The simplest way to deal with the Hill Troll with core set cards is to throw a forest snare on him.

He mentions that he's trying to avoid that.

How closely are you keeping an eye on your threat? If you are forced to engage him too early, you're screwed.

I would focus on questing well, reducing threat if needed, and overall try to build yourself up before unleashing the attacks. By the time you hit 30 threat hopefully you'll have a bunch of chump blockers to buy yourself some time, or will have Gimli loaded up with gear and well prepped, or just have enough items and allies in play to withstand the troll for a while, or at the very least have the snare by then.

This may require adjusting the heroes you are using, or making your deck more consistent, etc.

When you need specific cards from your deck quickly, card draw is your friend

Also, a tiny advice of something I overlooked :

(How do I add a spoiler tab here? Edit: aha done it!)

Alex

The way I do Anduin now is much different than how I did it when I started the game.

Spoilers:

Eowyn, Theodred, Beravor. Draw every turn with Beravor. Use 3x Gandalf, 2x Galadrim's Greeting to make sure you never go above 30 threat. Eventually you've drawn all your cards and have a ton of resources. You play out all the allies in your deck. Then you engage the Hill Troll, kill him the same turn, advance to stage 2, and quest through all of stage 2 in one go on the next turn, and finish.

It might seem boring, but following this will make it virtually impossible to lose. You can even rig the encounter deck to have terrible setups, like an East Bight during setup and a Brown Lands on the first turn, and not allow yourself any mulligans, and still pull out a win.

How closely are you keeping an eye on your threat? If you are forced to engage him too early, you're screwed.

I would focus on questing well, reducing threat if needed, and overall try to build yourself up before unleashing the attacks. By the time you hit 30 threat hopefully you'll have a bunch of chump blockers to buy yourself some time, or will have Gimli loaded up with gear and well prepped, or just have enough items and allies in play to withstand the troll for a while, or at the very least have the snare by then.

This may require adjusting the heroes you are using, or making your deck more consistent, etc.

I am using Aragorn, Theodred and Thalin. So starting threat 29. So pretty high, but not certain how much lower I can get it. I quest fine. Its damaging the Troll. I have come cannon fodder to sacrifice to the Hill Troll. I drew an early Gandalf last game, but rest of hand was high cost allies (do not even have that many) which meant I still could not hold off the hordes.

The simplest way to deal with the Hill Troll with core set cards is to throw a forest snare on him.

I am trying to use Leadership/Tactics.

But it might be time to swallow my pride and do the Lore thing. I am getting frustrated...... At least I know now pretty quickly if I even have a chance.

Thanks for all the advise! Great community.

The way I do Anduin now is much different than how I did it when I started the game.

Spoilers:

Eowyn, Theodred, Beravor. Draw every turn with Beravor. Use 3x Gandalf, 2x Galadrim's Greeting to make sure you never go above 30 threat. Eventually you've drawn all your cards and have a ton of resources. You play out all the allies in your deck. Then you engage the Hill Troll, kill him the same turn, advance to stage 2, and quest through all of stage 2 in one go on the next turn, and finish.

It might seem boring, but following this will make it virtually impossible to lose. You can even rig the encounter deck to have terrible setups, like an East Bight during setup and a Brown Lands on the first turn, and not allow yourself any mulligans, and still pull out a win.

What do you sleep with these cards under your pillow

Been checking out some of your videos. Impressive stuff. Though I have a ton of the releases, I have not cracked any other open as I want to keep the cards available somewhat within reason. IOW I am just using core, and once I move on to Mirkwood, I will use the cards from those 6 releases.

Seastan is one of this games top professionals!

WOO HOO!

After about 25 tries (tword the end I knew if I had a chance pretty after about 5 draws), I finally beat Anduin with Leadership/Tactics.

A Sneak Attack/Gandalf combo on initial draw got me off to a great start against the Hill Troll. A run of Treachery cards and little or no monsters allowed me to place lots of progress token in the mid game.

I was worried at end game when another Hill Troll reared his ugly head. But Thalin gave his life defending Aragorn who was able to kill off the Hill Troll and bring victory.

ahhhhhhh I feel better now.

I doubt I will try Dol Guldur as from what I read it is hard out of the box.

I think I will break the seal on the 6 Mirkwood packs, check out the cards and tackle that run of quests.

