by rwinder
So Radagast and his friends Legolas, Thalin, and Eowyn are now faced with the Balrog, which I am sure will pose no trouble at all. After all, this group has a dwarf who was once killed by a giant bee in an earlier quest.Given this scenario is tailor made for secrecy, it seems right to include a lot of relevant secrecy cards when going after it, but the core of Radagast and Creatures remains the emphasis. However, I am pretty sure that Radagast doesn't really have what it takes to bring down the Balrog, even by tricking him to fall into a Dark Pit.
The new deck follows...
Radagast and Friends Deck
Heroes
Thalin (T)
Legolas (T)
Eowyn (S)
Neutral Cards
Resourceful x 3
Radagast x 3
Tactics Cards
The Eagles are Coming! x 3
Feint x 3
Vassal of the Windlord x 3
Winged Guardian x 3
Support of the Eagles x 3
Descendant of Thorondor x 3
Eagles of the Misty Mountains x 3
Landroval x 2
Spirit Cards
A Test of Will x 2
Unexpected Courage x 3
Imladris Stargazer x 3
The Riddermark's Finest x 3
Escort from Edoras x 3
Galadhrim's Greeting x 3
Bofur x 2
Out of Sight x 3
And now the game...
Shadow and Flame
Initial Hand: The Eagles are Coming, Winged Guardian, Galadhrim's Greeting, Radagast, Imladris Stargazer, Escort from Edoras
Initial Threat: 27, I mean 0
Initial Staging Area: Durin's Bane
Turn 1
Resource
Draw Support of the Eagles
L1,T1,E1
Planning
Play Winged Guardian (L0,T0)
Quest
Quest with Legolas, Thalin, Eowyn (6W)
Add Stray Goblin with a wound to staging area (5T)
Discard Radagast to boost Eowyn (sorry Radagast) (7W)
Add 2 progress (2P)
Travel
NA
Encounter
NA
Combat
NA
Refresh
Threat = 1
Turn 2
Resource
Draw Vassal of the Windlord
L1,T1,E2
Planning
Play Vassal of the Windlord (T0)
Quest
Quest with Thalin, Eowyn (5W)
Add Inner Flame to staging area/Durin's Bane boosted (5T)
0 progress (2P)
Travel
NA
Encounter
Engage Stray Goblin
Durin's Bane is engaged
Combat
Stray Goblin attacks, undefended, 1 damage on Eowyn
Durin's Bane attacks, Vassal of the Windlord defends, is killed, shadow discards Winged Guardian too
Legolas attacks Stray Goblin, kills it, add 2 progress (4P)
Refresh
Threat = 2
Turn 3
Resource
Draw Imladris Stargazer
E3,L2,T1
Planning
Play Eagles are Coming! Gain: Descendant of Thorondor
Play Galadhrim's Greeting (Threat = -4)
Quest
Quest with Legolas, Thalin, Eowyn (6W)
Add Leaping Flame to the staging area, Durin's Bane attacks undefended, kills Thalin (5W,4T)
Discard Imladris Stargazer to boost Eowyn (6W)
Add 2 progress (6P)
Travel
NA
Encounter
NA
Combat
NA
Refresh
Threat = -3
Turn 4
Resource
Draw Galadhrim's Greeting
E1,L3
Planning
NA
Quest
Quest with Eowyn (4W)
Add the Mounain's Roots to the staging area (5T)
Threat = -2
Travel
Travel to the Mountains Roots
Encounter
NA
Combat
NA
Refresh
Threat = -1
Turn 5
Resource
Draw A Test of Will
E2,L4
Planning
NA
Quest
Quest with Eowyn (4W)
Add Many Thonged Whip to staging area (4T)
Discard Imladris Stargazer to boost Eowyn (5W)
Add one progress to complete The Mountains' Roots
Travel
NA
Encounter
NA
Combat
NA
Refresh
Threat = 0
Turn 6
Resource
Draw Support of the Eagles
L5,E3
Planning
Play Galadhrim's Greeting (E0) (Threat = -6)
Quest
Quest with Eowyn (4W)
Add Chance Encounter/Stray Goblin engaged (4T)
Discard Support of the Eagles to boost Eowyn (5W)
Add 1 progress (6P)
Travel
NA
Encounter
NA
Combat
Stray Goblin attacks, undefended, Eowyn takes 1 wound
Legolas attacks Stray Goblin, 1 wound
Refresh
Threat = -5
Turn 7
Resource
Draw The Eagles are Coming!
