Howdy!

As per subject, what's your win-loss ratio with Escape from Dol-Guldur (normal mode) and what to you think it's satisfctory ratio (i.e. something that makes you happy with your decks)?

I created two new decks (direct damage Leadership + Tactics and a Silvan deck Spirit + Lore) and so far I'm at 4 victories and 3 defeats. All three defeats were very close calls (I lost the last one for 1 missing progress marker on the last stage), with the Nazgul being defeated every time, yet still I'm not happy. I found out the problem in the deck (not enough drawing cards so that it happens that at stage 3 I have plenty of resources but no cards in hand) and possibly fixed it by adding Ancient Mathom to the mix (I'm using 2x core sets and cards from the first cycle only, and I won't change this until I have 200 plays done), but this made me wonder about what makes you happy with this scenario

Thanks in advance for stories shared and comments

JULIA

I'm probably going to be frowned upon for this, but I consider this scenario extremely poorly balanced. It's tough as nails to beat solo, but it's a simple cakewalk with more players. Me and my friends have beaten it with the core set starter decks(!) in a 3 player game, yet it's a pain in the arse if you are trying to beat it solo with a powerdeck.

There is a simple reason behind it: fixed 3 amount of cards in the staging area(which is adequate only in 3 player game, in 4 player game it becomes too easy), 3 daunting objectives that hinder you that you must equip(which is easily mitigated by having a lot of heroes in play, i.e. multiplayer). And that's just the tip of an iceberg.

I play this scenario solo only when I'm feeling lucky or feeling like I'm ok with getting a couple of my teeth grinded.

My win/loss ratio with this scenario is: a few/a lot in solo, a lot/a few in multiplayer.

As for the story, I'm afraid I played it too long ago to remember one, but what I remember is that when we've beaten the scenario with the starter decks, there was a Gloin with that Shadow Key objective attached(I think) and a Self Preservation, so it was almost like a second Steward of Gondor

Why would you be frowned upon for giving your opinion?

Also, I think the consensus will agree with you. I know I do.

It's as you say: rock hard solo because of all the objectives.

This quest was designed with multiple players in mind.

The OP is playing with two decks too.

And as for her question:

I did beat it solo a couple of times at the time before Heirs of Numenor was released, with a Legolas,Glorfindel,Elrond deck.

The ratio is a bit of a guess, but it should be around 25% win I'd say.

Two handed solo would seriously have boosted that.

And as John said, in 3-4 players it's not so challenging.

Me and my buddies actually never lost I think, but we only played it a few times.

Thanks for the answers, guys.

Indeed, I'm aware the difficulty of the quest varies quite a lot with the number of players involved, that's why I was curious of general experiences playing 2H / with 2 decks. I played a few more today, so far out of 9 games played, I won 6 times, losing 3. Doesn't sound too bad. Possbly there's still quite a margin of improving, I'll try a few more in the coming days

Playing SOLO (1 tri-sphere deck), with only ONE Core Set, I only managed to win 3 times out of about 30 games (I think). The losses are always short games, lossing (or giving up) in round 3 or 4.

What I don't like about the scenario is the setup. You have to draw your setup hand (and have possibly shuffled your deck already from mulliganing) and then have to randomly select a prisoner. What maybe a 'great starting hand (maybe from mulligan) could turn out to be useless if a hero that generates the resources for those cards in the starting hand is the prisoner.

i do 2 hand or 2 player, I cant really say my w/l ratio, i havent been keeping track, and I don't play this scenario all that often anyway. 6w and 3 losses out of 9 games seems really good though. I would say you're on fire. I usually lose this scenario based on who the captive is at the beginning. sometimes a hero gets captured that is critical, or locks you out of a sphere that you need, or something lke that.

I've only attempted it a couple of times so far (solo) and lost each time. 'Losing' a hero from the get-go is what hampers me. Been trying to think of the best approach to it but not tried since I bought my last lot of adventure packs. I should be getting Black Riders soon, so will have a crack with a Hobbit deck and see how that goes.

Only played it solo and with core set cards, but got hammerred every time. Only scenario so far that i have skipped as a solo single hand player.

Once I feel my card pool has grown that I can try another solo single hand i will revisit.

With single handed solo I imagine trying a monosphere deck may work better due to prisoner aspect.

Not going to try for some time yet though.

Hello Julia!

I think if you're playing 2 players with cards from just Core+Shadows, 4/7 looks decent.

Especially if you're playing with thematics deck (Silvan with your card pool is not really a deck that benefits from some trait affinity) I would consider that satisfying.

Thanks for the further feedback, guys, much appreciated

As for the problem of "no matching resources vs player's hand": true that, but you can

a) be sure you quest strong enough to contain the time you have 1 less hero (so far I generally spend 2 rounds on stage 1, and once it happened that I was able to free the prisoner at the end of round 1)

b) work with cards allowing hybrid characters to be generated (by means of Songs, for instance) so that you can actually have a second choice even if the specific matching resource hero is captive)

But clearly, soloing this is more of a problem than playing 2p.

