From the German Dead Marshes pack which was available at the Games Fair Essen

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/713677/available-in-essen

Hero
Boromir - See FFG page

Neutral
Song of Battle - Already spoiled by that magazine cover.

Lore
Fast Hitch - See FFG page

Silvan tracker - Ally - 3 cost - 1 Will/1 Att/1 Def - 3 Health
Silvan.
Reaction: After a Silvan-Character is readied during the refresh phase, heal 1 damage on that character.

Spirit
We don't sleep - Event - 5 cost
Action: Until the end of the phase Rohan characters don't exhaust if they commit to the quest.

Elfhelm - Ally - 4 cost - 1 Will/2 Att/2 Def - 3 Health
Warrior. Rohan.
If Elfhelm is ready, he gains:
Reaction: After your threat was raised because of an unsuccesful quest or an encounter or the effect of a quest card, reduce your threat by 1.

Tactic
Vassal of the Windmaster - Ally - 1 cost - 0 Will/3 Att/0 Def - 1 Health
Eagle. Creature.
Ranged. Can't have any restricted attachments.
Forced: After an attack with the Vassal of the Windmaster has been resolved, Vassal of the Windmaster is discarded.

Taunting Song - Attachment - 1 cost
Song.
Attach to a Hero.
Action: Exhaust Taunting Song to choose a Hero. Until the end of the phase, the Hero that has Taunting Song attached suffers all the damage that would be dealt to the chosen Hero.

Leadership
Cache of the Dunedain - See FFG page

Dunedain Observer - Ally - 3 cost - 1 Will/1 Att/1 Def - 2 Health
Dunedain.
Reaction: Discard Dunedain Observer to cancel the shadow effects of cards that just triggered.

Thanks for posting these!

Neat!

More good stuff!

I'm loving the Eagles (they're so altruistic)

More goodness for Rohan and even a nice Elf ally.

And even that Taunting Song has some strong potential when used with the likes of Gimli.

Songs and Eagle is really cool. Boromir of course too.

Those Rohan Spirit cards are pretty awesome. Liking the Dunedain Cache and Silvan ally too.

Shelfwear said:

Guess that should put to rest any doubts that Sneak Attack can be played before characters are committed to bring in a certain pointy hatted ally for some questing help. We Don't Sleep, another event, would obviously have to be played before committing. So there must be a window to play events before committing.

gatharion said:

You could also throw it on Gloin for some resource generation or even Frodo and never take actual damage.

@Shelfwear. I have always used Gandalf in questing this way (of course I play solo). I must have missed some sort of debate. Either way, I agree that you can play events at the beginning of a phase.

Puzzle said:

That was me, not Shelf.

There was some debate, small, about whether there was a window to play Sneak Attack + Gandalf to get him before committing and make use of his 4 Willpower for questing. Now we see an event specifically designed to be played before committing. So, case closed. Until of course it's ruled that Sneak Attack can't be used with Gandalf. ;p

Marlow said:

Marlow said:

Marlow said:

Of course you can.

Difficult of the Dead Marches is 5.Only 2 quest cards.

Why not 1 or 2???? Even Carrcok 7 and Dol-guldor also 7 very easy to win!!!!! More quest we have more easy they are.

They give us more opportunity to build up better decks and make encounter decks weaker.Very interesting strategy!!! Now only nightmare mode can help!!!!

Glaur, look. If the game is too easy, move on to another. It's getting old seeing your "too easy" responses over and over like broken record. It doesn't add anything to any discussions. The rest of us seem to be enjoying the game as it is. They're not going to crank out Difficulty 10 scenarios just for you. So stop whining about it.

You are the type of player who needs to be up against human opponents. Simple as that. Go back to a Player vs. Player game. You'll find the challenge you seek. Sticking to LOTR just because you are a fan of the story even though you find the game boring and not a challenge is silly.

Marlow said:

Glaurrung has a point about things being too easy. However I will agree with you about his posting habits. Especially when he does not post his "masterpiece" decks to help other players along. The reason a lvl 1 deck is lvl 1 is because you can take practically ANY deck and win with it, while as you go up the scale you need more tuned/specific decks to win. lvl 4 decks tend to need 2 sphere decks with spirit, which most people play already. lvl 7+ tends to need multiple players to win as it stands now.

Now if Glarrung would create a thread and post his "obvious" championship decks with instructions how to play them with each scenario I am sure we would all appreciate that as we just love to play the game.

