Can’t of the Rings 2021: Matt’s Games

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Introduction

While Dave’s Con of the Ring perspective exalted the joys of playing in person, my recap here will be a bit more game oriented. For those that haven’t participated in a League of Cooperative Gaming digital con before, its a different experience. I haven’t been to Con of the Rings but compared to a general in person board gaming convention it is much more relaxed. People jump into games when they can. If you have downtime between games, all the conveniences of home are right there for you. Also turnout for this lower than other League of Cooperative Gaming digital cons since all those that could went to Con of the Rings. I still had a blast playing with everyone. I’ve gone enough of these that I know many of the people that attended and played games with them before. We even still had some new players join us for epic multiplayer on Sunday.

That all said, I have below summaries of the games I played and who I played with. I’ve also included the achievements available for the quest attempted. The full achievement list and any decklists I used or know other people used are included after the summaries.

The Mumakil with Wandering Took

• Achievements
  1. (Code: CON2007) Hey, it’s Like the Jungle Book – Setup – Add a Strangling Python, Territorial Ape, and Harad Tiger to the staging area
  2. (Code: CON2008) Can’t See the Jungle Through the Gorillas – Setup – Add Guardians in the Jungle to the staging area.

Wandering Took and I played this quest a couple times with a Council of the Wise fellowship I created a while ago. The idea being we would use this contract to play around Savage South. The first attempt we went for the second achievement that adds Guardian in the Jungle to the staging area. We got horribly location locked. Second attempt we tried the Jungle Book one which was worse in some ways. Threat in the staging area was higher for the first turn. Then we had a difficult time dealing with the 3 enemies. We got more soon after for a very enemy heavy game. It was weird after we got location locked that we got swarmed like that.

We switched decks after that. The Council of the Wise decks just weren’t doing enough early on or ramping up quickly enough. I loaded up Dale Dunedain Last Alliance deck with a location control bent to it. Wandering Took brought a Rohan and Noldor deck that focused on questing and location control.

This one went a lot better. We tried again for Can’t See the Jungle Through the Gorillas. Despite a strangling python locked down my Redwater Sentry that was my main defender. Having early Northern Trackers that could clear some additional locations helped tremendously. Savage South we just made sure to cancel when it showed up. Eventually I had to stop using trackers so we could travel to get Mumaks into the deck and in play. We managed to capture two and complete the achievement!

Race Across Harad with Thanee and hone

• Achievements
  1. (Code: CON2009) Merely a Mirage – Setup – Remove both copies of Desert Oasis from the game.
  2. (Code: CON2010) Speedrun – Defeat the quest before the Orcs reach stage 4.

Thanee, hone, and I picked this one to play since we all liked this quest. Also we thought it might be possible to get 2 achievements in 1 attempt. We removed the Desert Oases from the game and went for it. I played my Dale Dunedain Location Control Alliance again. It was a fun deck and seemed pretty well suited. Thanee played a threat reduction deck that focused on ally Gandalf. hone played Rohan Discard with Lothirel, Tactics Eomer, and Thengel. We didn’t manage to beat it while the orcs were on stage 3 unfortunately, but we still beat it for 1 achievement. Too many surging orcs piled into the orc area near the end even though our questing power was quite good. 

Into Fangorn with Elliot (Quetzal) and Eric (stoneoferic)

The Card Talk blog crew gathered together for a couple games. We were waiting on Joe (Uruk-Guy) so we decided on a quick warm up game with Into Fangorn. Main obstacle was Hurons attacking during staging because of the one treachery where they all get immediate attacks. Fortunately Eric played mono tactics and I had Wizard’s Voice to help cancel attacks if needed. We powered through in about 5 turns. 

Journey Up the Anduin rn with Elliot (Quetzal), Eric (stoneoferic), and Joe (Uruk-Guy)

1. Achievements
   1. (Code: CON2019) Deja Vu – Setup – Add a Hill Troll to the staging area (two in a 3 or 4 player game).
   2. (Code: CON2020) We Don’t Know the Way – Setup – Add one Hills of Wilderland to the staging area. Keep that copy of Hills of Wilderland in the staging area all game.

