Hey Guys

I thought I would start a thread about what your favorite quests released thus far are and why. I'm also going to run a poll on this first post to see which quests get the most votes. You can mention other quests or have more after your top 5 but you must have a top 5 for me to add them to the poll. You don't need to put them in order either its just your favorite 5 quests not your top five from favorite to fifth favorite.

Hope this makes sense!

Here are mine:
-The Massing at Osgiliath. This quest, whilst brutal, is super fun to me. The whole theme and feeling of a huge battalion on your heels is really cool and gives the sense of impending doom. Each stage's setbacks make the quest more interesting and the rangers of Ithilien and the need to sacrifice them/a hero on stage 3 is just so well designed. When they come out as shadow cards and kill an enemy AND then enter play for you it is just too cool. I wish a few more quests had beneficial shadow effects as well as bad ones. The Witch King is awesome, very well done and fun to fight, I've only killed him once and had to flee every other time!

All of the art in this quest is really awesome as well.
-The Battle of Five Armies. The battle of five armies is just such an epic moment in middle earth history. Elves, Men, Dwarves and Eagles all had to unite to fight the real enemy, a whole mountain load of orcs/goblins and wargs! The quest almost lives up to the real event with Bolg, Eagle allies, great mechanics and lots of goblins. The multiple stages at once is a great way to show a large battle happening across a large area and its always great trying to choose which one to have as the active quest card and which penalties to cop for the first few turns. Bodyguard of Bolg is a great card and so are the Unique locations that remove progress from each quest stage but provide victory points. Really love this quest but would have liked to have seen it on a bit more of an epic scale... more enemies (and perhaps a mechanic that brings more of them out as well) but more ally encounter cards (like the eagles) to even this out, perhaps Dwarves from the Iron Hills or Mirkwood Elves. Perhaps the nightmare version will slightly fix these issues though. Some of the art in this quest is epic also.
-To Catch an Orc. Initially, I hated this quest. This was mainly due to my inability to beat it however . Since I originally got the hang of the quest and got my first victory I run much more powerful decks and like to think I play a lot better as well. Since then I don't think I've had any more losses against it! How hard it was for me to beat (I ran very combat heavy decks that focused more on clearing the staging area and did not run very high questing power) and it forcing me to completely change my decks and adapt them not just to this quest but all quests that require high willpower (regardless of how well you can deal with combat and clearing the staging area) instantly puts this quest amongst my favorites.

The actual mechanics of the stage are really cool as well, the search mechanic works well, the second 20 card deck for each player that Mugash hides in was very cleverly designed and I feel that the Time counters work better in this quest than the other VOI quests and also feel more thematic in this quest as well (amount of time before your presence on the mountain side is detected!).
-Encounter at Amon Din. This quest is not very difficult but for me is extremely fun. Having to keep an eye on and try your best to save villagers while also trying to make progress/hold off enemies gives the quest more depth than many others. Ghulat is an awesome boss enemy (killing villagers while he fights you and getting stronger for every one he kills) and some of the locations are really cool and have fantastic art. Love that you only win if you have saved more villagers than you have failed to save, regardless of killing Ghulat and making it through the quest. Alternative/unique win conditions are always cool. I also chose this quest as the quest for a duel I had on the forums with another member:
http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/103579-duel/
This helped the quest become one of my favorites as well, even though I lost the duel

-A Knife in the Dark. Weathertop! The Prancing Pony! Bill Ferny! The Witch King! Best of the three quests in The Black Riders hands down. Ferny spying on you. Your escape from Bree only for the Nazgul to find you at Weathertop. Having to play the showdown at the Weathertop. Just awesome all round. Bill Ferny made players re think their deck strategies to pull him from staging or kill him with direct damage, if he sticks around too long or puts Nazgul in the encounter deck you are screwed on stage 3 of the quest. The art throughout this quest is amazing, especially the nazgul and their various attachments and treachery cards.

Honorable Mentions

Not in my top five but very close:
The Blood of Gondor (awesome mechanics, fun quest if you don't get brutally swarmed)
The Stewards Fear (always different with the plot and villain, fun but hard quest)
Over the Misty Mountains Grim
Journey Down the Anduin (best quest in the core set, good to test decks against)
The Watcher in the Water (awesome boss fight, very annoying tentacle enemies like there should be!)




