I'm probably the millionth person to do this, but I've been avoiding forums to make sure I didn't get too many tips. I finally beat the Dol Guldur quest by myself! Thank you Boromir! Thank you Fantasy Flight for filling my mind with frustration until I was calmed by the glorious mist of success.

Joeyman said:

Congratulations! I still have to try this adventure. do you use only one core set? Which sphere(s) did you use?

It's possible to win this quest solo, though it is extremely hard and luck-dependent. I did it myself with a Leadership/Spirit deck consisting of one Core Set and the Hunt for Gollum, Conflict at the Carrock and Journey to Rhosgobel packs. My heroes were Imrahil, Frodo (who, thankfully, was the one captured) and Eowyn. I suppose such a deck could now be improved with cards like Riddermark's Pride or the Leadership card that puts 3 progress markers on a location if you sacrifice a Rohan character. My deck relied a lot on Imrahil and his readying ability.

Using Boromir sounds interesting. I suppose you need to pair him with Spirit cards, or else the threat will just rise too quickly. But I have a hard time imagining a solo deck that is capable of defeating Dol Guldur without the Spirit sphere anyway...

I have a question on the raising of one's threat in re: to Boromir's action. This is only when you want to use him again during the round after having exhausted him previously, correct? In other words, you do not have to increase your threat when readying him during the refresh phase do you?

Zjb12 said:

Correct -- you do not have to raise your threat to ready him during the refresh phase. This is a separate "action" you can trigger aside from the normal readying of the character during the refresh phase. As per page 23 of the rulebook:

"Actions are denoted by a bold 'Action:' trigger on a card. Actions are always optional, and can be triggered by their controller during any action window in the game sequence."

Congrats!

I haven't even tried it solo.

I guess Heroes like Imrahil and Boromir do make it easier than it was before.

Thanks! Appreciate the help! One more ?, does the limit of only playing one ally during the scenario mean that if you play an ally during the planning stage that you could still later use something like sneak attack, which is an event that only temporarily puts someone into play? It seems to me you could since it is an event triggered attack. It that correct?

Zjb12: Yes, you can sneak someone into play even if you already played an ally during the planning phase. "Playing" an ally is different from putting them into play via event cards.

Thanks, that's what I thought!

I have two core sets and every expansion up to date. I'm still debating that third core set. Is it worth 8 cards?

Joeyman said:

Well you do get an whole scenario in the package too... so yes

Joeyman said:

I have 3 copies of CORE and strongly recommend it for anyone that is really into the game.

booored said:

I have 1 Core set but use sleeves and printed proxies: 3x unexpected courage -> no problem and many euros saved

Joeyman said:

Doom1502 said:

Good point. I do have two sets so I could certainly take some of the many extra cards and proxy the final eight. Who is going to complain? I usually play by myself and if I do have another player, he'll probably be glad that I have the extra power cards in my deck. And if FFG has a problem with it, they can just remember this next time they want to try to make me buy three $40 games to have a complete play set of cards.

DrNate said:

Yes you right. Actually if you have a good printer you dont need to buy any Adv pack. Just make good proxy and play. I live in Bangkok sometimes i need to wait for 1 or even 2 months for next adv pack. So much more easy sometimes just make proxy and play cose internet have all images already. But i dont like it personally. I prefer to play real cards. Make proxy only for few like U courage.