3 - Conflict At The Carrock (Progression Series)

This is another fellowship continuing on in my goal to play through all of the quests in release order to learn how all (or most) of the cards interact with one another. The first fellowship for the quests in the core set can be found here, and it contains a slightly more detailed overview of what I'm going for with building these decks. As always, any feedback is appreciated so that I can continue to learn more!

The idea behind the decks was fairly simple (and is the preferred way I think most people try to play this quest): deal with the trolls on your own terms. Galadhrim's Greeting and Gandalf can be used to manage threat and keep both decks below 34, while Denethor and Henamarth provide some knowledge of what is coming up next so you can avoid overquesting and advancing to Stage 2A too quickly.

I really wanted to try out Dunhere, and even though he doesn't have quite enough toys to be perfectly useful, he does a good job in this quest with a Dwarven Axe, Unexpected Courages and discarding Westfold Horse-Breakers/Eomund. I was able to slowly chip away at the Trolls in the staging area with him, with Eowyn, Theodred, Thalin and some Northern Trackers handled the questing. The Tactics/Lore deck had plenty of tools to keep the trolls from attacking, so I was able to optionally engage them from the staging area one at a time (ideally after they were softened up by Dunhere). Steward of Gondor on Theodred makes it really easy to snag Grimbeorn when he shows up, and then there are enough chump blockers in both decks to be able to handle anything really unexpected.

I really liked the idea of Dunhere, and can't wait to try to build something with him later on in the progression series when he has a few more toys to play with. I originally tried this with Beravor to facilitate some extra card draw, but ultimately decided that I needed Denethor's defensive abilities (and occasionally scrying in Stage 1B). Protector of Lorien, Unexpected Courage and Dunedain Warning allow him to hand a couple of Trolls by himself, although Grimbeorn + Lore of Imladris was how I managed to deal with the Trolls before I could get snares out.