I decided to test out my new “Red Arrow” Deck against the hills of emyn muil. My first attempt was a disaster, with rockslide and necromancer’s reach coming out on my first two turns and destroying my board. Here is a detailed record of my second attempt.

Heroes: Eowyn, Theodred, Prince Imrahil

Starting Hand: Dunedain Warning, Sneak Attack, For Gondor, Riddermark’s Finest, Celebrain Stone

Turn 1
Resources: Prince Imrahil [1], Theodred [1], Eowyn [1]
Draw: For Gondor!
Play: Celebrain’s Stone on Eowyn
Staging: Amon Hen, Amon Lhaw
Quest: Prince Imrahil, Theodred, Eowyn (+1 resource) [9 Will]
Encounter: East Wall of Rohan [6 Threat]
3 Progress
Travel: East Wall of Rohan
Threat: 29

Turn 2 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [1], Theodred [1], Eowyn [3]
Draw: Ride to Ruin
Play: Riddermark’s Finest and Dunedain warning
Staging: Amon Hen, Amon Lhaw
Quest: Prince Imrahil, Theodred, Eowyn (+1 resource), Riddermark’s Finest [10 Will]
Draw: Enchanted Stream [6 Threat]
4 Progress, Clearing East Wall (3 VP)
Travel: Amon Lhaw
Threat: 30

Turn 3 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [2], Theodred [1], Eowyn [3]
Draw: Hasty Stroke
Play: Escort From Edoras
Staging: Amon Hen, Enchanted Stream
Quest: : Prince Imrahil, Theodred, Eowyn (+1 resource), Escort From Edoras [13 Will]
Draw: Dol Goldur Beast Master (6 Threat)
7 Progress, Clearing Amon Law (8 VP)
Travel: Amon Hen
Threat: 31

Turn 4 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [3], Theodred [2], Eowyn [3]
Draw: Snowborn Scout
Play: Snowborn Scourt (1 progress to Enchanted Stream)
Staging: Dol Goldur Beast Master, Enchanted Stream
Quest: Prince Imrahil, Theodred, Eowyn (+1 resource), Riddermark’s Finest [10 Will]
Draw: Enchanted Stream (6 Threat)
Discard “For Gondor” to Eowyn to pump willpower
5 Progress, Clearing Amon Hen Hen (13 VP)
Travel: none
Threat: 32

Turn 5 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [3], Theodred [3], Eowyn [5]
Draw: Son or Arnor
Play: Son of Arnor, Engaging Beast Mastet
Staging: Enchanted Stream, Enchanted Stream
Quest:, Eowyn (6)
Draw: The Highlands (5 Threat)
1 Progress
Travel: The Highlands, Revaling the Shores of Nin Hithoel
Combat: Dol Goldor Beast Master Attacks, Prince Imrahil Blocks
Shadow Cards: After this attack, return to staging area X2
No Damage
Threat: 33

Turn 6 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [3], Theodred [2], Eowyn [6]
Draw: Snowborn Scouts
Play: Snowborn Scouts, clearing enchanted Stream
Staging: Enchanted Stream, The Shores of Nen Hitoel, Dol GOldor Beast Master
Quest:, Eowyn , Riddermark’s Finest, Prince Imrahil [10 Will]
Draw: Treacherous Fog (8 Threat)
1 Progress, Clear The Highlands (14 VP)
Play Ride to Ruin, discarding snowborn scouts to clear The Shores of Nen Hitoel (16 Vp)
Untaps Prince Imrahil
Travel: -
Engage: Beast Master
Combat: Dol Goldor Beast Master Attacks, Prince Pimrahil Blocks
Shadow Cards: +1 Attack (x2)
Play: For Gondor!
Damage: 1 to Prince Imrahil
Attack, Theodred and the son of arnor kill beast master
Threat: 34

Turn 7 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [3], Theodred [3], Eowyn [7]
Draw: Grim Resolve
Staging: Enchanted Stream
Quest:, Eowyn , Theodred, Snowborn Scouts, Prince Imrahil [9 Will]
Draw: Necromancer’s Reach (kills scouts, one damage to Eowyn, 2 to Imrahil) (2 Threat)
Travel: -
Threat: 35

