Doomed Fate 7.1: The Uruk-Hai

Before I begin, I realized while reading an online forum that I have been playing the burden Overcome by Grief incorrectly. The card gets attached to a hero when a character I control is destroyed (ally or hero), and then for the remainder of the game if a character I control is destroyed, the hero Overcome by Grief is attached to exhausts and cannot ready until the end of the round. I have interpreted that to mean that the hero with this burden readies at the end of the round like normal, but it was pointed out this is incorrect; characters ready during the Refresh phase, which is before the end of the round technically.

How has this impacted my gameplay? Overcome by Grief is not attached from the start, but as soon as a character (in my cases, an ally) is defeated, it gets attached to a hero. I always attached it to Pippin, who has served as one of my questers. Effectively, I was interpreting Overcome by Grief to mean the attached hero could not ready for the remainder of the current turn. In reality, Pippin should have remained exhausted until the Refresh phase of the NEXT turn, so I would not be able to use that hero for the rest of the current turn and next turn, not just the current turn.

It’s impossible to know how this would have impacted the last two scenarios, and I have no desire to repeat these. My speculation is this would have meant I lost in Moria (where chump-blocking was necessary and would have triggered Overcome by Grief), but probably wouldn’t have impacted The Breaking of the Fellowship. I will continue on playing correctly, but know my victories may not be justified by the rules.

The Treason of Saruman cards have been added to my collection.

Pippin was taken captive by the Uruk-Hai, so it is up to Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas to save him! I looked ahead just a little bit, it looks like Pippin will not be under my control for this next scenario, which makes sense given the narrative. But this leaves me in the awkward situation of only have Legolas, Gimli, and Fellowship-sphere Aragorn. Aragorn comes with 3 Fellowship cards, and 3 from previous saga expansions can be used with him (giving him 6 total Fellowship cards). That leaves 44 cards to complete my deck, with only tactics heroes under my control. I had to make a… dun dun dunnnnn… mono-sphere tactics deck!!

To put it bluntly, mono-sphere tactics decks are known for sucking. Tactics is great for defeating enemies efficiently, but is notorious for its lack of willpower both in its heroes and allies. Indeed, of my allies in my new deck, only Boromir, Beorn, and Farmer Maggot have more than 0 willpower stat, and they are all at just 1. And they are all unique, so only one copy of each can be in play at a time. And Beorn only has one copy included in the Core Set to begin with. In short, questing will likely be a big issue this scenario, unless they designed it kindly for players who want to be thematic and don’t own the Sands of Harad (which includes Leadership Gimli and Spirit Legolas). I’m already missing my Wandering Ents.

Additionally, I was instructed by the campaign to remove Gildor Inglorion from the campaign pool. I’m happy I saw him twice in my last game before he had to leave, but his absence stings even more now that I can’t even hope for his possible addition to willpower. But then again, knowing Gildor, he probably wouldn’t have shown up anyway.

And finally, I need to be careful of chump-blocking, which Overcome by Grief will punish me for. Given that Gimli and Aragorn have 2 willpower and Legolas only has 1, I think Legolas will end up with Overcome by Grief to keep the limited willpower I do have going.

Well let’s just see how this goes! Let’s hunt some orc.

