Victory!!!!

After quite a break I had a game tonight. Dain/Gimli/Frodo.

Won with final threat at 44.

Gimli with citadel plate, fully damaged/buffed plus bonus from Dain plus veteran axehand plus Beorn really weighed damage on Balrog and made it possible. Many chump blockers and a few Frodo dodges took the main damage.

Timely aid was great while threat was low. Dain had narvis belt and steward of gondor which all helped.

Hard fought but good. I did find questing stage 1 very hard with these heroes but Gandalf sneak attacked and played normally made that aspect possible.

Didnt think I would get this one yay

Phew.

So I think another play or two at this scenario (now ive beaten it) before moving on

Yay.

Fantastic! Congrats

So what's next? Moving on to Heirs or the Hobbit Boxes?

Personally, I would go Hobbit Boxes. They should give you all the pieces you need to make really great Dwarf decks and have a few clutch events even outside of that.

I'm a little biased though--I've been pretty vocal about my dislike for Heirs and the Against the Shadow Cycle. Story was interesting but the designers went the unfortunate direction of way too much focus on Mono-Sphere. Not only did several quests punish you for running multi-sphere decks, but many of the player cards were pretty lame outside of Mono...

Victory!!!!

After quite a break I had a game tonight. Dain/Gimli/Frodo.

Won with final threat at 44.

Gimli with citadel plate, fully damaged/buffed plus bonus from Dain plus veteran axehand plus Beorn really weighed damage on Balrog and made it possible. Many chump blockers and a few Frodo dodges took the main damage.

Timely aid was great while threat was low. Dain had narvis belt and steward of gondor which all helped.

Hard fought but good. I did find questing stage 1 very hard with these heroes but Gandalf sneak attacked and played normally made that aspect possible.

Didnt think I would get this one yay

Phew.

So I think another play or two at this scenario (now ive beaten it) before moving on

Yay.

Fantastic! Congrats

So what's next? Moving on to Heirs or the Hobbit Boxes?

Personally, I would go Hobbit Boxes. They should give you all the pieces you need to make really great Dwarf decks and have a few clutch events even outside of that.

I'm a little biased though--I've been pretty vocal about my dislike for Heirs and the Against the Shadow Cycle. Story was interesting but the designers went the unfortunate direction of way too much focus on Mono-Sphere. Not only did several quests punish you for running multi-sphere decks, but many of the player cards were pretty lame outside of Mono...

To keep with my progression style it will be Hobbit My first saga.

Should I try campaign mode first or single plays?

I plan to try the example decks before tweaking them.

The Hobbit boxes don't exactly have a campaign, just the treasure cards you can add to your decks.

The Hobbit boxes don't exactly have a campaign, just the treasure cards you can add to your decks.

This. ^

Campaign mode started in the Lord of the Rings saga boxes. The treasure cards are pretty cool though. Though it's easy to miss the first ones.

I would also suggest doing both Hobbit boxes back-to-back. It doesn't completely jive with your chronological playthrough but it's a much better experience going through all the Quests together.

The Hobbit boxes don't exactly have a campaign, just the treasure cards you can add to your decks.

This. ^

Campaign mode started in the Lord of the Rings saga boxes. The treasure cards are pretty cool though. Though it's easy to miss the first ones.

I would also suggest doing both Hobbit boxes back-to-back. It doesn't completely jive with your chronological playthrough but it's a much better experience going through all the Quests together.

Thanks for the advices.

Another go at shadow and flame with a loss due to threat bust. I simply didn't draw the key cards I wanted (poor deck balance lol) so had masses of resource but not the right useful cards to spend them on. Finished still on stage 1 with only 1 progress (that **** location that only allows progress if Balrog is hurt) and balrog with 13 damage (though was mostly untouched for most of the game) cave troll was skulking in staging too up until last couple of turns.

Didn't draw celebrians stone, or narvis belt, or any gandalfs (huh and 2 sneak attacks in hand) no citadel plate, dwarrowdelf axe was very late, no beorn etc.

So onto the Hobbit.

Have setup first encounter deck and selected out a player deck. I have decided at first to try one of their suggested period decks, so went for the leadership/spirit deck. Looking at the cards I am unsure on this, but will give it a few goes before I look to deck design. First deck without core Gandalf.

So next play session will see how it goes.

