QOTW: Fire on the Eastemnet

“There the herdsmen had wandered much, living in camp and tent, even in winter-time. But now all the land was empty, and there was silence that did not seem to be the quiet of peace.”

— The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

Fire on the Eastemnet’s Stats

Groups registered: 7
Total attempts: 13
Most attempts: 4
Average attempts per entry: 1.9
Official difficulty: 6/10
Community-rated difficulty: 6.7/10

Total number of wins: 10
Win-rate: 77%

Average opinion on the quest: 3.9

Achievements

Here are the achievements we had for this quest:

Wide Pastures

Every location with the Plains trait gains the Vast keyword.

Battalion of Angry Horses

Whenever the Orc Battalion enters play, defeat it before a full round has passed.

Encounter Card Opinions

The Good

One card got the most votes for favorite card in this Quest of the Week: Shores of Anduin! After losing horses to the quest cards, Exhausted Pursuit, and Morgakh himself, the banks of the famed River Anduin are a welcome reprieve. Right when the heat gets turned up to high and you begin to have nightmares about glue factories, you’re given a chance to rescue some of the noble steeds who slipped from your grasp.

The Bad

The only card to appear on both lists was … Shores of Anduin?!

Shores of Anduin. Ok so the whole quest we are fighting to defend the horses, and at the end they add a way to recover as many as you want?

Look here, sometimes you just need to treat yourself to a breather every now and then. Just be glad that orcs can’t swim.

The Ugly

The least favorite encounter card shouldn’t be too surprising: Cracking Horse Whip. Having to make the terrible choice between exhausting a character or damaging it really puts the squeeze on your action economy. Hobbits may struggle in this one, so bring some healing!

If you’ve managed to keep a steady supply of horses on Wild Steeds you’re likely to see this surge into another Cracking Horse Whip which will undoubtedly deal more damage, or an Exhausted Pursuit which could put you in a tight spot for the combat phase.

Things worth sharing from the games

Decided to try to go for 0 steeds captured, so ha to stall a bit. Had to kill the Orc Battalion 4 extra times, one time i kill it, next quest phase : orc battalion. I though i forgot to discard it and putted it on top of the encounter deck ; no, it was just the encounter deck just suffled because empty that RNG’d me

Mvp BIlbo baggings + Hobbit cloak + Rosie + Sting to help me defend allt he big attacks

On my first try, I quickly revealed two Black Land Scouts, then a Crimson Banner, and had several threat-raising shadows, while not drawing any of my threat-reduction cards, so just as I was getting control, I threated out. I then went with Noldor, who did great, and I was able to reveal enough locations that I always had many more Wild Steeds than Captured. Did another run with Silvans, and the only locations I could reveal before traveling to Shores of Anduin were one Eastemnet Pasture and one Hidden Orc Camp, so I only ever got two more wild steeds besides those available from setup, and most of my game was spent with more captured steeds than wild. I had to just stall on the last stage, and when I beat it I had 97 progress there.

Glad I didn’t try it with my Silvan deck; I did not remember about the Orc Battalion’s Forced effect!

I went into stage 3 with 17 captured steeds and 4 wild. Well Preserved let Aragorn take Morgahk’s attack every round while I slogged through 15 rounds to get enough steeds over to take the win. The Great Hunt was a mixed bag in this quest, allowing me to keep ahead on board (and discard the battalion!) but also leading to a bunch of captured steeds.

Decklists Used

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/657131

S. Theoden/Erkenbrand/Thurindir and Arwen/Gildor/Grimbeorn

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/650571

Threated out with https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/63347/gilraenandthegreycompany-1.0 (Dúnedain), won separate games with https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/596224 (CotW Silvan) and https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/518036 (Noldor)

A Perilous Ride – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/649507

Mono Lore Aragorn, Galdor, Pippin (Helm of Secrecy, Thorongil, Master Ring deck).

Mounted Ride of the Rohirrim (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/650571)

If you haven’t yet voted on the difficulty of the quest over at the LOTR LCG Quest Companion, feel free to do so here: https://lotr-lcg-quest-companion.gamersdungeon.net/#oaths-of-the-rohirrim-quest-fire-on-the-eastemnet

Last week, and this, we’re playing through a chilly quest where the snow seems to never end: The Gap of Rohan! When you’ve completed your playthrough, please fill out the form here: https://forms.gle/1oyJneC7c6saWQ6y8.

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: