Happy Hobbits

By Tracker1, in Strategy and deck-building

The Happy Hobbit Deck

These Hobbits love their attachments, and they had a hard time leaving Bag End without them. I find the following deck to be very thematic for the Black Riders Scenarios. It really gives the sense of just a few adventures trying to make their way, although, unlike the novel Gandalf makes some regular appearances to aid the struggling hobbits along the way.

The deck below also works for a few other quests that I play tested it on:

JDtA, Seventh Level, and Amon Din. Warden of Healing was substituted in since Healing Became a part of keeping these hobbits alive.

Hero (3)

Merry (TBR) x1

Pippin (TBR) x1

Sam Gamgee (TBR) x1

Ally (11)

Bill the Pony (TBR) x2

Gandalf (Core) x2

Gildor Inglorion (THoEM) x1

Master of the Forge (SaF) x3

Warden of Healing (TLD) x3 if Playing Black Riders Replace with event Frodo's Intuition x3

Attachment (26)

Celebrian's Stone (Core) x2

Dunedain Mark (THfG) x3

Dunedain Warning (CatC) x3

Hobbit Cloak (TBR) x3

Steward of Gondor (Core) x2

A Burning Brand (CatC) x2

Fast Hitch (TDM) x3

Protector of Lorien (Core) x1

Dagger of Westernesse (TBR) x3

Gondorian Shield (TSF) x1

Ring Mail (TLD) x1

Song of Wisdom (CatC) x2

Event (13)

Daeron's Runes (FoS) x3

Feint (Core) x2

Halfling Determination (TBR) x2

Hail of Stones (RtR) x3

Sneak Attack (Core) x3

Strategy:

Sam is the main Defender and quester. He should try to get these attachments Celebrian's Stone, 3 Dunedain Warnings, Hobbit cloak, Song of wisdom, Burning Brand, Protector of Lorien, Steward of Gondor, and Gondorian shield. Basically, he becomes an impenetrable wall. I know it's overkill, but it's fun anyway. He should also have at least 1 Fast Hitch, and two for the Black Riders Scenarios.

Merry Gets all the attack Boosting attachments. He should also have one fast hitch so he can commit to quests.

Pippin quests every round too, I give him whatever is left over. A hobbit cloak and a Dagger will do. I found giving him a Fast Hitch for JDtA was important so he was not taking damage from Necromancers Reach.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the deck, not only did it do great for the Black Riders Scenarios, but it also did pretty good on the other scenarios I mentioned. Just a few examples as to what they could handle.

JDtA- Two hill trolls in the staging area at the end of the first round, and a pesky Warg showed up a round two rounds later. Almost enough for any of my other decks to through in the towel, but with a little halfling determination ( and a couple of Gandalf Sneak Attacks) they succeeded.

Seventh Level- Mid game Two Cave Trolls dump into the staging area. 3 rounds later they were found in the victory display.

I am certainly happy with this hobbit deck.

Edited by Tracker1

Nice! I tried making a Hobbit deck earlier tonight and it kind of failed miserably. I'll try this out!

Thanks! :ph34r: just what i was looking for!

Unseen Strike is better than the Dagger. I've played with both, and that extra point of damage is often the difference between killing an enemy right then, or dragging out the battle one more round (in which case, it's unlikely you needed the dagger, either).

Rest looks good, though. I'm more of a "strength in numbers" type player, but I understand this strategy has merit. :)

Interesting, I think the daggers are great. I can see unseen strike fitting into the deck, but it only works if your threat is lower than the enemy. At least the dagger will give you +1 attack if you threat increases, and it's attached rather than a one time event that you might see at most 3 times in the game.

I'll have to try it out though. In this deck i usually get 3 Duadain Marks and 2 daggers on Merry. With one unseen strike and 4 hobbits during TBR he would be swinging for 14 at enimes with higher engagment cost. That's enough to take out the Witch-King in one shot.

Unseen Strike is pretty powerful, but you only get three of them. I really liked having it in the early turns though.

Played Black riders for the first time last night and based my deck on what I could remember of this deck - very helpful and I really like it. Thanks for posting.

I was initially unsure about having so many attachments - think I 'only' had 20 last night... but after playing a few rounds i'm going to try for more... would really like another way to ready the hobbits though... 3 fast hitches just doesn't seem enough (lol)... at least not when you fail a hide test :(

Edited by chuckles

Played Black riders for the first time last night and based my deck on what I could remember of this deck - very helpful and I really like it. Thanks for posting.

I was initially unsure about having so many attachments - think I 'only' had 20 last night... but after playing a few rounds i'm going to try for more... would really like another way to ready the hobbits though... 3 fast hitches just doesn't seem enough (lol)... at least not when you fail a hide test :(

For more readying you could put in Cram, it would be another attachment so Master of the Forge could fetch it. Hard thing would be what to get rid of. Probably 1 hobbit cloak, ring mail and PoL.

For more readying you could put in Cram, it would be another attachment so Master of the Forge could fetch it. Hard thing would be what to get rid of. Probably 1 hobbit cloak, ring mail and PoL.

Thanks - good idea

I had both good meal & take no notice in my deck, just cos they were for Hobbits - pretty much only used them to power Protector of Lorien (which saved me so many times in my last game) ... i'm going to remove good meal & take not notice them first and then see what else is in your deck that is more practical than mine.

That's cool I really love this deck, I made i similar one! Just one thing: are you sure you can attach a burning brand to Sam since is not a lore carachter?

That's why he has two copies of Song of Wisdom in the deck. It has to go on first.

correct me if i go wrong but The song doesnt make your carachter lore.,just Give him resource icon

^ That is all a character needs for a Burning Brand to be attached. Even if you lose the song the Burning Brand still works as a character only needs to have a Lore resource icon to attach Burning Brand in the first place. (So Navi's belt can also be used to attach Burning Brand)