Hopefully we can have some fun with this. I’m playing Nightmare Conflict at the Carrock. It’s turn 8 and I’ve just been forced on to card 2B. The first four unique trolls are in play (total Threat 11) and The Carrock is the active location. Hennemarth Riversong says that the next card on the top of the encounter deck is Savage Hill Troll (threat 1).

In play I have Spirifindel, 2 resources and Light of Valinor and Asfaloth attached. Elrond, 4 resources and Burning Brand, Unexpected Courage and Protector of Lorien attached. Mirlonde, zero resources and Sacked! attached. (I have 5 answers to Sacked! In my deck and haven’t seen one of them.) Hennemarth and Master of the Forge are in play and tapped. My current threat is 20.

In my hand are: Haldir, Elf Stone, Vilya (finally drawn with Master even though I have 3 copies), Galadhrim’s Greeting, Unexpected Courage, Mirkwood Runner, and Gandalf (Hobbit, not core). I’ve just entered the planning phase and I have a total of 6 resources to play with.

What’s the best play here? I’ll post my plan later, but I would love to see a better idea. (I know this is imperfect information since you don’t know the contents of my deck, but it’s mostly what I’ve posted on the Strategy page under the Elven Alliance thread with a couple copies of Power of Orthanc).

Unexpected Courage and Vilya on Elrond and hope for the best.

While nearly all of my deck will result in "hits" for Vilya, I think that if I play Gandalf and eat the two threat per turn I'll get a little longer to dig for solutions. Neither are slam dunks and it looks pretty bleak...

Well, in the absence of any other ideas (I think there are really only those two plays though) I went ahead and tried the Vilya strategy... Immediately exhausted Vilya and top decked Power of Orthanc! Mirlonde is back online and I have a fighting chance. Stay tuned...

I agree with the Hobbit Gandalf play. Since you're only at 20 threat, you can stand to eat his threat gain for a little while, he can pull double duty questing and attacking, and you really need his attack power to chip away at the trolls. You can start Vilya-ing next turn, since you already have Unexpected Courage attached, and hope for the best. Good luck, haven't played that scenario solo before.

Haha, posted just a minute too late...

I tried the Vilya route and failed. After drawing Power of Orthanc and freeing Mirlonde I survived two more turns, but Vilya let me down on those turns drawing repeat copies of Burning Brand and Light of Valinor.

I wish I could somehow play it again the other way, but with all the shuffling from Master of the Forge it is impossible. Interesting thought experiment though.

This reminds me of one of those "choose the best next move" chess solutions they used to print in the paper (not sure if they still do, haven't touched a print paper in ages!). It'd be fun to have more of these.

As for your situation, probably Hobbit Gandalf is the best play, although that's easy to say in retrospect!

Hobbit Gandalf is almost always the best play. His willpower helps mitigate the threat in the staging area, and he provides a big body to deal with trolls. When you are done paying threat to keep him in play, you can sacrifice him as a defender.

Vilya was a more interesting one, too bad it failed. Do you have any Imladris Stargazers?

Vilya was a more interesting one, too bad it failed. Do you have any Imladris Stargazers?

I do, but they never saw the dark of night. It really was terrible drawing all the way through. I mulliganed what would have been a loose keep into a worse hand. Oh well.

Sorry for the off-topic, but is "Bullroarer" really a hobbit name?

That's his nickname. His actual name was 'Bandobras' and he was the Hobbit who led the defense of the goblin invasion at Greenfields. He personally knocked the head off of the goblin leader, which landed in a hole, simultaneously saving the Shire and inventing the game of golf.

No specifics are given on where his nickname came from (internally, anyway).

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Bandobras_Took

More on topic, I like this thread. Off you go.

Using my notes I've been able to recreate the decks so that I can try the Gandalf strategy to see if it fares better.

Two questions: 1) Was it a mistake to travel to The Carrock last turn? It reduces the threat slightly, but it also makes the trolls tougher to kill until it is removed. It will take Asfaloth 3+ turns to remove it.

2) Do I play Elf-Stone on The Carrock? That will mean that it will take an extra turn for Asfaloth to remove The Carrock, but then Haldir will come in for free.

Edit: Asfaloth can't touch The Carrock anyway, so I save Elfstone.

Elf-stone can't be attached to the Carrock any more. They ruled in the last FAQ that "immune to player card effects" locations can't have attachments. Also, you're forced to make the Carrock the active location when you complete the first quest stage, so that it is always the active location when you face the trolls. Good luck!

And, if it isn't obvious yet, you can't use Asfaloth on Carrock.

Yeah yeah. I was away from the game when I posted that and for some reason I was thinking it was one of those "While The Carrock is in the staging area..." Cards. I haven't been playing it wrong.

I tried the Vilya route and failed. After drawing Power of Orthanc and freeing Mirlonde I survived two more turns, but Vilya let me down on those turns drawing repeat copies of Burning Brand and Light of Valinor.

I wish I could somehow play it again the other way, but with all the shuffling from Master of the Forge it is impossible. Interesting thought experiment though.

Blind Vilya has almost always failed me. I mean it is not the best way around it, from my experience. Courage is too slow in such a deck either, Miruvor and occasional use of Vilya is a better option. Waiting for a better way to use Elrond in the future...

His actual name was 'Bandobras' and he was the Hobbit who led the defense of the goblin invasion at Greenfields. He personally knocked the head off of the goblin leader, which landed in a hole, simultaneously saving the Shire and inventing the game of golf.

This little passage got me the first time I read the Hobbit when I was about 14. I was not very grown up, even for that age, so most of the book I only understood much later. But this little "joke" was what initially won me over to the wonderful and ever-enriching world of J.R.R. Tolkien.

ps: Was really great to hear it from Gandalf in the movie.

I just finished playing it out with Gandalf and I lost that way too. It was going to be tough no matter what.