L6,E1
Planning
Play Eagles are Coming! Gain: Eagles of the Misty Mountains x 2 (EotMM)
Play EotMM (L2)
Quest
Quest with Eowyn, EotMM (6W)
Add Goblin Swordsman to staging area (5T)
Add 1 progress (7P)
Travel
NA
Encounter
NA
Combat
Stray Goblin attacks, undefended, gets +1 from shadow, 2 wounds on Legolas
Legolas attacks Stray Goblin, kills him, add 2 progress (9P), proceed to 2b
Refresh
Threat = -4
Turn 8
Resource
Draw Out of Sight
L3,E2
Planning
Play Suport of the Eagles on Legolas (L0)
Quest
Quest with Eowyn (4W)
Add Whiplash (ugh...use test of will to cancel it) (E1)
Threat = -3
Add 4 progress to quest
Travel
NA
Encounter
Engage Goblin Swordsman
Combat
Goblin Swordsman attacks, EotMM defends, take 1 wound
Legolas attacks Goblin Swordsman, kill him, add 2 progress (6P)
Refresh
Threat = -2
Turn 9
Resource
Draw Escort from Edoras
E2,L1
Planning
Play Escort from Edoras (E0)
Quest
Quest with Eowyn, EotMM, Escort from Edoras (10W)
Add Goblin Swordsman to staging area (5T)
Add 5 + 4 progress (15P)
Discard Escort from Edoras
Travel
NA
Encounter
NA
Combat
NA
Refresh
Threat = -1
Turn 10
Resource
Draw Escort from Edoras
L2,E1
Planning
NA
Quest
Quest with Eowyn (4W)
Add Second Deep to staging area (8T)
Discard Escort from Edoras to boost Eowyn (5W)
Threat = 2
Add 4 progress to quest, proceed to 3b, Durin's Bane attacks (discard Descendant of Thorondor from hand), EotMM defends, is killed, add Dark Pit to staging area
Travel
Travel to Dark Pit
Encounter
Durin's Bane is engaged
Combat
Durin's Bane attacks (discard Escort from Edoras from hand), undefended, Eowyn is killed
Legolas attacks Durin's Bane, does nothing...
Refresh
Threat = 3
Turn 11
Resource
Draw Vassal of the Windlord
L3
Planning
Play Vassal of the Windlord (L2)
Quest
Quest with no one (0W)
Add Goblin Swordsman to staging area (9T)
Threat = 12
Travel
NA
Encounter
NA
Combat
Durin's Bane attacks, Discard EotMM from hand, VotW defends, is killed
Legolas attacks Durin's Bane, does nothing
Refresh
Threat = 13
Turn 12
Resource
Draw the Eagles are Coming!
L3
Planning
Play the Eagles are Coming! Gain: Nothing of course
Quest
Quest with no one (0W)
Add Second Hall to staging area (13T)
Threat = 26
Travel
NA
Encounter
Engage Goblin Swordsman
Engage Goblin Swordsman
Durin's Bane is engaged still
Combat
Durin's Bane attacks, Legolas defends, he's dead
FAILURE...AS USUAL
NOTES: While this is a loss, I at least lasted quite a while, but it looked grim the moment that the treachery killed Thalin. Without another tactics resource generator, we were pretty much doomed to never get out enough Eagles but to persist a few turns longer. This is a tough quest. I have beaten it with this deck (just not in a logged play, of course), both in an "idealized game" where I picked out my starting cards and in a real play, but it's rare to even survive the opening without some way to eliminate threat a la Galadhrim's Greeting. I guess I could swap out Radagast for Gandalf, but then that defeats the theme of the deck. Same for Thalin/Legolas for Hama, but I've gone far with these three lackeys, so I decided to keep the same group and watch them die.