I have beaten all the quests through Emyn Muil solo and either with 1-2 of my sons. But in no combination alone or as as duo or trio have we beaten dol guldor. We have 1 core set and the first 4 aps. Is it doable? I have tried tons of different combinations of decks and heroes.

Zjb12 said:

I haven't gived DG a try yet, maybe it's next, maybe Return to Mirkwood comes out prior to the next scheduled rotation of LotR (FLGS lists it 9 Dec). However, I have beaten all the other Core and Mirkwood cycle quests so far, going undefeated against Carrock (7-0) and Dead Marshes (6-0). Worst records I have against Anduin (3-3) and Rhosgobel (3-3), HFG went 4-2, and would probably be interesting to see how the tweaked decks would perform against Anduin, when I played it, only had the Core Set cards available. Four decks, pairing each once with another gives me six plays per quest, I'm hoping I could possibly go 3-3 vs DG. But could be DG is an actual difficulty 7, not a misprint like Carrock's 7 is for me, so maybe going 2-4 wouldn't kill me.

We had 4-1 against DG for the last week having 1 core set and Rhosgobel (lost yesterday with a lot of enemies, bad draw). We used Aragorn, Theodred, Legolas and Eowyn, Eleanor, Beravor (Eleanor was the prisoner).

2 Player escape is not to hard, though it takes some deck tweaking.

The thing here is that you can not place more than one ally at a time due to the quest effect, so build your deck around that. What I mean is that you need 1 player to be the defender / attacker, and the other to be the control deck.

So in the control deck, have NO ALLIES of any sort, apart from 3 NTrackers, or maybe Gelowin / Minstrils. This deck needs to run all the threat reduction tricks, so 3 tombs, 3 greetings, 3 gandalfs, and then all the "trick" cards. Hasty Stroke, Test of Will etc etc. You want card draw, you want quest power. You want encounter deck control. Put in songs, in case you loose a hero so you have that covered, get that leader splash for Sneak Attack. This is the deck that will be doing the questing and protecting the other player. LOW start threat, and keep it low with your tombs and greetings and galdalfs. It is also a good idea to get steward on a hero with the spirit icon so you can have the resources for many of these "tricks" are spirit as is the 4 cost tracker.

The other deck you want to be high ago combat deck. You still want a lowish start threat, but do not be afraid of raising it. Again, feint, quick strike "ticks". Blade for resource, gathering. Get the control deck to place lore song + brand. Also a good idea to run Born Aloft to increase your gandalf to "6", splash into spirit and run 3 greetings as well. The trick here is to block the attacks and then kill them, preferably in one go.. UC on your attack heroes so you can kill multi targets.

This "tactic" I am confident will give a win "most" of the time. You need to splash your decks though, as they need the flexibility of loosing a hero, so songs are a must.

Thanks all. Booored, those ideas def. seemed to help last night, though we do not have as many of some of those cards as you mentioned with only one core set. Definitely seemed more controllable last night, though we ran out of time and our threat was pretty high. ( I had to go to a late meeting.). Tried playing a two person game today by myself and it seemed harder today for some reason. Maybe just bad cards? But I think it will help!

We finally did it just now!!! Woohoo!!! 3 of us took it down finally!

Zjb12 said:

I can list my pair of decks for you. Maybe you can use some of the combo ideas included or get some inspiration on design concept.
We had quite a good winning ratio with these them (best score 117). Both decks can contribute to the questing, but mainly "The Shield" deck is designed to get the attention of the nasty Enemies and soak up all the incoming damage, while "The Arrow" deck take cares of the killing. "The Shield" can collect immense amount of resources and with the use of Parting Gift, you can help out the "The Arrow". Maybe the decks may see more tweaking, but they are working fine as they are. BTW, I have only one Core Set and all the APs up until Hills of Emyn Muil.

"The Shield" Deck

• Aragorn
• Glóin
• Denethor

Allies:
2x • Gandalf
2x • Faramir
2x Son of Arnor
3x Snowbourn Scout
3x Guard of the Citadel
2x Daughter of the Nimrodel
2x Erebor Hammersmith
2x Miner of the Iron Hills
2x • Gléowine
1x Rivendell Minstrel
2x • Haldir of Lórien
2x • Gildor Inglorion

Attachments:
1x Song of Kings
2x Song of Wisdom
2x • Steward of Gondor
1x • Celebrían's Stone
2x Protector of Lórien
2x Self Preservation
3x Dúnedain Mark
3x Dúnedain Warning
3x A Burning Brand

Events:
2x For Gondor!
2x Sneak Attack
2x Parting Gifts

"The Arrow" Deck

Heroes

• Éowyn
• Legolas
• Brand son of Bain

Allies:
2x • Gandalf
3x Veteran Axehand
2x Winged Guardian
2x • Landroval
3x Escort from Edoras
3x Descendant of Thorondor
3x The Riddermark's Finest
2x Horseback Archer

Attachments:
2x Song of Travel
2x Blade of Gondolin
2x Citadel Plate
2x Dwarven Axe
1x • Horn of Gondor
1x Unexpected Courage
2x Born Aloft
3x Ancient Mathom

Events:
2x Feint
2x Quick Strike
1x Swift Strike
2x The Galadhrim's Greeting
2x Hasty Stroke
2x A Test of Will
3x Stand and Fight
1x Dwarven Tomb

Shadow ghost---thanks, those look like good decks! That's a great score too!