Deck 5 : Alliance of Free Peoples

To fulfill a scenario a player has to meet all deck building requirements during the whole game, and additionally the winning requirements for a certain scenario at the end of a game. There are 16 wizard scenarios and 6 ringwraith scenarios...

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Fangorn
Ex Council Member
Posts: 362
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:57 pm
Location: Nantes, France

DR: none.
WR: Alliance of Free Peoples is in play. A company contains three characters with a mind higher than 6. One of those has to be an Elf, one a Man and one a Dwarf. A company containing these characters has successfully played a Valiant Sword at a normal site (not a haven).


This deck is based on my Awakening of Rhovanion deck (see http://www.meccg.net/dforum/viewtopic.p ... ght=#20908).


Character Pool

Starting Company
Beorn (+ Cram)
Thranduil (+ Horn of Anor)
Voteli

In deck
Dain II
Thrain II
Glorfindel II
Bard
Wacho

Not in deck
Haldir
Gimli


Wizards & Characters

Radagast
Radagast
Gandalf
Fram Framson


Resources

Beornings
Men of Northern Rhovanion
Woodmen
Wood-Elves
Iron Hill Dwarves

Emerald of the Mariner
Wizard's Staff
Wormsbane
Necklace of Girion
Emerald of Doriath

Gwaihir
Roac the Raven

And Forth he Hastened
Vanishment
Vanishment
Not at Home
Not at Home
Dragon's Hunger
Dragon-feuds
Forewarned Forearmed
Smoke Rings
Smoke Rings
Smoke Rings
A Chance Meeting
Marvels Told
Marvels Told
A Friend or Three
A Friend or Three
Tempering Friendship
Tempering Friendship


Hazards

Cave-Drake
Cave-Drake
Cave-Drake
Cave Worm
Cave Worm
Cave Worm
Light-drake
Rain-drake
Rain-drake
Wereworm
Marsh-Drake
Marsh-Drake
True Cold-drake

Daelomin at Home
Akhorahil
Hoarmurath of Dir
Mouth of Sauron

Dragon's Blood
Dragon's Blood
Dragon's Blood
Half an Eye Open
Summons Long Sleep
Foes Shall Fall
From the Pits Angband
Nature's Revenge
Dragon-sickness
An Unexpected Outpost
An Unexpected Outpost
Call of Home
Revealed to Watchers


Sideboard

Wizard's River Horses
Wizard's Uncloaked
Wizard's Laughter
Staff Asunder
Gollum
Valiant Sword
Necklace of Silver Pearls
Noble Hound
Alliance of Free Peoples
The Old Thrush
Promptings of Wisdom
Withdrawn to Mordor
Twilight
Twilight
Smaug
My Precious
Neither so Ancient
Surion
The Roving Eye
Unhappy Blows
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
Nameless Thing
Short Legs are Slow
Bane of the Ithil-stone
Ice-drake
Diminish and Depart
Spider of the Morlat
Mordor in Arms
Lost in Free-domains
Trouble on all Borders


Sites

Thranduil's Halls => Wood-Elves
Iron-hill Dwarf-hold => Iron-hill Dwarves
Beorn's House => Beornings
Eagles' Eyrie => Gwaihir
Lake-town => Men of Northern Rhovanion, Roac the Raven, Noble Hound
Dale => Roac the Raven, Noble Hound
Woodmen-town => Woodmen, Noble Hound
Framsburg => Emerald of Doriath, Necklace of Silver Pearls
Ovir Hollow, Gondmaeglom => Valiant Sword
The Lonely Mountain => Emerald of the Mariner, Wizard's Staff, Wormsbane, Necklace of Girion, Roac the Raven
Caves of Ulund, Irerock, Gold Hill => Emerald of the Mariner, Wizard's Staff, Wormsbane
Goblin-gate => Gollum
Mount Gundabad => Wormsbane




Deck description

2 key characters are in the starting company.
First of all Beorn, which is the only human having a mind of 7 or more.
Secondly Thranduil, prefered to Dain II because of his skills and his faction closeness in the first turn.
Finally Voteli, which is useful with her skills, as follower of Thranduil.

Thranduil starts with Horn of Anor, absolutely needed to rouse factions.
Beorn starts with Cram, which can be useful the first turn.

In case Beorn is bounced during character draft, he's replaced by Haldir in order to have enough general influence to play him.
In case Thranduil is bounced during character draft, he's replaced by Dain II.
Just be sure NOT having an elf and a dwarf in starting company, because of Unhappy Blows.

The wizards are Radagast and Gandalf, which have a bonus for corruption check, very helpfull for spells (mostly Vanishment) and for carrying Wizard's Staff.
Radagast is best with his wilderness-drawing ability, whereas only advantage of Gandalf is his home site in Lorien (although he's most suitable thematically).

Characters in deck are the ones having bonus against factions gathering for the Alliance :
- Beorn for Beornings
- Thranduil for Wood-elves
- Dain II for Iron-hill Dwarves and human factions
- Bard for Men of Northern Rhovanion
- Wacho for Woodmen (more difficult and less MP than Men of Dorwinion, but reachable the first turn)
For character part of the scenario, Glorfindel II is back-up of Thranduil and Thrain II is back-up for Dain II (see sideboard part for Beorn).
Additionnaly, Fram Framson fits well in Dragons' area.

