I am amazed at how this game can feel so different just depending on your hero choices. When i worked through the Mirkwood Cycle ages ago now (solo play one deck) i did so with some of the more obvious heroes at the time from the core box set. Just recently i have completed The Black Riders saga using hobbit only heroes and a tailored support deck and thought i would go and try out one of the Mirkwood Cycle with the same deck just to see how it worked.

I have to say that Return to Mirkwood was such fun using this deck. A low starting threat is great news, but it just worked so well and i do think now that this is one of the best encounter decks of that cycle, Now i do like spiders so that's a plus for me already, but there are some great wilderness monsters and a hill troll around to think ahead about. I played it a few times and it felt different each time, sometimes it was managing locations, others the spiders came out, and another a bit of an enemy battle with the troll causing some grief. Threat management was always required though so you feel under pressure all the time. The quest cards also provide some nice changes, and the period when you cant play cards must be prepared for.

What i would say about Return to Mirkwood is that it isn't overly suited for solo deck play, however the hobbit heroes do work. Now if you take the rules as literally provided and add the Gollum threat of 4 each round it is doable with my current card pool but can feel rushed, as you have to quest quickly. Once i had beaten it, I found i got the most enjoyment from giving myself a break and adding either half the Gollum threat each round or adding the full amount every other round (this was a way of compensating for no other players to hand Gollum off to). When i did this it begun to feel more like an adventure and was slightly less time pressured, albeit some of the treachery cards still push the threat up quick. I doubt purists will be pleased, but this game is for enjoyment and i preferred doing this than taking say the easy level option and taking cards out.

Anyway just sharing what a good quest i thought this was for solo play with or without a bit of tweaking - but better with.

I usually avoid the nightmare expansions (i only have Passage to Mirkwood nightmare) but i may well get the nightmare Return to Mirkwood to play using the reduced threat version to provide even more variety.

Really nice post!

I love this post for many reasons. It highlights so many aspects of why LOTR is great in general and why that quest is great in specific. I too have gone back and enjoyed old quests with new toys. In fact, I have found that quests are almost always better when revisited. I would encourage you to try the nightmare version. I don't think it is actually that much more difficult than the original (mostly because the original starts pretty tough). I have also found that digging deep into a single quest and trying a variety of deck styles can be quite fun. For instance, try to see if you can beat it with a mono red or mon purple set of heroes or without any threat reduction effects. Try to see how low you can get your score or how fast you can win. By exploring a wide array of options you can master the quest, learn more about deck building for future challenges, and figure out more about your personal preferences and your own unique style. To me, that is when this game reaches the highest level.