(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.

Hehe awesome, Ive seen people mention its a difficult one, so no illusions about doing well on it

Trying not to peek at the cards as I want to enjoy and explore each expansion on its own before moving on to the next. My buying pace is much much further ahead than my playing pace, so I need to be careful not to flood the play experience.

Im sure Ive got a lot of games in Hunt/Gollum yet but will post report for you to laugh at with Carrock when I get there

Hunt for Gollum is a little bit harder with 4 players. It is a lot easier with a solo player or 2 players.

Conflict is really hard the first time you go through it, but get a lot easier to beat after you discover how.

Another thing, I'm not sure, but one of my mistakes early when I didn't knew the rules too well was assign undefended damage to allies. There was one of your comments that gave me the impression that you were doing it, not sure.

Hunt for Gollum is a little bit harder with 4 players. It is a lot easier with a solo player or 2 players.

Conflict is really hard the first time you go through it, but get a lot easier to beat after you discover how.

Another thing, I'm not sure, but one of my mistakes early when I didn't knew the rules too well was assign undefended damage to allies. There was one of your comments that gave me the impression that you were doing it, not sure.

Nope, not assigning undefended damage to allies only goes on heroes (not sure where I game that impression but havent done it)

I can assign "defended" damage to allies (usually killing them) but thats a different matter.

Thanks for checking though, as I do want to be playing the game correctly

A great description for Conflict at the Carrok quest would be its like a puzzle. When you first play it its hard to figure out but after you beat it a couple times, it will go from one of the hardest quests to one of the very easiest quests.

I agree with Khamul. Even straight solo, I only lost my first couple of games vs. Carrock, but have seldom lost since. Once you figure out the "formula," it ends up being one of the easiest quests in the game. Still a fun one to discover… and my GF likes playing it with me 2-player, so bonus points there!

Great stuff looking forward very much to Carrock now, but need to get a good number of play on huntygollum first as well as try some variant decks with huntygollum (and build up some (hopefully) wins before Carrock smashes me hehe)

Oooh two good game at huntygollum with same trisphere deck.

Id decided I would have one more go at it before trying a leadership/lore deck against it as the current one seemed to do so well...

So game1, i smashed the quest again good fun and through to victory. But it was so quick I thought, yeah another go with this deck ... i lost! It was so tense.

Turn one the setup was a clue, so i drew a guard card and it wad hunters from mordor. Yikes before I even start I have 4 threat in staging from a 4attack enemy. This will be plus the first staging card.

The game was tense, i kept clearing a mordor hunter just one turn after another had surfaced, so kept struggling with questing while trying to block/kill them while locations started to build up in staging. Couldnt get enough allies out to tackle the hunters (afterwards I checks and I had needed to engage every single hunters in the deck, didnt manage to discard any). Kept losing allies to blocking, gimli had the plate armour but maxed on damage so he was hitting for awesome amounts but only once per turn wasnt enough.

I finally lost all my heroes as two hunters engaged due to threat (losing questing) and I couldnt block and attack them both through two turns and lost heroes, game over. Threat was about 36 (id reduced it twice through the game through the spirit card and gandalf) there were only two cards left in the encounter deck before a reset.

Felt like an epic battle to the final loss. Very fun.

Has made me want to complete this quest once more with this deck before trying a leadership/lore against it

Real fun two games!!

Another win against huntygollum. Hard fighting and hard questing this time, but still success.

Next will be same game with a lore/leadership deck. I think it will be a lot harder without Gimlis high damage and Eowyns high wp

Now you got nightmare for mirkwood! Wow you have a huge collection for a new player! Haha, I'm sure you will get everything anyways eventually so all the same. Keep up your accounts on your adventures, they are quite interesting to read!

Now you got nightmare for mirkwood! Wow you have a huge collection for a new player! Haha, I'm sure you will get everything anyways eventually so all the same. Keep up your accounts on your adventures, they are quite interesting to read!

Thank you very much thats nice of you to say

I am enjoying making the posts, the fact that some enjoy reading them is a bonus and very nice to know.

Regarding the collection....Oooooh you dont know the half of it.. I have a big number birthday coming up and my wife wanted to get me an expensive amount of cards (to match her jewellery gift size as she had a big number this year too). Basicaly, she wanted to get me something I would really enjoy and continue enjoying.

