QOTW: Ambush at Erelas

There was silence again for a while. Then, ‘What is that?’ cried Pippin suddenly, clutching at Gandalf’s cloak. ‘Look! Fire, red fire! Are there dragons in this land? Look, there is another!’

For answer Gandalf cried aloud to his horse. ‘On Shadowfax! We must hasten. Time is short. See! The beacons of Gondor are alight, calling for aid. War is kindled. See, there is the fire on Amon Dîn, and flame on Eilenach; and there they go speeding west: Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad, and the Halifirien on the borders of Rohan.’
–The Return of the King

Ambush at Erelas Stats

Groups registered: 15
Total attempts: 25
Most attempts: 3
Average attempts per entry: 1.7

Total number of wins: 19
Win-rate: 76%

Average opinion on the quest: 3.1

Achievements

Here are the achievements we had for this quest:

Clever Brigands

Forced: If any player’s deck is ever empty, immediately shuffle their discard pile to create a new draw deck. Then, each enemy engaged with that player makes an immediate attack.

Carefully Laid Trap

Setup: Add Stockpile Barricade to the staging area. It cannot leave play for the duration of the game.

Encounter Card Opinions

There were eight different cards nominated for favorite encounter card this week (and I’m not even including a card that was nominated that doesn’t even appear in this quest) but the winner with 3 votes was Sneaky Thief. I’m actually surprised by this one because I find this enemy to be one of the most annoying ones. Don’t let the “Looter 0” deceive you–that just means he gets 0 cards from the top of your deck. He still gets a random card from your hand. And then he uses that card to stay alive longer.

We had so many cards nominated in both categories this week that it would almost make more sense to list the cards that weren’t double nominated. But, in short, the cards to appear on both lists this week were Sneaky Thief, Brigand Ringleader, Cold from the Mountains, Crossroads, Exhausting Winds, and Tired and Hungry.

Taking the most votes for least favorite encounter card this week was Exhausting Winds. This is a nasty one-two punch that can weaken your entire board state. I appreciate the restraint with the design here that this card (neither the When Revealed nor the Shadow effect) actually defeats any characters–it just weakens them. Watch out, though! This may end up exhausting your low-HP combat characters.

Things worth sharing from the games

I don’t like the looting mechanic. My cards are constantly being stolen. I wanted to play those cards! For one play, I came at it with an Erestor deck, where looting really didn’t matter, I wasn’t going to make use of those cards anyways. For another, I had Dúnedain and that mechanic helped me drain my entire deck. There was one Grasping Slaver I hit with a Man of the Mountain because he got three ally cards. Then his shadow returned him to the staging area and he got 2 more, so that Man of the Mountain was helping me avoid 5 direct damage each round. I was also strategic about which cards went under Plundered Goods, putting a Sword that was Broken and Forest Snare there to put into play during stage 2. Of course, this was after not reading the card correctly, and I’m now realizing I could’ve added those cards to my hand and put something else there and had those cards out earlier. I was simply discarding all the loot cards I wasn’t putting under Plundered Goods. Maybe because I’d played with my Erestor deck first, where it’s almost equivalent.

My first time using A Perilous Voyage. Against this quest it gives you the peace of mind that who cares if the pillagers steal cards from you… Take them! I have more! When I activated side B, I played Astonishing Speed thanks to which I quested for 54. I think it’s my personal record.

3x unexpected courage on Elrond! They were not shared with the party. Elfhelm died to a bowmaster, but the party suceeded regardless.

Used tactics bilbo and secrecy to kill ennemies without engaging them

I really enjoy this quest! Brigand Ringleader is a well designed boss fight, that doesn’t allow high damage decks to simply steam through him. Sometimes fighting him goes a bit too long, but still one of my favourite bosses in the game. The best moment of my game was removing progress from Ambush to play Muster of Rohan for free. The worst moment was only hitting Eomund off that Muster as all the other allies I revealed were unique and already in play.

