"Burglar Wants a Good Job" is a solitaire scenario from "Middle Earth : The Wizards Casual Companion".
Copyright 1997 Tolkien Enterprises
Burglar Wants a Good Job
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It took me three tries, but I finally got a win with this game! The first try I lost to a body check before the intial turn was even over (I think I rolled an 11 against Robin's body of 9), the second game I got a little further but just got resources in all the wrong order to be useful, but the final game was a breeze.
Bad End was usually a quiet place, but Robin Smallburrow III had heard rumors of a potential employer - one looking to hire anyone who could prove himself a capable burglar. Such adventures rarely ended well for hobbits (both Robin's father and grandfather had set out long ago on similar quests and were never heard from again), but that wasn't about to stop him. Following a lead of some treasure in Ost-in-Edhil, Robin ventured there and, after fending off some lurking wolves, discovered quite a nice little ring. As he headed to Lorien to recuperate, both Beorn and Thranduil showed up and began digging up information on the Beornings and the Wood-elves.
Robin headed next to the mountains, where he slipped past Daelomin (who was sleeping very soundly) and stumbled upon a Sword of Gondolin. He returned to Lorien just in time to bump into Thranduil, who had enough knowledge of lore to identify Robin's ring as a Magic Ring of Stealth. Armed with this mystical bit of jewelry, Robin marched through Mirkwood to Sarn Goriwing. Incredibly, the orcs there were all asleep, and it was little trouble for Robin to rummage through their gear and come up with the Torque of Hues. He returned to Lorien to deposit that beside the sword he found earlier, then set out again after a rumor of some prisoners being held up at Mount Gunabad. Through the magic of his equipment, along with a hobbit's ever-present Halfling Strength and Halfling Stealth, he fought off the guards, slipped by some spiders that lurked there, not only found the prisoners, but the legendary sword Orcrist as well.
...About that time, though, word got through that the Employer's Council had completed their evaluation of his work, and they were prepared to offer him a role on a Deed of Minor Import. While they were suitably impressed by his burglary skills and the information his cohorts had uncovered, Robin's combat record just fell flat. Too many times, they noted, did he show up at Lorien exhausted or even injured, and the few enemies he outsmarted were limited to a Giant, a lone Orc-lieutenant, some Brigands, some Wolves, some Spiders, and a flock of Crebain. Still, Robin Smallburrow III felt some reassurance that he didn't share the frailty of his grandfather or the misfortune of his father, and he knew that future generations would no doubt be more successful still.
This was the first solo scenario I tried, and one of the things I liked best about it was that I had every card required for the deck readily available. At a glance, I don't believe there are any rares, and the entire deck and locations come to about 75 cards - not bad at all. Beyond that, there's clearly plenty of room to improve how I approach the scenario. I felt I did really well that third game, and even then I only got the lowest "victory" rank available. This was a great, fun, thematic little mission, and I'm really looking forward to trying out other solo scenarios after this one.
Bad End was usually a quiet place, but Robin Smallburrow III had heard rumors of a potential employer - one looking to hire anyone who could prove himself a capable burglar. Such adventures rarely ended well for hobbits (both Robin's father and grandfather had set out long ago on similar quests and were never heard from again), but that wasn't about to stop him. Following a lead of some treasure in Ost-in-Edhil, Robin ventured there and, after fending off some lurking wolves, discovered quite a nice little ring. As he headed to Lorien to recuperate, both Beorn and Thranduil showed up and began digging up information on the Beornings and the Wood-elves.
Robin headed next to the mountains, where he slipped past Daelomin (who was sleeping very soundly) and stumbled upon a Sword of Gondolin. He returned to Lorien just in time to bump into Thranduil, who had enough knowledge of lore to identify Robin's ring as a Magic Ring of Stealth. Armed with this mystical bit of jewelry, Robin marched through Mirkwood to Sarn Goriwing. Incredibly, the orcs there were all asleep, and it was little trouble for Robin to rummage through their gear and come up with the Torque of Hues. He returned to Lorien to deposit that beside the sword he found earlier, then set out again after a rumor of some prisoners being held up at Mount Gunabad. Through the magic of his equipment, along with a hobbit's ever-present Halfling Strength and Halfling Stealth, he fought off the guards, slipped by some spiders that lurked there, not only found the prisoners, but the legendary sword Orcrist as well.
