Thanks i will give it a look. First want to try a few of my own deck tweaks to see if i can manage it. Even if i hadnt made my mistake with the stewards i would have had lots of resource and no cards to play, so i think i have underestimated the value of card draw. More card draw would hopefully have meant i could have spent resources to pull more cards into play to tackle enemies better while questing quicker before that 50 threat bust. May even have pulled Gandalf in to chop that scary threat back.

Hey my thread has the "hot" icon next to it now

Again thanks for everyones comments and advice.

Hey hey hey ive been down the anduin

Another two games

Game one, fail, spectacularly again, though my deck tweaks for added card draw did make things better (gleowine mainly).

I decided Denethor hadnt been pulling his weight. I hadnt had a chance to use his ability much and his defense is great but chump blocking may have been as good. So I decided to swap him out. Berevor was the obvious choice with good all round stats and a 2 card draw ability.

But...

That would up my starting threat to get the troll attaking almost straightaway. So reluctantly I swapped out Aragorn too for Gloin.

With swapped heroes I went for go2 and won.

With a lower starting threat I had an extra turn or two before trollness. I used this extra time to get Berevor drawing cards a-plenty. She became steward of gondor so got lots of resource.

My first draw of encounter card in setup was genuinely a troll. Great luck as it meant no extra staging card and gave me extra chances to quest against low threat.

By the time the troll attacked i had a forest snare to throw at it. I had also drawn two gandalfs so played one and dropped the threat right back down then in combat gandalf helped damage. Galdalfs threat drop sort of cancelled the trolls first hit (before i snared it) with its splash damage to threat. So after that i had the troll snared with damage on it, ok threat level and all heroes in play. Not too long then to kill the troll.

I got a daughter of nimrodel in play and she worked in tandem with gloin against general attacks, he took damage and gained resource while she healed the damage. Theodred got the amulet thingy so became a good questor (adding another resource), Berevor had lots of resoure and kept up card draw and i got faramir out to aid questing. Lots of card draw with lots of resource meant lots of allies, which in turn with faramir meant really high questing and with enough allies that along the raft ride i was able to keep selectively engaging enemies to keep the staging area as low as possible and block/attack them to clear them.

I drew a sneak attack and nearly used it with my second galdalf against the marsh adder (first galdalf obviously in discard pile long ago) but had enough allies to save it for the final fight.

By the time i got to final fight i had an army of allies and only three enemies to engage and a threat of 43.

I played the gandalf even though didnt need to, his initial damage removed one enemy and his attack another so the ally army didnt have much to do to win. Wahey.

I do think i had good luck. Troll as first draw was great and troll 2 vanished as a shadow card. Gandalf were great help (thanks card draw). The nasty Orc Chieftain bloke never made it out of the encounter deck (which was very small by the end). I did have good luck.

Gloin teamed with a healer was awesome. Berevors card draw was so valuable too.

Great game, good win and im happy with the deck/hero tweaks i made.

Going to give the same deck another go at anduin to see how it fares when the draws are not as lucky

Gloin, Theodred and Beravor, eh? Never used that combo -- glad it worked for you. I may have to try it some day! Core Leadership starter deck vs. Passage Through Mirkwood notwithstanding, I never made use of Gloin until Khazad-Dum… and yes, I agree, he can be quite useful when used in tandem with an ally healer, Self-Preservation, Citadel Plate, etc.

Gloin, Theodred and Beravor, eh? Never used that combo -- glad it worked for you. I may have to try it some day! Core Leadership starter deck vs. Passage Through Mirkwood notwithstanding, I never made use of Gloin until Khazad-Dum… and yes, I agree, he can be quite useful when used in tandem with an ally healer, Self-Preservation, Citadel Plate, etc.

Thanks

I think the main reason the combo worked was lower starting threat with big card draw to get things setup before the troll. The Gloin healing combo was added bonus, as was the questing strength of Theodred/amulet/faramir+allies.

There were some lucky draws though so will be interesting how the same deck handles a second go at it.

Thanks for your comments

Another two anduin games with my previously sucessful deck, both losses.

First, just didnt get cards i wanted from draw or mulligan and struggled from the off. Very few carrds out, troll raised threat, enemies engaged, Theodred died, other two heroes took damage and then a treachery card did damage to all characters whixh finished the heroes.

Second go went alot better, got over half way through stage 2 before i bust the 50 threat.

I took a while against the troll, lost theodred again but snared the troll and unfortunately engaged the orc chieftan too. Got to stage 2, had steward of gondor on gloin and he ended up with a ridiculous amount of resource. Things were going ok questing and trying to keep enemies out of staging but i drew a lot of locations and struggled to quest against, took too long and bust 50 threat.

Despite two losses, i was still happy with how the deck performed, just made some wrong choices and some difficult card draws.

Good fun though. Think i will stick with anduin a bit more before either moving to dol guldur (to lose hehe) or am thinking of maybe building a spirit/tactic deck to give that a try from core

Another Anduin an a victory yay.

Starting staging card was a treachery removing progress, of which there was none, so that was good. Then I drew a corker starting hand which included forest snare, son of arnor, sneak attack and steward of gondor, awesome, then my first card draw was a gandalf. I thought it was in the bag. Then I made my mistake. As I had low starting threat i decided to wait a bit before arnor/snare combo on the troll, yet i drew some really high threat in staging and broke my questing and ended up with the troll engaging me early. I sneak attacked Gandalf to lower threat back and defend against the troll. I then started to get smaller enemies engaging and was struggling questing, and two of the location appeared in staging that has about three threat but needs 2 card discards to travel. Id just drawn a second gandalf to go with my first which had returned to my hand, decided i had to get some questing done so needed to clear some locations from staging... so I shuffled my hand... discarded two.......DISASTER....both gandalfs.....oh no.

Managed to clear enemies and then slowly kill the snared troll. Once I got onto the raft I had a lot of allies out, many resources, high questing and not many cards in my hand. Quested the full anduin 16 points in only two turns and had a few enemies waiting for the ambush including a beastmaster and the chieftan, but my threat by now was up to 47 so threat was a real worry. I also drew a card that did 1 damage to all characters which killed about 4 allies in one go. Got a second snare on the chieftan and drew the third gandalf yay, gandalf to the rescue. Gandalf played for 5points, reduced threat back to a safe level and then did some damage in combat. Remainder of my allies chump blocked and heroes finished remaining enemies for the win.

No dead heros yay. Nice win.

Started so well, went really downhill and then came back good again.

Lot of luck on the draws both good and bad.

Should have arnor/snared the troll as soon as i was able.

Enjoyable game.

Now not sure if to design a new deck, tactics/spirit to have a go at anduin or whether to take my leadership/lore into dol guldur

Tried my spirit/tactics deck on Mirkwood and demolished it.

Tried on Anduin twice and got bashed.

First, high threat location drew first turn, bust questing and engaged troll who killed me pretty fast.

Second, troll still engaged too quick but after losing Gimli i fought it off a long time. I had excess progress on the quest and on the exact turn of killing blow to troll, drew another troll who engaged before i killed other troll (thus before quest finished). Couldnt handle a second troll, died.

Decided to finish the session with an Anduin from my cherrished successful lore/leadership deck.

Was doing pretty well on first quest, troll took an age due to lack of forest trap or gandalf so it was raising threat quite a bit... then I drew a surge, which produced a surge, and another, all engaged, so I had 3 enemies plus troll, too much, died.

Maybe a new experience next, a shot at dying in dol guldur

Oh, Dol Guldur is like Anduin x10, man. It's doable in multiplayer, but in single... good luck.

Yeah, I created a thread documenting my experiences vs. Dol Guldur straight solo (and 2-handed) using Core set cards only. Like Trololo says, Dol Guldur is beatable (though very challenging) with a 2-hands or 2-players using a single Core set.

I managed to beat it once (I think) straight solo in so-called "easy mode" (nothing easy about it) using a single Core set.

I have beaten it 5 or 6 times straight solo in standard mode (with random prisoner draw) using the equivalent of Core x3.

All in all I think the ratio of victories vs. solo games played was between 5% and 10% (depending on difficulty level, etc., and that was over 70 games or so!). I can provide a link if you want to see more details on the experience… but whether you play standard or easy mode, be prepared for a lot of cursing and gnashing of teeth if you play straight solo!

I'm sure it probably gets a bit easier with a broader card pool, though I have yet to try.

It's brutal, and in my opinion, should not have been included in the Core set… good luck!

EDIT: The vast majority of my attempts (and all victories) were with 50-card decks.

Im pretty much resigned to failure from everything ive read. I plan to play it a few times losing then move on to hunt for golum, probably to return later with a wider card pool. But for now it will be for the experience with an expectation of loss.

Thanks for the tips

"...It's brutal, and in my opinion, should not have been included in the Core set… good luck!"

