QOTW Recap: Mustering of the Rohirrim

“Dire deeds awake, dark is it eastward. Let horse be bridled, horn be sounded! Forth Eorlingas!“

The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien

Cycle: Oaths of the Rohirrim [ALeP]

This quest pitted you against a clock of side quests, giving you little time to prepare to take on a host of orcs, clearing a mountain without your allies’ help, and fending off more than one assassination attempt. As you manage to clear each one, you’re rewarded with objective benefits that accelerate your progress like Folcwine, the last foal of Felaróf the Mighty, the ability to play an ally without a resource match every round, and the mighty Host of Rohan!

Mustering of the Rohirrim’s Stats

Groups registered: 8
Total attempts: 9
Most attempts: 2
Average attempts per entry: 1.1
Official difficulty: 7/10
Community-rated difficulty: 7.1/10

Total number of wins: 8
Win-rate: 88.9%

Average opinion on the quest: 4.1

This quest has so far been one of the most well-liked quests in the Oaths of the Rohirrim cycle!

Not unlike The Glittering Caves, half of all responders were playing this quest for the first time.

Achievements

Here are the achievements we had for this quest:

Already a Step Behind

Setup: Place 4 damage on Massing at the Isen.

Make Haste

Defeat each side quest the round after it enters play. (The minimum required number of rounds)

A few people chose to start the quest right on the edge, taking the pain of a Mustering card early either during quest setup or at the end of the first round!

Some even managed to get through the side quests as quickly as they came out! That Orc Host gets more prickly the longer you leave it, so the sooner it can be dispatched, the fewer damage you’ll have to deal with when the assassins show up!

Encounter Card Opinions

The Favorite

One card took home the gold for favorite encounter card in Mustering of the Rohirrim, Orator’s Hall! Though you’re prevented from traveling to this location and having the same amount of quest points as other Vast locations in the cycle, Orator’s Hall allows you clear it from the staging area and keep Massing at the Isen down. If you packed plenty of readying effects you’ll be able to exhaust the same hero multiple times to clear it in the same phase!

Traitor’s Redoubt got the honorable mention being the other location that removed damage from Massing at the Isen.

The Non-Favorite

Scattered to the Winds is the least favorite encounter card of this quest. If you brought a swarm deck to tackle this quest, like many did, you’ll have to send many of them away and hope you can get them back and play them in the following rounds.

Things worth sharing from the games

I was able to kick start the quest by putting Eomund in play with Lothiriel to quest with everyone and clear Deeping Stream round one, then play Morwen in the quest phase, discarding Eomund and returning him to hand with Gamling. Everyone readied to take out the initial enemies. Extra bonus is that 0 attack Morwen was then my highest cost ally when Bitter Betrayal came up!

This scenario is a work of art. Thematic, fun, intense, building in a crescendo toward the end when you think you have it controlled, and threatening to take you down until the very last second. Thanks AleP! It is the perfect ending to this cycle (I hate Blood in the Isen ^_^’)

Already a step behind + setup effet was a lucky draw of the treachery that discard allies. Side quests were a good catch to help stall this quest. My low threat/scry/direct damage deck was great against this deck, you evade the nastier parts of the encounter deck. Only issues were the Assassins immune but with 10 round of preparation my board was able to clean them easyly.

Coup raised each deck’s threat by 6 and deck two (Faramir/Eowyn/Damrod) wasn’t able to find Secret Vigil -> I entered the final round at 49 threat, but with a board state strong enough to take down the final surviving assassin (I already had sufficient progress on stage 3B)…and then a shadow effect raised my threat by 2…which kicked Smeohbrand back to staging and freed four(!) traitor enemies from traps, including two in Forest Snares with Cutthroat’s Strike attached. When the dust settled, Cirdan, Erestor & Arwen had five enemies to deal with during the next round, but a combination of Lords of the Eldar, Narya, and Host of Rohan was just enough to beat back the attacks and finish Smeohbrand off to snatch (a somewhat pyrrhic) victory from the jaws of defeat.

How do you beat a quest that punishes you in a multitude of ways? You play a Gondor swarm! Starting out with 4 damage on Massing at the Isen, I used Denethor + Heir of Mardil + MotK Faramir to quest for a ton while I put out a bunch of allies. Staring down the swords of two Assassins at 48 threat, I killed one and damaged the other. But the damage on Massing at the Isen demanded that I reveal a card. And it was… Scattered to the Winds! I lost half of my Gondor allies into my deck! Luckily, I had only 1 card left in my deck at the time, so I shuffled 6 allies away and went into the next round. I was able to get 2 allies into play, and I revealed Cold From the Mountains, making me discard those 2 allies! I was still able to kill the last Assassin. Well done, ALeP!

Glorfindel betrayed me! Luckily for me, I have multiple copies of Glorfindel in my deck. I also stupidly traveled to Traitor’s Redoubt when Massing at the Isen had 4 damage on it, so when I explored it there was no damage to remove.

I loved the return to using Outlands to survive this encounter. Cheap allies meant a low-threat betrayal from the mustering deck when an Anfalas Herdsman turned on my party.

Decklists Used

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

Lothiriel, Imrahil and Galadriel (preparing for Blood in the Isen) – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/659948

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

“Storm-Chasers” (Noldor #RCO) – https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/43973/stormchasersrco-1.0 & “Date Night Orc Hunt” (Faramir, Eowyn, Damrod #RCO)

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

Faramir + Heir of Mardil Gondor Swarm: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/64132/achanceforfaramirheirofmardiltoshowhisquantity-1.0

Pretty standard Noldor https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/518036

Erestor/Arwen/Amarthiul (https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/65420/bloodandfireintheisenoutlands-2.0)

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-mustering-of-the-rohirrim

While this QOTW entry is late, submissions are still be accepted for the final quest in the Oaths of the Rohirrim cycle: Blood in the Isen! When you’ve completed your playthrough, please fill out the form here: https://forms.gle/9Ud599Me7GRRBdKb7.

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 Blood in the Isen, this is what we have: