I would just make a restricted list with Gandalf, Steward, and Unexpected courage on it.

Dwnhmcntryboy said:

Dwnhmcntryboy said:

Yes sure i use my deck in multuplayers and solo games s well. And i play all quests. Even Massing in Osgiliath which one i think is the best quest for now.

I dont have the cards(Massing in Osgiliath) but i make the proxy good quality ones and play. I still want to buy it when is coming out.

I use to pay decipher Lotr Tcg as well for the years. Im big Tolkien fan from my childhood.( first time i read the book i was 7 years old).

And when the FFG game come i jump it on that like crazy. For me is more than just a game..... For me is part of my soul....

I would think an expert player would be someone who can get far into the quests with the lesser used cards or the ones that are not as good. Not someone who has shelled out cash to buy a few core sets or a few of each adventure pack to get more of the "better" cards. I always feel like I am a better player at this game when I beat a quest using cards that others don't use. That's just my opinion though and i'm by no means an expert player just someone who finds this game fun. I find the difficulties of the different quests so far is really well done. There are quests to test decks on, quests that are just plain fun to play, and quests that will challenge all your deck building abilities. So far I think FFG has done an excellent job.

I'd actually prefer an array of difficulty, even ones at 1 like Passage Through Mirkwood. Sometimes a laid back adventure is perfectly enjoyable and then can be followed by something more challenging. Variety to me is a nice thing.

Avalanche said:

that what you say is right but....... Depend what is your goal ..... I prepare my self for tournaments. And want to win. All my life i play a lot of tournaments. Start form MTG then switch to LOTR TCG Decipher and now new Lotr Lcg from FFG.

Yes you can Build up fun deck with weak cards to try to make its true.And if is your goal ok do it. But for my purpose is not necessary.

But for tournaments you should take the best cards for win cose your opponents will do mostly same. You must to have a good deck but is not enough since your opponents also will have a good decks.So you must have a certain luck+good game skill.All other kind of experience can even harm you.

On the tournament 1 mistake is enough sometimes to lose. When you play take the dice and every time when you think you make a mistake add 1. You get 6 you lose.

And you game skill should be build up according to tournament system. That why i try build up deck to beat all scenarios.And my deck Gimly/Eowyn/Theodred can beat all scenarios quite well. You must be ready for many things on the tournaments.

In looking over the deck you listed Glaurung, I see in that deck you are using a strategy I played with a bit, essentially an endless Gandalf deck. A deck like that, especially when coupled with The Galadrim's Greeting, makes threat a trivial thing unless you are incredibly unlucky in your draws. Since threat is pretty much the key driving mechanic in the game, keeping it as low as possible is important, particularly below 35 and a deck such as the one you posted would indeed do that handily. I do trust you only have the multiple Steward of Gondor and Celebrian's Stone cards in the deck to give you a greater chance of drawing them and not having more than one of each of those out in play at a time? I only say that because I know of at least one other person who has made that mistake with unique cards.

One thing that I might suggest to you if you are finding the game too easy with that sort of deck would be to start cutting back on the Gandalf recycling, or don't use The Galadrim's Greeting cards, and try to come up with some other methods of trying to beat the scenarios. I've done that and found that I'm starting to discover some other interesting combo's in the cards. Plus, it can make the games far closer and tense...as well as give you more losses to consider. And there is another value in doing that as well; I have a suspicion that we may find FFG making restricted and limited card lists in the future, particularly for cards like Gandalf. Best to have other options and strategies available should that happen.

As for the discussion at hand, I will say that I too find that the Escape from Dol Guldur scenario to be a real beast solo, and consider it more difficult indeed than the Carrock one. I would easily call it an 8 difficulty when played solo. As for the add-on packs having scenarios of increasing difficulty, I would expect them to run no less than a 3 difficulty, with most hitting the 5-7 difficulty range. Considering that we are steadily getting more cards with each pack, and thus more abilities and combo possibilities, it does stand to reason that the packs will have harder scenarios.

Valyrian Steel said:

What can i say??? For my deck U. Courage is not really important. I need only one on Gimly mostly of the time.