But then Glaurung may have never played beyond the core set... and think of all the cool video's we'd be missing out on!

"...It's brutal, and in my opinion, should not have been included in the Core set… good luck!"

But then Glaurung may have never played beyond the core set... and think of all the cool video's we'd be missing out on!

"...It's brutal, and in my opinion, should not have been included in the Core set… good luck!"

But then Glaurung may have never played beyond the core set... and think of all the cool video's we'd be missing out on!

There are just those people who enjoy banging their heads against brick walls.

(No offense to you Glaurung, you're the kind of guy who would bang your head against a brick wall and the brick wall would break.)

Ive had another three losses at Anduin.

Thinking of tweaking the deck, remove a few allies that seem expensive as chump blockers, also considering swapping out Berevor for Denethor. Her card draw has been awesome, but ive found the past few games Ive needed to quest her early in anduin to avoid threat busting and just not got to her draw ability, maybe I would be better with Denethors defense. Also ive had some good things from Henemarth so starting to see Denethors ability as better than I did (drawing an extra troll just as the first engaged was bad, two trolls in one turn).

I think I may try this with keeping Gloin for the lower starting threat. Id like to revist Aragorn but the threat just seems high against the troll.

I also had another case of surge mania which added two enemies to engage and one had the shadow card wolf rider so it was three extra engages in one turn eek.

Ive decided id like to beat Anduin one more time before moving on to dol guldur (then quickly on to hunt for Gollum) May need these deck tweaks though.

Hmm another three losses.

Loss 1: usual lore/leadership deck. Just didnt cut it, cant fully recall what went wrong. Killed by sniper over few turns and evil storm

Loss2: swapped out berevor for denethor. Got to the final fight, but had too many enemies and not enough allies. My turn that instigated phase3 used most of my party, so I found myself being ambushed after the quest phase with most exhausted. Slowly died against too many enemies , 6 i think including two beastmasters.

Loss3: drew all the right cards in starting hand and got troll snared, but i got three high threat cards in staging and kept busting questing. My total will of all characters was less than staging area so even questing everyone I still lost every turn and it just got worse, couldnt clear any locations so just watched the threat go all the way to 50

Not sure what to do next.

Maybe try again with this deck, or swap berevor/denethor, or swap b/d as well as gloin/aragorn....to get heavier hitter. Maybe slim the deck down a bit to get better card draw. Maybe try tactics/spirit again.... maybe try tri-sphere.

I do still want to beat Anduin again before moving to dol guldur and then hunting gollum.

May I suggest giving Eowyn, Dunhere and Denethor a few tries?

May I suggest giving Eowyn, Dunhere and Denethor a few tries?

Haha its funny you should say that, after posting my last message, I went over to re-read you 50card trisphere decklist with a view to trying it after having one more lore/leadership with aragorn.

Im a little worried about hitting power with the heroes, and a bit worried about card-draw/resources for trisphere, but the list has great cards in it and looking forward to trying it

I had two goes with the aragorn set, one got beaten in final fight, other got threat bust on raft.

Went for the denethor eowyn dunhere combo (used the deck from your thread Twicebornh, the 1st september post) have to say i got totally thrashed twice.

The deck quests fantastic!! Eowyn is awesome and the low starting threat brilliant, but in both cases when the troll came I had no snares and simply not enough offensive to damage them so just got killed. I just couldnt do any damage to them even adding everyones attack.

Maybe it was just poor draw on allies.

wandering took seems expensive too in solo when his ability is useless.

will give the deck another try though

Awww… But yeah, you really need to get Forest Snare in your starting hand or shortly thereafter to succeed with Eowyn, Dunhere and Denethor.

So some interesting games.

I decided to give the gimli/theodred/eowyn deck from BGG a try.

Three losses at anduin. The threat starts at 28 and I always had staging cards that needed to be dealt with and Eowyn couldnt quest enough on her own to avoid threat gain and engaging troll.

Still generally managed to kill the troll (once was two trolls, couldnt handle that) and twice onto raft but couldnt quest quick enough and was overwhelmed.

Thats quite a few anduin losses now, was a little disheartened.

Decide to have a pop at dol guldur with same deck. What the heck is that quest. Three cards (guards) in the starting area plus one to reveal at staging... so four cards, yet only two heroes and not enough resources to play allies yet.

Theodred just died in turn 1 by being overwhelmed by engaging enemies then eowyn on her own could quest but nothing else. Died.

Two other games fairly similar. With so little for the player and so much starting in staging, theres a lot of luck in the solo start of this quest.