...About that time, though, word got through that the Employer's Council had completed their evaluation of his work, and they were prepared to offer him a role on a Deed of Minor Import. While they were suitably impressed by his burglary skills and the information his cohorts had uncovered, Robin's combat record just fell flat. Too many times, they noted, did he show up at Lorien exhausted or even injured, and the few enemies he outsmarted were limited to a Giant, a lone Orc-lieutenant, some Brigands, some Wolves, some Spiders, and a flock of Crebain. Still, Robin Smallburrow III felt some reassurance that he didn't share the frailty of his grandfather or the misfortune of his father, and he knew that future generations would no doubt be more successful still.
This was the first solo scenario I tried, and one of the things I liked best about it was that I had every card required for the deck readily available. At a glance, I don't believe there are any rares, and the entire deck and locations come to about 75 cards - not bad at all. Beyond that, there's clearly plenty of room to improve how I approach the scenario. I felt I did really well that third game, and even then I only got the lowest "victory" rank available. This was a great, fun, thematic little mission, and I'm really looking forward to trying out other solo scenarios after this one.
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I'm playing around with this scenario. Just testing it out using the example deck before I change it up.
It's pretty easy to fail if you go to locations with more than 1 card draw for the hazard deck. I think the hazard deck does NOT draw up to 5 hand size. It just draws when you move and has unlimited hand size. So, I think a good strategy is to just collect rings in the wilderness at first and hope to get the magic ring early. That way you only face 1 hazard a turn. If you head to Moria or Carn Dum you are looking for trouble as the hazards may have more to play even when you don't move the following turn. It's difficult because Cloak doesn't work, and if you wait at the site you aren't drawing cards but you need combos to play any MPs.
In my "best" game with the example deck I had Robin with Orcrist, Torque of Hues, a plain Ring, Rescue Prisoners and the Cloak. Unfortunately he had 2 Lures of the Senses which i kept failing to remove untapped (at -3 roll). He had been wounded several times and encountered many setbacks over 13 turns. So I was rushing at the end and went to Rivendell to store all of the items. Unfortunately I failed the corruption check from the second Lure of the Senses during the untap phase. And I still needed to pass corruption to store the items. By the end I was rushing but I should have taken time to remove the Lures since the hazard hand was out of cards and wouldn't draw any.
Like I said, I think its probably best if you just go to 1-card draw sites in wilderness so that you can cancel with Cloak. If you really want to "game the system," Favor of the Valar could trivialize this scenario. Keep the hazard hand low so that you'll be OK until you get the magic ring out, then play Favor.
It seems like you need to leaving out all of the other characters as they prevent you from getting stealth-kill MP. If you change up the deck you can get higher MP items and factions, which means you need fewer stealth kills. You can also use a different Scout, like Thorin or Aragorn. This means you need to be luckier on your Burglary rolls and use Fast Asleep. A simply improvement is to just use Bilbo since he's a sage for testing rings. Could also swap out Beorn for Elrond. There's also the scout/sage elves that could at least play Concealment for MPs.
It's pretty easy to fail if you go to locations with more than 1 card draw for the hazard deck. I think the hazard deck does NOT draw up to 5 hand size. It just draws when you move and has unlimited hand size. So, I think a good strategy is to just collect rings in the wilderness at first and hope to get the magic ring early. That way you only face 1 hazard a turn. If you head to Moria or Carn Dum you are looking for trouble as the hazards may have more to play even when you don't move the following turn. It's difficult because Cloak doesn't work, and if you wait at the site you aren't drawing cards but you need combos to play any MPs.
In my "best" game with the example deck I had Robin with Orcrist, Torque of Hues, a plain Ring, Rescue Prisoners and the Cloak. Unfortunately he had 2 Lures of the Senses which i kept failing to remove untapped (at -3 roll). He had been wounded several times and encountered many setbacks over 13 turns. So I was rushing at the end and went to Rivendell to store all of the items. Unfortunately I failed the corruption check from the second Lure of the Senses during the untap phase. And I still needed to pass corruption to store the items. By the end I was rushing but I should have taken time to remove the Lures since the hazard hand was out of cards and wouldn't draw any.
Like I said, I think its probably best if you just go to 1-card draw sites in wilderness so that you can cancel with Cloak. If you really want to "game the system," Favor of the Valar could trivialize this scenario. Keep the hazard hand low so that you'll be OK until you get the magic ring out, then play Favor.
It seems like you need to leaving out all of the other characters as they prevent you from getting stealth-kill MP. If you change up the deck you can get higher MP items and factions, which means you need fewer stealth kills. You can also use a different Scout, like Thorin or Aragorn. This means you need to be luckier on your Burglary rolls and use Fast Asleep. A simply improvement is to just use Bilbo since he's a sage for testing rings. Could also swap out Beorn for Elrond. There's also the scout/sage elves that could at least play Concealment for MPs.