I didn't see a thread for this scenario, so I thought I'd start one. I know this isn't a very popular quest, and is considered boring, but I didn't think it was that bad. It's supposed to be pretty easy, and it certainly isn't insurmountable, but it does have some pretty nasty shadow effects and treachery cards that can add up on you.

This was one of those cases where my Spirit/Lore deck did better than my Spirit/Leadership deck (which I generally prefer). The extra Lore healing especially came in handy, since the shadow effects and treachery cards can give you wounds. The added card draw helps also. A lot of the effects only wound you if you are at threat level 35 or above, so having Spirit to drop it is good.

Since I play solo, I haven't really found a quest that calls for a Tactics component in a deck yet. But I'm still in the first cycle, so one may come up in time.

I'm one of the few who enjoys this quest. While I wouldn't want them to make location heavy quests a regular thing, one was fine by me. I thought the location art was beautiful and I really felt like I was on my own overland trek through a picturesque if uninhabited part of Middle-Earth. I think of it as a rare "relaxation" quest. 🙂 Haven't played it since 2014, though.

I enjoy it from a relaxation standpoint as well! I just played it after Journey to Rhosgobel which was awful! And it was a nice cool down. One thing that I'd like to house implement is a second quest card. This is the final quest in the cycle to feature the Dol Guldur Orcs. As such, I really like the idea of a final showdown with Ufthak. I've considered either 2A"Search the encounter deck and discard pile for Chieftain Ufthak and add him to the staging area. 2B "5 quest points While there are less than 5 quest points on this quest, Chieftain Ufthak gains a resource at the beginning of the quest phase. This quest cannot be defeated if Chieftain Ufthak is in play. When Chieftain Ufthak leaves play, the players win the game.

Or remove the quest point aspect on 2B (and extra resource gain) and every time Chieftan Ufthak gains a resource, you must put an encounter card into play upside down as a Tower Guard from the Escape from Dol Guldur.

I liked Journey to Rhosgobel, actually. Healing the eagle made for a unique quest.

Back to Hills of Emyn Muil, I had read that location lock was a possible problem in this scenario, although I never ran into it. I usually have a strong questing deck, that's probably why I like Spirit so much. In this case, my heroes were Eowyn, Eleanor, and Denethor. Denethor is great for defending.

With the latest reprint, I was able to pick up the Dead Marshes adventure pack, which is the next scenario up, so I got it just in the nick of time. The only other pack I'm missing right now is in the Dream Chaser cycle.

I really enjoy playing Journey to Rhosgobel, but it rarely hits the table for one reason. You have to use specific type of deck, or build specifically for that quest. I couldn't just bring a Dale deck I had ready for a pick-up game.

Yeah, that mission really needs a tailored deck for it. I was seeing a lot of people saying that you need healing for it, but I found the main things you need are ranged/eagle characters and encounter deck manipulation to avoid the killer treachery cards. I did the stats on it, and approximately 3 out of 5 of the cards in that scenario deal direct damage, and then if you don't have eagles or ranged the bats and crows will attack undefended all the time!

3 hours ago, Felswrath said:

if you don't have eagles or ranged the bats and crows will attack undefended all the time!

You could throw a snare on them. I recall doing that, although it's a bit like stopping an ant with a rocket launcher.

But IIRC, the enemies aren't that stout in Rhosgobel, so it's not like you need the snare elsewhere. If I'm remembering right (figure the odds).

Just bring Honour Guard and Journey to Rhosgobel becomes a lot easier!

19 hours ago, dalestephenson said:

Just bring Honour Guard  and Journey to Rhosgobel becomes a lot easier!

I could see that, but I haven't gotten to that card yet

Felswrath describes it the way I went about it. Denethor (core) was my MVP for Rhosgobel.

Honour Guard for Rhosgobel that’s true. I have Rhosgobel Nightmare in my queue. I’ll have to remember those guys.

21 hours ago, Vermithrax said:

Honour Guard for Rhosgobel that’s true. I have Rhosgobel Nightmare in my queue. I’ll have to remember those guys.

Nightmare version, that's interesting. I would imagine any card would be fair game for the Nightmare versions.

For the regular scenarios, so far I've been trying to stick only to cards that had been released up until that point.

In the case of Mirkwood, progression-style actually gives you less options than the playtesters had, since my understanding is that they tested with core + that cycles' cards. One card in the Mirkwood cycle that's particulary useful for Rhosgobel is Shadow of the Past (Return to Mirkwood), in case Athelas gets discarded as a shadow.

11 hours ago, dalestephenson said:

In the case of Mirkwood, progression-style actually gives you less options than the playtesters had, since my understanding is that they tested with core + that cycles' cards.

I've thought of doing it that way too. I'm not too obsessive about it, but it's the way I've done it so far.

It's occurred to me that the designers deliberately made the third core quest (Escape from Dol Guldur) difficult so that players would be encouraged to get other cards in the cycle, and game. I never found the Rhosgobel quest to be that difficult, but yeah if you don't have the athelas it's no good. Occupational gaming hazard, I guess.

Really, I'm having trouble identifying which (if any) new cards from the cycle I want to incorporate into my decks. Boromir looks pretty good, but I rarely use Tactics. Not that I don't want to, I just don't find it that useful so far.