I've mostly been playing spirit. I ventured into spirit lore and that felt good.

Now I wish to tread into darker waters - tactics and leadership perhaps. I figure with Gloin getting rich being a blocker, I can devote the other 2 hero slots to tactics to swaddle the dwarf in bubble wrap so he can keep taking punishment.

I haven't played tactics or leadership before - is it sufficient to have 1 hero with leadership resource in such a situation? Do leadership cards cost oodles?

In the early days there was a deck that involved getting multiple copies of Citadel Plate attached to Gloin and having him generate massive resources. There were some videos up on BGG of it. Search Gloin resource deck. It was a pretty effective deck.

I haven't ever really builded working Gloin deck but now i got inspired and i will try to do one soon.

aka "Coin Gloin"

He likes Self-Preservation.

And Daughter of the Nimrodel and Lore of Imladris from Core....

Gloin was part of possibly my first successful deck.

Partnered with Lore, once a daughter of nimrodel is out for healing, he just generates good resource by undefended damage then is healed by nimrodel.

Worked nicely as a good character with nice resource generation.

As for one hero with Leadership, once you get Steward of Gondor out, you have plenty resources

Gloin was one of my favorite heroes in the early game. I should try him out again, especially how large the card pool has grown. There has to be some new cards that exploit him a lot haha

Also, someone needs to photoshop this Coin block head with the coins flying out onto Gloin.

http://www.mariowiki.com/images/f/f7/Gold_Block_Mario_NSMB2.png

Gloin can be really good. You just have watch when blocking higher attack enemies in case you get a nasty shadow card. Four health isn't bad but one armor won't go very far. Putting Ring Mail on him might be decent that way he is more useful as a blocker against tougher enemies and that extra hit point gives you a little more cushion.

Get self preservation on him you want know what to do with all of the resources. It might be worth considering some card draw in case he really gets going. Also song of battle or whatever your other sphere is.

It sounds like lore is a better dual sphere fit for Gloin than tactics. Maybe I'll try a dwarf deck.

I haven't played Gloin much but after reading this thread I'm itching to build a Gloin resource engine!

I'm thinking Gloin + A Burning Brand + Self Preservation and/or Daughter of the Nimrodel could be a sweet combo for using Gloin to take undefended attacks and heal the damage.

Also as a suggestion, within Conflict at the Carrock is the Leadership card Dunedain Warning. It is only one resource and adds one defense value, so brings gloins up to two (though is not restricted so you could go nuts).

Of course this makes Gloin less use against small enemies, but does make him better for those bigger ones, so its an option to consider with Gloin depending upon the size of enemies within whatever encounter deck you are playing against.

Gloin has done me proud once paired up with healing.

Ps: You dont always need Lore to use a Lore healer.. I cant seem to find if the forum has a "spoiler" tag so I will not post how as bubblepopmei might want to find it out on their own, but do post here and ask if you want me to spoil that technique

Burning brand cannot go on Gloin (unless he gains lore icon), only lore heroes.

The main reason that lore is better is because healing allows the effect to be repeatable. However, tactics is still very good. There is also song of mocking. Another great card with Gloin is heir of marduil. When he takes damage, he gets a resource and then readies, able to block or attack. He has the noble trait, so it's all good.

Burning Brand is only for "Lore characters". So any hero or ally in lore, but I don't think it could be attached to Gloin even with a song. For a deck like this, Balin is probably a good option.

Brand can definitely be attached to characters with a song of wisdom attached.

Burning Brand is only for "Lore characters". So any hero or ally in lore, but I don't think it could be attached to Gloin even with a song.

In the rule book it says "Resource Icons: Found only on hero cards, these icons [...] indicate to which sphere(s) the hero card itself belongs."

Intuitively, I've always thought songs etc grant resource icons but that doesn't change a hero's sphere. Gloin is a Leadership character, even with a Song of Wisdom attached. Each sphere has its own way of countering shadow effects, and making A Burning Brand available to non-lore characters would make it way too powerful in my opinion. But I haven't seen a ruling on this - maybe Caleb reasons differently.

Intuitively, I've always thought songs etc grant resource icons but that doesn't change a hero's sphere. Gloin is a Leadership character, even with a Song of Wisdom attached. Each sphere has its own way of countering shadow effects, and making A Burning Brand available to non-lore characters would make it way too powerful in my opinion. But I haven't seen a ruling on this - maybe Caleb reasons differently.

You can indeed attach Burning Brand to any hero as long as he has Song of Wisdom. Iirc Heirs of Númenor was the first time we were introduced to the concept of "with the printed [sphere] icon", which specifically prohibits this kind of play.

I do believe it is in the FAQ somewhere but can´t be bothered to find it

Yeah, I did some quick digging and most posters in old threads seem to agree with jnicol's reasoning. I'm not on board with the logic that a new resource icon grants new sphere affiliation (I've always read "Lore character" as synonymous with "character with a printed Lore icon") but it does seem like a legal play.

Not the very best example, but from FAQ:

Ok so I dabbled in a Gloin Deck. the only words I have for it are Over Powered. you might not think that but the basic stratagy goes like this.

I used Bilbo, and put song of mocking on gloin. because of bilbo's low defence, extra damage on gloin! also, you get more card draw from bilbo and can use the extra resources from gloin. you then either us elrond or legolas for hero # three. Elrond for extra healing (you have 3 copies of unexpected courage in your deck) or legolas for tactics (you don't have to put in song of battle) and for attacking. you will eventually put two citadel plates on gloin and burning brand on bilbo just in case. if you wont specific deck, just ask.

Ok so I dabbled in a Gloin Deck.

I had a go too, using Bilbo and Legolas (for Citadel Plate) as my other heroes.

I have 1 core and the APs up to AJTR, so I don't have Song of Mocking, and my strategy was to use Gloin as my primary defender.

I played A Passage Through Mirkwood and actually lost the first game due to Hummerhorns' shadow effect and Necromancer's Reach killing Gloin and Bilbo before I had any healing cards in my hand. On my second attempt it clicked and Gloin had Citadel Plate and 2 copies of Self Preservation attached, and ended the game with 12 resources on his pool. Fun times!

EDIT: Finished Journey Along the Anduin with Steward of Gonder, Self Preservation, Song of Wisdom and A burning Brand attached to Gimli and 48 resources in his pool. He's a great earner, but I'm discovering that without good card draw he has nothing to spend his loot on.