Hello

Because of the theme of the game I'm forced to play this one alone, (the wife isn't much of an adventure fan......).

And I really like it, beautiful artwork, great game mechanics, but is it even possible to win this game on your own?

I use the leadership hero's because I've read somewhere those are good for solo play but after 10 attempts

I just haven't scored a single victory, it's not that I don't like a hard game, ( I love "ghost stories" and "thunderstone" a lot

and they aren't exactly easy going on you.....) but if I fail at completing the first quest then how will I ever complete

the two other quests? I also bought the first two expansions but they don't add many leadership cards and have quests

that also have a level 4 or 7.

What I miss here is the opportunity like in "ghost stories" and "thunderstone" to change the difficulty level,(maybe by using

4 heroes on solo play when they become available?)

or are there special combo's or tactics that I am missing here. ( and please no solutions that force me to go out

to buy a second or even third base set (I've read that solution a lot) because I would be dissapointed in the game if

that would be the only way to win a game on your own and in that case FF shouldn't have put a 1-2 person label on the box).

Please help me to score my first victory......

a lot of people play "double handed" and use 2 decks solo. it simulates a 2 player game with one person. makes the difficulty scaling a lot more tolerable and makes for a very fun experience. i'd say try that.

Move away from single sphere decks. Try a dual sphere deck (Spirit and Leadership work well together). Solo play requires that you do some deck building.

I second the double handed comment - plays much better than one deck solo. I have a lore / spirit deck and a leadership / tactics deck.

My two cents are for the first quest try a combo of tactic and spirit sphere. Heroes Eowyn, Gimli and Legolas This got me through the first quest. I only have one core set and don't play double handed...though I think that'll be a good idea at least for Down the Anduin when you get to that one

I find Spirit (blue) to be the best sphere to play solo. The others just don't seem to have enough willpower to properly solo.

Bohemond said:

What Bohemond says is true: solo requires some advanced planning and deck building before you take on a scenario because you cannot count on a teammate for support. You have to choose cards and heroes that can fill multiple roles. Your three major roles are questing, defending, and attacking, but then you also have some abilities that can come in handy. One example would be Beravor who you can keep back for defending, but if there are no enemies, you can then exhaust her to draw cards.

Also, the use of allies are key in solo for the same reason. Find a balance of low cost characters and those with strong abilities. Use them as chump blockers and then attack with your more powerful heroes or unique allies.

I have only played solo myself, and I don't play double handed either. It is difficult, but once I got the hang of it I have about a 50% win rate, which I would consider good. Keep at it and look here for advice and tips; this is a very supportive community.

I second everything that Puzzle said. I just said this in another thread: In solo, your heroes must be very versatile or very, very good at one of the three major tasks. You need two and even three sphere decks because you only have one deck to cover all the bases. Playing single sphere decks with the current card pool just won't do. Your first 3-4 turns in solo are extremely important and must be played carefully because you will be very vulnerable. And yes, allies are huge in solo. The more you can put in play, the merrier because they take pressure off your limited amount of heroes. And I never play double fisted myself, I've never understood the point of that, if you are playing solo.

Titan said:

Using two decks as a solo player is much more satisfying since I end up with a win ratio of about 50% for the more difficult scenarios which feels just about right to me. It's also easier to estimate how hard a scenario will be with multiple players which is important since I wouldn't want to frustrate my casual fellow players. Using a solo deck is an entirely different beast and you cannot derive anything useful from it to judge the multi-player experience.

Being a big fan of playing Arkham Horror solo (using multiple investigators) I'm quite comfortable playing two decks solo in LotR.

I have found a good mix of 2/3s Lore and 1/3 leadership to be a fairly decent soloing setup. If you pick up the Hunt for Gollum and A Journey to Rhosgobel expacs, the card choices will make this a very nice double sphere mix though I still tend to win and lose 50/50.

