“But the Lords of Minas Tirith still fight on, defying our enemies, keeping the passage of the River from Argonath to the Sea.” – Elrond to his Council, The Fellowship of The Ring

Day Two dawns with a full party eager to make progress in their quest. Eowyn, Beravor and Theodred (carrying his prized Steward of Gondor) continue to be accompanied by allies Miner of the Iron Hills and Erebor Hammersmith. None have suffered wounds, and Eowyn carries two resources from the previous day. We camped on the current location, Banks of the Anduin.

Above them, in the staging area, looms the Hill Troll, but our threat level (27) is not so high that it will automatically engage the Troll (30) this day. [*Mistake: I should have raised the level to 28 at the end of Day One, but my notes indicate I failed to do so. My bad.]

In our hand are seven cards, including two copies of Gandalf — the most powerful ally — and two copies of Hasty Stroke, an event card that will undoubtedly come in quite handy.

Resource Phase First, I draw a new card to my: Guard of the Citadel:

Each of the three heroes receives one resource token. Then I exhaust Theodred’s Steward of Gondor attachment, giving him two more resources.

Planning Phase: I spend two of Theodred’s resources to summon the Guard to the party, increasing its number to six. This leaves Beravor with one unused resource, Eowyn with three, and Theodred with one.

Quest Phase As noted on Day One, the most important phase, with the most difficult decisions — is the Quest Phase, deciding which members of the part commit to the quest, and which remain back to do battle. This decision, to me, is the most fascinating and enjoyable part of LoTR:LCG strategy.

This day we decide to commit all three heroes to questing, and all three summoned allies to battle. The heroes’ combined willpower is 7. This will be compared to the threat level of the creatures or locations in the staging area — in this case, the Hill Troll (1) and a card we now draw from the evil encounter deck: Dol Guldur Orcs.

But before we calculate the questing outcome — look at the “When Revealed” text — we must deal two damage to one of our heroes. Ouch! It is the player’s choice, and I put the damage on Theodred, whose health slips from 4 to 2.

Now, subtracting our combined willpower of 7 from the combined threat of the troll and orcs (3) gives us four progress tokens. This allows the party to complete the current location, “Banks of the Anduin”:

Since Banks requires just three tokens to close, we apply the fourth progress token to the quest itself, “To the River.” Eight tokens will eventually be needed to complete that part of the journey.

The next phase, Travel, is moot as there are no other location cards in the staging area. So then…. on to battle:

Encounter Phase There are two enemies in the staging area, the Hill Troll and the just-arrived orcs. The party is required to do battle with the orcs, since the orcs’ threat level of 10 is lower than the party’s, 27. We could choose to also engage the Troll, but that would be foolhardy.

So this battle will be our three allies versus the Orcs, who may get a boost if a card we turn over from the Encounter deck to start the battle has a shadow effect.

Now, to battle. First I declare a defender against the Orcs, who get the first swing. I choose my favorite redshirt, Guard of Citadel.

Next, I turn over a card from the Encounter deck to see if it has a shadow boost for the Orcs. That card, fortunately, is another copy of the location Banks of the Anduin, which has no shadow effect. It is discarded.

Resolving the Orcs’ combat, their attack of 2 is greater than the Guard’s defense of 0, thus dealing two damage, enough to kill the guard. Sorry, guard, but you served your purpose.

Next comes the allies’ attack on the Orcs.

Their combined attack of 2 goes against the Orc’s defense of 0, and I place two damage tokens on the Orcs. As they have three health, it is not enough to kill them.

Thus ends our first battle. Note that if I had not defended with the Guard, I would have had enough force to kill the Orcs, but since the Orcs go first, all of their undefended damage would have to be applied to a single hero (not ally) and that is too risky, particularly so early.

With Day Two at an end, I refresh the exhausted cards, and raise the threat level to 28.

Onward!