Glaurung said:

You made a good point here. Of course it's easier to win if you have 3 copies of powerhouses like Steward of Gondor or Unexpected Courage.

As for the scenario, I have completed 15 games so far. After my earlier successes I lost quite a lot of games recently. I still managed to win 7 out of 15 games with my hobbit heroes. I think if I'd replace Frodo with Eowyn my results would get better, but then it's more challenging and thus more fun to use the little sad hobbit instead. Scorewise I'm not too bad, got a 122 and a 133, but then I loose more often than I win. Appears that my deck is very vulnerable at the beginning of the game, as it is not able to handle too many enemies.

For anyone who wants to try, here is my deck (using 1 coreset, HfG + CatC expansion):

Note: the deck is designed to compete against all quests. It's thus not perfect to play against JdtA.

Heroes:

Dunhere (8), Frodo (7), Bilbo (9) = 24 starting threat

Allies:

Gandalf x 3

Faramir x 1

Snowborn Scout x 1

Northern Tracker x 2

Eomund x 2

Wandering Took x 2

Westfold Horse-Breaker x 1

Rivendell Minstrell x 2

Daughter of the Nimrodel x 2

Longbeard Mapmaker x 1

Erebor Hammersmith x 1

Miner of the Iron Hills x 1

Henamarth Riversong x 1

Attachments:

Song of Kings x 2

Song of Wisdom x 1

Steward of Gondor x 2

Dundedain Mark x 3

Dundedain Warning x 2

The Favour of the Lady x 2

Unexpected Courage x 1

Forest Snare x 2

Burning Brand x 2

Protector of Lorien x 1

Events:

Sneak Attack x 2

The Galadhrims' Greeting x 2

Strength of Will x 2

Dwarven Tomb x 1

Striker's Path x 3

Secret Paths x 2

Glauring, I've got a well-meant hint for you: Ending a sentence with a single question mark is sufficient to indicate it is supposed to be a question.

Likewise, a single exclamation mark is usually sufficient to express your excitement aboutsomething or stress a point..

As it is it distracts from the point you are trying to make and is similarly annoying as writing everything in uppercase.

Consider:

Lolwut????? Wot about pro-players who have all teh cardz??????? The new scoring sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

vs.

I wonder if FFG has considered the effect of having multiple core sets on the final score? I believe the new scoring system is still in need of improvement!

jhaelen said:

As English is not his native language, you shouldn't expect an uber elaborated text. Furthermore, Russian language is not as elaborative as is English. It's more expressive and straight to the point. To Westerners it often sounds a bit rude, especially when written, but really it isn't. It's just different. And they use LOTS of exclamation marks when they speak.

Howdy folks,

Inspired by the discussion I just played Anduin 3 times in a row and Im quite excited about it. I could not breach the 100 score mark, but Im convinced that 100 is well within reach and I dont even considers something like a sub-90 impossible. Let me lay out what just happend.

Please excuse me for not providing you with a deck list at this point. I got german cards and looking each of them up is a chore. I will however provide a full deck list if you got any honest interest in it.

First of all, Im playing Gloin, Theodred and Bilbo (26 starting thread), using 1 core set and all expansions up until the fourth of the first cycle. Fielding a very nimble setup Im very reliant on getting tons of money with Gloin (letting him take damage each turn and healing with self preservation) and Theodreds questing abilty. This money can always be dumped quite easily since we draw a lot of cards with Bilbo, draw 2 for 3$ and the tap-to draw elf. Im using all the new enchantments for +1 attack, +1 armor and +2 willpower to compensate for weak starting heroes.

The first game was a very standard one, very similar to my first experience with the quest (149 score). Prepare for the troll (4 turns left), put him in a trap and proceed slowly from there. This game turned out slightly better with a score of 142.

Second game I pulled the 3 thread from location, 2 surge crows and than +1 thread for each hero not commited to a quest DURING SETUP, leaving me with tons of stuff to deal with before the first turn AND only 1 turn left until troll pull. I conceded this game after setup and called it a loss.

The third game however was very interesting. It started off very promising- setup only gave me the 10thread / 2 damage ork. This guy would basically give me 2 risk-free extra resources each turn (if he remains unblocked he can put at max 3 damage on Gloin which I can mitigate with SP). I also had Steward of Gondor on my starting hand and got Celebrians Stone on my first 2 cards. During the first 4 turns until I had to worry about the Troll, both decks were very kind.

