So I finally got back to the game after finishing the Mirkwood Cycle and getting distracted by the Journeys in Middle-Earth game (great game).

I started the Khazad-Dum Expansion with the first scenario Into the Pit. I found a dwarf deck online somewhere that I've been using (I wanted to be true to the theme). I play true solo and it's a three sphere deck, which I've never tried before. It has a lot of different cards in it, which is something I would normally avoid. Usually I figure you should just take the best cards, and take three of them. But I guess the variety of cards helps the three spheres run more smoothly. In fact, it works surprisingly well.

It took three tries to beat Into the Pit though. I then switched to my tried and true Leadership/Spirit Aragorn/Eowyn/Theodred deck, and I've lost three in a row, and I considered that a pretty dominant deck.

It's definitely a more combat heavy scenario, Beorn and Boromir like it especially. But dwarves are very strong in general and can handle most quests. You are playing basically the three best heroes in the core set with your second line-up so they should do alright for you as well. But I find if I keep smashing against a wall and getting nowhere that it's time to switch up decks. I've lately been trying to take a trap deck into the Sagas and it's not happening, Nazgul don't care about my traps hahaha

It's hard to help as you haven't posted your deck, but basically with Dwarf decks you want lots of allies to make the best use of Dain's ability. In other words, go for a swarm strategy with other "multiplier" cards such as ally Faramir and For Gondor to boost all of your stats.

Traps are fun, but like Hobbit decks, they don't offer enough Willpower to get you far.

8 hours ago, JonG said:

It's hard to help as you haven't posted your deck, but basically with Dwarf decks you want lots of allies to make the best use of Dain's ability.

That has been my observation as well. Throw as many allies out there as quick as you can.

Here is my deck, which as I said I got from someone else off the internet. I haven't even really looked at tweaking it yet, but I'm certainly open to suggestions. Apologies that it isn't in the linked format posters here prefer, laziness on my part I guess:

Heroes: Dain Ironfoot (Leadership), Bifur (Lore), and Thalin (Tactics)

Miner of the Iron Hills 3 (Lore)
Erebor Record Keeper 3 (Lore)
Erebor Hammersmith 2 (Lore)
Longbeard Map-Maker 2 (Lore)
Longbeard Orc Slayer 1 (Leadership)
Veteran Axehand 3 (Tactics)
Gondorian Spearman 3 (Tactics)
Gandalf 3 (Neutral)
Faramir 1 (Leadership)
Gleowine 3 (Lore)
Henamarth Riversong 1 (Lore)
Daughter of the Nimrodel 2 (Lore)

Steward of Gondor 3 (Leadership)
Celebrian's Stone 1 (Leadership)
Narvi's Belt 1 (Leadership)
Boots from Erebor 3 (Neutral)
Dwarrowdelf Axe 2 (Tactics)
Horn of Gondor 1 (Tactics)
Dunedain Warning 2 (Leadership)

Durin's Song 3 (Leadership)
Khazad! Khazad! 3 (Tactics)
Sneak Attack 2 (Leadership)
Feint 2 (Tactics)

It's an enemy heavy scenario. I found that Thalin + Gondorian Spearman works really well. Lots of 2hp enemies, Thalin takes 1hp off when they are revealed then the Spearman finishes them off when defending. It's actually a great way to avoid their shadow cards too.

Mirkwood Runner is also great for taking down 2hp enemies too.

Having Dain also makes Thalin quest for 2 instead of 1 👍

7 hours ago, mttrchrds said:

It's an enemy heavy scenario. I found that Thalin + Gondorian Spearman works really well. Lots of 2hp enemies, Thalin takes 1hp off when they are revealed then the Spearman finishes them off when defending. It's actually a great way to avoid their shadow cards too.

Sounds like a good strategy, although it's unfortunate that Gondorian Spearman doesn't really fit the theme. Of course, neither does Steward of Gondor, but I couldn't live without that one either.

This scenario seems tough because it seems to be location heavy, so you can get buried in locations. But the enemies are tough and not easily killed, so you can get in trouble there too. Some of the shadow effects are pretty nasty too.

On 8/13/2019 at 2:58 AM, Vince79 said:

Sounds like a good strategy, although it's unfortunate that Gondorian Spearman doesn't really fit the theme. Of course, neither does Steward of Gondor, but I couldn't live without that one either.

