Here's my ranking from favorite to least favorite SoM quests. Disclaimer - I tend to build decks that I try to run through the full cycle. My tastes probably reflect that tendency.:

Solo

1. Conflict at the Carrock - I enjoy the early management of questing to limit progress but avoid threat; Climatic battle against unique trolls that can go pear shaped if you don't play your cards right. Enough Gotcha cards like Sacked and Roasted Slowly along with baddies from the Wilderness encounter deck to make sure that there are no sure wins. Pace of the quest feels like you are scouting ahead for danger and then either picking off the bad guys one at a time or dealing with a wall of nastiness if things go wrong.
2. Return to Mirkwood - Tough challenge solo; You are in danger from wicked creatures (wilderness again + new baddies in RtM), skyrocketing threat that you have to manage, attacks on your deck and hand (discards) and quest restrictions. Pace of the quest captures feeling of running the gauntlet with a screaming albatross on your back (who is prone to bite and kill your heroes not named Aragorn, Boromir, Glorfindel and Gimli unless they happen to have plate on). Would be number 1 if they built in more options for solo tactics, but many of the decisions and tactics only show up in multi player.
3. Dead Marshes - Good quest that captures theme of chasing down the prey. Quest and Escape mechanisms make for interesting tactical dilemmas. Biggest issue is that if Gollum escapes it starts feeling clunky. It seems like it should be insta loss or better built in mechanics to get him back (cards to retrieve him from deck/discard). Could also use some tougher creatures to provide some Uh Oh moments like pulling the Hill Troll the same turn you pull the unique trolls down in CatC or the Attercap in RtM at the Ambush card.
4. Hunt for Gollum - Interesting mechanic with the guarded Signs of Gollum objectives, encounter cards playing off them and quest rules. Surges, extra pulls from quests phases 1 and 2, buffed Hunters and potential guarded cards one after another can create some crazy threat jumps and nasty fights. Again, pace of the quest is reflective of the theme. You feel like you are searching for signs with many dead ends and danger lurking.
5. Hills of Emyn Muil - Mechanic of the location exploration and ties to Treachery nastiness are different and sometimes interesting. The pace and theme of slogging through difficult terrain is captured...just not sure it makes for a great playing experience! It's okay, and I see the gotchas with the Falls and Rockslide, but honestly it has not been much of a challenge and I don't even get many (any) of the "Whew, not sure I was gonna pull that off" wins that I get with the others.
6. Journey to Rhosgobel - Hey Aragorn, maybe we should just let the **** eagle die? After all we are on a quest that could mean the lives, deaths or enslavement of the Free Peoples of Middle Earth. Anyway, when it first came out, I welcomed the challenge of JtR. It certainly gave the pace and theme of a frantic search for the life saving herb. There are certainly many Gotcha cards throughout the encounter deck. The more I've played it though I really don't feel like my decisions or deck play much of a factor in the outcome. It's an interesting theme and some challenging dilemmas. As more player cards/spheres provide healing, ranged and deck manipulation options I may like this one more.

Multi - Player

1. Return to Mirkwood - only change in multi player is that RtM jumps ahead of CatC. Many tactics through quest cards, encounter cards and Gollum come into play with more geeks around the table. Good challenge for threat management, creatures are brutal, treachery cards are, well, treacherous and team work is absolutely required. This one is fun and challenging solo but really shines with multiple players.
2. Conflict at the Carrock - trolls are much easier to pull down even if you are are not at low threat to pick them off
3. Dead Marshes - seems like Gollum escapes more with multi as more escape treachery cards come into play; Again, when he escapes it plays a little funky.
4. Hunt for Gollum - You can get some wild threat numbers on turn 1 with a Signs, Crows, Hunters, Signs, Hunters 2 player set up. This I know from experience
5. Hills of Emyn Muil - slogging with friends can be fun
6. Journey to Rhosgobel - Okay, who's playing the Red Green deck with Legolas, Brand, Radagast, 15 Eagles and every healing card published?

Overall the SoM cycle was great - everything I hoped for after playing the core quests umpteen times for the first couple months. Can't wait to see the quests in KD and the new APs.

