I've been playing about a year, started on Harad set and now have full Harad and Rhovanian cycles. And for the life of me I can't get passed hardly any of the missions, even 2 handed.

Not looking for full decks, but I need some hope that it's possible to do these cycles with just these cycles and core.

Every deck list I see has cards from much older cycles. And even the progression series ideas I've seen assume you started at the beginning. The old sets are either not available or hard to find, and I don't want to buy 1-2 random missions just for 1-2 specific cards.

Has anyone ever tried to get through these expansions "progression" style but only with these cards and the core? Kinda sucks they would make it where every expansion isn't self-contained doable.

https://darklingdoor.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/new-series-path-less-traveled/

This blog goes through each of the deluxe expansions with only that expansion and a single core set.

It should be exactly what you're looking for.

Wilds of Rhovanion is among the best self contained archetypes in the game - the Dale deck is incredibly good, and it only gets better throughout the cycle. Beravor is an excellent counterpart to the two heroes from the deluxe.

Sands of Harad, on the other hand, has really good quests, but the player cards don't lend themselves very well to core set archetypes.

Also have you tried Easy or the one my wife and I play primarily Sleazy mode where you start with an extra resource.

Thank you for the link, I'll read through it.

I have gotten through the core missions and up through the mumakil. The second Sands of Harad mission dying in the desert is probably my favorite so far! But stuck going forward and I skipped to Rhovanian and they seem even tougher. I'm trying to do in order to enjoy the story and not spoil.

I've made a 3 Hunter deck and Harad deck, both are very fun but just aren't efficient enough to complete everything.

I have played easy through the core when first playing to learn, but it's satisfying being able to beat stuff on normal and was more fun the second time through.

Thank you again for the article! This is exactly what I was looking for, some creative and effective deck lists that someone's tried using my small card pool and found success with. Look forward to trying these out!

Lotr card game is tough for even experienced players with full collections and its particularly so if your playing straight up solo. Easy mode is kind of poorly named, I would say it's more like "solo mode" as a huge chunk of the scenarios in the game (I would say in the 80 percentile) are virtually impossible without some seriously specialized decks. I can imagine it's even tougher without a full card pool.

The general advice is

1. Play easy mode if your playing solo

2. Avoid online decks and seek out advice articles instead (most online decks require a very specific way to play them so it can do more damage then good without clear instructions and experience).

3. Realize when playing solo mode you will fail more often then win.

More specific advice for solo players

1. Build specific decks for specific scenarios. Aka, once you have lost a few times with a deck, adjust the deck to beat that specific scenario rather then building "I'm ready for anything decks".

2. Build 2 sphere decks. One sphere is usually to narrow, three spheres is to wide. Two sphere decks tend to do best in solo mode.

3. Control the top deck. Solo decks do 100% better if you can control the top deck as most scenarios have show stopper cards that can derail your progress in one swift motion. There are lots of great cards and heroes that can be used for this purpose, but suffice to say having encounter deck control in your deck is a must in my opinion.

4. Realize that some scenarios are virtually unbeatable solo as they were simply not tested or designed to be beat with 1 player. This is a sad reality of Lord of the Rings and certainly some people will claim to beat all scenarios "EASY!", but don't buy into that comotion. Anyone who claims such things is full of ****. All scenarios are beatable, but few of them can be quantified as easy. Most range from really hard, to just shy of impossible.

1 hour ago, BigKahuna said:

2. Avoid online decks and seek out advice articles instead (most online decks require a very specific way to play them so it can do more damage then good without clear instructions and experience).

These are the wisest words I’ve heard in a while. The whole post, really. Pay attention, newbies!

1 hour ago, BigKahuna said:

certainly some people will claim to beat all scenarios "EASY!", but don't buy into that comotion. Anyone who claims such things is full of ****.

Oh, no! I guess I’m of full of ****, now! What will I ever do?

