Confused Fate 5.1: Journey in the Dark

Pre-Game Thoughts

My confidence has dwindled a bit since last writing, which was immediately after the high of winning the last scenario so securely. To be honest, I am kind of scared of this next quest. I have played the 3 scenarios in The Road Darkens once before, and beat each one on my first try. Journey in the Dark was a VERY close victory, and would not have been possible if it weren’t for Frodo’s card ability (I used The Black Riders version, which is why I insisted on using that version here rather than The Road Darken’s version). Last time I made absolutely no intent on harming or even inconveniencing the Balrog in any way. I don’t remember his exact stats, but I remember they were alarming, and trying to conceive of how I could even damage it from an attack.

I also remember there is an opportunity at some point where I can kill off one of my heroes to do equal damage to that character’s threat to the Balrog. I was playing with Gandalf, so that would have dealt a whopping 14 damage to him. I remember thinking that will do nothing… fly you fool!

Now could I take the coward’s approach again? I mean, sure, that is an option. But now I am playing in campaign mode, and I imagine there will be everlasting consequences for not killing the Balrog… that kind of seems like a big deal. I need a Balrog killer on my team.

And that is why I chose Gimli! He seems to be one of the heaviest hitters in the game, and my strategy is to load him up with as much attack power as is possible. Hopefully this, in combination with enlisting enough allies as Balrog fodder to buy me time, will be enough. If it comes to it, I can sacrifice Gandalf for his +14 damage. I would rather sacrifice Pippin, but his +6 damage will likely not cut it. In short, any attack advantage needs to go to Gimli, because he is my only hope for killing the Balrog and will not be sacrificed.

So there’s my strategy. Let’s see if it pays off!

