I play solo 95% of the time and I have tried to defeat CATC about 10 times now. So far I find it to be the hardest scenario (save Dol Guldur and Osgiliath). How are you all beating this? I either have too much threat when the trolls pop out (and promptly die as they all engage me, no matter how many allies I have in play), or, I get sacked (even though no trolls have shown up, which seems a bit silly if you think about it, I mean, does a sack just fall from a tree and immobilize one of my heroes that easily)? I know the sack problem is just bad draws, but man, I can't defeat this. Any tips?

thanks!

I honestly think this is one of the easier solo scenarios. Key for me are the Miner of the Iron Hills, Galadhrim's Greetings, and high attack allies. Have you tried a four-sphere deck with Frodo, Denethor and Legolas or Gimli? Use Denethor to scout the deck so you know exactly how much willpower is needed on the quest, Frodo to deal with Muck Adders and Hill Trolls, and bring out a ton of allies on the first stage of the scenario. Leadership gets splashed through Song of Kings, just for Steward and Sneak Attack. I normally play Steward on Denethor to play the big Lore Elven allies, Horn of Gondor on Legolas for Tactics allies, leaving Spirit to fend for itself. That's normally not too much of a problem as most Spirit cards are not central to the deck so you can often wait for the Greetings to arrive before spending Spirit resources.

Getting Grimbeorn can be a problem for this deck if Song of Kings does not turn up quickly, so you can also swap Frodo for Aragorn or Imrahil, include Leadership allies and splash Galadhrim's Greetings through the Song of Travel. Keeping threat down is less easy with this deck, though.

Good stuff by ClydeCloggie.

I played a deck with Gimli, Legolas and Bilbo. I used Born Aloft, Sneak Attack and Erebot Hammersmith to play Gandalf as often as possible. I also used the Song of King cards. Having Minstrell of Rivendell + Bilbo's ability gave me a pretty good chance to get leadership resources early in the game to pimp Gimli with Dunedain Marks. Pimp Gimli with the Plate of the Citadel, the Dwarfen Axe and some Marks, and he is able to kill a troll using Quick Strike. Try to get hold of some Feint cards.

My other deck consisted of Bilbo, Frodo and Dunhere. Here I tried to keep the threat low to deal with one troll after the other. If you can pimp Dunhere with some Marks he can be able to take out the trolls before they can engage you. Use Gandalf to damage the trolls instead of lowering your threat.

Good suggestions you two, and thanks! Yeah, I can see how Denethor is awesome in this scenario as he would allow you to just stall for awhile while you set up your fellowship (by making sure you just quest enough not to put any progress on the quest, but to ensure that you don't accrue threat). I think part of my problem is how entirely intimidated I am by those four Big *** Trolls!

What order do you kill them in?

It has been awhile since I played this encounter, but I had a great deal of success with a straight Leadership/Lore deck: Imrahil, Theodred, Beravor. As mentioned earlier, the Miner of the Iron Hills is great for keeping the Sacked! card at bay. Really the idea was to use the card draw of Lore and the resource development of Leadership to hold most of my deck in hand and then play as needed. I used Gandalf to reduce threat to a point where I could manage the trolls. Using Sneak Attacks and chump blockers allows you to pull double duty with Imrahil and play cards like Valiant Sacrifice, furthering your card drawing.

As for taking on the trolls, I chose this order: Rupert, Stuart, Morris, Louis. Rupert has IMO the least negative of the Forced affects. Louis could bring other trolls into the fight since he raises your threat, so save him for last. Also, you should always pay for Grimbeorn. Throw a Self Preservation on him and keep him around to take out trolls.

Remember that you don't want to advance too fast, so strong questers are not needed. In the end I just used Theodred with a couple of boosts, and maybe Imrahil if I knew I would be able to ready him during the attack phase.

What can i say??? I dont why you cannot win??? For me is really easy one. When i play i take out Grimbeorn and 2 locations ( i dont remember the name) when they explore go back to the top of encounter deck. Cose with this cards quest for me is to easy sounds like cheating. Without Grimbeorn is much more harder and cool.

If you cannot win this one it means you really understand something wrong about the game........

ClydeCloggie said:

ClydeCloggie said:

I just bought this expansion this week so my understanding of it is not very solid. But, can Frodo really handle the Muck Adders? If you mean that his defense is usually enough to fight the thing off, I understand. But what if you are engaged with a Muck Adder and then draw Despair or Muck Adder for your shadow card? Frodo would take damage, right? At that point, what action happens first: discard Frodo for taking a damage, or canceling the damage?

Haven't tried this one solo yet so I don't have any input. But I appreciate the help given because I was really unsure about how to even approach taking on 4 trolls at once, not to mention the Sacked cards.

I recently beat CatC with a score of 110 and recorded my strategy, deck(s) and some turn by turn play in this thread:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/724924/as-low-as-it-gets-building-a-scenario-specific-so

Hope this is helpful to you.

Vase said:

Frodo is able to handle the Muck Adder (if he didn't use his ability already that turn). A great way to deal with the Muck Adder is Burning Brand. I attached it to Bilbo ASAP. Add a Dundedain Warning then even the Wargs look like a pussycat.

@ Durinlll: It has been pointed out that using Grimbeorn is a big help to win this scenario. At least it helps to minimize your risks. A good way to get him is to begin early to spare your resources. Buy only stuff that you really need. That way you can use all your resources to get Grimbeorn when you draw the Oak-wood Grove.

Btw, if you're engaged with an enemy you should consider to let his attack go through undefended if this enables you to kill him. IIRC here is only one dhadow effect in this game that adds damage points to an undefended attack (Wargs). If you've got healing stuff, all the better!

Regarding the trolls, I mostly kill Rupert first, except if there are only a handful cards in the encounter deck left. Next is usually Morris or Stuart, Louis should be the last of the trolls (except when your threat level is at 33, then you should eliminate him first).

Btw, try to explore the Carrock ASAP if possible.

DurinIII said:

Not even with the almighty rohan deck? The biggest key to this scenario is taking your time trough the first quest card and building up your allies, resources and playing hand. When the trolls bum rush the staging area you must have many alternatives ready to tackle all the challenges this will present.

Make sure that your threat is, at worst, 24-25 when you do progress to the second quest card. This should leave you with a margin for error since the questing will become much harder with the trolls all bunched up in there. Liberal use of Gandalf is a must. I aim to, at least, play him once every turn. Sneak Attack, Born Aloft and just straight playing him. He can keep your threat low, damage the trolls in staging, deal with enemies that pop up additionally and his 4 willpower is a massive boon to questing. I actually use him as a quester most of the time here. Grimbeorn is also a great help, though not a requirement. Forest Snare, Feint, Beorn, etc are all effective as well.

I've used a Beravor/Gimli/Eowyn deck with Song of Kings for leadership splash to score some wins here. Beravor to draw the many cards you will need, Gimli as a hammer and Eowyn for questing (though she must be managed carefully on the first quest card) Don't think that questing is not important here. It will be very necessary once the second, more intense stage comes.

As for the trolls, I usually engage Morris first, while Gandalf pounds away on Louis in staging. Feint and Forest Snare can prevent him from attacking or alternatively you can chump block him with a weak ally or use Grimbeorn. Load up your characters against him and keep coming. Once Morris and Louis are gone, I engage Stuart, and go after Rupert. By this point, you should have or be ready to get rid of the Carrock location, which further weakens the trolls. Winged Guardian can now effectively block the trolls, as well. From here on out, is all pretty much a done deal. Sometimes, you may have to engage a wounded Rupert, but that's not much of a challenge.

Glaurung said:

Are you even being serious this time? Your strategy depending on Grimbeorn? You know that chances he is coming early are not that great. You can do the math. Plus to get 8 Leadership resources in solo game may not be an easy task either. When I beat the Carrock (and I do quite often), I rarely use Grimbeorn even though I like to.

lleimmoen said:

I think you are misunderstanding Glaurung. It sounds like he is removing both Grimbeorn and Banks of the Anduin from the encounter deck when he plays to increase difficulty.

That being said I do agree with you about the importance of Grimbeorn in solo play. I can only recall one time that I won the scenario without him. Keep in mind that the Bee Pastures location does increase your chances of bringing him in.

Puzzle said:

Yes you right i remove him from encounter deck.