Heroes:			Campaign Pool:
Current:    Gimli    Legolas, +1 threat    Pippin, captive    Aragorn (TToS)   Previously Used in Campaign:    Frodo Baggins    Sam Gamgee      Gandalf (defeated)			Boons:    Anduril    Gildor Inglorion    Glamdring    Leaf-Wrapped Lembas    Mithril Shirt    Noble Hero (Frodo Baggins)    Sting   Burdens:    + Followed by Night    Gandalf’s Delay    Overcome by Grief    Shadow of Fear
Deck (50)
Allies (21):		Attachments (8):			Events (21):
x1 Beorn x3 Boromir x3 Farmer Maggot x3 Gondorian Spearman x3 Henneth Annun Guard x2 Horseback Archer x3 Vassal of the Windlord x3 Veteran Axehand		x3 Arod x2 Blade of Gondolin x2 Citadel Plate x1 Horn of Gondor			x3 Blade Mastery x2 Feint x3 Halfling Determination x3 Hands Upon the Bow x2 Quick Strike x1 Stand Together x1 Swift Strike x3 Frodo’s Intuition x3 The Three Hunters
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 CA: Character Abilty
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: + Overcome by Grief SA: + To Isenguard! (Pippin taken captive) SA: + Ugluk PA threat +1 due to hero replacement
Attachments	+ Leaf-Wrapped Lembas (Aragorn)
Threat	3 / 26
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	Eastemnet
Turn 1
Allies	+ Farmer Maggot			EE: Uruk-Hai Fighter Quest: 0 PA >> Uruk-Hai Fighter
Attachments	+ Anduril (Aragorn)
Threat	3 / 27, PV: 10
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	Eastemnet
Turn 2
Allies	--			EL: The Wold Quest: -2 - Leaf-Wrapped Lembas (SE) PA // Uruk-Hai Fighter
Attachments	+ Arod (Legolas) + Horn of Gondor (Aragorn)
Threat	3 / 28, PV: 12
Engaged Enemies	Uruk-Hai Fighter
Location Log	Eastemnet
Turn 3
Allies	--			EE: Isengard Uruk Quest: -2 PA >> Isengard Uruk Isengard Uruk // Farmer Maggot Gimli gains Overcome by Grief PA // Isengard Uruk SA: - The Wold (thanks Arod)
Attachments	--
Threat	5 / 31, PV: 14
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	Eastemnet >>
Turn 4
Allies	+ Farmer Maggot			EL: Eastemnet Quest: +2
Attachments	--
Threat	3 / 34, PV: 17
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	>> Eastemnet
Turn 5
Allies	--			ET: Fighting Uruk-Hai Uruk-Hai Fighter comes into play engaged w/ PA. # The Three Hunters Quest: +4 PA // Uruk-Hai Fighter
Attachments	--
Threat	3 / 35, PV: 20
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	Eastemnet >>
Turn 6
Allies	--			EE: Snaga Quest: +2 PA >> Snaga # Quck Strike PA // Snaga
Attachments	+ Citadel Plate (Gimli)
Threat	3 / 36, PV: 22
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log
Turn 7
Allies	--			ET: Unseen Barrier Quest: +4
Attachments	+ Blade of Gondolin (Legolas)
Threat	3 / 37, PV: 24
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log
Turn 8
Allies	--			EL: Eastemnet Quest: +2
Attachments	--
Threat	3 / 38, PV: 26
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log	>> Eastemnet
Turn 9
Allies	--			ET: Saruman’s Orders ET: Strange Weariness Quest: 0 Pursuit Value hits 30.
Attachments	--
Threat	3 / 39, PV: 29
Engaged Enemies	--
Location Log
===DEFEAT===

 

Reflection

This was a very disappointing experience. I chose my heroes based on what I thought was the thematic choice: Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, the three hunters in the books. Pippin was a captive, also accurate to the books. Since I don’t own the expansion that contains Spirit Legolas or Leadership Gimli, choosing thematic heroes resulted in a mono-sphere tactics deck, known for lacking willpower. This quest needs HEAVY willpower. The Pursuit Value begins at 10, and increases by at least 2 each round while Quest Card 1 is active. Additionally, there are Encounter Card effects that require the Pursuit Value to increase, such as the travel cost to Eastemnet and the Wold. So the Pursuit Value is increasing by 2-3 each round, and my average questing increase was 0.88.

So I just need to get through Quest Card 1 and this will stop the Pursuit Value from increasing so much, right? Yes, but I need X progress tokens on Quest Card 1 to progress to Quest Card 2, where X is the Pursuit Value. So the Pursuit Value is not only increasing ever closer to 30 (where I lose), but the ability to get past Quest Card 1 keeps getting further away in the distance… how can I possibly win?

After licking my wounds, I realized that this was an intentional design choice. In fact, in the books the Three Hunters (Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn) do not rescue the captives (Merry and Pippin). They keep chasing them, but get delayed by the darkness at night (Aragorn needs light to track the Uruk-Hai, otherwise they could be running in the wrong direction). The Uruk-Hai barely rest in their running, knowing they are being tracked and trying to avoid a confrontation with the Rohirrim. In other words, this scenario is incredibly thematic; my experience echoes the experience of The Three Hunters in the books to a tee: there is simply no hope in catching up to those goddamn Uruk-Hai.

Okay, that’s all well and good, but how to I move past this? This is a game, after all.

Well, so far I picked thematic choices that flowed with the game design. I realized that I actually strayed from this, and it comes back to my decision to replace Gandalf with Legolas after Journey in the Dark. Gandalf was obviously meant by the game designers to fall to the Balrog, just as he did in the books. As I mentioned, the most thematic choice would have been Aragorn to replace him, as he led the Fellowship in Gandalf’s absence until the Fellowship divided (which was the previous scenario).

