Hi. I have recently got into the game (have played Core Set and half of Mirkwood cycle). Whilst I'd love to buy every expansion in release order I can't possibly justify it financially !

So I have prioritised those cycles/sagas that appeal the most:

LOTR saga

Dream Chaser cycle

I was thinking of completing the Mirkwood cycle, then playing the LOTR saga, then Dream Chaser. I'm concerned though that the Mirkwood pool won't get me through the latter half of the LOTR saga - I've read that the last couple of boxes are very hard even for veteran players with the full card pool. I guess Easy Mode is an option, but it might still be too hard (I still haven't beaten JdTA or CaTc !)

If the full saga is too hard with just the Mirkwood pool, then I could probably squeeze another deluxe and a couple of AP's... maybe pick up Voice of Isengard before Treason of Saruman, or Heirs of Numenor before the last two saga boxes...

Also - I'll be playing 1 handed solo, and I'm fine with a quest taking 10 attempts to beat, but maybe not 20!

Thoughts?

I think you'll be fine with that card pool. The big exception, of course, is that nobody's really fine for the last two quests of the Saga, since they're quite difficult (as they probably should be, honestly). They may take you many tries, but I don't think your card pool is going to be the biggest problem at that point.

In general, I have found that it doesn't take too long to get a critical mass of player cards to be able to take on most quests. There's more than one way to solve any given problem, so no one specific card is required.

Thanks for the encouragement. I was thinking that too about the card pool. Playing only one deck, I imagine that the a lot of it would compromise of saga and core cards anyway even if I had a larger card pool. I think I'll go for it!