And dont want to create my rules. I play as official rules are cose i oriented on tournaments.

Glaurung said:

Good for you that you have a super deck and all the time in the world to just focus on playing. I don't have that kind of time to invest and would appreciate BOTH harder AND easyer quests. Just because YOU can beat everything and think it's a piece of cake doesn't mean that's the same for everyone else. Don't be so arrogant. Just say that you don't think it's difficult and would like more challenge without calling everyone else amatures. We need BOTH difficult AND easy levels as it's just as much about the story of the game/quests not just "I can beat all quest, I'm the great, yay me!!"

Think and feel whatever you want but show some respect thank you.

well im pleased to see im not the only one finding it hard. i appreciate the need for harder quest due to an ever growing card pool, but i would still like to see a few easier levels all the same

Yeah richsabre, I have to agree completely with you. Playing solo is tough to beat some of these quests (especially if you don't play with Eowyn, which I try not to do).

I dont want to argue cose i dont think some of players really understand what i talking about. I think my english is not good enough for that.

Anyway i will make my video better and put the link here.

DurinIII said:

Before i also think very difficult play with out her in solo game. But I try make some lore deck and........ playing very good solo. Look this deck and try it f you want. You will see this deck play quite well but it take long time. There is no trackers no Eowyn but still win mostly of the time!!! I still need Haldir for this deck but i didn get Rosghobel yet.

You play Steward and Celebrian stone on Bilbo he is for quest mostly. Denethor B brand and all Warnings on him for defend and Beravur have all marks attack 5 and she for kill or for quest or draw cards as well. there is a combo forest snare and son of Arnor. In the middle of the game you have half of deck in your hand so sneak attack and Gandalf always helps and discard many cards by Protector of Lorien for quest fast when you ready.

Hero (3)
Beravor (Core) x1
Bilbo Baggins (THFG) x1
Denethor (Core) x1

Ally
Erebor Hammersmith (Core) x3
Faramir (Core) x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
Gleowine (Core) x2
Henamarth Riversong (Core) x2
Miner of the Iron Hills (Core) x3
Rivendell Minstrel (THFG) x3
Son of Arnor (Core) x3

Attachment
Celebrian's Stone (Core) x2
Forest Snare (Core) x3
Protector of Lorien (Core) x3
Self Preservation (Core) x3
Song of Kings (THFG) x3
Steward of Gondor (Core) x3

Dunedian Warning (Carrock)x3

Burning Brand (Carrock)x2

Dunedian mark (THFG)x3

Event (3)
Sneak Attack (Core) x3

Glaurung is partially right and I do see that english is not his native language (mine neither) so I assume the words may seem more offensive than intended.

Gimli - Theodred - Eowyn is capable of winning all existing scenarios without Rhosgobel. It is easy to say that those quests do not pose major challenge (including Osgilath) because right now the deck can beat them , maybe not 100% of the time, but you see the point. When the card pool becomes bigger , the deck will become more powerful, but existing quests (3x core, gollum, carrock, osgilath) will not.

Enter the Eagle quest - Suddenly the deck fails. This is how the designers are making the game challenging. Suddenly threat reduction and location killing abilities are worth nothing. I made a change to Gimli - Theodred - Eowyn , I included Radagast and this new eagle ally who can resurrect heros. This gives me a chance against Eagle quest, but makes the deck weaker against existing scenarios.

What I want to say, is that some quests are easy if you design a deck specially to beat them. But such deck will get smashed against other quests which will expose its weakness. So Glaurung, the game is not too easy, you just play the deck which right now is powerful versus current field, but you'll get slapped by new challenges. A lot.

Btw you have some weird cards in Gimli-Theodred-Eowin. Like the axe, why use it instead of tactic dwarf who costs 2 but have no abilities? Also, apparently Gandalf + Stand/Fight is now illegal. Strange ruling but makes this deck weaker.

And the second deck, lore + splash of leadership. I do not buy it. I was playing similar deck one time and in some games, you just don;'t draw minstrel or song and you lose the game because you can't do anything. Additionally, with no forest snare in the opening hand and with poor willpower in the first turn, you will have big trouble against Anduin quest since the troll will probably engage you.

