LotR 258 - The Battle of Lake Town (9)

Tags

• lotr
• the-battle-of-lake-town

For this play, I needed to adjust my deck a bit. As it turned out, I ended up just using Chad G's Vilya progression deck. The obvious strategy for Elrond/Vilya is arbitrary ally swarm. Furthermore, with Vilya and Stargazer, you can pack the deck with unique, higher powered, and usually more expensive allies.

The strategy for beating Lake Town is as follows:

• Keep threat below 30 at all times. This is congruent with any quest which starts with a big boss: just don't engage it until ready, otherwise you will never build a board state capable of taking down the boss.
• Build questing power as fast as possible to stay ahead of the encounter deck. Smaug is a high threat foe, 5-7 depending on which version.
• Always have a chump out, preferably two, as one version of Smaug makes an immediate attack when revealed. A shadow can force a second attack.
• Have a lot of location control.

These are the main points. There are a couple of treacheries and shadows which are You Lose Now, and syneergy with cards preventing cancellation. Questing hard and keeping threat low really helps.

Initial hand:

1. Light of Valinor
2. Erebor Hammersmith
3. The Galadhrim's Greetings
4. Arwen Undomiel
5. Imladris Stargazer
6. Master of the Forge

Reveal Close to the Flame for 1 damade on each character in play.

Round 1

1. Resource: 3, draw Beorn, bummer having him this early.
2. Planning: Imadris Stargazer, use her action.
3. Quest: Stage Smaug the Magnificent. Quest with Glorfindel, Eowyn, Elrond, reveal Scorching Blast for no effect. Net 5 progress.
4. Travel: none.
5. Encounter: none.
6. Combat: none.
7. Refresh: Threat 29, one extra for Glorfindel.

Round 2

1. Resource: 4, draw Daeron's Runes.
2. Planning: Play Daeron's Runes to draw Elrond's Council and Light of Valinor, discard Light of Valinor, play Light of Valinor on Glorfindel. Play Erebor Hammersmith. Scry with Stargazer.
3. Quest: Smaug the Magnificent. Quest with Eowyn, Elrond, Glorfindel, reveal Merchant's District, net 1 progress, play Elrond's Counsel for +1 Will and net 2 progress. Threat 26.
4. Travel: Merchant's District, 2 damage on Erebor Hammersmith to move to victory display.
5. Encounter: none.
6. Combat: none.
7. Refresh: Threat 27.

Round 3

1. Resource: 4, draw Snowbourn Scout.
2. Planning: Scry deck with Stargazer. Play Arwen Undomiel.
3. Quest: Reveal Smaug the Mighty, Erebor Hammersmith defend, shadow South Pier for no effect. Quest with Eowyn, Elrond, Glorfindel, Arwen, reveal Reckless in his Rage, net 3 progress.
4. Travel: none.
5. Encounter: none.
6. Combat: none.
7. Refresh: Threat 28.

Round 4

1. Resource: 5, draw Elrond's Counsel.
2. Planning: Scry deck, play Galadhrim's Greetings, Threat 22. Play Snowbourn Scout.
3. Quest: Reveal Smaug the Magnificent. Quest with Eowyn, Elrond, GLorfindel, Arwen, reveal The Old Thrush, guarded by Town Baiting. Claiming The Old Thrush with Glorfindel.
4. Travel: none.
5. Encounter: none.
6. Combat: none.
7. Refresh: Threat 23.

Round 5

1. Resource: 4, draw Zigil Miner.
2. Planning: Scry deck to get Vilya on top.
3. Quest: Reveal Smaug the Mighty, Snowbourn Scout defends, shadow Merchant's District for +1 damage on Lake Town. Quest with Eowyn, Elrond, Glorfindel, Arwen, reveal Reckless in his Rage for net +3 progress. Play Elrond's Counsel for +4 progeress and Threat 20. Stage 1 is cleared. Time to remove damage from Lake Town.
4. Travel: none.
5. Encounter: none.
6. Combat: none.
7. Refresh: Threat 21.

Round 6

1. Resource: 7, draw Vilya.
2. Planning: Play Vilya, exhaust Elrond and Vilya to play Gandalf and draw Nothern Tracker, Dwarven Tomb, and Dunedain Watcher. Scry, then play Zigil Miner and call 2, discarding Imladris Stargazer and Vilya.
3. Quest: Reveal Smaug the Mighty, Gandalf defends shadow North Pier for no effect. Quest with Eowyn Glorfindel, Arwen reveal Scorching blast for no effect, remove 2 damage from Lake Town.
4. Travel: none.
5. Encounter: none.
6. Combat: none.
7. Refresh: Threat 22.

