So, what about the quest itself?

The first quest is almost entirely about enemy management. Indeed, you cannot progress to stage 2 without all players being entirely free of engaged enemies. The same is true for the final stage - victory cannot occur until all players are free of engaged enemies. The quest stages do not permit over-questing; that is to say they are capped, so you can't stockpile a reserve of progress tokens. Furthermore, the quest has numerous ways of removing progress tokens. Losing progress tokens combined with having to be entirely free of engaged enemies can make completing a stage tricky. If you read the most recent preview article, you also know that the Objective card, Seize Them, will cause you to auto-lose the game if no progress has been placed on the main quest during a round. There are some encounter side quests to contend with as well. As Bullroarer mentioned above, Archery is abundant.

I played 2 handed against the quest with a Dunedain/Trap deck (Haldir/Damrod/Amartheul) and a Doomed/Beefy Ally deck (Denethor/Erestor/Loragorn). I went into the quest entirely blind, but found those decks to be relatively effective against it. Hitting Valor via the Doomed deck (Legacy of Numenor and Deep Knowledge) can allow the Dunedain deck to sweep the board free of enemies in one turn via a Valorous Hour of Wrath. Amartheul blocks with Protector of Lorien and Destrier to aid against shadow cards. Boosted Haldir (Ranger Spear, Dunedain Mark, Rivendell Blade) and Amartheul can often kill all the enemies in one fell swoop. I've played the quest twice so far. I believe I won the first time, but may have overlooked some card effects, so I played it again tonight and won via Hour of Wrath. The quest is fun; it does a good job of creating a chase scene as the encounter deck has numerous ways of forcing you to engage enemies (Locations play a part in evoking a chase-like feel as well). The art and mechanics of the Harad (Southrons) is quite reminiscent of Into Ithilien, which I just happened to play within the last week. Enjoying the box so far!

RobOz covered it pretty well. The quest is challenging to be sure and I don't think people will be saying it's not worthy of being a DL5.

Two stages, each requiring 15 progress, but not only are there cards that remove progress, there are other conditions that prevent you from advancing. Additionally, the quest cards cannot have more than 15 progress on them. So you can't overstock the quest card. As an example, on the last turn I played Gandalf (core) and made a massive push towards the finish line. The board was clear. Revealed "Nowhere to Hide" which makes me put an enemy into play engaged with me by flipping cards from the encounter deck. I flipped Southron Archer, archery 2 and the forced effect of either remove two progress from the quest or discard an ally you control. Of course it was Gandalf and luckily I was able to place the 15 progress.

But you can't win the last stage if an enemy is engaged with you. I was able to ready the Three Hunters through various effects and dispatch the Archer for the win, threat at 46. A very near thing.

What about the theme and the story and how the mechanics integrate with that. RobOz has touched on that a little bit. I am not necessarily asking for spoilers of the story but rather how well the whole thing fits together and feels - maybe that has been discussed elsewhere though and I am not aware. I just jumped into the discussion here

What about the theme and the story and how the mechanics integrate with that. RobOz has touched on that a little bit. I am not necessarily asking for spoilers of the story but rather how well the whole thing fits together and feels - maybe that has been discussed elsewhere though and I am not aware. I just jumped into the discussion here

The quest starts from where the last adventure pack ends. Literally seconds after if you follow the storyline. You are stranded and have to escape the city. I think that thematically they really nailed it. There is a location card "Narrow Alleyway" that forces you to put an enemy engaged with you under it after you travel to it. (You have eluded your pursuer!). But when explored you must place the enemy back in the staging area. (After leaving the alley he picks up your trail!)

Really well done.

If you guys have equally good things to say about the 2nd and 3rd quest, I will have to rethink my decision of not buying another expansion. =)

Agree with Bullroarer. I think the theme is quite solid. As he indicated, the quest begins immediately after the conclusion of City of the Corsairs. Narrow Alleyway was one of my favorite cards in the encounter deck. It grants a previously unseen positive effect for a location which later has a drawback. Furthermore, the card is not plentiful, so you have to decide whether you want to use it quickly or save it for an enemy you deem worse. The location cards generally operate on the chase theme when they become the active location - some sort of mechanic will trigger that forces you to engage enemies or remove progress from the main quest. One of the encounter side quests has some new tricks to it as well. Thankfully, I managed to avoid it in the two games I played.

