Greetings!

Well it took a while, but I won my first game. I am playing the pre-contructed decks right out of the box (with only 1 Gandalf).

Played the Tactics deck and lost four times. Read some of the forums and realized that deck is not that good solo.

So, I picked Leadership. Got beat three times before winning on my fourth. Got Beorn's Path as my last stage of quest. Threat was around 43. Upon completing the quest, I looked at next card: Ungoliant's Spawn. That was close. I doubt I would have recovered.

Now I will play Lore for a couple games and then Spirit for a couple games just to get a feel for the cards. Then I will add the Mirkwood cards, construct a deck and start those 6 adventures.

Great stuff

Peace

Roger

Congrats! How can we forget those countless playthroughs of Passage through Mirkwood and Journey along the Anduin.

thanks!

I am going to play it more as an exercise in learning how the decks/spheres play more than winning it again.

I want to get a little better before creating a deck and moving to Journey Down the Anduin and Dol Guldor, which I am assuming probably cannot be won using the single sphere pre constructed deck.........

Peace

Roger

Nope. Well, I would say using any of the solo Core decks for Dol Guldur would win maybe 1% of the time. If you got insanely lucky with the encounter draw. Use it as an exercise in strategy and preparing for the worst the deck can throw at you.

The Anduin, though, can be beaten but it's pretty tough. Try going 2-handed solo.

Gotta kind of disagree with @Network57 on this one.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with playing two-handed--it can be a lot of fun--but it makes the game considerably more complicated. Not a big deal if you have a good understanding of all the cards and spheres and how they all fit together but it's not ideal if your still learning. I would start constructing your own decks before you trying to play two-handed. Maybe if you're having trouble stick with the 40-card limit for a while but I wouldn't two-hand until your very confident on the structure of the game as well as how all your cards work and interact with eachother.

If you are looking for a place to start deck-building with a minimal cardpool, I like Leadership/Spirit. I don't know what cards you have access to but there's a lot of synergy right out of Core between Aragorn, Eowyn and Theodred (Celbrian Stone giving Aragorn a Spirit icon and Eowyn's Ability+Stand and Fight+Steward of Gondor jumps to mind with just Core cards).

And yeah--everyone's right. Don't expect to solo Dol Guldur any time soon. That's difficult even if you use the entire current cardpool.

I'm glad your having fun with the game. If you have any questions swing by and ask--and update us later on how you do with the other decks and Journey Down the Anduin

Thanks Jon..........

I am using the Lore deck now and got my ass kicked the first time. That starting threat hurt.I do like the card drawing and healing ability of the deck.

Time to try again.

As far as what cards I have, well, I went a little nuts and have a lot of the releases (**** rum and internet stores ) Though I had planned on trying to beat the first three quests with the cards in the core set (I did augment those with some e-bay cards). Then adding all the Mirkwood cards and hitting those 6.

Peace

Roger

Hey Roger, glad you're enjoying it despite getting slapped around a bit!

Sorry if this is below you, but I might as well put it here for anyone else who it might help:

I believe the designers created the core set and its quests with the following development/training for new players in mind:

1. The first quest is straightforward in design, and not too difficult. Players are encouraged to just use the pre-designed 30-card single-sphere decks. The purpose is to just learn the rules, get used to the flow of the game, and start to learn the various strengths and weaknesses of the different spheres.
2. The second quest is more difficult, and will likely require specific deck design choices in order to have a good chance of winning. This provides an opportunity for players to start experimenting with combining spheres, and crafting a deck with more particular effects and events in mind (how will I deal with the specific challenges I know are coming).
3. Finally, the third quest is intentionally interesting and unique in its design (trapped hero mechanic, different areas with different quest card rules, etc.) in order to both let the player know that some wild variety in quest design is possible (so they can be curious about buying more quests) and the very high difficulty will also encourage players to start gathering expansions so they can expand their card pool and better face the challenges ahead.

So, I would recommend trying your hand at creating some 2-sphere decks from the core set in order to take on the Anduin quest, before you dive too deeply into the cycle proper.

