leptokurt said:

What I don't find fair in all this is that some people just post scores and they are taken as is and when somebody puts details as to what they did, they are questioned (which is fine) and a mistake or two could be found.

I play a lot of boardgames with people and I can count on my hand the amount of times a game is played without ANY mistakes. Mistakes will happen and I would bet a lot of money that more than 50% of games played will have at least one mistake in them. However, the people who post details on their gameplay get penalized for this and others who don't, well... don't.

Anyway, it's not like these games mean anything, it's supposed to be for fun, if people want to cheat so be it. If people make mistakes, unless it's a HUGE mistake which could not be rectified, it should still count because at least they took the time to post what they did while others who most probably made mistakes didn't.

My2Cents

Anyway Happy New Year, will probably be in bed all day tomorrow after tonight lol, so I will have lots of time to play the next quest (which my deck is already made .

leptokurt said:

It would have to have been one hell of a perfect storm but when I look at it and run the numbers it might be possible... just highly improbably. For instance I've done some math on the cards needed. Bare minimum based on what has been said was played requires 31 resources, without Sneak Attacks. Max I believe is 36 resources. 8 per character for 24 (remember you get resources at the end of the round in the Refresh phase) plus 12 (Steward of Gondor round 2 thru 7, believe its impossible to get it out on round 1 in this build). That leaves 5 resources for Sneak Attacks.

Costs:

Beorn x2 = 12

Galadhrim's Greeting x2 = 6

Stand and Fight x1 = 1 (For Snow Born Scout)

Will of the West x1 = 1

Snow Born Scout x3 = 3

Song of Kings x3 = 3

Steward of Gondor x1 = 2

For Gondor x1 = 2

Protector of Lorien x1 = 1

Total = 31 used.

Also know that with only 8 spirit resources the last Galadhrim's Greeting must have been played in the round 7 Refresh phase, other wise either Stand and Fight or Will of the West couldn't be played in time to be effective. That means going into the refresh phase for round 7, 2 spirit resources were saved. Prior to the Refresh phase of round 7, max resources are 33. Subtract 2 for the spirit resources and you have 31 resources available for use. Since the second Galadhrim's Greeting wasn't used yet at this point, only 28 have been used at this point not counting Sneak Attacks. So going into the round 7 Refresh phase we have 31 resources available for use and 28 used. This would allow for 3 Sneak Attacks prior to round 7 Refresh?

Someone check my math if you care... I think I've logiced that out right but I may have missed a detail

3 Sneak Attacks prior to round 7 Refresh phase and 1 during = 4 Gandalf's. One was used to damage the Misty Mountain Goblins in round 3. That leaves 3 for threat reduction. 3 Gandalfs plus 6 Galadhrim's Greeting's = 27 threat reduction. Starting Threat is 28 with these heroes plus 7 threat for 7 rounds (need to take the threat for round 7 before the action window to play cards in the Refresh Phase opens up) means 35 threat. 35 threat - 27 threat reduction = 8 Threat.

Someone check my mathhere as this seems to indicate threat 5 is unlikely and I may have missed something. Also in the play description I believe Gandalf did a couple more Sneak Attacks for Damage.

Anyways... I started this post thinking possible but improbable and in the process of thinking it through I'm beginning to lean towards unlikely but I'll be the first to admit I don't know if my conclusions above have taken in all the variables. Really it was just fun mental math.

Later,

Wraith428

leptokurt said:

I had basicaly my whole deck in hand in round 5.

Did I wrongly mention Stand and Fight, if so I apologize. Beorn and Gandalf were sneaked.

To sneak Gandalf 5 times in one turn you need only one resource in phase one.

Beravor can draw 8 cards. ( 3UC)

As I am typing this on my phone it' s quite awful to elaborate.

I will try to get all questions answered tomorrow.

My deck for this was designed as a card draw deck.

Sneaking somebody is totally free as long as you have the resorces for a sneakattack at firs.

