Gave it another try and achieved 38, too. I think there are only theoretical chances of getting much better.

Heroes: Aragorn, Imrahil, Gloin

Starthand: Sneak Attack, Gandalf, Valiant Sacrifice, Snowbourn Scout, Celebrians Stone, Dunedain Watcher

TURN 1

Resource Phase:1,1,1

Draw:Guard of the Citadel

Planning Phase: Celebrians Stone

Quest Phase: Sneak Attacking Gandalf ( kill spider) Aragorn, Imrahil and Gloin quest.

Encounter: Forest Gate, 12 Will against 3 Threat.....Stage 1 done.

Travel Phase: Forest Gate ( draw Sneak Attack, Ever Vigilant)

Encounter Phase:

Combat Phase:

Refresh Phase:

Threat: 33

TURN 2

Resource Phase:1,1,1

Draw: For Gondor

Planning Phase: Snowbourn Scout

Quest Phase: Aragorn ( ready him), Imrahil and Gloin Quest.

Encounter: Old Forest Road ( puhhhh, lucky), 8 Will Against 2 Threat....location and Stage 2 done.

Continue to 3B-Don´t leave the Path-.

Travel Phase: Old Forest Road ( ready Gloin)

Encounter Phase: Engage Ungoliant´s Spawn

Combat Phase: Sneak Attack on Gandalf ( lower Threat), Snowbourn gets killed, Imrahil gets ready. Aragorn, Imrahil, Gloin and Gandalf kill the Spider.

Final Threat 28, no Wounds, 1 Turn.

Final Score: 38

Wow, that was close. And after about 15 tries.

I also tried a tactics deck with Gimli, Brand and Legolas.

35 Final Threat, 6 Wounds, 4 Turns........Score: 81

That was a reminder for me how awful tactics is at questing.

muemakan said:

Oh and my final stage was Don´t leave the Path.

Why are we limited to a single sphere? I don't want this to sound like criticism, but given the very limited amount of cards that we currently have access to, limiting it to a single sphere doesn't encourage creative deckbuilding in my opinion. We're just going to see a bunch of players all building the same thing, and building decks that work well for 1 quest but not for others. Case in point, Bungo scored a 38 and other players try to copy his result, probably with a build that only varies by 2 or 3 cards. At that point it's not even a competition, its just a game of "who can get the luckiest draw once we figure out the best deck." Maybe its just me, but part of the fun of deckbuilding games is to be creative with all the tools that are available and to come up with strategies and combos...

Last entry for myself.........scored a 65 with lore.

Heros: Glorfindel, Beravor and Bilbo

Final Threat 35, Wounds 0, Final Score 65. Stage 3B was Beorns Path. ( Protector of Lorien was the game winner).

Skowza said:

I am thankful for the one-sphere restriction. I know that deckbuilding is not possible here (I only have the first 3 AP's, so all I can do is to choose three cards to discard), but this way you're forced (or, from my perspective, allowed) to use cards that you never played before. Did you ever play Thicket Of Spears? I never used this card before, and probably never will (unless there will be a Song of Make Me Tactics someday), but it's such a great feeling when Uungoliant's spawn and its friends try to kill you and you just - bang - neutralize them all with one single card.

You're right about the scoring though. But then this problem is caused by the game's character itself which makes it impossible to create a satisfying scoring system.

muemakan said:

I think the obvious way to improve on the 38 is to not kill the Spider with Gandalf but have him lower threat by 5 when he appears. As long as the Spider doesn't deal more than 5 wounds and doesn't cost you an extra turn, the end result should be better than 38.

ClydeCloggie said:

You have to kill the spider because of it´s two threat points if you haven´t got a celebrians stone. And even if you do........you cannot afford to draw an encounter card with more than one threat if you leave the spider in the staging area.

Second attempt- decided to give Lore a go.

Hadn't used Bilbo since they changed the scoring system, so I thought I'd give him a try - first attempt, even with a fast hitch, I was getting nowhere. Eventually finished in 8 rounds, with a million cards, no resources, and a worse score than my tactics attempt.

Tried again...

quicker start. Gandalf in rd 2 to kill the spider and quest. 5th turned cleared the 1st stage, with lots of elves in play. Easy stage 2. Drew Beorn's path, which was a pain, but I drew a minstrel to add to the questing, threw everyone in, and played Radagast's Cunning to get the progress needed for the win.

36 Threat

1 Damage

6 Rounds completed

total score 97

it's a tiny improvement, but not much- this is the first time in ages i've played solo mono-sphere, it's really frustrating not being able to access so many of the abilities and strengths. Interesting tho.

muemakan said:

The idea would be to let it engage and deal 1 wound on turn 1 (defended) and 2 wounds (undefended) in turn 2. 3 wounds vs. Gandalf's 5 threat reduction would still give you an overall score of 36, all else being equal.

ClydeCloggie said:

But if you let the spider live, you probably won´t get to stage 2 in the first round........so no way to get to victory in turn 2.

Also there is nobody to defend against the spider in turn 1.

Mighty Jim said:

Hi Mighty Jim,

And who where Bilbo's other Lore hero companions?

Curiously,

juicebox

muemakan said:

if you travel to Old Forest Road on turn 1, you will have someone to defend against the Spider. If you need the Road's effect on turn 2 to have enough attackers available to kill the spawn, obviously it doesn't work and Gandalf indeed needs to kill the Spider on turn 1.

Finally got around to playing after 5 finals in two days.