Yes, certainly some warm feelings opening the box all those years (almost 5! back). I haven't even tried the pre-constructed decks, I was deck-building right from the start -- though very poorly, of course, mostly judging by the looks of cards but I had already felt then (and had read some forums too) that the mono-spheres won't do so well. Out of those, I think the Leadership one is probably the strongest, but the core set alone has almost enough card for a fairly decent strong deck: Théodred, Éowyn, Beravor probably being the strongest hero line-up there.

Yeah—that Lore starter deck can be a tough one to crack. Out of all the Core starter decks I think it has the highest number of “under-powered” cards (though there are definitely some gems). Plus, Glorfindel is widely considered a sub-standard Hero (wow—that’s a weird sentence to type considering the other Glorfindel). Great stat line but painful threat cost and unless you build in Spirit (not a bad idea) you don’t have access to Unexpected Courage to stand him up so he can Quest and Attack. Plus his healing is super inefficient.

Tactics is still worse solo, but not because the cards are bad—they’re actually pretty good on average and a lot of them still get play—but they’re so focused on combat that as soon as locations start piling up they can’t recover.

Leadership and Spirit (in that order) are probably the best starter decks solo just because Leadership is more rounded and Spirit has great willpower, Eowyn (who is probably tied with Beravor as the best Hero in the Core Set) and the only access to Shadow and Treachery cancelation in Core.

Mono-Sphere in general is hard. You can make good mono-sphere decks but they are usually so focused that they will struggle in some aspect of the game. That’s fine in multi-player where, say, a Mono-Spirit deck can do all the Questing and cancellation and a Mono-Tactics deck can take on the enemies, but in solo it’s a struggle. Personally I think you have to go a fair way into the cardpool (probably Against the Shadow, at least) before mono-solo becomes really viable.

My advice—have fun. Build some decks when you feel ready (you will probably have to for Journey Down the Anduin). And don’t get too hung up if you can’t beat Dol Guldur—we’ve all been there. I didn’t beat it until I went back with a deck built from the whole first 2 cycles of cards!

The whole Mirkwwod cycle does a great job of kind of teaching you the game so expect to have to rebuild and/or tweak your deck as you go. My advice is start with the most well-rounded deck you’re comfortable with after Core and see what happens. The first AP will expand a bit on Objectives, then you’ll learn tactics for dealing with Big Bad enemies in the second AP, “this is why you should always be afraid of Treacheries” in the third, how to deal with location lock in the fourth, etc, etc, etc…by the end you should have a pretty decent all-purpose deck. Personally, I then re-ran through the Mirkwood APs and it was very satisfying to see all that hard deck-construction pay off as I put the lessons I learned into practice.

Yes, certainly some warm feelings opening the box all those years (almost 5! back). I haven't even tried the pre-constructed decks, I was deck-building right from the start -- though very poorly, of course, mostly judging by the looks of cards but I had already felt then (and had read some forums too) that the mono-spheres won't do so well. Out of those, I think the Leadership one is probably the strongest, but the core set alone has almost enough card for a fairly decent strong deck: Théodred, Éowyn, Beravor probably being the strongest hero line-up there.

Ouch! Throw the new guy right into the deep end with Tri-Sphere!

Théodred, Éowyn, Beravor probably being the strongest hero line-up there.

Definitely. With just core set cards alone, a TEB deck can get probably 95% success against Journey Along the Anduin, and not be troubled by any quests in the first two cycles apart from Escape from Dol Guldur, Return to Mirkwood, and Shadow and Flame. I'd recommend it for any new player (once they can grasp the tri-sphere concept) that doesn't like to constantly change their deck.

Theodred? Really? I never liked him, except with Aragorn. His ability forces him to commit to the quest to use it, but he only has 1 WP.

Theodred? Really? I never liked him, except with Aragorn. His ability forces him to commit to the quest to use it, but he only has 1 WP.

Resources are very useful.

Theodred? Really? I never liked him, except with Aragorn. His ability forces him to commit to the quest to use it, but he only has 1 WP.