The quest concludes with the heroes fleeing out the gates of Umbar and into the desert. That scene segues right into the second quest, which I have not played yet. I usually try to win about 3 games against a non-brutal quest, so I'll likely try Escape from Umbar a couple more times before moving on to Desert Crossing (Quest #2). I did glimpse briefly at the encounter cards for Desert Crossing; the desert-themed artwork looked great! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was oddly ambivalent about the Harad cycle despite being tolerant of the designers forays into material that could be deemed un-thematic or not holding true to Middle Earth lore. But as I sifted through the encounter cards for Sands, I found myself feeling pretty motivated to play the quests.

Just glanced very briefly at The Long Arm of Mordor. It seems to continue the escape/travel theme by having the heroes make their way toward a jungle. I could see this cycle being the reverse of Dream-chaser. In that cycle we were the pursuers. In this, we appear to be the pursued.

I got the distinct sense that Matt and Caleb have decided to more strongly connect the narrative for the Deluxe cycles (as we saw at the end of Angmar Awakened and beginning of Dream-chaser). The beginning of Sands certainly seems to continue this approach. I like it.

There is a location card "Narrow Alleyway" that forces you to put an enemy engaged with you under it after you travel to it. (You have eluded your pursuer!). But when explored you must place the enemy back in the staging area. (After leaving the alley he picks up your trail!)

Really well done.

http://hallofbeorn.com/LotR/Details/West-Road-Traveller-RtM

http://hallofbeorn.com/LotR/Details/Strider's-Path-THfG

http://hallofbeorn.com/LotR/Details/Thror's-Map-THOHaUH

http://hallofbeorn.com/LotR/Details/Ravenhill-Scout-TRG

http://hallofbeorn.com/LotR/Details/Ghan-buri-Ghan-TFotW

I think I' have got an idea!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy some sand!

By the way... The art on Enemy Pursuit. LOL

I'm now one for three. (Playing true solo.) I can see that there are a few deck archetypes that will do well against this quest. (My old elves deck for example.) But I really don't want to spoil too much more.

Had a chance to play quest #2, Desert Crossing. The quest is exactly what it says it is; a classic desert trek. Think Dune or Athas (if you're familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons Dark Sun setting). Players must deal with the Temperature mechanic (as revealed in an earlier preview article), desert creatures, desert features (locations) and weather treacheries that play off the desert setting and the Temperature mechanic. Thematically, the heat, thirst, weather conditions, and marauding desert beasts slowly wear away the heroes' stamina over the course of the quest.

I managed a win with the same two decks I played against the first scenario, a Trap/Dunedain deck and a Doomed/Beefy ally deck. I quested through with exactly enough willpower to complete the last stage, thanks to Sword that was Broken + a double Faramir boost off of Grim Resolve. I avoided the smattering of encounter side quests in my play-through of Desert Crossing. Hitting one or more of these side quests would have really screwed me up. On the surface, the quest doesn't seem too hard, but it has numerous minor card effects that I think make it deceptively hard. Need to play it a few more times to get a better handle on it.

For those who are interested, difficulties are:

Escape from Umbar: DL 5

Desert Crossing: DL 6

The Long Arm of Mordor: DL 7 (haven't played this yet).

FFG difficulty levels are notoriously unreliable, but I'd say the ratings for the first two quests are in the ball-park, though I think I'd bump the first quest up to a 6.

Now 1 of 4. You really want your starting threat low for this quest which is a bit paradoxical since they are giving you a new Gimli & Legolas. On to the next one but I expect more of the same.

(I've gone back to playing one handed because of the overhead involved with playing two handed.)

2 for 5. This time my deck worked as designed and the quest seemed easy. On to the desert!

Bullroarer,

I'd be interested in hearing some of the details about your Three Hunters deck and what you think about the new Legolas and Gimli heroes. I have been wanting to build a viable solo deck around those three since I got my core set (like I'm sure a lot of folks have). My copy of Sands arrived today, but I'm at work till tomorrow morning

I have been thinking of an attachment heavy deck with Loragorn (for some access to card draw to fuel Legolas and healing) and the Rune-master attachment to cheaply turn everyone into beasts with the signals. Steward and Narvi's on Gimli, knives on Legolas, Master of Forge to fish out all the attachments. Have all the attachments/events pretty much figured out, less sure about which allies to put in. Accepting a difference in spheres, who did you use ally wise? I like the idea of just a few high cost/value allies, but...with a tri-sphere deck? maybe not...

