Yeah Richsabre, I can see where you're coming from as I am also a solo player primarily. I do have to agree with the majority on this chat that the game is designed for both 1 & 2 player and therefore cards will reflect both play styles. I do wish we got more player cards quicker somehow. As far as Cache, as much as it is rather useless for my solo deck, it could come in handy against JTR.

Thanks for your time, Glaurung. Looking forward to seeing the deck.

One question for now? You play A Burning Brand on Thalin? So you keep Thalin for defense?

lleimmoen said:

Yes most of the times Thalin is for defense. But in other quests you can use him for quests. Gimly is a killer in Osgiliath!!!!!

First deck play All U.cuorage on Beravur for draw but with new Cache card you can play one U.courage on Gimly so he can control all table cose him Ranged.

And Boromir coming now!!!!! Players cards so powerful!!!!! Many combination to win and now win much more easy then in time of core set.

Ok Oagiliath is also not easy one but is only one for now!!!!!

richsabre:

What you're missing here is that by virtue of being a cooperative game, there must be cards that work in a cooperative manner. There are certain combinations of really awesome actions that aren't possible with card X and card Y because you may not be playing both spheres necessary in the same deck.

Solo is fun, 2 player is solid. Around the time you get to 3 and 4 player, those cards that you may find useless really shine. After 4 adventure packs, the complexity of multiplayer deck interaction is improving. If you don't want to play cooperatively, power to you, but they aren't going to stop making cards that need other cards that may not be in a solo deck in order to fully realize their power.

We see what you're saying, but you're writing off an entire aspect of the game.

and frankly - it is the main aspect of this game... building an ALTRUISTIC DECK is now more advantageous than a solo-player deck

you don't only put in cards, which are good for you - you think about your mates and what they could need - what they play - you have to compliment their playstyle and deck! I often play steward of gondor on OTHER player's heroes, or celebrian's stone... or self preservation.... it doesn't always have to be me who is the strongest, baddest, best, etc.... the FELLOWSHIP aspect is more important

therefore, I like these multiplayer cards - like dunedain cache, brand, imrahil also shines in multiplayer, or gildor's counsel... invaluable in multiplayer

un pour tous et tous pour un! (one for all and all for one!)

yes i see these things, but you must see that this is coming from someone who doesnt know anyone in their area and lives in the middle of nowhere (great for getting in the mood, not so much for finding mates ) and is purely a solo player- mates dont come into for me, and even if they did i have no wish to play this as a 2 player game, im all about the soloing, though i do acknowledge that most people play co-operative, so im not trying to write off the games as a co-op i was just giving my 2 pence in the matter.

richsabre said:

I know this has been answered but as a solo player, Dunadain's Cache will be REQUIRED to solo Journey to Rhosgobel without pulling one's hair out. At least that's my experience with it. I also would expect to see more reasons to use it in solo situations in coming APs and expansions. The Cache is hardly for multiplayer only.

As a solo player, I do see use for the Cache even if it's only in Rhosgobel. Still, with my current habit of tackling all quests with a 50 card deck and 10 card sideboard, swapping up to 5 cards between quests, the Cache will go into the sideboard.

I would hope that the number of cards that can exclusively be used in multiplayer (Campfire Tales etc.) will be kept low, and that we will see cards that have their biggest effect in solo play.

So yesterday we have a long evening to play nightmare session with my friend Koby. We have 2 very good working together decks. Quest/draw/cancel effect deck Beravur/Eowyn/Eleanor and fighting deck Gimly/Theodred/Thalin.

In this thread before i use to explain how those 2 decks very good work together against any quest even against Osgiliath so here is my report about how is work in Nightmare.

First, big surprise for us nightmare with even new FAQ 1.1 rules is more easy and annoy then just solo game. Why???? Cose in this game you can control what kind of cards you have in your deck on the beginnig of every quest session. For example: In the first game by Beravur we both take all our deck in hands. Than When you come to the last stage of the quest you heal all your wounds, reduce your threat and discard to discard pile all the cards(by Protector of Lorien) which you dont need in the next Quest (in our case next one is Carrock). So then when you finish the first quest you start second one with the best cards in you draw deck. you can even discard all the cards keep only 7 and exactly manage your best starting hands!!! And Beravur deck get in starting hand dwarven tomb and Will of the west so you always can get your deck back from discard pike later for both players when you need it. So you can Choose your staring hand from quest to quest easy!!!!! This is amazing!!!! This advantage you can never get in normal game. So i dont tnink need to explain the encounter deck cannot do nothing against you. So you can manage your staring hand, You always have resources to pay for your cards(steward) you always have enough cards in both players hands so you can answer on any card in encounter deck and you always have advantage cose encouner deck still reveal only 2 cards per turn.