Thanks Eu Indeed, I'm mostly playing thematic. I went with Celeborn as one of the heroes, tho, to give the Silvan trait a boost (not so sure if Celeborn was released in the first AP cycle, so, possibly it's the outsider here). Still, I mostly use Spirit / Lore cards to control the staging area, and allies are mostly played through the Leadership / Tactics deck, so, actually I'm not seeing that many Silvans around

Celeborn is from the 4th cycle.

Ewww i hate this quest...well in solo i have really small win ratio (not even telling you because it's so bad) and in two player game we will win about 1/5 of times. As Constantine said this quest is very unbalanced and actually i haven't played this quest for a long time...there are just so bad memories of this quest

The pure solo win ratio for Dol-Guldur NIGHTMARE is about 1 win for 268 defeats.

Seriously, it's by playing Guldur NM solo that I learned to loose at a card game.

I think I once played a nightmate dol guldur with core spirit-leadership deck out of despair/for laughs... and won. I don't think I had an encounter draw luckier than that time. Ever. It was literally 0 my impact on the game, just super harmless encounter cards from turn to turn

The pure solo win ratio for Dol-Guldur NIGHTMARE is about 1 win for 268 defeats.

Seriously, it's by playing Guldur NM solo that I learned to loose at a card game.

LOL, I'm not at Nightmare level at all (I played only Passage through Mirkwood on nightmare, I won on the third try, but I still don't know how it happened, and I'm sure before I try anything else on Nightmare I'll need at least 1K plays under my belt), and even if I were, I'd be scared to death by soloing DG

Celeborn is from the 4th cycle.

Ok, thanks I made a pool of heroes, and slowly discovering their interactions and abilities (I noticed Celeborn mostly because of Dward King Bronze Beard here). It's a very slow process, but honestly, I'm happy with this, I want to discover the game a tiny bit at a time

Ewww i hate this quest...well in solo i have really small win ratio (not even telling you because it's so bad) and in two player game we will win about 1/5 of times. As Constantine said this quest is very unbalanced and actually i haven't played this quest for a long time...there are just so bad memories of this quest

Sorry for the bad memories :-/

I did a project a few months ago to try to build a deck that could consistently beat Dol Guldur solo. I defined success as having a win ratio greater than 50%--merely having more wins than losses. So I'd typically say if you're doing better than that, you can safely feel you've "beat" this quest.

When I bought the core set, we tried it with my wife twice but failed both with no chance of winning. We left it aside.

We tried again after Heirs of Numenor Expansion

In a two player game we won 2 out of 3, I remember we figured out there is a strategy if we manage to follow we can make it ok (doi not remember which that was, I think quest hard early on)

Then i tried again solo one handed, first in two sphaire deck , failed I think all five tries, then with a monospirit deck (Glorfindel, Frodo and Eowyn ) which lost one and then won next two. Tried a mono lore twice and failed all of them

Never played it since then (that was one and a half year back I think).

I want to try again with only core set, but to find a mood for this I must be drunk or something I guess

I did a project a few months ago to try to build a deck that could consistently beat Dol Guldur solo. I defined success as having a win ratio greater than 50%--merely having more wins than losses. So I'd typically say if you're doing better than that, you can safely feel you've "beat" this quest.

Good to know Thanks for linking the thread, it's an interesting deck Especially since it works solo. I'm more for "a deck to rule them all" type tho (that's why I'm constantly slaughtered at Carrock, no way both my decks are able to control threat and keep those darn trolls at bay for a couple extra rounds, lol)

Hey Julia, would it be possible for you to post your two decks? I also play with two decks and am of the "one deck to rule them all persuasion" or rather two decks to rule them all and am very interested to see the decks you use =)

Sure thing, no probs! Just help me on where to post those (here, another thread, this section, the strategy section), I don't want to mess up with the normal forum rules (I'm still more an occasional reader of this board)

I think, you won't violate anything if you'll just drop the decklist here.

Ok, as soon as I'm back from work I'll do that

So, the decks.

Deck A (53 cards):

Heroes (3):

- Thalin

- Legolas

- Celeborn

Allies (17):

- Faramir (2x)

- Guard of the Citadel (3x)

- Gandalf (3x)

- Gondorian Spearman (3x)

- Horseback Archer (3x)

- Dunedain Watcher (3x)

Attachments (16):

- Steward of Gondor (3x)

- Celebrian Stone (2x)

- Horn of Gondor (2x)

- Dunedain Cache (3x)

- Dunedain Warning (3x)

- Blade of Gondolin (3x)

Events (17):

- For Gondor! (3x)

- Sneak Attack (3x)

- Swift Strike (2x)

- Feint (3x)

- Rain of Arrows (3x)

- Dawn take you all (3x)