Hey All!

Ever since I first read LOTR (a LONG time ago), Gimli has been one of my favorite characters. I really like the idea behind Hero Gimli, but I've never found a good way to incorporate him into a deck. I generally play solo or with one other player. Any suggestions on how to use Gimli in a good deck would be welcome!

Thanks in advance.

I usually play 2P and my friend likes to use Gimli a lot. What's great about him is his versatility, he ain't half bad at defending and committing to a quest but where he really excels is attacking. Stick a citadel plate on him and let him take some damage, and perhaps a dwarven axe and some boots as well Also, because of his versatility he's an excellent candidate for something like Unexpected Courage. The downside to all this of course, is that it may take some time to tailor him to your needs, playing all those attachments on him. At the end of the day, what you primarily use him for depends on the quest.

Of course, he's even better when you have Dain Ironfoot in play as well. If u fancy pure-dwarven, my friend and I had a lot of success running Dain, Gloin and Bifur in one deck and Thalin, Gimli and Dwalin in the other. Not the most original of decks but a lot of fun never-the-less, easy to construct quickly and Dain's +1 willpower to all dwarves is mega handy early on when not many allies are in play.

I'm not much of a fan of citadel plates. Sure, they help you get an uber high attack, but I think in most cases, that uber high attack is way overkill, and if you do need your attack that high, there other cards that can boost him to get it there.

I would suggest using Gimli in a dwarf deck, as you'll get the most out of him that way. I recommend using Bifur, Dain, and Gimli. This will give you some decent options to utilize him. In this setup, gimli is a good quester (+3 will power), a good defender (2 defense, 5 HP), and a good attacker (obviously). He will mostly play the attacker role, but you can use him elsewhere if needed. I suggest using Rumor from the Earth, needful to know, and shadow of the past to keep an eye on the encounter deck. This will allow you to know when its safe to quest with gimli, and when you'll need to save him for attacks or defending later in the round.

Instead of citedel plates (which are hard to pay for in a 3 sphere deck), I usually go for dwarven mail and boots of erebor in this deck. That gives Dain extra defense, which makes him an amazing blocker, it gives gimli more HP, and helps keep bifur alive (who normally only has 3 HP).

Although exploring Plundered Armoury in KD can be immensely satisfying if you have an expensive armour attachment to hand…

I usually play 2P, I tried also solo a few times, but Gimli has been in my deck every single time!

For 2P: depending from the quest, I use a full Tactics deck with Gimli, Legolas and Boromir (with Radagast and eagles) with the intent of dealing as much damage as possible through a lot of attachments (Dwarwen Axe, citadel plate for Gimli's bonus, Blade of Gondolin) and events, with Horn of Gondor for a resource boost while my teammate do all the questing/countering with his Spirit/Leadership deck. The other option is a Tactics/Spirit deck with Gimli, Legolas and Dunhere (or Dwalin, now that I have Khazad Dum), still focused on damage (Dwarven Axe, Blade of Gondolin, plus Horn of Gondor) but with some countering cards and some bonuses (Unexpected Courage above all).
My very first 2P deck was a Tactics/Lore one with Gimli, Legolas and Beravor focused on damage and drawing cards but it has been a while since I last used it.

Just today I started to build a full dwarf Tactics/Leadership deck (of course with Gimli), I prepared it on the deck builder but I haven't tried it yet.