Poor baby encounter deck!!!! I feel pity for him!!!! Ohh my god!!!! This is what Nate French develop for this game?????Sorry but something wrong here.

I hope my english is good enough and every one undestand what i mean and you can always try this by yourself!!!! Cheers for every one.

How are you drawing your entire deck? I'd like to see a step by step please.

The_Big_Show said:

Hey man you nerver play with lore and Beravur and U courage. So if not just try it and you will see.

Glaurung said:

Yes, but never I've never even come close to drawing my entire deck.

In this regard I have to back up Glaurung: if you build a deck around card drawing it is not uncommon to have a very large portion if not all your deck in your hand after mid game. I have a Lore/Spirit deck with Beravor, Unexpected courage, Ancient Mathom and Ereborn Hammersmith to get those back. Even with only one Unexpected Courage on Beravor you draw roughly 6 cards in average per turn (including Ancient Mathom etc) even more if you have two Courages on her. Then you blast your way through the quests with Protector of Lorien. Its very efficient but not very entertaining.

In a nutshell: If you wanna draw your whole deck its pretty well doable with the current card pool

@Glaurung: Congratulations, you broke the game. Now you'll have to buy a new one ;-)

and btw: didn't you just post the same story of your amazing deck in another threat???

I run a spirit lore deck the routinely draws the entire deck when it functions. beravor + UC pulls the entire deck in 9 turns. Drawing that many cards will get you a minstrel or a second UE, which can further accelerate the pace. I'm hard pressed to see why anyone would doubt Glaurung's claim.

Well, this is simply not needed and sounds like an overkill. Beravor + multiple Courage is a nice combo, but does not break the game, it makes you win more and the victory is more overwhelming. Drawing 5 cards per turn does NOT win you the game.

The thing that counts is the victory and not "the style". If the deck focuses too much resources on card drawing, it may lose the game while the board is not stabilized yet. If the board is no more threatening to you, you may pull off a combo like "draw entire deck", but the point is, drawing entire deck did not help you at all, you already won the game before you started putting 2nd and 3rd courage on beravor. When the encounter deck is not capable of doing anything against you, it does not matter AT ALL if you draw 1, 3 or 100 cards per turn.

There is only one main reason to put courage on beravor that really helps the player. It is to make her useful in questing/attacking//defending (while still drawing 2 extra cards per turn).

So to summarize (if you have beravor + multiple UC) , drawing entire deck does not make you win the game. Instead, winning a game makes you draw entire deck. Do you feel the difference of implications?

Protector of Lorien would like a word with you.

Drawing most of your deck also helps with Will of the West, since you'll have only key cards (D. Tomb, Greeting) in the discard pile, rest are in your hand. So by shuffling say 3x Tomb, 3x Greeting, 2x WotW back into your deck, with Beravor drawing 8 cards, you'll be getting them ready to use in just one turn, no need to hope you draw them soon enough.

agree ! and i would like to know what all those coop player will say if they release have a pack with some cards for solo play ONLY ?

ulrik said:

The box of the game says "cooperative game", so I think releasing cards for coop players is the only reasonable move. And what would a card look like that's for solo play only? Would it have a card text like: "You're not allowed to play this card when there's more then one player present." Or: "If another player is present, this ally get -10 willpower"?

I think we can all agree that there'll be cards that will be more useful to the solo players or more useful to the coop players. But as much as I respect you wanting all of the cards to work for your solo play, there are a lot of people out there who either play muliplayer or use two decks for soloing through the quests. And I think the game was designed towards cooperative play... and solo play seems rather like a nice addition! (And I'm really glad they gave us this option, because many of the more insightful posts on this forums come from dedicated solo players...)

Untergeher said:

Actually if we talking about Brand he is very good hero not only for coop game. He is ranged and there is some flying enemies already + his will power 2 quite cool for tactic hero and attact Defense , hit points + threat cost is quite good. In my opinion he is much better then Thalin for any solo tactic deck.

I would have never guessed you of all people would come up with such a lame deck and strategy Glaurung. Sounds really dull.

In all customizable card games the most successful decks are dull: they are trimmed to be efficient, exploit a card balance weakness and amplify this element by adding more and more cards that support the key element and remain efficient in cost/effect ratio. You also could build a storytelling deck or deck with a theme. But those will not necessarily win the game for you (still you can have a good time). It really depends on why you play that particular card game: experience of victory, experience of story or experience of having a casual game with nice art work in it.

Shelfwear said:

Check out Sirlin's homepage to get an idea about the mind of a pro player:

www.sirlin.net/ptw

Even after over ten years it's still extremely relevant and explains quite well why pro players (like Glaurung) often make such a obnoxious impression to non-competitive or casual players.

A great read. I especially liked player styles, they maked a lot of sense. Check out snake description