Dream-chaser - Voyage of Belgaer - Double Secrecy

Jimbo76 14

Description

This fellowship was created for the Dream-chaser campaign, but I have not yet played through more than the first 2 scenarios which was handled very well with some of the sideboard used for second quest for clearing that active location quickly with Lórien Guide and Steed of Imladris.

I play progression-style, so for this fellowship, that I created for Dream-chaser, only cards up to and including the Dream-chaser cycle are used.
(MotK) Galdor of the Havens, (MotK) Gléowine and of course Messenger of the King are the only exceptions.

The idea:
Dual spi/lor secrecy gives cheap access to cards, that can manipulate the encounter deck Out of the Wild , Risk Some Light, Scout Ahead as well as cancel treacheries A Test of Will.
It also gives access to cheap secrecy allies Celduin Traveler Ithilien Lookout, that can be used for sailing and are also ok questers or attackers if need be. The scrying has proved more useful than first anticipated. A cheap ally revealing that the next card has a sailing icon allows for very little commitment to sailing.

Heroes:
Círdan the Shipwright/(MotK) Gléowine - Low threat with lots of card draw and good willpower. Círdan the Shipwright allows for the always useful Narya for both leadership sphere access as well as readying the useful allies.
Arwen/MotK Galdor - Semi Low Threat - Arwens discard triggers (MotK) Galdor of the Havens, so resource and new card draw for one discard.

Resource generation:
Resourceful are the stable resource generation to pay for things
Arwen Undómiel can put the resources where needed across the fellowship (except for (MotK) Gléowine)

Questing:
There are a lot of willpower on the characters and with 3 of Northern Tracker, 3 of Rhovanion Outrider location lock should not be an issue.

Combat:
Not that strong in the beginning, but that is ok as you will not see much with that low threat. Once Ithilien Archer or Ithilien Lookout is setup with Ranger Bow you can begin to pick enemies off from the staging area.
An speaking of the staging area. If you get engaged with an enemy you can send that enemy to staging by wounding it with Ithilien Archer and some other hero or ally. Also Gandalf can always be used in a pinch.
Later on combat is not a problem, if you get jumped, even if you can't send someone to the staging area because of immunity, as there will be lots of rangers with 2 attack or 3 if readied at an earlier stage with Narya.

How to deal with combat before you get setup:
Avoid by cancelling treacheries that bring up enemies
Put enemies in the bottom with Risk Some Light
Put nasty enemies in Victory Display (if not immune to player card effects) if needed with Out of the Wild or Scout Ahead
If engaged with enemies have them not attack you one phase with Out of Sight
Send to staging area (after enemy attacks substep) by attacking and wounding with Ithilien Archer and a hero or another ally.

Healing:
If encountering lots of damage like archery you can outpace even 2 Corsair Warship and Thunderstruck with 3xWarden of Healing and Narya. I have done this.

Staying in secrecy:
Gandalf
Elrond's Counsel
Galadriel's Handmaiden
Double Back

How to play:
As soon as you get Out of the Wild use it to both put something unwanted in the Victory Display. This can also be done with Scout Ahead but that requires more setup.

Before sailing phase play one of your Celduin Traveler or Ithilien Lookout to see if the next encounter card contains a sailing icon, so you know if you only have to commit one character to sailing.

Before questing (and after sailing) use Risk Some Light if in hand to know precisely what comes up from the encounter deck.
Cancel unwanted treacheries with one of your many A Test of Will.

Progress:
I had a very successful victory in "Voyage across Belegaer", where I killed the 2 Corsair Warships and Thunderstrike (played campaign), ended on-course, staging free of ships and all stage 2 quest cards in the victory display. I played it really slow setting up my play area with allies, including rangers with Ranger Bow and sending the nastiest non-victory enemies, locations and tracheries in the Vicotry Display. I ended up with 23 cards in the Victory Display, 8 of those were the Out of the Wild and Scout Ahead and the 8 encounter cards, that I put there as a consequence. The rest were from the victory cards from the encounter and quest deck.
And I only engaged the Corsair Warships and Thunderstrike when I had Out of Sight in hand and therefore the Warship and the 3 corsairs could not attack me in the combat phase. Thunderstrike is immune to player card effects, so it could attack me. As needed I outright killed the corsairs in attack or with sneaking in Gandalf or sent them to staging with Ithilien Archer leaving only the ships to deal with.

For a further description of the individual decks look at the notes for them

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