‘Yonder stands Barazinbar, the Redhorn, cruel Caradhras; and beyond him are Silvertine and Cloudyhead: Celebdil the White, and Fanuidhol the Grey, that we call Zirakzigil and Bundushathûr.
‘There the Misty Mountains divide, and between their arms lies the deep-shadowed valley which we cannot forget: Azanulbizar, the Dimrill Dale, which the Elves call Nanduhirion.’
‘It is for the Dimrill Dale that we are making,’ said Gandalf. ‘If we climb the pass that is called the Redhorn Gate, under the far side of Caradhras, we shall come down by the Dimrill Stair into the deep vale of the Dwarves. There lies the Mirrormere, and there the River Silverlode rises in its icy springs.’
–The Fellowship of the Ring
The Redhorn Gate Stats
- Groups registered: 19
- Total attempts: 33
- Most attempts: 8
- Average attempts per entry: 1.7
- Total number of wins: 22
- Win-rate: 67%
- Average opinion on the quest: 2.9
Achievements
Here are the achievements we had for this quest:
Over the Misty Mountains Cold
Complete the scenario with Caradhras, Fanuidhol, and Celebdil in the victory display.
Snow Worries
Complete the scenario without discarding a character from stage 3B’s passive effect.
Encounter Card Opinions
Taking 56% of the votes for favorite encounter card this week was the Dimrill Stair. Trudi Castle’s art here is absolutely stunning, and the location has a really interesting and very beneficial effect. The only way to win this quest is to get 5 VP in the victory display, and this location shuffles all locations in the victory display back into the encounter deck, but it can definitely buy you some time. If timed correctly it can also make it so your encounter deck is nearly 100% locations.
The three cards that were nominated for both favorite and least-favorite encounter card this week were Avalanche, Mountain Troll, and Snow-Giant.
Avalanche is such a weird effect. The only other encounter card in the game I can think of that forces you to commit characters to the quest is Rauros Falls (from The Hills of Emyn Muil), but that is only while the location is active so you still have some agency. Avalanche could end up causing disaster if you have enemies, or be totally fine if you don’t.
Mountain Troll is pretty straightforward, except that his numbers can get VERY big, especially in high player counts.
Finally we have the Snow-Giant (which is exclusive to Nightmare Mode). This guy is a really fascinating design. He is huge, hard to kill, and hits like a–well, a Giant. He harries you when you keep him in staging, and he squashes an ally when he engages you, but he gives a victory point, which in this quest is very valuable.
Finally we have the card that received the most votes for least-favorite: Freezing Cold. This card can (and easily does) straight up kill a hero. It doesn’t seem so bad in the first two quest stages and you might think “Oh I’ll just throw this on Dain Ironfoot. He doesn’t ever commit to the quest anyway!” but then you will sorely regret that decision when you get to stage 3.
Things worth sharing from the games
All three of us kept our threat below 30, questing over the Mountain Trolls with ease. A well timed Dimrill Stair allowed us to lower our threat below 15 for the remainder of the game.
I won with 11 points in the victory display and 5 total threat
I played this in campaign mode and was able to avoid a permanent burden being added by completing the “Snow Worries” achievement. I had an Imladris Stargazer and a Defender of Rammas on the table so before I moved onto the final quest stage I had to wait and sacrifice them to Warg attacks. Also, I suspect I like this quest more than most, but I’ve always found snow levels cozy, and played this one with my morning coffee.
Totally forgot about the Stage 3B effect to discard characters if they have 0 willpower. So at this point in the game, not only did Beregrond have the 0 baseline willpower. But he also had the -1 from Caradhras and -2 from Freezing Cold Condition for a total of -3 willpower. Needless to say he was instantly removed from the game. He proved his worth though, because on round 1 I revealed a Mountain Troll, so by the end game my board was built enough with allies to properly defend/ kill the troll. Also Dimrill Stair, while being my favorite encounter card, I actually didn’t even trigger the travel effect because I used Asfaloth to clear it. Finished with The Dimrill Stair, Caradhras and a Side Quest of The Storm Comes for a total of 5 Victory Points. Overall a pretty mid quest. Only played the once this week unlike other quests with multiple playthroughs.
Thanks to my Woodmen, I found and explored all 3 named locations in the Nightmare deck. I did unfortunately lose Widfast at stage 3 due to a Freezing Cold. It’s nice that these locations are not immune to player card effects and can be hit with Woodmen’s Paths.
Used Out of the Wild to get rid of Freezing Cold and Snowstorm (both subsequently cancelled by The Door is Closed!) and explored all VP locations to earn the achievement. One fun moment was when I revealed a Mountain Warg -> Warg’s Lair -> another Mountain Warg. I optinally engaged and killed the first -> played None Return to add it to the Victory Display -> used Thranduil to play Woodland Sentry and discard the second. The Hidden Way and Gildor’s Counsel ensured that danger in the later rounds was minimal.