Another go at shadow and flame with a loss due to threat bust. I simply didn't draw the key cards I wanted (poor deck balance lol) so had masses of resource but not the right useful cards to spend them on. Finished still on stage 1 with only 1 progress (that **** location that only allows progress if Balrog is hurt) and balrog with 13 damage (though was mostly untouched for most of the game) cave troll was skulking in staging too up until last couple of turns.

Didn't draw celebrians stone, or narvis belt, or any gandalfs (huh and 2 sneak attacks in hand) no citadel plate, dwarrowdelf axe was very late, no beorn etc.

So onto the Hobbit.

Have setup first encounter deck and selected out a player deck. I have decided at first to try one of their suggested period decks, so went for the leadership/spirit deck. Looking at the cards I am unsure on this, but will give it a few goes before I look to deck design. First deck without core Gandalf.

So next play session will see how it goes.

Have you tried an Elrond+Vilya deck? If you really just want to get past Shadow and Flame, that's what I'd recommend.

Another go at shadow and flame with a loss due to threat bust. I simply didn't draw the key cards I wanted (poor deck balance lol) so had masses of resource but not the right useful cards to spend them on. Finished still on stage 1 with only 1 progress (that **** location that only allows progress if Balrog is hurt) and balrog with 13 damage (though was mostly untouched for most of the game) cave troll was skulking in staging too up until last couple of turns.

Didn't draw celebrians stone, or narvis belt, or any gandalfs (huh and 2 sneak attacks in hand) no citadel plate, dwarrowdelf axe was very late, no beorn etc.

So onto the Hobbit.

Have setup first encounter deck and selected out a player deck. I have decided at first to try one of their suggested period decks, so went for the leadership/spirit deck. Looking at the cards I am unsure on this, but will give it a few goes before I look to deck design. First deck without core Gandalf.

So next play session will see how it goes.

Have you tried an Elrond+Vilya deck? If you really just want to get past Shadow and Flame, that's what I'd recommend.

Another go at shadow and flame with a loss due to threat bust. I simply didn't draw the key cards I wanted (poor deck balance lol) so had masses of resource but not the right useful cards to spend them on. Finished still on stage 1 with only 1 progress (that **** location that only allows progress if Balrog is hurt) and balrog with 13 damage (though was mostly untouched for most of the game) cave troll was skulking in staging too up until last couple of turns.

Didn't draw celebrians stone, or narvis belt, or any gandalfs (huh and 2 sneak attacks in hand) no citadel plate, dwarrowdelf axe was very late, no beorn etc.

So onto the Hobbit.

Have setup first encounter deck and selected out a player deck. I have decided at first to try one of their suggested period decks, so went for the leadership/spirit deck. Looking at the cards I am unsure on this, but will give it a few goes before I look to deck design. First deck without core Gandalf.

So next play session will see how it goes.

Yeah...I don't remember thinking too much of those period decks.

As for no Core Gandalf...that's kind of a hard pill to swallow for where you are. OHaUH Gandalf has recently become really good with Merry and Narya but Nori just can't lower your threat fast enough to make him effective in my experience.

But hey--maybe you'll prove me wrong! Good luck!

Another go at shadow and flame with a loss due to threat bust. I simply didn't draw the key cards I wanted (poor deck balance lol) so had masses of resource but not the right useful cards to spend them on. Finished still on stage 1 with only 1 progress (that **** location that only allows progress if Balrog is hurt) and balrog with 13 damage (though was mostly untouched for most of the game) cave troll was skulking in staging too up until last couple of turns.

Didn't draw celebrians stone, or narvis belt, or any gandalfs (huh and 2 sneak attacks in hand) no citadel plate, dwarrowdelf axe was very late, no beorn etc.

So onto the Hobbit.

Have setup first encounter deck and selected out a player deck. I have decided at first to try one of their suggested period decks, so went for the leadership/spirit deck. Looking at the cards I am unsure on this, but will give it a few goes before I look to deck design. First deck without core Gandalf.

So next play session will see how it goes.

Yeah...I don't remember thinking too much of those period decks.

As for no Core Gandalf...that's kind of a hard pill to swallow for where you are. OHaUH Gandalf has recently become really good with Merry and Narya but Nori just can't lower your threat fast enough to make him effective in my experience.

But hey--maybe you'll prove me wrong! Good luck!

Think im gonna get stomped..

