I'm fairly new to the game, but I've got Khazad-Dûm and most of the Dwarrowdelf APs. I'll probably be playing with 2 friends this summer. I think they run Leadership/Spirit and Tactics decks. Would love some comments on my build:

Heroes:

Elrond (Lore)

Aragorn (Lore)

Glorfindel (Spirit)

Starting threat: 30

Allies:

Arwen Undómiel x1

Beorn x1

Gléowine x1

Haldir of Lórien x2

Henamarth Riversong x1

Imladris Stargazer x3

Master of the Forge x2

Northern Tracker x2

Warden of Healing x3

Zigil Miner x2

Gandalf x2

Attachments:

Asfaloth x2

Light of Valinor x3

Resourceful x2

Protector of Lórien x1

Unexpected Courage x1

Vilya x3

Events:

A Test of Will x1

Daeron's Runes x3

Elrond's Counsel x2

The Galadhrim's Greeting x2

Elrond is fearless - Vilya really sets him apart, and his healing bonus makes Warden of Healing quite powerful. Aragorn is there for attack and threat reduction, and Glorfindel can quest and attack well and has a really low threat cost. Combined with Light of Valinor, I don't even have to raise my threat to quest with him.

Most of the allies are there for questing or deck control. Imladris Stargazer and Master of the Forge are there for better card drawing, and I usually put Resourceful on Elrond and let him save up for playing Beorn. Exhausting Asfaloth attached to Glofindel lets me put 2 progress tokens on any location. Elrond's Counsel and Galadhrim's Greeting are there for threat reduction.

I just tried The Redhorn Gate for the first time and questing was no problem (just had to wait around for enough victory points after completing stage 3b), but the 3 Wardens of Healing were stacked near the bottom of the deck and all my heroes had only 1 or 2 health points left when I finally got down to it. Do you think I should include more healing cards (Daughter of the Nimrodel, Lore of Imladris), or did I just shuffle my deck badly?

Thanks for reading!

hello

this is a nice deck. i ran the same heros and had quite a bit of success solo

if you are pairing this up with another deck, then id recommend song of earendil (if you have it) allowing you to use striders threat reset to even better effect, by absorbing another deck's threat. you could pair this with galadrims greetings and elronds counsel

resourceful is a nice card in a secrecy deck, i guess its good if you use the other 2 heros resources, but for 4 resources you only have beorn who is going to get any use from it, as the others can be naturally paid for...so personally id leave it out, and probably beorn...and put in perhaps some support allies- trollshaw scout and watcher of the bruinen if you have them. they discard cards after use so i would leave out protecter as you wont have many cards lying around

healing should be ok- you have some tough heroes there, so i wouldnt see you needing more than the warden

i would include a couple of copies of hasty stroke, as you have no shadow cancellation in there.

zigil miner has been changed since the new FAQ so i would leave him out, he doesnt serve that much of a purpose anymore.

rich

Thanks for commenting! I have considered taking Beorn out as it usually takes time to put him into play. I have both Trollshaw Scout and Watcher of the Bruinen. For an elf-themed deck they're a very nice idea, but as you say they either discard from play or you have to discard a card from your hand. The upside is that they are not expensive to put into play. I'll look into it some more. It's great how Elrond can pay for allies from all speheres! Are there any other elf allies to look out for? I'm probably getting Gildor Inglorion.

I haven't actually used shadow cards up until now as they made the game a bit too difficult when I still only had the standard core decks. I will probably start using them again now that I've got the hang of it, and will if so include Hasty Stroke to cancel the effects.

there are quite a lot of good elf allies. gildor is great though expensive. i think he is worth it, he is a solid ally with great stats.

rivendell minstrel is a key ally for multi sphere decks to bring out song cards, but i dont think you have her as she is from the mirkwood cycle.

mirkwood runner is a great ally for the khazad dum quests, his ability to ignore defense and 2 attack means he can kill those goblins in 1 go. he does have to attack alone though to get this ability...again i think he is from the mirkwood cycle

rich

Nice deck it seems ... I agree though about Gildor (the few occations I was able to put him in play he was of a great help) and mirkwood runner, they should be in

Guys... I'm a bit mind-blown. I just completed Escape from Dol Guldur with this deck minus Beorn and the Zigil Miners and included 2 Watcher of the Bruinen and 2 Trollshaw Scout.

