I'm just making this post because I'm happy to finally get through playing this game some.
When I got it, I played through the starter box quests several times learning the rules, but hadn't found a companion to actually venture through the quests with me. Everyone would play it once and then pass... It was very frustrating. When I did get someone to play with me beyond the starter quests it still fizzled out as some gaming groups often do.
My friend moved back from Florida and we have an overlapping day off. He played the core quests with me and wanted to continue through, and magically it all came together lol.
We put together a team of decks, with me taking point on combat, while he played questing. I ran Sam, Elrond, and Mablung and he took up a 2 hero secrecy deck with lore Aragorn, and spirit Glorfindel. It was great as he could use Out of the Wild and other secrecy effects easily, and with such low threat never draw a combat to him. We went through the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle and just completed it yesterday.
Our next choice was to either go directly to the Dwarrowdelf cycle or to jump over to the story line quests and go through the first leg of the Hobbit. We aren't sure which we're doing, but we are re-building our decks to be dwarf themed. I'm going with Dain, Ori, and either Gimli or Thalin, while he's going to work out a similar deck with Nori and Bifur.
Time for the next leg of the journey ~
Also - any tips for these new dwarf themed decks - please share
I'm sure we'll do good enough on our own, but any advice is good too.