First time I felt capable of entering (skills- and expansion-wise). I had a real blast devising a deck for it, using some (for me) shiny new cards like Lore Aragorn and A Elbereth Gilthoniel. I love Aragorn's capability to hit "reset". It bought me time to build up card draw (Gleowine) and get OtHUtH Gandalf up just in time to engage the troll. During my practice runs I found myself struggling a bit, because the initial quest power is 6 and sensible to the wrong encounter set up. I finished at threat 45, had to drop Gandalf at 41, but then Treebeard was up and in Orc-crunching mode. I am now eagerly anticipating getting the wrong hero imprisoned and adding some tokens.

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/219220

As a curiosity, I run a hardcore deck alongside this, built from a single core, Mirkwood and the two first saga boxes (which I have). It was built on Imrahil, Eowyn and Tactics Merry. Phew, one Unexpected Courage, two A Test of Will etc is such a challenge. I was close at 2 valar tokens, but got swamped in the end (too many surges and too many wounded heroes), but made it at 3.

This is the link for that deck:

https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/16547/junetesthardcoretest2-1.0

Thanks for arranging this. It will not be the last time I enter.

Awesome glad to hear it! I chose this cycle so those without the whole card/quest pool could participate and Dale is a legend for organizing and running this all. Cool decks and I’m a huge fan of hobbit Gandalf as well. I find running a deck with only the allotted cards quite challenging and alternate between that and just running whatever new, fun and/or powerful deck I’ve cooked up. So many ways to play.

I agree totally. In my Imrahil deck, I really miss Envoys of Pelargir and cheap Errand-riders, but I love the way I can work around Merry's ability to ready a more powerful ally, like Beorn or Gandalf. It is surprisingly good and a lot of fun. If I put Steward on Eowyn, I can stand and fight Gandalf three times, sneak attack him twice, but I can (and intend to) pick other stand and fight options when Gandalf is not around. Now where is that wizard?

8 hours ago, Fredmans74 said:

I can stand and fight Gandalf three times

Unfortunately Stand and Fight doesn't work on neutral allies.

12 hours ago, Fredmans74 said:

First time I felt capable of entering (skills- and expansion-wise). I had a real blast devising a deck for it, using some (for me) shiny new cards like Lore Aragorn and A Elbereth Gilthoniel. I love Aragorn's capability to hit "reset". It bought me time to build up card draw (Gleowine) and get OtHUtH Gandalf up just in time to engage the troll. During my practice runs I found myself struggling a bit, because the initial quest power is 6 and sensible to the wrong encounter set up. I finished at threat 45, had to drop Gandalf at 41, but then Treebeard was up and in Orc-crunching mode. I am now eagerly anticipating getting the wrong hero imprisoned and adding some tokens.

Nice to see another new addition to this contest. Yes Loragorn can really be a safety net that changes a game and OHUH Gandalf is really amazing, the threat cost be damned 😄

29 minutes ago, Alonewolf87 said:

Unfortunately Stand and Fight doesn't work on neutral allies.

Nice to see another new addition to this contest. Yes Loragorn can really be a safety net that changes a game and OHUH Gandalf is really amazing, the threat cost be damned 😄

Indeed it does not. This is the first time I built around the card, so lessons learned quickly. I remember noticing it when I built the deck, slipped my mind when playing it. I really like pitching alllies for will power with Eowyn and then re-standing them. Guess I will go back and re-play that 3 token run.

1 hour ago, Fredmans74 said:

I remember noticing it when I built the deck, slipped my mind when playing it. I really like pitching alllies for will power with Eowyn and then re-standing them.

Indeed, I also built my deck for this League around that concept.

1 hour ago, Alonewolf87 said:

Indeed, I also built my deck for this League around that concept.

I just looked at your deck. I would love some of your cards in my deck, and I have the sets, but I am opening them at a leisurely pace. Good to know that there are so many fun cards ahead of me.