Heroes:			Campaign Pool:
Current:    Gandalf    Gimli    Pippin    Frodo Baggins (TBR)   Previously Used in Campaign:    Aragorn    Sam Gamgee			Boons:    Anduril    Gildor Inglorion    Glamdring    Mithril Shirt    Noble Hero (Frodo Baggins)    Sting   Burdens:    Gandalf’s Delay
Deck
Allies (21):		Attachments (19):			Events (10):
x2 Barliman Butterbur x3 Elrond x2 Erebor Hammersmith x1 Henamarth Riversong x1 Master of the Forge x3 Wandering Ent x1 Beorn x2 Boromir x2 Farmer Maggot x2 Gondorian Spearman x2 Vassal of the Windlord		x2 Fast Hitch x2 Protector of Lorien x2 Self Preservation x2 Citadel Plate x1 Dagger of Westernesse x2 Dwarven Axe x1 Horn of Gondor x2 Gandalf’s Staff x2 Wizard Pipe x3 Fellowship of the Ring			x1 Risk Some Light x2 Halfling Determination x1 Quick Strike x3 Flame of Anor x3 Frodo’s Intuition
Legend
Allies	Allies put into play during the Planning Phase this turn			Activity log. ED: Encounter Deck EE: Enemy from ED EL: Location from ED ET: Treachery from ED EO: Objective from ED SA: staging area >>: engages #: Event card played PA: Player A +: enters play -: exits play ===: Quest Card completed QC: Quest Card //: defeats
Attachments	Attachments put into play during the Planning Phase this turn
Threat	Staging Area threat / player threat at beginning of round
Engaged Enemies	Engaged enemies at the beginning of turn (damage tokens on enemy)
Location Log	Location at beginning of turn >> location traveled to this turn during Travel Phase
Setup
Allies	--			SA: + Gandalf’s Delay SA: + Doom, Doom, Doom SA: + Overcome By Grief (Bu) SA: + Grievous Wound (Bu) SA: + Many-Pillared Hall
Attachments	+ The One Ring (Frodo) + Noble Hero (Frodo)
Threat	1 / 31
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log
Turn 1
Allies	--			EL: Darkened Stairway
Attachments	+ Fast Hitch (Frodo)
Threat	1 / 31, DDD: 10
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	>> Darkened Stairway
Turn 2
Allies	--			EL: Mines of Moria
Attachments	+ Fellowship of the Ring (Frodo)
Threat	1 / 32, DDD: 9
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	Darkened Stairway >> Mines of Moria >> Many-Pillared Hall
Turn 3
Allies	+ Boromir + Erebor Hammersmith			EL: Mines of Moria
Attachments	--
Threat	0 / 33, DDD: 8
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	Many-Pillared Hall >> Mines of Moria >>
Turn 4
Allies	+Vassal of the Windlord			ET: Fool of a Took ===QC 1 Complete=== SA: + Chamber of Mazarbul SA: + Orc-Chieftain PA >> Orc-Chieftain Gimli gains Grievous Wound
Attachments	+ Wizard Pipe (Gandalf)
Threat	0 / 34, DDD: 7
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	>> Chamber of Mazarbul
Turn 5
Allies	+ Wandering Ent + Wandering Ent			EE: Moria Orc PA >> Moria Orc
Attachments	--
Threat	0 / 36, DDD: 5
Engaged Enemies	Orc-Chieftain
Location Log	Chamber of Mazarbul >>
Turn 6
Allies	+ Gondorian Spearman			# Quick Strike PA // Orc-Chieftain EL: Ancient Guardroom PA // Moria Orc
Attachments	--
Threat	0 / 37, DDD: 3
Engaged Enemies	Moria Orc
Location Log	>> Ancient Guardroom
Turn 7
Allies	+ Elrond			- Grievous Wound (Gimli) EL: Mines of Moria - Elrond
Attachments	+ Protector of Lorien (Frodo) + Dwarven Axe (Gimli)
Threat	0 / 39, DDD: 2
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	Ancient Guardroom >> Mines of Moria >>
Turn 8
Allies	+ Wandering Ent + Vassal of the Windlord			EL: Mines of Moria SA: + The Balrog (9 defense… sheesh) The Balrog // Gondorian Spearman - Fellowship of the Ring Pippin gains Overcome By Grief The Balrog // Erebor Hammersmith
Attachments	--
Threat	0 / 40, DDD: 1
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	>> Mines of Moria >>
Turn 9
Allies	+ Master of the Forge + Barliman Butterbur			***I just realized that I have not been adding 2 ECs when no enemies were in the SA… EE: Uruk from Mordor Uruk from Mordor // Barliman Butterbur The Balrog // Master of the Forge The Balrog // Vassal of the Windlord The Balrog // Vassal of the Windlord PA // Uruk from Mordor ===QC 2 Complete=== ET: Deep Fissure SA: + The Great Bridge
Attachments	--
Threat	5 / 41
Engaged Enemies	The Balrog (12)
Location Log
Turn 10
Allies	+ Farmer Maggot			EE: Moria Archer The Balrog // Farmer Maggot - Fellowship of the Ring The Balrog // Boromir PA // Moria Archer
Attachments	+ The Fellowship of the Ring
Threat	10 / 45
Engaged Enemies	The Balrog (13)
Location Log	>> The Great Bridge
Turn 11
Allies	--			EL: Mines of Moria # Halfling Determination - Gandalf (location effect) - The Balrog
Attachments	--
Threat	5 / 46
Engaged Enemies	The Balrog (13)
Location Log	The Great Bridge >> The Mines of Moria >>
Turn 12
Allies	--			EL: Ancient Guardroom
Attachments	--
Threat	0 / 47
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log
Turn 13
Allies	--			EE: Moria Orc Frodo uses The One Ring EL: Darkened Stairway ===QC 3 Complete===
Attachments	--
Threat	2 / 48
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log
===Victory?=== Score: n/a

 

Reflection

This game… I love it so much, but just like anything or anyone you love, it has the greatest potential to cause you pain. My strategy paid off; Gimli had a decent attack power (even though neither copy of Citadel Plate showed up), and I was able to kill the Balrog by sacrificing Gandalf. But I screwed up. On the second Quest Card, I was instructed to add an additional Encounter Card if there were no enemies in the Staging Area, which I ignored for 4 turns.