With the entire Card Talk Blog crew assembled, we tried for the Deja Vu achievement. All the other guys haven’t played much Haradrim or any of Ered Mithrin. I recalled Journey Up the Anduin being not that difficult and starting with 2 Hill Trolls should be fine knowing we’d need a couple strong defenders. I picked out a Dunedain – Dale sidequest focused alliance thinking that with some of the stages it should work well to complete a couple side quests. I realized later that I was missing some key Dale and Dunedain allies like Guardians of Esgaroth and Thalion. I must have been worried that it would take away from building up Vigilant Dunadan into a super defender to leave them out. Elliot loaded a Victory Display deck,with Rossiel, Pippin, Mirlonde. Eric played his multiplayer mono tactics deck Beregond, Bard, and Eowyn again. Joe brought a Perilous Voyage Rohan Discard deck with Lothirel, Thengel, and Tactics Eomer.

We thought we had Hill Troll defense covered with Thengel and Tactics Beregond. Fortunately, everyone brought decks that started below 30 and had a turn before we had to engage them. We got them engaged on turn 2 with Joe and Eric. Joe played The Muster of Rohan ealrier. This let him chump his troll. Eric used Behind Strong Walls on Beregond for his. Joe’s mustered allies provides enough attack power. Eric used Eowyn’s ability to kill his. While we went on to kill those Hill Trolls a few more times in the game, those first two took some work. 

The game was longer than anticipated primarily because I didn’t remember the quest that well to help the others with deck selection. I forgot about Lonely Lands would take events after playing them and raise its threat. This made things difficult for Elliot who planned to recur Gildor’s Council several times but having it go under Lonely Lands put a big crimp into his game plan. Lost in the Wild treachery also discarded his hand a few different times. We didn’t bring a lot of sentinel or additional readying for Beregond to have him help out with defenses. This made a big difference for Joe’s Rohan deck especially when he lost Thengel to a bad shadow flip. When he said he was bringing Thengel, I thought he would get a Golden Shield on him early but he had a more chump block strategy which was difficult with the Hill Trolls. 

We also hit a couple Weighed Down treacheries. An early one that attached to Pippin eventually got 2 copies of Resourceful. I got one on Bard Son of Brand, but I had an extra King of Dale. Long Lake Trader saved a Legacy Blade by moving it to Bard which was better for us anyway. A bad shadow flip later killed Thengel and really hurt Joe’s deck. 

Despite all these set backs we persevered. Joe’s Rohan deck still did pretty well at combat with Gamling bring back chump blockers and Eomer killing some tough enemies. My Vigilant Dunadan eventually got out with Armor of Erebor and Hauberk to handle all the lower attack enemies. Eric took care of all the big enemies with Beregond then Bard and Legolas ally could kill them or help someone else. Elliott’s deck kept our quest power high and very importantly removed the one Massing at Night from the game. He also got out one of the Hills of the Wilderland we never saw the other in the staging area after exploring the first one and putting it in the victory display. 

It was a great game. I’ve managed to get a few 2 player games with the Card Talk blog crew before this, but all of us playing together was great. We all played decks we’ve been wanting to play or try. It got very late or very early depending on how you view 2 / 3 am CST / EST, but we had a blast. While we didn’t build our decks together we had a lot great teamwork. 

Fire in the Night Epic Multiplayer

• Team 1
  • Wandering Took
  • FunkyMonkeyMonk
  • rees263
• Team 2
  • Durin’s Father
  • Thanee
  • hone
• Team 3
  • burnterror
  • babaarno
  • me (kattattack22)

For my first ever epic multiplayer game, this was a ton of fun. Fire in the Night is my favorite of the Ered Mithren cycle and epic multiplayer made it even better. If you haven’t seen the video then you should check it out. There is also video available for the team lead by Durin’s Father. Wandering Took’s stream is available on his Twitch for now. I expect he’ll upload it to YouTube eventually too. 