Thoughts? What are your favorites or least favorites and why?

For me i'll just do overall favorites

1. Return to Murkwood

2. Conflict at the Carrock

3. Hills of Emyn Muil (I know alot of people don't like this one but i've always found it to be really fun especially using a Rohan Deck)

4. Journey to Rhosgobel

5. Dead Marshes

6. Hunt for Gollum

although that's just what the order is currently. If asked again next week I probably would change up the order. I guess it mostly just depends on what deck i'm currently enjoying. That's probably why hills is so high because I like playing Rohan right now. I thought they did a good job on all the quests for this cycle and I haven't been disappointed by any of them (except for my first time through Journey to Rhosgobel when me and 2 friends played without knowing that when you get to card 3B you lose if you don't have enough Athelas to heal the eagle...that was really annoying. But I have since enjoyed that quest) I really think it just depends on what my mood is for which quest is my favorite.

1. hunt or gollum: great theme on this one, very excited for its release and wasnt dissapointed, also the hunters art is one of my favourite

2.dead marshes: plays well solo, interesting ideas about the escape check, just a little too easy at times though

3.carrock: first opening that pack and seeing you had to face 4 trolls was terrifying, but made it all the better when you win

4.rhosgbel: iteresting theme, some really useful cards (radagast!)

5.eymn muil: i love locations so if this one wasnt so 1 dimensional and repetative it would perhaps be my favourite, great artwork on all of the cards though

6. return to mirkwood: last because quite simply this isnt for solo, and thats all i play

now that list isnt really fair, as it looks as if i dislike the last 2, but i absolutely love all 6 of them, and intend to get all the dwarrowdelf packs too

Solo:

1. Return to Mirkwood. Challenging, interesting, hard. This scenario provides a great experience for solo players, provided they enjoy both winning and losing. If someone must win 80% games to like the adventure, this quest is not for him. The feel of danger is overwhelming, the stages are all intense. I still remember my epic win when first turn attercop started attacking me.

2. Hills Of Emyn Muil. I really like the pace of the scenario. You need to quest a lot in the beginning and dealing with locations can get tricky. When the staging is finally empty, you need to play carefully as the treacheries are getting nastier. This is solid, rather easy difficulty quest for decks that are focused to questing and location removal. Combat oriented decks may have problems with this quest.

3. Rhosgobel. The good thing about this quest is that it makes you reevaluate your strategy. And suddenly, your cutting edge deck that was destroying all previous quests is not working anymore.

4. Hunt For Gollum. I don't really like this quest because the decks that I play have no problem with this scenario at all. Hunt For Gollum does not give me any challenge. I am not sure how many games I played , 20?30? I really dislike that Northern Tracker completly owns this scenario. As a comparison, Hills of Emyn Muil can kill tracker rather easily. Hunt for Gollum simply can't.

5. Swamp - rather unimpressive for me. I really hate that I have to play for 30 minutes after Gollum escapes. So I house ruled that when Gollum escapes , I lose the whole game. The experience is much better.

6. Carrock. The pace is awful. You play slowly and just build your forces. 1 encounter card per turn is boring. If you get sacked early, the game may be more interesting, but it does not happen often.

Carrock. Great to test one's deck, even though it is more combat heavy than quest heavy.

Mirkwood. Probably the toughest so it may be even better to test one's deck but it is often very rushed and thus not as enjoyable.

Dead Marshes. Interesting. Fresh.

Emyn Muil. Mostly enjoy it when play it but do not play it that often.

Rhosgobel. Annoying really. But different. Great even in that; but annoying still. And very rushed.

Hunt. Annoying, if not really hard. Just annoying but still good.

I guess I like the cycle very much. Yet I hope and believe the next one will be even better. Looking forward to the player cards to make more thematic decks.

Interesting lists. I think it is good that there are differences in the favorites and least favorites. Like I said, I think they were all well done in creating a unique pace, sense of danger sources and tactical problems to solve. One thing I did not mention that I really like in CatC is that there is an ally in the encounter deck. I'd like to see that more often - although not as strong as Grimbeorn. The Rangers in Massing are a good example. I really thought we would see some Elves from Thranduril coming to help us in RtM...

