Erestor on "The road to Isengard"

[PigsAreOurEquals 34]

Today I was playing "The Road to Isengard" (Treason of Saruman) using Erestor as one of the heroes.
Now stage 3 of the quest instructs that any time a player has 0 cards in hand, that player is eleimated from the game.

Does this mean I am automatically eliminated from the game at the end of the round, because Erestor's ability says to discard your and at the end of the round.  I play single handed solo so it would even mean I automatically lose.

This is just an informational question, it seems odd.
Even if I would be technically eliminated in this way, I house-rule that I can't be eliminated because of this.

I apologize if this question came up before but I couldn't find any topic on it.

[RichardPlunkett 81]

Yep, you're eliminated.

There are a couple of ways around it, eg Silver Harp, but mostly Erestor is a bad choice for that quest.

 

[Kakita Shiro 992]

Geez, that's terrifying. 

[RichardPlunkett 81]

You could always arrange for Erestor to have a lethal accident with an unblocked defender before the stage three effect occurs. Sometimes somebody just has to take one for the team!

 

[dalestephenson 1,482]

Silver Harp doesn't save you because it only returns the card after it's discarded.  I don't know of any other way besides killing Erestor to solve the problem -- am I forgetting something?  And is there anything besides undefended attacks and Song of Mocking that could be used to reliably dispatch Erestor?

[PocketWraith 553]

You have to either kill Erestor or complete the quest the same round you advance (advance the quest by exploring a location through an Ent of Fangorn or other location control, make 15 progress, travel to Orthanc and defeat Saruman all in the same round). So it's possible, but really it's probably better to just not play Erestor for that quest.

[Kakita Shiro 992]

Is there a way to blank him until the end of the turn? Then you could resolve the quest's EOT effect then let Erestor's blanking end. Where's a Milk of the Poppy when you really want one?

Edited May 5, 2017 by Kakita Shiro

[RichardPlunkett 81]

Well, spotted re the harp.

Also, since this is a saga quest, you really don't want to finish it with Erestor in the discard pile, which will likely require some shenanigans.

 

[RichardPlunkett 81]

10 minutes ago, PocketWraith said:

You have to either ... or complete the quest the same round you advance (advance the quest by exploring a location through an Ent of Fangorn or other location control, make 15 progress, travel to Orthanc and defeat Saruman all in the same round). So it's possible, but really it's probably better to just not play Erestor for that quest.

 

The good news is that this is actually a moderately sensible approach to solving the quest. It bypasses all the double-shadow Saruman attacks from whenever you draw cards (ie every turn).

[PigsAreOurEquals 34]

Thanks for the responses.

Wow it is brutal then, maybe I'll backtrack a little to the start of Helm's deep where I can change hero without the threat penalty. Or just make an exception house rule.
 

 

[Slothgodfather 270]

We played this quest just last month for the first time in my group of 4 and one of our players was using Erestor.  I died laughing when I was reading out the text of the Quest Card!   We ended up playing again with him trying out Galdor in place of Erestor.  It's not nearly the same effect, but it was the simplest replacement and we managed to get through it.  

[PigsAreOurEquals 34]

11 hours ago, Slothgodfather said:

We played this quest just last month for the first time in my group of 4 and one of our players was using Erestor.  I died laughing when I was reading out the text of the Quest Card!   We ended up playing again with him trying out Galdor in place of Erestor.  It's not nearly the same effect, but it was the simplest replacement and we managed to get through it.  

Thanks, too bad I don't own Galdor. My other 2 heroes are Arwen and Elrond so I think a strong deck can be made with these 2 no matter what the 3d hero is (maybe a random leadership hero and just max out Aragorn with his toys).
I like Erestor decks though.

[Slothgodfather 270]

Yea, that same friend has pretty much refused to play anything but his Erestor deck since building it.  He's using Cirdan, Arwen and Erestor.   The card draw is addictive!   

Tri-sphere can be a rough way to go, though Arwen/Erlond does make up for that challenge pretty well.  Giving Aragorn his toys does sounds outstanding.  

If u want to go that way, I'd suggest Denethor so you can first turn Steward of Gondor.  Looking at that, I'd likely focus on Gondor allies and go with Visionary Leadership.  

[PigsAreOurEquals 34]

@Slothgodfather Well in 1-handed solo I usually find tri-sphere quite doable. You don't have to bother with uniqueness and have access to more "power cards" compared to a bi-sphere deck.

There are enough resource generation options and checking the cost-curve is something that anyway has to be done for all decks.
Perhaps I'm more used to deckbuilding from my old Magic the Gathering days.

Too bad I don't own Leadership Denethor or Cirdan (my cardpool is  Lotr saga+Dwarrowdelf+angmar Awakened ). I was thinking of Amarthuil and going even quad-sphere. Between Elrond , aragorn+Roheryn and Amarthuil there are 3 heroes potentially paying tactics resources.

[Slothgodfather 270]

Fair points.  I haven't played solo near enough to have a good handle on it.  I typically played 2 or 4 player games so the power cards are all spread around.   I think the Amarthuil idea sounds pretty fun and you don't have to go to deep into tactics.  Maybe weapons/foe-hammer and feint?