Achievements

1. Escape from Umbar
   1. – (Code: CON2001) It’s Getting Crowded Back Here – Have 3 or more enemies underneath a single Narrow Alleyway.
   2. – (Code: CON2002) Bigger and Badder – Modification – During stage 1A setup, engage a Southron Archer instead of an Umbar Sentry.
2. Desert Crossing
   1. (Code: CON2003) Are We Lost? – Setup – Add each encounter side quest to the staging area (Craft Remedy and Find Water).
   2. (Code: CON2004) The Spice Must Flow – Setup – Add a Were-worm to the staging area (two in a 3 or 4 player game).
3. The Long Arm of Mordor
   1. (Code: CON2005) The Long Snout of Mordor – Setup – Reveal a Mordor Warg (two in a 3-4 player game).
   2. (Code: CON2006) Players Have No Heroes, Players Need No Heroes – The objective heroes lose their response text.
4. The Mûmakil
   1. (Code: CON2007) Hey, it’s Like the Jungle Book – Setup – Add a Strangling Python, Territorial Ape, and Harad Tiger to the staging area
   2. (Code: CON2008) Can’t See the Jungle Through the Gorillas – Setup – Add Guardians in the Jungle to the staging area.
5. Race Across Harad
   1. (Code: CON2009) Merely a Mirage – Setup – Remove both copies of Desert Oasis from the game.
   2. (Code: CON2010) Speedrun – Defeat the quest before the Orcs reach stage 4.
6. Beneath the Sands
   1. (Code: CON2011) Get Away From Her, You… – Modification – Brood Mother gains: “Forced: After Brood Mother engages you, it makes an immediate attack”.
   2. (Code: CON2012) No One Left Behind – Modification – The On Track objective gains: “Forced: After a character is destroyed, flip this objective.”
7. The Black Serpent
   1. (Code: CON2013) Double Your Danger, Double Your Fun – The X value on The Black Serpent now reads “X is twice the stage number”.
   2. (Code: CON2014) It Gets Worse – Setup – Add the Southron Champion side quest to the staging area. Add Southron Captain to the staging area as the “champion”.
8. The Dungeons of Cirith Gurat
   1. (Code: CON2015) Quick Getaway – Rescue Abaan during the first round.
   2. (Code: CON2016) The Eye is Upon Us – Setup – Add Uruks of the Eye to the staging area. Progress cannot be placed on this side quest.
9. The Crossings of Poros
   1. (Code: CON2017) Mordor BOGO! – Modification – When an encounter effect has you retrieve an encounter card from a set aside encounter set, retrieve an additional card from that set.
   2. (Code: CON2018) Problem for Future Me – Modification – Whenever given the choice to retrieve a card from a set aside encounter set, choose that option.
10. Journey Up the Anduin
    1. (Code: CON2019) Deja Vu – Setup – Add a Hill Troll to the staging area (two in a 3 or 4 player game).
    2. (Code: CON2020) We Don’t Know the Way – Setup – Add one Hills of Wilderland to the staging area. Keep that copy of Hills of Wilderland in the staging area all game.
11. Lost in Mirkwood
    1. (Code: CON2021) Really, Really Lost – Modification – The heroes must pass through quests 3A and 3C (when an objective location would send you to stage four, go to the other stage three instead).
    2. (Code: CON2022) New Guy in the Office – Haldan cannot quest or attack, and must defend once per round if able
12. The King’s Quest
    1. (Code: CON2023) Spelunking – Empty out the Caves deck
    2. (Code: CON2024) Traveller’s Guide to Eregion – Modification – For the forced effect on stage 1B, always choose to add the location to the staging area.
13. The Withered Heath
    1. (Code: CON2025) Make Haste – Complete the quest in less than 13 Rounds
    2. (Code: CON2026) Dragon Hoarder – Collect all four dragon signs
14. The Ruins of Belegost
    1. (Code: CON2027) New High Score – At some point during the game, have at least six resource tokens on Stalking the Ruins
    2. (Code: CON2028) Extremely Hazardous – Modification – While resolving the Discover keyword, reveal each card with the Hazard trait (instead of a random one).
15. The Hunt for the Dreadnaught
    1. (Code: CON2029) The Ship-Flip – Flip all of your group’s ships to their upgraded side.
    2. (Code: CON2030) Corsair Roulette – Modification – When players prepare their fleet, each player gets assigned a ship at random.

Decklists