POLL

The Massing at Osgiliath 10 votes

Foundations of Stone 10 votes

Journey Down the Anduin 6 votes

The Stewards Fear 5 votes

Conflict at the Carrock 5 votes

Redhorn Gate 5 votes

The Siege of Cair Andros 5 votes

The Fords of Isen 5 votes

The Battle of Five Armies 4 votes

A Knife in the Dark 4 votes

The Watcher in the Water 3 votes

Peril in Pelargir 3 votes

Dungeons Deep and Caverns dim 3 votes

Battle of Lake-Town 3 votes

Encounter at Amon Din 3 votes

Assault on Osgiliath 2 votes

Dead Marshes (Nightmare) 2 votes

Flight to the Ford 2 votes

The Morgul Vale 2 votes

The Seventh Level 2 votes

A Journey To Rhosgobel 2 votes

To Catch an Orc 2 votes

We Must Away Ere Break of Day 2 votes

Blood of Gondor 1 vote

Emyn Muil (Nightmare) 1 vote

Passage through Mirkwood (Nightmare) 1 vote

Shadow and Flame 1 vote

Shadow of the Past 1 vote

Return to Mirkwood 1 vote

Flight from Moria 1 vote

Escape from Dol Guldur (Nightmare) 1 vote

Flies and Spiders 1 vote

Into the Pit 1 vote

Edited after iznax's vote

Anduin (CORE)

Massing Osgiliath (PoD)

Blood of Gondor

Morgul Vale

Emyn Muin Nightmare

Steward's Fear

Passage Though Mirkwood Nightmare

Foundation of the Stone

Fords of Isen

Dead Marshes Nightmare

The Steward's Fear - Not only in my top-5, but my favorite as well. Tense, long and extremely atmospheric with lots of replay value. I also consider it to be the one with the strongest "horror" element in an epic fantasy game. Yes, there are quests with spiders, ghosts etc, out there, this one is truly chilling however. And such an original mechanic... No other quest in this game plays like this one.

Foundations of Stone - The third stage of the quest is truly genius. Till then, the quest was ok, from that point onward however, it truly takes off.

The Siege of Cair Andros - What an epic! It feels like I hear the thundering roar of battle, whenever I play this one. The removing quest cards aspect is brilliant and highly thematic: the better you fare at defending, the more of the stronghold remains standing.

Peril in Pelargir - A quest taken place in a shady port town, starting with a good old-fashioned inn brawl, which later goes on in the streets certainly merits a spot in the top-5. Insidious quest too: much more difficult than initially seem.

Shadow and Flame - A top-5 without an immense boss fight included would have been incomplete. More difficult than The Watcher (unless most of the tentacles swarm at you early on that is), plus it presents the seminal boss in the LotR saga. Shelob, the Watcher, the Witch-King, all pale before the mighty Balrog.

The Siege of Cair Andros - What an epic! It feels like I hear the thundering roar of battle, whenever I play this one. The removing quest cards aspect is brilliant and highly thematic: the better you fare at defending, the more of the stronghold remains standing.

Oh man! I think I had this quest on my draft top 5 when I was initially thinking of creating this thread. Definitely a fantastic quest with awesome mechanics and theme. The removing quest cards and stronghold locations that take damage are indeed brilliant.

The Siege of Cair Andros - What an epic! It feels like I hear the thundering roar of battle, whenever I play this one. The removing quest cards aspect is brilliant and highly thematic: the better you fare at defending, the more of the stronghold remains standing.

Oh man! I think I had this quest on my draft top 5 when I was initially thinking of creating this thread. Definitely a fantastic quest with awesome mechanics and theme. The removing quest cards and stronghold locations that take damage are indeed brilliant.

Yeah. The desperate rush to secure the Citadel is one of the highlights of this game.

Foundations of Stone - lots of fun, theme well executed

Battle of Five Armies - epic battle

Siege of Cair Andros - another epic battle

Redhorn Gate - I thought theme and gameplay came together very well

Flight to the Ford - Knife in the Dark at very a close second

Conflict at the Carrock. Do not play it anymore but even more than the core set, this had made me the fan of the game I still remain, great memories.

Massing at Osgiliath. Must have played it several hundred times, probably the best out there.

Assault on Osgiliath. This one proves coop is so much more interesting than solo. Lovely locations.

Shadow of the Past. Love the passages in the book most. And the theme is well represented. Lovely locations.