In all seriousness, though, do you actually think we’re lying when we claim that most (Nobody’s pretending Temple of Doom, Assault on Dol Guldur, or Mount Doom are cakewalks) scenarios are easy? I mean, I can type up a round by round playthrough if you reallly want hard evidence.

@Dlogue: The three hunters is a difficult configuration to make a good deck with. If you feel you're stuck with those try a dale deck that you should have most important pieces for from the Rhovanion cycle.

On 9/26/2019 at 1:23 PM, BigKahuna said:

2. Avoid online decks and seek out advice articles instead (most online decks require a very specific way to play them so it can do more damage then good without clear instructions and experience).

This is great advice and good way to get better at deckbuilding. There are great youtube videos as well, that can show how to pilot some decks. I've played for years and I still pick up new tricks from other players.

On 9/26/2019 at 1:23 PM, BigKahuna said:

4. Realize that some scenarios are virtually unbeatable solo as they were simply not tested or designed to be beat with 1 player. This is a sad reality of Lord of the Rings and certainly some people will claim to beat all scenarios "EASY!", but don't buy into that comotion. Anyone who claims such things is full of ****. All scenarios are beatable, but few of them can be quantified as easy. Most range from really hard, to just shy of impossible.

It's safe to say those who call some scenarios easy (you won't hear that about Battle of Carn Dum) are usually having years of experience with this game and a large card pool. Nightmare mode exist for those people (it is more correctly named than easy mode). You can check out a lot of videos as well on how these quests can be beaten (see above).

They are in a kind of tough spot since if they made the quests so that they could fairly easily be beaten by core and the box, then veterans would get pretty bored. I selfishly like how they do it but I can understand the frustration.

On 10/16/2019 at 2:04 PM, programdude said:

They are in a kind of tough spot since if they made the quests so that they could fairly easily be beaten by core and the box, then veterans would get pretty bored. I selfishly like how they do it but I can understand the frustration.

On occassion the designer(s) has stated that they design the cards and quests in a cycle at the same time and intended to be playable with just the core set.
Of course this is a lot harder than if you have the deep card pool of all other cycles. that way of thinking makes sense to me. You can't expect a new player to dive deep into 9 cycles + saga expansions that this game has by now.

On 10/20/2019 at 2:17 PM, PigsAreOurEquals said:

On occassion the designer(s) has stated that they design the cards and quests in a cycle at the same time and intended to be playable with just the core set.
Of course this is a lot harder than if you have the deep card pool of all other cycles. that way of thinking makes sense to me. You can't expect a new player to dive deep into 9 cycles + saga expansions that this game has by now.

While I am sure they are certainly beatable with the core + the cycle, I feel like it must not be very fun, except for perhaps a challenge. I am probably slightly of a skewed opinion since I usually play on nightmare mode, but I did play through sands which only has normal and while not overly challenging, seems like you'd be strong armed into certain choices for certain quests. I also cant imagine the hobbit boxes with their very specific deck building requirements would be overly fun.

I'm not knocking them though, I think they've struck the best balance possible by making the encounters technically beatable with core and the expansions, albeit difficult, while still being fairly challenging for a larger collection with nightmare as an option for experienced deck builders with a large card pool who are seeking a further challenge. I just hope that a lot of new players understand what they are getting into if they are only buying a couple sets.

On 9/26/2019 at 8:26 AM, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

I mean, I can type up a round by round playthrough if you reallly want hard evidence .

Would you please? I would eat this up faster then second breakfast and elevenses combined. I mean there's a list of 3-5 people on here I would love to see regular reports from. Call it the White Council (Or Ventures of the Istari).

I mean realistically I'll read most anything from almost anyone on here because I really enjoy people's various views of the game, but some of you veterans...think about it.

10 hours ago, TheSpitfired said:

Would you please? I would eat this up faster then second breakfast and elevenses combined. I mean there's a list of 3-5 people on here I would love to see regular reports from. Call it the White Council (Or Ventures of the Istari).

I mean realistically I'll read most anything from almost anyone on here because I really enjoy people's various views of the game, but some of you veterans...think about it.

