Good day, players!

Passage Through Mirkwood set was just introduction to the world of Encounter deck. After very weak and friendly cards you finally meet something tougher. Enemies, locations, nor treacheries won't give you the victory for free.

Here's the link for Dol Guldur Orcs set: https://visionofthepalantir.com/2020/03/03/encounter-set-review-dol-guldur-orcs/#Summary

Because Orcs from Dol Guldur are accompanying you in many scenarios, you surely know all individual cards well. Which cards makes you the biggest trouble and which cards you almost don't notice? Put the comments and share your own experience with this Encounter set.:)

Silblade

Dol Goldur Orcs ability is most annoying early where allies aren't yet out, once there are more questers there's likely to be someone more expendable. But of the three core spirit heroes they're most annoying to Dunhere -- one of the few enemies he can take out working alone, and the 10 engagement cost prevents him from doing so.

The difference between 2 and 3 attack is substantial, without shadow enhancement there's a lot more cheap allies that can survive the 2-strength attack. Ufthak's increasing strength forces you to chump quickly, but for the same reason the continued attack escalation loses its impact -- if you're chumping, it doesn't matter whether he's attacking for 5 or 75.

Beastmaster's double shadow isn't as dangerous in most of these quests as it would be in another cycle, especially if you're chumping anyway. I once switched out the Angmar orcs with the Passage orcs to see if it made Carn Dum substantially easier, and Beastmaster with a couple of Carn Dum shadows can be pretty terrifying!

Necromancer's Reach is definitely the most obnoxious card in the set, and can be especially devastating to fragile allies. Silvan archtype hates that card. Driven by Shadow surges when it does nothing, but that's actually generally worse than it going off -- even if you have 2-3 things in staging (and it could easily be one instead) it only contributes 2-3 threat, and that just for a single turn, disappearing without travel or combat necessary. These treacheries both scale against more players.

The locations may not be terrifying in either threat or progress needed, but they do serve as good examples of an obnoxious travel requirement and an obnoxious "when active" location. I've actually had more trouble with Enchanted Stream, in cases where my questing was marginal and I got stuck there. Obviously if you're questing well it isn't much of an issue.

For shadows in general, the impact depends on the defensive strategy used -- chumps, strong allies, and heroes. For heroic defense only Driven By Shadow matters, as defending heroes frequently rely on attachments -- but there's only 1 copy of that in the 14-card set. The defender discarding an attachment is usually a non-issue for defending allies (except Redwater Sentries). The +1 from the Dol Goldur Orcs is weak sauce, you probably wouldn't risk a hero if a mere +1 would kill them.

All four shadows punish undefended attacks, but undefended attacks tend to be hero-killers *without* shadows, so piling on isn't ordinarily dangerous. It's most dangerous when coupled with low-attack enemies that you might be tempted to take undefended to save an action; within the set only Dol Goldur Orcs would fit that description, and since they are one of the shadows it would reduce the odds to 3/13 from this set. Dol Goldur Orcs isn't ordinarily a set that would make me want to bring shadow protection.

At the beginning: because I'm writing these review from the view of Encounter deck (or from the view of Sauron's servants), the effects and abilities can be a little bit overstated - Sauron's servants are arrogant, cocky, mabye too self-confident and they are searching any gap in your defense. Entities with such characteristics are oftentimes proud on their cards, though the players can easily manage it.
However, even with a bit overstating, I objectively try to find any possible strengths and weaknesses of the given card, which may (not) be evident. Sometimes the given encounter card doesn't worth it much, but it can unpredictably develop, if it is combined with other encounter cards. As you know, many later encounter decks work in this way: they have own synergies and deadly combos, which will just trample you into the ground.

Now to Dol Guldur Orcs : you hit the bull's-eye. This Encounter set will hurt most in the early game, when you are just building army and try to strengthen your position. The classic example is revealing Chieftan Ufthak . If you hit 35 threat too soon and you haven't consolidated defense at the same time, then he has potential to crush you. However, it's enough to block him with some chump blocker and the problem with his increasing Attack is quite effectively neutralized, you just concentrate on the fast elimination. The problem could arise if the wrong player, aimed for example on questing or supporting, encounters him, but due to player optional engagements, this shouldn't be a problem. I think that Chieftan Ufthak is generally most dangerous if one player faces other stronger enemies, like Ungoliant's Spawn or Hill Troll . The player's attention is distracted between more targets, thus he has somehow handle the increasing Attack of Chieftan Ufthak.

Interesting: I believe that Dol Guldur Beastmaster would pose in the later cycles great danger for players.