Lore Aragorn was the captured hero. Questing was never a problem with Elrond and Glorfindel, and I managed to summon enough allies (Haldir, the new elves and some healers) to keep the enemies busy. I mostly got locations at the beginning, which made it easy to acquire the objective cards. The Nazgûl was nasty at first, but there were no other enemies in play right then and I managed to play Gandalf and dedicate almost all cards to take him down. Second stage (15 tokens required) went surprisingly fast. I thought I was going to have some trouble near the end when a Hummerhorns appeared, but I used the now-rescued Aragorn's threat reduction ability and managed to finish stage 3 in 2-3 rounds.

I've always heard that this scenario is really difficult, but I didn't really struggle at any time. Maybe I did something wrong, or I was just very lucky! Final threat: 34. Didn't count the rounds, unfortunately.

well done!

did you play it solo? if so that is a great achievement. 2 play is about right for difficulty and 3 player it gets easier.

rich

Yes, I beat it in solo play! No idea if that particular scenario is easier in single- or multiplayer. May try it out with some friends soon.

I've taken out Protector of Lórien and one Haldir of Lórien and put in Song of Earendil and Gildor Inglorion. In HoEM I also found Song of Travel, which seems like a nice card - though Vilya does pretty much the same thing. In what kind of deck do you normally use the Song cards?

dol guldur is much harder solo than multiplayer

song cards are key for multisphere decks to help even out which heroes can pay for which cards. even though i dont put song cards in every multisphere deck they are particularly important in certain decks where it is important to have plenty of buying power

i usually put them in a deck in which i have a 2 of one sphere and 1 of another. say perhaps i had 2 spirit heroes and 1 lore, then i would put in a copy or two of the song of wisdom to put on one of the spirit heroes.

so yes, not vital, but still very important

rich

I see, thanks! As you see above, I use 2 Lore heroes and 1 Spirit, but as I already use Vilya on Elrond to help pay for Spirit cards, so I think I'll settle for that with this deck. Creating a multisphere would be interesting, though. I have also been tempted to through some eagles in there, but I think I'll save them for another deck.

I think I need to modify this. Just completed The Long Dark for the first time (solo play), and I definitely struggled with locate tests and keeping the enemies at bay. A treachery card made me lose all my healers, too.

I'm considering leaving out Watcher of the Bruinen and Trollshaw Scout. They are great thematically, but I can rarely afford to discard them or another card to use them - I need allies that can stand and fight without cost. It would be very easy to just throw in a Defender of Rammas or something, but I would like allies that fit the Imladris/northern theme and do not require discarding. Any thoughts?

thats a tough one i think, it depends on how far you want to stretch the theme! you could use arwen to give a northern tracker +1, so thats a very respectable 3 defense and 3 hitpoints. you could use that for when you have little trouble with locations.

or gildor would work great here with 4 defense, though i dont think you have him?

rich

That's true, maybe I should simply try taking them out and increasing my chances of drawing other allies. I do have Gildor, and he is tremendously useful when I manage to put him into play. I often try to play him with Vilya. I searched Cardgamedb for allies that fit the theme and have decent Def and Health, but most of them are eagles and/or too expensive to play. The only eagle I include is Landroval, and mostly because of his resurrection ability. Maybe there will be some decent allies in the Against the Shadow cycle, or the elf theme will get a cycle of its own?

it is most likely silvan are next to be built upon, as they have very little and we have seen the refugee. there is also a harbour master who is noldor, and is perfect for what you need (in pack 2)

he/she (its hard to tell) gets +1 defense everytime you use an effect to give a hero a resource, so with things like steward of gondor/bifur/errand rider, thats +3 already

rich

That is good to hear, let's hope for that! Harbour Master is a good choice. One of my friends has Drúadan Forest, so maybe I can trade in some Gondor cards for him/her (seriously, it's hard to tell). I've been thinking about taking use Resourceful, and Steward of Gondor is an excellent alternative. I just worry about getting Imladris and Vilya before so I can actually put it into play. Feels like a waste to draw it and not being able to use it.