Won on the 4th attempt. It was my second play with Faramir/Sam/Mablung and Damrod/Haldir/Galadriel. Spent a very long time on stage 1 building up, then it still took a few turns to get rid of all the Sorcery cards once I was fighting Daechnar. Power of Orthanc can discard the treachery Conditions that get attached to your characters and to the quest, but it can't discard that enemy that attaches to you (it doesn't become a "Condition") so I had to damage him repeatedly and didn't have the direct damage cards to speed up the process.

Stage 3 went by in a breeze, at that point I could quest for around 30 and easily cleared out the Altar and all locations in the staging area in one go.

I like this quest, it has a good flavor.

Personally I liked every quest in the extended cycle. (All 9). I know the Carn Dum was controversial, but I'm fine with a quest like this once in a while.

Noldor development was top notch. In my opinion the Dunedain development was less so, but maybe in the next cycle we'll get more.

Noldor development was top notch. In my opinion the Dunedain development was less so, but maybe in the next cycle we'll get more.

I agree. But it is interesting that Noldor should have developed in cycle preceding their own -- well that is if GH and DC are their cycle (logistically it is). I had longed for more Noldor love since the beginning, and I am so glad to have got it. Even if GH brings just a few Noldor cards (as it surely will), their decks will have gotten stronger.

With that said, I will try different variations of the deck. How about just running 1 Lore hero, Aragorn? Other would be Halbarad and Amarthiul. How does that sound?

My non-trap Dunedain deck is up now here, and uses all Dunedain heroes (Idraen, Aragorn, Amarthiul). It has a weaker early game but a stronger late game I think. It also does better in quests with trap-immune enemies.

I ordered Carn Dum and the Dread Real together, so I hope they arrive in the Netherlands before my holidays are over.

I finally beat Rhudaur as well. When I got it, I had some fairly unlucky draws I think. Luckily for me, I didn't put Steward of Gondor in my deck, so I can 'break glass and include steward in case of emergencies'.

I'm wondering what type of Dúnedain deck I should build with all the cards. Seastan already perfected the Damrod-trap deck I used and I've seen some excelent alternatives as well.

Boromir ally is a lot of fun in this quest, especially with some healing support. He helped me defend 3 Reanimated dead and helped me kill one of them in just one turn.

Edit: Another fun tip. Sneak-attack a Descendant of Thorondor into play when Daechannar enters play to get rid of 2 sorceries for 1 resource!

Tried my first attempt just now with Arwen, Loragorn, Amarthuil ... it felt very easy ... I do not know if it is because I tried Carn Dum so many games, but it did not trouble me except first few turns when Amarthuil got two damage from reanimated enemies and I had not yet Burning Brand on Loragorn. As soon as my allies started to come up and had two enemies snared (my only trap) then it went like a "holiday". Arwens ability with Elven light is great, and Tale of Tinuviel can save your game at some points. Loved Fornost Bowman also, at the last few turns I had two of them and each one was attacking with 5 or 6 (I kept having my reanimated cards engaged and defended with me three Guardians of Arnor)

It took 13 turns cause I kept drawing sorceries on stage two so I could not damage Daechanar, eventually at some point a location appeared (and I reanimated a card instead of drawing another) so with Gondorian Fire on Super Hero Aragorn he was dead meat. On stage three I quested with 25 or something and it was easy, although there where two locations in staging area

Nice quest, I will play it again, but camparing it with Carn Dum it is not a 7 difficulty as it writes. It is also sad that Iarion died, but life goes on and Amarthuil stands as his successor

Second attempt, it was not so easy as my first above, i dumped the game cause i thought i would loose a hero, but while i was getting my cards i found out i was wrong (i had yet one copy of Guardian of Arnor instead of getting an undefended attack), but yet stopped it cause i had most of the cards picked up by that time

I believe i was very unlucky since on turn 8 i had already drawn ALL four Death and calamity treachuries (thus lost 10'cards as reanimated dead !!! including all my test of will cards), one A fell dead and twice the location that when you explore you reanimate a card from hand. Yet i was doing pretty well and if i did not wronlgy think i lost, there were possibilities cause i had most of my allies played.

Anyway, It just confirmed that I like this quest very much. It is very challenging but you have more options to win than Carn Dum

What a fun quest! I was playing 2 player with Jban yesterday, him with his Tactigorn-Merry-Fast Hitch deck that attacks a million times a turn and me with my Reinforcements-Very Good Tale deck. It came down to a crucial turn where we had Daechannar and 5 reanimated dead engaged with Jban, and 5 Sorceries still in play. Using Reinforcements I parachuted in Boromir to help Jban defend his enemies, then he attacked back with Aragorn pulling in all the reanimated dead and killing them off. Then, the MVP of the match, Mighty Prowess, pinged Daechannar each time a reanimated dead was killed and removed all the Sorcery cards from play. Then another Reinforcements from me dropped in a Beorn and a Gwahir under Jban's control to finally kill off Daechannar. Whew!

@Seastan - have you posted that Reinforcements deck? I'd very much like to take a look at it.