So you would have had Gimli, Pippin, and Aragorn; how would that have changed anything?

As I already noted, I think having the Leadership sphere in The Breaking of the Fellowship would have been made things go much smoother than they did in my victory. But the real impact is that when I began this scenario (The Uruk-Hai), Fellowship-sphere Aragorn replaces Frodo, and the rules state that if Aragorn was one of my heroes in the previous scenario, I can replace him with another hero without the permanent +1 threat penalty.

Sure, but then wouldn’t the thematic replacement for the Uruk-Hai scenario be Legolas? You would still be in the same boat.

No! As I mentioned, thematically Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli are not successful. They never rescue Merry and Pippin, which is the point of this mission. In the books, Merry and Pippin rescue themselves essentially, but only with the help of others: The Three Hunters, who were tracking the Uruk-Hai causing them to be hasty, but ultimately lagging too far behind; the Rohirrim led by Eomer, who attacked the Uruk-Hai, which ultimately led the captives to escape; and Treebeard, who intercepted the captives and safely guided them through Fangorn Forest.

So who should have replaced Aragorn?

Looking at the new heroes introduced in this expansion, Theoden and Treebeard, I think the intended choice was Treebeard (Theoden was still under Wormtongue's influence, and was not helpful to anyone at this time). While this choice feels a bit anti-thematic given Treebeard did not chase the captives, it is thematic in the resolution of the quest: the rescue of Merry and Pippin. In the LOTR books, Treebeard did not attack an orc that was chasing the captives into Fangorn like he did in the movies, but he did take Merry and Pippin and move them quickly into the forest, which protected them from none other than Saruman himself. Indeed, when the Three Hunters finally made it to Fangorn, they see Saruman wandering about, no doubt looking to intercept the hobbits he hoped carried the One Ring.

Mechanically, this scenario would go much smoother with Treebeard replacing Legolas. Treebeard belongs to the Lore Sphere, which is known for cheaper allies with high willpower, along with healing abilities (indeed, with defending and the archery damage Legolas had 2/4 damage, Gimli 4/5 until I got Citadel Plate (then 4/9), Aragorn 3/5, and Farmer Maggot 1/2. Additionally, Treebeard has 2 willpower (as opposed to Legolas’ 1) to help with questing, and has the ability to deal 1 damage to himself to give him a willpower and attack boost of +1 until the end of the phase (limit 5 times per phase, so this could be very powerful with healing!). Imagine Treebeard with 1-2 copies of Self Preservation attached!

So I goofed; I was trying to win the quest in a way that was not even possible in the books. I have two options to fix this: I can re-do The Breaking of the Fellowship (again… ugh) and change out Legolas with Aragorn, or I can switch Legolas or Gimli for Treebeard and incur a permanent +1 threat.

It pains me to write this, but I feel I need to choose the former option… back in time I go. This will also allow me to partially rectify my mistake of misunderstanding Overcome by Grief, which will make me feel better about beating this campaign (if indeed I ever to beat this thing).

 

Most Valuable Cards (MVC)

MVC #1: Arod (TToS). Arod is an attachment that can go on any hero (or the ally version of Legolas), and allows the attached hero to add 1 progress token to any location after that hero participated in an attack that destroys an enemy. As I mentioned, some locations in this scenario increase the pursuit value when you travel there, so this allowed me to remove a location without triggering the travel effect.

MVC #2: The Three Hunters (TToS). This event can only be played by Fellowship Sphere Aragorn, but readies 3 heroes committed to the quest and gives them +1 willpower, attack, and defense until the end of the round. This was a much appreciated willpower boost for questing (although not enough), and also made my heroes ready if the Encounter Deck threw any enemies at me.

 

Most Valuable Hero

Aragorn (TToS). Aragorn ability to spend two Fellowship resources to ready a character is incredibly helpful in this scenario, as each player is down one hero for this quest. This allowed heroes to essentially do 2 actions, but with the cost of 2 resources to trigger this it could not be activated every round.

 

Looking Forward

Well, this section is actually more like “looking backward.” I’m not particularly happy about re-doing The Breaking of the Fellowship, but I think this will help my campaign in the long run. So I’ll built my tri-sphere deck (Leadership, Lore, and Tactics) and will be back soon!