- The Fellowship of the Ring, more or less
We were pleasantly surprised when A Shadow in the East was announced in April, and absolutely shocked to find it at our friendly local gaming store in August. However, there it was, and with good memories of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor still in mind, of course we had to get it.
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The River Running - DL 6
In the first quest of the deluxe, our heroes are supposedly traveling down the epynomous river, but what you're really doing is fighting a massive horde of enemies while a timer ticks down and unleashes even more enemies. Yes, it's Fords of Isen all over again, but where the Dunlendings had the slightly interesting mechanic of being affected by the number of cards in your hand, the Easterlings have attachments. So if you're using some of the new cards that work off attachments on enemies, like new ally Faramir, there's that.
Also like the Fords of the Isen, this unfortunately isn't a very interesting quest, since being swamped in enemies and Archery already got kind of old in Heirs of Númenor. So frankly, a disappointing start to the deluxe.
Danger in Dorwinion - DL 5
If the River Running was Fords of Isen 2.0, Danger in Dorwinion delightfully continues the series of alliterating urban quests, both in name and in being really good. In terms of mechanics, this is The Steward's Fear, with randomized plots and enemies and advancing by clearing urban locations, but set in Dorwinion and even better. The key mechanic here is that various enemies and treacheries keep raising your threat, which gets especially nasty when you draw the plot that lowers your threat elimination level.
This is actually one of my favorite quests in the entire game. Like so many quests lately, it's a bit fiddly, but not too much, and most importantly it's just fun to play. You don't get buried in enemies or locations straight away or find yourself having to defend eight attacks per round; the threat builds up, but you feel like you have a fighting chance. I really think this is an excellent quest. The only improvement I'd make is that the encounter deck is a bit small. Also the art is beautiful, and finally I have to mention what I think may be the best treachery ever: Secret Cultist.
Hilariously, we repeatedly had it hit us when all of our allies in play had an attack of 0, which led to Cultist Handmaidens.
For anyone keeping score, the best alliterating urban quests are, in order:
1. Danger in Dorwinion
(2. Escape from Umbar)
3. Trouble in Tharbad
4. Peril in Pelargir
Honorary mention: Conflict at the Carrock. It isn't urban, but sounds enough like an epic boxing event that it fits the bill. Why did the Ered Mithrin cycle not have Duel in Dale or something?! Encounter at Esgaroth!
The Temple of Doom - DL 7
The last quest is another retread of a familiar mechanic: there's an end boss in the staging area, but you can't attack him until you've done enough questing, although every now and then he attacks you. I mean it's decently executed, but maybe the game is showing its age a bit when every quest in the new deluxe is pretty much an old quest with new art.
We gave this a shot, and managed to draw such a sequence of direct damage that our heroes got murdered by Easterlings in short order. One mechanic I like is that as the quest progresses, you reveal more cards from the Power of Mordor deck, which make everything a little harder. It works very well to evoke the sense that the dark realm is, well, right there and casting its shadow over you.
All in all, though, this didn't feel like a particularly impressive or interesting quest, because we really kind of felt we've seen the same thing so many times before.
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The player cards of A Shadow in the East are very appropriately centered around, well, this one:
In addition to the One Ring, there are several Master cards that go with it and, of course, our first ever double-sided hero card: Gollum. As Sméagol, he's a Lore hero with a threat of 3, making for some intriguing secrecy possibilities. However, if you have him as one of your heroes, you have to shuffle two copies of the Stinker treachery into the encounter deck; they flip Sméagol over into Gollum, who fights you as an enemy. It's a pretty good way of modeling Sméagol as an untrustworthy ally who can turn on you when you least expect it.
