Thereafter the fire and smoke went up without ceasing; for the power of Sauron daily increased, and in that temple, with spilling of blood and torment and great wickedness, men made sacrifice to Melkor that he should release them from Death… Those were bitter days, and hate brings forth hate.
–The Akallabêth
This was the pivotal quest for Con of the Rings for Friday, and it was a lot of fun to play it (and lose) in that setting. A lot of people got wins, but a lot more got their butts kicked!
The Temple of Doom Stats
- Groups registered: 17
- Total attempts: 29
- Most attempts: 4
- Average attempts per entry: 1.7
- Total number of wins: 11
- Win-rate: 38%
- Average opinion on the quest: 3.9
Achievements
Here are the achievements we had for this quest:
More-dor
Complete the scenario with at least 4 cards from The Power of Mordor deck in play.
“What are you Waiting for?”
Setup: Add this stage to the victory display and advance to the topmost stage 2A (bypassing stage 1B).
Encounter Card Opinions
This is a surprise to me, but the most votes for favorite encounter card went to Tribute to Mordor. This side quest is in play the entire game and sets the pace for the Power of Mordor deck. The faster you can make it through the main quest stages, the faster you can deal with Thane Ulcor, and the faster you can defeat this stage. And speed means getting fewer of the very nasty Power of Mordor cards. Very cool design, and the art by Aleksander Karcz is so terrifyingly good.
Receiving several votes for favorite and least-favorite was Place of Evil, which interacts directly with the central mechanic of this quest and gives you a very difficult decision: speed up the sacrifices or speed up the encounter deck.
Also winning the “controversial prize,” receiving one vote in favorite and least favorite each were Crumbling Passage and Fanaticism.
It is no surprise to me that Fearful Shadows took a third of the votes for least-favorite encounter card and is the overall winner. Any effect that blanks text boxes is just so nasty. Plus, it has Doomed 1 (in a quest that is already pushing your threat really heavily) and a really bad shadow effect!
Things worth sharing from the games
Maybe it was cool for the encounter deck when we cancelled Fearful Shadows only to draw into another Fearful Shadows, but it shut our group down quick.
It was a tight win, even with 4 good decks
I had many difficult moments that could have gone either way.great quest that kept being hard the whole quest.
I threated out in the first resource phase, then won the game 11 below my threat elimination level 🙂
I got nervous when I was on The Lord of Middle Earth (discard a card to determine how much progress can be placed) and drew into the Lost in the Dark side quest which emptied my deck. I was fortunately able to clear the side quest the next turn and get my deck back to finish up the main quest.
This scenario really punches you in the face the whole time, doesn’t it? Shrine to Sauron got rid of a lot of my cards, though it never caused me to discard any cards in play or in my hand. I had to clear Lost in the Dark at some point too, and ignore Warriors of the East when it came up close to the end. Legacy of Mordor was my last quest card, so I had to just take the damage when my ally Elronds had already been discarded by Shrine to Sauron. Merry and Pippin both ended up with 2 damage before I could damage Thane Ulchor enough and defeat Tribute to Mordor, but Bill the Pony was in play to keep them alive and let me eke out a win.
Played 4-player at Con of the Rings. We didn’t bring our best decks and this quest punished us heavily for it.
THOUGHT we had a cool combo that Pillars of the Kings says “set” not “reduce” threat, but learned to our dismay that Caleb rules it still counts and is restricted by the Power of Mordor deck, surprise surprise.
It was hard to stay ahead of the constant attrition from this quest in 4 players at the con, especially with revealing the treachery that blanks all textboxes seemingly every turn.
My Gandalf mining deck had 24 resources worth of cards out after the 2nd planning phase (just about the best you could hope for) and my 3-hunters deck flipped at the end of round 3. Khamul the Easterling was the first card I got from The Power of Mordor deck. I was set up enough to deal with him the same turn which bought me some time to get my threat reduced a bunch before moving on. It was easily the best this quest has ever gone for me.
Fearful Shadows blanking my Guardians of Arnor, leading to half my board getting wiped by attacks over the next few rounds and slowly running out of options. I had needed a low attack enemy to draw to make them strong enough to safely defend and also give Amarthiul an easy defend to discard a shadow card with. But blanking meant I lost enough allies that next turn I lost Halbarad and it spiraled from there.
Had to scoop encounter deck turn 1 when it came out with an easterling raider with 8 attack and immune to player card effects. Warriors of the east + Fanaticism makes for a very unhappy minstrel deck…
Decklists used
Radagoose/Faunith/Alagos (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/627821)
Eomer/Lothiriel/Thengel – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/292668
Resorted to Noldor
An Oathbreakers/Neutragorn deck that Chris cooked up
Autumn’s Estel. Dunedain. Harpist. https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/627558
That was 4 Con days ago, I don’t remember :). I played across from a Gandalf/Dain/Bifur mining deck, that much I recall.
Valour rekindled – Erkenbrand, Hirgon, Tacowyn Doomed Mirror – Galadriel, Grima, Loragorn
EDH (Estel. Dúnedain. Harpist): https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/609340
Three Hunter Minstrels (Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, and Elena three hunter deck)
https://ringsdb.com/questlog/view/60494
Thematic Into the West https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/60897/notalltearsareanevil-1.0
Elrond Grey Wanderer
Silvan Bond of Friendship, Gondor starter, ALEP Eagles, Grimbeorn 3 Hunters
Neutral Saruman Gifts of Galadriel: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/627135
Rohan 3 Hunters and Gandalf Mining https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/389241 https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/436069
https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/627360
Used a Minstrel deck at con of the rings https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/628905
This week we are playing Wrath and Ruin, this cycle’s remaster of Assault on Osgiliath, and unfortunately for us, there’s no way to win during the first round on this one. Once you have finished your brawl in the streets of the capital city of Dorwinion, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/WD4Cu2USqLkpXVPj9
And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have:
I Own These Streets
When faced with the option to return a location to the staging area, always choose the other option.
Tourists
Each location in the staging area gains the text: “Immune to player card effects.”
Vision Of The Palantir 