, Tacowyn, Dunhere

The Beacons are Lit in Umbar: https://ringsdb.com/questlog/view/59912/raceacrossharad-2players-2025-08-16

This week we head under the sands and fight some very creepy crawlies. Once you have completed Beneath the Sands, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/WRXqeypGSuMjjXxT7

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