LotR 17 - Passage Through Mirkwood 11
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After some forum reading, I'm ready to try a pure Tactics deck again, only this time without the useless cards, and with extras from a second core set to help fill it out. Here's the deck listing:
The idea with a pure Tactics deck is that Legolas needs to be attacking all the time to get Progress on the quest, while the Gimli and Thalin keep the Threat under control by questing. Gimli comes into play late in the Game to deal with Ungoliant's Spawn. The deck is heavy on allies and damage dealing, and most cards are low cost and should be played as fast as possible.
Pure Core Tactics
Main Deck
Hero (3)
Ally (14)
- 2x Beorn (Core Set)
- 3x Gandalf (Core Set)
- 3x Gondorian Spearman (Core Set)
- 3x Horseback Archer (Core Set)
- 3x Veteran Axehand (Core Set)
Attachment (11)
- 3x Blade of Gondolin (Core Set)
- 3x Citadel Plate (Core Set)
- 3x Dwarven Axe (Core Set)
- 2x Horn of Gondor (Core Set)
Event (11)
- 3x Blade Mastery (Core Set)
- 3x Feint (Core Set)
- 3x Quick Strike (Core Set)
- 2x Swift Strike (Core Set)
3 Heroes, 36 Cards Cards up to Core Set
Here's the initial draw:
- Blade of Gondolin
- Gondorian Spearman
- Veteran Axehand
- Citadel Plate
- Beorn
- Horseback Archer
This scenario is better played on Normal mode to reduce the frequency of locations in the Encounter deck. Location lock will shut it down.
Let's get it on.
Round 1
- Resource: 3, draw Citadel Plate.
- Planning: Blade of Gondolin to Legolas, Gondorian Spearman.
- Quest: Draw Dol Goldur Orcs, Threat 30, damage to Gimli.
- Travel: Old Forest Road, ready Legolas.
- Encounter: Spider and Orcs engaged.
- Combat: Gondorian defends, Shadow eliminates the Blade of Gondor. Damn. If I take the other one undefended, Legolas can kill it, but the damage could be pretty high. Lucky, no Shadow, 2 more damage on Gimli. He won't be able to take any more, and this is just the first round. Legolas kill Dol Goldur Orcs, 2 Progress on Old Forest Road. Losing Blade of Gondolin this early is probably really, really bad.
- Refresh: Threat 31.
Round 2
- Resource: 3, draw Swift Strike.
- Planning: Play Veteran Axehand.
- Quest: Gimli and Thalin, draw King Spider, exhaust Veteran Axehand. Fuck. He could have lasted another round. Legolas will have to defend. Net 1P, Old Forest Road is cleared.
- Travel: none.
- Encounter: King Spider comes down.
- Combat: Legolas defends from Forest Spider no effect Shadow 1D, King Spider will be undefended, no Shadow, 3 Damage on Thalin.
- Refresh: Threat 32.
I'm thinking that maybe these people who are saying they can win with pure Tactics are full of it. After two rounds, most of my heroes are mostly dead, and I'm not dealing any damage, and not progressing on quest.
Round 3
- Resource: 3.
- Planning: Citadel Plate on Gimli.
- Quest: Nobody, I need to kill some enemies. I hope a location comes up. Draw Great Forest Web. Fine, will leave this alone for a while at 2 Threat don't care yet.
- Travel: none.
- Ecounter: all in.
- Combat: Gimli defend on King Spider, Shadow none, no D, Thalin defend Forest Spider, Shadow none, no D.
- Refresh: 35.
Round 4
- Resource: 3
- Planning: none, save R.
- Quest: none, need to defend, draw Necromancer's Reach for no effect, I don't have any exhausted characters. Threat 37.
- Travel: nope.
- Encounter: all in.
- Combat: Gimli defend King Spider, Shadow none. Thalin defend Forest Spider, Shadow none. Legolas attack Forest net 2 Damage. Dammit. Losing Blade of Gondolin so early hurts bad.
- Refresh: 38.
Round 5
- Resource: 6.
- Planning: Citadel Plate to Thalin, a relief, he may survive after all.
- Quest: none, need to defend. Draw Necromancer's Pass, Threat 43. Don't see any way to win it with no Progress on Stage 1.
- Travel: Necromancer's Pass, Discard Beorn and Horseback Archer.
- Encounter: all in.
- Combat: King Spider on Gimli, add another D, Forest Spider on Thalin, Shadow exhausts Legolas. Fuck. Have to go another round. Before killing.
- Refresh: Threat 44.
That's almost surely the game. I'll have to quest and take undefended attacks which will almost surely kill the Heroes.
Round 6
- Resource: 5, draw Veteran Axehand.
- Planning: Play Veteran Axehand.
- Quest: Gimli, Thalin draw Old Forest Road net 0P.
- Travel: none.
- Encounter: all in.
- Combat: Veteran Axehand defends, play Swift Strike to deal 2 D on King Spider, no Shadow. Forest Spider undefended, Shadow none (whew), Legolas kills Spider, clears Necromancer's Pass.
- Refresh: 45 Threat.
Round 7
- Resource: 3, draw Gandalf. Not useful this turn.
- Planning: none, save the R.
- Quest: Gimli, Thalin, Legolas, draw Driven By Shadow, Threat 46.
- Travel: Old Forest Road.
- Encounter: all in.
- Combat: Thalin defends from King Spider, Shadow none, 1D. Legolas kills, 2 P on Old Forest Road.
- Refresh: 47 Threat.
Round 8
- Resource: 7
- Planning: Play Gandalf, reduce Threat to 42.
- Quest: Gimli & Gandalf, draw Enchanted Stream net 4P to clear Old Forest Road and 3P on Stage 1.
- Travel: Great Forest Web, exhaust Thalin, no big deal.
- Encounter: none.
- Combat: none.
- Refresh: 43.
Round 9
- Resource: 5, draw Dwarven Axe.
- Planning: Attach Dwarven Axe to Thalin.
- Quest: Gimli, Thalin draw Chieftain Ufthak Threat 44.
- Travel: none.
- Encounter: Legolas engages.
- Combat: Chieftain Shadow +1 total +4 hits on Legolas with 1 defense is 3 Damage, with 1 Damage already, game over.
- Refresh: 45.
I'm quitting it here, there just isn't a viable way forward.
AAR
I'll play this deck a few more times to see if I can get a win out of it. I might stack the initial draw with good cards to get it going. I have a hunch that this scenario will be winnable with Tactics cards from later scenarios, and possibly if I add in the third core set cards to get that third Blade of Gondolin.
Another thing I'm thinking is adding in the cards I removed. These are not "strong" cards, but could be useful. The biggest problem with the deck is really the lack of resource generation.