1) Conflict at the Carrock -- I don't think this is the most "balanced" or "well-paced" quest, but I like the feeling of preparing for and building up to a climatic fight against four massive trolls. There is something exciting about it, even if it isn't really revolutionary from a tactical/mechanical standpoint.

2) Return to Mirkwood -- I really like the intensity of this scenario -- it is challenging, relentless, and things can go drastically wrong at any point. I really do get a feeling of fear/anxiety when I'm playing this quest , so it is quite immersive.

3) Hunt for Gollum -- I don't know why, I find this quest harder than most people find it ... something about drawing repeated signs of gollum early with hunters... Altogether a fun experience, but is fairly one dimensional.

4) Emyn Muil -- I actually enjoy this every time I play it, more so than most people here , despite it basically being just a bunch of locations.

5) Dead Marshes -- Too easy, and the escape mechanic is not really fun and challenging as it is annoying ( if Gollum were to escape I would just stop playing ).

6) Journey to Rhosgobel -- To be honest, I hated this quest -- I don't like the concept of requiring players to have certain attributes or types of decks in order for them to even have a chance in a scenario. To require something general, such as needing willpower or attack strength is one thing, but to force a player to use ranged/healing cards limits what he or she can do for a deck designed to play against more than one quest. I feel like this is poor game design and goes against one of the most fundamental and attractive principles of a game like this, where a player can explore deck-building with creativity. Just my opinion.

A few more lists and we can start calculating the overall scores for the community

TheRomance said:

TheRomance you hit my frustration exactly. I actually like the quest mechanics from a stand alone perspective. However if you are trying to build a Take on the SoM cycle deck, this one is brutal. I've added 10 cards to my primary deck just to try to win this one 1/3 of the time ( Radagast, 3 songs of wisdom, 3 Lore of Im and the 3 purple archers). I'm actually considering adding one of the Dunedain cache card to give a hero ranged even though it would be a dead card in the other five quests.

Good thoughts all around. thanks

Hills of Emyn Muil - No longer likely to produce a good score post-score-system-reform, but still a fun quest. Good showcase for lots of innovative ways of dealing with locations other than through simple travel- the high number of locations mean it scales well too - 4 locations coming out in 1 turn can make life pretty tricky.

Return to Mirkwood - not had this long, only played the once. seems good though. The Attercops are a bit nasty (and their threat level seems entirely pointless) but generally, a well-built, thematic quest. Slightly disappointed by the lack of additional elves, as mentioned elsewhere.

Conflict at the Carrock - Liked this one a lot more before the changes to the scoring system. The idea of deliberately holding back on questing to marshall resources etc., but having to trade that off against the ongoing rise in threat worked well. Now, with each round adding so much to the score, it's a bit too much pot-luck on drawing Grimbeorn and the Steward of Gondor. Also baffled by the fact that the trolls aren't Victory Points - got nastily stung once when we killed one, only to have him reappear from the reshuffled encounter deck the next round, just as we were about to finish off his mate to win the quest.

Journey to Rhosgobel - I like the fact that they tried to do something different, and the encounter cards are a bit brutal, but the whole business of finding Athelas or not just feels very, very random.

Hunt for Gollum - haven't played this one for a while, so it might rise with re-playing. The idea of having variable threat cards was good - Hunters, Goblintown scavangers, Old Ford - but the overall impression was just a bit too random.

Dead Marshes - the whole escape mechanic just feels odd to me - if you're playing 3 or 4 player, it's pretty-much inevitable that Gollum will escape, so why not just let him go, and wait for him to come back out- especially if you've got return to Mirkwood and cards that allow you to re-jig the encounter deck.

Great input from your list Mighty Jim. I really do think the variety in favorites is fascinating.

One point I should have made in my lists. I simply don't bother with scoring. I don't like the new or old system so I don't even bother with it. With that in mind (out of mind?), it really does not play a role in my thoughts on the scenarios. But like the quest rankings, to each his own!

