The Last Homely House
Middle-Earth => Lothlórien => Fellowship => Topic started by: Crainiac (The set 20 project) on January 30, 2023, 03:15:03 PM
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I am very mad right now, I have many matches of lotr tcg on gemp and I calculated my win/loss ration and it's 28/202, I've used every strategy that other players use but they don't work, cards like sleep caradhras (a card which I have been told is useful) NEVER discards the right cards it only discards mine. Cards like Aragorn (the one that removes [2]) doesn't actually remove [2]. I have seen players get 7 companions in their first fellowship phase, and that happens nearly every single game. I never get the right starting hand and I never get a fellowship that can combat any shadow strategy, if it's uruk hai I'll take insane amounts of damage, if it's moria I'll get swarmed with cave trolls balrogs and other creatures, if it's nazgul I'll be corrupted by site 4. I have tried so many strategies that work for other players but not for me. I'm at my wits end with this game and am tired of winning every blood moon. Please help, I love this game but I am about ready to stop playing it forever.
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For starters, what's the deck you're using now? Part of it might be the list.
Part of it is slowly getting better at the game. I lost basically every game when I first started playing, so don't get discouraged by constantly losing.
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I mainly play fellowship block and I've compiled a list of cards based on the other strategies that I've seen and been told about.
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Son of Drogo
Ring: The One Ring, Isildur's Bane
Adventure deck:
The Prancing Pony
Trollshaw Forest
Council Courtyard
Hollin
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Valley of the Silverlode
Anduin Confluence
Gates of Argonath
Emyn Muil
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x Arwen, Daughter of Elrond
1x Legolas, Greenleaf
4x Aragorn, Heir to the White City
1x Boromir, Lord of Gondor
1x Merry, Friend to Sam
1x Sam, Son of Hamfast
1x Asfaloth
1x Bow of the Galadhrim
1x Elven Bow
3x Gwemegil
1x Long-knives of Legolas
1x Aragorn's Bow
2x Armor
4x Athelas
1x Blade of Gondor
2x Flaming Brand
1x Great Shield
1x Horn of Boromir
1x Ranger's Sword
1x Shield of Boromir
1x Frying Pan
1x Hobbit Sword
1x Sting
1x Mithril-coat
1x The Last Alliance of Elves and Men
2x The Tale of Gil-galad
1x The White Arrows of Lorien
4x Gondor Bowmen
2x No Stranger to the Shadows
1x The Saga of Elendil
Shadow Draw Deck:
4x Isengard Forger
2x Lurtz, Servant of Isengard
2x Orthanc Assassin
1x Orthanc Berserker
2x Saruman, Keeper of Isengard
2x Saruman, Servant of the Eye
4x Troop of Uruk-hai
2x Uruk Brood
1x Uruk Captain
4x Uruk Ravager
2x Uruk-hai Raiding Party
1x Lurtz's Sword
4x Uruk-hai Sword
1x The Palantir of Orthanc
2x Saruman's Power
2x Savagery To Match Their Numbers
3x Saruman's Ambition
4x Their Arrows Enrage
1x Uruk-hai Armory
1x Worry
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You're running a 43/43 deck with a shadow that doesn't cycle great, I'd definitely cut at least 6 cards from each side. Great Shield/Shield of Boromir aren't really helpful, so that's a start. I'd also drop more possessions and stuff for at least 1 more boromir, then bid 1 and only run a pair of Aragorns as he can be pulled. I'd also run elven allies and Secret Sentinels to counter Sauron and Moria conditions.
For the Shadow, I'd run all KoI for Saruman, and definitely 4x STMTN. Drop most of the middling uruks for Uruk Lieutenant, Uruk Ravager, and Troop of uruk-Hai. Uruk Warrior and Uruk scout are also solid choices. Their Arrows Enrage and Uruk-Hai Armory aren't really necessary, as KoI takes care of that most of the time.
Your support Hobbits are usually speedbumps, and Merry FTS is not really needed in a deck like this. I'd also recommend running a second Sam as corruption can be scarily effective if you don't play him.
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Thank you for the advice, I'll implement those cards and see how it works, Thanks man.
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Tunadan has nailed it. I'd go so far as to say you should try to cut 10 cards. 30/30 without any intentional cycling will usually have enough cards to last the whole game, 33/33 will give you some room with reconciling. This is a big part of the reason you never have good starting hands and your cards never seem to arrive at the right time.
Another part is how many stars have to align for you to actually play what you have. Assuming you start Arwen and Legolas and can get Aragorn out at the start, you have 4 cards that can't be played without Boromir (Horn of Boromir and Blade of Gondor plus the second copy of Armor and the second copy of Flaming Brand, or Ranger's Sword if you put 2 Flaming Brand on Aragorn) and only one copy of Boromir himself. If you figure that 1/5 times you'll draw Boromir first, that means 80% of the time you get one of those cards you have, at best, a useless draw. If you don't discard them immediately -- if you feel you need to keep them for when Boromir is drawn, or draw more than one at once -- then you reduce your hand size which makes everything work worse without producing any benefit to you. You'll have fewer Shadow cards to work with to stop your opponent, fewer Free Peoples cards to survive the onslaught, and Boromir will be further delayed. It's like a clog in the drain -- it can start out a mild inconvenience, but the more you try to slip stuff past it the worse the clog gets.
