QOTW: The City of Ulfast

These Men were short and broad, long and strong in the arm; their skins were swart or sallow, and their hair was dark as were their eyes. Their houses were many, and some had greater liking for the Dwarves of the mountains than for the Elves. But Maedhros, knowing the weakness of the Noldor and the Edain, whereas the pits of Angband seemed to hold store inexhaustible and ever-renewed, made alliance with these new-come Men, and gave his friendship the the greatest of their chieftains, Bór and Ulfang. And Morgoth was well content; for this was as he had designed. The sons of Bór were Borlad, Borlach, and Borthand; and they followed Maedhros and Maglor, and cheated the hope of Morgoth, and were faithful. The sons of Ulfang the Black were Ulfast, and Ulwarth, and Uldor the accursed; and they followed Caranthir and swore allegiance to him, and proved faithless.
–The Silmarillion

The City of Ulfast Stats

Groups registered: 10
Total attempts: 21
Most attempts: 5
Average attempts per entry: 2.1

Total number of wins: 11
Win-rate: 52%

Average opinion on the quest: 3.8

Achievements

Here are the achievements we had for this quest:

I’ve Had Worse

Defend 3 or more attacks from City Guard without losing a character.

Causing Trouble

Stage 1B gains: “This stage cannot be defeated unless City Guard has 15 remaining hit points.“
Stage 2B gains: “This stage cannot be defeated unless City Guard has 10 remaining hit points.“
Stage 3B gains: “This stage cannot be defeated unless City Guard has 5 remaining hit points.“

Encounter Card Opinions

There was a two-way tie for first place in the “Favorite Encounter Card” category this week, between a low-threat beneficial location (no surprises there)–Crowded Market–and one of the most terrifying enemies in all of Lord of the Rings the Card Game (which is a Living Card Game by Fantasy Flight Games)–The City Guard.

Crowded Market is a great card to see because it gives you an emergency escape from the dreaded City Guard. If you suddenly find yourself within engagement range of it, you can travel here and deal with a smaller enemy instead. Very cool card.

And then there is the City Guard. This force of well-trained guards puts the Balrog to shame. They will find you and they will kill you. By my reckoning, the only hero in the game that can survive even a single hit from them is Spirit Dain. This enemy is this quest. Everything in this quest is about this enemy, and it is a very different type of boss fight than we’ve ever seen in this game (which is saying something in the ninth cycle!). The City Guard was also the only card to receive votes in both the favorite and least-favorite categories.

As for least-favorite encounter card, there were 8 different cards submitted between the 10 different votes. The only cards to get more than one vote were The King’s Elite and We’ve Been Seen. I tend to think We’ve Been Seen isn’t the worst card. If you have very few allies it’s not a huge effect, and if you have a ton of allies, just chump one of them under the City Guard’s attack (tell me in the Discord why I’m wrong about this card!). The King’s Elite is very annoying, though. Not only is it annoying because it is an enemy card whose art makes it look like a location card, but also it hits hard and speeds up the rate of being found by the guards. And it has a nasty shadow effect (especially if dealt to another copy of King’s Elite).

Things worth sharing from the games

I was able to get 7 Outlands allies into play by the end of the first planning phase. After that it was a pretty easy game.

I was almost one-hitting the city guard using Songs of Slaying and got We’ve been seen as shadow effect for a chump, but the 7 excess damage were easily taken by Tom and Goldberry. Song of Slumber on all these King’s Elites really saved me

Started with 6 threat and almost ended up threating out waiting on the will of the west to get 1 more lay of nimrodel! Was fun every time a location came out that it would just instantly go away with the amount of readies and Bilbo’s walking song that was at my disposal.

I used Grey Wanderer to raise my threat in the middle of the combat phase, enough to become engaged with City Guard, so I could attack it without it attacking first.

An impeccably timed Crowded Market let me hold off the City Guard for long enough to clear the three Ulfast Sentries engaged with me and advance to the next stage of the quest. That bought me enough time to get a couple full strength Guardian of Esgaroth set up, which had me well positioned for the rest of the gam

I came into this one blind, and I wanted to run my new deck with three neutral heroes, 39 starting threat, and A Perilous Voyage. I looked at the City Guard, figured I had a few turns before he’d attack me and I could prepare, then flipped to 1b and realized my folly. Turns out Aragorn, Saruman, and Gandalf stand out in a crown of Easterlings. I then took my Into the West deck with hobbits and Noldor. That deck fared quite well, with all the threat reduction I could need and plenty of willpower to get through the stages. Sam took a hit from the City Guard when flipping to 3b, but as his engagement cost was higher than my threat, I was able to discard his shadow and survive with minimal damage. I had to wait a bit and not use my threat reduction during stage 4 so I could fight the City Guard, but after he’d hit Gandalf and Glorfindel I managed enough attack to take him out and win.

This cycle has been such a nice surprise so far, although I wouldn’t have made it very far without the recommended decks each week.

Decklists used

Erestory time

Rohan 3-Hunters, Elrond GW, Gondor Swarm

Splice’s “Slivers” https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/543234

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/61749/breakinglastalliancetomkingofdale-1.0

Spirit Pippin Gone Fishing (Grey Wanderer) with Blood & Fire https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/631107

Dale/Minstrel TLA (https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/61749/breakinglastalliancetomkingofdale-1.0)

Seastan’s Erestory Time

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/619028

I lost with https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/61756/thegreyvoyage-1.0, then won with https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/60897/notalltearsareanevil-1.0

Seastan’s “Erestory Time” https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/33006/erestorytime-1.0

I’m behind on my article writing, so if you’re reading this when it’s released we are actually on Under the Ash Mountains this week. Once you have finished with that one, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/tXFMPufQcKXDhjZcA

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