will FFG continue to make adventure packs and quests that are easier and/or more aimed at solo play? i would hate for them to keep putting out level 7/8 quests that are way too hard for solo

They will be doing more without a doubt. But what you are seeing is also what has been asked for. A lot of players wanted harder quests. I am a medium skilled player so I like all of them. I cannot wait to get a hold of the GenCon mission previewed. lvl 9 challenge is awesome!

Speaking of...any news on The Massing at Osgiliath's PoD date? Or anyone wanna sell me their GenCon copy

I would imagine that the scenarios will tend to become progressively harder as more are released, in attempt to keep players challenged and therefore interested in, playing and purchasing the game. I don't think that they would become dramatically harder (except for maybe the final adventure pack in a series of six), as that might discourage players from continuing to buy and play the remaining adventure packs in that series yet to be released.

I would think (and hope), that the print on demand scenarios will tend to be more difficult than the typical monthly releases, too, as in many ways they appeal to a smaller, potentially more "hardcore" audience, whom are probably the same people that call for much more challenging adventures to play (since print on demand releases are entirely optional purchases and you don't miss out on part of the cycle "story arc" if you don't pick up a copy, it wouldn't be so hurtful to players' pride or whatever you want to call it if they can't beat it). As the card pool expands, the players will have more options for deck building than ever before, will have more potent cards and combos at their disposal, and will be more capable of tackling more difficult quests, etc.

What I'm really curious about, though, is how far in advance FFG has designed future adventure packs and deluxe expansions. For example, did they have the Khazad-Dum cards all designed and ready to print when the Core set was released, or did they have a few months or more to consider player feedback from the Core set before everything was finalized? Are all six of the dwarrowdelf adventure packs already designed and finalized, or is there any room for FFG to change things up to make things harder/easier depending on how the community responds to the remaining releases in Shadows of Mirkwood? I'm very curious as to what kind of "delay" there is or will be before FFG can really attempt to integrate player feedback into their game design.

Coming from personal Design experience you can usually figure that for however long a saga is twice that time has gone into planning R&D. Figure that the Next arc is in the last 6 months of tweaks and well on the way to being shipped to the printer. Our test team was working on 3-4 projects at a time just to keep things fresh and combat burnout.

I don't know about FFG though they have a ton on their plate.

I agree richsabre. For Solo play most of the quests now available are freaking hard!!!

Maybe one of the three quests in K. Dum will be low difficulty (1-3) to give a gradual increase in danger through those three scenarios?

Then again, we may never see a difficulty 1 scenario again since Passage was designed as an introduction to the game.

What happen with you guys???? Game is hard for solo???? Step by step with rule changed, with card erratas , with new quests coming they start to make game not so easy as before.All the adventures under difficult 5 is piece of cake!!!! We cannot back to 1 or 3 level quest. Game is still to easy!!!!

Just play more, sharp your game skill and you will see the game is still so easy if you are expert player.

Glaurung said:

Glaur, Glaur, Glaur...

What are we going to do with you?

Here's how I picture Glaur's keys to victory:

• Step 1 - Buy three core sets.
• Step 2 - Draw five cards instead of one each resource phase.
• Step 3 - Shadow cards count against enemies instead.
• Step 4 - No need for step 4, game is too easy.

Glaur, I want you to acquire a video camera of some kind and film one of your play sessions and post it online. That way the rest of us can take notes and reach the next level of play and we'll stop holding the game back. Maybe they can use your expert level video to replace the LOTR demo video.

Marlow said:

Yes make video is good idea. I want to do it long time already. Actually about the rules...... But can put some session as well.

But the game is really easy. Massing in Osgiliath yes this one is ok. Difficult 9. Difficult 6 or 7 or even 5 is ok. But go down to 4 or 3??? For what??

Tell me how many games you lose against HFG????? Almost impossible to lose. And we never ever lose any 2 player game until Yesterday.

But im happy. We lose our first 2 player session ever for 4 months. Carrock!!!! We lose the game yesterday!!! We was happy!!!! And now when me and my friends start to feel game is going to right level many people complain is to difficult???? Please no!!!! For us the game just come to the right level.

I promise to make my video sure!!! With my session and some rules question and my conclusion.

