I finally managed to pull out a solo two-handed victory over Helm's Deep today, but the core of the win depended on a pretty janky combo: Path of Need fished out with Word of Command in a Gandalf/Elrond/Splorfindel deck. Once I got to that point, Path of Need (almost) trivialized stage 4/5, since obviously the quest design doesn't require you to explore the active location to make quest "progress", and I had heroes who could quest for 17WP all by themselves.

But surviving until then was a doozy. Mostly I deployed readying effects on a Burning Brand'ed, Shadowfax'ed Gandalf. At this point you can tell that I needed a *lot* of pieces in place to have a chance. Let's not forget Wizard Pipe to get Path of Need on top of the deck so that Gandalf or Elrond (+Vilya!) could play it in the first place. Talk about a low-percentage plan! How are other people approaching this beast of a quest? Is it more tractable if you start with lower-threat heroes?

(I suspect I would've had an easier time if I hadn't been so focused on keeping the second deck pretty thematically Rohan -- Spirit Theoden and Eomer were the anchors, along with nearly all the Spirit Rohan allies. I did end up using Galadriel instead of Eowyn, but her threat adjusting saved my butt a couple of times, her Mirror was super-useful, and Nenya was important for calibrating quest progress on stage 3, so I can accept that. Nevertheless, I thought the willpower generation of Spirit Rohan, along with the ridiculous power of Eomer, would carry the day, but it was a real struggle.)

Raven1015 is doing it with these two decks: https://talesfromthecards.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/campaign-mode-helms-deep-part-1/

I found it hard at first. But whenever I took a mono-Tactics in one hand and a solid questing deck in the other, it felt almost easy. High willpower and combat prowess shall do it just about every time (I would say 4 out of 5 is well manageable).

I managed it with my two handed decks. Took a while the first time (not sure which iteration of my decks I was using) but the second and third wins I managed within far fewer attempts once I got my strategy downpat.

Waiting for my copy of Treason to arrive next month Any tips for this in solo? The quest looks brutal.

Waiting for my copy of Treason to arrive next month Any tips for this in solo? The quest looks brutal.

Gandalf hero.

Waiting for my copy of Treason to arrive next month Any tips for this in solo? The quest looks brutal.

I used Treebeard, Elrond and Glorfindel, took me a few tries but I managed to win. First couple tries I kept threating out, mostly due to Deeping Wall's forced effect. Healing is a big help for dealing with all the archery. This is probably my favorite quest to be released. Very fun and challenging, though I personally found The Uruk-Hai to be harder.