Horn of Gondor saves a lot of resources.

Happy New Year.

Yay, I finally scored! And yes, I finished my game and got my score before midnight (it's 11:13 here). But first, let me just say that I have the ABC New Year's special on right now, and Lady Gaga is the stupidest person/idea/concept/thing to have ever happened to civilization. I'm ashamed for the human race for encouraging and celebrating something that brainless.

Heh, ok, back to this card game. I scored 123!

Heroes: Aragorn, Eowyn, Frodo Baggins

Threat: 32

Hero Damage: 5

Dead Hero Cost: 0

Round Tracker: 90

V.P.s: 4

TOTAL: 123

I quested through to phase two on round 4, then fought off the trolls one at a time from there. My threat was only about 22 at the time, so I chose to engage the nasty Hill Troll last, which I pulled off the encounter deck in round 4. Didn't ever pull a Sacked card. Had SoG and Celebrian's Stone in my opening draw which helped tons.

This was the third try with this deck. I lost on the previous 2 tries. I also tried an all Tactics deck 3 times, which failed miserably each time. And I played 4 or 5 games with a Spirit/Lore deck which lost every time. I'm just happy to finally get a win. This was my first time trying this quest solo. Congrats to everyone else who has scored those insanely low scores.

Oh, AND I was only playing with one core set and the two XP packs. Pretty respectable score I think.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Congrats to all, and well done on another Solo Player Tournament!

I want to thank everyone for playing. It was a pretty wild and raucous week.

A special thanks to Louis, Morris, Stuart, and Rupert... you four really took (and at times dished out) quite a beating!

Much appreciation to everyone who participated for the lively gaming, discussion, competition, and fun. Good stuff!

And thanks also to folks like radiskull and Dam for enhancing our experience by making your presence known and sharing your thoughts about various ruling questions that came up along the way. Your additions to the tournament were enjoyed and appreciated (and let me just say out loud that you're both welcome to jump in the tournament "playing" end of the pool anytime you like as well... for as always, the more the merrier ).

The Top Ten Hall of Fame will be updated soon. January promises to hold a lot more Shadows of Mirkwood action.

Happy 2012,

juicebox

Da_Engineer said:

Then again, I have 2 Core Sets split into four decks that initially used all 12 Core Heroes (Thalin has since made way for Brand, other 11 are still the Core heroes), so they are by no means min-maxed to the fullest. Still, only have a losing record against Return to Mirkwood (though Dol Guldur is next on the to-play list), so not sure why they don't work as built.

Dam said:

The difference is that players in this tournament build their deck against a specific scenario, while you have a deck that is meant to defat them all. Which of course requires a lot of special cards, especially Rhosgobel.

Da_Engineer said:

It would be even more unfair not to mention mistakes. I know it sucks that some (not even all) of your results have been cancelled, but OTOH you improved your playing skills by learning new rules and avoiding the mistakes made. There's also a big difference between unintentional mistakes and mistakes that you know about. There's als a difference between games with an average result and games with an excellent result.

plueschi said:

I had Eowyn ( as a starting hero) to get spirit resources. And she also had a Steward of Gondor on her.......so there were plenty spirit resources.

I had 48 cards in turn 5. ( so basically nearly all of my 50 cards).

leptokurt said:

I had a SoF on Eowyn and a Horn of Gondor and a Song of Kings......so she had plenty of resources.

At the end I had 3 UC out.......so with Beravor I could draw 8 cards. So reshuffling and drawing 2 sneaks again is not that hard. Oh and don´t forget the one card Gleowine can contribute.

Beorn was sneaked.....so it´s not that hard to appear twice.

As I looked up just now I traveled to the Banks of Anduin, Bee Pastures were scouted, the first Langflood was discard due to Carrock becoming the active location, Oak Wood Grove was scouted and the last River was left in the staging Area.

I just had to discard 3 cads to Eowyn. In round 2 I had to discard one card to put 2 progress tokens on the Banks of Anduin. Again in round 3 to get rid of the Banks. And then in round 4 to don´t sufer the one threat.