Playing with Forth the Three Hunters really takes some steam out of this quest by completely neutering a treachery (Cold from the Mountains, weird it does not surge) and also making the Grasping Slaver less of a threat. Staging area attack is awesome as it allows you to kill enemies before they engage and steal all your stuff, and unboosted L!Eomer can kill the Sneaky Thief in the first Quest Phase. Playing solo also really helps you control the pace of the quest, as there is not much surge in the encounter deck. I am not sure if advancing the quest stage during the Quest Phase by killing the last enemy with L!Eomer’s ability is better than advancing during the Combat Phase, but it is nice for this 3H deck (if you can ready Eomer AND have Golden Shield out on Eowyn) because it allows you to “quest” only with Eomer, kill the enemy, advance, ready Eomer and then you have Golden Shield Eowyn ready to defend in addition to Fastred. Tired and Hungry is the bane of a 3H deck here, especially with those annoying Old Farmhouses cycling into each other, so if you reveal it just scoop honestly. Stockpile Barricade is a fun “Oh shoot!” card but this deck can easily quest over it. I tried a little bit to get the achievement for having permanent Stockpile Barricade to no avail.

The Ents laughed at Exhausting Winds and Archery. With plenty of healing, Treebeard was able to defend the Brigand Ringleader. My booming Ent was attacking for 8 most of the game. Location control in the other deck took care of a few bad travel effects.

Using the planning action on stage 2 to play Host of the Galadhrim at no cost was key to both hindering the Ringleader’s ability to heal completely each round and getting enough progress on stage 2 to start chipping away at all the brigand enemies.

Forest snare really helps when you have to pick an enemy to add to an enemy’s loot pile! I had a copy of Grasping Slaver with 2 copies of Looted Weapons and a total of 22 cards in its loot pile, for a total stat boost of +12 threat, attack, and defense (with Stockpile Barricade out), who couldn’t attack luckily! Brigand Ringleader also got Chaos in the Hills as a shadow effect twice over the game causing the game to continue an extra 3 rounds than it should’ve.

Thengel is a bit absurd. I had a clutch Need Brooks No Delay the turn that the Brigand Ringleader engaged me that let me get a Golden Shield out and allowed Thengel to reliably take his attacks.

Westfold lancer came in to great use discarding loot cards on tiny thieves!

My first experience with ALeP content and I was not disappointed. The mechanics can be fiddly, especially with physical cards, but it was a fun way to make each game a bit different. I also liked how Plundered Goods and Stage 2B provided an opportunity to get back some of those looted cards. The Looter keyword disrupted the Rohan discard engine in my only loss with that deck, as it never got up and running due to unlucky looted cards. The two wins were pretty straightforward once I got Gamling and Horn of the Mark into play. The locations did feel a bit bulky, though, and each one having a harsh travel or when explored effect made it tough. Ringleader could drag out the last few rounds. Overall, fun quest!

Decklists used

Gondor Swarm https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/63534/almostthematicgondor-1.0 for one solo play, BoF Dúnedain for another https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/63347/gilraenandthegreycompany-1.0

Emery Mining (lose): https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/647470 Treebeard with Ring of Thror (win): https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/640931

Autumn’s 3 Hunters for Wainriders https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/632108 and To Hunt a Balrog https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/637826

A 2-handed MOTK Rohan Fellowship featuring Deorwine and Gleowine. I’ll have to publish the decklists and share them for next week’s QOTW. I’m aiming to play them through the cycle.

Rohan Perilous Voyage – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/649507

N Aragorn, Elfhelm, Thengel https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/648889 Erestor, Arwen, Cirdan Gandalf, Glorfindel, Elron

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/578084

Thengel, Theoden (spirit), Theodred

3H with Eowyn/Fastred/L!Eomer: https://ringsdb.com/deck/edit/648181

Ents + Hope from the Last Homely House https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/45940/rousingtheents-1.0 https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/58862/hopefromthelasthomelyhouse-1.0

“The Elves are Going to War” (mostly Silvan fellowship) – https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/14178

https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/23757

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/647573

The Rohan forces comes and goes (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/649162) Lothiriel, Thengel, TEomer

Rohan Discard: Éowyn, Thengel, Théoden (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/648023)

This week we are playing what I think of as the poster-child quest for this cycle: Battle for the Beacon. Once you have finished with your playthroughs, please fill in this form https://forms.gle/yEsCvKov3emT5FXv8.

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: