And no, it is not harder than Siege of Cair Andros.

Yes, it is.

I must be using the wrong decks; I can't even get past the first stage.

(stupid siege questing!)

It is 100% harder than Siege of Cair Andros.

I got my first win against this deck yesterday after like 20 tries and I'm pretty sure I missed a trigger or two. This quest is hard!

Just for the record, I really enjoyed this quest even though it is exceptionally difficult. There are a lot of very important decision points in the first 4-5 rounds. For example, do you YOLO quest and ignore the Carn Dun Garrison or eat the threat and try and take him out? Once I had my ally army in place though the only real threat to me losing was by way of threating out which very nearly happened even with the favor of Valar. All in all I really enjoyed it.

First try on new year, with a pure Dunedain deck (Loragorn, Halbarad, Amarthuil) which is mostly the one Seastan proposed (i changed 10 cards IIRC). I won !!

As JTG81 writes, the whole game is your first 5 turns. When after turn 5 i had no enemies in staging area (except thraurdir offcourse), with two or three always engaged, and two Northern Trackers in play - with some other allies offcource), it seemed to go easy. Unfortunatelly none of my three Burning Brands ever appeared thus some shadow and doomed effects raised my threat more than i thought, but yet i won with threat on 49.

Loragorn was a beast with steward of gondor, two blood of numenor, two unexpected courage, sword that was broken and the tactics attachment (edit:I had event written which is wrong offcourse) that you discard a resource to add all other on your attack.

Cardboard of the rings beat this quest on their new year's stream, with a drunk Brandon as one of the three players. I guess this quest isn't as hard as we thought.

Cardboard of the rings beat this quest on their new year's stream, with a drunk Brandon as one of the three players. I guess this quest isn't as hard as we thought.

Didn't they give themselves one extra starting resource per hero, though?

Cardboard of the rings beat this quest on their new year's stream, with a drunk Brandon as one of the three players. I guess this quest isn't as hard as we thought.

Didn't they give themselves one extra starting resource per hero, though?

They did, they played "sleazy mode," which is easy mode's +1 starting resource per hero but not removing the gold border cards.

That is a massive boost. Definitely a win on easy mode so doesn't really have any impact on how this quest is.

For the record, PsychoRocka, I put the latest versions of your decks into OCTGN, ran them up against Carn Dum and beat it.

Now, I'll admit I made a couple of slight retcons along the way when I realised I'd done something stupid, and I may have made a rules mistake or two somewhere. And even with those points it was a fairly nightmarish slog culminating in a combat round with two or three extra attack shadows, three undefended attacks killing Arwen and Elrond and putting four damage on Glorfindel where discarding a third different card type to the shadow effect would've meant death. Oh and the decks were at 49 and 48 threat.

BUT, the point is I won, and that having never used the decks before and with a lot of the stuff in this quest causing significant problems for them (Fortress Walls shut down the twins, Power of Angmar blocks Elven Light and Lords of the Eldar, etc). It's totally doable, but your decks are specifically countered by some of the stuff in this quest which really doesn't help.

That is a massive boost. Definitely a win on easy mode so doesn't really have any impact on how this quest is.

You make it sound as if easy mode is not an officially supported mode of play.

Nice job Pocketwraith! After seeing your post this morning I decided to finally revisit this quest after my first go with at least 10 losses and my second go with no idea how many losses (ball park 4 or 5?) and managed to beat it at last on the second go today (after a restart on turn 3 the first attempt).

It was still an immense struggle throughout and I managed to pass 3 player side quests while building up an armada of allies and attachments (Cleared Send for Aid (netting Legolas ally and a Wellinghall Protector), Gather Information and Double Back). Two test of wills were crucial at certain moments as were a few sneak attack Gandalfs and two hardcasted ones as well.

Thaurdir is just a dirty rotten ******* and it will be a long time before I revisit this quest, he kept me on my toes all game and a fair few allies fell to his blade... I didn't get sentinel set up on Elrohir all game but managed to get burning brand on Elrond (as well as unexpected courage) and two wardens of healing out eventually so both decks could safely defend against Thaurdir when need be.

Orc Ambush side quest was downright brutal and I picked out the lowliest orc enemies I could find but still struggled against it, I did clear it the turn after it appeared however (probably would have lost if I did not clear it this quickly..).

So glad I did not get any other nasty encounter side quests and it was hard enough to clear the three player ones.

Once I got play down to simply Thaurdir in play and whatever would appear each turn (and be cleared within a turn or two at most) I was ready to go to stage 2 and had just finished clearing the third player side quest as well. I got to stage 2 and beat it pretty quickly. I managed to beat it without losing any heroes as well somehow.

