I'm trying to make two decks that can tackle the Khazad-Dum expansion quests in some two-player games.

I'd like at least one of them to be heavily dwarf themed.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

I have a single copy of the core, all of the Mirkwood APs, and the Khazad-Dum expansion.

Thanks.

I've tried two dwarf decks.

One was Dain Ironfoot, Gloin, and Bifur and the other was Gimli, Thalin, and Dwalin. My main problem was not being able to get any allies out to help deal with the hordes of orcs.

I'm playing with Dáin, Dwalin and Bifur in solo mode. I think Dáin is a must have for every dwarven deck. Bifur is also a strong hero, as he gives you 3 WP and his ability is very helpful. Dwalin might be replaced by either Glóin, Gimli or Thalin, depending on what deck your partner has. If you use Thalin, keep some Gondorian Spearmen around, as this combo will destroy most of your enemies before they can harm you.

Useful allies are the Archivar and all lore dwarfs in general, because they're cheap and with Bifur's ability you can play one of them each round. The Mapmaker and Bifur's ability also help you when you're questing.

Narvi's Belt is quite useful as is the Dwarrowdelf Axe. A Burning Brand should be placed on Dáin early, and a Self Presevation helps to deal with damage caused shadow effects, if you don't get BB.

I think the tribal dwarf deck has yet to be realised, especially for a solo deck. I expect many more dwarfs in the coming APs and this should get this tribe up and running. The dwarf posts about the place remind me of people trying to force the eagle deck before return to mirkwood was out.

I think that you should maybe not limit your self to this restriction just yet.... .

I agree with previous posters that Dain is a must as he's going to be a great boost for your questing and can tank very effectively when called upon. If you can get Unexpected Courage on him, then even better.

I love having Bifur along predominantly because his incredibly low threat number combined with the boosts Dain brings gives you a serious leg up. Also his special ability is perfect is you can get Steward of Gondor into play on any other hero.

After those two, it really depends on build. Lore has a ton of dwarf allies, but they tend to focus on moderate defense, high hit points, or moderate questing. Tactics has dwarf artifacts/events but only 2 allies (though they have good offensive punch when paired with Dain).

Of the remaining here are my takes:

Gimli - With Dain he'll be a top flight attacker and quester and of course you can use him to soak damage to trigger his special. However including him with Dain and Bifur means 3 spheres. Also due to his high threat, you're losing out on the potential of the much lower starting threat bringing Bifur provides.

Thalin - Thalin brings the same 3 sphere problem of Gimli, but without the high threat. Also with Thalin's special, enemies that engage you will be much easier to deal with through allies and keep in mind that your overall lower threat will stave off forced engagement while you bring those allies out.

Dwalin - Same 3 sphere problems of Gimli and Thalin, but now you can't resource any of the Tactics cards you need, so without a total rebuild, he's not a fit for this deck.

Gloin - With Gloin you've got solid 2 sphere resourcing, lower threat, great questing and attacking, and the bonus that any damage caused by enemies or treachery cards during the quest phase, trigger extra resources for you. I think you build a 3 sphere deck (Leadership/Lore/Tactics) bringing only the DWARF tactics cards, then pack 3 songs of battle, and any copies of Narvi's Belt you can grab (maybe proxy one in if need be).

Now you've already tried a Dain/Bifur/Gloin build, but I wasn't sure if you had tried to bring a 3 sphere deck with them. If so, then perhaps bring Thalin rather than Gloin and try a more direct route in terms of resourcing cards. I think Gimli just doesn't make sense if you're bringing Dain b/c the threat hit is so high and ultimately you're going to want Dain to tank, but also Gimli to take some damage or attack, which means neither are great options for questing.

A friend and I recently built two dwarf decks and played them together against all the Mirkwood cycle quests, with reasonable success (6 wins in 9 games). I am confident they would also play well in Khazad-Dum. The decks, and a brief write-up of the games, can be found here:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/765445/two-decks-against-the-mirkwood-cycle

John

ragnarhedin said:

My first dwarven deck was a 4 sphere deck and it was playable, so 3 spheres really is no problem, as you can us Narvi's belt (best on Bifur) to play stuff from any sphere.

I also disagree with with booored about dwarven decks not being ready to play. On my deck i only have three non-dwarven allies - Snowbourn Scouts, Westroad Traveller and Henamart Riversong. Sure, the dwarfs aren't perfect yet, but akready good, and they can only get better. Most importantly, they're fun to play!

jrd said:

Beravor (Core 12)
Eleanor (Core 8)
Legolas (Core 5)

um.. NOT a dwarf deck...

booored said:

Yeah, and I am fairly sure we won't see an attachment that wil give heroes the "dwarf" trait.

leptokurt said:

FALSE BEARD

Neutral Attachment

1 cost

Attach to a character.

Attached character gains the Dwarf trait.

booored said:

From gatharion's original post:
I'm trying to make two decks that can tackle the Khazad-Dum expansion quests in some two-player games.
I'd like at least one of them to be heavily dwarf themed.

I think my decks qualify, don't you?

John

gatharion said:

We finally got around to trying "Into the Pit" again last night. It went MUCH better.

My wife played a deck with Dain Ironfoot, Thalin, and Bifur. Tri-sphere, and no songs, but lots of low cost cards.

My deck went the other way, a pure Spirit mono-sphere deck with Eowyn, Dunhere, and Dwalin.

We'll have to see how we do with the rest of Khazad-Dum.

if you want to own into the pit play dunhere so you can kill the mobs off in the staging area.. dump eyowen as she is lame, also you want to quest slow at fist. Let your board position build up, by ot completing teh first travel location, use dunhere and thalin to clear the staging area and just get a massive army out then power though to the end. It is near impossible to loose into the pit with this stratergy

gatharion said:

Using the same decks we were able to also beat the Seventh Level on the first go.

We started Flight from Moria, but gave up on it twice when we had a hero killed right out of the gate. Third time was a charm though and when we didn't get thrashed by the set up we were able to defeat the quest pretty handily.

The problem with your original setup is that with Bifur/Dain/Gloin you have 1 quester and 2 defenders. When I play I usually try to have 1 quester, 1 defender, and 1 attacker. With Thalin/Gimli/Dwalin you have 1 quester and 2 attackers. I was running this for a while as well and found you really have to hope for Ranged and Sentinel attachments to help you. I found another way to split up the Dwarves which I feel is more balanced. Now I often do: Thalin/Gloin/Gimli and Bifur/Dain/Dwalin. This fixes the problem stated above and re-balances each players heroes. Bifur/Dain/Dwalin is even a good solo deck. The only problem with this is splitting up the Leadership cards if you only have 1 core set (which I do) but I didn't find it too hard to do.

Also you have to watch out for card draw with the Dwarves, they're not great at it. Include plenty of card draw allies and events.

I love thematic decks and have really enjoyed playing with the Dwarves (even though they're my least favorite race in ME... Bring on the Elves!!!)

Narsil0420 said:

So true. I had a fun (although not necessarily successful) deck running Dain/Thalin/Bifur with an emphasis on direct damage effects that typically failed through lack of draw. Even had to break the direct damage theme to add in the elven chap who helps with draw. Very fun deck, but man did it draw slow.

I managed to beat all of the Kazad Dum quests solo with my Dain Ironfoot, Bifur, Thalin deck (although, none of them on the first go through).

Definitely couldn't count on card drawing, but that's okay. Card draw is always useful, but Journey to Rhosgobel was the only one where I felt card drawing was essential.