Back to topic...Thanks for the post! I am really excited for this one now. I am of like thoughts with most of the posters who have already responded.

Difficulty 5 does not mean anything. For my most succesful deck, carrock 7 is easier than anduin 4. Gollum 4 is soo easy that maybe Mirkwood 1 is slightly harder. Osgiliath is easier than 6 rhosgobel and dol guldur 7.

If I win against Osgiliath, Rhosgobel, Dol Guldur I do not shout "I am awesome, give me harder quests. Oh no 5 is too low, I already beat higher numbers"

Glaurung, a simple idea for you. When you play for example Carrock quest, change encounter sets you use. So instead of Anduin set, use Dol Guldur orcs.

Or, starting from 3rd turn or 2nd turn draw every time an additional card for the enemy.

Or try to create 1 deck that is capable of winning ALL scenarios with win rate 80% or more. And I mean ALL scenarios, including Rhosgobel and Dol Guldur. For sure, when you try to customize your deck to beat Rhosgobel, the deck will suddenly become weaker against other quests. Also, do not play the quest once or twice with the deck and say "I win all the time", but instead play like 20 games against each quest. If you do not win 16 out of 20 (every quest!), this means your deck is crap and you have to improve it. Good luck, we would really appreciate detailed, move by move session reports.

So far I like all existing quests (except Emin Muil) and their printed difficulty really doesn't mean that much, as difficulty level also scales with the amount of players : Dol Guldur with 4 people is easy, whereas Hunt for Gollum with 4 players is significantly increased in difficulty.

Back to the Dead Marshes: This AP includes a couple of very powerful cards, I think its the most "powerful" addition across the board so far:

Elfheim reads "whenever your threat increases reduce the amount by 1 except during the refreshing phase" and Silvan Tracker heals 1 point from every Silvan Character in the game...

The Tactic cards are great: low cost eagle and damage redirection. Boromir, a self-refreshing killer.

Dunedain Cache and Fast Hitch are very good auxiliary cards.

That makes me ask if FFG will increase the challenge provided by the Kazad-Dum/Dwarrowdelf quests? Not because I think this game is too easy but with such powerful player cards in your deck, an averagely difficult Kazad Dum quest will be easier to solve than Anduin with the card pool available at that time.

Marlow said:

Glaurung, I would like to see a deck list for these decks you are playing with that supposedly breeze through any quest. Also if you are finding all quests too easy it suggests to me that you might not be playing completely according to the rules. So I'd also like to see a step by step play through report type thing which shows how you are actually playing and getting the results you claim to be. Also I'd like to know how many times you play a quest before you decide its too easy, because I'd suggest playing a quest at least 5 times before making your mind up, Are you playing in a group or solo?. Personally I find Conflict at t he Carrock to be very challenging, also The Hunt for Gollum. So I'd have to disagree when you say its too easy.

If it's too easy then refrain from using three core sets worth of cards.

Try it with using just a single core set plus expansions, and try to make two (or three) playable decks with those cards. (Which means you wouldn't be able to have three Gandalfs, etc in each deck.)

Those are the limitations I'm facing and I'm definitely not finding the game too easy. Far from it. Journey down the Anduin and Hunt for Gollum I've always beaten with two+ players, but will often lose when playing solo. Escape from Dol Goldur, Conflict at Carrock, and Journey to Rosgobel all just kick my butt every single time. (Escape from Dol Goldur I beat once, but it was in a four player game.)

I suggest you build a solo Spirit/Lore deck and try The Hunt For Gollum. I'm telling you the Hunters from Mordor combined with the Signs of Gollum will absolutely smash you. I suggest you use Denethor, Dunhere and Eowyn as Heroes. I've played this at least 6-10 times in the last week or so. I've only won once. You have to manage threat very carefully, you don't have any excess resource generation and only a little card advantage. Also even though Dunhere can attack enemies in the staging area he only has 3 attack (with his ability), Hunters from Mordor has 2 defence, so it will take 6 turns just to kill one. If there is a Signs of Gollum in play Hunters goes up by 2 threat and 2 attack for each one. So you're in trouble of you leave it in the staging area and also if you engage, and if there is more than one hunters, you're pretty much completely boned. There is no way I would call that scenario easy.

For all who are interested: on BGG (link in the first post of this thread) the original poster has explained now how escape mechanics work and tells a bit more about the quest cards.