With the release of The Road Darkens we now have 6 full quests and and a pretty wide array of boons and burdens for us to potentially earn and wanted to see the different experiences we as players are having as we continue to create our own unique journey. If you wish, follow my template.

Two-Handed Campaign
Deck 1: Gandalf - Elrond - Glorfindel (spirit)
Deck 2: Sam - Merry - Pippin

Shadow of the past
Boon: Mr. Underhill
Burden: The Ring Draws Them

Knife in the Dark
Boons: Noble Hero (deck 1) and Valiant Warrior (deck 2)

Flight to the Ford
Burden(s): Eaten Alive!

The Ring Goes South
Boons: Anduril & Glamdring (given to deck 1) Sting & Mithril Shirt (given to deck 2)
Burden: None (opted for 5 threat increase)

Journey in the Dark
Burdens: Grevious Wounds and Pursued by the Enemy
Balrog Defeated: Yes
Hero Sacrificed: Gandalf (returned to life with fortune or fate)

Breaking of the Fellowship
Boons: Phial of Galadriel (given to deck 1) Three Golden Hairs (given to deck 2)
Burden: Followed by night
Seat of Seeing explored: Yes
Burden removed: Grevious Wounds
Prisoner(s): Glorfindel & Pippin


Pleasantly surprised by how much the different boons and burdens give an individual feel to the play through and I will be looking forward to this continuing with future saga expansions. I also hope for more tough player decisions in future saga quests like with how the balrog and defeating him was designed as well as the prisoner concept which we'll see developed in our next saga quest.

Edit: replayed breaking of the fellowship with the intent of making sure i cleared seat of seeing

SO SO similar to yours Pharmboys Also you forgot The Old Forest!

Two-Handed Campaign

Deck 1: Legolas - Elrohir - Elladan
Deck 2: Glorfindel (spirit) - Elrond - Haldir

Shadow of the past

Boon: Gildor Inglorian

Burden: The Ring Draws Them

The Old Forest

Boon: Old Bogey-Stories (usually attached to Glorfindel as I find it more useful for that deck)

Knife in the Dark

Boons: Tireless Ranger on Elrohir and Valiant Warrior on Haldir

Flight to the Ford

Burden(s): Eaten Alive!

The Ring Goes South

Boons: Anduril & Sting (given to tactics/leadership deck, Anduril is best on Elrohir) Glamdring & Mithril Shirt (given to lore/spirit deck, Glamdring is best on Haldir)

Burden: None (opted for 5 threat increase)

Journey in the Dark

Burdens: Grevious Wounds and Pursued by the Enemy

Balrog Defeated: Yes

Hero Sacrificed: Elrond (returned to life with fortune or fate)

Breaking of the Fellowship

Playing this one tonight!!!!!

But actually there is 8 quests with Old forest and barrow hills right? That will be more correct…

For those who owns them

Yeah you're right Glaurung I just figure no one has barrow downs except those who went to a fellowship event so didn't include it... also I don't have it yet Its in the mail though! If I somehow get it before spoilers are up ill take a bunch of photos

Two-Handed campaign

Deck 1 - Aragorn (Leadership), Beravor, Theodred

Deck 2 - Dunhere, Eomer, Eowyn

Shadow of the Past

Boon: Mister Underhill (if only I could remember to use it).

Burden: Gandalf's Delay,

A Knife In the Dark

Boons: Tireless Ranger (on Theodred), Valiant Warrior (on Eowyn).

Flight To The Ford

Burdens: Overcome By Terror, Panicked.

What is the theorettical scenario in which you gain the least amount of burdens and the highest amount of boons so far?

Since I do not have TBR yet, I was just curious as I think I want to keep playing until I achieved that scenario.

Probably The Ring Goes South, you're handed four (I think) boons straight away thanks to the Campaign Mode card.

By placing enough damage on Old Man Willow and gaining Old Bogey Stories is really the only boon that is a bit harder to earn and not just instantly given. I guess playing the campaign four player allows you to obtain all four boons from A Knife in the Dark.... but at the same time would be a much harder campaign and if each player didn't get one some decks would automatically be a bit weaker than others. So really earning Old Bogey-Stories by doing plenty of damage to Old Man Willow (which is not easy! he raises threat every attack and hits hard and many times too) is the best possible situation for boons as all the others are automatically earned.

As for burdens you can earn none in Flight to the Ford with some trickery and if you defeat the Balrog you only have to take two from Journey In the Dark instead of four. Also you can avoid the treachery in The Ring Goes South as well as one of the ones from Breaking of the Fellowship. So yeah I think thats the best possible situation.

Only one burden from shadow from the past, two from journey in the dark and one from breaking of the fellowship is the best possible burden situation at this point.

Totally overlooked old forest and barrow downs. If you have played them in your campaign please include them

Two-Handed campaign

Deck 1 - Aragorn (Leadership), Gandalf

Deck 2 - Merry, Pippin (Lore), Sam

Shadow of the Past

Boon: Mister Underhill

Burden: The Ring Draws Them

Fog on barrow downs

Boon : Ho ! Tom Bombadil !

A Knife In the Dark

Boons: Tireless Ranger (on Aragorn), Valiant Warrior (on Merry).

Flight To The Ford

To be played this evening

My new campaign pool after finishing Breaking of the Fellowship on my third attempt:

Two-Handed Campaign

Deck 1: Legolas - Elrohir - Elladan
Deck 2: Glorfindel (spirit) - Elrond - Haldir

Shadow of the past

Boon: Gildor Inglorian

Burden: The Ring Draws Them

The Old Forest

Boon: Old Bogey-Stories (usually attached to Glorfindel as I find it more useful for that deck)

Knife in the Dark

Boons: Tireless Ranger on Elrohir and Valiant Warrior on Haldir

Flight to the Ford

Burden(s): Eaten Alive!