Celebrian stone is in sphere. So's Dunedain Quest. And Favor of the Lady's in Core as well. Plus you're figuring UC is going on Beravor for the draw and you'll need resources to play those cards.

And remember, you'll be questing with Eowyn every turn and probably tossing a good number of cards for that so piling up resources on Eowyn to Stand and Fight allies is great. And once you get Steward out you can start using him to attack and defend if you don't need the extra willpower.

Using just a Core set with only one sphere is a pretty significant handicap, Spirit and Lore really lack for good attack options outside of Gandalf. Tactics suffers for questing. Leadership performs moderately well if you can manage to reduce your threat early enough with a Gandalf/Sneak Attack since it had good resource generation decent questing and the ability to ready Aragorn.

Yeah—that Lore starter deck can be a tough one to crack. Out of all the Core starter decks I think it has the highest number of “under-powered” cards (though there are definitely some gems). Plus, Glorfindel is widely considered a sub-standard Hero (wow—that’s a weird sentence to type considering the other Glorfindel). Great stat line but painful threat cost and unless you build in Spirit (not a bad idea) you don’t have access to Unexpected Courage to stand him up so he can Quest and Attack. Plus his healing is super inefficient.

Tactics is still worse solo, but not because the cards are bad—they’re actually pretty good on average and a lot of them still get play—but they’re so focused on combat that as soon as locations start piling up they can’t recover.

Leadership and Spirit (in that order) are probably the best starter decks solo just because Leadership is more rounded and Spirit has great willpower, Eowyn (who is probably tied with Beravor as the best Hero in the Core Set) and the only access to Shadow and Treachery cancelation in Core.

Mono-Sphere in general is hard. You can make good mono-sphere decks but they are usually so focused that they will struggle in some aspect of the game. That’s fine in multi-player where, say, a Mono-Spirit deck can do all the Questing and cancellation and a Mono-Tactics deck can take on the enemies, but in solo it’s a struggle. Personally I think you have to go a fair way into the cardpool (probably Against the Shadow, at least) before mono-solo becomes really viable.

My advice—have fun. Build some decks when you feel ready (you will probably have to for Journey Down the Anduin). And don’t get too hung up if you can’t beat Dol Guldur—we’ve all been there. I didn’t beat it until I went back with a deck built from the whole first 2 cycles of cards!

The whole Mirkwwod cycle does a great job of kind of teaching you the game so expect to have to rebuild and/or tweak your deck as you go. My advice is start with the most well-rounded deck you’re comfortable with after Core and see what happens. The first AP will expand a bit on Objectives, then you’ll learn tactics for dealing with Big Bad enemies in the second AP, “this is why you should always be afraid of Treacheries” in the third, how to deal with location lock in the fourth, etc, etc, etc…by the end you should have a pretty decent all-purpose deck. Personally, I then re-ran through the Mirkwood APs and it was very satisfying to see all that hard deck-construction pay off as I put the lessons I learned into practice.

Great post! Thanks!

I am having fun. Lore deck got its ass kicked again, but I am just getting the nuances of the spheres down. For the most part, I plan on dual decks. I was always a dual color Magic guy.

Peace

Roger

Yeah—that Lore starter deck can be a tough one to crack. Out of all the Core starter decks I think it has the highest number of “under-powered” cards (though there are definitely some gems). Plus, Glorfindel is widely considered a sub-standard Hero (wow—that’s a weird sentence to type considering the other Glorfindel). Great stat line but painful threat cost and unless you build in Spirit (not a bad idea) you don’t have access to Unexpected Courage to stand him up so he can Quest and Attack. Plus his healing is super inefficient.

Tactics is still worse solo, but not because the cards are bad—they’re actually pretty good on average and a lot of them still get play—but they’re so focused on combat that as soon as locations start piling up they can’t recover.

Leadership and Spirit (in that order) are probably the best starter decks solo just because Leadership is more rounded and Spirit has great willpower, Eowyn (who is probably tied with Beravor as the best Hero in the Core Set) and the only access to Shadow and Treachery cancelation in Core.