Another go at shadow and flame with a loss due to threat bust. I simply didn't draw the key cards I wanted (poor deck balance lol) so had masses of resource but not the right useful cards to spend them on. Finished still on stage 1 with only 1 progress (that **** location that only allows progress if Balrog is hurt) and balrog with 13 damage (though was mostly untouched for most of the game) cave troll was skulking in staging too up until last couple of turns.

Didn't draw celebrians stone, or narvis belt, or any gandalfs (huh and 2 sneak attacks in hand) no citadel plate, dwarrowdelf axe was very late, no beorn etc.

So onto the Hobbit.

Have setup first encounter deck and selected out a player deck. I have decided at first to try one of their suggested period decks, so went for the leadership/spirit deck. Looking at the cards I am unsure on this, but will give it a few goes before I look to deck design. First deck without core Gandalf.

So next play session will see how it goes.

Yeah...I don't remember thinking too much of those period decks.

As for no Core Gandalf...that's kind of a hard pill to swallow for where you are. OHaUH Gandalf has recently become really good with Merry and Narya but Nori just can't lower your threat fast enough to make him effective in my experience.

But hey--maybe you'll prove me wrong! Good luck!

Im not holding out hope, they arent deck designs im comfy with but i do like the idea of trying the suggestion decks before my own decks.

Think im gonna get stomped..

Well, at least you'll be able to get a glimpse at the quest before you run it through for real with your deck.

There's some errata for the Troll Key and Troll Purse you should check out when you're ready to run the Quest. I don't remember exactly what the problem used to be but it was really easy to get into a situation pre-errata where you couldn't get the Treasures without completely exhausting the encounter deck.

So going on to try out the Hobbit after Khazad-Dum eh?

Good luck! Not a big fan of the hobbit boxes so I hope you enjoy them! Some of the quests are extremely hard... especially for a limited card pool... battle of five armies still gives me a lot of trouble even with a powerful deck made up of the entire cardpool!!

Heirs of Numenor and against the shadow is brutal too if you are going on to that cycle after the Hobbit Boxes......

its going to be very different from Mirkwood and Dwarrowdelf! All the best of luck! Hope to hear about your experiences soon!

So going on to try out the Hobbit after Khazad-Dum eh?

Good luck! Not a big fan of the hobbit boxes so I hope you enjoy them! Some of the quests are extremely hard... especially for a limited card pool... battle of five armies still gives me a lot of trouble even with a powerful deck made up of the entire cardpool!!

Heirs of Numenor and against the shadow is brutal too if you are going on to that cycle after the Hobbit Boxes......

its going to be very different from Mirkwood and Dwarrowdelf! All the best of luck! Hope to hear about your experiences soon!

Still hoping for fun.

Once your card pool expands a bit more some of the quests from VOI and Ring Maker Cycle as well as some of the quests from the Lost Realm and Angmar Awakened cycle are on the lighter or easier side.

Good luck with HoN/Against the Shadow and the Hobbit quests though! Might take a little bit to get used to the increased difficulty.

Actually Encounter at Amon Din fairly early in the AtS cycle is one of the easiest quests in the game so that will give you a bit of a break in the middle!

Yeah its definitely still fun, a few quests a bit less so than others.... (for me personally at least into ithilien, flies and spiders and the lonely mountain are amongst the worst designed, least fun to play and most broken/) just a fair bit harder. You will obviously get a whole handful of new player cards though which will help. For that particular cycle it might be worth while using cards from future expansions (if you own any) rather than playing in the whole progression method as some quests can be seriously hard. Progression style will only make it even harder than it already is.

I, for one, really enjoyed The Hobbit boxes and count The Lonely Mountain and The Battle of Five Armies among my favourite quests.

I just finished playing Heirs of Numenor and the Against the Shadow cycle in January, playing progression style straight solo, as well as 2-handed. I found most quests in HoN and AtS were actually easier to beat straight solo than 2-handed... and I'm no Seastan :-). Siege of Cair Andros is an awesome quest (that one might have been easier 2-handed), as are The Steward's Fear and Blood of Gondor. I swore a lot at The Morgul Vale (and, to a lesser extent, at Into Ithilien 2-handed). Thematically, I think HoN/AtS is superior to Mirkwood and Dwarrowdelf.

Looking forward to it all

Wow--interesting.