This scenario seems tough because it seems to be location heavy, so you can get buried in locations. But the enemies are tough and not easily killed, so you can get in trouble there too. Some of the shadow effects are pretty nasty too.

Yeah I feel you regarding the theme. With this deluxe I really tried to stick 100% to dwarfs but with the cards available (progression) it's really tough. I'm wary of making it so tough on myself that I'll lose interest. Theme-wise you could at least imagine some humans/elves (Spearman or Runner) coming along on the quest perhaps. I draw the line at using things like eagles inside Moria.

I think KD is a bit weird theme-wise, in general. If you're being strict then you wouldn't be allowed to use any of The Fellowship characters (except maybe Gandalf?) here - according to the books/movies. Having read about the other deluxe sets it sounds like KD is a deluxe that stands alone in this sense (which is a relief). I do wonder when they made this deluxe if they had any idea they would be making more - as sometimes it doesn't feel this is the case.

The 2nd scenario in this deluxe feels almost exactly like the troll scene from the book/movie - which is both great (I really enjoyed it) but also a bit weird (as it's not supposed to?).

On 8/12/2019 at 7:23 PM, Vince79 said:

That has been my observation as well. Throw as many allies out there as quick as you can.

Here is my deck, which as I said I got from someone else off the internet. I haven't even really looked at tweaking it yet, but I'm certainly open to suggestions. Apologies that it isn't in the linked format posters here prefer, laziness on my part I guess:

Heroes: Dain Ironfoot (Leadership), Bifur (Lore), and Thalin (Tactics)

Miner of the Iron Hills 3 (Lore)
Erebor Record Keeper 3 (Lore)
Erebor Hammersmith 2 (Lore)
Longbeard Map-Maker 2 (Lore)
Longbeard Orc Slayer 1 (Leadership)
Veteran Axehand 3 (Tactics)
Gondorian Spearman 3 (Tactics)
Gandalf 3 (Neutral)
Faramir 1 (Leadership)
Gleowine 3 (Lore)
Henamarth Riversong 1 (Lore)
Daughter of the Nimrodel 2 (Lore)

Steward of Gondor 3 (Leadership)
Celebrian's Stone 1 (Leadership)
Narvi's Belt 1 (Leadership)
Boots from Erebor 3 (Neutral)
Dwarrowdelf Axe 2 (Tactics)
Horn of Gondor 1 (Tactics)
Dunedain Warning 2 (Leadership)

Durin's Song 3 (Leadership)
Khazad! Khazad! 3 (Tactics)
Sneak Attack 2 (Leadership)
Feint 2 (Tactics)

OK, few suggestions: swap Thalin with Gimli as the latter is a complete tank (plus has 2WP for enhanced questing). I do use Bifur and Dain as well.

Get as many dwarf allies as you can cos Dain will buff them (not just 2 but all three where you can). Depends upon what packs you have, and whether you're playing progression, but other cards to look out for: Dwarven (better than Dwarrowdelf) Axe IMO, Erebor Battle Master, Heavy Stroke, Lure of Moria, Longbeard Elder, Cram, Hardy leadership. I also like Ancestral Knowledge and ally leadership Gloin. Go for 3 x sneak attack. Swap non-Dwarf allies for Dwarves and dump any cards that give you defence (i.e. dunedain warning / boots from erebor).

Here's my Dwarf Deck:

Dain (L), Bifur (Lo), Gimli (T)

3 x Gandalf N

3 x Steward of Gondor L

3 x Faramir L

3 x Erebor Battle Master T

3 x Ally Gloin L

3 x Miner of Iron Hills Lo

3 x Erebor Record Keeper Lo

3 x Erebor Hammersmith Lo

3 x Longbeard Mapmaker Lo

3 x Longbeard Elder L

3 x Veteran Axehand T

3 x Khazad Khazad T

3 x Dwarven Axe T

3 x Lure of Moria L

3 x Cram L

3 x Ancestral Knowledge Lo

3 x Heavy Stroke T

51 cards - 30 Allies (inc 6 non-Dwarf). Steward of Gondor goes on Dain ASAP (don't need sneak attack for that reason) and deploy one resource each turn to Bifur. If you want to take your deck down to 50, then lose 1 Gloin. Bifur is used for questing along with high WP allies, Gimli for attacks. Sacrifice lore allies against enemies if necessary cos they're cheap.