We also get ally versions of Merry, Pippin and Faramir, all pretty solid. Pippin should find a home in several Tactics decks purely on the strength of 2 willpower for 2 resources. The really interesting player card here, though, is none of these, or even the One Ring. It's this one:
This is the first Contract card, an entirely new card type that doesn't go into your deck, but is set up at the start of the game and goes into effect right away. You know them as agenda cards in Game of Thrones. This one stops you from playing non-unique allies, but when you have exactly nine unique characters in play, you flip it over:
This is very thematic, pretty powerful, and I'm actually half-seriously thinking about a Fellowship version of my Hobbit deck. But I love that we're getting a whole new card type - the first since Lost Realm - and I hope we see more contracts in the future!
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I kind of feel the same way about this as I did about Lost Realm: I want to like it for the theme, but whereas Lost Realm was too frustrating, this was kind of bland. The exception is Danger in Dorwinion, which is an absolutely excellent quest. But when the player cards are also quite niche, I'm on the fence about whether I'd recommend buying this or not. I guess if you really want a Sméagol hero? We'll have to wait and see what the adventure packs are like.
We now have some reason to believe that this is, in fact, the last deluxe expansion - at least as we now know them. If that turns out to be the case, then at least it was a good one. However, this is apparently not to say that the game is finished; but we don't know what the new stuff coming after 2020 will be. I had been thinking that it would be weird if Fantasy Flight didn't try to cash in on the supposedly upcoming Amazon Tolkien series in 2021, so maybe we'll see some kind of semi-reboot to coincide with it? Luckily, we have been told there are no plans for a second edition, but a new core set, for instance? Whatever it is, we hope the game still has a future, because we are still rather fond of it.
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On the occasion of the new deluxe, I rebuilt my deck from first principles, with a couple of new things that I want to test.
Since my partner is still committed to a mono-Tactics deck that basically fights a lot, that leaves me responsible for questing and location control. I've kept this emphasis, and started by going through the Spirit allies best suited to it. So that means keeping my Northern Trackers, Galadriel's Handmaidens, West Road Travellers and, of course, Bilbo Baggins. I've also found Rhovanion Outrider to be quite good, especially when setting up combos with Northern Tracker and Idraen. I will also be bringing back Greyflood Wanderer; a solid enough ally on their own, with a special ability that just might save us from location lock.
I mentioned Idraen; I'm also keeping Rossiel, but I think it's now finally time to bring in Lanwyn. I like her surge response, and with a ranged attack she can potentially help out my partner. I've definitely liked hero Arwen, especially since the card is so beautiful, but I feel like I want to try something different. This also unlocks one of the best Spirit allies in the entire game, ally Arwen, who I'm definitely including, along with her brothers Elladan and Elrohir.
So far, so good: that's seventeen questing allies, with a little bit of combat upside against orcs in the case of the twins. I trawled through all the available Spirit allies to see if there was anyone I should try, and I decided on one stalwart from way back in my first deck ever, and a couple of new cards to try. First, good old Elfhelm, for a little combat power and threat reduction. I found him useful back in the day, and frankly, the proliferation of Doomed effects and other threat-raising malarkey in Shadow in the East made me miss him! I'm also trying Bofur; I try to keep a Spirit resource handy for A Test of Will, so I guess I could use it on Bofur as well. Finally, I'm going to figure out if Curious Brandybuck is any good or not.
With only one Lore hero, I don't want to bring too many Lore allies, but after all this time, there's still no getting around Warden of Healing as simply the best healing ally in the game. Apart from them and Elladan, I'm only bringing Mablung, and in another blast from the past, Henamarth Riversong.
The main reason I don't want to take too many Lore cards is that I need to be able to keep a resource handy for Leave No Trace and None Return to power Rossiel's ability and Keen as Lances, which is a truly excellent card, especially when several people are running it. The only other events I'm bringing are the compulsory Daeron's Runes, A Test of Will and the delightful Flight to the Sea, because I love messing with the encounter deck. I'm not really sold on any of the location control events; I quite liked The Evening Star in my mono-Lore deck, but it'd be competing for scarce Lore resources here, and none of the Spirit events quite made the cut. With a cardpool this big, it's not so much about what cards are useful, but what there's space for in the deck...