Fords of Isen. I know this is relatively new but I keep replaying it almost every day.

I hate quests with complicated set-up, like Steward's Fear or To Catch an Orc, and never replay them (the first for being super dull as well). I used to really enjoy Anduin and Dol Guldur (coop, hated solo) but they are no longer that interesting with the current card pool, and I hate the Nightmare Mode. The Battle of Lake-town and The Battle of Five Armies are both quite interesting though the latter scales badly, being hard in the beginning and easy if you pull through toward the latter stages.

Steward's Fear

Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim... love the drama created by the riddling mechanic.

Foundations of Stone

The Redhorn Gate

The Watcher in the Water

Dead Marshes Nightmare - Escape tests pretty much add another phase which I enjoy. Cool enemies.

Stewards Fear - Very different quest = great

Fords Of Isen - Like Glaurung said "Very consistent" I do wish Grima wasn't in it though. I find myself hating the objective allies like Alcaron, Grima....It feels like its a easy mode component.

Massing at Osgiliath - Scales well with the number of players. One of the best multi-player quests in my opinion.

Return to Mirkwood - Great quest. Amazing in multi-player. You will never get more big enemies than in this quest.

Honorable Mentions

Peril in Pelargir

Hills of Emyn Muil Nightmare

The Long Dark (only when I play with 3+ players....very much looking forward to the Nightmare version)

Druadan Forest

The Hunt for Gollum Nightmare

Conflict at the Carrock.

Massing at Osgiliath.

Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim.

Assault on Osgiliath.

A Knife in the Dark.

Steward's Fear

Peril in Pelargir

Massing at Osgiliath

Redhorn Gate

Journey down the Anduin

All just feel really good to play. I haven't played any Nightmare scenarios yet, which by all accounts improve a lot of quests I don't really like (most of Mirkwood, sadly).

1. Foundations of stone.

2. Massing at Osgiliath.

3. 7th level.

4. Conflict at the Carrock.

5. Watcher in the water.

These are all multi player votes.

Haven't played the BR box yet with my group, but much looking forward to it now with all those votes for it!

Ack I forgot to state why!

1. Love the separation part in multi player in this one. Also: nameless ones!

2. Best thematic quest out there IMO. Really feels like retreating from Osgiliath.

3. So much fun slaughtering piles of orcs multi player.

4. Troll bashing!

5. Massive boss fight! Need I say more? This quest deserves spot 4 I think.

In no particular order...

Battle of Lake-town: Nothing quite matches the moment I felled the mighty Smaug for the first time. I do love a good boss fight, and this one matched the epic nature of the moment in the book.

Foundations of Stone: Obviously loses something in solo, but I love the moment of separation, attachments and enemies getting washed away, and players having to race to reunite.

Watcher in the Water: Again, I love boss fights, and I love the dilemmas the tentacles and their different effects can bring up.

A Knife in the Dark: I love the entire Black Riders box, so it's hard for me to pick one, but the fierce showdown at Weathertop wins the day.

Siege of Cair Andros: This, more than any other quest so far, really got across the feeling of being engaged in a big battle. There are battering rams, orc vanguards, and siege rafts flying around, while you have to protect these battleground locations. And I loved the alternate paths in this quest. I wish that we would see alternate paths used a lot more in this game.

Steward's Fear

Peril in Pelargir

Massing at Osgiliath

Redhorn Gate

Journey down the Anduin

All just feel really good to play. I haven't played any Nightmare scenarios yet, which by all accounts improve a lot of quests I don't really like (most of Mirkwood, sadly).

Ooops, forgot the 'and why' part...

Steward's Fear - comes closest to actually achieving a strong narrative which blends with the gameplay. For a card game, that's an immense achievement.

Peril in Pelargir - it's tough, fun, gives a good mix of enemies to fight. I enjoy throwing combat decks at it.

Massing at Osgiliath - the memories mostly. I like that it's an immediate head-scratcher from turn 1, and then adapts throughout. It's getting a lot easier to destroy these days, but at first it was very tough. But always fun.

Redhorn Gate - again, the mix of enemies, treacheries, and locations was satisfying. Interesting mechanics.

Journey down the Anduin - the old classic. I think overall it's often that i like quests that have a consistent first turn (Assault on Osgiliath is a good one for this, if you want it to be). I enjoy the basic problem of early on dealing with a big hitter, and then later watching the enemies build up while you're on a boat.