Hunt for Gollum, Conflict at the Carrock, Hills of Emyn Muil and Return to Mirkwood all showed up as favorites. Anyone want to weigh in with Journey to Rhosgobel or The Dead Marshes as their favorite Shadows of Mirkwood quest?

I just got Dead Marshes and Emyn Muil. I like both, perhaps they're a bit too easy solo, but very interesting in a two-player mode. I hated the escape test in the beginning, but until now I have grown fond of it. What I love about Dead Marshes is that I get a starting hand with Gandalf and 2x Galadrim's Greeting - and I take a mulligan. Who would have thought about that when he got only the coreset? The only problem I have is that both scenarios prefer a spirit based deck in solo mode. Eleanor is almost a must-have for both. I wish there were more cards (attachments) to protect your heroes from treacheries.

I dislike Rhosgobel. It's annoying when you're playing solo, slightly better with two players. I like the concept of the scenario, but in the end it comes down to drawing Athelas or Lore of Imlardis. There are too many cards that are causing damage to Wilyador, too. It has Radagast though and it encourages a deck without Gandalf. Good ideas, but rather poorly done.

I agree with those who love Carrock. I think the new scoring system makes this scenario more interesting, as you have to take more risks to get a good result. My win/loss ratio dropped considerably after playing with the new scoring system. And including Grimbeorn in the encounter deck is just an amazing idea.

Hunt for Gollum has an interesting game mechanic and is not too hard to win. The Hunters are IMO one of the most interesting enemies so far, the encounter deck itself is perhaps the most balanced. It's also a scenario in which you can use every sphere, which is great for people like me who love deckbuilding.

I don't have Return to Mirkwood so far. I hope it's as challenging as Rhosgobel, but with more variety of tactics.

Ranking:

1) Carrock

2) Hunt for Gollum

3) Dead Marshes

4) Emyn Muil

5) Rhosgobel

Having picked up Return to Mirkwood yesterday, I'll weigh in on the quests next weekend, should've gotten my six play rotation of RtM done by then.

Good:

1. Conflict at the Carrock
Interesting setup and climatic fight. Definitely the best.

Mediocre:

2. Return to Mirkwood
Scales terribly, but apart from that, it's actually pretty good. The different parts of the quest feel a bit too same-y.

3. Hunt for Gollum
A bit boring and volatile, and a little too location-heavy for my tastes.

4. A Journey to Rhosgobel
I like the basic premise of having a race against time. I hate the fact that you basically need to add one specific card (Lore of Imladris) if you want to have any chance. Stage 3 is totally anti-climatic. And the treachery cards like Exhaustion are super-nasty. The most volatile and luck-based of them all to me.

Bad:

5. The Hills of Emyn Muil
Booooring...

6. The Dead Marshes
The game is too often too willpower-heavy for me anyway (see HfG and Emyn Muil), but the Escape checks make this even worse. Also, the scenario is terribly designed. What happens if you lose Gollum? Play for hours until he finally doesn't show up as a shadow card or for an escape check? And why do you even make escape checks if there is no one who wants to escape? Feels like it wasn't properly tested or even thought out.

Thanks for the input Trantor. I had similar thoughts on the Dead Marshes if Gollum escapes. I think you should lose or there should be better mechanisms to get him back. However, even after he gets away I'm actually okay with escape treachery cards that bump up threat if you fail them. Thematically I think of it as the party taking risks, moving quicker, etc to try to catch back up with Gollum. I certainly would have liked his escape to be handled differently though.

I also agree with you on JtR. I hate having one card as essential to the chance of victory and more than any quest it comes down to the luck of the encounter shuffle.

My views are from a 2-deck perspective. I always pair up the decks in order:

Lore/Leadership and Leadership/Tactics

Tactics/Spirit and Spirit/Lore

Lo/Le and T/S

Le/T and S/L

Lo/Le and S/L

Le/T and T/S

Thus the six play rotation for each quest. Win-loss for each quest in parenthesis.