Attachments start with the obvious; as the wags have it, Expected Courage. Similarly obviously, A Burning Brand, especially since we refuse to acknowledge the errata - mostly because we can't remember it! Light of Valinor is brilliant on Rossiel, and Cloak of Lórien is so thematically excellent on her that I'm bringing a copy. I've also come to think of Magic Ring as a kind of must-have; it's neutral and limited to one per deck, so really, why not? Most of the attachments I've got are more on the lines of things that are nice to see when they pop up, rather than staples I need to see in my hand. On that note, I'm bringing back Song of Eärendil, both to help out my partner in their Boromir shenanigans, and because of the art. The three people who read this blog know that I'm a sucker for pretty nautical cards.
Although I'm pretty sure Eärendil's ship was more like a longship than that galleon, and also is that a fourth mast that the aftmost lateen is on? Anyway, a couple of new attachments I'm bringing are Warden of Arnor and Map of Rhovanion, for location control purposes. Finally, in keeping with my principle that I want to be able to search for something when we come across the Lost Armories of the world, I'm bringing a Mithril Shirt, and also a Dúnedain Pipe for Bilbo to find. This last attachment was originally a bit of a joke, but it's actually been kind of useful!
That's everything except side quests, of which I'm having three: the same Double Back and Scout Ahead (a pleasant symmetry) as before, and also Rally the West, to see if it's worth playing. That takes me up to 57 cards, so I'd better be done!
A couple of words about what I didn't include, the most major point being threat reducers. Partly this is because the economics of The Galadhrim's Greeting are the worst for two players, and there's almost always two of us, but I find in general that I've become a threat reduction skeptic. Unless you're doing something very specific like a Secrecy and/or hobbit deck, threat reduction doesn't usually advance the quest; it just buys more time. And in multiplayer, it buys more time for one of us. So I'm just leaving it out in favor of stuff that will hopefully actually contribute to us getting things done.
Anyway here's the deck, we'll see how it goes!
57 cards; 33 Spirit, 20 Lore, 4 neutral; 25 allies, 13 attachments, 16 events, 3 side quests. Starting threat 27.
Lanwyn (TTitD)
Idraen (TTT)
Rossiel (EfMG)
Allies: 25 (19/6)
Elfhelm (TDM)
Northern Tracker ×2
Bofur (TRG)
Elrohir (TMoF)
Greyflood Wanderer (TTT) ×2
Rhovanion Outrider (TotD) ×2
Arwen Undómiel (TWitW) ×2
Bilbo Baggins (TRD)
Curious Brandybuck (TWoE)
Galadriel's Handmaiden (CS) ×3
West Road Traveler (RtM) ×3
Elladan (TMoF)
Mablung (TLoS)
Warden of Healing (TLD) ×3
Henamarth Riversong
Attachments: 13 (7/5/1)
Unexpected Courage ×2
Light of Valinor (FoS) ×2
Mithril Shirt (TFoW)
Song of Eärendil (RtR)
Warden of Arnor (TTT)
A Burning Brand (CatC) ×2
Cloak of Lórien (CS)
Dúnedain Pipe (TBS)
Map of Rhovanion (TWoR)
Magic Ring (TCoP)
Events: 16 (5/8/3)
Flight to the Sea (TCoP) ×2
A Test of Will ×3
Leave No Trace (EfMG) ×2
None Return (AtE) ×3
Daeron's Runes (FoS) ×3
Keen as Lances (EfMG) ×3
Side quests: 3 (2/1)
Rally the West (TBS)
Double Back (EfMG)
Scout Ahead (TWoE)
Sideboard:
Dwarven Tomb ×2
Power of Orthanc (VoI) ×3
Deep Knowledge (VoI) ×3
Lord of the Rings saga expansions with Fellowship Frodo when the hobbit deck isn't around sideboard:
Sam Gamgee (TTitD) x1