Epic win!!! I almost mucked it on the last turn but one, and I probably spent three minutes planning my last turn and hoping for a benign location on the quest. Phew!

For this quest the temperature starts at 10, but increases by 4 every turn (even if other card effects don't increase it further.) Just nasty. I would have been much better off with a play set of Wardens. Bring your green cards! Can't believe I won that without Lore.

Such a good quest. Attacks from a different dimension. We've had quests that attack your threat dial before, but there are cards that can deal with threat. This one essentially attacks your threat and doesn't allow you to reduce. Even if everything goes your way - and it won't - you have 13 turns tops.

Bullroarer,

I'd be interested in hearing some of the details about your Three Hunters deck and what you think about the new Legolas and Gimli heroes. I have been wanting to build a viable solo deck around those three since I got my core set (like I'm sure a lot of folks have). My copy of Sands arrived today, but I'm at work till tomorrow morning

I have been thinking of an attachment heavy deck with Loragorn (for some access to card draw to fuel Legolas and healing) and the Rune-master attachment to cheaply turn everyone into beasts with the signals. Steward and Narvi's on Gimli, knives on Legolas, Master of Forge to fish out all the attachments. Have all the attachments/events pretty much figured out, less sure about which allies to put in. Accepting a difference in spheres, who did you use ally wise? I like the idea of just a few high cost/value allies, but...with a tri-sphere deck? maybe not...

As an almost exclusively solo player, I'd definitely go with Loragorn. Acesss to easy card draw and Coney on a Trap (in the 1st Haradrim pack), will be clutch I suspect.

Bullroarer,

I'd be interested in hearing some of the details about your Three Hunters deck and what you think about the new Legolas and Gimli heroes. I have been wanting to build a viable solo deck around those three since I got my core set (like I'm sure a lot of folks have). My copy of Sands arrived today, but I'm at work till tomorrow morning

I have been thinking of an attachment heavy deck with Loragorn (for some access to card draw to fuel Legolas and healing) and the Rune-master attachment to cheaply turn everyone into beasts with the signals. Steward and Narvi's on Gimli, knives on Legolas, Master of Forge to fish out all the attachments. Have all the attachments/events pretty much figured out, less sure about which allies to put in. Accepting a difference in spheres, who did you use ally wise? I like the idea of just a few high cost/value allies, but...with a tri-sphere deck? maybe not...

Tell you what... You finish your deck and then I'll post mine. I don't want to "poison" your mind. I'm not really happy with mine frankly. It plays like a bad twins deck. Boromir (tactics) and Loragorn combo is also much better.

Tell you what... You finish your deck and then I'll post mine. I don't want to "poison" your mind. I'm not really happy with mine frankly. It plays like a bad twins deck. Boromir (tactics) and Loragorn combo is also much better.

Deal...I'll try to throw up mine tomorrow evening. It is funny you mention "bad twin deck," because I have tried a loragorn and twins deck several times and never gotten it quite right and was thinking that (with the readying abilities) this could turn out kinda similar.....we'll see.

Still no encounter spoilers here or on cardgamedb, at this rate I'll be posting them later this week when I get my copy!

So I finally made it to the third quest of the box and pretty much rolled it. I think I had a pretty good opening hand and my decks are sort of set up well against it, but maybe it's not so bad. That's only one game though. The last few turns against the boss were funny. He can't take damage while another orc is in play and I initially had three others engaged and ended up drawing two more as I whittled them down. Because Aragorn had Steward and Stone in play and because of Kahliel's ability I was able to play ally Glorfindel 5 turns in a row, have him defend against the boss hit, die, and then come right back the next turn.

Taking out the Gondorian Shield and putting in a play set of Warnings was a good move.

Obviously any quest is deck and player number dependent, but #3 feels a bit easier than #1 to me. I can see that multiplayer it could be much harder.

I need to go back and try #1 with this updated version though.

Wow still no encounter spoilers.

OK, I'm going to try to insert images from the first adventure...

Hope that worked!

Nope. Apparently FLICKR is verboten. Anyone else want to host? I can send them to you.