So what is the alternative to the current quest difficulties? Are we really asking for quests that you lose most of the time? That doesn't sound fun to me. If the game played that way there would be complaints about game balance being skewed in favor of the encounter deck. A friend was just telling me yesteday about another game he's been trying to play with some others recently and they have found that they get to the same point and hit a wall every time. It is no longer fun for them. They are going to move on to something else.

Making a game too difficult is a good way to kill the interest in the game. People don't like to lose repeatedly.

Sure you can build an expert level deck with multiple core sets and design it to destroy specific scenarios, but does that mean you should start claiming the game is too easy and the difficulty should be increased for everyone? Sounds selfish and unrealistic.

FFG has to balance the game for a large player base, not for a specific few.

These quest scenarios play out like small scale role-playing adventures. Have you ever played a role-playing game where the game master just repeatedly kills your party? People stop playing with game masters like that. It isn't fun.

LOTR should play out the way it has been, where you have a pretty good chance of successfully completing the quest scenarios with some friends. That'll make the game popular. If you show up with a game where they are probably going to lose, you end up sitting there by yourself while the other folks play something else.

I just had an experience where I tried to play anduin with 2 mixed decks and I got slaughtered in the 2nd and 3rd turns. Basically I kept getting treachery cards which hurt the characters who were exhausted. Then that **** troll and the other monsters in the staging area beat the hell out of me.

I feel like just playing 3 mono decks solo. Who cares about being able to brag about winning with some supersonic solo deck, I just want to WIN! I imagine playing Tactics, Spirit, and Lore at the same time would be perfect. I have had enough frustrations with this game that I just want to maul it and beat it to the ground.

peterstepon said:

Anduin is nasty. Group I play with took it on in 3-player last night and we were bruised by the end. At one point we used Eleanor to cancel that treachery card that wounds all exhausted characters, only to replace that with Crows who surged another copy of that treachery card. So we still got hit with it + got some Crows on the table (thanks a lot, Eleanor!). Then hitting phase 3 and drawing 2 cards per player just swamped us. We pulled it out thanks to some luck and some brain twisting strategerizification. We went Leadership, Spirit, and Lore. Leadership and Lore players soaked up most of the enemies while we slowly turned Dunhere into a machine gun for sniping. Tactics would probably do just as well, if not better, than Leadership.

I was going to drop Dol Guldur on them next week but I'm getting soft in my old age and I think we'll go Hunt for Gollum for a change of pace.

We use 30-card mono decks. I'll worry about 50-card decks once I feel there is a good enough card pool. 30-card decks among friends or solo isn't going to get anyone thrown in jail.

Gimli - Theodred - Eowyn was built yesterday and I played it the last 2 days. against lvl 1 scenario it rocks. Took it to lvl 4 and it falls apart. 20 games and i did not win a single game because of the slow pace of the deck. I have made it my mission to build myself a solo deck now.

guciomir said:

Yes i also sow some of your comments and undesrstand we play some same decks. Im happy if Roshgobel change and beat my deck. I only happy with that.

I happy for Stand and fight erratas and will be happy when the do something with Northern Tracker as well. He is to powerful too!!!

There is was a lot mistake in the game balance from begining so i glad they start slowly slowly to fix it. I hope in Khasad-dum everythig will be more balanced and stable. But my biggest joy is massing in Osgiliath. This quest done properly. And the level of the game i mean quality is much better then other quests. So this give me hope the game will be ok.I thing quests can be much more interesting than what we have now.

About Dwarfen axe.... Simply i dont like this dwarf just personally. Stand and fight is still a good card to get back some allies like Tracker or Faramir.Now we Cannot put Gandalf back by this card but again im happy about this.

About my lore deck. Yes troll is a problem. But there is many ways how to deal with him. But still the most difficult for this deck is Anduin scenario. All other quests this deck make even better then Gimly/Theodred/Eowyn deck. Yesterday i play 3 games. 2 Carrock and 1 Anduin. Win them all wit my lore deck.