Conflict at the Carrock (6-0)

Yes, Carrock is easy, for me the easiest quest since Passage Through Mirkwood and no way is CatC a difficulty 7 (but more on that later). In all of the plays, there has never once been a feeling of "I hope I don't draw that card or I'm in trouble", there just isn't anything in the Encounter deck that could ruin your day. I'm not saying it is impossible to lose against Carrock, no quest is 100% winnable IMO and early Sacked (or two or three) plus Slowly Roasted can ruin your day in a hurry. In my six plays, I lost a single hero to Sacked + Roasted combo and he came right back via Landroval so no biggie. No direct damage, almost no attack boosting Shadow cards and worst, cards that in other quests actually hinder you (Despair, Misty Mountain Goblins both removing progress) are ideal during stage one, allowing you to quest more freely and clear out those locations and Enemies.

Main reason Carrock gets the highest mark from me is the ending, big ass fight. Journey Along the Anduin had something similar, but in Anduin it varied, worst I've had was Marsh Adder with a couple of weak Enemies, easiest was some Eastern Crows. In Carrock you got four Trolls that you need to take out to win. You don't want to hit stage two via Legolas as that would leave Carrock and all four Trolls in the staging area for the following quest phase. Carrock really comes down to this, prepare until about threat 41, hit stage two, each party gets two Trolls for +6 threat (barring Feint) and each kills at least one of its engaged Trolls, ideally both, remaining one(s) next turn and you end with threat 47. But a fighting finish is always a bonus in my book so Carrock is at the top. Killing baddies is for me a much more exciting ending than placing progress tokens.

Dead Marshes (6-0)

No, not picking them in easiest to hardest even if it seems like it. At least a couple of the wins in DM were lucky as hell, like drawing first Impassable Bog, then Gollum on the turn was going to complete 2B for a final escape test of zero cards. Other order and Gollum has about 2-4 tokens on him. Additionally, even on the times I lost Gollum, it never hit the discard pile as a Shadow card or due to being drawn as an escape test card. I can totally see how that could ruin your day, forcing you to play on for a long time, at least unless you use the new card from Return to Mirkwood. Lastly, in six plays, I never saw a Hill Troll in play (more on that later on), always drawn as Shadow cards or for an escape test, including my first game where the setup Treachery forced an escape test and the draw was 2x Hill Troll.

Normally you just quest with what willpower you need, as much as possible generally, while having enough defense and attack to handle any Enemies. But in DM you have to keep back people for escape tests and possible fights. Now there are issues with this, Eowyn + Unexpected Courage ravages DM, but then again, it's nice to see UC on someone other than Beravor for a change. I had my share of resets to 1B, one quest where I played 1B three times, but in that game was able to each time complete 1B in a single turn, mainly thanks to Aragorn and Eowyn putting out 12 willpower just between the two of them!

Return to Mirkwood (1-5)

In hindsight, glad I didn't write about RtM on Wednesday after being 0-4 against the quest, that one win slightly changed my view of the quest. First off, Carrock and this are both difficulty 7? Whoever came up with that wasn't having a very good day. There is just no fricking way these are even comparable in terms of difficulty. Those first four games I mentioned, going 0-4, guess how well I did in them? I reached 2B once. REACHED, not cleared and just ONCE! It wasn't really anything the quest itself does, it was the Encounter deck getting payback for Dead Marshes (which also uses the Wilderness cards). East Bight (or two!!!) plus Brown Lands? Check on more than one occasion. There is something disheartening about seeing two East Bights out there during setup and knowing the first stage just went from 12 progress to effectively 24. Hill Troll (or two)? Check, check, check and check. If a Hill Troll wasn't out after setup, it was out on turn one. Not only did each of those four games feature a Hill Troll (one had both out) but they also had two Attercops out too, except in the game with both Hill Trolls, that "only" had one Attercop out.