After the three losses i felt like something new, so i moved hunt for gollum into my playbox. Some nice cards, stuck with same deck but added Dunedain mark to it from the new cards.

Setup and played. Smashed it to victory.

Managed to get my clue late on so treacheries losing clues werent damaging. Eown got celebrians stone so with a discard was questing for 7 even without help. The various encounter draw conditions were fun and did add more to staging each turn than im used to (except anduin raft) but powered through it to victory with one clue.

Was nice to end the session on a victory. I think i will go back to Anduin with a latter deck and dol guldur probably when i feel like two handed, but for now i think a good number of plays at hunt for Gollum will be keeping me busy for a time. A few more plays with this deck and i may rebuild my lore/leadership deck and try that too. I do think Eowyns questing is a bonus on this quest.

Interesting to hear your experiences as you journey through this game! It's fun to think back a few years ago when I was just in your place doing the exact same stuff! Sounds like you are having a good time with the game! Will be fun to hear your thoughts and experiences as you begin the Mirkwood cycle.

Another two hunt for gollum games and another two wins yay!

I do think this deck is really well suited to this quest.

Questing hard gets you through it quicker. Eowyn is great at questing and when she gets Lorien Guide or Northern tracker out that works great, add in Faramir and the questing goes nuclear. Theodred shunts extra resources to Eowns expensive cards which works well. All the while, Gimli can throw his two WP against the quest as well because you almost want him to take an undefended attack just to get his own attack power up and into the mix.

If you then get unexpected courage onto Gimli, you can quest with him and attack beasties (needing an undefended attack, a feint/quickstrike or a chump blocker to take the fall) Snowborn Scout is great for that chump blocker while his play-ability just adds to the questing-monster.

So throwing all this questing power into it really helps.

Any clues go on Eownyn first as she isnt going to go into combat so her danger of losing is down to cards damaging all characters, or is down to treachery cards getting rid of clues. Theodred takes the second clue... I havent got a thrid clue yet but I suspect Gimli would lose it quickly.

The extra staging cards coming up doesnt help, but the way in which they are chosen in stages 1and2 does help to avoid nasty treachery or nasty Morder Hunters. This does make some nasties easier to avoid.

My last game, I did have to engage the Mordor Hunters and they were nasty as I had two clues at that point, but it was so close to the end of the game that I met the winning quest point before they had killed me or me killed them. I still had another chump blocker though so would have almost killed them before I got to the point of needing to take damage on a hero or a valued card (Faramir, Northern Scout or Lorien Guide).

Its a fun quest and its nice to be winning. Its not an eyes-closed win which is good too.

I think I will play a couple more games of this with this deck before trying a different deck against it. I think Leadership/Lore would be fun against it and probably a harder challenge without the questing aspects of Eowyn and her Spirit allies.

Onwards

Hmm I just thought.........Have I been doing something wrong..... when you are doing a "look at the two/three cards and chose one for staging and discard the others" am I playing it correctly that any "when revealled" effects only kick-in on the card you CHOOSE not on the cards you are discarding?? Because the cards you are discarding you are only "looking" at, they arent in play so are not revealled. The card you put into staging is in play and revealled. Is this right or should I be applying ALL "when revealled" aspects of all the cards even the ones I am discarding???

Nope, only resolve the when revealed effects of the card you put into the staging area. The other two cards do nothing and are discarded. Although it can occasionally provide a great challenge, The Hunt For Gollum generally isn't too tough of a quest, so having a good win/loss ratio against it is quite average!

Thanks, glad im doing it right and good my wins are thus indeed wins.

Its a nice scenario.

I feel if it went wrong, you would be resetting to stage two repeatedly, or having to go through the encounter deck numerous times to dig out clues, or facing buffed up strong mordor agents.... but I feel the quest also seems to give you more than one chance to avoid those eventualities, which makes it a quest where playing the cards right is often a win and making mistakes could lead to loss, while luck being a lesser factor than it is in say Journey Anduin.

I think this may make the quest seem easier to experienced good players, while for me it is a nice balanced quest for a newbie.

Its almost like taking passage through mirkwood and adding mechanics for interest.

Enjoying it

(Watch me try a different deck now and get hammered)

(Watch me try a different deck now and get hammered)

(Watch you get to the Carrock and get hammered)

Conflict at the Carrock is a very fun quest that I pull out of the box quite often, but in solo play the trolls can kick your butt if you're not prepared. You will get Frodo in that pack though, and he's great at this quest.