So, today I managed to delve into Dol Guldur, and came out with 3 valar tokens. I knew I was in for a rough time, since my deck consists of a lot of 2 cost cards. Drawing 6 and 7 threat in three cards for the two first tries did not exactly help. I never came out of quest 1B. With three tokens, I finally drew Merry as prisoner, managed to get Gleowine, and then a Warden of Healing out. I was lucky to draw mostly 1 and 2 threat locations, not caring about threat and killing off the odd enemy while saving up for Hobbit Gandalf which I played on threat 41, reset to 28, and slowly ground out one ally/turn. Song of Travel helped a lot to get Arwen, Steed of Imladris and Treebeard out. The Nazgul was dealt with swiftly, and then Gandalf could carry on with his important wizard missions on his own. I snatched the key and the torch, cleared quest 2 and blitzed out at threat 44. Henamarth and Wingfoot on Strider made the questing phase very easy to plan for.

I figured the best way to score well this month was to focus on beating Dol Guldur (which is surprisingly difficult to spell) in as few tokens as possible, and hoping that the other two quests would follow easily (not a trivial assumption!)

So I took inspiration from Authraw's excellent Darkling Door blog, taking his Galadriel-Frodo-Merry deck as a starting point, but swapping in Eowyn for Galadriel as mandatory hero. Then I realised that, since that article was published, we now have contracts. The three objectives are Restricted, so suddenly I had a lightbulb moment - why not turn the quest against itself with a Three-Hunters deck!?

Eowyn turns out to be a great choice for this - Snowmane and Herugrim mean she can quest for at least 4, ready and attack once per turn for at least 5! Then, to further help fulfilling the contract, I decided to run The One Ring on Frodo. This also gives me access to Inner Strength, basically the only defence-boosting I have available in Spirit. Suddenly I have a defender with 3 def and infinite health.

I did have to weaken the deck slightly and chuck in some Lore cards with Song of Wisdom, as I felt that mono-spirit would struggle on Rhosgobel unless it got lucky with the Athelas.

But first up was Journey Along the Anduin… My first attempt was derailed when I decided to advance to stage 2 (using A Elbereth on the troll) before I had the contract flipped, and before I had Herugrim out. I was overwhelmed in staging and couldn't deal with the enemies quickly enough. Lesson learned!

Attempt 2 was better managed, and I was coasting to victory when disaster struck! The last card revealed on Stage 3 was the second copy of Goblin Sniper. With both copies in the staging area, I would never be able to optionally engage them. Normal practice in this situation is to raise threat to 48 and engage them by force. But with the Ring, I threat out at 45! I was doomed!

So I returned with 2 tokens, and tried again. I got the classic turn 2 double Hill-Troll, though fortunately could cancel it with The Master Ring. I was able to get my attachments on, and looked set to go. But an early Goblin Sniper which I couldn't engage set me up for a nervous game - if the second came out before I could isolate it, I would be stuck again! Fortunately my luck held, and I was able to dispose of the sniper during stage 2. I had the massive contract willpower to sweep through stage 2 after that, and stage 3 left me with just Eastern Crows and Wolf-Rider from the reveal, who were summarily dispatched.

Journey Along the Anduin: 2 tokens.

But now for the real test!

Awesome to see so many people participating and love reading the play through guys.

Made the journey to Rhosgobel. This was the first time playing the scenario one-handed, and if I had done so, I would definitely have packed a third Athelas. The first run was going too well. I drew Good Meal and Galadhrim's Greeting in the opening hand for a starting threat of 22. I quickly played Master of the Forge, starting to dig out my own Athelas, but only just when it was too late for Wilyador (hitting six wounds after finding the first and 11 after the second). As for the groves where athelas grew in abundance, they were nowhere to be seen, until at the very last moment at 19 wounds. One valar token.

The second try was very much like the first. I kept finding athelas in the decks a turn too late, but when I was at 12 wounds with one Athelas, I drew the jackpot from the encounter deck. Athelas, guarded by Athelas for a quick two Athelas. I blitzed the quest for victory.

Journey to Rhosgobel is a very weird quest. If you tech for it, it is too easy. If you semi-tech for it, it is down to luck of the draw in solo-mode. With bad luck, the valar tokens could have piled up indefinitely.

Thanks to Dale for organizing this. It will not be the last time I enter. I had great fun trying to build for three quests, rather than one or an entire cycle. It hit an unexplored spot for me and opened up yet another way to play this amazing game.

