On a side note, Warden of Annuminas looks like a regular Night's Watch member to me. And not just him, look at this fella:

Reminds anything?

http://p1.pichost.me/i/34/1568123.jpg

Me detests Game of Thrones, me detests their writer even more.

Me wantss the precious, me sees Halbarad. Gollum, gollum

Filthy George Martin and his England.. Although he calls it differently. There is but one King in the North, Halbarad of the Dunedain, not Jon Snow. Albeit John Snow is one of my favorite characters, and the men of the Night's Watch are the most awesome people. The rest, like that darknesspooping witch of a Caroline van Houten.. Go back to the shadow!

I found a misprint in polish cards. Stage 2a of second scenario refers to Amon Hen instead of Amon Forn. Do different languages also have this mistake?

I found a misprint in polish cards. Stage 2a of second scenario refers to Amon Hen instead of Amon Forn. Do different languages also have this mistake?

My English version says Amon Forn.

Treason of Saruman is shipping now. The new FFG layout seems to have removed the "expected by" info, but it should be a week or two.

Finally got my copy of The Lost Realm! Absolutely love this expansion so far.

Demolished Intruders in Chetwood on the first attempt but it was a long and difficult adventure and I encountered almost every side quest in the encounter deck and had to rescue Iarion before he was discarded. Really fun quest that is not that difficult but can be at times. I had to destroy three Orc War Parties as well as various other orcs.

Then I tried my first attempt of The Weather Hills....

Thought I was awesome when I was easily able to manage locations without Asfaloth (barely..) and still make progress and explore a location every round and easily kill the enemy I discovered. Got to 5 progress quite quickly slaughtering Orcs left right and center and exploring a concealed orc camp. Upon arriving at Amon Forn however Glorfindel, Elrond's sons Elladan and Elrohir and Glorfindel were ambushed by a horde of many orcs (seven enemies) and all slain as Haldir and Elrond fled in horror at the sudden and unexpected tragedy.

four enemies made three attacks each... (two cornered orcs whilst Amon Forn was the active location...) and the three others all made one attack and because I did not have my steward+elrohir engine going (no steward all game) I was only able to block a few attacks and the rest utterly slaughtered my heroes (+1 attack thanks to Orc Ambush side quest).

Note to self.... get MANY resources on Elrohir before advancing to stage 2, clear Orc Ambush as FAST as possible and DO NOT travel to Amon Forn until you have cleared Orc Ambush or you are in for a world of pain....

definitely one of the most fun losses I've had in a while! Probably mainly to the surprise of how many things chained together during the discovered Orcs savage counter attack and my lack of any experience with this quest.

Time to try again!

Managed to beat the Weather Hills after three grueling losses on stage 2. Was finally able to overcome the hidden orc outpost and slay them all. I was then able to beat Deadmans Dike first attempt!!! Gather Information was VERY handy in this quest and I used it near the very start and was able to pull out a Warden of Healing and Steward of Gondor with its effect providing the defense combo for Elrohir and healing for my two teams. Quested hard towards the end and once I got to stage 2 it was a pretty easy and slow finish, Thaurdir couldn't do anything to my mega defender and neither could the various other undead. Used many Hasty Strokes and discard a Dunedain Watcher near the end to cancel a shadow effect as many of them raise threat.

Definitely think that Weather Hills is the hardest of the three so far with its nasty weather effects and massive battle at the end. Twice I had 2 to 3 side quests in play whilst on stage 2 of this scenario and just could not make progress quickly enough to overcome this. The one thing that helps when in this situation however is that Iarion gets far stronger and far more useful.

I think you got lucky with Dead Man's Dike. I've played your decks against it twice and they were really tough. Good decks for sure, but a pretty hard quest. You did Discard a card during stage 1 every time there was an enemy in staging?

I think you got lucky with Dead Man's Dike. I've played your decks against it twice and they were really tough. Good decks for sure, but a pretty hard quest. You did Discard a card during stage 1 every time there was an enemy in staging?

Yeah I had very good starting hands and cleared Gather Information to get what I didn't have. Do you mean did I discard a card from the top of each deck at the end of each refresh phrase? It is during the first quest Intruders in Chetwood that you raise your threat by 1 for each enemy in staging at the end of each turn. And yes I did discard a card from the top of each deck every turn I was at stage 1, I discarded MANY others due to nasty effects but still had a decent hunk of cards in each deck at the end, really not that much card draw in my decks.

I also had Asfaloth and Northern Tracker steamrolling locations near the end and because a lot of them require them to be the active location to have any nasty effects they are really very weak if you clear them in staging.

Anyway I'm about to go through all three quests again so will let you know how I go

You're right. I got some forced effects mixed up in my head.

