Got my pack last night at my FLGS and got one game in with the quest last night, so consider this a quest description plus first impressions for everyone who's waiting on the pack. (In other words, if you want to go in blind like I did, don't read this )

The idea of the quest is that you're racing against Bellach and his orcs to find a ring mold in Celembrimbor's forge. The new key word is Scour, which is like Lost from the Long Dark in that it doesn't do anything by itself but lots of encounter cards key off of it. I can't remember the names of the other two encounter sets the quest uses, but they're the same two used in To Catch an Orc (the orc symbol and the wolf/moon symbol). An objective card sits in the staging are all game called "The Orc's Search." For every card under Orc's Search, you have to raise your threat at the end of the round. The encoutner deck puts damage on locations, and when those locations get damage equal to their quest points, they go under Orc's Search (and there are other effects that add cards to it too). Bellach stays in the staging area for most of the quest and his threat equals the number of cards under Orc's Search. He has a scour effect that makes each player search for an enemy and add it to the staging area. Celebrimbor's Forge also starts in the staging area with the mold attached to it, and you have to travel to it and explore it before it gets too damaged, otherwise you lose. Both quest stages had "Time 3: trigger all Scour effects in play" on them, and you will always at least trigger Bellach's scour effect.

It's a combo heavy enctouner deck with loads of surge/other ways of bringing out extra encounter cards. Playing two-fisted, I typically faced 3-5 encounter cards a turn. The encounter deck is on the larger side, at least compared to the deck sizes we've been getting. The scour combos are nasty and there's tons of "choose x or y" encounter cards, meaning there's lots of decisions to be made. I imagine it will be easier solo (but not easy) and brutally hard in multi-player. I played it two-fisted with two strong decks (Galadriel-Celeborn-Grima silvan and Gandalf-Boromir-Legolas from my Road Darkens play throughs) and squeaked out a victory my first (and only) time through. The encounter deck almost TKO'd me on turn two by destroying Celebrimbor's forge, but I lucked out and it didn't. I played aggressively, clearing the board as often as I could so that there weren't too many scour effects going off when time ran out. Clearing locations is important too, because you don't want to lose them to the Orc's Search, but there are encounter cards that make it more difficult to explore locations. The encounter deck does a good job of keeping pressure on you so that you never feel totally comfortable (well,until the final turn when I knew I'd win).

Overall, I'd compare it to To Catch an Orc in that if you start fast and stay ahead of the encounter deck, you have a good chance of victory. If you try to turtle and fall behind, you're going to be in a lot of trouble. Lots of interesting mechanics, lots of strategic decision making, and I'll be interested to try it again and see how it goes. I think the larger encounter deck and reliance on combos will make it play a little different every time. The sweet spot for difficulty is probably two players.

And NO MORE NALIR!!!! He totally ditches you at the beginning.

Sounds great. So far besides Three Trials which is awesome I haven't enjoyed the quests in this cycle. The Dunland Trap was alright just not that interesting. I'm hoping this quest picks up the pace.

Sounds like this cycle quest are not that briliant…… probably is worse cycle ever…… the

So I think this cycle has been amazing so far.....my favorite quests being Nin-In-Eilph and The Three Trials. I think Trouble in Tharbad was great as well and Celebrimbor's Secret also looks awesome. The only one I didn't enjoy that much was The Dunland Trap.
Not sure why you don't like it so much Glaurung?

A few of them are definitely harder than most of the Dwarrowdelf or Mirkwood cycle (except RtM and Shadow and Flame), there are fantastic player cards in this cycle and the art is better than ever.
They were never going to be that difficult... its just a normal cycle not nightmare or POD so I'm kind of confused as to why you aren't enjoying it thus far?
The only thing I personally can really say against it is that each quest requires more set up and has more intricate mechanics than most earlier quests from the other cycles so it takes a bit more time to play these quests. This doesn't really bother me but I can see it being an issue with others.

I think its potentially the best cycle or at least second best behind Dwarrowdelf.

I found Trouble in Tharbad to be a pale comparison of Peril in Peralinger where it actually felt like you were in a city trying to avoid detection. Basically that quest can be won by just questing from start to finish no real fear or excitement. Nin-in-eliph was a good idea but the small encounter deck that had almost no enemies in it really sapped some of its joy. Overall this is my least favorite cycle so far.

Difficult level is ok. Definitely is quite hard compare the other cycle. But I dont like the story, no any really exiting ideas (quest mechanics). Players cards a good. I think players cards is more interesting then Against the Shadow cycle but quests looks a simple. Dont get me wrong I like it but….. Release of the new nightmares sets for old cyckles make me happy otherwise this time is to boring for me….

Just finished my first game and it wasn't so bad solo. I can see that it might be insane in 3 or 4 player though. It's very easy to keep the staging area clear in solo and then the scour triggers don't really cause any ill effects. That get's much harder in multi-player.

Hmmm cards looks cool! That quest looks actually much better then previous one!

I found Trouble in Tharbad to be a pale comparison of Peril in Peralinger where it actually felt like you were in a city trying to avoid detection. Basically that quest can be won by just questing from start to finish no real fear or excitement. Nin-in-eliph was a good idea but the small encounter deck that had almost no enemies in it really sapped some of its joy. Overall this is my least favorite cycle so far.

Try it in the multiplayer if you'll get a chance. You'll be surprised.

