QOTW: The Land of Sorrow

Neither he nor Frodo knew anything of the great slave-worked fields away south in this wide realm, beyond the fumes of the Mountain by the dark sad waters of Lake Núrnen; nor of the great roads that ran away east and south to tributary lands, from which the soldiers of the Tower brought long waggon-trains of goods and booty and fresh slaves.
–The Return of the King

The Land of Sorrow Stats

Groups registered: 7
Total attempts: 16
Most attempts: 4
Average attempts per entry: 2.3

Total number of wins: 8
Win-rate: 50%

Average opinion on the quest: 3.9

Achievements

Here are the achievements we had for this quest:

Under the Lidless Eye

Complete the scenario without reducing your threat.

Someone Call an Ambulance!

During stage 2B, defeat all three Warden enemies on the turn they enter play.

Encounter Card Opinions

There was a two-way tie for favorite encounter card this week between Farin and Rolling Plains. Farin, of course, is a purely beneficial encounter card and is one of the three objective allies that you are trying to rescue in the quest. I love that these three allies represent the three main free peoples that resist Sauron: elves, dwarves, and men. Farin is especially useful because he is not a player card, so his effect can be used on enemies that are immune to player card effects. Also, the artist who did the art for these three objective allies–Aleksander Karcz–is a fantastic artist and has done many amazing pieces for this game as well as for Arkham Horror: the Card Game (which is a different Living Card Game by Fantasy Flight Games).

Rolling Plains is a card we have seen a few times this cycle. I am fond of the design of this card because, although it can get out of hand if they all turn up at once, it is still an interesting decision on whether to travel to them or leave them in staging. There are often more overtly threatening locations (glares at Rocky Outcrop) and once all four (or three in easy mode) copies are out, these locations don’t do anything.

Once again there were no cards nominated for both categories.

The winner for least-favorite encounter card this week was Cruelty of Mordor. It starts out easy: deal a damage to a character. But then it presents you with a very difficult choice. This quest has a fair bit of archery and a lot of threat pressure, so either choice can be ruinous. The best case scenario is to see this card very early in the game when its effect is negligible.

Things worth sharing from the games

Derrio and I went up twice against this quest. We were beaten to a pulp in the first one. We changed up our decks and tried again. It was a nail-biting 2 hours. Grimbeorn was attacking for 11+ attack, Eowyn used her ability one on of the wardens and had 16 attack.

Using Strength of Arms to allow the Outlands wave to roll over every enemy in sight.

We placed 30 progress on the final round to finish off stage two, sacrificing Alagos to a Cruelty of Mordor.

For one of my wins, I had Elven-Light, Steward of Gondor, Blue Staff, Lord of Isengard, Grey Companion, and Wild Stallion and in my starting hand, with Ring of Thror on top of my deck. After drawing Ring of Thror, I then had Sword that was Broken on top of my deck, so I put Blue Staff and Ring of Thror on Saruman, used his extra resource from Blue Staff to pay for Steward of Gondor on Aragorn, and used Ring of Thror to get Sword that was Broken on Aragorn. That explosive start set me up to travel quickly to the camps and take out the Wardens. I never used the action on A Perilous Voyage, and ended on 45 threat, but couldn’t quite destroy all three Wardens the round they came back down. For my second win, I didn’t have as explosive of a start, but You Cannot Pass helped me with the Wardens. When Lorgan attacked me, I used an action window to give myself a resource from Gandalf’s Staff, then he raised my threat to 50 and I flipped A Perilous Voyage, playing Anduril on Aragorn, which is what enabled me to defeat him that round. I ended up on 48 threat, so it was a close one.

Ended the game with an all or nothing attempt with an undefended attack on Grima saved by a Honor guard. No terrible shadow and Lorgan went down on the same round as Borlach.

This was a breath of fresh air after Ash Mountains. I really like this quest, as it has a great narrative component and the three bosses and three camps keep it interesting enough to replay a bunch.

On the third attempt, I finally remembered Hero Radagast has two text abilities printed on his card — the first attempt, I forgot both, and the second attempt, I forgot he could help pay for allies. My successful attempt took 19 rounds and nearly threated out until I did a clutch play on what would have been my final round that involved Word of Command, Gwaihir’s Debt, and a lucky Gandalf in the top 5 to lower my threat.

Decklists used

Seastan’s Strength and Courage deck. https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/19204/strengthandcourageftgrimbeorn-1.0

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/624177

Radagast/Faunith/Alagos [https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/627821]

3 neutral heroes https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/61756/thegreyvoyage-1.0

Doomed mirror (Loragorn, Galadriel, Grima) & TacTheoden, Hirgon, Erkenbrand

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/62210/fourthfourhuntersnoldor-1.0

Chad’s Single Core Series: The Land of Sorrow (https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/31661/singlecoreserieslandofsorrow-1.0)

Get ready, because this week we are playing the only quest in all of the history of Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (WHICH…) that received a 10/10 difficulty rating. Once you have finished getting your face smashed in by it, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/nQFLdUuEVFpMopFcA

That being said, we have had a lot of successes so far for this brutal quest. If you want to share in the discussion of this quest live, join the Cardboard of the Rings discord and look for the Quest of the Week channel: https://discord.gg/5tkTeSCdxc

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