Journey Along the Anduin resource challenge 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Made for Nelson's monthly LotR challenge on his discord server. https://discord.com/channels/871426619783393392/937379224359161876

Every card in this deck has a very specific purpose.

Beginning of the game:

In your opening hand you are looking for Imladris Stargazer, We Are Not Idle, Narvi's Belt, or possibly Elrond's Counsel. Make sure to used Beravor every round as you will almost certainly not be able to get enough resources without having access to all the pieces.

For this challenge, the character we want to take most advantage of is Glóin and his ability. As soon as you get a Stargazer set up, you need to start looking for Well-Equipped and Citadel Plate.

IMPORTANT: Make Sure you keep both citadel plates in the deck as long as possible. By the time you draw into well-equipped from Beravor, use the stargazer to maneuver a Citadel Plate to the top of your deck. After using Well-Equipped, Gloin will have a free +4 HP's to soak more damage up.

MID GAME: Make sure you engage every enemy possible (besides the hill troll) and take them all undefended. Hopefully, at this point you have at least one citadel plate on Gloin. Something else to note is that killing all the enemies the round you engage them is not necessary. (Keep them within your control, however.) If you can consistently get a few more resources a turn, you should be pretty well set-up.

Healing is also an important thing for Gloin. Lore of Imladris is the best card for this as it can potentially heal 11 damage off of him. Using Scroll of Isildur is another way to get a few more uses out of it. As soon as Gloin has Narvi's Belt, the resource cost for the scroll and the map shouldn't be a problem any more. Healing Herbs is in here as an emergency use. If you play it, make sure you keep Beravor from drawing before combat that round.

Willpower: Now, you may be wondering how to take care of the hill troll. With almost no allies and nothing to boost attack, how do I get rid of it? Your threat will start at 24, so at Maximum you'll only get 5 rounds before the troll comes down. By that time, hopefully you have drawn into Hunting Party, and Fearless Scout. Once fearless scout is in play, Gloin will gain the scout trait which will leave you the option to now play Hunting Party.

Is this the best option to get rid of the hill troll?

Probably not, however, 3 cards a round (2 w/ Beravor) x max of 5 rounds before the troll engages, means that you will have around half of your deck in hand, so there is a pretty good chance you can pull it off in time. (Elrond's counsel also buys you 3 rounds, which can be huge).

Willpower: With only 1 ally with willpower in the deck and at least 1 hero that won't be questing each round, willpower can be a bit short early game. That's not a problem as you just send what you can to the quest until you can get citadel plate's going (around turn 3 on average). Once you have citadel plates and tons of resources on Gloin, from undefended attacks, Goblin sniper damage and various treacheries, you can start playing and cycling Lay of Nimrodel with Map of Earnil. That's a solid 9 rounds of around +20 willpower which should be able to blast you passed the first 2 stages with ease.

Now, this deck is not maximized to the full, due to my limited card pool, however, I had a big blast with this challenge. I ended with 45 resources in total (36 of which on Gloin himself).