I got extremely lucky in both my player card draws, side quest effects (getting Legolas and the 3 willpower Ent from Send for Aid was incredibly beneficial) encounter draws and even shadow effects and capitalized on this grinding out my eventual first win against this quest.

I made a mistake at one point (not flipping Thaurdir back at the end of the round whilst on stage 1 and dealing an additional shadow to each enemy in play) but noticed before it was irreversible and managed to fix the error and play on.

It was an incredibly long game and I definitely dragged out how long I was on stage 1 as long as possible.

Happy with the result and glad I can progress past this quest now but still of the opinion it is a crappy quest.

Simply too hard for something that is not at least a nightmare or gencon quest and in a way that is not fun or exciting but just overly punishing, time consuming and annoying. Eager to get my hands on Dread Realm not only for the quest but so that I can stop using proxies of Arwen and Elven Light!
Oh I managed to play Lindir at a point where I had no other cards in hand getting me three cards, that was a random highlight!

That is a massive boost. Definitely a win on easy mode so doesn't really have any impact on how this quest is.

You make it sound as if easy mode is not an officially supported mode of play.

Didn't mean it like that so my bad. Easy mode is fine for those who use it but does not really compare to normal mode (that is the entire concept, it is EASY mode) so a game played on easy isn't really of much use when judging how hard a particular quest is considering the vast majority of people play on normal.

Phew, finally got the last two quests and this one is a beast! Played three games against it to get a feeling of what I'm facing, then did some sideboard action to modify my Dúnedain trap deck. Won first time but made some play errors (mostly not in my favour but still). Tried it again a few times until I got a second win.

Definately harder than Cair Andros imo. But that quest is very anti-trap while this quest can be won with traps. Basically I tried to get three forest snares out as quick as possible, then used a Burning Branded Aragorn to block Thaurdir, Favor of the Valar to survive quest 2a and basically got the entire encounter deck stuck as shadow cards. I shudder to think what kind of beastly deck you need to win without such tricks!

But wow, there are a LOT of ways you can get crushed here! Even in Solo there are soo many combos! Flippin' Thaurdir! I do play it the right way right? If Thaurdir (captain) has 2 shadow cards, and a card effect causes him to flip, he'll prepare to attack, get a third shadow card, attack, flip back (from receiving the 3rd shadow card), then give himself another shadow card. And if one of his first shadow cards is an Orc Grunts, he'll go down to 2 shadow cards after his attack then when he flips to captain and get's a third one he'll attack again right?

Good on CotR to win with easy mode! I think hard quests with easy mode are still very hard.

Finally had a chance to play this quest a few times last night. Geez, it is hard! Definitely the hardest non-NM quest in the game. First I tried it with some of my stock decks and got crushed (Erestor = loss in this quest). Tried it with some paired decks using Legolas and Haldir, but Thaudir kept making unexpected attacks against my ranged deck. Finally I broke down and played it solo with a Glorfindel, Elrond, Treebeard deck with a Seastan strategy I normally avoid (Good Harvest + Steward). Got LoV, Good Harvest, and Steward on the first turn and pulled off a very long victory. It's hard to kill more than one enemy per turn, but it seemed like I would often get 2 or 3.

I love the quest design, but I would have liked it to be a little bit easier. I like to have a little flexibility with my deck design instead of being to required to completely focus on the specific quest.

So, it turns out if you accidentally use the Cursed Dead encounter set instead of Foul Sorcery, this quest is still brutal. Oops!

Well, playing with the correct card set, we won at the second attempt. We only had to make small changes to our decks (mono-lore Trap/Elrond [removed Rossiel and added Haldir], spirit/tactics Rohan with added Haldir-friendly attachments).

Not sure I particularly like it, though. It is hard and also complicated, there was a lot to remember and it's very easy to make mistakes.

FINALLY beat this quest using a straight up Silvan solo deck, Galadriel-Celeborn-Haldir. It took a while, my army got wiped like 3 times, but I always managed to get reinforcements and in the end it took me 2 rounds to beat stage 2. I wasn't even running Sneak Attack Gandalf and I just had 1 copy of Steward (which thankfully I drew mid-game): I feel very satisfied.

Well, playing with the correct card set, we won at the second attempt. We only had to make small changes to our decks (mono-lore Trap/Elrond [removed Rossiel and added Haldir], spirit/tactics Rohan with added Haldir-friendly attachments).

Not sure I particularly like it, though. It is hard and also complicated, there was a lot to remember and it's very easy to make mistakes.

