I have posted this in response to another thread, but thought it might deserve its own thread for the other noobs out there who are playing with only one core deck, since the question of how to beat scenario 2 (Journey Along the Anduin) seems to come up a lot.

I am fairly new to the Lord of the Rings LCG, and lately, I have been using the solo deck based on the single core set that Xanalor posted here: http://boardgamegeek...only-cards-from. He used a deck of 42-cards, but I wanted to see if I could beat Journey Along the Anduin solo using a 50-card tournament legal deck, one-handed, using a single core set.

It took me 12 attempts (!!!)… but I recently beat the quest (in standard mode) with 50 core cards… after 10 rounds, a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and cursing! My score was 129… which I am sure is not nearly as good as that achieved by players using multiple core sets, smaller core decks, or cards from packs and expansions beyond core.

This is what my "winning" deck looked like:

HEROES

Theodred (Leadership)

Eowyn (Spirit)

Beravor (Lore)

LEADERSHIP (16)

x2 Faramir

x1 For Gondor!

x3 Guard of the Citadel

x2 Sneak Attack

x3 Snowbourn Scout

x2 Steward of Gondor

x 2 Valiant Sacrifice (not part of Xanalor's 42-card deck)

x1 Celebrian's Stone (not part of Xanalor's 42-card deck)

LORE (13)

x2 Erebor Hammersmith

x2 Forest Snare

x1 Henamarth Riversong

x1 Lore of Imladris (Xanalor used x3 in his 42-card deck)

x2 Miner of the Iron Hills

x1 Protector of Lorien (Xanalor used x2 in his 42-card deck… I subbed in x1 Celebrian's Stone instead)

x1 Gleowine (not part of Xanalor's 42-card deck)

x1 Secret Paths (not in Xanalor's 42-card deck)

x2 Self-Preservation (not in Xanalor's 42-card deck)

SPIRIT (17)

x2 Northern Tracker

x2 Lorien Guide (not in Xanalor's 42-card deck)

x1 Unexpected Courage

x3 Stand and Fight

x2 A Test of Will

x1 Dwarven Tomb

x2 Hasty Stroke

x2 The Galadhrim' Greeting

x2 Favour of the Lady (not in Xanalor's 42-card deck)

TACTICS (1)

x1 Beorn

NEUTRAL (3)

x3 Gandalf

I had previously attempted to beat Journey Along the Anduin using a 50-card version of a 40-card leadership/lore deck proposed by Beorn (see http://hallofbeorn.w...om/beorns-path/), but really didn't do well with it. I was, however, able to beat the quest using a 45 card version of Beorn's deck (I succeeded on first attempt, having only made the following modifications to the deck: replaced x2 Radagast's Cunning with x2 Secret Paths (Lore); added x2 Lorien's Wealth (Lore), x2 Ever Vigilant (Leadership), and x1 Grim Resolve (Leadership). I made other experiments using the 50-card deck (e.g., including adding a few Spirit cards like The Galadhrim's Greeting, Favor of the Lady, Unexpected Courage and Strength of Will -- cards that Aragorn might have been able to put in play if he had Celebrian's Stone attached to him -- but failed to win during my first 10 attempts… maybe I just needed to try another 15 times! :-). NEVER have I had draws as favourable from the Encounter deck as Beorn reports on his blog (and as some observers noted in the comments below his article, it seems he may have made a few small errors during play that may have affected the outcome of his game).

I had a lot of "near wins" with the 50-card version of Xanalor's leadership/spirit/lore deck before I finally won, many more than I had with the modified version of Beorn's leadership/lore deck.

For the most part, I followed Xanalor's strategy, as presented in the first link in this post. I preferred to have x2 Self-Preservation and x1 Lore of Imladris instead of x0 Self-Preservation and x3 Lore of Imladris, because I found that Berevor in particular needed repeat healing as "blocker" (especially when then goblin sniper was in play); if I was fortunate enough to draw/buy a second Self-Preservation, I would put it on Eowyn, who can take only 3 damage and is particularly prone to damage from Treacheries (both Eowyn and Beravor are more critical to winning the quest than Theodred is). I would save my x1 Lore of Imladris for Theodred.

Despite the many defeats I've suffered being pig-headed and wanting to win straight solo with 50-card deck using a single core set only, I'm still having a blast with this game… and my core set is getting a lot of mileage!

That having been said, given the horror stories I've read about Escape from Dol Guldur, I doubt that any one-handed solo 50-card deck I assemble using one core set only is going to beat that quest… but I'll give it a shot some day (don't even know if it's beatable in "easy "mode"). Xanalor reports having defeated that quest using a smaller deck of Core only cards (see first link above).