P.S. Stand in fight errata is really good. Make game more difficult!!!!!

Glaurung said:

I'm 0-1 vs HFG. Leadership/Tactics (Aragorn, Theodred, Legolas) and Spirit/Lore (Eleanor, Dunhere, Beravor) decks. Barely made it to stage 2, then had about 6+ locations in the staging area, including Old Ford at nifty 8 threat. Northern Trackers, despite Beravor, were nowhere to be seen. End came when we drew 3 Clues and Hunters from Mordor as guards for the first two, threat in staging area passed 25. Threat reduction doesn't really help when you're not getting any progress tokens and keep losing your Clues.

I have four decks, those two above, then Tactics/Spirit (Gimli, Thalin, Eowyn) and Lore/Leadership (Denethor, Glorfindel, Gloin). From two Core Sets, this puts into use all 12 Heroes and most of the useful cards. 2x Gandalf each deck, Spirit decks have the rest of the threat reduction and Northern Trackers.

yes i cant understand how it is way too easy- ive been playing since the games release, very regularly, i know the rules pretty much inside out, i spend time building a deck, and i still cant beat HFG, CAC, dol guldor, and even anduin!

richsabre said:

You can beat Dol-Guldor solo??? Cool!!! I cannot do that with my deck. I think you need to build up kind of specific deck against this quest ???

i dont really after that. I like to build up the deck against all scenarios but Dol guldor for me impossible solo. But 2 player Dol-Guldor game we never lose!!!

richsabre said:

Ups sorry you set cant beat.

Try this deck. This deck can beat all quest mostly of the time but not Dol guldor.

I make this deck in june. Since this time is most strongers deck in my collection. Some lore deck more stable but is boring for me to play them.

Total Cards (50)

Hero (3)
Eowyn (Core) x1
Gimli (Core) x1
Theodred (Core) x1

Ally (11)
Faramir (Core) x2
Gandalf (Core) x3
Northern Tracker (Core) x3
Lorien Guide (Core) x3

Attachment (14)
Celebrian's Stone (Core) x2
Citadel Plate (Core) x3
Dwarven Axe (Core) x3
Steward of Gondor (Core) x3
Unexpected Courage (Core) x3

Event (25)
A Test of Will (Core) x3
Dwarven Tomb (Core) x2
Feint (Core) x3
Quick Strike (Core) x3
Sneak Attack (Core) x3
Stand and Fight (Core) x3
The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x3
Valiant Sacrifice (Core) x2
Hasty Stroke (Core) x3

After Stand and Fight Errata maybe you need to change them for Born aloft or something.....

richsabre said:

Dol Guldur is close to impossible solo. Some have done it being very lucky & choosing their own prisoner & playing a ridiculous amount of games. The best way to tackle it is probably with a mono-sphere deck and we'll have to wait until the end of the Mirkwood cycle or beyond before those become really viable.

Anduin is hit and miss solo for me, the Troll being the obvious obstacle. I probably have about a 30% win ratio on that one. It's actually a pretty hard quest, given that it needs combat strength early on, then lots of willpower, then combat strength again. Covering all those bases in a solo deck isn't easy, but can be done. Spirit/Tactics being a good combination for a deck. I even won a game where stage 2 of the quest took me absolute ages (13 turns!), but it was worth it as it did allow me to take out enemies one by one with Legolas while Frodo, Eowyn and Northern Trackers hung in there exploring location after location. Great epic game to win in the end.

I have few problems with Gollum and Carrock, after the initial games getting to know the Quests I can consistently beat those two scenarios. In a way they're similar as you have to be patient (much unlike Anduin and Dol Guldur, where there's a huge moutnain to climb on stage 1).

In Gollum, try to get rid of the Hunters before collecting Clues. I find that having 2 Clues in play is optimal: you have a buffer in case the Clue discard Shadow effects come up, but you're not boosting the Hunters to impossible heights. I also find that it works well to race through stage 1 and then take it slow on stage 2, as revealing encounter cards first up rather than after questing makes planning the round easier.