The Burglars deck was kind to me, handing me the Arkenstone making stage three possible.
I ran a 3-hunters deck besides a Gondor deck with Visionary Leadership and Leadership Ally Faramir so the will power reductions never worried me that much. After first turn staging, I was staring at 3 Snow Wargs while under questing by 4. The wargs all engaged and I was able to recover. The encounter deck was pretty small when I shuffled the Snowstorm treacheries in. I played Ring of Thor and was able to discard two copies! I lost Eleanor midgame, but was able to survive just fine anyway. I included her to avoid the cancel-or-die treacheries in this cycle, but haven’t gotten much use of her ability yet. This was not the first quests she died in… Balin’s ability however, I’ve gotten ample use out of. I had the required progress on Stage 3a but still lacked the VPs to win. Six or seven rounds and two Fallen Stones reveals later, I finally won.
Turns out the Northern Tracker with their 1 willpower are not great at tracking cold *northern* mountains as they have a habit of getting discarded.
Scooped a few times depending on the first reveal given that there was already a 3-threat location in play. First game had back to back Mountain Trolls. Eventually survived (mostly) the cold mountains with Test of Will and then Dain/Faramir keeping the willpower steady. Lost Thalin to Freezing Cold while wandering the snowy peaks looking for victory points. Enjoyed the theme but every game felt like it took forever – the VP win condition was a miss for me. Not sure I’ll come back to this one soon, but glad I played it!
Lost Merry to the Freezing Cold, but still managed to trudge through the snow barely!
Aragorn was freezing cold from round one. He pretty much sat there the whole quest. Gimli and Legolas carried the team beautifully. Flipped the Three Hunters contract at the end of round 2. Love the synergy between Legolas and Gimli heroes.
I brought a location control deck. Spirit Aragorn with Elendilmir and Warden of Arnor plus Glorfindel with Asfaloth and Box of Earth made quick work of all the locations. The toughest part was taking down the Mountain Troll with his 5 defense. Without much attack power, it took 2 rounds. I mostly avoided the bad treacheries. I absolutely love the theme in this quest and all the snowy mountain art is super cool!
Golden Horn (with a Wooden Lyre) chipped down a Mountain troll.
I had the option to cancel a Mountain Troll with The Door is Closed! but a fully-powered Three Hunters fellowship decided they wanted to fight instead! Galadriel and Nenya lending their willpower to the Arwen ally-objective was a nice piece of tech to prevent an instant loss while questing against stage 3.
Red Book of Westmarch came in super clutch.
Took 20 rounds just to get the victory points necessary. Círdan was defending with A Burning Brand, Anduril, two Unexpected Courage, two Support of the Eagles, and an 11-attack, 11-defense Eagle of the Misty Mountains by the end. The only allies I discarded from 3b’s effects were a couple Eagles who went right under my Eagle of the Misty Mountains.
Decklists used
Amarthiul/Tom Cotton/Thurindir (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/642087)
To Hunt a Balrog
Bond of Friendship – Denethor (Leadership), Berevor (Lore), Glorfindel (Spirit), Beregond (Tactics)
Tri-sphere Woodmen with Rowan, Widfast, and Haldan: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/62779/ajollywoodtime-1.0
Silvans & Secrecy Fellowship (Celeborn, Galadriel, Thranduil & Rossiel, Glorfindel (Sp), Mirlonde)
Rohan Fellowship Contract (Thengel, Theoden, Grima)
Burglars turn, SpDain Thorin Stonehelm, Gandalf
To Hunt a Balrog https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/637826
Dwarf the Three Hunters and Gondor ft. Eleanor https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/576542 https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/636550
Gloin, Bifur, Dain + Gimli, Eowyn Glorfindel – Dwarrowdelf Progression
Dwarf Progression (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/641894)
https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/520481
Krakua’s “Killer Thematic Three Hunters” deck. https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/20671/killerthematicthreehunters-1.0
Hope from the Last Homely Hosue https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/58862/hopefromthelasthomelyhouse-1.0
7-wp-Herubrand round 1: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/62802/thequesters-1.0
Three Hunters Idraen, Elrohir, Elladan https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/623520 Galadriel, Haldir, Rossiel https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/641936
Bond of Friendship Hobbits with Tom Cotton
Maximizing Support of the Eagles https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/62644/crdantheskyshipwright-1.0
This week we are playing Road to Rivendell. Once you have finished with your playthroughs, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/jAdNeR4SQbxJAnMd9
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:
Just a Fool’s Hope
Complete the scenario where at least 1 character is discarded when resolving the shadow effect on Sleeping Sentry.
Easy Targets
Forced: When making an engagement check against an enemy due to the ambush keyword, reduce the engagement cost of that enemy by 1 for each character you control.
Vision Of The Palantir 