I mostly play solo, which affects my choices. I answered with the ones that came into my head. On reflection, the first Black Riders quest is superb, and I like Into Fangorn and the Fords quests alot. But I thought it best to stick with my gut reaction 5.

Oh yeah, I want to add something that the above hinted at.

I so much prefer the quests with a given set-up (instead of "reveal 1 card per player" type of set-up). The opening has a great weight on the game and sometimes the luck can be against you so badly that you are out. The random set-up intensifies this tremendously -- and can sometimes make games very easy, like if you get a treachery that won't hit you.

Hm ... Interesting

1. Massing at Osgiliath , i believe it is a difficult q uest where players have to combine nearly anything in order to beat it

2. Lake Town, why? Cause there is Smaug, my belovest, and i find it to be very thematic

3. Foundation of Stone, its mechanism where players separate is interesting and makes it very different

4. Rhosgobel ... Dont know why but i love it

5. Flight to the Ford ... Cause there is nothing better than sinking the Nazguls at the ford of Bruinen using Glorfinel!!!

No order whatsoever but...

Massing at Osgiliath- This quest has really stood the test of time. Still a challenge but never feeling overly cheap. Good enemies, an epic boss at the end. The absolute relief of pulling a ranger from the encounter deck that can be sent to his death. Scales pretty well with multiple players too.

Battle of 5 Armies- This is a great quest for a lot of the reasons Massing is; challenging encounter cards, boss fight, surprise helpful encounter card with the eagle of the misty mountain. I also really think this quest did a good job of capturing the feeling of fighting a war on multiple fronts. I enjoy the 3 quest stages all being in play and requiring different kinds of questing. Easily the best quest of the hobbit scenarios IMO

Foundations of Stone- I havent even played this quest for awhile but its generally considered the best quest...for good reason. I'll leave it at that.

Fords of Isen- A newer one, but one i have been playing A LOT. Good mechanics (uses the "time" quest stages very well, to catch an orc is too punishing, and into fangorn is too easy to make a difference) Some new unique enemies and 3 unique stages. This one may only be on this list cause i've been playing VOI consistently since it came out but so be it.

Peril in Pelagrir- Always been a big fan of this one. I think the difficulty is just right; challenging without feeling too hard and not worth playing. Was the first battle quest so I liked experimenting different kinds of decks on it (aka ones that were primarily tactics) I also like the city setting too.

Honorable Mention:

Journey Down the Anduin

Conflict at the Carrock

Into the Pit

Assault on Osgiliath

Siege of Cair Andros: Having the battlefields decide which path you take through this scenario was a stroke of genius. No matter which route you take, the fight is epic. It manages the rare feat of being quite difficult while still rewarding careful planning and clever strategy. Using battle grounds to take the brunt of an early onslaught of enemies just works, both as a mechanic and a thematic representation of the battleground being lost to the enemy.

Conflict at the Carrock: One of the first scenarios (along with Journey Along the Anduin) that emphasized playing with pace. Whereas many of the early scenarios can be quest-rushed through, this scenario really requires careful planning and developing a strategy for dealing with the trolls (Full disclosure: Troll killing is my favorite). It is not without its warts, which were mostly fixed in the Nightmare version, but it remains a fun and thematic quest. It still serves as an excellent test of how well-rounded a deck is.

The Morgul Vale: Like Ian, I enjoy a good boss fight. I also really appreciate the unique design of the Nazgûl of Minas Morgul and how To the Tower puts a clock on the game. Many earlier scenarios can be too easy, particularly with decks that have a low starting threat. This is precisely why the Time X keyword was added in the Voice of Isengard - to force players to play faster than they would otherwise play. To the Tower serves a similar purpose. Not being able to build up a huge army of allies in preparation for the Nazgûl makes this an exciting scenario. I especially like that the Nazgûl does not have immune to player card effects, so that you can still interact with him using other cards. I hope that the designers make more creative enemies like this, that require different strategies to defeat. This kind of variety ultimately makes the game better.

Massing at Osgiliath: Another truly epic quest. As others have mentioned, this scenario scales very well from 1 to 4 players. The limitations on travel and some interesting shadow effects (Morgulduin is great, and by that I mean totally obnoxious) ensure that no two plays of this quest are ever the same. I also especially like the other limitations that the second and third quest cards impose. While it can be frustrating having to sacrifice a hero to stage 3 because none of the Ithilien Rangers came to your aid, this sacrifice makes complete sense thematically. The Witch-king is a truly fearsome enemy and the perfect ending to such a thrilling rush across the river.