Fantastic!!!!!!

Well done

WOO HOO!

After about 25 tries (tword the end I knew if I had a chance pretty after about 5 draws), I finally beat Anduin with Leadership/Tactics.

A Sneak Attack/Gandalf combo on initial draw got me off to a great start against the Hill Troll. A run of Treachery cards and little or no monsters allowed me to place lots of progress token in the mid game.

I was worried at end game when another Hill Troll reared his ugly head. But Thalin gave his life defending Aragorn who was able to kill off the Hill Troll and bring victory.

ahhhhhhh I feel better now.

I doubt I will try Dol Guldur as from what I read it is hard out of the box.

I think I will break the seal on the 6 Mirkwood packs, check out the cards and tackle that run of quests.

Congrats!

And welcome to the game proper as things really expand as you leave Core. Now what you have to decide is how to handle your cardpool and deck construction going forward.

Some people like to open each pack as you play them, adding just a few player cards at a time to your cardpool so you can really get a feel for them as you play each quest. Other people like to open the whole cycle at once and add a large block of player cards all at once to your cardpool--something that can be more confusing at first but also allows you a better bird's eye view of the synergies and viable combos that developed during the cycle.

Personally, I prefer the latter option but both are very valid.

WOO HOO!

After about 25 tries (tword the end I knew if I had a chance pretty after about 5 draws), I finally beat Anduin with Leadership/Tactics.

A Sneak Attack/Gandalf combo on initial draw got me off to a great start against the Hill Troll. A run of Treachery cards and little or no monsters allowed me to place lots of progress token in the mid game.

I was worried at end game when another Hill Troll reared his ugly head. But Thalin gave his life defending Aragorn who was able to kill off the Hill Troll and bring victory.

ahhhhhhh I feel better now.

I doubt I will try Dol Guldur as from what I read it is hard out of the box.

I think I will break the seal on the 6 Mirkwood packs, check out the cards and tackle that run of quests.

Congrats!

And welcome to the game proper as things really expand as you leave Core. Now what you have to decide is how to handle your cardpool and deck construction going forward.

Some people like to open each pack as you play them, adding just a few player cards at a time to your cardpool so you can really get a feel for them as you play each quest. Other people like to open the whole cycle at once and add a large block of player cards all at once to your cardpool--something that can be more confusing at first but also allows you a better bird's eye view of the synergies and viable combos that developed during the cycle.

Personally, I prefer the latter option but both are very valid.

For me, i prefered the Mirkwood cycle to Dwarrowdelf that I just finished. Great memories of Mirkwood!

Ps sorry for bad spelling from tiny phone keyboard

I am torn.....Part of me wants to open all 6 Mirkwood packs at once and use those cards for the Mirkwood run of adventures.

Part me me wants to just open them one at a time.

So, I am thinking of buying a 2nd Core...... I have Black Riders on the way to me. I am thinking if I had a 2nd Core, I could be playing Mirkwood and Black Riders at the same time, swapping back and fourth and not have to tear apart decks.......

I guess I could use two spheres for each project.......

hmmmmmmm

Where are you up to now alexbobspoons? Did you just recently beat Shadow and Flame?

Nvm just found your thread again!

So, I am thinking of buying a 2nd Core...... I have Black Riders on the way to me. I am thinking if I had a 2nd Core, I could be playing Mirkwood and Black Riders at the same time, swapping back and fourth and not have to tear apart decks.......

I guess I could use two spheres for each project.......

hmmmmmmm

Lord of the Rings has terrible Core Set distribution. For a normal player, there's waste in even a single additional Core and it gets ridiculous with three Cores. I understand why they couldn't do a full playset of cards in the Core but they should have stuck to Singles so that we could buy 3 without waste...

For you, as you want to run multiple cardpools so you don't have to break down decks, it does make a little more sense to have multiple Cores...but I still think just breaking down decks or using a different sphere would be a better option. Still, there are benefits to be had and an extra Steward, Sneak Attack, Unexpected Courage or Northern Tracker are all very nice so if money isn't an issue...

I struggle to justify a third core but one day would like the full playset.

Thing is, the core x1 cards cost about £20 posted from eBay yet a full core Inc free postage is £25 so the x1 set isnt worth it you might as well get a full core with uggins of spares.

I already have so many spares from my second core.

Full playset be nice though.