This is really hard! I have played it 3 times now with my husband and we always loose. We have not got past the 1st card!

Here is what we are taking hero wise:

Legolas

Denothor

Glorfindel

Theodred

Eowyn

Aragorn

Also you have to randomly loose a character which is 'captured' argh. What are we doing wrong! This is my rant post!

Hi my name is Kassie and I'm new to the game, we just bought the core set and we really enjoy it. Im a massive Tolkien fan

Since you are new to the game, there is no way you will be able to win Dol Guldur with Core Set only. It is a very challenging quest even for very experienced players with big card pool.

I would propose to stick on the first two, especially Anduin (2nd Quest) which is a good one and when you feel comfortable with it start buying AP if you like the game. I believe that since you are Tolkien fun you will love it

You're probably not doing anything wrong. While I disagree with the above poster - I know you *can* beat the scenario with just the core (although it's much easier if you have more copies of core cards, a second core), it's quite a challenge. It's also slightly easier the more players you add, as the 'penalty' of losing a hero is mitigated by a larger hero pool, and the penalty of the damage caused by the objectives is mitigated by the same (although the 'penalty' of being able to play only one Ally is amplified - you can build your decks to reduce the emphasis on multiple cheap allies).

If you're looking for some pointers on beating it, you could check out one of the many 'progression series' videos where people tackle the scenarios in the order they were released, with only the cards available at the time. Here's an example (although they use cards from multiple cores - you could consider printing up proxies to try the decklists they suggest).

That said, I would definitely recommend throwing yourself primarily at the Journey Along the Anduin scenario - it's not necessarily easier, but it is a little less subject to variance and a better learning experience. Once you can consistently navigate that scenario, you'll be well prepared for some of the other challenges the game will throw at you!

Also, consider just picking which hero you can go without and selecting them to be the captured one. Since that can have a very crippling effect - especially in split sphere decks - it is worth it to just pick who gets captured.

Thanks guys for some imput. We just finished the game and we won - although we need to play it again as we didn't realise the nazgul is put into play when your character is rescued! So kind of a victory lol. We also changed up Denothor for Gimli and Theodred for gloin. Seemed to work better for us, also i think it was partly luck of the draw in the staging area ;P

Also, consider just picking which hero you can go without and selecting them to be the captured one. Since that can have a very crippling effect - especially in split sphere decks - it is worth it to just pick who gets captured.

You can even say, that you just concede if an other hero gets captured (just so you don't break a rule ).

Following text contains Spoilers for the rest of the quest (just in case LittleOrc wants to be surprised )

I would suggest to try and Switch 1 lore hero for 2nd tactics and 1 Leadership for a 2nd Spirit hero. There are some hard to get rid of enemies in the deck. Also more Spirit helps keeping threat low and quest through. I always found that the quest goes much easier on you if you rush it and don't try to Control it.

Obviously you put the map (usually the first artifact claimed for Phase 1b) on eowyn (if possible). Don't pick the last 2 artifacts until you have to (iirc you just Need them to pass from 2b to 3)

The quest has 2 key Points: Set up and Phase 2. If The set up is bad and your Hands are too you will loose 90% of the time (sadly nothing you can really do about that), so make sure your Hands are able to do good right from the start.

2nd Thing you must be ready to is to take on the nazgul. your best bet with a coreset is to feint him and one shot him. As soon as you advance to stage 3 a big quest push should win you the game.

Very hard quest and very random how hard it get (I got double necromancers reach during one Setup, easy game xD)

Thanks guys for some imput. We just finished the game and we won - although we need to play it again as we didn't realise the nazgul is put into play when your character is rescued! So kind of a victory lol. We also changed up Denothor for Gimli and Theodred for gloin. Seemed to work better for us, also i think it was partly luck of the draw in the staging area ;P

Did you just don't fight the nazgul at all? Ot when Phase 2 ended?

Imo the Addition of Gimli should really help you (as it seemingly did).

Anyway, well played!

You pretty much need luck in the opening setup to win, so no shame there. I was actually able to beat the quest on my first go (me and my friend) because of massive luck. For a long time I thought it was an easy quest. When I went back later because everyone said it was hard, I got stomped over and over again. I recommend savoring the win :-)

Welcome to the forums LittleOrc! Good luck for future questing!!

You're probably not doing anything wrong. While I disagree with the above poster - I know you *can* beat the scenario with just the core (although it's much easier if you have more copies of core cards, a second core), it's quite a challenge

I know too it can be won with only core, i have managed to do it as well as others.

Thats why i wrote "Since you are new to the game" . I do not believe that a new player with no experience can handle it.

Yet two player indeed is a bit easier.

Good luck little orc and welcome!!!

Thanks guys for some imput. We just finished the game and we won - although we need to play it again as we didn't realise the nazgul is put into play when your character is rescued! So kind of a victory lol. We also changed up Denothor for Gimli and Theodred for gloin. Seemed to work better for us, also i think it was partly luck of the draw in the staging area ;P

Gimli can really help you there cause with a bit of damage on him and the axe he can easily attack for 6-7 which is great in order to have a strong character among your attackers to kill the Nazgul the same turn he appears, as Calvadur wrote

My wife (who is not as dedicated a gamer or LotR LCG player as I am) and I have beaten Escape from Dol Guldur a few times using cards from only a single Core set. It's really tough but doable.

For what it's worth, one of us had Eowyn, Denethor and Legolas as heroes, the other Aragorn, Theodred and Eleanor.