I really didn't know that the Hobbit Boxes were considered all that difficult. I would have said they were for the most part on-par with the Dwarrodelf cycle quests if not a little easier. I think I only ever lost one of those Quests and I've played through all of them a couple times. And I usually consider myself a pretty average player.

HoN, on the other hand, destroyed me the first time I played through it. Probably ran Into Ithilien a dozen times before scoring a win (probably by luck!) and Cair Andros took me down 3 or 4 times too before I cracked it. Difficulty did cool down a bit from there but I got slapped around hard at first.

I play almost exclusively two-player, all-purpose decks, though, so that could account for my different experience in difficulty. But for me HoN was way harder.

Another nice thing about doing the Hobbit Boxes next is that you'll have a solid based of Dwarf cards when you're done.

Hmmm

so today I had a go at "we musr ere away the break of day" without foreknowledge and using one if the suggested decks.

Epic fail

Firstly, I powered through stage 1 too fast without realusing what stage 2 would bring. So I didnt have enough resources or allies/cards out in play.

Second, woah once you hit stage 2 the threat in staging rockets up. My ultimate demise was a threat bust as I had heroes defending/attacking so very little questing so my own threat went up masses each turn and when starting at 30, it was only about 3 turns until bust.

But...

Also I think the suggested deck was crap for this scenario. You get enfaged by a troll with 10 health and 2 defence while his mate sits in the staging area with active card text saying only one character can attack at a time... so without ganging up this means I can only damage the troll with a character of 3 attack or more, which in this deck is only Gandalf or Thorin.

Well Thorin gets sacked first troll turn and Gandalf never showed up. So I had no way at all to kill the first troll while threat just skyrocketed.

Wasnt happy at all with the ffg "suggested" deck. This quest seems very combat aimed and the deck had none of that. Due mostly to the deck, I had no way to damage them thus no way to win. Wasnt happy.

So a redesign on deck is a must. Cant be bothered right now as this game really deflated me, I never felt things looked like they could go right.

In doing a deck design for this, I think high damage from single character looks important, which does Im afraid make me think of Gimli. Gimli features so much in my deck designs Im starting to feel I rely on him too much and would rather have alternatives to get my high damage. One way is many allies but that would not work for this scenario, so it will likely be Gimli again.

Never thought an ffg deck would fair so bafly against the scenario it was meant for. This makes me think the two suggested decks are supposed to be played together in a two player game, which would probably give a much beter chance as well as soooo many gandalfs, but I like single handed solo thus two decks arent for me at this stage.

Not a great playthrough compared to most of mine.

I just looked over those deck lists. I would have to say there is no way they were designed for solo play and definitely should be played 2 player (2 handed). The other deck even uses your much loved Gimli.

I did wonder when I assembled the deck, but as I knew nothing of the scenario/adventure decided to risk it.

Dissapointed really, wanted to pkay this time as revommended.

oh well, deck designing it is

A lot of people still play solo and use two decks, if that idea appeals to you.

A lot of people still play solo and use two decks, if that idea appeals to you.

I did wonder when I assembled the deck, but as I knew nothing of the scenario/adventure decided to risk it.

Dissapointed really, wanted to pkay this time as revommended.

oh well, deck designing it is

Yeah, I must admit that I had doubts about those recommended decks in The Hobbit saga when I first saw them. Never bothered trying them. I was just surprised that FFG would suggest something so obviously sub-standard.

I managed to complete the entire Hobbit saga progression style with the same three dwarf heroes, so it definitely is feasible. I'm sure you'll figure out a winning strategy before long, Alex.

I was, however, disappointed that I could not have a solo deck with all 13 dwarves that went on the Hobbit quest... and if I recall correctly, Gimli and/or Dain were among my heroes, which was just a little anti-thematic, but oh well... I still really enjoyed the variety and unique challenges presented by the 6 quests, some of which remain among my favourites to this day.

Im considering:

Nori / Gimli / Dain with associated allies and cards ( What, no Eowyn... yup you read it right!)

I once built a deck with those heroes, and that was the reason for begin buying nightmare. I did once defeat a Journey in the Dark 3 players, winning after both the other decks died. And that was an easy victory in the end.

Then I used cards up to ring-maker (it was when ring maker was new), so your will not be as powerful as it would be with more cards, but it´s quite good (even without Éowyn ).