55 minutes ago, Fredmans74 said:

Athelas, guarded by Athelas for a quick two Athelas

I think a Guarded Objective, cannot be Guarded by another Guarded Objective, you have to reveal another encounter card to fulfill the first Guarded (while the second objective is put into play free).

3 hours ago, Alonewolf87 said:

I think a Guarded Objective, cannot be Guarded by another Guarded Objective, you have to reveal another encounter card to fulfill the first Guarded (while the second objective is put into play free).

That is what I meant. I guarded both objectives, just to not mess up. I drew into a bat and an enchanted wood, but I was already tip-toeing to not quest, so I could travel by exhausting Merry, and I had Unexpected Courages out for both rangers to grab the Athelases after engaging the bat. Threat was at 20 due to Merry's ability and two greetings.

Question: I do recall reading some thread OR FAQ on guarded-on-guarded cards where you resolve both, in effect put the second objective in play and keep drawing for Guarded on both cards. Maybe someone will beat me to it.

The FAQ says:

Surge, Doomed, and Guarded keywords should be resolved any time the card on which they occur is revealed from the encounter deck, including during setup.

I interpret this as both Guarded cards are resolved independently, drawing me two additional encounter cards.

I have always played it by revealing a card to guard both objectives. If I revealed an Athelas as the guarding card for an Athelas I would reveal another card to guard the original Athelas, then reveal a 2nd card to guard the 2nd copy of Athelas.

I just checked the FAQ for guarded and couldn't find anything on it.

As you reveal cards after a guarded card is revealed, if you reveal another Guarded card I don't see why you should ignore the Guarded keyword on the 2nd card.

From the Rules of Play, page 24 under Guarded: "If another objective cards comes up while attaching a card for the guarded keyword, place the second objective in the staging area, and use the next card of the encounter deck to fulfill the original keyword effect"

Also from the same page: "The Guarded keyword is a reminder on some objective cards to reveal and attach the next card of the encounter deck to the objective when it enters the staging area from the encounter deck and place them both in the staging area"

I don't think it's very clear from that paragraph what you should do, but as it doesn't explicitly state the Guarded keyword on the 2nd objective is ignored I would lean towards both objectives receiving a guarding card. That does mean you could have a round with 4 copies Athelas revealed each with an encounter card leading to a possibly horrendous situation.

Unrelated comment - I think it is very interesting to see the other decks people have come up with for this league. Personally I built my deck with the hope it could beat Journey along the Anduin and A Journey to Rhosgobel easily, and just hoped for the best on Escape from Dol Guldur. Maybe that wasn't the best plan in hindsight

1 hour ago, Adaepholn said:

Unrelated comment - I think it is very interesting to see the other decks people have come up with for this league. Personally I built my deck with the hope it could beat Journey along the Anduin and A Journey to Rhosgobel easily, and just hoped for the best on Escape from Dol Guldur. Maybe that wasn't the best plan in hindsight

I found that interesting too. I built exclusively for Dol Guldur and Anduin, hoping to beat Rhosgobel quite easily, since I thought of it as easier than it turned out to be. With hindsight, I should have run the deck against Rhosgobel at least once, since I had never played it solo-handed. A couple of Distant Stars could have made a lot of difference, and I could possibly have used them to find that Mountain location that lets you search your top 5 cards in the other two scenarios. At the time of deck-building, I thought it too niche.

I apologize for the late status update, as I've been away camping most of this week and had to hike to the trading post just to keep the Hills of Emyn Muil quest going.

The first quest (Anduin) went smoothly for me, as I had a Winged Guardian in my opening hand. This let me chump the troll without taking a ton of threat, and with the help of TaEowyn's special ability I was able to take the troll down early. After that it was just a matter of trying to quest through the second stage before I threated out; the encounter deck was kind enough to give me one enemy per turn (engaged and dispatched) and I made it through unscatched. That was good for sixth against this quest (outside cards in parens):

0 Alonewolf87 (0)
0 General_Grievous (0)
0 adaepholn (0)
0 player3351457 (11)
0 Fredmans74 (30)
0 dalestephenson (33)
1 bobbymcbobface (0)
1 Matt K 22 (6)
1 weaponx117 (39)
2 Trumpet95 (39)

Alonewolf should be the top result based on the third tiebreaker, but I failed to specify core/Mirkwood in the second tiebreaker as I had intended to, so the written rules unfairly drop him to third against this quest for using three core [mandatory] heroes. Grievous and adaepholn go to the 5th tiebreaker, which wants only core/Rhosgobel cards in the deck. adaepholn has 21 and Grievous has 16, so adaepholn wins that one and comes in first against this quest. All other players are distinguish by tokens or outside cards.

