Yes, I know you should get more core sets, the card pool is too small for proper deckbuilding and the game is too hard solo. Nevertheless, that's what this thread is about. Share your experiences here of how you got on playing 50-card decks built with one core set in solo play.

And please, refrain from Stating The Bleeding Obvious. Any posters saying one core set isn't enough, you should play two decks even when you're alone. use four heroes or whatever: consider yourself eaten by the Hill Troll.

So far, I've played two built decks. The first was a Three Hunters deck, so Tactics/Leadership with Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn. The deck included most of the Tactics cards, 3 Gandalfs, about 16 Leadership cards and four Spirit cards playable once Aragorn gets his Stone. I figured they would be more useful than some of the remaining Tactics/Leadership cards. Played ten games against Passage Through Mirkwood, winning 3, and 6 games against Journey Down the Anduin, losing them all. It quests a whole lot better than pure Tactics, and Thalin isn't a great loss, but its weakness is the high starting threat of 32, meaning you're vulnerable to big enemies fairly soon in the game and you don't have much time before you hit 50. Although it could deal with the Troll in JdtA, it was often at the expense of progress on the quest and a rise in Threat, so I eventually abandoned attempts to win that scenario and moved on to another deck.

Second deck was Lore/Leadership with Denethor/Beravor and Gloin, including all Lore cards, 3 Gandalfs, and 18 Leadership cards. I thought about including a few out-of-sphere allies to play with Sneak Attack but decided against it. Gloin is actually a machine in this deck, with Lore's healing and Steward of Gondor he can generate resources at little risk like no other hero. I would often let in a Forest Spider or Dol Guldur Orcs attack undefended knowing that the maximum of three wounds done to him would not be a big deal but would give him lots of resource tokens. The deck has one big weakness, though: getting rid of enemies. It's fairly good at questing (especially if Gloin has Celebrian's Stone), really good at defending...but rubbish at attacking. All games I played ended in the exact same manner: being overwhelmed by enemies that just hung around far too long. I didn't even beat PtM with this one, and i think the closest I came was entering Beorn's Path but failing to place a single token before being run over by orcs and spiders. Still good to see how differently this deck played compared to the Three Hunters deck. Given that it lost in the exact same manner every single time, though, I've ditched that one too.

Anyway, onwards! Next deck will be Spirit (Eowyn/Dunhere I think) with either Leadership or Tactics minor sphere, interested to see how that will work.

Great game, and winning only a fraction of games keeps the appetite strong!

i have experimented with a few combos here, first was spirit/lore with glorfindel, eowyn and beravor. worked great for the first quest- having three powerful questors really makes the passage through mirkwood fly, however, go to journey down the anduin and its just a disaster- the deck needed a stronger fighter to take down that troll, so i did what had to be done, i took glorfindel out and put gimli in giving spirit/lore/tactics, which i wasnt sure about at first adding three different spheres and less chance of paying for cards.

its the best ive got so far, and im staying with it for now, i dont see me taking eowyn out in the future, shes way too powerful questing, and beravors a favourite of mine for all round goodyness, so shes staying. Obviously three gandalfs are in the 50 cards, i tend to like cards that limit the enemy- forest snare, radagast cunning and so on

i have a very high rate of mortality in the game, which to me keeps me going back for more

Although I'm generally a 2-player player, I've played a few solo games to pass the time. Played JdtA twice yesterday with a spirit/lore deck (Dunhere/Eowyn/Beravor) and nailed it both times with a score of 1 and -11!!!! I was quite shocked!

I was able to use gandalf/Galadhrim's greeting early on before getting to 30 threat so the hill troll stayed put. Using Beravor and Gleowine's draw action meant I had the entire deck in my hand both times before even getting to the second stage, and so it was just a case of waiting for resources to pile up, reducing threat by reusing Gandalfs and Galadhrim's and then snaring the Hill troll in a forest snare.

Banks of the Anduin is an excellent card to get in JdtA, since with two northern trackers you can return it to the deck before staging every other go, thereby knowing exactly what card is coming next. This really slowed down play in the first stage (not as useful in the second due to the two encounter card draw) when the hill troll was waiting, meaning I had all the time in the world to pick up the cards I needed.

Anyone else found this happening with Spirit/lore on JdtA, or was I just extremely lucky?

Of course, tried this deck on the 3rd senario and died within two rounds all 4 times, after which I kinda gave up - need a second player for Escape from Dol Guldur!!!