In turn 5 the first major deviation on the way to a quick victory occurs. Instead of eating a hefty troll blow on a chump blocker for a ton of thread, trapping him and proceeding slowly from there, I manage to kill him right away AND clear step 1 in a single turn. This is basically how its done:

The main phase delivers Gandalf, who puts damage on the troll. Then I clear the quests 8 points (+location) by commiting everything but gandalf to questing. (Thanks to Faramir Ive got enough willpower to do that). Gandalf proceeds to block the Troll (I think I did a mistake there. I remember dealing me 2 thread after the trolls swing vs Gandalf, forgetting that Gandalf HPs would prevent the ogers trample-thread from occoring. Im not sure though so Id rather keep the 2 thread on my final score). Then I play ready everything for 5 (only 1 copy in deck!). Yes, the combo costs 10. Only doable with Gloin, Theodrid and Steward I assume. With everything beeing able to attack again and the 4 gandalf-direct-damage on the troll I can sweap the board (think I had a crow left or so) AND proceed to stage 2 in one turn at the end of turn 5. At this point Im allready like "Omg, I just might do cut 100!"

The upcoming 6th turn made conviced me even more that I could do it. since Im basically able to clear it in 1 turn. With 2 copies of ready target ally on hand I can use Faramir 3 times, giving everyone a ricicoules +3 Spirit. At this point I have to kill 1 tiny creature AND turn over 2 treachery / locations in order to f innish with 60 from turn, 33-ish from thread, 4 from damage (1 in Bilbo...) and -7 from VP. I might just end up at 90 if everything goes well! Jeezzz!

But instead everything goes to ****. I pull the surge-crow, the fat snake-thing with 7 life and the 1 damage on each exhausted ally treachery. The treachery almost wipes my ally board (Faramir survices) clean. Bilbo (with 2$ on him) goes to hell, not only giving me a crushing -9VP, but also leaving me behind with only 2 heroes, quick strike, Faramir (allready in play) and a bunch of now useless Lore-cards on hand.

The treachery + snake ruin my day so badly its not even funny. My heroes have no +attack from items, so I got 6 attack power total on the board. I need to kill a crow and the 7 life / 1 armor snake. I cannot take a single snake-blow unblocked, leaving me only at 4 effective attack power. Until I clear the board I got nothing to improve my hand, only drawing lore stuff. On turn 9 I finally remember that I can give the +1 def attachment on Faramir to a hero so that he actually dies from a snake-hit. Only this way I can Im able to get a second Faramir with Quick Strike out for a final missing damage point.

So with instead of 90 points on a good final draw I end up with a freaking 132.

On the one hand, I seemed to have very good draws from the encouter deck. On the other hand though I was using a deck that was far from beeing maxed out on potential due to severe card limitations. If I sum it up I come to the conclusion that (If people keep trying) the 100 is a very reasonable number for a good game. Also I can only encourage players to challenge the quest in such a "competitive" way, its really great fun.

Sorry again for not qouting card names every time. **** german cards. Let me know though if you want to recreate and test this deck, I will happily put the effort into it.

Thanks for the detailed write up, UK. Good stuff. Interesting choice of heroes. Keep trying, break that 100 barrier. I'm going to take several more tries tonight. The first time I ever beat the scenario I used a Whatever Works 4 Sphere deck back when the 2nd Adventure back was released. So I think with all 4 Song cards out now I might be able to modify it to make it tighter.

Lowest score I managed with my Quad Sphere deck tonight was 121. Once it got going it was smooth as silk, burned through the second stage in 2 rounds with Willpower overkill. But it takes too long to get to that point, I was in round 8 or 9 before getting to stage 2. That's no good for breaking 100.

I'll try it a few more times before I try using Gimli instead of Dunhere or something to get more aggressive with the Troll. Dunhere is great for sniping but if I can consistently burn through that second stage I won't need much sniping. I'm actually having trouble fitting all the cards I want in a nice tidy 50-card deck now, couldn't say that a couple adventure packs ago.

Well done, UnthoughtKnown! I wouldn't recommend your "let the orcs attack undefended" strategy though. as there are four shadow cards in this deck that will kill one of your heroes (+ 2 ATK and + 3 ATK) if they trigger undefended and one shadow effect forces you to discard all your attachments. It's pretty risky, but if your goal is the best score possible instead of having a good win/loss ratio, it's of course ok to do so.