Yes, the Encounter deck has those cards in it, but the part where the deck was getting payback was that none of those four games lasted more than four turns! So all those nasty cards was in the top 10 cards of the deck, top 15 at worst taking into account surges and Shadow cards. I was definately having some Anduin flashbacks there. Fifth game, my lone win saw no Trolls or Attercops in play, just turn one Ungoliant's Spawn that hung around until 4B at which point I finally had to kill it, of course not before some Hummerhorns showed up. Strangely, that win saw no threat reduction and no Gandalfs used despite Beravor + UC. Sixth game, another turn one Hill Troll, this time actually drawn against decks that could take it out, but 4 dmg to Aragorn during setup for a Treachery plus turn two Mirkwood Bats (engagement cost 22, never ever had seen threat that low!) killed him, Legolas died to another Bats next turn and it was all over after that.

Journey to Rhosgobel (3-3)

It's a turkey shoot most of the time, but unlike the last two quests, JtR doesn't drag the game out, it kills you fast. Sometimes on turn one, Exhaustion + Festering Wounds can end you right there and then. I like grabbing Athelas more than looking for Signs and the flyers are an interesting twist on regular Enemies. If Carrock is missing direct damage, I think Rhosgobel got more than it needed, those Treacheries are downright brutal. Lore is welcome, if not absolutely necessary, but without it, you're at the mercy of the Encounter deck and at least for the moment, manipulating it doesn't have a lot of options.

Most the time it felt like JtR came down to whether Athelas came out nicely or not and when or if the Treacheries were drawn. Enemies aren't all that tough, but annoying, luckily I think all of my decks have ranged characters in them, yes, even Horseback Archers. Another way JtR forces you to buckle down and doesn't drag the game is Wilyador taking two damage per turn. I never managed to clear Rhosgobel during stage 1, so can't say if Glorfindel + Radagast and stalling is viable or not. My decks have also always used Lore of Imladris (at least those decks that have a Lore hero in them), so I didn't have to tweak them just to beat Rhosgobel.

Emyn Muil (5-1)

Everybody quests, hope for no Rockslide. Rinse repeat until you win. That's the basic outline of what you do in EM, but somehow (and sadly), it is still better than what Hunt for Gollum feels like. With the lack of Enemies in the Encounter deck (EM itself adds just the Horse-Thieves IIRC), you rarely need to leave anybody back to defend, sometimes you even can't if Rauros is active. My only loss came after Rockslide on back to back turns wiping out most of the board, with barely any Enemies ever seen. Locations themselves have quite interesting and varied effects, probably thing that lifts this quest above HfG. Both this and HfG are bread and butter for the Northern Trackers, if ever there were quests to highlight their power, these two location heavy ones are it. Not much more to say about EM, one quest card is disappointing, but at least no chance of a reset.

Hunt for Gollum (4-2)

Another quest where at least two of the wins were really narrow, like one willpower difference. HfG gets last place because it is the only quest that regularly sees 20+ threat in the staging area that you can really do nothing about. And when I say regularly, I mean regularly, like at least four out of the six plays. Nothing quite like takes the wind out of your sails like committing 18 willpower to quest and still having to add threat for failing to quest. Luck of the draw matters quite a bit, drawing three Signs and having them all in play as those Hunters come out in pairs really, really makes questing hard. Mid- to late-game Old Ford can also be crippling when it has 8+ threat by itself.

Weirdly, I did better in the games where Northern Trackers were not present, not sure why. Then again, when you have three Hunters from Mordor, each attacking for 10 (thanks to 4 Signs in play), not much NTs can do to help. Wasn't a fan of resetting when HfG was released, still not all too keen on it, but at least learned to live with it (or play better). HfG also has quest cards that actually do something, though mostly those effects are just another pain in ass, having to add more cards to the staging area. Combined with Signs and their guarded, the staging area can fill up incredibly fast.

I'm not ready to add my thoughts to the mix here yet, but I hope to by the end of the month.

I wanted to bump this thread though because I'm imagining some others may have some more thoughts to add.

Anyone?

It's a great topic, and I'd be sad to see it get lost in all the excitement over Khadad-dûm.