Round 7

1. Resource: 8, draw Daeron's Runes.
2. Planning: Play Daeron's Runs, draw A Test of Will x2, discard Master of the Forge. Scry for Gildor Inglorion next, exhaust Vilya to put Gildor into play.
3. Quest: Reveal Smaug the Terrible who whiffs. Quest all available for +2 damage removal.
4. Travel: none.
5. Encounter: none.
6. Combat: none.
7. Refresh: Threat 23.

Round 8

1. Resource: 11, draw Ancient Mathom.
2. Planning: Scry for Daeron's Runes on top, exhaust Vliya to pull Daeron's Runes, then Elrond's Counsel and Zigil Miner. Play Zigil Miner.
3. Quest: Reveal Smaug the Terrible. Quest with Eowyn, Glorfindel, Arwen, Zigil x2, Gildor, reveal East Pier for +14 which clears all 8 damage from Lake Town, adds 6 progress to quest, add Elrond's Counsel for another progress and Threat 20..
4. Travel: East Pier.
5. Encounter: none.
6. Combat: none.
7. Refresh: Threat 20.

Round 9

1. Resource: 12, draw Master of the Forge.
2. Planning: Scry Haldir of Lorien, exhaust Vilya to play Haldir, play Northern Tracker.
3. Quest: Reveal Smaug the Terroble for Burn 1. Quest with Eowyn, Glorfindel, Zigil x2, Gildor, Northern Tracker, Haldir, reveal Fisherman's Dock. For 15 Will, minus 8 in staging for 7. minus another 2 to clear East Pier, +5 to clear Stage 2.
4. Travel: Fisherman's Dock.
5. Encounter: none.
6. Combat: none.
7. Refresh: Threat 21.

Round 10

1. Resource: 11, draw Unexpected Courage.
2. Planning: Scry for Vassal of the Windlord on top, exhaust Vilya to put into play. Unexpected Courage on Elrond and ready. Play Beorn.
3. Quest: Reveal Smaug the Magnificent. I think I have this, questing none, I can handle it if it goes to reset Stage 2. Reveal Fisherman's Dock and Dire Magnificence, discard a Zigil Miner.
4. Travel: none.
5. Encounter: Smaug
6. Combat: I could still lose this, easily, depending on shadow cards. Zigil Miner defends, shadow Great Bridge for no effect. Lucky. Now I need 28 hits.
   • Beorn: 8
   • Elrond: 2
   • Eowyn: 1
   • Glorfindel: 3
   • Vassal of the Windlord: 3
   • Northern Tracker: 2
   • Gildor: 2
   • Haldir: 2, which is 23 total
   • With The Old Thrush, I can discard all 5 cards from my hand to get the last 5 points I need to get to 28. And that's a win.

Dang.

I definitely got lucky on threat control, but I did not lucky on locations. Asfaloth never came up, but neither did many locations, so it turned into a wash in that regard.

I used Chad G's Lake Town progression deck, because I just wasn't able to get mine working correctly. It kind of annoys me, I do like to figure stuff out on my own, but I also want to get back on track with progression. Here's the deck for future reference:

Single Core Series: Battle of Lake Town

Hero (3)

• Elrond (Shadow and Flame)
• Éowyn (Core Set)
• Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)

Ally (29)

• 1x Arwen Undómiel (The Watcher in the Water)
• 1x Beorn (Core Set)
• 1x Bofur (Over Hill and Under Hill)
• 1x Dori (Over Hill and Under Hill)
• 2x Dúnedain Watcher (The Dead Marshes)
• 2x Erebor Hammersmith (Core Set)
• 1x Faramir (Core Set)
• 2x Gandalf (Core Set)
• 1x Gandalf (Over Hill and Under Hill)
• 1x Gildor Inglorion (The Hills of Emyn Muil)
• 1x Haldir of Lórien (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
• 1x Henamarth Riversong (Core Set)
• 3x Imladris Stargazer (Foundations of Stone)
• 2x Master of the Forge (Shadow and Flame)
• 2x Northern Tracker (Core Set)
• 2x Snowbourn Scout (Core Set)
• 3x Vassal of the Windlord (The Dead Marshes)
• 2x Zigil Miner (Khazad-dûm)

Attachment (10)

• 1x Ancient Mathom (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
• 2x Asfaloth (Foundations of Stone)
• 3x Light of Valinor (Foundations of Stone)
• 1x Unexpected Courage (Core Set)
• 3x Vilya (Shadow and Flame)

Event (11)

• 2x A Test of Will (Core Set)
• 3x Daeron's Runes (Foundations of Stone)
• 1x Dwarven Tomb (Core Set)
• 3x Elrond's Counsel (The Watcher in the Water)
• 2x The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core Set)

3 Heroes, 50 Cards Cards up to Over Hill and Under Hill

Decklist built and published on RingsDB.

Tags

• lotr
• the-battle-of-lake-town