I hope this helps the new players out there, and especially those who don't have the time or inclination for deck building. I'm finding that the more I play the game, the more I understand the synergies/weaknesses of cards, the more enjoyment I get out of deck building… and the more I look forward to trying other packs (I have bought the entire Mirkwood cycle, but haven't played any of the quests yet)!

Bottom line is… don't give up! And remember, it's a game… have fun!

So lately, the above deck has not been performing all that well for me lately (0/4 on Journey Along the Anduin on August 29, 2014), so I went on to build another 50-card solo deck using only one Core set, which was inspired by another recent deck/post by silverthorn (who, if I am not mistaken, played online and was able to select cards as if he had access to 3 copies of each, i.e., 3 Core sets).

HEROES

Eowyn (Spirit)

Dunhere (Spirit)

Denethor (Lore)

Allies (21)

Lorien Guide (S) x3

Northern Tracker (S) x2

Wandering Took (S) x2

Erebor Hammersmith (L) x2

Miner of the Iron Hills (L) x2

Gleowine (L) x2

Henamarth Riversong (L) x1

Daughter of the Nimrodel (L) x3

Gandalf (Neutral) x3

Beorn (Tact) x1

Attachments (8)

The Favor of the Lady (S) x2

Unexpected Courage (S) x1

Forest Snare (L) x2

Self-Preservation (L) x2

Protector of Lorien (L) x1

Events (21)

A Test of Will (S) x2

Hasty Stroke (S) x2

The Galadhrim's Greetings (S) x2

Fortune or Fate (S) x1

Strength of Will (S) x2

Stand and Fight (S) x3

Dwarven Tomb (S) x1

Lorien's Wealth (L) x1

Lore of Imladris (L) x3

Radagast's Cunning (L) x2

Secret Paths (L) x2

This deck had a win ratio of 2/3 against Journey Along the Anduin over the last few days. My scores on the two victories were 221 (19 round epic with final threat score of 48) and 184 (16 rounds with final threat of 38).

Thank you for coming up with this, I'll give it a try, and report back in!

Edit 1: Allright this deck seems to nail it and it was a pleasent experience winning the game pretty easily after losing 20 times in a row with other combinations.

Main strategy was: wait for the Gandalf drop to kill the troll while spamming allies and reducing threat, control cards with denethor.

I have to say I had some lucky draws from the player and encounter decks:

Unexpected Courage in opening hand, placed on denethor for mass control, it's also very useful to know what comes at you after you draw cards to the staging area you can use it again

2 Galadhrim's Greetings in the first 15 cards also helped a lot

Stand and Fight and Gandalf also in the first 10 cards were key to win this quickly, I also drew a snare but had to discard it due to a random effect, the big Gandalf drops seem to be necessary to beat the troll though, but with all the abilities and allies I had plenty of time to draw cards

Treachery as the first card in set up was discarded with no effect.

Anduin's Banks was key as well (I even drew 2, but I refused to keep playing with one and discarded it, otherwise it'd have been too easy) it stayed with me for almost all the game until I had to discard it as a shadow effect

I mostly drew locations and this deck is good at questing so no real challenge there.

Overall thoughts: First attempt was successful but I think the luck factor was too great; going to try it again and report back.

Edit 2: Allright second attempt was successful as well, this time my opening hand had a nice Northern Tracker and several allies plus the Galadhrim's Greetings, Unexpected Courage came very late into the game (about 25 cards in), Gandalf was also late to come but thanks to a Gleowine I was able to mass draw each turn. I wasn't super lucky with my cards but I ended up with tons of unused ones.

Unfortunately I was lucky again with another Anduin's Banks coming right in the beginning (3rd card), my next attempt is going to be with an auto discard of that card (unless it's dealt as shadow card), to so see how the deck fares without that cheap delay.

I notice that in both of these attempts a lucky set up staging area permits denethor to start spying on the encounters and control what's coming up against the heroes, I wonder how it does with an average staging area where he's forced to defend on first turn.

Ratio (2 win 0 losses, luck factor: high).

Glad it worked for you!

But let's face it, luck IS part of the game… take it where you can! The one game I lost with this deck, I had two hill trolls in play at the beginning, and they pummelled me to death in a few short rounds. The deck didn't hold back against me when luck was on its side… so why should you say that "unfortunately I was lucky again"? This will always, in part, be a game of luck… and lucky set ups and card draws are often key to victory with the tougher scenarios (especially Escape from Dol Guldur).

You also "make" some of your luck by deciding what to include in your deck and what not to include.

By the way, you know that you can bring Beorn (a Tactics ally) into play by first pitching him to your discard pile using Eowyn's power, and later bringing him back from the discard pile and onto the table using Stand and Fight, right? Having him in play can be incredibly helpful as both a blocker and attacker.