Nothing against KD. I'm just quite pro-reflection amidst times of also looking ahead.

juicebox said:

on that note i wonder if its time for forum catagories?......im not sure how i feel about that, ive always thought less people view threads as a whole if catagories are introduced, but ive noticed we have about a 1 page a day turn over on this forum, so threads are quickly getting lost

theres some great threads on this forum and this is one of the few forums im part of that is actually active to a good level....threads shouldnt have to be bumped up so maybe this-

NEW MEMBER INTROS

GENERAL

RULES

SHADOWS OF MIRKWOOD

KHAZAD DUM

OSGILLIATH

that may be watering it down too much, but come on...osgillaith? its own forum?????!! i never understood that

I've found it difficult to rank the adventure packs of this cycle, as I've liked them all for one reason or another, but what the hell, I'll give it a go

1) The Hunt for Gollum
I really liked this quest - it feels easy enough that you can enjoy it (rather than yell in frustration every other turn), but the potential for disaster is always there from Flooding or False Leads. The Hunters from Mordor are also very close to the top of the enemies I hate most from this cycle.

2) Return to Mirkwood
If this could offer a better solo experience, this would be my favourite. Solo is all I play, so a lot of the card effects are largely redundant (a point that has already been made here, I think). The near-impossibility of it is one of the big draws for me, with many of those treachery effects being really treacherous! If it had been more balanced for solo play, it would be awesome.

3) The Hills of Emyn Muil
I thought the change of pace with this one was tremendous. I like to quest my way around Middle Earth every once in a while, so it's always good to break this one out and give it a go. Rockslide and Orc Horse Thieves are excellent cards, too - the former a real swine of a card in such a scenario, the latter very thematic when you play with a Rohan-themed deck. And the encounter deck symbol is my favourite after Massing at Osgiliath, too

4) The Dead Marshes
The good thing about the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle, I found, was that each pack brought something different to the game, different keywords or different mechanics. The whole premise of the LCG, to me, is that each adventure pack is a whole new game to try, but the Mirkwood lot had a different feel as well. Dead Marshes gives us this in the escape test, with a whole bunch of encounter cards that are designed to try to thwart us, not just the odd treachery card. I find its potential for real difficulty very engaging - it's only in the number 4 slot because I like the other three quests more.

5) A Journey to Rhosgobel
The remaining two quests I like about as much as each other, but I'd have to put Rhosgobel first because it has some interesting cards, and it always feels like I might be able to win, even though I always end up not doing so. It's interesting, a different tack, and I suppose that can lead to a lot of misgivings from people who want One Deck to Rule Them All, but if you fancy a different kind of game, then why not? The downside, of course, is that it does demand a very specific deck that doesn't really brook any variation. And I've never won this once.

6) Conflict at the Carrock
I don't know exactly what it is about this one, I just don't like it as much as any of the others. I find it quite difficult solo, and I'm not really a tactics fan, so the trolls frequently and often finish me off. I only ever used to tackle this one half-heartedly, as I knew I would lose, so it's only a recent development for me to be able to beat this one. The thing is, I want to like it, as some of the cards have really very interesting options, in fact the whole theme of the quest is quite good, but I just can't bring myself to like it.

So, there we are!

Looks like Return and Conflict are very popular, while Journey is the least popular. And Hills/Hunt/Dead are clustered in the middle.

I don't have my own personal list because I just don't know. I like them all in their own special way.

I'd be tempted to start a spin off thread about ranking all ten of the pre-Khazad-Dum quests. I'm curious as to how much people like Osgilliath et al.

DrNate said:

Osgiliath is really good one! I love it!

Yeah, Massing at Osgiliath has a definite draw for me, too. I think I must be some sort of masochist, as I really enjoy that and Return to Mirkwood, even though I know I stand next to no chance with either!

And, as I said in my other post, the set symbol thing is my favourite

A shameless bump of an old thread I started as I'm thinking it's time to come up for air from the KD scenarios and run the SoM more often again...especially to see how my primary Purple - Blue (splashed with green) holds up to a SoM cycle playthrough after a few tweaks (had to throw a couple LB Orc Slayers in!). That and I've a Gloin, Boromir, Bilbo deck now with quite a few of the KD cards to try out through the SoM cycle...

Any new thoughts on SoM or are the KD scenarios the only thing on people's minds?