I am a collector/hoarder of games, so whatever happens to the future of the game I will always own it and always play it (baring accidental damage) so she sees this as a longterm investment present...... Because of this, she asked me to place an order for as much of the content as I could in uk stocks right now.

When it all arrives, the only things I will be missing are: No deluxe at all, 1 Adventure pack, 4 Nightmare packs, 1 POD.

Thats one heck of a card hall. Yup especially for newbie.

Much excitement

I will keep posting reports. My next game will be the lore/leadership against Hunt For Gollum. Depending on how that goes will affect if I tweak deck and have many replays trying to beat it, or if I decide to open up Carrock and get slaughtered All good fun

"Now it's most of it, have spent a lot"

How many weeks did this take you? 3???

When it all arrives, the only things I will be missing are: No deluxe at all, 1 Adventure pack, 4 Nightmare packs, 1 POD.

Thats one heck of a card hall. Yup especially for newbie.

Much excitement

Holy crap, man!

You better really love that woman and never let her go! :-)

"Now it's most of it, have spent a lot"

How many weeks did this take you? 3???

From 20th March, so more like just over 6 weeks....... but still quick huh. Also, most of it is going into hiding until my Birthday in June.

Watched a pack on my wishlist go out of stock overnight and didnt want to wait until birthday to find more out of stock, so bought em now.

Getting fog on the barrow downs wont be easy though unless i pay over the odds from USA.

When it all arrives, the only things I will be missing are: No deluxe at all, 1 Adventure pack, 4 Nightmare packs, 1 POD.

Thats one heck of a card hall. Yup especially for newbie.

Much excitement

Holy crap, man!

You better really love that woman and never let her go! :-)

Hey I deserve it, Im a catch!!

Getting fog on the barrow downs wont be easy though unless i pay over the odds from USA.

I usually order PoD stuff from FFG and it's not that expensive. Customs triggered only above a certain value threshold (usually 40 EUR), and shipping fees are proportional to the weight of the item. So, it shouldn't be too harsh on you if you get a couple of PoD

Thanks, postage for small number of packs seems steep, while very good for larger numbers... which is sadly when customs hits. I probably will ffg them though.

Had the next hunt for gollum but with lore/leadership this time. I won, though it felt longer/harder yet finished with no damage on heroes.

Eowyns questing was replaced with Berevor plus allies. While Gimilis attack was replaced with Gloin plus Dunedain mark plus allies.

So the main difference was a LOT more allies, which really took off once Faramir was in play (last round with Gandalf also questing was an all-in for over 20-odd wp).

Things I missed most were the location-assist allies of Spirit and the threat reduction of spirit (ending threat was 40-odd before last-round gandalf reduced it).

A good win.

I did have a dodgy time towards the end of phase 2 when I lost my only clue and was trying not to progress to phase 3 (only to instantly reset to phase 2) while at the same time trying not to raise threat.. while waiting for another clue...tense.

I think one more play at hunt for gollum with this deck before i go back to my tri sphere and open Carrock

I just placed a pod order.

1 saga nm, 3 normal nm and a pod scenario.

The equivalent packs bought in this country would have been £37.50 if available

From ffg with international shipping it is worked out as £54

So £16.50 extra

Feels steep though if you divide it between packs its not too bad. If customs sting me, then it will have been very expensive.

Its a shame that some pod are apparently not brought in by uk distributers (I emailed and asked)

Well an epic epic game of hunt for gollum using leadership/lore

I did win, but it was really drawn out.

Early on I got bogged down with locations as well as having a few surge-frenzies. Took most of my game to get past stage1.

First time Ive had the reset back to stage2 happen as well and that was more than once.

Lost clues back into the deck.

Went through my entire deck.

Went through the encounter deck twice and was into the third go of encounter deck.

By the end I had a complete army of allies.

Really had some judgement moments keeping questing low in stage2 after i lost a clue and needed another before stage3.

I played all 3 gandalfs during the course of the game, but also 2 sneak attack Gandalfs, so kinda 5 Gandalfs, 4 of which were used to lower threat, so a full 20 threat lowered and yet the winning turn threat was at 48 so really close call.

Very long/epic game.