This is one of the most frustrating parts of LOTR LCG—there are so many rules! The game by itself is complicated, but there are often so many special rules in play unique to the scenario it can become a lot to track and remember. I find this especially true with Campaign Mode, where additional cards are often added with setup. I suppose this is part of the magic of LOTR LCG; the complexity keeps things fresh and difficult for one strategy to always pay off. But what do you do when you are halfway through a game and realize you have been playing wrong? Scrap it and start again? Keep playing? If it is an easy fix, I will sometimes retroactively undo my mistake, but not drawing about 4 additional Encounter Cards during the Quest Phase? That’s a pretty big deal; you can’t fix it.

Being honest, in this particular scenario I feel like my mistake harmed me more than helped. I was stuck at Quest Card 2 for a long time and had overflow Progress Tokens, because I could not move on until I defeated 3 enemies and I just was not drawing enemies. The extra Encounter Card draw if no other enemies were in the Staging Area was intended to move this along. But still, I can’t say for sure I would have ultimately benefited from this extra draw, because who knows what kind of treacheries I would have encountered, or what extra enemies could have done to my quest progression.

While I am tempted to move on, I think I will re-do this quest to play it correctly. I’m glad I played through it, though. Gaining experience in difficult scenarios is quite helpful. Upon further reflection of my thoughts prior to playing this scenario, knowing that I had the opportunity to kill the Balrog made a HUGE difference. I decided to attack the Balrog right away, dealing him 12 damage. My first playthrough of this scenario (before starting Campaign Mode) was so difficult because I saw he had a key word “indestructible.” Why damage a foe that cannot be killed? I saved my energies for questing. Then when the Last Bridge came into play, along with the opportunity to sacrifice a hero in order to be able to kill the Balrog, it was too late. The Balrog had already killed off my allies and there was no way I could make up for my lack of attack power (I also did not have Gimli with me then). This is likely obvious, but knowing what is coming can be a game-changing advantage. For this reason, I always recommend finishing a game until you officially lose, rather than cutting your losses and ending it when it becomes apparent winning is not hopeful. It can be painful to keep playing with no hope of victory, or knowing that you may win but you will want to replay it anyway because you ignored one of the million rules at play, but it will serve you in the next game.

Most Valuable Cards (MVC)

MVC #1: Protector of Lorien (Core Set). While I don’t record every time I active a character ability or attachment ability, I used this 3 times this game. It allows the player to discard cards from their hand in order to raise their willpower or defense by 1 for the phase (limit 3 times per phase). This is a great way to use cards in your hand you do not need, and I used it to increase my willpower for better questing to complete locations and Quest Cards sooner.

MVC #2: Dwarven Axe (Core Set). This simply added +2 attack for Gimli, but with his four damage tokens on him and his character ability, he was at a whopping 8 attack. The Balrog has a defense of 9, so with a couple allies helping out I was able to damage the Balrog fairly easily.

MVC #3: Wandering Ent (Celebrimbor’s Secret). Seriously, these guys are my favorite allies. I have detailed their worth in a previous post, but I got all three in play this game and they are the most versatile allies I have played with, and come at such a low cost.

 

Most Valuable Hero

Gimli. I’m sure you saw this coming, but for this quest Gimli is essential (unless you wish to run from the Balrog). His attack potential is unparalleled, at least with the heroes I have played with so far.

 

Looking Forward

I am fairly optimistic about re-doing this scenario. I did not have the best card draw, and still pulled out a victory here. I never saw Citadel Plate, Gandalf’s Staff, or any of the Boons I earned last quest (there was like four of them!). Not only that, but I drew Gildor Inglorion as a freaking shadow card… what rotten luck! I think my deck is well-suited for this mission, so with a bit more luck I am hoping to win more securely.

One thing I may try… I was able to get decent attack power and do some serious damage to the Balrog (12 damage in one turn!). This is not sustainable since the Balrog attacks twice per turn and has a huge attack stat (so chump blocking is a must), but if I can do more damage I may be able to sacrifice Pippin to him instead of Gandalf. This would not only be quite humorous, but would allow me to use Gandalf on future scenarios. I do actually like Pippin as a supporting hero (he's low threat, has a good character ability, and gives access to the Lore Sphere), so we’ll see what happens. In fact, he is the only thematic Lore hero I have for the next couple scenarios, so losing him would also mean losing my precious Wandering Ents, at least for a while.