Mono-Sphere in general is hard. You can make good mono-sphere decks but they are usually so focused that they will struggle in some aspect of the game. That’s fine in multi-player where, say, a Mono-Spirit deck can do all the Questing and cancellation and a Mono-Tactics deck can take on the enemies, but in solo it’s a struggle. Personally I think you have to go a fair way into the cardpool (probably Against the Shadow, at least) before mono-solo becomes really viable.

My advice—have fun. Build some decks when you feel ready (you will probably have to for Journey Down the Anduin). And don’t get too hung up if you can’t beat Dol Guldur—we’ve all been there. I didn’t beat it until I went back with a deck built from the whole first 2 cycles of cards!

The whole Mirkwwod cycle does a great job of kind of teaching you the game so expect to have to rebuild and/or tweak your deck as you go. My advice is start with the most well-rounded deck you’re comfortable with after Core and see what happens. The first AP will expand a bit on Objectives, then you’ll learn tactics for dealing with Big Bad enemies in the second AP, “this is why you should always be afraid of Treacheries” in the third, how to deal with location lock in the fourth, etc, etc, etc…by the end you should have a pretty decent all-purpose deck. Personally, I then re-ran through the Mirkwood APs and it was very satisfying to see all that hard deck-construction pay off as I put the lessons I learned into practice.

Great post! Thanks!

I am having fun. Lore deck got its ass kicked again, but I am just getting the nuances of the spheres down. For the most part, I plan on dual decks. I was always a dual color Magic guy.

Peace

Roger

Bi-sphere is definitely the standard so you should be able to find a lot of examples if you need inspiration.

Hello!

I wanted to shout out to those on the forums that make me feel welcome!

You guys rock!

Peace

Roger

Théodred, Éowyn, Beravor probably being the strongest hero line-up there.

Definitely. With just core set cards alone, a TEB deck can get probably 95% success against Journey Along the Anduin, and not be troubled by any quests in the first two cycles apart from Escape from Dol Guldur, Return to Mirkwood, and Shadow and Flame. I'd recommend it for any new player (once they can grasp the tri-sphere concept) that doesn't like to constantly change their deck.

OK I cannot take the Lore deck any longer I had better luck with Tactics.

Time to play some with the Spirit deck to see what it is all about and get to deck designing....

Peace

Roger

Lore deck I used least once I passed Anduin, yet there's a certain Mirkwood quest it's truly essential for.

Then I had a khazad dum cycle quest that core denethor was essential for, so its great the game makes you use cards you aren't used to at times

OK I cannot take the Lore deck any longer I had better luck with Tactics.

Time to play some with the Spirit deck to see what it is all about and get to deck designing....

Peace

Roger

Cool.

Core Spirit has some amazing cards but it's seriously lacking in combat so you may have to get creative to deal with enemies. Pushing through the quest as quick as possible and keeping your threat low (while sniping some enemies with Dunhere) is probably your best bet. Remember Eowyn's ability--1 extra willpower might not seem like much but it adds up. And if you can ditch an ally while you have Stand and Fight in your hand, you can still bring them back onto the board later. Unexpected Courage is one of the best cards in the game but in the Core Spirit deck it doesn't have any super fantastic targets...Eleanor's probably your best bet.

Hope you have fun and let us know how you do.

The only reason I will use Spirit is to see how the deck plays out.

I think I will do a leadership/lore or leadership/spirit deck first.

Though the combat of tactics seems cool too.

Like everyone has said, great game. I can see where you would need to use all spheres at certain times....

Peace

Roger

The only reason I will use Spirit is to see how the deck plays out.

I think I will do a leadership/lore or leadership/spirit deck first.

Though the combat of tactics seems cool too.

Like everyone has said, great game. I can see where you would need to use all spheres at certain times....

Peace

Roger

You are right about needing all spheres. Sometimes I have played tri sphere tactics/spirit/leadership with a splash of borrowed lore, others I have run tactics/spirit/lore with a splash of leadership as I have wanted cards from all spheres. Just need to be careful with resources

Please stop signing all your posts. It's redundant.