Oh, don't mind me, I am a bit weird when it comes to card games, I am not a fun of those win/lose cards, I prefer to lose because I played my cards bad and made mistakes/didn't think ahead enough rather than because I drew that "you lose the game" card, or card combo. Also I prefer to win when I make good plans and play carefully rather than drawing Anduin's Banks.

It's just that I like to have responsibilities wether I lose or win, shuffling decks to be defeated by randomness seems like a waste of time. That's why I will keep try out different things and apply some rule corrections until I properly feel I nailed this quest.

Needless to say that your deck was a key factor in this process! so thank you!

Also, I didn't manage to do that beorn play yet, but I kinda expected that you were supposed to discard and recylce it with some kind of power, maybe Eowyn, or protector of Lorien! But thanks for reminding me. I'll keep you updated!

Edit 3: Beaten this again, this time I ignored the Anduin's Banks rule and simply discarded it once explored, encounter deck was pretty hard this time, even though the start was kind of good with the low threat I had, first cards were troll and the orc captain with 3 defence and high damage.

Opening hand had Beorn and Stand and Fight wasn't too hard to come by, and also Galadhrim's Greeting was drawn early but this time I was short of allies and kinda had to delay the game until the Gandalf drop to kill the troll, also had a a lot of dead cards.

Still this spirit/lore deck fared decently and was able to handle another Hill Troll plus the snake monster and the Beastmaster as the ending encounter (I had to use some key cards I held on to) with threat around 38 and finishing at 43.

On a side note: I guess you aim for cards in your opening hand like: Galadhrim's Greeting, Beorn, Gandalf, Gleowine, Unexpected Courage, Stand and Fight, Lorien's Wealth, Forest Snare, and some Allies. So it makes for about 12-15 cards out of 50 you can aim for in your starting hand before the mulligan, which seems acceptable.

So far no losses so:

Ratio: 3 wins 0 losses (luck factor: average).

With this said I think this seem to be the way to beat this quest and the deck seem to be consistent in it (maybe it's too early to say that but still...), congratulations to who made it.

Next step is trying against the last quest.

Great stuff!

Credit for the idea of using Dunhere/Eowyn/Denethor as the heroes goes to silverthorn (http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/112707-what-is-the-best-solo-hero-combo-using-only-the-core-set/), but his deck was not restricted to cards from a single Core set, so our decks differ somewhat (I didn't even look at his before building mine, and let's face it, your card choices for a 50-card deck with only one Core set are very limited). Silverthorn's decks are posted here: http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/114510-my-progressive-solo-deck/.

Yes, we may all have our idiosyncrasies regarding deck building and how we play this game (most people seem to think I've been crazy for limiting myself to the cards from a single Core set for so long, even though I have purchased the entire Mirkwood cycle and the Kazad-Dum expansion; and among those, I have only played The Hunt for Gollum thus far, and have consistently beaten that scenario using 50-card decks from a single Core set only, without using of the player cards from The Hunt for Gollum… I like to see how far I can stretch single Core set decks, and love the mileage I have gotten out of that one set… I still haven't even opened those additional adventure packs/expansions I own because I want to make the pleasure last :-). With regards to the recurrence of Banks of the Anduin, I look at it from a thematic perspective… it's a very long river, with many "uneventful" stretches, so it makes sense that the card should be returned to the top of the deck when explored in a scenario called "Journey Down the Anduin."

That having been said, I have not had any success beating Escape from Dol Guldur straight solo using a 50-card deck from one single Core set only, nor have I managed (thus far) to do it with cards from 3 Core sets (and by the way, if you don't want to purchase additional cards/Core sets, you can always use other cards as proxies for copies). I haven't given up yet, though. I'm a bit of a masochist… ;-)

I have, however, been able to defeat Escape from Dol Guldur repeatedly over the past few days by playing both solo two-handed (didn't want to do this, but eventually gave in for this scenario only) and in 2-player format using the same 50-card decks I used two-handed from only a single Core set (using Eowyn, Beravor and Denethor as heroes for the first hand/player, and Theodred, Thalin, and Legolas as heroes for the second hand/player). Either way, limiting it to cards from a single Core set is very challenging, but all the more rewarding when you succeed (even two-handed!)… or so I find… It is much easier to succeed when either Beravor or Thalin are picked as the captive (starting with Eowyn as captive makes the scenario veeeeeerrrrry hard).

I must really suck at shuffling, because I just cannot beat this scenario, even with the modified deck. Second time because my threat reached 50. This game is about to get shelved.

How to kill a hill troll:

https://talesfromthecards.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/how-to-kill-a-hill-troll/