Yesterday, I said I might put myself in temporary hiatus where playing Gwent is concerned. Depending on your English, that's either a lie, technically a lie, or factual. You see, my determination is never Singaporean in nature. Rather, it's weirdly Ainu since we all know the nearest people to the Beornings are known for fire and steel. Fire because there's an inner flame burning bright and steel because of their unbreakable resolve. Okay, that's hyperbole. However, names like Kayano Shigeru and Sunazawa Bikki quite obviously represent the Ainu virtue of refusing to roll over and die. Yes, they're no longer alive. No, they shouldn't be forgotten. Were they smart? Likelier to be lowly educated geniuses making a fool out of the typical East Asian educational system which my nation is also part of.
With too much crap being talked, I realised my determination means if there are things which can be improved, it means I'm going to test things out asap. This post will be split into two parts: Mistakes I've learnt via losing to the semi-pros when it comes to Gwent and the current journey through Bree-land during my journey thus far through Middle-Earth.
The vid never gets old due to the default assumption that if you're a Republican, it means you can't run a state even just to save your own behind. Fast forward to this day and not only did Ahnuld leave behind a California in a better state, we now have every son of a Nebraskan justifiably proud of his fellow son of a Nebraskan. Will Pete Ricketts contest for #POTUS and will Nebraska become the American answer to the region of Ru and Ying which Cao Cao once spoke about? Or maybe the two-party system is doomed? No one knows, to be honest. Again, too much crap being talked.
One of the lessons I've learnt in playing Lord of the Rings Online was this: Whatever you do, do NOT use your own behind to think when it comes to creating character names. That is IF you want to come across as a faker. Otherwise, something casual from someone casual is no issue at all.
The dumb part about this was that I made stupid mistakes before. When it comes to the artistic, using Park Shin-Hye as the original physical blueprint for Irelia Eliaden when she was still Alestrial was utterly dumb. So what if the blokes at Vertigo used Sting as the same kind of blueprint for John Constantine? That's not an excuse. Thankfully, my decision to create a Yaguryeo deuteragonist with hazel eyes has got nothing to do with Lee Sung-Kyung. Long story short, I gave one not-so-good name for my Captain of Rohan while repeating my Hallyu history on my Hunter of the Dale. The latter was much worse.
Brandigar sounded decent at first. That's until I realised it could have been better. Notable names like Theoden, Eorl, and Eomer are much more Rohirrim. And who can forget Eowyn stabbing the Witch King in the face? The elephant was a funny extra, though. So is there a better name for a man of Rohan? To be frank, Theorling sounds much better. While it sounds like something inspired by Eorlingas, it's actually inspired by a random bloke called Gamling. Okay, he's no random man of Rohan.
As for my Hunter from the Dale, that's even dumber. With no good ideas, I settled for a bad one. Namely, Ainuhelm. Note to self? Do not do such a stupid thing ever again. The current name? Berenard. Clearly, this was inspired by two great men of renown: Beren and Bard.
Lesson 1 learnt from the semi-pros: Scoia'tael
In a true blue me-no-gain manner, I flew into a rage due to a wretched run. My decision to play LOTRO was due to two main factors: Impulse is one of them, the need to have a distracting alternative the other. Recently, the famous half of the Super Nair Siblings mentioned Singapore has got plenty of space for improvement when it comes to being kind. No thanks to the scary accuracy of her statement, I ended up with the temperament of Oda Nobunaga. As an amateur history buff would tell you, it's not Nobunaga's fault that his fellow folks got a problem with him. His tyranny, on the other hand, was another thing altogether.
While I'm not going into the specifics, there are a few things I realised about using a Deadeye Ambush deck:
1. This deck is a racist deck. Basically, every unit is an elf or most of them are.
2. Vernossiel's Commando is good. That is until a Nilfgaardian player ninjaed you with a disloyal scoundrel regardless of gender.
3. No options for big number buffs if you're going for pure faction elf deck. At most, there's Shaping Nature. Good, but not enough despite a cost 9 Echo. Note to self? Don't go for the Devotion option unless you're into Symbiosis and planting treemen instead of strawmen.
4. Lacerate is a better option than Crushing Trap unless you want to debate the difference of 1 provision cost. I'd personally take like one of each or two Crushing Traps and one Lacerate, though.
5. Great Oak is good for the self-buffing once you trigger the Feign Death scenario. Add in Aelirenn and it's at least a +5 on self. Commando would have to be fired for that to work, though. I did away with that tree in a bid to tweak things up, maybe I'll go back to it. Maybe, just maybe.
Right now, I'm switching down two Commandos for two Crownsplitters. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm going to rescind this sooner rather than later. The reason why being the question of first turn deployment. This is what I call the risk turn where it works like sending outriders to a probable demise, something which clearly people like the Greeks and Romans enjoyed doing. Of course, it may work out after all due to the shield ensuring additional insurance. If I had Vrihedd Saboteur, this strategy is clearly not going to work. With a Vrihedd Vanguard, however, that'd be amount to lower boosting. Maybe Enchanted Armour should make way for Tactical Advantage.