Here's the most popular mandatory heroes in the players so far:

4 SpEowyn
3 Beravor
2 LeAragorn
1 LoDenethor
1 Thalin
1 Theodred

Still over a week left to join (if necessary) and finish the three quests.

Thanks for the breakdown! Clearly all core set heroes are not created equal haha.

Once again I'm late in providing a status update -- please finish up your quests by the 28th, and I will post final results on the 29th.

Escape from Dol Goldur I thought would be the worst of the lot, notoriously unbalanced against one-deck solo, requiring incredible luck (and the right hero to be captured) in order to proceed. In fact, I considered using the spoiled contract from the final AP just so I could [o]have three heroes left over after the capture[/o]. The value of tokens in the quest are somewhat limited due to the one-ally-per-turn limitation, so combined with the luck of the hero capture I was envisioning higher tokens taken than in previous quests, such as the 20 tokens a player took against Black Serpent last month, or even the 50 tokens I took to defeat Dunland Trap a few months ago. (In fairness, I nearly won at both 2 and 3 tokens before losing on the final shadow card of the quest, but blowing it all up with 50 was sweet revenge...)

My fear of Dol Goldur was based on theory-crafting only, I'd never even tried playing a single deck against it before. The initial reveals of Necromancer's Pass, King Spider, and Caught in the Web didn't thrill me. But I had a secret weapon in my Radagast/TacEowyn Eagles deck -- my mandatory hero, Thalin. It was Thalin I exhausted to King Spider, Thalin that was caught in a web... and Thalin that was randomly chosen to be the captured hero. Having lost my least valuable, exhausted, and webbed hero, I struggled through the early questing and eventually got ahead of the quest, thanks to Eowyn's willpower and Radagast's action advantage from playing creatures, and Radagast's Staff was more than ample compensation for the missing resource. When a second Caught in the Web came out I was able to avoid exhausting Radagast at all while still questing, and when I claimed the response to get Thalin we were able to use TaEowyn's ability to put the Nazgul away in one turn. The biggest problem ended up being threat, but I managed to push across the finish line at 48 or 49 threat, giving me a 100% lifetime success rate against Dol Goldur with one deck. I still don't recommend it....

Who was as lucky as me? Nobody. But most players had better luck than I would've expected against this quest (outside cards in parens):

0 dalestephenson (33)
2 Alonewolf87 (0)
2 General_Grievous (0)
3 Fredmans74 (30)
3 weaponx117 (39)
4 adaepholn (0)
5 player3351457 (11)
8 bobbymcbobface (0)
12 Enzo622 (0)
20 Matt K 22 (6)

Cumulative through the first two quests:
0 dalestephenson (33)
2 Alonewolf87 (0)
2 General_Grievous (0)
3 Fredmans74 (30)
4 weaponx117 (39)
4 adaepholn (0)
5 player3351457 (11)
9 bobbymcbobface (0)
14 Enzo622 (0)
21 Matt K 22 (6)

DANG IT MATT K! TWO SOLO LEAGUES IN A ROW I HAVE ALMOST FINISHED LAST, AND WOULD HAVE AT LEAST GOT TO CHOOSE SOMETHING! BUT AGAIN I HAVE BEEN FOILED! I JUST WANT TO LOSE!!! 😭 😭 😭

I've missed the intermediate standings for quest 2, but I definitely intend to get through all 3 before the final deadline.

Next up was Dol Guldur, which I had specifically built around. Basically the plan was to rush stage 1, free the prisoner, trigger the contract, rush stage 2, rush stage 3 and send the Nazgul packing with A Elbereth Gilthoniel.