Items are loot of dragon's lairs :
- Emerald of the Mariner, for extra hand size, because of needed combos of the scenario and hazards
- Wizard's Staff, for heavy bonus of the Wizard and recycling ability
- Wormsbane, against Drakes and Dragons
- Necklace of Girion, for factions bonus and ability to play any item
- Emerald of Doriath, for extra general influence
- Valiant Sword, for the scenario.

Allies are the flying ones, Gwaihir and Roac the Raven, the latter who may be used to influence a faction far away.

Most of resource events are either to prevent nasty creatures of the region to be effective against companies, or support for influence check against factions.

Hazard part is an heavy drake-theme which has only one goal (KILL) and has non-drake enhancers :
- Akhorahil, to lower a character's body
- Hoarmurath of Dir, for an additional strike of a powerful Drake,
- Nature's Revenge, to enhance some Drake's playability




Play Notes

Faction part of the scenario is the easy one.
Focus on Wood-elves and Iron-hill Dwarves ; only one of the 3 Man factions is needed.

The major problem come from general influence, which must be saved as protection against Muster Disperses and Call of Home.
On the other hand, the character part of the scenario is the difficult one.
Having 3 characters with at least 7 mind use lots of influence.
The best is to have the Wizard controlling Thranduil, and Beorn and Dain II for 6 free general influence.

It's the reason why items were chosen to help with influence :
- +2 DI with Wizard's Staff on the Wizard
- +2 GI with Emerald of Doriath on the Wizard
- +3 DI against Men/Dwarves with Necklace of Girion

Necklace of Girion is the most useful item of the deck, because :
- it helps a lot for Iron-hill Dwarves and Man factions,
- it allows Dain II to control Beorn
- it could be "exchanged" to play the required Valiant Sword

But general influence is not the only problem, because there's a nasty hazard against which there's almost no defense : Unhappy Blows.
The only defense is to give no oppotunity to opponent to play it, with a perfect last turn.
Two companies, one with Thranduil and the other one with Dain II meet at a site where Valiant Sword is playable.

Revealed to all Watchers gives more chance to draw sooner the Wizard.
He's absolutely needed not only for freeing general influence, but because few cards specific to Wizard are in play deck (Vanishment, And Forth He Hastened, Wizard's Staff).


Hazard strategy allows to kill characters, so try to kill opponent's required character for the scenario.
Drakes cover almost all regions (save central Gondor).
Lots of drake enhancer support this strategy :
- Dragon's Blood which is the key support hazard against strong warriors (Wizards, Aragorn II, Beorn, Thrain II, ...)
- Half an Eye Open to choose key character (in combo with Cave Worm for example)
- Foes Shall Fall to hassle company (in combo with Cave-drake for example)
- Summons from Long Sleep to increase prowess and save hand (perfect for Light-drake for example)
- From the Pits of Angband to retrieve most annoying drakes
- Akhorahil to increase chance to kill
- Hoarmurath of Dir to make a drake deadly (in combo with Rain-drake for example)
- Daelomin at Home to allow combos

Very important remark : almost all decks contain Cave-drake, but keep in mind backfire of From the Pits of Angband will NOT occur for this one (see http://www.meccg.net/dforum/viewtopic.p ... ght=#21381).


Use sideboard as following :
- Alliance of Free Peoples when the 3 required factions are played
- Valiant Sword when the 3 required characters are in play and will meet
- Gollum and Noble Hound if Gwaihir and Roac the Raven are not in play / killed
- spells when Wizard's Staff is in play (all of them sideboarded in discard pile)
- The Old Thrush if opponent plays Hobbit scenario and if you have Fram Framson and/or Wormsbane.
- Necklace of Silver Pearls if Beorn is played by opponent or killed

Necklace of Silver and Pearls is the key sideboard card.
It allows to fulfill the scenario without Beorn, by discarding it during the last turn on Voteli, Fram Framson, Bard or Wacho.



MP overview (expected / max)
Characters : 8 / 10
Items : 9 / 16
Factions : 12 / 18
Allies : 2 / 4
Miscellanous : 0 / 0
Kill : 0 / 3
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Total : 31 / 51
Hrum, Hoom ! Do not be hasty, that is my motto.
User avatar
Yegor
Posts: 138
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:39 am
Location: Dnipro, Ukraine

The Winning Requirements don't state that either the Valiant Sword or the three characters have to be in play at the end of the game. So, I read it that you can play the sword, and as long as Alliance and three characters are present at the moment the scenario is fulfilled.

Plus, Alliance does not require the three factions to be played.
Last edited by Yegor on Sun Jun 16, 2019 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Darksatin
Posts: 621
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Chalon sur Saône, France

Hello,
The Winning Requirements have been modified at the beginning of this year (2019):

Winning Requirements : Alliance of Free Peoples is in play. A company contains three characters with a mind higher than 6. One of those has to be an Elf, one a Man and one a Dwarf. A company containing these characters has successfully played a Valiant Sword at a non Haven site, and is still in possession of this weapon at the end of the game.


You are right, "Alliance" does not require the three factions to be played.
But it could be a good suggestion to add it.
User avatar
Yegor
Posts: 138
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:39 am
Location: Dnipro, Ukraine

Thanks for clarification.

Maybe, it would be better to upgrade the scenario to the difficult level?
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