Firstly sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I'm a newb and thought this is the most relevant place for my question.

A little background on the games I've played:

Magic the Gathering, Dominion and Descent 2.0 and others, I'm no stranger to Card and Board games.

So here's my thing, I have played solo all 4 pre con decks in Lotr LCG core set and I've lost every time. I mean pretty much annihilated. I've not really come close to winning and this is the FIRST encounter. I've twice watched 'Watch it Played' (on Youtube) play the game, and official videos as well so I'm pretty sure I'm playing the game correctly.

What seems to happen to me is that I'll travel to a location and then sort of get stuck there. I seem not to be able to build up enough Willpower to finish that location, meanwhile I start to draw more and more locations into the staging area so the threat level builds up and up. Then I get torn between committing heroes to the quest to keep the threat down or fighting the nasties that eventually start killing off a hero or two and then I become totally overwhelmed and the game's over before I know it.

So my questions are, am I doing something wrong that anyone can think of or has anyone else experienced taking such beatings?

I know that mixing the decks together would make for a much stronger deck but I should be able to win with a pre con deck right?

Thanks

Well, they aren't much pre con deck as a deck need 50 cards...

Also, mono (read all heroes from the same sphere) tactics are not really playable in solo, mono spirit is the only one you can expect to win enough often the first scenario.

Beating the other is nearly impossible if you don't make your own deck, and the win rate will still be low. The third scenario is a proof of feat and luck to pass in solo.

2 solutions :

increase your pool card and/or deckbuild,

or play with someone.

Well, they aren't much pre con deck as a deck need 50 cards...

Also, mono (read all heroes from the same sphere) tactics are not really playable in solo, mono spirit is the only one you can expect to win enough often the first scenario.

Beating the other is nearly impossible if you don't make your own deck, and the win rate will still be low. The third scenario is a proof of feat and luck to pass in solo.

2 solutions :

increase your pool card and/or deckbuild,

or play with someone.

Thanks dude, that makes me feel a lot better, I don't just suck then! I'm gunna put a new deck together now and see what happens.

Also, a very common mistake new players make is that they count the threat of foes & locations not in the staging area.

Only the threat total of what's in the staging area counts in the quest phase.

If you want some advice:

Try Eowyn - Aragorn - Theodred.

Quest with all 3 in the 1st round, and ready Aragorn with the resource given from Theodred.

Then travel to the standard added location & you ready Theodred as well.

You've quested successfully and got 2 ready heroes to block & fight to boot!

That should give you a nice start. Good luck!

Welcome to the game, and don't feel put off by defeat! This is not very clear in the core set instructions, but it's very difficult to win with the mono-sphere decks. Your best bet is to mix different heroes and include cards from several spheres. Spirit is great for questing, while Tactics is good for battle, for instance.

And of course, it will get easier if you get into the adventure packs of the Mirkwood cycle, which were the ones to be released following the core set. Don't hesitate to ask if you need help or advice. Good luck!

Quest with all 3 in the 1st round, and ready Aragorn with the resource given from Theodred.

I thought you couldnt do this

Quest with all 3 in the 1st round, and ready Aragorn with the resource given from Theodred.

I thought you couldnt do this

You choose the order in which the actions take place, so you can choose to have Theodred give the resource before Aragorn needs it to ready. It works.

No it doesn't. You can choose the order among actions that happen at the same time, but these two don't happen at the same time. Characters commit to a quest one at a time, and Theodred can only give a resource to a hero who is already committed to a quest. Which means that Aragorn must commit first. When he commits, he must choose to spend a resource or not do so, there is no window in which Theodred can give him a resource to use his ability with.

Now, if Aragorn already has 1 resource in his pool, he could commit, spend his resource, and then Theodred could replace it. That works. But if Aragorn has 0 resources in his pool when he commits to a quest, Theodred can not give him a resource and have him use his ability.

The topic at hand though, what I advise is you simply play 2 handed. Choose two decks and run the game as if you were playing two players. This works well, I've beat all the Core scenarios with it using only core cards. Incidentally, Northern Tracker is very helpful against locations massing up in the staging area, as is Snowborn Scout.

Please don't correct me if you haven't even bothered to read up on the rules of this game (or do a quick Google search about this very issue). Characters commit as a team, starting with the first player. Page 9 of the FAQ. It even spells out Aragorn and Theodred being used together.