After making the mistake of not reading the Trolls, and getting Threated out by Louis, I'm ready to try again.
Setup - Add Cloak of Lorien and 2 Vassal of the Windlord (Frieghtened Beast protection, and extra attack to burst Troll defenses) to my deck, setting the rest of the sideboard aside, and removing Dwarven Tomb, Unexpected Courage, and one Silvan Refugee to make room.
In OCTGN, I added my 15 sideboard cards to the "Heroes" section of the deck, which puts them in my hand at the start of the game. From there, I can easily move them to the Player Secondary Deck zone, minimize it, and get on with the game.
My first hand is pretty bad, so I mulligan into double Unexpected courage, double Vilya, double Vassal of the Windlord. Not the most balanced start, but it should work out.
Round 1 - 36 Threat, 2 Threat in Staging, no troubles. Draw Cloak of Lorien, top card is Nenya.
Nenya is quite useful for these "slow start" quests, as it allows me to quest just enough, and then add +4 if I get more threat than expected. So, I will start with a pile of Neutral cards, playing Nenya off the top, Vilya from hand, and using that to get Treebeard into play. While I have no other Ents in my deck, he can always use his ability on himself to ready 1 extra time every 2 turns. He also has an astounding 4 attack, as well as 3 def / 5 hp, so he is one of the best combat guys in the deck.
Questing with just Gandalf for 3, I flip Gladden Fields for a total of 5 Threat. I can either add 4, which gives me 2 progress and a personal Threat of 36, or draw a card, which adds 1 progress (Nightmare Forced effect), +1 card, and a Threat of 37. Since I don't have an Expert Treasure Hunter yet, I'll go with the card draw option - exhausing Galadriel for her ability, rather than Nenya's.
I'll go ahead and make Gladden Fields the active location, and I also uncover a Runes on top of my deck. My new 4 cards are Ring of Barahir, Beoren, and 2x Expert Treasure Hunter. Things are coming along nicely for
Round 2 - 39 Threat, 2 in Staging, no troubles, Elfhelm atop the deck (Vilya'd into play, revealing Light of Valinor).
I use my resources this turn to play Unexpected Courage and light of Valinor on Elrond, play my two Hunters, and quest for 7 (holding Galadriel in reserve, and Treebeard for attacking in case an Enemy comes up).
River Langford makes it 4 Threat, I make just enough progress to clear Gladden Fields (replaced with the River), and take Faramir, Beoren, and Hasty Stroke into hand for questing and Galadriel. One more free progress, and we're on to
Round 3 - 39 Threat, 2 in Staging, no troubles, draw Northern Tracker, Bilbo atop the deck.
Play Bilbo off the top, then play the Wizard Pipe, swap Beoren to the top and Vilya him into play. At least, that was the plan. After searching, Gildor Inglorion was on top, so I just Vilyad him instead, and spent the extra resource on a Vassal.
Quest for 11 this turn, exhausting only Gandalf. Encounter another River, meaning 7 progress. That is exactly one short of finishing stage 1, which is fine by me. Draw Vilya and Runes, which (with Galadriel) turn into 2x Warden of Healing and a Zigil Miner.
Before the round ends, activate Gildor to put Beoren third from the top, play an Elrond's Counsel for free, just for the Treat reduction, and take Boromir into hand, planning to draw Will of the West.
Round 4 - 36 Threat, 2 in Staging, still no troubles, but the Trolls are coming out this turn.
Vilya Beoren
Play Zigil Miner, and mine off a hidden cache and redundant Bilbo
Give Elrond the Cloak, and the Ring of Brahir. He is now 4 defense, 6 hp.
Save 1 resource on Gandalf, and one on Elrond
Questing is light, sending just Beoren, Bilbo and Elrond, and playing Counsel off the top to make a total of 7 (and, crucially, my Threat down to 33). Staging is a Savage Hill, so I make 4 progress, and get to stage 2 exactly.
Not repeating my previous mistake of engaging Louis first, I take stock of my attack prowess. I have 21 total attack, assuming I use Treebeard twice, defend with Elrond, and take 1 attack undefended. The savage hill troll requires 9 attack, leaving me with about 12 available for other beasties. I also have a Hasty Stroke in hand, and the resource to use it. With The Carrock in play, none of the other trolls will fall to a mere 12 attack, but I could still use Beoren to buff that by 5.
All things considered, I optionally engage the least offensive troll to have in the victory display: Rupert.
Dealing with an attack of 4 and 6, Elrond defends the 6. The shadow card is Sacked! which I allow to attach to Galadriel (it's coming off in a moment, as soon as I defeat a troll). Elrond takes 2 damage.