I think most people make that mistake because they don't preread the Nazgul when they set him out of play - which is understandable since you are doing that so you won't spoil whatever nasty surprise he has. I remember playing this scenario and when we got to the third stage and it didn't say to put him into play we were all very confused as to what his deal was. So then we read him, realized the mistake and put him into the staging area then. I think FFG has cleared up this particular issue in later quests by having the text that puts them into play show up on either the quest card or some other "in-play" card.

I mainly play solo, which makes the quest even harder.

Have you tried playing in Easy Mode?

I'm new to the game, had the core set a few weeks or so and played through the all the core missions co-op and solo. Repeatedly got stomped solo on Escape from Dol Guldur but was enjoying the challenge and determined to beat it! It really does depend to a large extent on the staging area start up and your opening hand (always worth a mulligan to try and optimise your starting hand). Finally completed it yesterday!! I went with Theodred, Aragorn and Eowyn - Aragorn was captured but I managed to get two Stewards of Gondor into play quite early on, Gandalf + Sneak Attack during the mid-game and then The Galadhrim's Greeting to buy a little bit of time for taking out the Nazgul.

Have purchased all the Mirkwood cycle packs - onwards and upwards!

but I managed to get two Stewards of Gondor into play quite early on,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Steward of Gondor is a unique card (noted by the icon next to it's name) and so you can only have 1 in play at a time. This rule does extend to other players in your group if you play with multiple people. There can be only one Steward.

Thanks! Was only looking out for characters with the unique icon it seems... Now that I've signed up to the quest log, I will be playing again within the rules and keep a track of my score. I don't think it had a great bearing as the second one came up mid/late game but will complete again - maybe just co-op, and come back with non-core cards for solo if it takes me ages to get this far again.

It is doable.

Try using the Tactics and Spirit Core Set decks.

So far this is the only progression style adventure I skipped after a few goes solo. Too hard for me. One day will go back with my more expanded card pool!!

we revisited this last night.

4 hours

Did not win one game!

How do you beat fear? its constantly adding - the fear starts off high as its on the objectives - then when you quest another 2 cards are added!

It seems impossible to get over 8 wisdom to beat the fear per a time - we are constantly matching or under!

Which quest/card are you questioning? Also, are you playing with just a single Core set?

If you haven't, check out this Play through:

You probably can't use the exact same decks as this would Need 3 core-sets, so fill out the rest with what you think is best.

The most important part to win this quest I'd say is to make use of the "power cards and combos". Being able to Play a stewart of Gondor in your first turn and converting that into a tracker (what is exactly what happens in the Video, even though you could argue giving stewart and celebrian Stone to aragorn, who would get a Spirit Icon that way, would have been even better), who takes care of most Locations for you, makes everything much more managable. Even without the tracker stewart is never bad, as you should have enough Cards to spend the ressources on. Having sneak attack + Gandalf makes Things much easier, too (this Combo circumvents the 1 ally restriction of the quest, allow a 2nd use of Gandalf and helps wherever you Need it). Unexpected Courage can be great too for example on berevor or Gimli as they can both make good use of 2 Actions per turn.
So if you don't have something in that regard in your opening hand I would suggest a Mulligan. In this quest it is just fighting fire with fire. The Encounter-deck starts with a brutal Advantage and has some nasty Cards, so all you can do is bring out the best you can draw, too

Depending on what encounter cards you get early on (for the three objectives, and during the first turn of staging), it can be almost impossible to beat the quest. Discarding cards to boost Eowyn's willpower, optionally engaging enemies before you can kill them (to limit threat in the staging area), and controlling locations with Snowbourn Scout and perhaps Northern Tracker are all ways to avoid getting overwhelmed by threat.

If you're playing with one Core set, I recommend using 40 card decks. Building two 50 card decks with only one core set requires you to use several weaker cards, which lowers the power of your decks (and the rule book mentions 30 card starter decks). You might want to take a look at Beorn's Path, which is a useful new player's guide to deck building, deck tuning and playing: https://hallofbeorn.wordpress.com/beorns-path/

Beorn designs and tunes one of his decks in parts 1 and 3, and builds the second deck (for Escape from Dol Guldur) in part 5. He then gives an example of playing through the quest with both decks in part 6. In one of his comments to the article, he mentions that even as an experienced player, he only beat the quest on his third attempt. Escape from Dol Guldur with one core set is quite difficult, but if you get a decent start it's definitely possible.

44 minutes ago, Slothgodfather said:

Which quest/card are you questioning? Also, are you playing with just a single Core set?

We cannot get past the first card of 9 progress tokens haha! Yes core set -

This is without question the toughest quest I have tried so far in the game and I have a pretty fair collection at this point. Have tried it both solo and with a partner. In solo, its really brutal, I see a lot more possibility to beat it with a partner.

I can't offer much advise in terms of beating it, I simply have not solved that puzzle yet, but what I can say is that this quest definitly doesn't belong in the core set. I'm not sure what the developers where going for here, but the Core set should not be the source of one of the toughest quests in the game. Its supposed to be a learning space, so the kind of standard response I have seen from the comunity is, skip it and tackle it later when you have a bigger card pool and more options. Its fun to be challenged, makes the victory that much sweeter, but this is one of those quests that goes well over the fence into the Torture zone.

If you aren't planning on buying anything beyond the core set, then it is a bit of a bummer, but if you are, most of the quests in succession from the core set (Mirkwood cycle for ex.) are reasonably challenging, so it makes sense to move on to those if you tire of bashing your head against the core quests.