My partner and I have tried it twice to no avail.

Once with straight Tactics and straight Spirit decks and a second time with straight Leadership and straight Spirit decks. We cannot get past 1B. We did better with the Leadership/Spirit combo, sure, but still not good enough. We're finding the lack of resources difficult to manage. So far we haven't tried deck building. Is it time? Do you feel this quest will require it?

Any advice you can give us would be great!

Thank you all!

This one is pretty tough, you should start deckbuilding for sure.

This is a tough scenario and, of course, deck building helps. The really restrictive part is the 1 ally only part. I believe this was added to overcome the very increased advantage at the start with more players. 1 player loses a third of its heroes, while 4 only lose a twelth. Have you seen or heard about the thread mentioning that that restriction only applies during the Planning Phase. Things get a little easier if you can use Events and other means to gain more allies. Just wondering if you knew this.

With more expansions the single sphere decks are getting a bit more versatile and the 'Songs' are making mixed decks more flexible. Don't forget that 2 players could have 2 Gandalfs each, and we all know how good he is! Cheers!

Keep trying new things. It's intended to be very challenging, that's sorta the deal with co-op games. If the players are able to consistently win, then the game become dull.

I haven't managed to beat Escape from Dol Guldur in two player either.