So my wife and I just played A Journey to Rhosgobel for the first time. We had 2 Athelas, my wife had a Lore of Imaldris, and Wilyador had 13 damage. We figured that we didn't need to heal Wilyador yet because he still had 7 health left. We moved on to stage 3 and game over.

I typically like a blind playthrough, but that was a very sad way to lose the game. Has anyone else had a loss like this on their first run through a scenario?

Unless you are very lucky, I'm pretty sure most everyone has this exact same reaction.

There was a bit of an outcry over that one. It's the last time they did it.

One of our players in a group last week brought a Gandalf/Elrond/Cirdan deck with a starting threat of 39 to a playthrough of The Passing of the Grey Company.

Yeah, that didn't go well.

There was a bit of an outcry over that one. It's the last time they did it.

The Redhorn Gate can have a similar effect, though.

I doubt I'll be alone when I say, before I even opened up the thread proper, the title made me think of Rhosgobel.

starting threat of 39

…did all the heroes find out they had cancer and decided to go out in style?

Playing blind is my favorite way to play.

I prefer to play blind, too, but I watched some progression sceries videos before buying my core set so I knew about that last stage...

In the beginning of the game (core set, first cycle) some design decisions were at least unlucky (an other exapmle is putting the text to put the nazgul of dol guldur into play on the nazgul himself). But they learned from their mistakes and these days things like that don't happen anymore (afaik) except it's exactly what they want (a great example being the end of "a knife in the dark"; completely destroyed me the first time, but that was supposed to happen and probably will always happen if I play it the same way again so everything is cool )

Anyway, did you have the ressources to pay for lore of Imladris? In case you did, I would always "house rule" that I am allowed to play it during the 3rd stage or to assume I did play it during the action window of the last quest stage as the ONLY reason I lost is bad design (and Count the game as a win ofc). Would I ever loose again if everything goes the same way, but I know about the last stage? No (the main and for me important difference to a knife in the dark), FFG just thought it increases replayability if everyone looses their first try -,-

I am sorry if I sound a little angry/upset, JtR is one of my least favorite quests as it combines the need to find certain Encounter Cards with a good amount of time pressure and I neither like the one nor the other.

It's a terrible quest, for sure.

Last week I played the second scenario from Over Hill and Under Hill blind three players. Turn 1, player 1 quests with Bilbo and Pippin. We draw two boulders. Game over.

Anyway, did you have the ressources to pay for lore of Imladris?

We did, and as soon as I read the card, I put it back and told my wife that she should heal Wilyador before we move one.

I like to play all scenarios blind the first time, and I generally expect to lose (though I don't always). Dunland Trap is the epitome of this idea. Slaughtered me the first time the trap was sprung.

I like to play all scenarios blind the first time, and I generally expect to lose (though I don't always). Dunland Trap is the epitome of this idea. Slaughtered me the first time the trap was sprung.

Same here, and both The Three Trials and Nightmare Return to Mirkwood killed me inside 2-3 turns.

Wait till you play The Dunland Trap blind!

It's a terrible quest, for sure.

...

I like that quest! It's fun, original and it really puts you under pressure!

It's one of the poorest-scaling quests in the game. I like the theme and actually played and replayed it quite a bit during Mirkwood (it's not too hard for 2-players most of the time), but looking back now I can't really bring myself to defend it.

Wait till you play The Dunland Trap blind!

Or to a lesser extent Foundations of Stone!

Any quests which use Surge like it's going out of style are rated very difficult. Heirs of Nümenor at least then, I guess?

I am also one of those that always plays blind the first time.

It makes it that much more difficult the first time.

Any quests which use Surge like it's going out of style are rated very difficult. Heirs of Nümenor at least then, I guess?

I am also one of those that always plays blind the first time.

It makes it that much more difficult the first time.

Yep, I play blind as well. I don't ever actually read the encounter cards, I gain my understanding of the quest by playing it. I'm sure there are probably still encounter cards I've never seen in a quest or two.

Yeah Rhosgobel is one of the worst instances of this, and one that really gave me a bad taste for the game for awhile. The other one I was thinking of was carrock, sure you know the trolls are coming at some point but not all at once. But even were were the "increase threat by amount in the staging area" those came as a huge suprise basically killing me right away. I just hate when I am doing well and a couple of bad draws end the game without a chance to come back.

I like Rhosgobel, great theme and a bit different than most quests. Yes i get the blind loss first time, but then i play solo with one deck and i cant remember winning first time on pretty much any quest anyway. Once you played you know whats coming so I cant see why this quest gets marked down on the basis of a blind first play.

I am having a much harder time liking the Hobbit boxes or the Ringmaker cycle and Isengaard with its stupid time counters effects crippling you and taking away any enjoyment of trying to build up your forces, becoming a race not an adventure and a horrible addition to the game. Sadly i am finding that many quests after Dwarrowdelf i have to tweak the rules to enjoy solo play - i think the designers upped the difficulty and forgot solo players after the first two cycles. I know they have an easy level but this removes cards you want to play against, far better would have been to have some alternative rules for solo play in each pack. I have managed to tweak some quests to make them play better solo, largely say by ignoring any time triggers which still keeps the difficultly high enough for me.

A good example is a quest i really like - Ruins of Beleghost, but this is insanely hard to solo with one deck too. The Stalking the Ruins Card which adds resources until you complete a quest really for solo should have been a time card which resets after every 3 counters bringing the dragon into play for one round and then disappearing. I guess its easier with 4 players as you can share the dragon around while he is play. This is an example that i think should have specifically been written into the rules of the scenario - do x for multi deck play but y for solo - i dont find it too hard to work out what makes a better rule so i cant see why the designers paid for this cant do a bit better at broadening the game ideas and make the solo gameplay more solid. Rant over - this quest once tweaked a bit is one of my favourites for artwork, monsters and theme.

Easy mode -- removing the cards you want to play with. Cards like:

Hummerhorns

Sudden Pitfall

Sleeping Sentry

Orc Vanguard

Umbar Assassin

The Master's Malice

This isn't all, but it does tend to get rid of some of the "you lose" cards I hate the very most. The number of cards removed entirely varies, Lost Realm only had one such card, but Grey Havens had five. You could always make it a little less easy with a house rule that always leaves one copy of a card in the deck even in easy mode.