- The Lord of the Rings, book I, chapter VII
Now that my Tolkien-reading project has gotten well into the Lord of the Rings, it's about time we got started on those saga expansions as well. Each of these saga quest posts will go through two adventures, incorporating the standalone scenarios that fit into the campaign; this post, for instance, deals with the first quest in the Black Riders expansion, as well as the Old Forest standalone quest.
John Howe: The Black Rider, 1985
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A Shadow of the Past
In the very first quest of the campaign, Frodo flees Bag End, and everyone gets stabbed by Ring-wraiths and dies; the end.
In practice, you have to quest your way to Bucklebury Ferry while avoiding the Nazgul with Hide tests. It's the same as the Escape tests in the Dead Marshes, back in the Mirkwood cycle, i.e. an extra round of questing, and to be honest, it wasn't a great mechanic then, either. Here you have to quest, have questers in reserve if you need to take a Hide test, and in case that fails, defend a Nazgûl twice.
We tried this with three players, and it was not easy. The Ring-wraiths aren't impossibly tough, but when you have to defend multiple attacks by them, and somehow at the same time put together a fair bit of questing and hiding, it's a lot to do, especially when not really running ally-heavy decks. I guess a Leadership/dwarf swarm deck would find this much easier going, and I can kinda see why they were so popular back in the day.
I do want to say that the location cards are, again, absolutely lovely. But after several attempts, I don't really see why people think so highly of this quest.
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The Old Forest
In the first of the standalone quests that can be included in the saga campaign, our heroes get lost in the Old Forest.
Basically this is the Hills of Emyn Muil, but with trees; you cycle through different quest stages until you've gathered enough victory points to advance to the last stage, where you have to quest while being attacked by Old Man Willow. Sometimes Tom Bombadil can show up.
I thought this was a decent quest, but I feel it's let down a bit by the enemies being kinda boring, and by being a bit arduous, especially in the last quest stage where your threat is skyrocketing and you're defending constant attacks from trees. The Old Forest is one of my favorite parts of the Lord of the Rings, so I really wanted to like this quest, but it's not really something I see us returning to any time soon.
So, in all kind of a mixed bag to start the Lord of the Rings saga; one quest we definitely weren't impressed with, and a slog through the Old Forest. Maybe I'm being unfair, but it feels like the saga quests have been hyped as the best thing ever for so long, and I really feel quite underwhelmed by the first two.
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As long as we're playing saga quests where Fellowship Frodo is around, I'm definitely adding at least one copy of ally Sam. Given how kickass his hero incarnation is, ally Sam is a bit of a disappointment, but the Frodo discount makes him a one-cost ally with two willpower, which is one heck of a bargain.
Back when we played The King's Quest in the Wilds of Rhovanion, I was very disappointed when traveling to Lost Armory let us search for a weapon or armor attachment, and I didn't have any! I decided I have to fix this, so I'm bringing a Ranger Bow for Idraen.
Also, now that we're on the subject of hobbits and searching for attachments, I've had ally Bilbo in my deck for quite a while, but I've never had a pipe he could fetch! So I've decided to see whether Dúnedain Pipe would be a more fun way of getting card draw than Ancient Mathom.
56 cards; 29 Spirit, 22 Lore, 5 neutral; 22 allies, 12 attachments, 18 events, 2 side quests. Starting threat 28.
Arwen Undómiel (TDR)
Idraen (TTT)
Rossiel (EfMG)
Allies: 22 (15/6/1)
Jubayr (TM)
Northern Tracker x2
Súlien (TCoC)
Elrohir (TMoF)
Lindir (TBoCD)
Rhovanion Outrider (ToTD) x2
Bilbo Baggins (TRD)
Galadriel's Handmaiden (CS) x3
West Road Traveler (RtM) x3
Elladan (TMoF)
Gléowine
Mablung (TLoS)
Warden of Healing (TLD) x3
Gandalf (OHaUH)
Attachments: 13 (4/8/1)
Unexpected Courage x2
Light of Valinor (FoS) x2
A Burning Brand (CatC) x2
Cloak of Lórien (CS) x2
Dúnedain Pipe (TBS)
Ranger Bow (AoO)
The Long Defeat (TBoCD) x2
Magic Ring (TCoP)
Events: 19 (8/8/3)
Flight to the Sea (TCoP)
A Test of Will x3
Elven-light (TDR) x2
Heirs of Eärendil (TDoCG) x2
Leave No Trace (EfMG) x2
None Return (AtE) x3
Daeron's Runes (FoS) x3
Keen as Lances (EfMG) x3
Side quests: 2
Double Back (EfMG)
Scout Ahead (TWoE)
Lord of the Rings saga expansions with Fellowship Frodo when the hobbit deck isn't around sideboard:
Sam Gamgee (TTitD) x1
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