Well I definitely got lucky against Intruders in Chetwood the first time. Lost brutally against it by letting Orcs drag Iarion away to his fate with only 4 progress tokens on that side quest when it ran out of time counters. Just could not gain ground fast enough especially after losing my hands to the Lost in the Wilderness side quest a few turns after Iarion was taken captive.

Second attempt I clobbered it again but only after a very long and grueling game. Had to clear literally every single encounter side quest and cleared a copy of the neutral player side quest Gather Information to get Steward of Gondor and a Warden of Healing (exact same cards I fetched last time..... weird...) and was finally able to finish with the combat deck on 39 threat (after two sneak attack gandalfs both lowering threat!) and the spirit/lore deck on 45 threat. Erestor was amazing drawing me a sneak attack at a critical moment during combat by discarding a Son of Arnor and also drew me some other useful cards. Had to take on many war parties and after once again getting Northern Tracker/Asfaloth combo set up I was able to block out locations as well, a nasty Lone Homestead stayed in staging for about 3 quarters of the game before I got this set up however stopping me from lowering threat till late game. Was harder this time to win and very nearly lost again (side quest where Iarion is taken captive was explored with only 1 time counter left!) in various ways (almost threated out as well) but Gather Information and some clever tricks saved the day. These decks are performing far better with the neutral side quest as any time I play a game and don't get one of the various key cards (Asfaloth, Steward of Gondor, Warden of healing for quests that need healing, Sneak Attack) but then draw the side quest at some point I can instantly fetch two cards and fix whatever weakness my board state currently has. The decks performed amazingly well and I still barely won.

Time to brave the Weather Hills again...

Fared much the same against the Weather Hills but just had one less loss. Lost twice due to bad weather effects (all three copies of Biting Cold none of which cancelled appeared decimating my heroes on one game) and nasty side quests stacking but was able to beat it on the third attempt clearing 3 of the side quests whilst doing so! Had high threat for both decks but just squeezed through on 46 and 41. Time for Deadmans Dike round 2!

I think you got lucky with Dead Man's Dike. I've played your decks against it twice and they were really tough. Good decks for sure, but a pretty hard quest. You did Discard a card during stage 1 every time there was an enemy in staging?

thank you for trying them out btw were they fun to play? any suggestions?

You were definitely right I got quite lucky. Two losses before Victory against Deadmans Dike this time around.

In 2-player game, we smashed Deadmen's Dike and Weather Hills with relative ease. The first quest, however, was a ball buster. Orc War Party is just wrong. I think the encounter was designed specifically to counter the general strategy of our decks - low threat heroes with staging area combat to avoid engagements. We seemed to pull the can't be canceled treachery card more times than we should have, which didn't help.

We all experience plyers nowso there is no challenge for us witn a new quests… only if we do some kind experiment with some new carrds and decks yes. I dont even bother my self to plsy Lost Realms quests! Wait for Nightmare cards!

We all experience plyers nowso there is no challenge for us witn a new quests… only if we do some kind experiment with some new carrds and decks yes. I dont even bother my self to plsy Lost Realms quests! Wait for Nightmare cards!

I think you should give them a shot.

Wastes of Eriador is currently "At The Printer". Anyone have a guesstimate on time from "At The Printer" to available for purchase?

And now it's "On the Boat". I'll be lucky if I've beaten all the quests in Lost Realm and Treason of Saruman by the time Wastes of Eriador comes out!

a guesstimate

This is a great word! Have you come up with it, or else where have you got it from? Sorry, I'm a linguist...

edit: and evidently not native - this is apparently a rather old English portmanteau.

I must admit, i'm struggling with deadmens dike. I've tried it solo and two handed with a variety of decks, and have yet to score a win against it. I've got Treason of Saruman sitting there waiting to be played, but I feel like I need to "finish" Lost Realm before moving on...and this quest is causing me a lot of grief.

So far I've played a tactics aragorn deck alongside a rohan deck, the rohan deck solo, tactics aragorn alongside elves, and a solo deck with elrond/gorlfindel/idraen (which actually did the best, but still lost).

What strategies have worked for those of you that have beaten it?

In solo: Gandalf / Glorfindel / Aragorn (Tactics), only few allies, lots of attachments and readying. I felt like it was way too easy though with Gandalf and his pipe being able to see and manipulate the top card of your deck.

Gandalf.

I use him along with Treebeard and Glorfindel. My Gandalf deck includes Dunedain Warning, A Burning Brand, Steward of Gondor/Gondorian Shield, Gandalf's Staff, Self Preservation, Wizard Pipe, Shadowfax, Unexpected Courage, and Miruvor, which all go on Gandalf to make him a super-awesome defender.

Go Gandalf!

Basically action advantage paired with a good defender. Boromir/Elrohir/etc. That will take you a long way.

Basically action advantage paired with a good defender. Boromir/Elrohir/etc. That will take you a long way.

This is what got me through. Never chump block in this quest......