Sphere: Spirit

Heroes: Eowyn, Dunhere, and Eleanor

Rounds: 4

Final Threat: 28

Damage on heroes: 0

Final Score: 68

Beorns Path

Saw mostly locations which is nice cause I had only questing power

Felt good to finally play again! Hopefully I can talk my wife into playing in the monthly tournament with me sometime during our time off from school.

juicebox said:

oops, sorry about that - Glorfindel and Denethor. We didn't suffer from lack of draw without Beravor, but her willpower and occasionally attack were missed.

Alright, I'm on the board with Tactics!

Thalin, Boromir, Legolas

50 points for 6 turns

plus 2 damage on Boromir

plus 41 ending threat

= 93 points

I got "Don't Leave the Path!" to help speed things along and had a squadron of eagles bearing down on it

Thursday, and I decided to try Spirit

first attempt was Frodo, Eowyn, Eleanor - not a bad effort, but the total lack of attack really crippled me. Also had to Gandalf some Hummerhorns. Took six rounds, but a creditable 93 (4 better than yesterday's attempt nonetheless)

Decided on a change of hero, and went again:

Dunhere, Eowyn, Frodo

Played nothing 1st turn, Gandalf 2nd. Killed the spider with entry damage and finished 1st stage of quest with his willpower. 2nd stage done easily in one go. Got Beorn's path in final stage, and drew an Escort from Edoras. Threw everyone at questing, and by discarding one card to boost Eowyn, managed to get all ten progress.

27 Threat
3 Damage (1 per hero)

3 rounds

Final Score 60

it might not be up there with magic 38s of Leadership, but I'm pretty happy with that.

Whew, finally managed a good score.

Sphere: Spirit

Heroes: Frodo, Dunhere, Eowyn

Don't know if the card names are right, don't have all english names in mind

First round played Escort from Edoras, quested with all chars. Encounter was the necromancers reach but canceled it. First stage done, traveled to forrest road readiing Dunhere to damage the spider. Second turn played the just drawn Eomund, send him an Eowyn on quest, revealed forrest gate. explored forrest road finished 2nd stage and due to some luck i drew Beorns Path , traveled to forrest gate and drew two cards, ancient mathom and astonishing speed. spider attack was undefended, no shadow effect raising threat (thanks frodo) by three in retunr the hobbit and dunhere smashed this ugly bug. 3rd turn. played nothing wanted to keep my resources for ast. speed and hoped for a good encounter. and it came, caught in a web (attached to dunhere, but who cares?) explored the forest gate and finsished last stage

Threat: 29

Wounds: 0

Rounds: 3 (2 completed)

Final score: 49

Thanks for putting together these tournaments: I look forward to playing more in the future. After a few losses with a lore deck, I took leadership for a spin: Imrahil, Dain, and Gloin were the heroes. Finished on the 6th turn, with a threat of 39 and a wound each on Imrahil and Gloin. 3B was Don't Leave the Path. Final score: 101.

Didn't get anywhere with Spirit, so switched to Leadership.

Gloin/Imrahil/Aragorn

Turns: 4 (finished on 5th turn)

Threat: 31

Wounds: 3

Score: 74

Beorn's Path was negotiated by all heroes, a Sneak Gandalf and 2 Guards, all boosted by Faramir's effect. That was enough to overcome the Mountains of Mirkwood and a Beastmaster in the SA, and an active Great Forest Web.

Will now go to Lore to see what that sphere can do.

Hopefully I'll stay on the board with this one:

Brand, Gimli, Legolas

40 points for 5 turns

plus 4 damage on Gimli, 3 on Legolas

Minus 5 for Hummerhorns

37 Ending threat

= 79 points

I used Quick Strike to complete stage 2 and then I got "Don't Leave the Path!" fortunately. Radagast was a huge help in questing

Keeping Tactics alive!

Hi,

I had the opportunity to play some games today, here's my best score on this quest

Heroes : Prince Imrahil, Theodred, Gloin

Third stage of the quest : "Beorn's Path"

Final score : 54

Round markers : 3 (30)

Final threat : 26

Wounds on heroes : 3

Victory points : 5 (Hummerhorns)

Total : 54

Took about ten games with scores in the 70's ad 80's but finally got the deck to work the way I hoped it would... more or less.

Spirit Deck (Dunhere, Eowyn and Frodo)

Final Threat 21

Rounds: 3 (won on 4th)

3B: Beorn's Path

Total: 51 points

First round Escort to Edoras, all quest drew another Old Forest Road and ditched a Northern Tracker to Eowyn's ability to complete 1B.

Second Round: Galhadrim's Greeting to lower threat, quest Eowyn and Frodo, drew Caught int he Web and canceled with A Test of Will. Just enough to move complete 2B. Drew Beorn's path. Dunhere hits spider for 2.

Third Round: Stand and Fight Escort Back. Quest all but Dunhere. Draw Great Forest Web, ditch a Dwarven Tomb for 5 on the quest. Dunhere kills spider.

Fourth Round: Dwarven Tomb the Stand and Fight and get Escort Back for the third time. Quest all characters. Draw a Dol Golder Beastmaster. Just enough quest to finish.

This game was all about the Escort to Edoras. Awesome questing card. Just wish I'd been able to knock out 3B in round 3 rather than 4. Another Escort may have done it?

Wraith428

Dang it, bumped off again!

I think I should get special mention for using something OTHER than Leadership and Spirit!

Narsil0420 said:

I agree that especially for this quest and deck restrictions it would be interesting to see a top (3?) list for each sphere.