Yep, The Necromancer's Reach proves that sometimes the simpliest effect can bring the biggest troubles. Not always you carry in the hand A Test of Will , so players should be really careful on their questing journey, if they don't want to lose too many characters. Driven by Shadow is very unpredictable card. Sometimes I was glad to reveal it, because the effect was minimal, and sometimes it was something like "What the …..?!" and my threat rapidly jumped up.

Necromancer's Pass is, in my point of view, nastier than Enchanted Stream , because almost nothing forces you to travel to Enchanted Stream. But 3 Threat Strength of Necromancer's Pass just annoys you. 2 Quest Points very provokes you to travel there, because you may think "oh, it's just 2 Quest Points". But then you face the dilemma, if you should sacrifice 2 cards randomly. It's a roullete.:)

Like you said: the most dangerous situations arises from undefending weak enemies, whose Attack is negligible, in general. In Dol Guldur Orcs , this would mean two possibilites: either you lose one hero (almost always) or you lose all attachments. Both effects hurt, really hurt. Driven by Shadow shows you raised middle finger to your spent resources, and it hurts in the mid and late game at most - that means, in the moment when you tend to triviliaze and underrate the attacks of weak enemies. From this point of view, Driven by Shadow can totally rip gained advantages that your heroes have, thanks to attachments.

But yeah: nor shadow effects from Dol Guldur Orcs or Driven by Shadow would persuade me to aim on shadow cancellation. If you pay attention, these shadow effects won't hurt you much (if at all).

Necromancer's Pass having 3 threat certainly makes it more obnoxious in the staging area. But the game has a lot more tools for getting around travel costs than getting around when-active costs. In the first cycle both Strider's Path in hand and West Road Traveler can deal with the pass, while you just have to live with Enchanted Stream (if you don't clear it in staging). Still, both are far from the terrible locations we'll see later, especially with their low quest points.

It's interesting to me to see how these cards were re-imagined for Wizard's Quest/Woodland Realm:

Chieftain Ufthak is a 3 point enemy with 36/3/6/36 stats. Instead of accelerating attack, he brings a friend (1 point-or-less orc) and is immune to attachments and non-combat damage.

Dol Goldur Beastmaster is a 1 point enemy with 35/2/4/2/5 stats. Instead of two shadows, it brings a friend when it engages you (a Necromancer's Warg)

Dol Goldur Orcs is a 0 point enemy with 24/2/3/1/4 stats. Instead of 2 damage to a quester, each player deals 1 damage to a character, so its "when revealed" is a lot easier for a single player. The shadow is nastier, -1 defense for every damage on defending character -- that can be hero killing if your defending hero is banged up.

Enchanted Stream becomes a 3 point location with 2/6 stats. In staging it prevents progress from being placed on the main quest, its travel requirement is each player exhausting a hero -- and those heroes can't ready while it is the active location.

Necromancer's Pass is a 0 point location with 2/2 stats. Instead of random cards discarded for a travel requirement, it has a when revealed effect of the player and opposing team each picking a card from the first player and having them guarded by the location.

Necromancer's Reach is a 1 point treachery with exactly the same effect, only now it also has a shadow effect (+1, +2 if defender is injured).

Driven by Shadow is a 1 point treachery but works completely differently, it becomes a condition that attaches to an enemy (opposing team chooses) which is returned to staging and gets +2/+2/+2 and immunity. It surges if there is no enemy, of course. But it loses its obnoxious (for heroic defenders) shadow effect.

@dalestephenson Sorry for my delay.

Have you got some link to these cards? I'm interested in these re-imagined cards. Can you just explain me, what you mean by "X point"?

Btw, I agree - Strider's Path or West Road Traveller are simple solution to avoid travel's effect of Necromancer's Pass. In progression mode and within the Core scenarios, it creates dilemma for you, if you should travel or not, because 3 Threat Strength is quite bothersome. But neither Necromancer's Pass , nor Enchanted Stream can be compared to later locations. They serve as introductory locations for new players. Advanced players will easily handle them, no matter which scenario you play.

The cards from Woodland Realm and Wizard's Quest can be seen at http://hallofbeorn.com/LotR . Just select them under Card Set. The point value is used for some card effects, but also is used for balancing the user-constructed quests -- the events using these have a competitive mode where player A constructs a quest for player B to play against, while player B constructs a quest for player A to play against -- whichever gets through the other player's quest first wins. So 3 point cards are the nastiest in the deck, while 0 point cards are the easiest filler.

It's true that with core cards only you can't mitigate travel effects, but 3 of 5 quests using the encounter set were released after Strider's Path -- and the core set quests do not cease to be played once expansions are purchased.