I'm having trouble with this quest. We play only 2-player, and are 4 and 0 at the moment. Our playtime is very limited these days (1 or 2 nights in a whole week) so repeated losses are frustrating ... anybody having success with this quest in 2-player games?

First we tried a staging area attack approach with a Bard/yew bow and a Dunhere deck (we were playing this quest blind after using these decks successfully against Fords of the Isen). Very quickly hit location lock and gave up with 2 tries against the quest.

Next I reverted to just about the best questing decks I've ever used, which include all your favorite options: Visionary Leadership, Sword that was Broken, Faramir and plenty of 2-willpower allies alongside Asfaloth and Northern Tracker in the deck as well. Aragorn(Lore)/Bilbo/Glorfindel(spirit) on one side, with Boromir(Tactics)/Sam/Balin on the other. We were questing for about 12 to 14 on round 1 and breaking even, then breaking even or losing on round 2. This means the time counter hits 0 and puts 4 more cards on the table, essentially game over by round 3.

Would love any suggestions for successful deck combinations for 2 players! Every card in this deck has high threat, and treacheries have Surge or pull more locations out of the deck. We simply can't keep up. Haven't even cleared a single location to use the new "Search" keyword yet.

I was also thinking that staging area damage might be good for this quest. Playing solo, I got the most success with a Glorfindel(Sp)/Strider/Grima deck. I was questing and managing the encounter deck fine (for 21 turns!) but once Mugash came out I couldn't get the job done.

Two player, I might try a classic one person questing (Spirit) other person combat(Tactics) duo. You need both great will power and solid combat strength to beat this!

Another challenge is losing your key cards to the out-of-play deck...

It's such a location-heavy deck that it just looks to be harder with more players. Since the game's framework only lets you deal with a maximum of one location per turn (by questing normally), with more players you need more and more tricks to deal with them in other ways (Asfaloth, Legolas, etc). I think location lock would be pretty likely if I went pure combat in one deck... just now both of our decks were very willpower-heavy and we still broke even two turns in a row, enough to seal our fate. I might try the same decks again but swap Bilbo out for Eowyn and adjust the card balance to reflect the sphere change, then see how that goes...

And, like you said, you can lose key cards to the out-of-play deck. My solution there was to double up on some of those, like taking twice as many 2-willpower allies as I normally would, and end up with a deck that has 60-70 cards. Better chance that way that some will be left in your actual deck, I guess.

We beat this quest this afternoon. I took the same willpower-heavy decks I mentioned above, just modified a bit more. I replaced Bilbo and Eowyn, removed any Hobbit cards and shifted the sphere balance of the cards over to Spirit (having now 2 spirit heroes: Loragorn, Eowyn, Spirfindel in the deck). The other deck also quested very well with Sam and Balin and some little Gondor allies. Faramir and Visionary Leadership didn't make it onto the table even though the game was very long (15 turns or more). Boromir handled as much combat as we could throw at him along with all three copies of Westfold Outrider (I am liking this guy).

Both decks had 65 to 70 cards to make sure we had the options that we needed available to us after we constructed the out-of-play decks.

Mugash was hiding 2nd from the bottom of my out-of-play deck, so it took a very long time to find him. Once we did, we were exceptionally well set up. Defeated him immediately, then quested to victory on the next turn.

Nice!

Yeah, I'm really hoping more people will hop on here and share their strategies as well, especially for solo play

i have played in two hand game, and i have won. These are the decks:

TITLE: amazing rohans

PLAYER 1:

Eowyn-Frodo-Dunhere (24 threat). Frodo because: waiting for other Spirit Rohan hero

Allies:

Pelargir Shipwright x2 (not used)

Westfold Horse-breeder x3 (nice combo with Ride tu ruin and Eomer)

The Riddermark's Finest x3 (several uses: his hability or good to last quest with Antonishing Speed)

Northern Tracker (very good to clean staging from locations) x2

Edoras Scort x3 (not used)

Eomund x2 (not used, but very good, it is like Lure of Moria here, but better )

West Road Traveler x3 (not used)

Westfold Horse-Breaker x2 (not used)

Emery x2 (very very good, it is free and you can put in play where and when you want)

Elfhelm x2 (not used)

Rider of the Mark x2 (not used)

Attach:

Nor am i stranger x2 (not used)

Steed of the mark x2 (good, on eomer or theoden, in 4th round tactics have lots of useless resources)

Mathom x3 (no coments)

Event:

Ride to ruin x2 (before it was combed with Scout, but now, welcome Horse-breeder!)