I have 3 lore of Ilmadris in my deck also. So is really easy to heal him(Grimbeorn) all the time and kill trolls without any problems. For me Carrock is easy for solo game. In 2 player game is more difficult. But i win most of the time.

+ i remove some cards from encounter deck to make game more difficult and also i didn use Trackers( cheat card), never use Beravur (cheat card) and never use Will of the west ( another cheat card).

And still Carrock is quite easy. I dont understand why Durin have a problem with this quest........

Hey Glarung...your comments are not helpful...ever. The next time I post asking for help, please do not comment if you are only going to point out that I shouldn't be having difficulty. Really man? Are you that big of a jerk?

Not to mention, you are an outlier my friend...out of all the people who comment on these message boards, you are the only one I have seen so far with such a splattering of discouraging, triumphalist, and arrogant comments. Why are you like this? I sound like a broken record....

My boys and I played this tonight for the first time and took a whooping! Whoever didn't get slaughtered the first round the 4 trolls all came down was pretty much going down the next and we conceded. (we actually had 6 trolls because the two hill trolls came down too.). Then I played solo and got slaughtered as well. Those first two games and your comments were helpful for the learning curve though. Thanks for the deck ideas!!!

The key for solo CatC is threat control and Grimbeorn. If you hit stage three with a threat of 30+ you get smoked by the trolls. You need to play spirit/Gandalf and lower your threat to 20-25. While doing so outfit your heros with some attacking power and save resources for Grimbeorn. He might not show up but with the Bee pastures the chances are not bad. Anyway, with or without Grimbeorn (without you will need chump blockers), hit stage 3 when you have enought attack power to kill a troll in one round and your threat is low enough, so you can engage one troll after another (first the one who shuffles sacked into the encounter deck, last the threat increasing one). If you wait too long to Grimberon to show up or are overcautios you'll get sacked: one you can live with, two you're out of the game...

I had not realised that the Carrock is harder solo until I have recently played it so many times. I remember some claimed in the beginning that it is actually easier solo. And I then found it usually quite alright in coop, so I have not tried that much solo. I think I have got a good solo deck to beat it regularly but it takes long to get ready for the trolls. Then I have another which is more risky but quicker in getting ready.

As for the advise, the above seems valid. Tactics really shine in this one as you can Feint Louis and thus do without threat increase (if you take just him). To do so solo though, Tactics deck shall struggle to overcome the threat when the trolls appear, I feel. I use Boromir, Dunedain Cache and Legolas in the supporting deck and the help a lot getting rid of the beasts. In solo though, I am not sure what is the best way. I have done quite well with Imrahil, Beravor, Frodo. To get allies out and use For Gondor! seems very useful. I don't use Forest Snare, seems too slow. It is better to block them with allies or get money for Grimbeorn but really, solo that is a harder feat as well.

Carrock is easy solo for me. Some encounter cards are harmless and help you (all "remove progress tokens are helping you, there are also almost no shadow effects that can kill your blockers if you compare this quest to other adventures, quest locations that make you search for grimbeorn are also no threat to you). The only challenge in this quest is to deal just 1 encounter card per turn. You take your time, play it slowly, do not progress much. You should be able to put tons of allies into play and still be in stage 1. You have enough time to even wait for Grimbeorn. When everything is ready, just lower the threat so you can manage the trolls. Now, if your threat is high like 40 or 45+, lowering the threat may be hard and sometimes you can't go below 34. You make take Elfhelm into consideration as a threat reducer for Louis. If you are scared of sacked card, think that statistically, you will get Grimbeorn before you get sacked. And being sacked in the middle /end game does not hurt you much (you have theodred , stewards and radagast for extra resources generation). In fact I won a game when 1st turn sacked hit me, and another game when 2nd turn sacked hit me (in both games 1 sacked total, second would kill me probably). Obviously, first turn sacked card is the worst thing you may see (or a first turn killing snake, if you can't block it efficiently, which sometimes happen -> lost a game once because of this).

Anyway, it must really depend on the deck that you are using. Try my favourite crew of Legolas, Eowyn and Theodred (snake attack, steward, observer, scouts, feints, 1cost eagles, 4cost eagles, radagast, elfhelm, tracker, counters, riddermark finnest, greetings etc).