For the 4 attack, I use my smallest attacker, Gildor, to defend. A Muck Adder means he also takes 2 damage. Not lethal, so I care little.
To attack and defeat Rupert, I need 14 total. Treebeard (4), Beoren (8) and Elfhelm (2) combine for just enough. Galadriel is un-sacked.
To defeat the Savage troll, I need 9 total. Treebeard (spending 2 resources to ready), Gandalf (3) and Vassal (3) is a total of 10. 2 Trolls down, 3 to go!
Use Galadriel to draw A Burning Brand before shuffling Beoren back in.
Round 5 - 33 Threat, 9 in staging area from Trolls, plus I want to quest for 6 extra to clear The Carrock this round. In the Refresh phase, I Vilya Beoren back into play, since he ended up on top of my 15 card deck.
For staging, I play the other Vassal, a Warden of Healing, Mine off a Hidden Cache, activate Gildor to be able to play an Faramir off the top this phase, an Elrond's Counsel when Questing, and leave a Hidden Cache on top (take Northern Tracker, the 3rd card down, into hand).
I can quest for 13 with my newly played allies, Elrond, and Bilbo (exhausing Faramir for his effect). This would not be enough, so I add in Gandalf for a total of 17 against 9 threat so far.
Staging is A Frightened Beast, which I gladly pitch my Vassal to negate. 16 willpower against 9 threat clears the Carrock, and lets me have my pick of the trolls. It also draws me a hidden cache (2 resources for Elrond) and Runes -> Zigil Miner, Arwen, discard Tracker.
I'll go ahead and take Louis now - I have Elfhelm to prevent is "in VP" effect, and I want to get a couple more threat so I can take both trolls at once next turn (since I'm at only 30 right now, that may also involve failed questing).
Warden heals all of last turn's damage, and Elrond defends. The shadow card does nothing, Elrond takes no damage, and I raise my threat to 33, then back to 32 from Elfhelm, and 31 from Galadriel.
9 attack at the ready, out of the 13 I would need. Play Flame of Anor off the top to ready Gandalf, and have him participate, but I flip a 0 cost card, so I also have to activate Beoren to defeat Louis.
Round 6
Vilya out Beoren at the end of the round, again. Play and use Wizard Pipe to make Hidden Cache the only card in my deck, then Will of the West to shuffle everything back in. Miner hits 2x Cache, allowing me to play:
Riversong (top of deck is Hives, so the total Threat will be 8. I need to quest for 7 to get both trolls down this turn).
A Burning Brand (for Elrond)
Arwen (off the top)
Zigil Miner (milling Vilya and Counsel)
Boromir
Quest with Elrond, Boromir, Arwen for a total of 6. Raise threat by 2, lower by 1 with Elfhelm.
Leave Hives in the staging area, but engage both Trolls.
Elrond defends Moris, taking 1 damage. Brand cancels both shadow cards, and his 4 defense means he takes a total of 1 damage.
Boromir defends Stuart, Galadriel lowers my Threat to 33 so he has 3 defense. no shadow effect, so he takes 1 damage and readies.
Counter attacks:
Moris requires 13 attack to dispatch. Gandalf (3), Treebeard (4), Boromir (3), Elfhelm (2) and Faramir (1) are up to the task.
Stuart requires 15. Beoren (8), Gildor (2), and Treebeard (4) are not. quite. enough.
Quick - retroactively don't play Arwen, and don't use the extra Zigil Miner. That gives 1 extra attack while still keeping resources around for Hasty Stroke if needed.
Move on to stage 3. Add Rob and Bob and a Savage Hill Troll to the staging area (8 total threat). Warden of Healing removes all damage.
Round 7 - 34 Threat.
I dig through my deck, playing a Vassal off the top, and playing as many Elrond's Cache as I can. (which is 2 in the planning phase, lowing my Threat to 27).
Riversong tells me I have Gladden Fields coming up, so I need to quest for 10 to avoid threat gain. Instead I quest for 12, including Gandalf, so I can draw more cards. I get a Seeker, and Vilya in Beoren.
Rob&Bob is 6 attack, Boromir takes 3 damage (Galadriel is Sacked again). Savage is 4 attack, Elrond takes no damage.
16 attack needed for Rob and Bob, Beoren (8), Vassal (3), Treebeard (4), and Elfhelm (2) are enough.
Victory! Final score:
6 rounds (60) + 27 Threat + no damage/dead heroes -13 VP = 74 total!
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