I finally caught up to you all and had my first chance at playing this scenario the other day.

I agree there was a lot to remember.

I don't play solo but I can see why this quest would be quite difficult solo. I played with one of my friends and we used Dwarves and Elrond as we usually do. We didn't run into too much trouble, although I can see why it would be hard. My deck got going and fortunately I was able to get all my Erebor Record-keepers, Erebor Hammersmiths, and Miner of the Iron Hills into play before any single copy got discarded. This made it much less risky to defend due to that one nasty shadow effect.

I did lose Dain near the end because I didn't realize there was a shadow card that got +1 for each ally I controlled lol. +15 hurts a lot I could have just chump blocked, too but I didn't want to risk defending with someone that might die. I didn't think there was a risk of Dain (with 4 defense, and 6 health) dying to a weak little Orc...

OMFG, I finally beat this quest playing 2-handed solo after a ridiculous number of tries. Granted, a lot of those were brought upon myself, since at the start I was trying to beat it with offbeat decks like an untuned Erestor one. And then I refused to use A Burning Brand for a while. (I have some weird aversion to that particular card.)

Until tonight. I sat down and busted out the OP cards: Gandalf/Glorfindel/Galadriel on one hand, Elrond/Lore Faramir/Mirlonde on the other. Wait, Lore Faramir? Well, yes, as has been mentioned a couple of times before, he's actually quite good in this quest with all those high-threat enemies clogging up the staging area. Mirlonde was just for starting threat purposes, as always with her.

I had a near-ideal start, with the Steward of Gondor/Good Harvest combo AND Light of Valinor AND Shadowfax AND A Test of Will. But of course it soon turned into a desperate slog, including an amazing surge-fest of Heavy Curse, Orc Grunts, Orc Grunts, Orc Grunts (!), Heavy Curse, Angmar Orc. (I politely declined the Angmar Orc's offer of another encounter card.) Through Gandalf shenanigans I would manage to use nearly every single Spirit event at my disposal: A Test of Will x3, Shadows Give Way x3, Hasty Stroke x2, Elrond's Counsel x3. I had the Warden heal about a million damage overall. I got Ethir Swordsman x3 and Nenya out and kept them there. I even perfectly timed my single copy of Mirkwood Pioneer.

And it STILL came down to the wire, every resource gone, full damage on heroes (the live ones, at least, as Mirlonde and Galadriel would fall to Thaurdir in the last round). The only thing that saved me, in fact, was a shadow effect bouncing an enemy back to the staging area, which boosted Faramir juuust enough for this:

- 1st player declares attack against Thaurdir with Gandalf and Glorfindel for 6ATK, piercing Thaurdir's 4DEF for 2 damage.

- Shadowfax readies Gandalf.

- 2nd player declares attack with Faramir, ally Treebeard, and Shadowfax'ed Gandalf (thank the designers that this cheese works) for 11ATK, getting Thaurdir for the exact 7 more damage needed to kill him.

The only other times I've felt so much accomplishment from beating a quest were for Into Ithilien and Helm's Deep. What the hell is the nightmare version going to be? Flip Thaurdir every time an encounter card is revealed?

Congratulations! I've made it my personal goal to beat this quest with a generalist Leadership Tactics Dúnedain deck, and i've gotten very close quite a few times, but I fear it will take a while before I actually score the win.

Seems like you got a good power team. Had you considered Haldir instead of Faramir, since he can attack into the staging area? Anyway, good win for you. I love that moment in this game where you finally beat a super difficult quest that had you stomped for a long time.

Seems like you got a good power team. Had you considered Haldir instead of Faramir, since he can attack into the staging area? Anyway, good win for you. I love that moment in this game where you finally beat a super difficult quest that had you stomped for a long time.

I love Haldir, but I was pretty set on the idea of mono-Lore for deep-dig draws, and Haldir is orders of magnitude better when he's got some Tactics weapons. In retrospect, I guess I had A Good Harvest x3 in the deck anyway, so it wouldn't have been crazy to throw in his weapons too. Or even put them in the pseudo-mono-Spirit Gandalf deck.

I think I just wanted to use Lore Faramir for once. It's very satisfying to have him hit for 6 (ranged!) without needing an attachment.

I think I just wanted to use Lore Faramir for once. It's very satisfying to have him hit for 6 (ranged!) without needing an attachment.

Underrated hero for sure!

Just saw this video and it made me think of this thread:

Seastan beat Carn Dum with 2 decks, revealing 3 cards per turn instead of 2!

I really think Boromir needs an errata to limit 5 times per turn, a la treebeard. If he can trivialize each quest this badly, there's something wrong.