‘The hasty stroke goes oft astray,’ said Aragorn. ‘We must press our Enemy, and no longer wait upon him for the move.’ – The Return of the King

As the sun rises on the third day of our quest, our intrepid party numbers five: Eowyn, Beravor, Theodryn and their two allies: the Miner and Hammersmith. Theodred holds the mixed distinction: he is the only party member with an attachment, and also the only one with an injury, having suffered two damage at the hands of Dol Guldur Orcs (reveal effect) on the second day.

In my hand are six cards — two copies each of Gandalf, Hasty Stroke, and one each of For Gondor and Forest Snare. These will all come in handy soon enough.

Looming in the distance from the Staging Area, as he has been from the start of our journey, is the fearsome Hill Troll. There is no active location, so our questing, if any, will go toward the primary quest line. The Orcs remain huddled in the encounter area, having also suffered two wounds in the previous day’s fighting.

Resource Phase [On this turn I neglected to draw a new card – dammit!] Adding resource tokens to our heroes leaves Beravor with two, Eowyn with four, and Theo with two. I exhaust Theo’s money-making Steward of Gondor to place two additional resource tokens on the injured hero.

Planning Phase The three heroes huddle and discuss their options. The Troll can be heard snarling in the distance, and Theo’s wounds look a bit too serious for them willing to take more risks. And so, with both those threats in mind, they decide it is time to engage with the Hill Troll, to do battle with the giant beast, before Theo’s injury worsens.

And so it is time to summon Gandalf.

Gandalf costs five to summon, but they can be of any sphere of influence. Any hero can contribute. So we spend three tokens from Eowyn and two from Theodryn.

Gandalf’s powers are twofold, as you can see from the card. First, upon summoning, the player is given three very tempting choices: draw three cards, reduce the threat by 5, or deal 4 damage to 1 enemy. In this instance we decide to draw three cards, as that will greatly boost the tactical options at our disposal.

Second are Gandalf’s stats, which are huge in every category, making him a powerful ally in questing or combat. All of this is mitigated by the fact that the great wizard only stays for one turn — he is discarded after that.

Arriving to our hand is the wonderful attachment Unexpected Courage, and two allies: Faramir and Snowbourne Scout.

Quest Phase For this quest, we commit only Eowyn, with a willpower of 4. The goal here is to hold steady and focus in the combat phase on taking out the Hill Troll.

We draw a location Gladden Fields, from the encounter deck, which has a threat strength of 3. In quest resolution, we come out even:

Hill Troll (1) + Gladden Fields (3) = Eowyn (4)

No advancement, but no damage. This is fine.

Travel Phase We travel to the Gladden Fields.

Onward — to combat!

Encounter Phase Suitably prepared, we decide to summon the Hill Troll. As noted on Day One, the troll has an engagement cost of 30, higher than our party’s threat level 28. Thus we are not required to fight the Troll. So why now? Because in two turns the threat level will likely be 30, and at that point we might have our hands full doing battle with other creatures — and thus spread thin. Best to fight now, while no other evil minions pose threats.

However, let’s not forget that Dol Guldur Orcs, though wounded, also remain for battle from the previous day, when they slew (slayed?) Guard of the Citadel. So we’re fighting two enemies.

Let’s fight!

Hammersmith is given the unenviable task of defending against the Hill Troll, leaving Beravor, Theo and Gandalf to mount the offense.

Revealing the Hill Troll’s shadow card, it is Eastern Crows, which gives the attack +1 offense.

Hammersmith, the latest redshirt in our group, has a measly defense of 1, meaning five damage gets through for his bloody death. With the shadow effect, it is six damage. However we decide at this point to use an action: Hasty Stroke — spending a resource from Eowyn, and this cancels that +1 shadow effect.

Why burn an important effect to save a single damage point? Because with the Hill Troll, excess damage is added to the threat level. So in this case, our threat would have gone from 28 to 31… but use of Hasty Stroke keeps the increase to 2, for 30.

It was actually a small price to pay for what comes next: three heroes whalloping at the Hill Troll. The goal is to take him out now, once and for all. We will pull out all the stops.

The basic attack would see Beravor (attack of 2), Theodred (2) and, of course, Gandalf (4). The total of 8, versus the Troll’s 3 defense, causes only 5 damage, and the Troll has a whopping 9 health. So we need more. What to do?

This is when the events in a player’s hand come in, uh, handy. In our hand is the wonderful event: For Gondor!

That’s right — until the end of phase, all characters get +1 attack! This changes the attack to Beravor (3), Theo (3) and Gandalf (5) = 11, less Troll’s 3 defense leads to eight damage.

Sigh.

It leaves the Troll mortally wounded, with just one health, but not dead. It is disappointing, and even more disappointing to our heroes is the knowledge that Gandalf will not stay with the party. His time with this fellowship is short.

[Note — this failure to fully take out the Troll cannot be blamed on dice — there are none in LoTR:LCG. Truth is, I didn’t fully calculate the math here before committing my team to attackers and defenders. A better choice would have been to include the Miner as an attacker. DGO’s would then have had an undefended attack, increasing the threat level, but that is something we face anyway in the next turn with the Troll. So, in short, I screwed up].

The final portion of combat on Day Three is the Miner defending against Dol Guldur Orcs. The shadow card reveal — Wargs — gives the attacker +1, but that is moot, as even without the buff, the Orcs have enough might to slay the Miner.

Another ally dead, and the Troll still lives. With night upon them, our party creeps off into the woods to assess their wounds and plan another day of battle.