Tactics / Lore Revised Core Solo for Intruders in Chetwood 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Goal

Develop a tactics/lore deck using only revised core cards for true solo that can sometimes beat Intruders in Chetwood.

Summary

Below is quite a journey, but I think in the end, the deck I landed on can work, and ultimately did work. From what I hear, tactics/lore with revised core is not a go to solo combination. But it was fun to explore. There’s a bit of luck in navigating the early phase staying on top of threat, managing early enemies, and then getting Gimli to being a 9 or 10 attack citadel plated tank. Then there’s bit of more luck in getting Gandalf three times for threat reduction.

The Journey

Attempts 1.1 to 1.3: First Attempt

I tried the combination of Legolas, Beravor, and Denethor as a heroes. This bombed. I could not generate enough attack or defence.

Attempts 2.1 to 2.2: Gimli to the Attack

I replaced Gimli for Legolas to give me enough attack.

This was a lot better. I managed to make him very powerful with damage and citadel plate and I was able to last many rounds. I generally had enough questing power to manage locations. But I could never make much progress on the quest. And in general, this wasn’t about the luck of the deck draw. It was built in. There are a few 1-will power allies on the lore side. And Protector of Lórien provided some small boost.

I also wanted to use Beravor some times for card draw, but she was my strongest quester. I think it works better when Beravor is the blocker, who may or may on be needed for blocking, and if not, then card draw.

Attempt 5 went for something like 14 rounds, and I had a mountain of unspent lore resources.

Things I miss:

• Faramir to add 6 to 8 willpower in the end game (even with tactics heroes).
• Éowyn level questing: 4 to 5 per round, every round. That’s all she ever does.
• The usual tricks like Steward of Gondor, Unexpected Courage, Stand and Fight, Sneak Attack.

Options:

• Replace Denethor with Glorfindel to give more questing power and make Beravor a blocker / card draw / quester. The extra four threat cost is worth the increase in willpower.
• Get another Gléowine in the deck. I’d left him out because he was used in another deck.
• I could change the scope and make it tri-sphere and bring in Éowyn and then I’d have threat reduction (The Galadhrim's Greeting, ability to bring in Faramir for questing power, especially with tactics allies), unexpected courage, as well as spirit allies that can quest. But that would be a very different challenge.
• Secret Paths and Radagast's Cunning provides a one time questing boost of typically 2 or 3 in this quest, although if timed right you could make sure that it’s a 3.
• In general, strong combat skills (both a massive attack with Gimli; and general defence strategy for some enemies beyond chumping, such as feinting, or Stand Together) does provide threat management and reduces required willpower.
• Quick Strike provides another good option with powered-up Gimli to take out all enemies once Gimli had Citadel Plate and required damage.
• Blade of Gondolin is useful for Gimli as it gives progress.

Attempt 3.1 - Defeated in Round 9

The strategy of beefing up Gimli with Citadel Plate, and Blade of Gondolin worked quite well, especially combing with Feint and Quick Strike. In general, I was quite effective with managing the enemies. I got unlucky in that all 3 Gandalf were in the bottom half of the deck, which I never got to. I also never got Gléowine, which might have helped a little to accelerate working through the deck to get Gandalf. I also never got Protector of Lórien but I had 11 cards in hand that could have contributed to questing.

Major problems:

• I ended up with a mountain of lore resources (14 by Round 9).
• I had a lot of tactics cards that I could not afford.
• I potentially had more tactic chumps than I needed, because of the power of Gimli and my Feint, Quick Strike strategy. I also did not have that many tactic resources to spend, with all the tactics upgrades and combat events.

Ideas:

• Add a third Gléowine to accelerate card draw options.
• Add back the third Daughter of the Nimrodel given how much lore resources I have. She is expensive for one willpower, but might still be an option for moving resources across to lore.
• Drop the Citadel Plate strategy and focus on getting both Dwarven Axe and Blade of Gondolin: That would give 2 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 9 attack, which is enough to destroy any enemy. Alternatively, pursue a more mixed strategy.

Attempt 4.1: Round 1 Defeat

Attempted to block with Orc War Party with Gimli but other effects increased the attack; With Gimli defeated, abandoned.

