Well just finished my first solo game. Ouch. I was doing pretty good until Ungoliant Spawn came out. I had already taken a bit of a beating from Chieftain Ufthak but I took him down, I had engaged him before he engaged me to get started on the damage. Then Ungoliant Spawn came out and she just started to eat my allies as fast as I could play them, then my heroes, finally Aragorn went down leaving a lone Snowbourn Scout who was promptly eaten by the King Spider that had joined Ungoliant Spawn.

I was using the beginner leadership deck. My threat ended at 39, final score after calculations was 62. I only managed to make it to stage 2B. I really like leadership and will likely make it my main sphere. Aragorn and Theodred are a great team and the Dwarf that comes out for free is a great free replacement for when Gloin dies. I did get Gandalf out but had to pay for him and used his deal damage ability to take out a Hummerhorn before it could engage me which was getting close to not being an option.

Will be playing a bunch more tomorrow as I have the house to myself for most of the day. Maybe another game tonight before Game of Thrones is on HBO.

i have also felt the cold evil of ungoliant haha, its certainly not a game which you can easily pick up, learn and win without serious practice playing, all for the better

Well second go and I beat it. Built a tactics/leadership deck by adding in Thalin and some of the cheaper tactics events, attachments and allies. This game went pretty easy. Had some good luck with the shadow cards the enemies got being duds which helped and the tactics allies and cards helped alot as well as the fact it was more locations than enemies that came up during the quest phase.

Gondorian Spearman is an amazing defender as even if he is gonna die he at least gets that one wound in. Steward of Gondor attachment = awesome. Two free resources. I gave it to Aragorn so he always had resources available in case something happened to Theodred. Sadly it got discarded by Forest Spider shadow effect but by then the extra resources had gotten me some extra allies so it had fulfilled its job well. I will post up the deck list tomorrow, it is getting late here and I was busy watching Game of Thrones on HBO.

Here is my Leadership/Tactics Deck List I used last night, built with one core set.

50 card deck

Heroes

Aragorn
Theodred
Thalin

Allies

Brok Ironfist
Faramir x2
Gandalf x2
Gondorian Spearman x3 (love this card)
Guard of the Citadel x3
Longbeard Orc Slayer x2
Silverlode Archer x2
Snowbourn Scout x3
Son of Arnor x2 (this will probably be one of the first I remove at least for solo play if not completely)
Veteran Axehand x3

Attachments

Blade of Gondolin x2
Celebrian's Stone
Dwarven Axe
Horn of Gondor
Steward of Gondor x2 (love this card too)

Events

Blade Mastery x3
Common Cause x2
Ever Vigilant x2
Feint x2
For Gondor! x2
Grim Resolve
Rain of Arrows x2
Sneak Attack x2
Stand Together
Swift Strike
Valiant Sacrifice x2