Back to the game: I just managed a 113 score, but don't ask me about details. I had the songs of wisdom and kings very early, and Steward of Gondor, too. I could thus play many cards and was also lucky to get 3x Dundedain Mark relatively early. The troll was dead by round 8, afterwards I got Unexpected Courage. I lacked Protector of Lorien and Faramir though, so it took me three turns to gte through stage 2B. 3B was a walk in the park as I revealed no more enemies. The result is however flawed and unofficial, because halfway through the game I saw that I had shuffled one of the two trolls into my deck.

Score: 11 rounds + 18 threat + 2 damage -17 VP = 113

I have one more question. In one turn I played Gandalf and committed him to the quest. In the combat phase I got dealt "Driven by Shadow" as a shadow effect. It says that I have to take one of my exhausted allies back on my hand. I chose Gandalf (hehe). I think it's ok to do so, but somehow it feels weird that one gets a huge bonus by dealing a shadow effect.

leptokurt said:

It's forbidden, any advantage for player is forbidden, cause game's too easy (Glaurung-rule!)

No, in fact it's allowed, though this card is probably not intended too bring any advantage to the players, in some situations it does...

leptokurt said:

First name of this card Pursued by shadow.

Second advantage is only work for now with Gandalf and if he defend against some cool enemies take hi in hand can be also bad cose attack will be undefended. But still sometimes you can get Gandalf back in hand by this card.

Glaurung said:

Lol, looks l made the wrong German/English translation. Hmmh, perhaps because Gandalf was driven by shadow back to my hand?

And no, Gandalf wasn't defending, he was out questing. And then he was suddenly back home.

leptokurt said:

Try getting Driven by Shadow as Shadow card for the Hill Troll when you're defending against it with Gandalf as your only exhausted ally... . Turned a solid block into an undefended attack, killing off a Hero turn 1, basically spelling doom right away.

...on a side note, I love the artwork for "Pursued by Shadow" . The artwork in this game is simply amazing.

My best score is 111, achieved twice:

1. with Eowyn, Dunhere, Theodred

2. with Beravor, Bilbo, Gloin

I do have three core sets which I am sure makes a significant difference, as others have noted.

jjeagle said:

I think the main difference is that you have a better chance to get certain cards. Would be nice to have Unexpected Courage 3 times, of course.

Dam said:

That's exactly what happened to me and my girlfriend two days ago. She was excited to kill the troll on the first turn... until the blocking Gandalf was returned to her hand. Interestingly, we decided to kill off Eowyn, as that was the only way to still kill the troll on that turn. We actually managed to win, but it was a lot of hard work.

So what do you do when you pull a Hill Troll off the encounter deck. I had that happen to me last night. I ruled that I would have to go and get the other Hill Troll and add it to the staging area. Safe to say I got smoked very early. I am just wondering how do the rest of you rule that when it happens?

The card says to go search for a Hill Troll if one is not already in play. If one is in play, don't go get a second one.

crwiths said:

You mean during setup? If you flip a Hill Troll you are lucky, you do not need to go search for another Hill Troll. The quest specifically says "(if one is not already in play)".

I hadn't scored my quests for a while, even after the release of the new scoring system, but was inspired by this thread to go back to Journey Down the Anduin and see what I could do. I haven't broken 100 yet, but it's definitely feasible.

I played four games recently and was surprised to lose the first after a set up that put 3 enemies into the staging area before anything started. With 5 enemies attacking on turn 2, Frodo could only deflect so much, and I hit 50 threat on turn 3. After that, I scored 115 in the second game and was on pace to win the third game, but not in less than 10 turns, putting my projected score well over 130 even after it was time for bed. I called that one a wash, but on the 4th game, I had some better draws and got a score of 101.

Heroes: Aragorn, Beravor, and Frodo.

Turn 7 win, 37 threat, 1 wound (Frodo), 7 victory points (Gladden Fields, Hill Troll).

My opening hand included Protector of Lorien, Sneak Attack, Snowbourn Scout, and Unexpected Courage. Setup yielded The Necromancer's Reach to no effect, and on the first turn, I drew into Steward of Gondor and Gandalf (since Beravor *always* draws, my draw is 3 a turn, or better). On the 2nd turn, Gandalf and Aragorn put 8 wounds on the Hill Troll after Aragorn defended with Protector of Lorien and Unexpected Courage, and Gandalf finished it off on turn 3. Recurring Snowbourn Scouts took the hits from other enemies along the way while Aragorn got Celebrian's Stone and Steward of Gondor to quest and attack each turn. By the end of the game, he had two Dunedain Marks.