The Ring Goes South

Boons: Anduril & Sting (given to tactics/leadership deck, Anduril is best on Elrohir) Glamdring & Mithril Shirt (given to lore/spirit deck, Glamdring is best on Haldir)

Burden: None (opted for 5 threat increase)

Journey in the Dark

Burdens: Grevious Wounds and Pursued by the Enemy

Balrog Defeated: Yes

Hero Sacrificed: Elrond (returned to life with fortune or fate)

Breaking of the Fellowship

Boons: Phial of Galadriel (attached to a hero in the tactics/leadership deck) and Three Golden Hairs (attached to a hero in the lore/spirit deck)

Burden: Followed by night

Seat of Seeing used: Yes (removed Grevious Wound from my campaign pool)

Prisoner(s): Haldir and Legolas

Ooh nice catch on the seat of seeing location. Forgot about it since I don't think I've ran into it in a single one of my playthroughs of the scenario

Ooh nice catch on the seat of seeing location. Forgot about it since I don't think I've ran into it in a single one of my playthroughs of the scenario

Yeah I got pretty luck seeing it the first time I got that far I did get crushed on stage 1 twice though...

Mainly due to several copies of River Anduin appearing both times..... nasty nasty card.. especially when 2 or 3 stack over several turns!

I also had The Ring Draws Them appear during stage 1 which very interestingly circumvented the skip the encounter phase effect of the quest stage card and allowed me to take out a few Uruks on stage 1 reducing threat in staging. I was also able to engage and take out another from Slopes of Amon Hens effect. I found that the toughness keyword can be pretty strong against certain tactics (Galadhon Archer did nothing and Haldirs effect was also drastically reduced, until stage 2 and 3 at least) and the best way to circumvent it is to merely bring enough attack power to the table to outright kill them, wounding them over multiple turns is not a good option.

Update for Flight To The Ford

Two-Handed campaign

Deck 1 - Aragorn (Leadership), Gandalf

Deck 2 - Merry, Pippin (Lore), Sam

Shadow of the Past

Boon: Mister Underhill

Burden: The Ring Draws Them

Fog on barrow downs

Boon : Ho ! Tom Bombadil !

A Knife In the Dark

Boons: Tireless Ranger (on Aragorn), Valiant Warrior (on Merry).

Flight To The Ford

Burden : Eaten alive !

Solo: Gandalf, Elrond, Glorfindel (Spirit)

Ringbearer: Frodo Baggins (Black Riders)

Shadow of the Past

Boon: Mr. Underhill

Burden: The Ring Draws Them

Knife in the Dark

Boon: Noble Hero (Gandalf)

Burden: none

Flight to the Ford

Boon: none

Burden: Overcome by Terror

Ring Goes South

Boon: Anduril (Gandalf), Glamdring (Glorfindel), Sting (Frodo), Mithril Shirt (Frodo)

Burden: none

Journey in the Dark

Boon: none

Burden: Overcome by Grief, Pursued by the Enemy

Balrog Defeated: Yes

Hero Sacrifice: Gandalf (revived with Fortune or Fate immediately afterwards!)

Breaking of the Fellowship

Boon: Three Golden Hairs (Gandalf)

Burden: Followed by Night

Seat of Seeing Explored: No

Prisoner: Glorfindel

Summary

Fallen Heroes: 0

Boons: 7

Burdens: 5

All this rescuing of Gandalf with Fortune or Fate seems a little unfair to me. It diminishes the weight of his sacrifice!

Just thematically it's hitting me all wrong. Plus, you know they're going to have some way of resurrecting a fallen hero to represent that moment in Fangorn!

They can have a character named "Gandalf the White" - this could be either ally or objective. Since the name is not the same all players could use this ally even if Gandalf was sacrificed to the Balrog. Of course they'd need to put a condition the card stating something like "Cannot be in play at same time as any card name Gandalf".

All this rescuing of Gandalf with Fortune or Fate seems a little unfair to me. It diminishes the weight of his sacrifice!

Just thematically it's hitting me all wrong. Plus, you know they're going to have some way of resurrecting a fallen hero to represent that moment in Fangorn!

I couldn't agree more. In retrospect, I think the designers should have made it impossible to bring back a sacrificed hero in this scenario with Fortune or Fate. I'm not hating on anyone who does this, by the way, I just wish it wouldn't have been an option.

An option is almost always better than lack of one. Those who want - will resurrect, those who don't - won't do it. What's the big problem?

An option is almost always better than lack of one. Those who want - will resurrect, those who don't - won't do it. What's the big problem?

Because in this case, an option isn't better. The ability to resurrect by simply playing a card takes away the meaning of that whole decision. Sure, I can choose not to do it, but sometimes taking away choice from players actually makes other choices more meaningful.

An option is almost always better than lack of one. Those who want - will resurrect, those who don't - won't do it. What's the big problem?

Because in this case, an option isn't better. The ability to resurrect by simply playing a card takes away the meaning of that whole decision. Sure, I can choose not to do it, but sometimes taking away choice from players actually makes other choices more meaningful.

Says you. It's not "simply playing a card". It's devoting a deck space, drawing it, keeping it and spending buttload of resources on it while having a hell of a lot other things to worry about. I say, if players manage to bring hero that way back -0 they deserve it, and it's good we have that option in the game.