One of the fatal mistakes I made thus far was using Half-Elf Hunter. By sticking with this son of a gun, my first-turn deployment was totally messed up. The reason why being that the first-turn deployment options were too bloated to be used properly. The deployment momentum definitely didn't feel right to me.
For direct damage special cards, my options ended up bloating the deck as well. Two nature/spell cards dealing damage of 5 and two Circle of Life cards dealing damage 3 and buffing a Scoia'tael unit in hand by 2 wasn't a good option. In fact, I don't remember any Scoia'tael users deploying the latter. At least not much. Elf units don't buff for plenty, so I really need some much-needed muscle for the boosting. Two Azul's Thunder/Nature's Rebuke with two Swallow seems decently good to me so far, but this needs consistent testing. Azul's Thunder seems to have a better card draw chance, so I'm currently sticking with this option.
Another source of big buffing would be Garrison. Right now, I need more tactical practice on which version of Shaping Nature to use. +8 option is the seemingly most useful one, but the Veil version is useful for poison-proofing a unit like Great Oak. +5 and Vitality? Dryad's Caress, Mahakam Marauder, and Ida Emean aep Sivney together with the last five turns.
Also, Isengrim can be ridiculously useful once you play him post-Aelirenn deck jump. Note to self: Just remember NOT to use Isengrim's Council until Aelirenn performs her deck jump. I'm not going to do an unnecessary game of die rolling.
Lessons 2 learnt from the semi-pros: Is Imposter better than Lockdown?
Is Lockdown decently good at least? I'd say it's good for analytical gamers. However, progressing through the ranks exposed a weakness: Lockdown created a Nilfgaardian deck which was clearly a jack-of-all-trades but master of none. That's another way of saying trouble brewing. I attempted a control-centric deck focusing on first-turn solder deployment plus a Duny. After a frustrating run against the semi-pros which weren't helped by a wretched hand draw luck, I flipped the table, contemplated rage-quitting, and... coming up with an alternative called Imposter.
The standard rule for Imposter leader ability is this: It's good for locking. If you're going hybrid, having Dorregaray of Vole means his fellow magic bro Vanhemar has one more target to burn. In fact, one can afford the time and space to play him as late as possible instead of wasting him on an alpha strike clearly and epically failed just because there are no other tactical options. Two Van Moorlehem Hunters, two Alba Armoured Cavalry, and one Auckes means you have six locking units in total. Add in one Collar stratagem card plus Imposter and things would look interesting. But what if you can opt for tactical control?
Nilfgaard is never short on control options plus the follow-ups because they're the wily Iga ninjas of the Witcherverse. This is in stark contrast with every other faction excluding the Syndicate where even those racist Scoia'tael units are clearly more honourable, let alone the equally xenophobic Nordlings. This resulted in a mistake when it came to utilising two options of control. It wasn't a good strategy in the first place because I was seeing things from the Lockdown perspective. Once I switched to Imposter, the engine went full control.
This also meant I had to ditch a few cards, most notably Duny and every soldier unit apart from Joachim de Wett. With the likes of Fergus var Emreis, Coup de Grace, and Vincent van Moorlehem together with Vanhemar, things seemed to be working fine. For now.
Note: Seditious Aristocrats card is clearly and properly fixed. Before that, the presence of Disloyal units wouldn't proc the boost.
Lesson 3 learnt from the semi-pros: Dominance bazooka?
Originally, using Deathwish units for Overwhelming Hunger leader ability looked like a good choice, if not at least decent. If there's indisputable evidence that I'm now playing the semi-pros, getting hammered by the opposition would be it. But at least most of such gamers did behave like either a lady or gentleman. That's interesting because it hinted at the possibility of everyone being at least decently good going from rank 14 and beyond.
The assumption of Deathwish+Overwhelming Hunger was effectively debunked and dismantled. The reason why being that I couldn't strike a balance between multiple Deathwish options and Devour units (I'm pretty sure there are gamers who can do that, though). The problem lies in a high risk of drawing a tactically disjointed hand where I would be in no man's land when it came to deploying unit A or B. Suffice to say, anywhere starting from rank 15 or 14 means the getting would go harder. Deathwish+Overwhelming Hunger combination is officially unfeasible for me. This meant I needed a strategic alternative that worked better (i.e. more consistently).
This is where Dominance comes in. Focusing on Dominance alone was surprisingly useful. I can deploy units fast enough without the risk of wasting one charge of the leader's ability. At the same time, Tactical Advantage works extremely well. Even better than Urn of Shadows. At the same time, Monsters faction does have a decent number of high base power units. Before Master Mirror, there's only one bronze unit with power 7. Namely, Ice Troll at cost 6. Now, there's another power 7 at a cheaper cost of 4, Namely, Aen Elle Conqueror. Also, Wild Hunt Rider can be played in the first turn provided I go first. To make this work, though, there's a need to play a pure Monsters deck instead of a hybrid since any other option would result in the Aen Elle Conqueror auto-blowing up. Cards like Adda: Striga and Protofleder can maximise the Dominance bazooka. Bronze Wild Hunt units do go well with Dominance, so that's another plus. Two rows of Frost plus a Winter Queen deck jump means adding the numbers without the need to focus much on the Thrive.
P.S: Too tired to write anything else. Will be elaborating on my LOTRO experience in a later post.
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