The Hobbit Thematic Dwarf Deck 1.0

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• 1.0

How are you planning on taking out a troll with Gandalf and Bilbo? Tom limits attacks on troll enemies to a single character.

I think you're counting on Gandalf a bit too much. You can play him 5 times with 3 copies and 2 sneak attacks. This assumes you draw them all. If you use Gandalf's direct damage on a troll and have Bilbo attack with Burglar Baggins you're doing 5 damage a turn. You can take down Bert in 2 turns this way, but then you still have Tom's restriction. If you fight Tom first he'll take 3 turns and still 2 plays of Gandalf to defeat. If you're also playing Gandalf in stage 1 for card draw and threat reduction, it can be really difficult to pull off your game plan for defeating a troll in 2 or 3 turns.

This isn't accounting for the trolls 5+ attacks that you'll need to defend. Also you might want to consider that when the trolls engage they put a sack attachment on a character. Bilbo is the only one that can remove sacks if there is a Troll cave in play.

Unless there's a rule I've missed, I've beaten it the last two times getting both the treasure and taking down all 3 trolls both times. Last time I only drew two Gandalf and a single Sneak Attack, but got out fine.

The basic play is this: bide your time early in the game to build up your resources in hang, getting at least 5 dwarfs out as early as possible. With two draws/turn, you'll have most of your deck in hand before too long. But, don't wait so long your threat gets too high (especially keep it below 38). Hopefully, by the time you're ready to engage, you have three Burglar Baggins. Engage both Tom and Bert on the first round and block their attacks using Nori and a chump blocker. Then pump Bilbo Baggins with Burglar Baggins x3 (so 7 attack) and use Cram to enable him to attack both enemies, doling out 5 to each. Pay the extra threat to keep them engaged so you don't get more sacked dwarfs the next turn. Next round you use Gandalf's comes into play attack to deal another 4 to Tom, followed by another 2 from Gandalf's attack. After that, it's not too difficult to take out the other two trolls, since you can gang up on them and also have plenty of more Gandalf plays and Ever Vigilant.

There's a number of treacheries or shadow effects that can spoil this strategy if drawn at the wrong time (like the one that blows away all your attachments, which could cause you to lose Cram at a critical moment), but you can use A Test of Will and Hasty Stroke to control for those.

The deck would be better with more allies, but the card pool I'm working with is very limited (Core Set and Under and Over the Hill Only). I added literally every Dwarf ally there is among them.

Having played a few games, I would add Forest Snare in place of some of the healing cards (which I've rarely used), so I have the have the option to take Bert out first and then neutralize the other two.

If you have any thoughts on improving the deck, or if I've missed a rule that makes my strategy not work, let me know.

Using all three Burglar Baggins at one time was the piece I was missing. That definitely works. I'm impressed at that sequence of play.

I've been playing with the decks from the rule book and tend to use Burglar Baggins to help precision quest in stage 1 using the same stalling tactic. I'll have to try saving Burglar Baggins with the decks. See if that helps take down a troll next time I make a run at the treasures.

The only thing springing to mind that you could look at for improving the deck is Protector of Lorien. With Ori's card draw you use any excess cards for as needed willpower or defense boost. Also you might want to keep the healing in for the next quest, Over the Misty Mountains Grim. There is a treachery in that quest where it is helpful to have some healing if it shows up.