Turn 8 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [4], Theodred [4], Eowyn [8]
Draw: Escort to Edoras
Play: Escort to Edoras
Staging: Enchanted Stream
Quest: Eowyn , son or Anor [6 Will]
Draw: Necromancer’s Pass (5 Threat)
Travel: -
Threat: 36

Turn 9 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [5], Theodred [5], Eowyn [7]
Draw: Celebrain’s stone
Play:
Staging: Enchanted Stream And Necromancer’s Pass
Quest: Eowyn , son or Anor [6 Will]
Draw: Pursued by Shadow (gain 4 threat) (5 Threat)
Travel: -
Threat: 41

Turn 10 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [6], Theodred [6], Eowyn [8]
Draw: Faramir
Play: Faramir
Staging: Enchanted Stream And Necromancer’s Pass
Quest: Eowyn , son or Anor [6 Will]
Draw: The Shores of Nen Hithoel (7 Threat), use faramir to go to 8 will
Travel: Discard Hasty Stroke to travel to the Shores of Nen Hitoel
Threat: 42

Turn 11 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [5], Theodred [5], Eowyn [9]
Draw: The Riddermark’s Finest
Play: The Riddermark’s Finest
Staging: Enchanted Stream And Necromancer’s Pass
Quest: Eowyn , Escort From Edoras [10 Will]
Draw: Slick footing (5 Threat), 5 Progress Clearing the Shores of Nen Hitoel (18 VP)
Travel: -
Threat: 43

Turn 12 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [6], Theodred [6], Eowyn [8]
Draw: Sneak Attack
Play: -
Staging: Enchanted Stream And Necromancer’s Pass
Quest:, Eowyn , Son or Arnor [6 Will]
Draw: The HIghlands (6 Threat),
Travel: The Highlands, revealing Rauros Falls
Threat: 44

Turn 13 –
Resources: Prince Imrahil [7], Theodred [7], Eowyn [9]
Draw: Westofold Horse Breaker
Play: - West Fold Horse Breaker
Staging: Rauros Falls, Enchanted Stream And Necromancer’s Pass
Quest:, Eowyn , Prince Imrahil, Theodred, Son or Arnor, Westforld horse breaker [10 Will]
Draw: Eastern Crows, Evil Storm (8 Threat), (killing horse breaker, 3 damage on imrail, 2 on Eowyn, 1 on theodred)
Tap faramir to boost questing to 13, cealring the highlands (19 VP)
Discard ridermarch’s finest to place 2 progress tokens on Rauros Falls
Discard ridermarch’s finest to place 2 progress tokens on Rauros Falls, clearing it (23 VP)

Its an interesting quest, with a very different pace than other sessions, especially for a for a solo player. I have to run, but if anyone has questions on it I can answer them throughout the day.

Worth noting, aside from Faramir, none of my big hitters (Northern Tracker, Gandalf and Eomund) or most powerful events (A Test of Will and Greeting) ever came up. I was fortunate to not draw much direct damage, but the poor draws from my own deck balanced that out.

You had really bad draws. Congrats to your victory!

Now I'm anxious to play that quest too And I have no idea when I shall get it.

Thank you for taking the time to post this detailed report. It was very interesting and helpful.

Doom1502 said:

To be fair, it may just be a really bad deck

Thanks for the review Bohemond! So, I have the new expansion too, but haven't played it yet. What is your review of some of the new Player cards? I really love the spirit song...now I can splash Greeting, Will, and other good spirit cards. You like that new hobbit ally card pretty well?

I have now had a chance to play the scenario about 6 times, several decks, both solo and multi-player. Emyn Muil is my least favorite of the four AP scenarios released thus far. The difficulty is highly frontloaded. You have a large starting threat, but if you can address it in the first few turns, threat becomes a non issue. At that point you have a long slog through the encounter deck, and it becomes an endurance match. Will you get brought down by direct damage from the event deck, or do you have enough healing to make your through boring turn after boring turn as you scour for the last few locations. I have loved every scenario so far, but this one falls flat for me.

As for player cards

Ride to Ruin/Ridermark’s Finest – I love these cards. With their addition, I feel like Rohan not only has a lot of cards, but a mechanical identity. Rohan characters are hellbent for leather. They are defined by abilities to quest, untap, and sacrifice themselves for big impact. I hope that every faction not only gets equivalent cards, but a equal interesting set of game mechanics.