I was pleased with the opening draw from the Encounter deck - 2x Enchanted Stream and a Driven by Shadow (whiff!) as the Guarded cards. Frodo was taken prisoner which was... a bit concerning, as it meant I had no real defensive strategy - Merry with the ring + Inner Strength for a 2/2 defender!

My opening hand had 2 copies of Silver Circlet, which at least gave me a fighting chance. That gave Eowyn 6 WP off the bat.

I had to avoid enemies coming out, and got reasonably lucky - Under the Shadows for 1 temporary threat, and Iron Shackles. I later had to cancel a lowly Dol Guldur Orcs with The Master Ring (oh the shame!), but was able to clear the first two Enchanted Streams at the first opportunity. Then Hummerhorns came out! I didn't mind letting them stew in the staging area with their 1 threat, but they meant I had to get out of here before reaching 40 threat, which is no easy task.

I cleared stage 1, choosing Cavern Torch as the objective, and committed both heroes to the quest on stage 2. Cavern Guardian! I had to engage it, but fortunately rescued Frodo in the nick of time to defend it. This then released the Nazgul into the staging area, and I figured that I needed the contract now, whatever the consequences. Frodo took the last two objectives, allowing me to trigger the contract. As well as the willpower boost, the healing also proved crucial, allowing me to take the Shadow Key's damage on Frodo rather than threating it off.

I was also lucky to draw Hobbit Pony at this point - it meant I could hold back Merry for emergency defence depending on what came out. It was a Necromancer's Pass, but the Nazgul's hefty 5 threat meant I still needed Merry to finish quest 2B that round, taking the Cavern Guardian's attack undefended, threating the damage through Frodo.

Onto stage 3, I realised I wouldn't be able to keep up with the "Orc Guards" popping up every round. And my threat was now 39, so I had to win this round or face Hummerhorns. By this point I had A Elbereth in hand, and was able to play Snowmane, and Miruvor on Merry.

I quested with Frodo and Eowyn for a combined 13, and drew Under the Shadow. This was a good draw, a temporary +1 threat, but I was still 3 short of the 7 progress for Stage 3. Thankfully I could commit Merry with Hobbit Pony and put the required progress on, so I just needed to be rid of the Nazgul. So I optionally engaged it, leaving me with Nazgul, Cavern Guardian and Orc Guard engaged. Eowyn was ready from Snowmane, and I used Miruvor to ready Merry.

I think I can choose the order of enemy attacks, so I just need to defend and dispatch the Nazgul. Unfortunately Merry's 2/2 meant I couldn't defend the Nazgul with him, so Eowyn had to be sacrificed. Thankfully the shadow card was Chieftan Ufthak (possibly the only time I've ever been glad to see him!) so the Nazgul's forced effect didn't trigger.

I then played A Elbereth to stick the Nazgul on the bottom of the deck, and at this point I think I win instantly, before the others attack. For completeness, I defended the Guardian with Merry, and took the Orc Guard's 1 attack as threat through Frodo - so if I have misunderstood the rule on order of attacks, we can rest assured I would have won anyway.

Who'd have thought I would beat Dol Guldur easier than Anduin? I certainly had a decent time of it from the encounter deck - none of those nasty spiders - but equally I never drew what I thought were key cards, like Herugrim and Snowmane (until later on).

Escape from Dol Guldur: 0 tokens.

And I've made it through Rhosgobel. Not a quest which suited my deck at all. I had a few healing tricks, but victory relied on me drawing Song of Wisdom + Healing Herbs or Long Defeat AND the encounter deck spewing forth enough Athelas before Wilyador perishes (and my goodness his health drops fast!).

I managed it on 5 tokens - the starting card draw did help but I don't think the tokens had a massive influence on whether I won or not!

Rhosgobel: 5 tokens, for a Grand Total of 7 tokens.

I am very impressed by your run, trumpet. I included A Elbereth with both hill troll and nazgul in mind, but never drew it when I needed it. I have the exact same feeling about Rhosgobel. I was a little light on healing, and was therefore completely at the mercy of the encounter deck giving me the right cards and the deck was so thick. It was never a matter of resources, and at the end of my 1-token run, I had money in piles but not the athelas. Fortunately, I drew two at the same time, which made me win the scenario at the very last moment, but at that point I pictured myself adding a lot of Valar tokens.