I’d be glad to! I only have Core + Shadows of Mirkwood, KD + Dwarrowdelf, Hobbit saga, HoN + first half of Against the Shadow, Massing at Osgiliath, Assaut on Dol Guldur, and the Woodland Realm/Wizard’s Quest in terms of quests to play, though. Take your pick, and I’ll get to the playthrough when I have time (I’ll be away from home for most of the week, with no cards along for the ride. ).

By the way, I think your White Council idea has potential! I’m pretty busy (and not that veteran-y for a veteran), but I’ll be thinking about what could be done with something like that.

Dlogue,

I know that you said you weren't necessarily looking for specific deck recommendations and that the consensus of this thread has been to focus on looking for advice rather that seeking out a deck recommendation. However, as an unabashed net-decking, easy mode player I thought I'd offer a different view...Mr. Underhill has posted a generally strong deck on Ringsdb that is pretty closely aimed at your situation. It is a deck made with just 1 Core Set and the Rhovanion deluxe. I have played it and found it quite strong and capable of taking on quite a few quests solo. Even if you aren't interested in using it, it might provide some inspiration or point you in the right direction. At the very least, it confirms that it is possible to be at least moderately successful with the cards in your collection. If you are interested I can post a link.

Good Luck!!

13 hours ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

I’d be glad to! I only have Core + Shadows of Mirkwood, KD + Dwarrowdelf, Hobbit saga, HoN + first half of Against the Shadow, Massing at Osgiliath, Assaut on Dol Guldur, and the Woodland Realm/Wizard’s Quest in terms of quests to play, though. Take your pick, and I’ll get to the playthrough when I have time (I’ll be away from home for most of the week, with no cards along for the ride. ).

By the way, I think your White Council idea has potential! I’m pretty busy (and not that veteran-y for a veteran), but I’ll be thinking about what could be done with something like that.

Talk about tough choices! I would enjoy hearing a report from almost any of those quests to be honest. I am one of the stubborn people that refuse to look at a quest's encounter cards ahead of time so that I go in blind without knowing what to expect. In that regard I'll be choosing from quests I've already completed so that I'm more familiar with what is happening and could potentially happen while you're questing.

The hard part is settling in on just one quest. I would enjoy a report from Journey Down the Anduin, Hunt for Gollum or Flight from Moria. Not super hard quests by any means but not without some great challenges if the cards fall right.

(I don't know if I'll develop the White Council or not. My thought would be a blog-site that 6 writers can contribute reports to, one for each member of the council. Maybe even make them assume identities from the council and once a year do a theme quest where they have to represent their character in their deck. Would be fun for everyone but Saruman I think)

I think it would be really great if there were more video based media for Lord of the Rings. While written articles are great, there is a certain relaxing luxury to simply watching the game being played (in particular being played well) with explanations on strategies, tactics, thinking behind strategies and tactics. I think one point of trouble for Lord of the Rings is that there is a lot of information in the way of "answers", in other words, "use this deck" or "use this strategy", but very little in the way of practical, applicable advice.

Perhaps it's a bit late in the games life cycle for that sort of thing, but I sort of see Lord of the Rings becoming one of these cult classic games upon its official retirement (or at least that is my hope).

There are actually a plethora of content creators with youtube channels whose staple is LotR LCG gameplay videos. Mr. Underhill, Seastan, Warden of Arnor's progresion series, and chrsjxsn's deck tech to name a few.

And do not forget the old progression series and COTRPodcast.

I've wanted to make game play videos of my sessions of LOTR but I'm always worried about the little mistakes I make here and there. Usually I can catch them and retcon them in one or two phases but I always think it would make things more confusing for the viewer.

I'd almost rather stream it live, but again I'm worries about the little mistakes and I don't have the equipment to do it. Maybe some day...

Well, @TheSpitfired , I was typing up a successful play report of Hunt for Gollum when OCTGN crashed (I was using its log to record each round).

I plan on replaying it, hopefully soon, so I can get you that playthrough!