Stragglers

[CCCORNIV]

Someone please explain the stragglers strategy.  I have had multiple copies of the same non-unique condition in my support area and wondered if the strength bonus should be multiplied.  For instance if I had two Great Siege-Towers out and removed a token, would removing that token give me a +2 bonus instead of the +1?

[Thranduil]

Someone please explain the stragglers strategy.  I have had multiple copies of the same non-unique condition in my support area and wondered if the strength bonus should be multiplied.  For instance if I had two Great Siege-Towers out and removed a token, would removing that token give me a +2 bonus instead of the +1?

As for the answer to your question: no! Only 1 special ability can happen at any given time, so you choose 1 card and remove the token from that card for the bonus it specifies on that card. You can then use tokens on another copy of the same card, but removing a token on 1 does not work as if you had removed a token from all of them.

Thranduil

[SomeRandomDude]

Shameless plug.

http://lotrtcgwiki.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=4638

Men Lurking ~Standard legal -$7.10

All right, here comes my favorite lurking strategy of all. Stragglers! And, its the cheapest deck of the lot, ringing in at under...$10?!?!?!

The power of Stragglers is awesome by itself, but combined with lurker, it just gets even better. Add in an Armored Easterling and you're set.

Armored Easterling- Okay, so he works with unloaded lurker. But he's still pretty nasty.

Courageous Easterling, Bold Easterling, and Easterling Scout- One word. Recursion.

Rampaging Easterling- As you win skirmishes, this guys gets nastier

Lying in Wait- Same deal.

Stragglers- The ultimate lurker abuse, the lurker gets to kill! The more minions, the better.

Caravan From the South- How else do you reinforce Stragglers?

Last Days- Dead minions get replaced, and playing minions from your discard pile with the discarding easterlings gets even better.

(36 cards)

Courageous Easterling x 4
Bold Easterling x 2
Easterling Scout x 4
Rampaging Easterling x 4
Column of Easterlings x 4
Armored Easterling x 4

Caravan From the South x 4
Stragglers x 4
Lying in Wait x 4
Last Days x 2

Swarm like crazy, discard with all the discarding minions and then play back. On the surface, this looks like a lurker deck, so what makes this a lurking deck? Most people will look at the Rampaging Easterling and say "he fights last, big deal." But the trick is, the discarding Easterlings discard first, meaning that they discard to get more minions with Last Days. See more clearly now? The lurker gets to fight last, meaning that he stays safe while the other guys fight first. Finally, when it gets to be his turn to skirmish, you got a whole cache of minions ready to bomb the free peoples with Stragglers.

If you have enough twilight to empty your hand without Last Days, the sweet thing is, the minions you played aren't fierce, meaning that all the fierce minions then get the benefit of Stragglers, keying off of the unassigned minions, with an Armored Easterling providing damage bonuses for killing, for more mayhem in the fierce.

Clearer now? This is one of the more complicated decks, because of its crazy manipulation. But as you play it, you get used to how it works.

Matchups: Wounding and minion discarding kills this deck. A solution would be to pack some Pavise and use Last Days with the Discarding Easterlings to throw out minions after the archery phase, but Eowyn wounding would just drop them as well. As would shadowplay wounding. Condition discarding also hurts this deck, but if you don't run into either, you will almost certainly win. Every other strategy dies to this deck, and with this deck I have been able to get over 400 strength on the ring-bearer with 7 companions out.

There's also the Bill Ferny, Agent of Saruman strategy, which is mucho pricey to build (hence, why I put this deck in here, I like a $7 deck).

[HawkeyeSPF]

Just to clarify what the strategy is behind that card...

Each copy of Stragglers gets 1 token on it when it is played - even with 4 copies out, thats only 4 tokens and the 4 conditions to pitch for a total of +16 possible strength for each Men minion not assigned to skirmish. But then your conditions are all gone, so the idea is to reinforce those tokens using cards like Caravan From the South, for a possible 12 more tokens (another +24 strength per unassigned Men minion).

At that point, Frodo usually dies.

Merciless Dunlending x4
Column of Easterlings x4
Rampaging Easterling x4
Lying In Wait x4
Last Days x4
Crazed Hillman x4
Stragglers x4
Caravan From the South x4

That shadow is nice and simple; take a look and see if you like it, then tailor it to your liking.

Steve

[CCCORNIV]

 That's just nasty and mostly just commons and uncommons. I'll have to build that deck and play through it once or twice to fully understand it.

 I'm beginning to understand a bit more about accumulated conditions. So since these cards don't have a special ability tag Orc Bowmen could be accumulate to give 4 archery wounds and Tower of Barad-dur could accumulate to make the FPP discard four cards each time the fellowship moves?

[HawkeyeSPF]

Correct. 

[CCCORNIV]

Thanks.  There is so much to learn and so much depth to this game it's unbelievable. 

[HawkeyeSPF]

Pssh, I guess you've never played SWCCG? Now that game is complicated. You could go to a tournament and your opponent could play ONE card that causes a 10-15+ minute delay because of all the rules associated with it. 

This game is cake compared to that.

[CCCORNIV]

No this is the only tcg/ccg that I've ever played and I came into it late. 

[FingolfinFinwe]

Hey no shame in that!  I've played numerous ccg's/tcg's/miniature games and this is definitely my fave.  So if you're only going to play 1, tis a good 1 to choose! 

Oh and so this can still be on topic...  Straggler's is very vulnerable to elves, but it can definitely be deadly if pulled off correctly. (as Hawkeye pointed out)

[SomeRandomDude]

Yeah, its more of a budget deck than anything else. Lots stuff can kill it, like archery or condition removal.

[Hobbit_Pizza]

So:

4x Stragglers (16 strength) + 4x Caravan from the South (24 strength) = 40 Strength
40 Strength x minions not assigned to a skirmish = OMFG + one lucky minions base strength 

Is this correct?

[HawkeyeSPF]

You got it - pretty insane, yeah? 

[Hobbit_Pizza]

Add:

Bill Ferny, Agent of Saruman to invoke Stragglers
Grima, Footman of Saruman to cleanup after Stragglers
Grima's Dagger to protect Stragglers from skirmish events
The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor to pull Stragglers & Caravan from the South
Messenger's Mount to protect Bill Ferny
Saruman, Coldly Still to recycle Messenger's Mount

 

[SomeRandomDude]

You got it - pretty insane, yeah? 

Until you take Namarie in the face. *wince*

My deck's done that its fair number of times. Pallando is nasty too, as you don't get big till later skirmish, and a ticked off Treebeard with a missing Istari isn't something to mess with. Heights of Isengard...*wince*

Hence, budget deck.