Gildor Inglorin – Lore adds another high priced ally, and continues the trend of having the best allies, top to bottom, in the game. Amazing stats and a decent ability (which will combo quite nicely when we get the spirit dwarf from the big box), one of the few cards to really make me question whether or not Gandalf is worth it. A 3/2/3 for 5 that stays on the board? Yes, please!

Gildor’s Consel – I find this card fascinating. Yes, it’s almost worthless for solo play. But, you give up one turn’s worth of resources (1 card and three tokens) to keep from drawing 1 player’s worth of encounter cards (1 encounter card). Essentially, we have gotten the first “tempo” card in LotR LCG. If the encounter deck has board advantage, you don’t want to play it, but if you have the upper hand it becomes a solid play. I didn’t put it in either of my lore decks, but I am pondering it.

Descendant of Throndor – Speaking of having a mechanical theme, eagles seem to be moving that direction as well. The descendant does two damage going in and two coming out, and eagles have a lot of bounce. Plus, willpower on a tactics ally. Reinforces Tactics/Spirit synergy, since you get the most bang for your buck when your threat is low. But he is a great way to wear down the big guns in an opponent’s deck. Or just to eat those annoying snipers.

Meneldor’s Flight – Another 0 cost bounce card for tactics? It has timing advantageous over Bourne Aloft, but the the eagles only restriction means you have very few suitable targets for this effect, and you don't have access to crazy attachment recursion. Also, aside from the Descendant of Throndor, what eagles do you want back in your hand? Finally, it’s a pet peeve of mine, but this card should have the ‘Eagle” trait. The eagles are coming has it, so events are fair game for traits.

Keen-Eyed Took – Looks like a great way to enable combos for the whole family. Not all that on his own, but people will find ways to to abuse the hell out of this. And, I imagine he will be permanently attached to Prince Imrhail’s hip in many a deck.

Rear Guard – I am not feeling it. Leadership needs, fairly desperately, imposing high cost allies (the kind lore and tactics have received), and they get this? For a card, a resource, and discarding an ally I get a one use poor man’s Faramir? Even best case scenario in a for player game, this is only going to generate 5 or 6 willpower. Highly situational, not highly effective. The best target for this effect, Snow born scouts, already has access to the FAR superior Ride to Ruin. I can’t imagine ever using this card.

Song of Travel – Yes, we were expecting it and know all of its advantageous, but who knew it would have some of my favorite art in the game? I am not sure why, but I love the look of this card.

Bohemond said:

I agree with you Bohemond. I already has notice before: go back to difficult 4 after some cool quest like Carrock and Rhosgobel is not so good idea.

Since review i understood this one maybe i should to skip but very good players cards choices force me to make my order from ebay. Hope the next quests will be more interesting.......

Yeah Bohemond, I agree with you about your reviews on the Player Cards. Thanks for taking the time to thoroughly talk about them. Most helpful.

Just got my copy in the mail this afternoon. I really love that they put Gildor into the Lore side. (First Elf that Frodo gets counsel from when he is getting ready to flee the shire). I almost wish he was a hero card, but in the end he is a fairly minor character.

Can't wait to try the new quest, it looks interesting enough since you start off unable to use attachments and events.

You are only locked out of attachments and events when the relevant location is active. When the game starts they are in the staging area, so you can control when those particular restrictions apply.

Good luck with the scenario!

Bohemond, I agree that this quest feels a little flat, it's definitely not the interesting, groundbreaking-type of scenario that we saw with Carrock and Rhosgobel. I don't really have a problem with them making an easier, lower difficulty scenario to follow-up Rhosgobel, but Emyn Muil is fairly boring. I've just finished my first game and it was pretty much the same activity every turn: send all my characters questing, exhaust Faramir for his ability, and Ride to Ruin/Riddermark's/etc to eliminate as many locations as possible. I only engaged 1 Dol Guldor Orcs the entire quest and that was it. There were 2 Orc Horse Thieves and a Chieftan Ufthak in the staging area, but I really had no need to engage them or anything since my only goal was to eliminate the Emyn Muil locations. Not too much excitement in this Scenario sadly.

xBeakeRx said:

As i sad before very bad idea after Interesting and difficult 7 and 6 last quests go back to difficult 4. Sure for everyone it will be boring and easy. Hope dead marches and Return will be 8 and 9.