Hope this helps!

@JonG I'd be curious to hear your case for Dwarven Axe over Dwarrowdelf Axe.

24 minutes ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

@JonG I'd be curious to hear your case for Dwarven Axe over Dwarrowdelf Axe.

Ooops! Now you mention it, that doesn't make a lot of sense. I take that back - go for Dwarrowdelf axe instead.

3 hours ago, JonG said:

OK, few suggestions: swap Thalin with Gimli as the latter is a complete tank (plus has 2WP for enhanced questing). I do use Bifur and Dain as well.

Get as many dwarf allies as you can cos Dain will buff them (not just 2 but all three where you can). Depends upon what packs you have, and whether you're playing progression

I do play progression, so most of those cards you suggested I haven't quite gotten to yet. Dropping Thalin means losing the Thalin/Gondorian Spearman connection, but I'll give Gimli a try. I appreciate the suggestions, and will likely be working them in as I go along. The basic philosophy of your deck makes more sense to me - if a card is worth having, best to have three of them.

After much vigilence, patience (and money!), I'm pleased to say I have all the available packs and expansions now. So for those of you frustrated with the lack of reprints, it can be done!

So far I've been trying some of my older decks to no avail. It seems like the dwarf deck is the one actually best suited to tackling Into the Pit. That makes logical sense, but I didn't expect it.

@mttrchrds Aragorn mentions in the books, that he once was in Moria entering from the East-gate, though it was not an enjoyable endeavour.

There are many scenarios inspired or directly copied from the books. A fight with Trolls, hunting Gollum, healing an Eagle, scouting Dol Guldur and Moria etc.

I just thought I'd throw this out there. I recently went through Khazad-dum progression style with a dwarf deck. The dwarf archetype is still quite powerful even with a limited cardpool. I really like Spirit, so I opted for Dwalin over Gimli or Thalin. Gives you access to resource acceleration, action advantage, and treachery cancellation.

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/12753/dainshumblebeginnings-soloprogression-1.0

Related note I love breaking theme hahaha. Eagles are everywhere, they found a hole in Moria's roof and they are sweeping down for some middle earth orc bunker buster air strikes.

On 8/15/2019 at 7:16 PM, afteryule said:

I just thought I'd throw this out there. I recently went through Khazad-dum progression style with a dwarf deck. The dwarf archetype is still quite powerful even with a limited cardpool. I really like Spirit, so I opted for Dwalin over Gimli or Thalin. Gives you access to resource acceleration, action advantage, and treachery cancellation.

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/12753/dainshumblebeginnings-soloprogression-1.0

Spirit is my favorite sphere, so I really like your suggestion. I can see a few tweaks I'd like to make to it (I'd definitely want three Miner of the Iron Hills, for example), but I'm going to try your deck out in my next game.

On 8/15/2019 at 7:16 PM, afteryule said:

I just thought I'd throw this out there. I recently went through Khazad-dum progression style with a dwarf deck. The dwarf archetype is still quite powerful even with a limited cardpool. I really like Spirit, so I opted for Dwalin over Gimli or Thalin. Gives you access to resource acceleration, action advantage, and treachery cancellation.

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/12753/dainshumblebeginnings-soloprogression-1.0

For some reason, I've been hung up on playing Into the Pit, I don't know why. Usually once I beat a scenario, I move on to the next one. I don't even like this particular scenario, but for some reason I keep playing it. Anyway, I've been using variations of your deck, and I really like it. But for some reason, I haven't been able to win a game with it. I'll be coasting along doing well, and some nasty effect will take me out. Even though it seems like I should be winning.

Could just be bad luck, but I think the Leadership/Lore/Tactics deck performs better on this particular quest. Maybe because there are a lot of cheap heroes, and because Tactics is good at killing. I'm guessing it's one of those things were one deck or another is more effective against a particular scenario. I bet the "spirit" deck will do better against others.

At any rate, I'm really impressed with how powerful a dwarf deck can be. I suppose it's the first fully functional race themed deck the game had?

On 8/15/2019 at 7:16 PM, afteryule said:

I just thought I'd throw this out there. I recently went through Khazad-dum progression style with a dwarf deck. The dwarf archetype is still quite powerful even with a limited cardpool. I really like Spirit, so I opted for Dwalin over Gimli or Thalin.

