Hey guys, I dont have this game yet so I'm totally naive as to its difficulty. What's your guys take on it so far after playing a few games? Do you get a feeling that winning is to easy? To hard? What's your personal win/loss ratio so far? Is co-operative less or more difficult than solo play?

Thanks!

The more players you have the easier it becomes. I've only won three or four of solo games out of maybe two dozen tries. Two player is easier but I guess my friend and I are on a 40-60 loss rate. Three players I've found really easy but haven't tried four players yet.

I've played 6 and lost 6. Although i have been only 2 turns away from winning once.

Of the first scenario I'd say it was very easy. Two player we haven't lost yet. The second scenario we've won one lost one due to an extremely unlucky draw of cards. The third scenario we've played one won one though it was very close. If we hadn't done it that turn we'd have been overwhelmed by the threat level.

We played the first scenario without shadow cards (like it recommended) and rolled it. Wasnt even a challenge (3 player).

We then played the second scenario, with shadow cards, 3 players. We won, had a LITTLE trouble early, but then got control of things. It seems having the spirit hero which allows you to cancel treachery cards makes things super easy. Having legolas to help advance quests helps too.

2-0 so far. Gonna try the 3rd scenario soon.

My play group has played a lot of CCG and LCG, so we found some good combos and took to the game easily. Not sure if this is the case for everyone else. I have to agree. More people makes it easier. You can compensate for eachothers weaknesses better that way.

The game as it is seems far to easy to me. I have been disappointed in the lack of difficulty. Some decks look like they will have trouble, and the third quest can be very hard on decks, but all in all the game is very simple to win ATM.

I have won 4 2-player games, lost none. Won 1 4 player game, lost none. Won 10 solo games, lost 3. Those 3 include 2 attempts to do the 3rd scenario with a 3 Sphere deck that performs very well in the other 2 scenarios.

I hope that FFG will increase the danger of the quests a lot. Not just in the initial starting of the quest, so far it seems the hardest time that my games have is when we first start on the quest, but as the game goes on. Stage 3 shouldn't feel like I have already won but instead that I'm confronting the true dangers. As the game stands in general I feel like the fighting is mainly to survive the initial game setup and the first 3 turns. After that it is generally pretty smooth sailing.

I hope that FFG will come out with some rules on how we can increase the danger through deck construction of the enemy side. Without it I'm probably just going to start tossing in extra copies of Hill Troll and other nice cards and see how I fair.

I'm currently 0 for 5 with the Spirit deck solo. I tended to get defeated with about 5-6 counters on Flies and Spiders, so I'm not doing too well. I'm switching to Tactics and running another 5 games, then doing the same with each starter to get an idea before I delve into deck-building.

My sister and I ran Spirit and Tactics versus Passage Through Mirkwood, and had some challenges but we were able to get to Beorn's Path and get two counters on it before I got 50 Threat and her Spirit deck got curb stomped.

I like how the cards interact, and how multi-sphere is currently the way to go. I enjoy Spirit but it simply doesn't have enough stopping power or card draw to keep up an early lead in questing.

I've only played solo, so I can't speak to multi-player. One thing I've learned though, is that this game is really meant to be played with a combination of spheres, at least, in the early going. Leadership is a pretty good all around deck, but tactics and spirit have major opposite weaknesses, which ironically enough, means that they probably complement each other well. Lore I haven't tried yet. I did very well with leadership, but fared poorly with the other two. All in all, a very mixed bag, right now.

Uthanar said:

How do you play the first few turns in scenario 2? I never feel like I have enough time to get a force large enough to stop the Hill Troll before it comes and kills me. When I do manage to kill it I usually lose anyway because my threat is high and there are a lot of other Enemies and Locations that I need to deal with.

EDIT - Currently I'm playing solo with a Leadership/Spirit deck but any strategies would be good.

The game is definitely easier with multiple players.

Hill troll wasnt a problem. Our tactics player murdered it while the other 2 players just put a bunch of people on the quests.

Fieras said:

I've played with 3 and 4 players and the Hill Troll was much more manageable with that many players. I'm just struggling with figuring out good ways to stop it solo without relying on drawing Gandalf and two Sneak Attacks on my opening hand.

Fieras said:

I just played my first 2 solo decks with a tactics/leadership 50 card deck.

I won both times on the first scenario, with full shadows cards. Won both times. 50 points the first game, 37 the second.

4-0 now. The game (first scenario at least) isnt terribly hard.

Fieras said:

It seems to me that you can get a pretty good challenge on the first scenario (solo), by just playing the base Tactics deck. There is almost no willpower in the deck, and if you draw a lot of locations, you will have a hard time ever making progress on the quest. I'm sure the original decks are not very challenging for a well-constructed multi-sphere deck, particularly if you have 2 of the base set. They seem pretty challenging to me if you just use the decks the game comes with.

Edit: And by "pretty good challenge with the base Tactics deck", I mean I think I'm going to lose 90% of the games. Unless I'm doing something very wrong or reading the rules wrong.

If you are finding it really easy then an simple way to ramp up the difficulty is simply to resolve the shadow effect of the monster you're fighting every turn as well as any revealed shadow cards in the combat phase. I was doing this *wrongly I might add* for the first couple of games and finding it much more difficult doing that

The second scenario is all but impossible to win solo with a deck built from a single core set. Especially, if you play Gandalf correctly ^^

jhaelen said:

What? Do you mean with a single sphere starter deck? Or with a multi sphere custom deck? I disagree with you. Its definitely doable with multi sphere.

I've tackled the second quest today with a leadership/spirit deck. It looks promising, but it needs faster card draw. I've gotten to the second scenario, but get pull down by threat level. Gandalfs, Galahdrin's Greetings and recursion cards are not yet in synch. But I think I can do it with one core set. If not, the second one is coming soon.

Fieras said:

That doesn't change my opinion, though. I don't think there's a way to win it consistently by building a strong deck, it will always require luck - and no small amount of it.

jhaelen said:

I totally second that. But I do hope that there will be some cards in the upcoming adventure packs contributing to the solo player experience by scaling the game a bit. At the moment though we have to play until we get lucky...or enjoy the multiplayer aspect. Or play two decks at once, but I don't like that idea.