Ok heres an interesting one to collect some data to see what quests to play when your time window is limited.

I suspect Passage Through Mirkwood would be a quickie so il give that its own slot. Also number of players/hands will affect too.

So:

1: In your answers to the questions below, are they generally1,2,3or 4 handed/players?

2: How long dors a PT-Mirkwood usually take you?

3: Whats your other quickest quest?

4: How long does your answer in "3" usually take?

Ill add in the obvious Joke myself: Dol Guldur is quickest cos I die in turn 1 etc Obviously I do mean successful (or mostly) games

Should give interesting statistics for time limited games.

1: Solo player, here.

2: Passage thru Mirkwood. Probably average is 5 rounds for a non-specialized deck.

3: Encounter at Amon Din

4: Around 5-6 rounds.

I don't find Tactics Boromir to be a fun way to win Assault on Osgiliath, but that can be beaten in the first round solo.

Nice thread,

1. Solo

2. Gosh, haven't played this one in so long...I'd say maybe 4 rounds.

3. Dead Marshes.

4. 2-3 rounds.

Honorable Mentions:

Siege of Cair Andros - Around 5 rounds with a specialized deck.

Encounter at Amon Din - Around 5 rounds

One round. Assault on Osgiliath with Boromir and Ancient Harbor.

1) Solo

2) I haven't played that quest in years except for nightmare, which takes about 20m

3) Watcher in the Water or The Seventh Level

4) 15 minutes

Also, I'm laughing about the Dol Guldur joke because in Cardboard of the Rings's Nate French (the game's designer) interview, he said that an early version of that quest had players discard their hand when stage 1B was revealed, and this led to some very epic early-game fails.

1) solo player

2) dead marshes, seventh level, over the misty mountains grim

3) 3 rounds, 5 rounds, 3 rounds

4) 10 minutes

Those are my test quests for new deck, all are insanely easy. Dead marshes is probably the easiest quest in the game. Of the three, seventh level is the most fun. Long dark is also pretty easy.

Thank you all for your info its great newbies wanting quick games have som good info now.

I havent added my info as ive only played two different quests so far so my info isn't really relevant yet.

Thanks again.

1) Mostly 2p

2) average for Passage: 4.8 rounds

3) quickest: Passage through Mirkwood (2 rounds), Journey to Rhosgobel (2 rounds); if we want a non-Rhosgobel, non-Passage quest, we need to go to 5 rounds (Journey along the Anduin, The hunt for Gollum, Return to Mirkwood, Conflict at the Carrock)

4) how long? no idea... never look at the watch while playing LotR!

1) 1-2 players

2) Record 2 turns and for average something like 4 maybe

3) Too many, but some examples: Rhosgobel, Assault, Dead Marshes etc...

4) 2-15 mins. Depends that am i playing solo or not.

Oh and one time i won flight from Moria with 0 turns! Game started, i got blocked by shadow and took a risk, quested with everyone and i won. Poorly designed quest in my opinion.

1) Mostly 2p

2) average for Passage: 4.8 rounds

3) quickest: Passage through Mirkwood (2 rounds), Journey to Rhosgobel (2 rounds); if we want a non-Rhosgobel, non-Passage quest, we need to go to 5 rounds (Journey along the Anduin, The hunt for Gollum, Return to Mirkwood, Conflict at the Carrock)

4) how long? no idea... never look at the watch while playing LotR!

Wow anduin in 5 turns... i feel really rubbish at this game now coonsidering all my losss

Do people think 2 players/handed makes quests quicker in terms of rounds.

1 deck against 1 encounter card isnt aa huge difference to 2 decks against 2 encounter cards...... but theres only ever one quest card needing progress so do 2 decks clear this faster??

Just wondering

1) Mostly 2p

2) average for Passage: 4.8 rounds

3) quickest: Passage through Mirkwood (2 rounds), Journey to Rhosgobel (2 rounds); if we want a non-Rhosgobel, non-Passage quest, we need to go to 5 rounds (Journey along the Anduin, The hunt for Gollum, Return to Mirkwood, Conflict at the Carrock)

4) how long? no idea... never look at the watch while playing LotR!

Wow anduin in 5 turns... i feel really rubbish at this game now coonsidering all my losss

Don't feel so... when I started playing LotR I kept on being trashed by Anduin and Dol-Guldur.. then you understand the timing, when to powerquest, when to defend, what cards are the most important in specific quests and so on (and you still get trashed, lol, but it's fun). And playing 2H / 2p is different than going with a single deck

Do people think 2 players/handed makes quests quicker in terms of rounds.

1 deck against 1 encounter card isnt aa huge difference to 2 decks against 2 encounter cards...... but theres only ever one quest card needing progress so do 2 decks clear this faster??

