Thematic LOTR Saga - A Shadow of the Past, The Old Forest, F 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Intro to Thematic LOTR Saga

The basic idea is to play the LOTR Saga quests with heroes (and decks) that are close thematically to the actual stories.

Instead of using the same heroes throughout the saga, you must choose heroes from a shortened list based on characters that were there for the part of the story the quest represents. You can also choose to use heroes that "might" have been there if minor circumstances had changed, but for +1 starting threat.

Hero breakdown for the LOTR saga: Thematic Saga Google Sheet

Feel free to copy the above google sheet to record your playthrough.

There is no penalty for playing non-hero cards that are not thematic. But I will note off-theme allies and attachments and possibly more thematic alternatives as I play through the saga. I intend to do a full single-player playthrough though I believe it can be done both single and two-player. But for some of the quests, it will become difficult to find enough heroes for more players.

Theme

I will play the same deck for A Shadow of the Past, The Old Forest, and Fog on the Barrow-Downs. Typically, I will not do this, as the available heroes change with each quest and I want my theme to fit as well.

Storyline Heroes: Sam Gamgee, Merry, Pippin, Fatty

Close Heroes (+1 threat): Any non-Bree. Hobbit. except Bilbo Baggins

Theme for this deck: Hobbits from Hobbiton

• Folco Boffin incurs +1 threat to start

Off-Theme Allies & Attachments

• 2x Gandalf - He was searching for them. Alternative: Keen as Lances, Frodo's Intuition

• 2x Henamarth Riversong - Alternative Halfling Bounder

• 1x Warden of Healing - Alternative Pint

• 2x Steward of Gondor - Alternative Halfast Gamgee

Strategy

This was based on one of Seastan's decks. Which are all awesome. Thanks Seastan.

One of the best strategies for hobbits is to use Gaffer Gamgee for defense, but this is tricky to do with the 2x restriction of the contract. Luckily, there are multiple options for both the resource generation (Resourceful and Steward of Gondor) or resource fixing (A Good Harvest and The Storm Comes) and finding the ally (Gaffer Gamgee and Raise the Shire) which makes this two card combo still somewhat consistent.

And, of course, having Merry start at 5 is just awesome with up to 9 when he's got two Dagger of Westernesse.