Malekous said:

Not necessarily. Tactics/Leadership wouldn't be half bad, despite the high starting threat.

And yes, Spirit could last long even if the first 5 encounters were all enemies. They have the best quester out there and the only threat reduction in the game, coupled with someone who can snipe enemies in the staging area.

Malekous said:

I agree with the second part of what you said. I think tactics is getting a bad rap in general. I made a really fun and successful Spirit/Tactics deck that combines our shared love of Tactics with a great playability. I posted the decklist in its own thread if you're interested.

I'll take a look, but I'm assuming it probably looks a lot like the deck I previously mentioned I've played and won nightmare mode with having spirit/tactics. Thanks though.

Also, I think anything+leadership is probably not half bad

Edit: Just took a look at yours. There are some similarities, but I run Gimli, Legolas and Eowyn.

Yeah, I ran that one for a while. It's definitely a good one. It's just tough with that one to get Trackers/Scouts out, but with Legolas' ability it doesn't matter as much.

I only use the tactics allies so I haven't had that problem

conykchameleon said:

I want a Tactics/Spirit deck, so I can run my three favorite heroes: Gimli, Legolas, and Eowyn (also three of my favorites from the novels). I tried to build it, but I never quite got it right. I was convinced that it wasn't possible at this time, but maybe there's something I'm missing or doing wrong...

DrNate said:

Those are the Heros I run. Here's what I do.

I muligan if there are no allies. I get the citadel plate on Eowyn (later I get the horn and favor of the lady on her too) Legolas gets the gondorian sword and unexpected courage. Gimli gets a citadel plate and dwarven axe. I do my best to get allies out to be meat shields while letting gimli and legolas do the dirty work (if legolas gets unexpected courage on him be sure to make 2 attacks that give a kill per round). I do my best to stockpile resources on Eowyn for my "Uh Oh" button if a hero dies to bring them back as well as the shadow stoppers and when revealed stoppers and discard shuffler. I believe the below is 53

Horseback Archer X3

Veteran Axehand X3

Gondorian Spearman X3

Beorn X2

Horn of Gondor X2

Quick Strike X3

Blade Mastery X3

Blade of Gondolin X3

Dwarven Axe X3

Feint X3

Citadel Plate X3

A Test of Will X3

Hasty Strike X3

Will of the West X2

Unexpected Courage X3

Favor of the Lady X3

Fortune or Fate X2

The Galadhrim's Greeting X3

Strength of Will X3

Gandalf X3

Malekous said:

Thanks for sharing your deck. I have a few questions:

No spirit allies? How do you survive without the extra willpower? And the Northern Tracker and the Lorien Guide?

No Dwarven Tomb? Or Stand and Fight?

Do you ever really have enough resources for Fortune or Fate?

Not a fan of Rain of Arrows or Swift Strike?

I'm new to this forum as I have just gotten the game this past Wednesday. I've only played solo so far so I could learn it well enough to teach my kids and others. I started with the Leadership Sphere and played several times but didn't have the best luck and didn't get through the first scenario. I made some mistakes along the way so that didn't help, but I did have one game where I got close to getting past the first scenario. Then I tried the Tactics Sphere a couple times and while they could kick the snot out of enemies, they didn't do so well questing and gaining resources. Finally I tried the Spirit Sphere and got smoked in one game, I got close the next and then finally just beat the first scenario. I know that's not much to brag about considering how well others have done, but it was a great sense of accomplishment and fun. I was able to get to the 3rd phase where I had to find a Spider and defeat Ungoliant's Spawn and got it out there and had a couple rounds to use Dunhere to put wounds on it while it was in the staging. Then I brought out Gandalf to lay 4 wounds on Ungo and then put 2 more on it in combat. I had to get rid of Gandalf at the end of the round, but I had enough resources to play Stand and Fight to bring Gandalf back in the next round and lay down some final wounds on Ungo to win the scenario with my Threat Meter at 33 and all Heroes and several Allies still in play.

I'll have to try Lore Sphere next and can't wait for some multi-player games.

Sometimes I wish I had kids just so I could teach them my many games. Lol.

Glad to hear you did manage a success early. I think the first one with each color is the most satisfying, because each sphere plays so differently. It just feels gratifying when you are able to switch gears and win with a completely different strategy.

Thanks for the response Mestrahd Yeah, in the games I've played, I've certainly found the differences in the spheres (except Lore which I have yet to play). I agree that it's to use different strategies so that it can be a different experience.

I have 8 year-old twin daughters that I've had playing Heroscape for awhile now and have just gotten them into Dominion (as I have just gotten into that too). They love the LOTR movies and when I showed them the demo video they were really interested. I told them that I have to play it several times so I can learn it well enough to teach them. What I'll do, as I did with Dominion, is that I'll have them play and I'll just teach and coach them until they get a better grasp. Dominion was easy enough but since you discard your hand every turn, you don't need as much forethought on when to use certain cards. But I think they'll do alright. I also play Summoner Wars with my 15 year-old nephew (as well as Heroscape and Dominion) and just got Thunderstone Dragonspire to learn and play with him. I hope to teach my girls both of those games in the future as well. I'd love to get Game of Thrones the card game as I've read the book series and loved it, but no one else I know is into it, so I likely won't get that game.

I played my first 2 player game last night with my nephew. He had Leadership and I had Spirit. We got smoked. I played the card to lower his Threat by 6 but that cost me as I got engaged and attacked a lot and after losing a hero I couldn't get much resource. I should have used the resource instead to get an ally for me as Leadership can deal with enemy better. I also read the rules again more carefully and found that we messed up and I was counting threat of engaged enemy while questing, no wonder we couldn't make any progress.

While that wasn't solo play related, I did try Spirit sphere in a solo game this morning and played correctly when questing and I got through the first sphere. I had to find and defeat Ungoliant's Spawn at the end, but fortunately I had drawn Gandalf and then used Stand and Fight to get him back in play. That is huge for the Spirit sphere as they don't have good attacks to take down the heavy hitters.