Attempt 4.2: An Almost Victory in Round 13

This was a defeat, but I played on to see how it went. Specifically, Gimli was powerful. Him combined with Feint, Quick Strike, and Chump blocking was working to take care of the enemies. But I got a couple of unpleasant side quests which made questing drag on as well as a range of locations. And time had mostly ticked over, albeit there were a couple of rounds where I under quested or there was an enemy in play. I’d got through about 20 cards and no Gandalf, which I needed for threat reduction. With 48 on the dial, I paid, foolishly in hindsight, for three cards. And I did draw Gandalf, but then I only had one resource, and then in the next round I had 4 resources (not enough for Gandalf). So when it went to 50 at the end of the round, I was defeated, albeit I played it out. Gandalf, then took threat down to 45. And from there it was all pretty fine. Henamarth Riversong was very helpful in planning. I had plenty of Feint and Gimli had 10 attack, so could handle any enemy. I only had 11 willpower (exluding Henamarth Riversong) and 9 in the rounds with an enemy. But the two Gandalf draws added 4 or more in those rounds.

Reflections at this stage:

• This is clearly not a powerful deck for this scenario. But the constraints (2 lore; 1 tactics; revised core only) are pretty severe. Beefed up Gimli with Citadel Plate works quite well.
• Getting Gimli to exactly 8 damage takes some luck, but its mostly the first damage that is more risky as there are various Shadow cards and the side quest that increases attack strengths. With the second one, you can use Glorfindel or Daughter of the Nimrodel to heal before assigning damage to make sure it doesn’t go over 8 damage. Probably the main Shadow is the discard an attachment card, so it’s worth having another attachment, so that the card doesn’t kill Gimli. In general, I think Citadel Plate is the simplest option for beefing up Gimli. I suppose Blade of Gondolin would provide 4 or 5 quest points and +1 attack . All the enemies are orcs. Dwarven Axe is perhaps not needed.
• Glorfindel: Mostly he was just my default quester; that said, one time he did save the day in being able to manage the damage assigned to Gimli.
• I ended up with about 7 cards in hand, but no resources this time. So perhaps this suggests that the balance was right.
• The Horn of Gondor is a tough one. It is restricted. I often don’t want to waste tactics resources in the early game, and I probably only chump a couple of times in the early game before the Feint arrives or Gimli gets strong enough and Quick Strike is enough.
• For whatever reason, I didn’t draw Gléowine or Protector of Lórien. They might have been slightly useful, especially in combination. I.e., I would get additional card draw, but if I didn’t like the card, I could discard it to add to questing. That said, most of my cards in hand were potentially useful had the game dragged on a bit longer. So it would only be occasionally that I’d want a questing boost from card discard.

So, overall, it’s a bit intriguing to see how this would perform another time. The main challenge is willpower compounded by high starting threat. No doubt, this deck would be a lot more powerful with Éowyn instead of Glorfindel. It would provide a lot of questing power, lower starting threat and The Galadhrim's Greeting an additional low cost questing allies would be very useful.

Tweaks:

• I dropped Dwarven Axe.
• I went back to 3 copies of Citadel Plate because of the key Gimli attack strategy and 3 copies of Henamarth Riversong because of how critical encounter deck management is.

Attempts 5.1 to 5.4 Defeats

I had a few quick defeats. A couple of times in a row I tried to defend Orc War Party with Gimli in round 1 only to get a plus 1 attack shadow card. Another time, I tried to avoid doing that, but the enemies just piled up and I didn’t have a strong Gimli

Attempt 5.5 Victory 170 + 45 + 7 - 20 = 202

On this attempt it all came together, and I had a proper victory. Notably, I did not leave the first Gimli defence to chance, because I put Protector of Lórien on him, so I could discard a card to increase the block value if needed (it was). I battled through the early phases struggling to keep on track of enemies and locations, but almost always questing enough. I got Henamarth Riversong early which mostly makes questing plans easier. Around round 6 I got Citadel Plate on Gimli and then worked out the right enemy to get him up to 9 attack. He also had Blade of Gondolin, which took him to 10 attack, which is handy when the Orc Ambush increases attacks to +1.

From then on, my various Feint, Quick Strike, and very occasional chumping were enough to always handle defeating each enemy as it was revealed. I also got Protector of Lorien on Beravor. In theory it was there for a potential blocking role that might be needed, but never was; but also provided a quest boost if needed. That said, I could also draw 1, 2 or3 cards with Éowyn and/or Beravor and then use the least desirable cards to assign to questing. This allowed me to progress through my deck and leave less to chance. Each of the three Gandalf’s came out. All were used for threat reduction, and given that I ended up with 45 threat, all three were indeed necessary.

That said, by around round 10, I generally felt pretty in control. There were plenty rounds where I had to switch focus and handle something, like a side quest, or a massive cost location. But I was keeping up with the encounter deck, and gradually building.