I did have to discard 8 cards for the PoL to complete Stage 1.

And at the end in round 7 I had to quest for 11. Which was quite easy as I could afford to discard nearly all of my deck.

This wash´t a joke and very serious. But I don´t mind asking........I feel the same when I read some results of others players myself.

wraith428 said:

Beorn did cost nothing, as did every Gandalf that was sneaked, thanks to Horn of Gondor. I just need the resource to play it and at the end the one resource comes back to Eowyn. This counts too for every Snowbourn Scout I played, because they all dead sooner or later. SoG is also free as he produces the resources he costs.

The GG did indeed cost 6 resources. so from your above list only 13 resources remain.

As I know now by looking at my video again I did draw 3 cards with my firs Gandalf and didn´t kill the Goblins......they were killed by Gandalf with an attack.

Gandalf was used 5 times for threat reduction along with 2 GG. 42 threat-37 threat leaves 5.

7 rounds, 3 from the attack of louis, and 4 from questing in round 7.........14+28= 42 threat.

Dam said:

Ya you need to rebuild each deck each time you face a different quest if you want to have the best possible outcome. IMO building a new deck each deck is not only really fun but is where most of the skill comes in, (Even though some people don't think so) if not the majority of skill. Look at what the quest needs, does it need a spur of willpower or does it not a decent amount each turn? Does it need a spur of damage, or just a small amount each turn, or none? etc etc. Once you figure that part out then you look at your possible cards on: http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/lotr/lord-of-the-rings-deckbuilder which is a great tool for deckbuilding. Anyway, I actually like better deck building than actually playing because I find it more challenging, you should know what your outcome should be (or close to) when you start playing afterwards.

Good luck.

leptokurt said:

Agreed. It definately improved a few things. But I was just saying it should be the same for everyone or nobody.

muemakan said:

Deducting the initial 6+1 cards, getting 40 in 5 turns requires 8 cards per turn. But on turn one, you can have max 1 UC on Beravor I think (with Spirit Song you can just play it). Even with that UC, getting both of the other two UC by turn 2 seems fortuitous (drawing 2+2+1 cards total).

Da_Engineer said:

"IMO building a new deck each deck is not only really fun but is where most of the skill comes in, (Even though some people don't think so) if not the majority of skill."

I would say building a generic deck that can handle all the quests, you have to take much more into account than when building for a single quest. While in single quest building, you can cherry-pick your key cards targetting each scenario fully (dumping healing and ranged when not playing Rhosgobel, etc.), less skill required IMO than if you're building decks that are meant to take 10 different quests (3 Core, 6 Mirkwood and Osgiliath) and perform.

Dam said:

I didn't say building a generic deck doesn't take skill, I said building decks requires skill. I have a generic deck along with a deck that I build for each quest as well. There's just as much skill needed for each, only thing is building a generic deck takes longer as you're pretty much putting all 50 cards to use. I wouldn't say building a generic one takes more skill because you're removing the quest variable. The quest is like a mathematical problem, by deduction, logic and calculations you are solving the quest with the use of all the cards at your disposal whereas in a generic deck you are finding which cards work best together for no particular objective.

Dam said:

Dam said:

Ahhh, those **** buttons. Sorry for the double post.

I can´t use a spirit song due to the deck building restrictions.

On turn one 4 cards were drawn with Beravor ( Common Cause ) ...so 11 cards total.

In turn two I had Gleowine and my first UC and one more Common Cause.....so 19 cards total

In turn three I played a Westfold Horsebraker and 3 cards came due to gandalf also 4 cards because 2 Valiant Sacrifice were played on a dead Scout ....so 34 cards total.

In turn four I played another Horsebraker ( with Valiant Sacrifie )and UC and Common Cause......so 48 cards total.

n turn five I had 48 cards drawn so far.............not very lucky or difficult to do that.