Battle of Five Armies: The mix of Battle, Siege and traditional questing is perfect. Bolg and his bodyguards are indeed fierce. I like all of the choices that this quest gives you. Depending on your deck and play styles, you can choose which quest cards go without progress in the early game and trigger their harmful effects. As the quest proceeds, progress can be removed from the active quest which puts pressure on the players to quest heavily. Enemies have perfect synergy with this mechanic as they become easier to handle as more of the fronts are won over by the players. All and all, this is one of the best examples of elegant design - where theme and mechanics blend seamlessly to create a wonderful story. Also, it has Eagle of the Misty Mountains, one of the best lifesaving objective cards ever made.

I've only played the Core, 6 Mirkwood, 3 Khazad-Dum and Redhorn Gate so far (but own everything).

My favorites in order so far:

Conflict at the Carrock

Journey Down the Anduin

Journey to Rhosgobel

The Redhorn Gate

The Seventh Level

Journey Down the Anduin- classic quest where I fell in love with this game and it's still unique and fun fighting the troll at the beginning, going down the river, enemies not engaging you and then a battle at the end

The Redhorn Gate- I really loved how characters could freeze and die in this quest (I played hero Beorn the fist time.. lol), thematically it was a blast and I really felt I was going through a snowy mountain pass

Flight From Moria- All the quest cards in this one really made it seem you were travelling through Moria and searching desperately to get out

The Siege of Cair Andros- damage on locations was great and Battle and Siege keywords really made this quest feel like an epic battle of Gondor proportion!

Encounter at Amon Din- this one represented the classic rescue villagers, kill orcs and be the hero which I really enjoyed even though it is really easy

Notable mentions: The Fords of Isen- had a lot of fun and it's instantly one of my new favs. Journey to Rhosgobel and Hills of Emyn Muil were also some of my early favorites of this game.

In no particular order:

Foundations of Stone: This quest never disappoints in multi-player. It's always good fun to split and try to reunite. While i'm glad they don't overuse the split apart mechanic, it works well here both thematically and for gameplay.

Journey Along the Anduin (standard, but nightmare is good too): If I'm just feeling like a quick game, or I want to run a deck I'm testing through its paces, this is the scenario I play. The troll is a great threat up front, the raft ride makes sense thematically and mechanically, and it's always a thrill to crash into quest stage three and see what you draw. The randomness is typically what hurts this quest, something Nightmare helps smooth out a bit by giving consistently awful draws (instead of occasionally easy).

Nightmare Dol Guldur: They did such a good job upping the difficulty and theme for the Nightmare version. Hardest quest I've ever played and it felt so good to win. It's very thematic, rushing frantically through the dungeon locations, trying to save the prisoner before they're tortured to death, and surviving the horrible treacheries that the encounter deck throws at you (who doesn't love discarding their hand?). And the Nazgul is actually a force to be reckoned with because he's not the only enemy in the deck to worry about.

To Catch an Orc: Giving some love to the new stuff. Really unique mechanics, really tough setup, and a fun boss to contend with. Plus, the added thematic fun that you are partially responsible for the uruk army that attack Helms Deep. Whenever I lose the quest, I console myself that Middle Earth is better off.

We Must Away Ere Break of Day: It was difficult to pick any one saga quest, because I never play them individually. So many of them are excellent, but to me, this one is the best. They really improved on Conflict at the Carrock by giving you multiple ways to beat the scenario and the optional challenge of the treasure to collect. It gives the scenario a lot of replayability because of all the options the players have. I can't wait to see the nightmare version of this quest.

whoever did that really great hero contest with the brackets and seeding awhile back should do one with the quests. its one thing to name a couple faves but things get really interesting when it goes head to head

In no particular order:

Journey Down the Anduin

Foundations of Stone

We Must Away Ere Break of Day

Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim

Flies and Spiders (On the Doorstep)

All of these are thematically superb, mechanically brilliant, and can provide some quite challenging sessions. I should note that I have yet to play the HoN, TBR, or VoI expansions. There are likely thing in those that would have made my list, but I have not played them yet.