The Heroes I use are Glorfindel, Beravor, and Aragorn. Glorfindel adds some nice spot healing after engagements are cleared up with high Willpower and Attack. Beravor is very useful for getting cards in your hand to try and get more allies out quickly with decent enough attack and defense. Aragorn is your everything man, with decent defense and willpower and high attack. Plus Aragorn's ability to use a resource to ready him after he has been committed to a quest is amazing for solo play. Get the Steward of Gondor card on him and he is indispensable for questing and attack/defense. The only problem with these heroes is that you have to be fairly aggressive about clearing enemy threat off the board to manage progress. With no Eowyn willpower, powerhousing the quest phase things can go south fast if your not keeping the staging area as cleared out as possible.

As for a deckbuilding strategy with dual sphere, try not to use to many overly expensive cards. I would only really try to use leadership cards with a cost of 2 resources at the highest. Especially if you don't have the Hunt for Gollum expac for the Minstrels and the the Leadership trait attachment song. For the main color, Lore, I would try to go no higher than cost of 3 cards. 4-5 and higher cost cards are very painful to put out in a dual sphere deck and require a lot saving. The only high cost card I would put in is Gandalf. He is nuetral so any resources can pay for him and his versatility can make or break your quest when it's at its darkest hour. Try to go for a decent amount of allies in solo play because the extra numbers can help negate woes with willpower and attack/defense.

Steer clear of the Escape from Dol Guldur quest if your using nothing but the core set because that quest is very difficult solo even with some upgrades.

Another deck mix I plan on trying soon is Tactics / Lore with using Glorfindel, Gimli and Legolas. Legolas can be a beast for clearing quests in a very odd way because when he participates in slaying monsters you get to add 2 progress tokens to the quest.

For solo play Most important and first thing is HEROES. all other is second!!!!

Since Hero pool is not so big we dont have to much choice for choose.

Gimly Eowyn Theodred Denetor Aragorn Imrahil(not really sure, didnt play him yet but sound promising) Beravur.

So you Heroes must be most powerful for solo game. +You cannot put threat level to high as well.

When i build up the deck i try make it against all scenarios other wise is not interesting in my style of play. Build up deck against certain scenario doesn sound for me cool since its make game more easy.

But player cards pool grow more and more and now already more easy build up deck for solo.

Welcome to LOTR LCG. Solo is hard no two ways about it. Playing a single sphere of influence is the hardest way of all. Most Solo players will play two spheres of influence such as Leadership and Lore. What you need to do is customise your deck to suit the quest you are doing.

A good place to start for deck ideas is cardgamedb.com there are plenty of deck suggestions from players that have tried them out.

Another suggestion that some players use is to play a solo two player game ie you run two decks using all the rules for ta two player game. Flip two threat cards, alternate first player etc.

The beauty of this game is the card combos and strategies.A couple of the most common ones are

Sneak Attack + Gandalf = it allows you to play Gandalf for a phase for only one leadership resource. It still triggers his ability though ie draw cards or reduce threat or do direct damage to an enemy (even in the staging area). You can still use gandalf for that phase too ie to quest or defend or attack depending which phase you play it. Then he returns to hand at the end of the phase to use again later.

Legolas + Unexpected Courage + Quick Strike = Legolas can attack and kill an enemy with quick strike at anytime (adding two progress to current quest) then ready using unexpected courage and attack again during the combat phase.

Leadership Hero + Steward of Gondor = Lots of Leadership Resources. You can pay the two leadership resources to play it then kneel it to immediately get the two leadership back. You can also play the Song of Wisdom on the Hero in a Leadership Lore deck to allow the hero to use them as either Leadership or Lore resources.

Those are probably the most common combos. Other handy cards are those that allow you to draw cards, those that allow you to put progress directly onto a location or quest, those that reduce your threat, those that can heal characters. It depends on the quest as to which ones you want to use.

Another thin I would do is download the tutorials from FFG. They have them as a video podcast on iTunes or you can stream them from the FFG site. Always good to make sure you get the mechanics of the game right.

I recently made a Rohan Deck that works reasonably well for a few quests. I am about to tweak it for some others. Give it a try if you like.

Beast Rabban said:

Leadership Hero + Steward of Gondor = Lots of Leadership Resources. You can pay the two leadership resources to play it then kneel it to immediately get the two leadership back. You can also play the Song of Wisdom on the Hero in a Leadership Lore deck to allow the hero to use them as either Leadership or Lore resources.

Why is only Leadership??? You can play this attachment on any hero and get any resources that hero can produce.