Went through The Seventh Level four times, twice with the Dwalin "spirit" **** and twice with the Thalin "tactics" deck. Won both with the spirit deck and lost both with the tactics deck. One win was like a knife through butter, the second win was a long slog. The tactics deck kept getting overwhelmed by enemies.

So it would appear that the suspicions I expressed in the previous post were correct. One deck might be more effective against one scenario, while the other might be more effective against the next.

Been playing the third and final scenario from Khazad-Dum, Flight From Moria. Played the "Spirit deck" (Dain, Bifur, Dwalin). Had to play six games before I won. I kept using Blocked By Shadow and drawing the card from the encounter deck, pulled a Treachery card every time until the last! Once I passed that hurdle, the quest was pretty easy. I tried using the Abandoned Tools once, but I had to shuffle it back into the quest deck before I got anywhere.

This scenario does a good job of creating the feel of being lost in a labyrinth of underground tunnels, but I don't really care for the gameplay. It's too dependent on the luck of one draw. You might as well just draw one card at the beginning to determine if you've won or lost. True, you can bypass "Blocked By Shadow", but I felt like I had to gamble on the draw, because then victory is right there in sight.

With Flight From Moria, I almost always go for the Abandoned Tools + Escape from Darkness route. I view Blocked by Shadow more as a failsafe: in case things go really badly and you can’t win normally, Blocked by Shadow gives you one last chance at a quick escape.

In solo play, Henamarth tells you exactly whether you can win with Blocked by Shadow or not.

10 hours ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

With Flight From Moria, I almost always go for the Abandoned Tools + Escape from Darkness route. I view Blocked by Shadow more as a failsafe: in case things go really badly and you can’t win normally, Blocked by Shadow gives you one last chance at a quick escape.

Well, I can't fault your logic considering I drew Treachery cards five times out of six. That deck must be mostly Treachery cards. I guess I'm not very patient, because when I see that exit, I want to take the gamble.

7 hours ago, Amicus Draconis said:

In solo play, Henamarth tells you exactly whether you can win with Blocked by Shadow or not.

Very good point. I'm not big on the "peeking" cards, but that's a good use of one for sure.

On to the rest of the Dwarrowdelf cycle!

On 8/20/2019 at 5:17 PM, Vince79 said:

For some reason, I've been hung up on playing Into the Pit, I don't know why. Usually once I beat a scenario, I move on to the next one. I don't even like this particular scenario, but for some reason I keep playing it. Anyway, I've been using variations of your deck, and I really like it. But for some reason, I haven't been able to win a game with it. I'll be coasting along doing well, and some nasty effect will take me out. Even though it seems like I should be winning.

Could just be bad luck, but I think the Leadership/Lore/Tactics deck performs better on this particular quest. Maybe because there are a lot of cheap heroes, and because Tactics is good at killing. I'm guessing it's one of those things were one deck or another is more effective against a particular scenario. I bet the "spirit" deck will do better against others.

At any rate, I'm really impressed with how powerful a dwarf deck can be. I suppose it's the first fully functional race themed deck the game had?

Admittedly, the deck I posted isn't as powerful as it could be considering it's limited to cards only up to Khazad-dum. For Into the Pit, I usually stall for several rounds on the first active location where enemies don't make engagement checks. This deck really needs a bit of time to set up. Ancestral Knowledge is your friend here (as well as Gandalf to pop off some enemies). After you have a decent collection of allies, power-questing through this scenario doesn't take to long to win.

5 hours ago, afteryule said:

Admittedly, the deck I posted isn't as powerful as it could be considering it's limited to cards only up to Khazad-dum. For Into the Pit, I usually stall for several rounds on the first active location where enemies don't make engagement checks. This deck really needs a bit of time to set up. Ancestral Knowledge is your friend here (as well as Gandalf to pop off some enemies). After you have a decent collection of allies, power-questing through this scenario doesn't take to long to win.

Hey, don't get me wrong, I love your deck. And I play progressive, so the cards should be limited only up to Khazad-dum. I was just saying the Dain/Bifur/Thalin combo seems more effective against Into the Pit. But the Dain/Bifur/Dwalin deck was better against The Seventh Level (I used the stalling strategy in that one). Although Ancestral Knowledge is one of the cards I took out lol.