With the encounter deck reshuffles, youve no idea how many times i killed those **** crows due to their card mechanic putting them back in the deck.... ive no idea myself how many times i engaged them.

No heros lost. Fun game.

Next game will be Carrock

Two games at Carrock with Trisphere

Game 1....smashed, took me appart. Those Much Adders came in early and Gimli was the only one who could defend without damage, but another card as shadow added +1 so Gimli went followed by the others. What damaging creatures they are.

Game 2...Success! All the cards came right. No Muck Adders as enemies. Got Gimli+Dwarven Axe+Plate Mail+ lotsa damage early so he was hitting for about 11/12 ish yeah! Added to Beorn ally they were hitting for lots. Faramir helped with questing to keep threat under control and two lots of Gandalf reduced the threat right down so that I could choose to engage trolls one at a time in stage 2. After only one turn of Beorn defending I got the objective ally at 8-resource and so he was defending trolls for free, and so one at a time gimli/beorn killed them while objective-ally was defending.

EDIT:oh and I even had an extra troll, hill troll, in staging as well as the uniques. Gandalf had soaked his hit though and he went down under Gimli/Beorn.

Pretty much went clockwork yay!

Fun games

Edit: I think keys to the success were:

High damage hitters (Gimli/Gloin) taking yrolls out in 1 turn

Getting the objective ally in to defend (Theodred generating the resource)

Reducing threat a LOT to keep trolls in staging and take them one at a time.

Eowyn/Faramir/generic-allies questing high to stop threat-increase. Even with all trolls in staging.

Those I think were my key aspects.

Another good strategy is to "turtle" your way through stage 1 -- use Denethor and/or Henamarth Riversong to scry the encounter deck so you know what's coming, and do your best to have your will match the threat in staging. By staying on stage 1 as long as possible (and reducing your threat as low as you can), you can raise a huge army of cannon-fodder and extra attackers along with Grimbeorn before you head to stage 2. I have seldom lost with that (cowardly) strategy… but some games have lasted more than 25 rounds! :-)

Anyway, congrats on your first victory vs. the Carrock… :-)

4 more goes at Carrock

First two with my tri sphere, both wins though one was close.

Then third was lore/leadership and i got bashed. Simply outclassed.

Fourth was trisphere again and i got beat. I was doing really well then first step of stage 2 i got the card that raises threat by all cards in staging. Bust the 34 and all trolls engaged.

I had gimli up high as well as grimbeorn and beorn and was holding my own not too badly but the 3 threat increase per-troll attack bust the 50 limit before I could stop it.

Next stop Rhogosbel

Having glanced at it, the number of eagles/ranged/healing required means a total deck redesign... so cant play it just yet, need to think about the deck first

Oh gosh, I remember Rhosgobel! Haven't played that one in ages! Yes, load your deck with as much healing as you can(lore of imladris most importantly) and plenty of card draw to dig it out! Lore is a must in this quest! Rhosgobel is similar to Carroll in that you have to figure out the right speed to quest as you are playing. Rhosgobel is one of the most hated quests by some and others really like it! I believe GrandSpleen has Rhosgobel as one of his very favorites. Anyhow, good luck and looking forward to seeing how you fare against saving the eagle in Mirkwood forest!

Thank you

My current deck is high on questing but low on healing and although very hard hitting in combat, i think none of it is ramged. So it really really does look like a full new deck construct.

I really need to think about this one.

Im thinking if swapping Gimli for Legolas, swapping some basic allies for eagles, then getting in more healing.

At the moment my healing is nimrodels via spirit-eowyn. So if i want more healing i have to pull in lore, which means dropping eowyn or theodred.

While I love celebrians stone, sneak attack and steward of gondor, i think eowyns questing, spirits threat reduction and location management might be more key, so i think theodred may sit out.

Radagast added of course.

Slightly worried that with gimli gone i wont have a huge hitter or automatic damage soak, but will see how that goes before tweaking.

Need to spread out the cards and do some choosing, but as the deck will be so different, i need to write down my current deck first as it is a favourite now

Keep in mind that Daughter of the Nimrodel can only heal heroes, not allies (so Wilyador can't benefit from her power).

Rhosgobel is a quest that demands a specialized deck build and not just for healing. I didn't hate the quest, but I didn't care for it much because of the required total rebuild.