@Seastan - have you posted that Reinforcements deck? I'd very much like to take a look at it.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/194378-very-good-reinforcements/

Then another Reinforcements from me dropped in a Beorn and a Gwahir under Jban's control to finally kill off Daechannar. Whew!

Just like in the movie eh?

I had the same experience as Nickpes in I played this back to back after winning Carn Dum for the second time. I DESTROYED the quest, after 1b didn't give much enemies that couldn't be trapped and when I got to 2b I had a had full of Sneaky Gandalfs. I rechecked the rules a lot to see if it was that easy. The next few games where more difficult though, like when Gandalf got removed from my deck, I couldn't keep up with the extra encounter cards while Daechanar kept attacking for a lot. It's one of the harder quests of the cycle, but after Carn Dum it's difficult to see that. It's also quite a unique quest in that it starts easy and WITHOUT forcing you to hurry up, while still being difficult later on if you took too long. Only downside is that luck has a big role here in solo where nasty combo's can appear or not.

Only downside is that luck has a big role here in solo where nasty combo's can appear or not.

Agreed. The Cursed Dead are a cool concept, but there is a huge swing in difficulty as a solo player if you get that 4th one as a shadow card vs a reveal.

Only downside is that luck has a big role here in solo where nasty combo's can appear or not.

Agreed. The Cursed Dead are a cool concept, but there is a huge swing in difficulty as a solo player if you get that 4th one as a shadow card vs a reveal.

When I did Dread Realm I just dropped my threat with a couple of Gandalfs and left four Cursed Dead sitting in the staging area. Much easier than just killing them over and over.

I tried the game another 4 attempts. Won two and lost two.

I noticed that there where two ways I lost. Either early, before I manage to deploy my cards because too many enemies appeared (either from encounter deck or reannimated), or on my second loss I threated out (despite having Loragorn) cause - as happened in most of my games - after 10 - 12 turns I have no deck left (most if the cards get reannimated or descarded by effects) so on stage two I always reveal two encounter cards thus never got rid of Sorceries

On the two games I won the no deck thus two encounter cards thing appeared but I had the test of will cards on me or a burning brand on aragorn etc thus the effects did not hit that hard.

Really like this quest

So, has anyone tried breaking the game yet with Hour of Wrath + Legolas + Sword of Gondolin? I was thinking that in multiplayer, especially if multiple players are packing Sword of Gondolin, this combo can instantly win you the game pretty easily. You can pack up Legolas + Aragorn (T) and whoever with those swords, let a few enemies engage everyone, then kill each one of them for 4+ progress each. So if the remaining quest points are less than 4 * number of enemies you instantly win. Theoretically you can get 6 swords of gondolin on your Wrath team for a whopping 8 progress for each enemy. Maybe add Gimli and a couple of Well equiped, Bofur to search for weapons, Book of Eldacar to get Wrath if discarded. Defender of Rammas, Derndingles and Longbeard Sentries for defense. Foe hammers for card draw and you can more or less completely ignore questing as long as you engage all enemies.

I haven't tried this yet, do you think it can work? And how reliable will it be?

I think the maximum effect there is a bit overkill for any quest, and this does require a LOT of pieces to be in play to be super effective, but I do feel playing Hour of Wrath will be no less game changing than a well timed Path of Need getting played.

What i did is playing the dread realm 2 handed. With tale of Tanuviel,Hour of wrath and one dunedain Cache i defended 9 attacks with loreagorn when Daechanar showed up and afterwards killed all enemies besides Daechanar(due to sorcerys;).

With this Combo Hour of wrath is quite the combat breaker and netting 4 tactics resources is not that difficult

I think the maximum effect there is a bit overkill for any quest, and this does require a LOT of pieces to be in play to be super effective, but I do feel playing Hour of Wrath will be no less game changing than a well timed Path of Need getting played.

Sadly path of Need Needs to be attached to a Location. This Limits its use, as does the Limitation of once per deck. Also you have to trick around with west road traveller and the like for it to stay in game.

Just being an Event makes Hour of wrath that much better.

Path of Need effects every hero though, and for questing - not just combat. It doesn't have to go on the active location, so just put it on the location you are going to go to next. The turn you travel there, your heroes don't exhaust for combat and the following turn they don't exhaust for questing. Even without tricks to try to keep it around it is still often a game changer any time I've used it. HoW is similar in that vein, but because it is an event you are correct that it is easier to use more than once - which is why it only effects one player's heroes, unlike Path of Need.

To be clear though, I'm not disagreeing that HoW is more versatile than PoN. Just that they are very similar in outcome. I just feel it is unlikely where you'd need to repeat the effect. One turn of it's use will swing the game strongly enough in your favor that you shouldn't need a repeat use.

The difference is that Path of Need is a power card, while Hour of Wrath with Legolas is a game ender. Similar to how Seastan made a deck that could win the game by playing Ravens of the Mountain over and over again, Legolas, while not exhausting could put massive amounts of progress on the quest and keep going even when you go to the next quest phase. You don't just clear the board of enemies, you actually WIN the scenario instantly. All you have to do is defend for a few turns to build up enough enemies and find a way to get more Blades of Gondolin on your characters. I'll have to try it out someday I guess.