I built 2 Dwarf Hero only decks (both 2 sphere) to see if they could do all 3 Khazad-Dum scenarios. Got the 1st done after 1 failure and the 2nd 1st time! However, the 3rd is a bummer! The 2 of the 7 endings that allow you to finish are so luck dependant. 1 gives you a 50% of losing each player (Yech!!!), while the other depends of having the 'Abandoned Tools'. The latter looks the better choice, but getting the correct 2b stage while you have the tools is difficult enough, but the holder must be kept 'ready' for at least 4 turns. If you have to kill a 'Great Cave Troll', the 'Nameless One' just becomes too threatening! This deserves its difficulty 7. Anyone worked out a good strategy to manipulate all those 2b stages? Cheers!

Rashley said:

The wife and I went 1-1 against this beast. When we beat it, the nameless fear was up to 12 and it was our last possible turn. Got the abandonded tools through the narrow paths quest card then went digging. We got three progress on that quest card on the last turn with UC + Erebor Record Keeper for 3 exhausts during the refresh phase. I would say the more ways you have to ready your characters the faster you can get through the quest when you have the tools. Other than that, try to keep the VP's away as long as possible.

I win this quest solo quite easy. Maybe just a luck or some. The key strategy for solo game is find tools first and then go to quest card to brake the wall by tools.

Another card where you discard card and if its Treachery you lose is to risky. I do it once and get Treachery of course!!!

But i have a question actually. When you by pass quest card in the end of the combat phase and put the quest card on the bottom of quest deck you flip it back on 2a or keep it there as 2b? There is nothing in the rule page about this but there is 2 different strategy to play this quest in different cases.......

Glaurung said:

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking so I'll try to address it in all the different ways i can think of.

1) The quest card you bypass should remove all it's progress tokens, flip back to 2a, and go the bottom of the quest deck. I don't know if it specifically says this anywhere but seems most logical to me.

2) The next quest card does not flip to side 2b until the beginning of the staging step of the quest phase. I believe the Khazad insert only references the initial 2nd quest card but i have applied this to all of them

Hopefully i hit on part of it.

Valyrian Steel said:

i would say it goes back to 2a so that next time you dont know what it is (unless you remember it of course)

Actually i look on the rules page one more time and there is a explanation. Yes you must flip it back to side 2a and put on the bottom of the quest deck.

Thanks for the advice. I shall plug away at it. As I refuse to buy more than 1 copy of each set - I spend too much on games as it is - I only have 1 copy of Unexpected Courage, which, in my oppinion, is one of the best cards in the game! This makes it even more random - the object of the thread. Depending on what comes up first, you still have to make sure Tools and UC are on the same Hero. However, I didn't expect it to be easy, so I will keep trying as I do enjoy the losses as much as the wins, but it still remains the only scenario I havn't defeated yet. We have 6 more to come as well in the next cycle! Cheers!

Rashley said:

Yes UC is one of the best card in the game now. I have 2 core set so i have 2 of them. But you always can do proxy and play with at home.

I finally beat it this afternoon! Got the Tools, reached 'Escape from Darkness' with 'Nameless One' only ar 6, and 2xErabor Record Keepers helped enormously! It took an extra turn due to 'Cave In' removing Progress, and poor old Thalin fell in a 'Sudden Pitfall', but Khazad-Dum has been beaten by my Dwarves. Yippee!!! No 'Unexpected Courage' nor 'Steward of Gondor' turned up and 'Gandalf' was nowhere to be seen. It just shows that it is not always the normal winners that you need. Now to try other decks. Cheers!