Just wondering

In general, the more players you have, the fewer rounds the quest will take. As you said, quest cards don't change the amount of progress they need, and more players have more willpower to pour onto the quest. The caveat to this is that it's easy to get location locked the more players you have, and it's also easier to get beat down by the encounter deck that combos on you. Both those can bog down a game or end it quickly. But typically, the more players you have, the fewer rounds it will take.

But game length is affected by so many different factors that there really isn't a standard to point to. Are you power questing to get through the quest as fast as possible? Are you playing slow deliberately to build your forces then push through (turtling)? Are you simply being cautious, keeping your threat low and taking your time?

So much of the game is about playing with pace. I think that one of the reasons that people didn't like the time mechanic is that it forced the pace (something I really enjoyed). When you're solo, you control the pace. When you're two players, there's still some control over the pace as you work together. More players than that, and the encounter deck is going to force pace on you.

Here's a good article on pace:

https://hallofbeorn.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/key-concepts-pace/

And to answer your question:

1) solo or two-handed
2) haven't played in a awhile but probably 4-5 roudns
3) Encounter at Amon Din. Love using this one as a first run for testing decks. Into the Pit, Seventh Level are fun and quick too.
4) Solo: probably average 6-7 rounds. Two-handed: 3-5. I don't typically keep track so I don't know.

I tend to play very aggressively against the most difficult quests, to limit the number of encounter cards that are revealed. The longer the game continues the more likely it is for a "game-ending" card or combination to be revealed so I will typically use action advantage and send most of my characters questing each round. For this reason, some of my quickest victories have been against the most difficult quests. Nightmare Into Ithilien comes to mind as a quest that I defeated (narrowly) in just a few rounds. To be fair, the games that I lost against that quest went even more quickly.

https://hallofbeorn.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/breaking-news-giant-bear-dominates-in-battle-none-surprised/

1. Solo player.

2. Approx 4 rounds.

3. My quickest was " the seventh level".

4. All depends from a touch of luck but I killed that one with 37 points so let's call it almost 3 rounds

Solo (Without Assault):

1. Watcher in the Water (win in round 1)

2. Seventh level (win in round 3)

2-Players:

Journey along the Anduin (win in round 2)

3-players:

Escape from Dol Guldur (win in round 2)

4-players:

Passage through Mirkwood (win in round 1)

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Despite quick quest data seems as a useful thing when short on time. I think these stats won't really help you that much. The main reason they went so quickly was mainly because of dedicated deck design (which costs an awful lot of time). Furthermore notice that the amount of rounds is lower than the amount of quest cards you need to pass. This isn't possible by any random deck.

If you want to play something in a short time I guess it's better to look at a set of quests not to pick:

for multiplayer games I'd say the following:

Foundations of Stone

Into the Pit

Catch an Orc

Dunland Trap

Conflict at the carrock

Flight from Moria

Morgul Vale

Stewards Fear

Hobbit-boxes (all 6 quests probably)

Breaking the Fellowship

Siege of Cair Andros

Battle of Lake Town

Three Trials

The Stone of Erech

Fog on the Barrow Downs

Solo (Without Assault):

1. Watcher in the Water (win in round 1)

I played that scenario recently and after a rough start I got a easy way to deal witch watcher by Elrond way to play fast many characters plus " hail of stones", but I'm genuinely interested to know how you beat this in one round

1. 2 players
2. No idea, don't really play that quest

3. Um.. it's probably Into Ithilien or Seige of Cair Andros.
4. depends. Up until very recently it was about 2 minutes after setup.

or did you want me to win?

Solo (Without Assault):

1. Watcher in the Water (win in round 1)

I played that scenario recently and after a rough start I got a easy way to deal witch watcher by Elrond way to play fast many characters plus " hail of stones", but I'm genuinely interested to know how you beat this in one round

Heroes:

Sam - Pippin (Lo) - Eowyn

Setup: Striking Tentacle (2 threat)

Planning:

Good Meal --> Pippin

Hitch --> Sam

Play Bill the Pony.

Commit Quest:

Sneak Gandalf --> kill Striking Tentacle.

Commit All --> 4+3+4+2+1 = 14wp.

Staging:

Makeshift Passage enters play.

14-1 win.

Quest card 1B is explored.

(Setup rules for 2A)

Travel:

Action: Ready Sam + play Ravens of the Mountains (Good Meal)

Shuffle encounter deck. --> reveals Stagnant Creek --> 3 progress on quest card.

Discard Silvan Refugee for Door of Durin. --> Door gets explored.

Travel to Makeshift Passage --> place 2 progress on quest card.

Quest card 2B is explored and you got to 3 Victory points by Doors of Durin.

Quest is won @ end of Travel phase.

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Not how every game would go but the main idea was to rush through 1B with 1 ally to chump on Watcher in refresh,and in round 2 rush through 2B with exploring door somewhere in between.

But with some luck you don't need 2 rounds on this plan.