Man, I've really enjoyed the quests this cycle, I just haven't gotten to play them as much as I would have liked. I think there are some ingenious mechanics going on and Three Trials is pure brilliance. I really love Trouble in Tharbad since it allows you to use some secrecy cards with any deck!

The only quest i haven't never won still in 4 players is Dunland Trap. This quest must be faqqed ^^

The list of how i like these quests:

1. Nin-in-eliph

2. Dunland Trap

3. 3 Trials

4. Trouble in Tharbag

Nin-in-eliph is the best, but i'd like a third enemy, not only the snake and the *****.

I haven't played the scenario yet, but played some games with Galadriel. She's pretty amazing.

Three plays three wins. Might be the most forgettable for the solo player. I think after TAC is released I'm going to try the cycle again two handed.

Man, is it bad that I don't even have the Nin-in-eilph and I already want to try the Antlered Crown more than any other quest?

Yes.

I think CS will be a beast multi-player, but it's pretty easy solo.

The only quest i haven't never won still in 4 players is Dunland Trap. This quest must be faqqed ^^

The list of how i like these quests:

1. Nin-in-eliph

2. Dunland Trap

3. 3 Trials

4. Trouble in Tharbag

Nin-in-eliph is the best, but i'd like a third enemy, not only the snake and the *****.

Have not played CS yet, but i agree Nin-in-eliph is the best of the cycle so far, and for solo at least for me it was the most challenging. The random stage cards make the scenario unpredictable each time. 3 trials on the surface seemed more difficult, but once the formula for beating it was figured out it was pretty easy. It's difficult to come up with formula to beat Nin-in-eliph in The same way. I'm going to come back to this one regularly. It might be a new deck tester for me.

I think CS will be a beast multi-player, but it's pretty easy solo.

Aww man. I was hoping for a good challenge for pure solo. I've been playing both pure solo and two-handed solo throughout the cycle, and I have to say that generally two-handed remains more fun and more challenging (with the exception of The Three Trials).

Yeah this quest is a lot of fun and you really try and race through it to avoid the pile up that will happen from those scour effects. I played both 2 handed and solo with Silvan decks, a blast both times but it was a little easier solo.

Three plays three wins. Might be the most forgettable for the solo player. I think after TAC is released I'm going to try the cycle again two handed.

As I sau before only a last quest looks interesting for me…. After briliant nightmare cards for second cycle 2 new quests looks a boring for solo.

Tree trials is ok, Dunadan trap is cool. Will see what we will get in last pack. Anyway still belive is worse cycle from the quest site and very good cycle from the player card side.

Three plays three wins. Might be the most forgettable for the solo player. I think after TAC is released I'm going to try the cycle again two handed.

As I sau before only a last quest looks interesting for me…. After briliant nightmare cards for second cycle 2 new quests looks a boring for solo.

Tree trials is ok, Dunadan trap is cool. Will see what we will get in last pack. Anyway still belive is worse cycle from the quest side and very good cycle from the player card side.

I got Celebrimbor's Secret yesterday and am enjoying the player cards. The quest itself looks great but I can't play it yet - I want to play the cycle in order and I still haven't beaten The Dunland Trap... granted, I've "only" tried about 5-6 times and I play lore/spirit. Maybe I should ask my gf to join in with her battle dwarf deck.

Played twice with silvan deck lost first and one second. Seems like it can be pretty easy to get location locked in the early game so decent amout of WP needs to be genrated early similar to To Cath an Orc. Lots of 2 - 3 threat cards in the encounter deck and a few untimly scour effects can have things spiral down hill quickly. However, once the staging area is under control and being cleaned out each round it is not so bad.

In both my games I did not find the damage on locations to be a big issue, and only one location was ever placed under the orc search card.

I'll have to give it some more tries, but I would not say it's easy, although I did beat it on my second attempt. It's a bit of chore to check all the scour effects with the time mechanic, which i think takes the fun out of playing a bit for me. At first I really liked time mechanic, but now it becoming a bit more of a chore to play the scenarios, and that's probably why I have not and probably will continue to not revisit many of these scenarios in the future.

Played twice with silvan deck lost first and one second. Seems like it can be pretty easy to get location locked in the early game so decent amout of WP needs to be genrated early similar to To Cath an Orc. Lots of 2 - 3 threat cards in the encounter deck and a few untimly scour effects can have things spiral down hill quickly. However, once the staging area is under control and being cleaned out each round it is not so bad.

In both my games I did not find the damage on locations to be a big issue, and only one location was ever placed under the orc search card.

I'll have to give it some more tries, but I would not say it's easy, although I did beat it on my second attempt. It's a bit of chore to check all the scour effects with the time mechanic, which i think takes the fun out of playing a bit for me. At first I really liked time mechanic, but now it becoming a bit more of a chore to play the scenarios, and that's probably why I have not and probably will continue to not revisit many of these scenarios in the future.

Yes I agree with you. As I say before this cycle quests will be quickly forgoten… . nothing special and time mechanic also not as good as sound in begin….

Had my first attempt today, played two player with a friend and we won but only by the slimmest of margins. It was such a terrible victory it felt like a loss. The encounter deck does do a good job of combo-ing off itself but for the most part its a relatively run of the mill quest. Knowing what to expect and planning for that should take the edge off my future attempts with it