Mustering Rohirrim x2 (not used, well, yes: by eowyn )

Light in the Dark x2 (very important, to avoid hard enemy attacks)

Galadrim Greeting x3 (very good, to use in the other high treath friend)

Test of Will x3 (no comments)

We do not sleep x2 (not used)

Astonishing Speed x3 (powerful card last quest, when you have catched the orc -lots of rohans characters in play-)

Other friend's deck, in next post

PLAYER 2:

Eomer-Theoden-Merry (28threat) Merry because: lower the high theat level (uf), i cant play Hama

Allies:

Rammas x3 (not used)

Watcher of the Bruinen x2 (not used -it is for Ford of Isern -)

Gondorian Spearman x3 (very good always)

Knights of the Swan x3 (good chump, and more if Eomer plays)

Vassal x3 (idem)

Gutlaf x2 (not used)

Winged Guardian x2 (not used)

Westfold Outrider x3 (very good combo with Eomer, also)

Attachs:

Spear of the Citadel x2 (not used)

Westernesse Dagger x2 (good for Dunehre)

Spear of the Mark x2 (idem)

Gondolin Blade x2 (good for Eomer or Theoden -Dunhere has others weapons, if able-, lots of enemies are orcs in adittion)

Eldacar Book x2 (not used)

Gondor Horn x2 (not used)

Rohan Warhorse x3 (very good)

Events:

The hammer stroke x2 (not used -if you have Thicket of Spears and lots of resources, dificult to get-)

Thicket of Spears x3 (i love this card, very comfortable)

Foe Hammer x3 (not used)

Cleaver Goblins x3 (very good card always)

Very good plays were descripted. I remember good plays like: cleaning locations from staging with horse-breeder, northern tracker, and the possibility of 1 Ridermark finest.

One time i used Westfold rider to engage Mugash in quest phase and not loss the quest.

First round i attached 2 weapons on Dunhere (he killed LOTS of orcs) and i use, in 2nd round Greeting on the tactic player.

Very good play: Emery in combat phase and playing on tactics player.

Combat with Thicket of spears , and chump blockers...., always Eomer attacked with boost.

One Light Dark was very important. 2 cancels threacheries always are good. And the Antonishing speed in last round was very powerful (very riskly!, questing all rohans, all).

PD: and mounts were attached to: spirit on Theoden, and tacti on Eomer.

I posted two decks I used to beat all the VOI scenarios on this thread here:
http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/100163-defenders-of-the-realms-of-men/

That being said, this quest gets very difficult in two player. Those locations can pile up on you, and a lot of the enemies have surge. You cannot fail at questing, because time running out means FOUR extra encounter cards.

I usually like to do one combat deck and one questing deck in two player, but I think that having two decks that can both quest and attack is important. Sometimes you have a location flood in the staging area, and sometimes an enemy flood, and sometimes a mix of both. Having two decks that can handle both gives you enough versatility to handle what the scenario is throwing at you.

One other thing: I look at the out of play deck as an extra form of card draw. In most games, I'm not going to draw through my deck (or even a 30 card reduced deck) because I'm moving through the scenario too fast. The searches mechanic is letting me look through a bunch of cards and choose what I need, and trash the rest. It's like a really good King Under the Mountain! And, if I understand the rules correctly, you can keep searching through the out of play decks (as long as you're exploring the search locations) even after you've found Mugash. If you're really missing these cards, you can always run Will of the West to cycle them back into your (or your friends) deck.

Finally beat it with Glorfindel/Frodo/Legolas! Very fun.

Basic strategy of getting high willpower, high attack and Mugash not coming out too soon.

Now to get that guy through Fangorn...

Sorry about the necro on this old thread, but... I am trying to finish this adventure in a progression campaign with my partner. This is one POORLY designed adventure, when considering how badly it scales up. We haven't had any luck yet, trying several different decks and strategies. Very, very annoying.

Using only cards up until VoI (and Hobbit saga boxes + Black Riders & Road Darkens), is using the Hobbits the only viable strategy in a two handed game? Rohan/Gondor gets steamrolled, scrying or secrecy is extremely random, full testosterone tactics didn't do the trick.

Currently we are trying Hama/Theoden/Beregond (3 Tactics) + Glorfindel/Eowyn/Elrond (2 Spirit - 1 Lore); first deck has Radagast + Eagles, combat events galore and defensive attachments for Beregond (mostly); second deck is for questing and Treachery cancellation, Location control (through Asfaloth and Riddermark's Finest, Ancestral Knowledge) plus some Rohan love (allies, events), Stargazer+Ring, Unexpected Courage and Mark's Steed.

We have tried only a couple of times with these decks, and they work much better than any we have previously tried, still we get swamped with Locations if we have unlucky draws, or beaten to a pulp if Mugash is a no show.

Suggestions?

How about player 1 Loreagorn/Frodo/Spirfindel, player 2 Dwarf swarm?

Or Dain/Thorin/Balin and Ori/Bifur/Bombur.

Eowyn/Lore Pippin/Elrond/Vilya is another powerful deck with that card pool. I always like to have two lore resources in a Vilya deck on turn 1. It basically means you can look for Vilya or Master of the Forge in your opening hand, which makes it much more reliable.

4 hours ago, Seastan said:

How about player 1 Loreagorn/Frodo/Spirfindel, player 2 Dwarf swarm?

Or Dain/Thorin/Balin and Ori/Bifur/Bombur.

Eowyn/Lore Pippin/Elrond/Vilya is another powerful deck with that card pool. I always like to have two lore resources in a Vilya deck on turn 1. It basically means you can look for Vilya or Master of the Forge in your opening hand, which makes it much more reliable.

Yep, first suggestion is what we'll try next...

Also, I think you're quite right about trying a 2 Lore - 1 Spirit combo, honestly I hadn't really considered it as an option, but I should probably give it a try. Thanks!