On turn 7, I completed the 2nd stage, and revealed 2 locations, so I only had a single Wargs in the staging area. I drew the shadow card and talked to it for a second, telling it to have a shadow effect, and it yielded a +1 ATTK for a decisive kill on the Snowbourn Scout. Aragorn wiped out the Wargs, and that was it. So 101 was a lucky score, but I could easily have scored lower with the same encounter draws had I drawn a second copy of Gandalf to Sneak Attack in for some late-game threat reduction.

Deck:

Aragorn, Beravor, Frodo

Gandalf x3

Radagast

Faramir

Snowbourn Scout x3

Sneak Attack x3

Celebrian's Stone x3

Steward of Gondor x3

Dunedain Mark x3

Lore of Imladris x3

Gleowine x2

Miner of the Iron Hills x3

Protector of Lorien x3

Haldir of Lorien

Gildor Inglorion

Henamarth Riversong

Will of the West x2

Northern Tracker x2

Unexpected Courage x3

Stand and Fight x3

A Test of Will x3

Hasty Stroke x3

For what it's worth, the deck has beaten all of the Core Set and Shadows of Mirkwood scenarios released, except for Escape from Dol Guldur. Some of the cards prove more useful against some scenarios than others. Haldir's probably the least useful card in the deck. Gildor carries his weight when he starts questing or when deck manipulation is vital.

Also got a 101 in my last game.

I used the restrictions that Juicebox had in mind for his tournament - 1 coreset, no AP's.

My heroes were Theodred, Gloin and Thalin. Starting threat = 26

My starting had Gandalf, Brok Ironfist and Faramir assembled, whcih is great when you have a resource driven deck. Feint is always great to havw when fighting the troll. I also had a Gondorian Spearman and the Gonolian Blade.

During the setup I was lucky as I drew "Despair", so I had only to start with the hill troll in the staging area.

The first round is a blessed one, as I get Beorn on my hand and "Evil Storm" in the staging area. I send all my heroes to the quest and give Thalin the additional resource. Threat = 27

In the second round I get the Dwarfen Axe Warrior and play Faramir. I send everone but Gloin questing again. The encounter deck reveals "Despair" again. Thalin gets the extra resource. Threat = 28

Third round: My draw is Lonbeard Orc Slayer. I play no cardsEveryone but Gloin sets out for the adventure. My group has to face the Dol Guldur orcs who get one damage by Thalin's ability and who damage Thalin in revenge with 2 points.. Thalin again gets an extra resource. Then I decide to let the attack through undefended (risky, I know). Eastern Crows is the shadow card, and Gloin gets 3 damage and thus also 3 resources. Angrily he kills the Orcs with a single blow. Threat = 29

By round 4 I have enough resources to play my mighty allies Brok and Beorn. I draw Sneak Attack which allows me to play Gandalf and to engange and kill the troll in this round. My new card is Dwarfen Axe. Threat = 29

The troll is dead, but I still need some points to complete stage 1. Evil Storm enters the staging area, and leaves without hurting anyone. Threat = 30

Round 6: welcome to stage 2. I draw Ever Vigilante and play Gandalf, the Spearman and an Axe Warrior. Everyone quests, only the Spearman is guarding the rear. He faces pursued by Shadows and another group of DG Orcs and dies defending. The good news is that i get through stage 2 in one turn. I enter stage 3 and reveal Necromancer's Pass and the Beastmaster of Dol Guldur. The beastmatser stays in the taging area until next round. Threat = 27 (Gandalf lowered it by 5)

7th and final round: I play another Spearman that I got at the beginning of this round and send Famir and Thalin questing. The DG Orcs die as they attack the Speaman, Beorn defends against the Beatsmaster and gets readied by Ever Vigilante: the Beatmaster is killed and I win.

Result: 28 threat + 7 damage + 7 turns - 4 VP = 101

I'm not restricting myself to just the core set and no APs. I applaud those trying it that way but I need to kill this scenario before KD hits shelves.

Over the last couple days I've tried a more aggressive tactic and tried various combinations of spheres and heroes. Was able to consistently kill the Hill Troll on round 2 using the three Dwarves (Gloin, Gimli, Thalin) but after that I just couldn't get the questing power needed to make it through before hitting 50 threat.

I went back to Tactics/Lore again, but same results as before. Fail after fail. I just can't seem to draw either of my two copies of Forest Snare.

Have a new Tactics/Spirit deck set up ready to go and I'll try that later. I want to ultimately defeat it without Spirit though. When I win with Spirit I feel like it was an empty victory. A tainted victory. A victory with an asterix next to it. You get my drift.