57 minutes ago, PocketWraith said:

Yeah, but on the other hand, Song of Mocking.

Song of Mocking is certainly the easier solution, but if you are bringing Gloin with the goal of soaking up a bunch or treachery and spread damage, it's not so helpful.

It's also noteworthy that Vigilant Guard gives 2 additional hit points without using up a restricted slot, which can be valuable to Gloin in its own right.

Song of Mocking is *way* cheaper/easier to set up than Mighty Warrior + Vigilant Guard. However, Song of Mocking only lets you deflect damage from a single hero, while Vigilant Guard can cannibalize one point of damage from any character, anywhere, any number of times. Getting +2 hp is also helpful.

When do we expect this to hit shelves locally? I really want to get to building a deck with the new hero.

Probably in a like 3 weeks if i had to guess.

I am kinda in shock over Kahliel's tribesman's card art. Surely that anatomy and proportion are just wrong.

I don't see the issue with Tribesman's art. His arm is behind and above him.

i really hope this excessive delay is because they found a problem on one of the cards and had to get it reprinted. (Settler) Otherwise this delay makes little sense. The chapter packs are usually pretty regularly spaced at one month.

I'm hoping it's out soon. I want Steward of Orthanc for my mono-tactics solo deck from the Hero auction.

The thing with Tribesman's art is not the size of the hand, but that he has no neck and no sense of the right shoulder, and his head is the size of his chest......

1 hour ago, Otherworlder said:

The thing with Tribesman's art is not the size of the hand, but that he has no neck and no sense of the right shoulder, and his head is the size of his chest......

His neck is obscured by the cloak he's wearing. His right shoulder is also under the cloak and additionally, due to the angle, is partly obscured by his chin. I've no idea what you mean about the third one, his head is clearly narrower than his chest is.

I mean, I'm not amazed by the art, but I don't think it's that bad.

I feel like people who complain about his art have no sense of perspective or something...

"Can you make it across the Ford of Harnen? You'll have your chance at escape when Race Across Harad arrives at retailers late in the fourth quarter of 2016!"

At this point is seems more likely it will be second quarter 2017.

Rank my nerdliness:. I just sleeved up Mordor Orcs and Desert Sands.

7 hours ago, Bullroarer Took said:

Rank my nerdliness:. I just sleeved up Mordor Orcs and Desert Sands.

You sir, score a high 9.1 on my nerd-o-meter

My pack just came in, but work is killing me right now. Might not get to it until Saturday.

It's DL6 (yay). They didn't fix settler's text (boo).

Okay... I'm 0/2 on this one. It's not a pushover. Bring your willpower, quest early and often. And be prepared to face a lot of orcs. And sand dunes.

Got my copy a couple of days ago, but I've been too busy to try it out. Roll on the weekend.

Now 0/3 with my tier 2 Three Hunters deck. It's no pushover for sure.

There are two quest decks, one for you and one for the orcs. Only one encounter deck. You really want to stay ahead of the orcs if you can which means lots of questing. There are also certain times when you have to reveal an extra encounter card - not one per player - which obviously stresses the solo player more. Really nice quest. My only complaint is that there are a lot of rules on the different cards that interact and their effects are constantly changing depending on which stages the players or orcs are on. Not an easy quest to play or win.

Yep, I concur with Bullroarer. This is a really tough quest, especially on 4-player. The fact that you cannot place more than 10 progress on the quest each round really keeps up the tension and makes the game feel like a race, no matter how good your deck is.

You can't win this quest the traditional way - that is, with good questing and enemy control. Those are still essential, but they're not quite enough to put you over the top. At the moment, I'm inclined to say that winning this quest requires quite a bit of luck, at least on 4 player. It's really unusual (at least, in the 2 games I've played so far) to see the Orcs put less than 10 progress on their stage each round.

You might think that Radagast's Cunning would be the key to winning this quest, but that effect only lasts "until the end of the [quest] phase", whereas the orcs place progress "at the end of the quest phase". Same goes for Secret Paths.

The best trick I can think of is to use encounter deck manipulation (Lore Denethor, Risk Some Light) to ensure that the Orcs don't place a few extra progress each round.

We barely edged it out Monday with three players: Caldara.deck, Three Hunters, and The Deck You Want Your Friend To Play. The third to last turn was the make-or-break turn, when the Orcs finally caught up to us. A mad scramble to find enough non-lethal defenses while all suffering from dehydration.

Yep, this quest is tough! Fun, but tough.

Finally beat it 4-player. I used victory display manipulation with a 2-hero deck consisting of Spirit Merry and Lore Denethor. I decided that Harad Road was the encounter card that was most dangerous in a 4-player game, and used a first-turn Out of the Wild to remove one from the deck, and a turn-two Leave No Trace to remove the second one. Removed an Uruk Pursuer with None Returned, and avoided a second Uruk Pursuer with The Door is Closed! The Orcs only had 5 progress on stage 4D when we cleared River Harnen.

Overall, I'd say this support deck greatly enhanced our chances of success. Denethor frequently checked the encounter deck after questing but before the end of the quest phase (to try and minimize the amount of extra progress the Orcs made).

The other three decks were a Celeborn/Galadriel/Elrond Silvan deck, a Faramir/Bifur/Mablung Ent deck, and a Gloin/Erestor/Erkenbrand defense deck.

Played it two handed using the decks that were discussed in the "Finally convinced my wife to play" thread. Much easier this way, but still hard. This one punishes single player mode.

Wow what a quest. This one ticks all the boxes. Congratulations to the designer(s) and playtesters. I think it's the hardest of the extended cycle so far, but I recognize that this one is extra hard for solo players. If I am to nickpick - and it really is a nit pick - the quest is a bit too "fussy". There are sooo many cards interacting with other cards. Really hard to keep track of everything. But I am starting to believe that is the price of progress and we will need to learn to live with it on harder quests.

Brilliant job all. :thumb:

Yep, beat it solo with a Caldra (with Cirdan and Arwen) deck.