About difficult of the game. Since i buy this game we play lot of 2 players game with my firend. My experience in the card game is quite big i even have my own board shop before and Lotr Tcg decipher i was number 1 in my country and play world cups against the best players in the world. My friend is proff. Matematic, programmer guy. We never lose any session until we get the Carrock. We already even decide dont play anymore cose is not fun. If you always win what is interesting to play???? And we lose Carrock!!!! First time for 4 months. So now we really wait for Rosgobel!!!

We still dont try Massing in 2 players game but sure it will be no easy!!!

Anyway i dont want to harm anyone and look arrogant sorry my english is not so good.

But here is very good chance for me to practice.

Marlow said:

Totally agree

The problem with quests that are less difficult is that all the quests are going to get easier over time. With new player cards introduced, our decks get more powerful. I'll take a game that is a challenge with consistent losses over a win every time game. My only complaint with the game is that multi player is way too easy. 2 player we almost never lose and more than 2 we don't ever.

After getting a hang of the game do you even play the first scenario? I never even play it anymore. It's so easy that it is boring. I'm not trying to be condescending, but it is likely that as you play more, your win % will go up.

Woz said:

You absolutly right my Friend. You get my point. And new players cards aslo very powerful. Lool on the Matnon card from JTR. Draw 3 cards for 1 spirit recourse!!!!!! Is very powerful!!!! So i hope new quests will keep good challenge.

About 2 players game. For all 4 months we play this game we lose only 1 session of 2 players game it was Carrock. You think is normal???? I dont think so...

We try Massing and was defeated after 3 or 4 rounds. Cool!!!! I cannot wait gather with my friend again. This make game interesting now.

Woz said:

I still do, though more because sometimes I just want to sit down and play, but don't want to deck build for the harder ones. I don't find it boring because each try, though almost guaranteed, is still a different experience.

I'm amazed that Glaurung's deck has only lost once in several months.

If I were playing that deck, I know what would happen:

First turn: can't play any cards, only have 1 resource of each type.

Second turn: can't play any cards, only have 1 resource of each type - oh dear, one of my heroes is dead.

Third: I can play a card! but I only have 2 heroes... oh, make that 1.

Fourth - dead.

With only 1 hero per sphere, and high cost cards like the Northern Tracker, Faramir etc, I just don't see how this deck works (I'm currently in a different country from my cards right now, so I couldn't build it to try, even with enough core sets) even using Galadrihim's greeting is going to get you little benefit - 3 turns to pay for it = net gain of only -3 threat, down to 2 if you have to use a dwarven tomb to return it. That's assuming you do nothing else with you spirit resources (like cancelling encounter/shadow card effects.)

Mighty Jim said:

I'm amazed that it even has won once in several months. I share the same concerns you do -- lots of high-cost cards spread across three spheres and no ability to deal with early game problems besides three heroes. Adding Songs to it now would greatly help it out, but this deck stalls horribly.

Mighty Jim said:

Hey i didn meant that never lose for 4 months.

I lose a lot. 2players game we lose only twice is true. But i didn play multyplayer much.

You should to try my deck. There is a lot of tricks and lot of combos. For example: You can put Northern tracker on second round if you have Steward in your starting hand. Every card in this deck have some strategy and combo with others cards.

Theodred is key. He can add resources to any hero in the begining and that help a lot. In the begining he is really important. After when you play Faramir, Stewar and Stone on Eowyn you still need him fo sneak attack with Gandalf.

But i have a big question about Quest phase. If we can play action between 2 different heroes commit to the quest in 1 story. Of we cannot another story.

Rules doesn clear that much. Example : I commit eowyn to the quest (have 3 resources in her pool) Than i discard Northern tracker from hand to make her will +1 , Than i commit theodred to the quest add 1 resources to eowyn pool (Total is 4 now) and play northern tracker from discard pile by Stand and fight and commit him to the quest too.I still nor sure can i do that or not.

Other wise i still can play Tracker by Stand and Fight but cannot commit hi to the quest. But still can use him later for defend or attack.

This deck play good. And this deck is very fast as well. But as i heard AJTR kill this deck. So need to make some changes.