The other part is that neither of your sides has a ton of direction, which makes your deck fight against itself. Most strategies do better the more you commit to them (although it's definitely possible to over-commit!). Your 4x Isengard Forger can put a minion with 6 strength on the field for 1 twilight, but nothing else here makes that intimidating for the Free Peoples player. At best (when you have 3-4 Uruk-hai in hand) you get a cheap wound in on a supporting companion, while at worst he can't do anything but die and deprives you of an Uruk-hai that might have had an impact. Your Free Peoples are a mix of skirmishing and archery, which isn't bad but with such low quantities of each you're more likely to get part of a skirmishing deck and part of an archery deck -- neither enough to win skirmishes against important minions nor avoid skirmishes by killing minions in archery. No Stranger to the Shadows is in a similar position. Don't get me wrong, denying twilight tokens is always helpful, but how much impact will it have compared to Double Shot for an archery build, or a skirmish event for a skirmishing build? Choke is actually a lot like archery, it's about avoiding dangers rather than conquering them. Without enough of it to avoid the danger, you're left without much impact.
So figure out what the point of each card is and determine what the use case is for it. Best case scenario, does the card really bring you much closer to winning the game? Worst case scenario, can you get anything out of it at all? And how often do you think you'll face the opponents of best and worst case, or whatever is in between? Basically, figure out what you want to do when you play the game. Bow of the Galadhrim and Long-knives of Legolas are fantastic, but do you really plan on having Greenleaf fight with any regularity compared to any other companion? If not, what does it matter how well he would do in a fight if he's not going to be fighting? If so, are those two possessions alone enough to actually make it happen? Mithril coat: are you planning on Frodo tanking Uruk-hai very often? Horn of Boromir: do you want to make room for allies to use the ability?
For some of your other issues, replays would help. Aragorn can only remove twilight that's in the pool before you move, not after. Remember that however much twilight you add is how much twilight your opponent can work with. Sometimes, it's better to hold onto an expensive card for later or discard it rather than give that resource up. Also, since companions add [1] each move, it can occasionally be better to kill a companion than let them limp along exhausted and not contributing to your survive.
Don't lose heart! I remember when I started playing, I thought skirmish events were so overpowered. My opponents could just play them and win skirmishes all the time while mine never seemed to matter. Once I got a few more games in to get some focus on what I wanted to accomplish in-game, and trimmed my deck down from 45/45 to 36/36, I saw quite a bit of improvement. We've all been there ;)
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For starters, what's the deck you're using now? Part of it might be the list.
Part of it is slowly getting better at the game. I lost basically every game when I first started playing, so don't get discouraged by constantly losing.
The problem is that I've been playing for almost 4 years and I haven't won games by talent, nearly every single win that I get is because the other player concedes or something. I don't know how they always get the correct cards in their first fellowship phase, they can crank out a starting fellowship of legolas and arwen, then in their first hand they get boromir, gandalf and gimli, then they use the prancing pony to get aragorn. Next what happens is they get 12 twilight from me on their first shadow turn and swarm me with nazgul and moria orcs. when my shadow phase comes around I only get 8 twilight and can barely even get one minion out, then he dies from archery the player moves again and I get even less twilight. I don't understand why I never get the cards I need and when I do I lose them immediately, my cards don't do what they say they do instead they only ever benefit the other player. I lose every member of my fellowship to some stupid swarm or wounding strategy that I can literally never replicate. I can't afford to move in the regroup phase because my opponent always gets massive amounts of twilight every time no matter what cards I'm using.
I should not be so bad that I have hundreds of losses and only a few wins when I've been playing for years.
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The main reason that your opponent gets great starting hands is that he has a thin deck, around 30/30 to 33/33. Wounding strategies will not work as well if you add condition removal, and neither will swarm. Nazgûl potentially could hurt early on, but if you run HTTWC as your Aragorn, he net costs 2, and that's only enough for maybe one Nazgûl.
Most of the suggestions Phallen and I had will help with being hit by those strategies. I would try that, and if that doesn't work, post a replay or two so we can see how you play and potentially help.
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Hi Craniac, I completely understand your frustration, especiallyin a game like this, which does not have many resources to gain information from. I can only agree to what has been said before me, and encourage you to post some replays, or if you see me online, we wn play a game and I can give you feedback on some plays. Hope this helps!
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Thanks witch king, I'll see if I'm online when you are for a game, I'm still trying to figure out replays and stuff but when I figure it out I'll see if I can show you.