I am currently playing through the Against the Shadow Cycle using a deck from Tracker1 and have recently played about 8 or so games vs Assault on Osgiliath. I really enjoy the theme of the quest and like how you have to take control of the locations (like slowly re-taking parts of the city), not to mention how easy it is to set up. However, I have noticed that it seems much more given to wild swings in difficulty depending on what comes off of the encounter deck than most other quests. Putting the King's Library and Southron Phalanx in the staging area to start, I have won in just a couple of turns, controlling just one location (no others having come up). Conversely, I have also gotten trounced on the first turn or 2 if a really beastly enemy, like the Mumak, comes out. My most fun game was one in which more Osgiliath locations just kept coming up and I had to really struggle to get control of them...ended up losing, but it was a great time.

Please do not think I am complaining about the difficulty (either way), just wondering if others have had a similiar experience with soloing this quest or if I'm maybe doing something wrong. Seems like it would be one of those quests that really shines more brightly with multiple people playing.

Thanks.

Unfortunately, in solo play, the quest is a bit broken, as it's not uncommon to beat it one or two turns, especially if you're using Tactics Boromir to smash through the Ancient Harbor. Basically, it's a solid quest idea, but there's a few design flaws that leave the quest open to exploits in solo play. I haven't played it a ton in multiplayer, but it does seem better with more players. I'm really looking forward to the Nightmare version as I love the idea behind the quest, just not the execution.

In solo it can be pretty easy. I ended up playing that I had to gather all the locations.

Thanks for the responses guys. Appreciate knowing it isn't just me messing it up. I might steal (and modify) Bullroarer's idea and declare that I have to control a majority of the Osgiliath locations to win.

This quest are really cool but you must play 3 + players… for solo yes is really difficult to lose… .

In solo it can be pretty easy. I ended up playing that I had to gather all the locations.

For my solo attempts, I actually read it this way from the beginning, that I had to control all 14 locations. I used the West Gate as my selected first unique location and then used its Action text. Once I put it in my victory display, I would use its Action when I could and then make it the active location again to fulfill all the Action requirements. The only issues were when I had Ruined Tower in my Victory Display because when I placed West Gate back as the active location, Ruined Tower went back to the staging area. This was not necessarily a problem as I just worked it out so that they were the last three. The West Gate allowed me to control pretty well what I was dealing with location wise.

All that is a moot point because it appears from everything I have been reading, my interpretation of that requirement on the Quest card was incorrect. So, I will relegate this to multi-player mode only.

I generally play every quest one-handed and two-handed solo to get a feel for how swingy it can be. You're absolutely right about this one. One-handed it can be quite random, but I find that enjoyable. Quests that are trivial in one mode or another have little replayability.

Also, I try to avoid hacks. I don't use Bomomir in Osgiliath, I don't use Hama in Shadow and Flame. I find that can increase the challenge somewhat.

Try the nightmare version... it's better (and brutal).

Unfortunately, in solo play, the quest is a bit broken, as it's not uncommon to beat it one or two turns, especially if you're using Tactics Boromir to smash through the Ancient Harbor. Basically, it's a solid quest idea, but there's a few design flaws that leave the quest open to exploits in solo play. I haven't played it a ton in multiplayer, but it does seem better with more players. I'm really looking forward to the Nightmare version as I love the idea behind the quest, just not the execution.

Just for the fun, I managed to beat it once with only one hero - Boromir - on turn one

If you do not play it the broken way it is very nice indeed yet easy in solo