Is the solo game much harder than multiplayer?

By marlowc, in Strategy and deck-building

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I've been playing solo to learn this fascinating game, with a view to introducing it to my gaming group. However, I've run the Down the Anduin quest 14 times now and only come within sight of success on 1 occasion :(

I'm using Eowyn for questing, Prince Imrahil for fighting, and Aragorn for a bit of both, with a 50 card deck made from the starter set, and the 6 packs of the Shadows of Mirkwood expansion.

To be honest, I don't think this game is going to go down well with my group unless multiplayer is a bit easier than this. We are all experienced gamers, having played MTG, and Warhammer Quest the Adventure Card Game for example. Am I just rubbish at the game, or is it really this hard?

(apologies for the double post, but my connection is misbehaving :wacko:

Edited by marlowc
Posted at

I cant speak to multiplayer as Ive never tried, purely solo here.

Its a steep learning curve and I found the quest Journey Down the Anduin very hard to get until I had a strategy click in my head.

I would suggest two things, either give the Hunt For Gollum a try and see how much easier that is compared to Anduin (really, just miss out Dol Guldur, its an awesome quest but still considered one of the hardest ever).

Or, have a look at Beorns Path which is a fantastic insight into deck building and strategy for the core set which I am sure as an experience card player you will see so many tips on how to tweak your building/play skills to the encounter-deck style of playing.

Beorns is here:

https://hallofbeorn.wordpress.com/beorns-path/

Best of luck, its a fantastic game.

Posted at

I cant speak to multiplayer as Ive never tried, purely solo here.

Its a steep learning curve and I found the quest Journey Down the Anduin very hard to get until I had a strategy click in my head.

I would suggest two things, either give the Hunt For Gollum a try and see how much easier that is compared to Anduin (really, just miss out Dol Guldur, its an awesome quest but still considered one of the hardest ever).

Or, have a look at Beorns Path which is a fantastic insight into deck building and strategy for the core set which I am sure as an experience card player you will see so many tips on how to tweak your building/play skills to the encounter-deck style of playing.

Beorns is here:

https://hallofbeorn.wordpress.com/beorns-path/

Best of luck, its a fantastic game.

Many thanks for that excellent advice :) Beorn's Path is just the thing I've been looking for. This is such a brilliant game, I'd hate my group to miss out on it due to my inexperience.

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Green Deck, Forest Snare! ;)

Anyway yes, It is one of the most difficult adventures to deal with only the basic set .... in my opinion the game in three or four is more difficult than in one or two.

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Depending on the quest, multiplayer may or may not be harder. In the case of the core set, Anduin is probably easier multiplayer, and Dol Goldur is much, much, much easier multiplayer -- though neither is exactly easy multiplayer.

I second the recommendation for Beorn's path. After following it through Mirkwood (using the second deck solo also against all the quests but Dol Goldur and Return to Mirkwood), I continued with those two decks, mostly solo through all the quests up to Grey Havens/Land of Shadow. If I couldn't beat a quest solo with either deck, I'd try to beat the quest with them together. (I modified the decks as I went along with whatever new cards I wanted to try -- by the end the majority of the cards from the original had been replaced.)

In the case of Anduin in particular, the Eowyn/Imrahil/Aragorn lineup will be very tough, because you have a combined threat of 32 and will have to engage the troll right away -- and those three aren't capable of either taking multiple hits or killing it. You need a plan for how the troll is going to be taken down, and the easiest way is to start with a threat under 30 and build up a troll-killing army before engaging it. With only 1 threat he's not much of a problem to leave in the staging area.

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mine was a general affirmation, on average i prefer to handle a single card from the encounter deck. I'm not convinced that Down the Anduin is simpler in multiplayer. I remember that at the beginning, when i only own the core set and some expansion, i managed to beat this adventure making extensive use of Lore sphere.

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Down the Anduin has two specific advantages for 2-player over 1-player:

1) You start with 1 Hill Troll, not (usually) one hill troll per player. Solo player has to quest and figure out how to take it down, two-player you can afford a dedicated combat deck.

2) While traveling down the river, a solo player gets 2 cards revealed per turn, while two players get 3 cards revealed per turn.

Solo player has one general advantage over 2-player, not unique to Anduin -- it's more difficult for the encounter deck to combo with itself. (For example, East Bight and Brown Lands coming out together.)

It's certainly beatable solo, but it'd be very difficult to beat solo with a 50-card leadership/spirit deck with only first cycle cards and a starting threat over 30. Heavy lore is your best bet because of forest snare, you only have to take one hit from the Troll and then you can take him down at leisure while building your board up.

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Many thanks for all your help guys, that Forest Snare certainly looks the business ;) I'll give it a try with a Lore hero, and as you say keep my starting threat below 30 - Cheers!

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Many thanks for all your help guys, that Forest Snare certainly looks the business ;) I'll give it a try with a Lore hero, and as you say keep my starting threat below 30 - Cheers!

I strongly second the advice to start below 30 threat.

Here's the core set deck that I use. I have some helpful tips and tricks for dealing with Anduin in the description: http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/961/seastan-s-single-core-set-solo-2.0

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Many thanks for all your help guys, that Forest Snare certainly looks the business ;) I'll give it a try with a Lore hero, and as you say keep my starting threat below 30 - Cheers!

I strongly second the advice to start below 30 threat.

Here's the core set deck that I use. I have some helpful tips and tricks for dealing with Anduin in the description: http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/961/seastan-s-single-core-set-solo-2.0

Love this deck, also the sneaky tricks in the advice section :D Many thanks!

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Seastans advice is spot on, the Son ofv Arnor trick is a cracker. Seastan is one of the games highest authority's on card combos for decks, affectionately credited with breaking the game lol.

When you see how Seastans advice works, you start to get your head around the type of combo mechanics the game needs and you start to see more of this yourself too, it's a heck of a learning curve :)

I'm still rubbish myself yet have still managed to beat all quests in the first two cycles solo with single deck (except dol guldur).

Hope you enjoy :)

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Here are some links to core set only decks:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1108855/back-basics-killer-deck-using-only-cards-single-co

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/108837-solo-player-one-handed-1-core-set-only-50-card-deck-that-defeated-journey-along-the-anduin/

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/9763507#9763507

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/898293/journey-down-anduin-deck-built-only-single-core-se

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I eventually bought everything because I'm addicted to this game, but, when I first started, I found many fan made quests online that allowed me to expand gameplay beyond the first three quests with only the one core set.