Journey to Rhosgobel worried me because it was so random, but as I was using outside cards I had a secret weapon -- my Radagast/Eagles deck had 3x Honour Guard, the bane of Journey to Rhosgobel -- you can prevent damage with impunity, unlike repeatable healing. As long as I was able to get one quickly, I thought I'd be OK.

I also threw 3x Ioreth in, figuring that even though she'd be "removed from the game" in stage two, that'd give me a cheap 1-cost healing event anyways (Ioreth is free to play, but costs a lore resource to heal).

I did get an early Honour Guard, and also Meneldor, which opened up the other cheesy way to win -- by clearing Rhosgobel in staging, I can heal with impunity as long as I stay on stage one, and all Meneldor has to do is enter and leave to clear it. Oh, and I had Henamarth Riversong early, so I could stay on stage one as long as I liked.

So I was set up to totally nerf the quest, but I had a few problems:
1) Henamarth was essential, and has only one hp. So my early Honour Guard has to protect Henamarth from damaging treacheries over protecting Wilyador from end-of-turn damage.
2) I needed repeatable healing and it hadn't shown up yet.
3) No Athelas either.

The encounter deck was giving me a steady stream of damaging treacheries, and it was all my Honour Guard could do to keep Henamarth alive. Eventually the Honour Guard himself ran out of steam, but the other two showed up and they just barely managed to hold the fort -- I saved Henamarth, but I lost Thalin, had to sacrifice a Loyal Hound to save Radagast and used Landroval to bring back TaEowyn. Meanwhile Wilyador was continuing to get banged up. He had 18 damage when blessed Ioreth showed up. Yes, another fragile 1-hp essential, but the damaging treacheries had mostly already been found, and between Honour Guard and Ioreth I steadily made progress in nursing the eagle back to health -- now the issue was threat, since even with Gandalf's help I was closing in fast on fifty. A Forest Grove *finally* showed up, and once I got the Athelas I advanced to stage two and blasted through it before I threated out.

I never believed that Rhosgobel would be tough with Henamarth and Honour Guard -- but it turned out to be. A normal deck would've been crushed early.

Unlike Dol Goldur, I had more company at the top this time

0 Alonewolf87 (0)
0 General_Grievous (0)
0 adaepholn (0)
0 Matt K 22 (6)
0 player3351457 (11)
0 Thanee (31)
0 dalestephenson (33)
0 Skihorse4848 (34)
0 hsiale (38)
0 weaponx1017 (39)
1 bobbymcbobface (0)
1 Fredmans74 (30)
2 Enzo622 (0)
5 Trumpet95 (39)

Final standings:

0 Thanee (31)
0 dalestephenson (33)
2 Alonewolf87 (0)
2 General_Grievous (0)
4 Fredmans74 (30)
3 weaponx1017 (39)
4 adaepholn (0)
5 player3351457 (11)
6 Skihorse4848 (34)
7 Trumpet95 (39)
9 bobbymcbobface (0)
14 hsiale (38)
16 Enzo622 (0)
20 Matt K 22 (6)

I thought my 0-token run was a cinch, but Thanee came out at the last second to snipe me by two cards. Should've cut my Beorning Skin-Changers, I guess. Thanee gets to choose the cycle for August's League, and I get to choose a quest from the cycle to play. Alonewolf87 and General_Grievous both took only two tokens with zero outside cards, but since I miswrote the second tiebreaker and left out the core heroes Grievous gets third place and gets to exclude a quest from August's league -- I'll need to be more careful with that the next time we play Mirkwood! MattK gets the most help from the Valar, and will get to choose the cycle for supplementary player cards in August.

Join us in July as we go to the LOTR saga and play Flight to the Ford, Breaking of the Fellowship.... and Mount Doom! (Supplemental player cards are from LR/Angmar)

Thanks for the breakdown and as usual for making this a reality Dale. You rock and good job everyone and welcome to the new players!

Yes, thanks Dale and well done everyone!

I had lots of fun trying it for the first time this month and hopefully will try next month (although I haven't played Mount Doom before, but I hope to play it fairly soon).