Lower difficulty doesn't automatically mean boring, it depends much more on what the Encounter deck and Quest cards do. If the Encounter deck is full of locations, very low on Enemies, then all you have to do is quest. Balancing questing, defense and offense, while trying to fulfil Quest card requirements can make a lower difficulty quest interesting. Even a diff 8-9 quest that only focuses on one aspect of the game can be boring.

Glaurung said:

Glaurung said:

Like I said before, I dont mind going back to a difficulty 4 scenario as long as it is fun to play. I don't really find the easier scenarios boring because I use them to practice different deck combinations and ideas to see how they work. For me, its the way this scenario is set up that makes it boring, not the difficulty.

My friend that I play LotR with and I both hope to see some more easier scenarios. We don't mind a challenge but we also like the easier quests for the fun value. So a few more like that would be appreciated.

Also guys, Glaurung has a very different and opinionated view point, but let's not be rude here. He has the right to offer his opinion.

Right now as the game stands the game has theoretically four easy quests:

Passage through Mirkwood, Journey Down the Anduin, The Hunt for Gollum, and The Hills of Emyn Muil

And the game has 4 hard quests:

A Journey to Rhosgobel, Escape from Dol Guldur, Conflict at the Carrock, and The Massing at Osgiliath.

There seems to be a nice balance being maintained between easy and hard quests to meet the different playstyles and experience levels of the players. Though I fully expect the difficulty to ramp up with the last to packs of the Mirkwood Cycle, I really hope FFG continues this balance. The easy quests are great to take on the go, as I know they can be fairly easily played out during a lunch break or some spare time between classes. The hard quests are great to challenge at home where I have plenty of time to think out my moves, be more precise and often edit and rebuild my deck after failures. From the conversations on the forums and the amount of players who play this game solo with little to no intention of tournament play, its good to have options and plenty of quests that meet the level the player finds enjoyable.

I would never ever dream of putting Journey down the Anduin in with the easy quests.

Same goes for HFG, with only one deck of four that has more than 1 NT, I play almost have to plays without any NTs most games. Those locations just clog the staging area, haven't seen any other quest with as many cards in the staging area, nor have I seen 25+ threat in 2-player in any other quest so far and that has happened at least twice with HFG.

FYI: A Journey to Rhosgobel- was easy for my 2 player game- we scored 65 points

So far I'd put Carrock among the easy ones. Today, accidentally advanced to stage 2 on turn 2 (wanted to get rid of Gladden Fields as active location), didn't get any threat to the staging area but luckily had threat 32 on both parties. Threat bumped to 35 after that one douchebag Troll, but he got killed after his first attack. Toughest part was not having meatshields around, had to throw Aragorn and Denethor against those 5 attack attacks, taking Wargs and Misty Mountain Goblins undefended for a couple of turns. Only saw 1 Sacked during the game and Theodred was released on the same turn. Denethor bottomed a Hill Troll and the other HT was drawn as a Shadow Effect. Ironically, one of the Trolls had Sacked as Shadow Effect on the turn he was Feinted.

Did you manage to kill Threaty Troll before the others attacked, or did you misread his text? If all four attacked before he snuffed it, threat should have gone up by 3 for every Troll attacking.

ClydeCloggie said:

We chose to engage the Threaty Troll that first turn, along with Sacky Troll by the other party. So each got +3 Threat, putting them both at 35. Threat Troll was killed that first turn (actually badly, wounded, then Gandy came in next turn, but amounts to the same thing), so Morris and Stuart had to sit by and watch and be unable to increase threat. First play of that quest saw us take forever in the first stage and even with us both engaging only two Trolls each, +6 threat put us in high 40s. I think I hit like 47 or 48 before calling in Gandalf to lower it.

A Paperback Hero said:

I would make a seperate "Medium" difficulty and move Journey Down the Anduin and Conflict at the Carrock to it. I still lose to Journey Down the Anduin on occasion and Carrock can be tough.

A Paperback Hero said:

Actually i agree with you. From this point of view i didn look on quests. Yes sure we should have some easy quest. And sure Dead marshes and Return to Mirkwood should be really hard and interesting.

Hope Khazad-Dum will bring some new mechanic as well.