Oooooohhhh...perilously close to the jaws of the Hill Troll there with that last remark, Smalachi

Interesting experience with that deck. I definitely agree Banks of the Anduin is about the best card to face from the encounter deck in the 2nd scenario. Somehow I always seem to end up with the East Bight / Brown Lands combo which is just brutal. Did your Spirit/Lore deck ever have to deal with that one? Of course, Northern Trackers take care of the Brown Lands so for Spirit it is not as big a deal as it would be for other spheres.

2 Wandering Took
2 Northern Tracker
2 The Galadhrim's Greeting
2 A Test of Will
3 Stand and Fight
1 Dwarven Tomb
1 Unexpected Courage

3 Daughter of the Nimrodel
2 Erebor Hammersmith
1 Henemarth Riversong
2 Miner of the Iron Hills
2 Gleowine
2 Radagast's Cunning
2 Secret Paths
2 Forest Snare
2 Protector of Lorien

2 Faramir
2 Son of Arnor
3 Snowbourn Scout
2 Ever Vigilant
2 Sneak Attack
2 Valiant Sacrifice
2 Steward of Gondor
1 Celebrian's Stone
3 Gandalf

Theodred
Eowyn
Beravor

Theodred boosts lore resource, Steward goes to Eowyn for mass Gandalf play (Stand and Fight + maybe Dwarven Tomb).

Strategy = ally spam

Didn't have a Brown Lands/ East Blight Combo, But I think once you've reduced you're threat once, you've got enough time to draw cards and get northern trackers/lorien guides out, so it no longer becomes a problem. I was never that bothered about making progress on the quest, just equalling the threat (whichi Eowyn could do alone most times) giving me time to get cards into my hand. At that point you're pretty much set (I even had two hill trolls at once on my first go, but with threat around 24 you've got plenty of time to reduce threat more and get your two forest snares out)

I play a Leadership / Spirit deck with Eowyn / Aragorn / Teodred. It is a quester and fly over the first scenario, with Aragorn defending and sometimes attacking. The backdraw is I can´t raise the power to beat and do not heal, so I really need to fly.

I played the JdtA 4 times, and I was killed 3; i never played the last scenario.

Marael said:

Is your problem in the second stage of JdtA? The extra card a turn in solo can make that stage extremely difficult. Maybe trade out Theodred for Dunhere? Since you skip engagements checks you would have plenty of targets for Dunhere combined with Northern Tracker you should be able to deal with two encounters cards a turn.

No comment on the last scenario, I personally feel it is not meant for solo play. (I do like it multiplayer though)

I too only have one core set right now, but I don't see it as a huge disadvantage. There are certainly cards that it would be nice to have more of, but it is not necessary to make a competitive deck.

The one I am currently playing with is similar to what Clyde mentioned at the end of his post: Eowyn/Dunhere/Legolas. I use Eowyn as my main quester, as well as any of the Spirit allies because they are so good at eliminating location cards. Spirit is also great for threat management, so I can choose which enemies I want to engage with. Dunhere softens them up in the staging area, and sometimes I will slap a Blade of Gondolin / Unexpected Courage on him to make short work of high powered orc enemies. Then I use Legolas to finish them off. Gondorian Spearman is also great for taking down wounded enemies. I have had success in the first two scenarios, but I have never attempted the third.

Made a new best score on Anduin this morning, scoring 29.

It was with the Spirit/Leadership deck of Eowyn/Dunhere and Aragorn. A perfect opening hand gave me the two cards I want in this scenario: the Snowbourn Scout and Galadhrim's Greetings. the scout can act as cannon fodder in case threat gets raised by a single point on turn 1, making the Troll engage, while the Greetings can be used on turn 2 if I manage to get through the first turn on 29 threat. In this case, the latter happened and then Banks of the Anduin was the first encounter card. With threat at 24 and a harmless location that keeps coming back, it was easy questing while Dunhere took care of a Goblin Sniper and Dol Guldur Beastmaster in the SA. With no Gandalf showing up for the first dozen or so turns, the combined efforts of Aragorn, Dunhere, and a few allies were needed to take down the Troll.

By the time I ended the second quest, Gandalf finally showed up and with two Sneak Attacks in hand it was easy to finish off the three enemies that were still in play (including Ufthak) for a good win. The deck played like clockwork, on the back of a harsh lesson learned when I took a mulligan despite having the Greetings in my opening hand in a previous game.

Puzzle said:

I do.

The lack of proper distribution kills the game stone dead for me. I want the options to play properly and to get them i have to buy a second core set. This is cannot afford, even if I could that would involve a huge waste of cards. This to me is unacceptable.

Sure you can play the game with the core set. But not properly. You can't properly explore deckbuidling options. The player card pool is too limited.