With Carrock it's even more obvious that you don't run into the Trolls with just a few heroes. Get allies first, and carefully manage your questing so you don't progress too quickly but also don't gain too much threat. Denethor and Henamarth work well in this one.

ok thanks for the advice, ive just played gollum and flew through 1b, and most of 2b, then got hit by 2 eastern crows- so crows, surge, crows, surge, clue card, guarded surge, then hunters from mordor! ouch!

richsabre said:

Let me clarify that 'winning consistently' doesn't mean 'winning all the time'. Sometimes the encounter deck's play is just too good

richsabre said:

richsabre said:

Sounds very brutal. you was really Unlucky!!!

But most of the time i can discards Hanters or clue card if i dont need more of them by quests cards ability. Really you need only 1 clue card to win i solo game. And tracker even one is already enough to deal with all locations. I thihk was cool if last stage have text like: only Hero with clue cards attached can commit to the quest. Than is cool. And Hunters start to be really threat!!!!!

Otheyrwise Gimly with axe and armor, Northern Tracker, 1 clue card on Eowyn and you win 100%. My deck have Faramir also very good help for quest.

In case of Lore decks: can put Snare on Hunters and dont even kill them. For what??? Maybe they will reshuffle again??? So let them be in snare and just forget about.

Lore dont have a trackers but Protector of Lorien + Long beard map maker give you also good Questing power. Add Song of the kings, Steward of Gondor and Faramir and you can finish game in 3 rounds.My lore deck with Bilbo, Denethor and Beravur can make it easy.

I'm in the camp that says we need some more easier scenarios for the game. For that game that has been promoted as being playable solo, I don't think this is truely the case. I say that most scenarios should be comparable to the second in the cores et (Passage Down the Anduin) so that they can be played by 1-4 players.

The_Big_Show said:

But I think that for solo play Anduin is more difficult than either Gollum or the Carrock...

ClydeCloggie said:

Gollum I find relatively easy, but I would say about the same difficulty as Anduin. Carrock is far far harder to play solo IMO.

The_Big_Show said:

Interesting how these things differ between players.

I find it much easier to deal with 4 (or 5) Trolls at the end of a game than with 1 at the beginning. I must admit being traumatised by the first turn East Bight / Brown Lands combo which I have run into a bit too regularly. That's why even my low-threat plans on the Anduin go astray all too quickly, all too often.

For what it's worth, I'm using my own difficulty grading for the quests I own:

Mirkwood 1, Gollum 3, Carrock 4, Anduin 5, Dol Guldur 8.

Still not sure where to put Anduin myself, at first I was taking it apart easy, last three games have had horrid draws (not even making it to the last stage). Hill Troll attacking Gimli and getting "defending character does not count defense" Shadow Effect on the first turn kinda cramps your style . Same deal if you're defending with Gandalf and he's your only exhausted ally when a Shadow Effect calls for an exhausted ally to return to hand, undefended Hill Trolls aren't nice. So far, I'd put Carrock way on the easier end of the scale than Gollum, latter probably requires NTs given its heavy locations (Old Ford is just eww late game), while killing the unique Trolls is way easier than taking out Hill Trolls as you can chuck the lamest fodder allies to them, any excess damage doesn't go anywhere, unlike with the HTs. Haven't gotten around to playing Rhosgobel yet (just picked it up yesterday, but Gears of War was in the same order and it takes precedence), but Lore portions might be very necessary in that one.

Personally, I have not found that the difficulty level of the adventure packs is on a par with those from the core set. Hunt for Gollum is supposed to be as difficult as Anduin at level 4. It's not even close. Gollum is far, far easier. Carrock, at level 7, comparable to Dol Guldur? Not close, either. I've only come close to passing Dol Guldur once, but I've already beaten Carrock 2 out of 3. I'm sure it will be putting some dents on my record as I play it a few more times, but the point is that the game does not seem to be getting more difficult from the Core Set. Let's see what Rhosgobel has to offer, as I will probably play it in the next couple of days.

Rhosgobel looks to be fun, the game being on a timer and all. I have more than a few people who play with me so I don't really have the resources to make a solo deck. Will be playing Rhosgobel here in a few.

Glaurung do you use your solo deck in multiplayer? Have you only played the Core quests?

Glaurung said:

I finally understand the method and i think you probably make the game much more appealing for your style if you do one simple thing (something I think should actually be a card errata). Make unexpected courage unique and presto...not going to win nearly as much.