OK, I have to get this out of the way before I make myself forget about it.

I have tried playing this quest 3 times now. Let me tell you what has happened each time.

1) During setup, setup mind you not questing setup, Ungoliant's Spawn is flipped over.

2) During setup, King Spider is flipped over. During the FIRST questing phase, Ungoliant's Spawn is flipped over.

3) During setup a Hill Troll and Attercop, Attercop are flipped over.

At this point I am tempted to stack the encounter deck just so I can get past the first questing phase.

Ugh.

I still think that Attercop, Attercop is an extremely poorly designed card.

Wow. Bad luck for sure.

Don't stack the deck. You'll feel better about your win if you don't.

You're drawing it wrong

This is a strange game, the only winning move is not to play to draw only location.

@Divinity - I have no intention of actually stacking the deck.

And to update this I managed to beat this quest on my next attempt. 8 rounds. And I also managed to defeat Ungoliant's Spawn, Attercop and a Hill Troll. (thank you Dain, Gimli, Landroval and a few nameless dwarves)

This quest is odd solo. If you draw the big enemies, then you will have a tough time. If you just draw treachery, locations, and weak enemies, this quest is quite easy. And that is the reason why this quest is so much better for multiplayer.

Isn't that practically true for every quest ? some less than this one... but lately, I find very huge power gap between encounter cards...

Well, I do play 2 handed. I find I enjoy this style much better than just using one deck.

The first few draws of RTM are very stressful.. but that quest is very beatable. Tragic did a play though just recently and owned it twice in a row using just the Mirkwood Cycle cards. I used his deck after and beat it 4 times in a row.

The key is Denathor. Scry the deck every time, get UC on him. You want to leave threats in the staging area that are not "it will end the game".

Check out Tragic's Deck here - Retrun to Mirkwood @ CGDB

As for the "2 handed vs solo" thing.. I prefer solo as it is so much more challenging in deck design and piloting, but there is no question this game is designed for 2 players and CAN be played with different numbers. The quest, especially the early ones function better in 2 player.. there is no doubt.

That being said building a deck to own a quest solo, that is where the real challenge is. You see people getting nightmare quests and owning it day 1 with out editing their decks.. they are probably NOT playing solo Solo takes real thought and planning. It is why this game is so good.