Here and there through openings Frodo could catch sudden glimpses of rolling meads, and far beyond the hill in the sunset, and away on the edge of sight a dark line, where marched the southernmost ranks of the Mist Mountains.
-The Fellowship of the Ring

Threat Level 36

The sun rises on the banks of the Anduin and our three heroes assess their wounds. Beravor has three resources tokens and two wounds, Eowyn two tokens and no wounds, and Theodred three and two. Our intrepid ally from yesterday’s battle, Faramir, rests nearby, with nary a scratch.

And all is quiet, a quiet that belies the threat level. A quiet that is unsettling. There is no enemy in the staging area, nor in the engagement area. We have thus far dispatched all predators, and the two wounds on each of Theodred and Beravor are the most telling marks of the dangers so far past.

In our hand are nine cards: Sneak Attack, Hasty Stroke, two each of the threat reducer Galadhrim’s Greeting and Lore of Imrladris, another copy of Faramir, and two more allies: Henamarth Riversong (discussed at the end of the last post) and Erabor Hammersmith. This is a great hand — allies to summon and events to provide instant relief if we get into a jam. As is likely to happen soon enough.

There is no current location — and we have completed 2 of 16 progress toward the current quest, Banks of Anduin.

Resource Phase We add resources, leaving Eowyn with three, Beravor four, and Theodred with Six. We draw another card, another great event:

Planning Phase. It is time to spend some cash to summon more allies. Theodred spends four to summon Faramir’s cousin Faramir, henceforth known as Faramair II. Beravor, meanwhile, spending one to summon the stealthy Henamarth Riversong.

Riversong has a great action ability: exhaust to peak at the top card of the Encounter deck. This means we can calculate a battle far easier, since we will know whether the top card has a shadow effect. Even better, it means we can calculate questing even better — since we will know whether the top card adds to the threat level of a quest.

In short, he’s a covert spy who is weak but valuable.

Quest Phase Before deciding which of our allies will commit to questing, we employ the aforementioned Riversong to spy on the encounter deck. The top card, we learn, are some annoying creatures:

Wargs have the most annoying Forced effect, which often allows them to avoid a counter attack. We shall see soon enough if that happens here.

Now, in terms of planning for questing, knowing the Wargs are coming is helpful — we will face a threat level of at least two. Remember, though, we must draw a second encounter cards because of the special nature of this quest phase.

Without the knowledge of that second card, we opt to commit all three of our heroes to questing, Theo, Eowyn and Beravor. We are able to do this in part because we have twp allies at the ready: Faramir and his cousin Faramir.

Quest Resolution: We reveal two encounter cards, the expected Wargs and another tough threat: the location Necromancer’s Pass, with it threat level of three:

Here’s where we make a key strategic decision — to utilize one of the Faramirs to help with questing rather than save him for battle. Knowing that battle is optional (in this quest phase we are not obligated to engage with the Wargs) make the decision easier.

Faramir can be used here because of his special ability:

By tapping him now, each of our three heroes gets an extra willpower point for the questing. That gives us a total of 10 rather than seven.

Our 10 willpower minus the combined threat of five from the two encounter cards gives us five new progress tokens on the Banks of Anduin. Thus, we have progressed in the quest seven of the 16 steps.

Combat Phase: Here, our choice is weather to engage with the Wargs; it is optional. Because we have only Faramir II able to defend, and no one to attack, it would make sense to wait. But we have a trick up our sleeve: Beravor’s attachment, Unexpected Courage, allows us to ready her for battle! Thus we decide: bring on the Wargs!

Faramir defends. The shadow card drawn is Chieftan Ufthak, which has no shadow effect. The Wargs have three damage, Faramir has two defense, and so one hit damages the ally.

Now in an ideal world, we could now attack the Wargs with Beravor. But the Wargs have an annoying forced ability — because there was no shadow effect, they flee back to the staging area before Beravor can do any damage!

The party of heroes and allies must now call it day; battling the Wargs will have to wait until Day Nine.