I have lost 3 in a row. Different Hero's each time. The Hill troll is beating up on me! I am playing cards that can only really prevent its attack each round...when it attacks though, it is doing serious damage. I cannot get thru 5 or so rounds before my hero's are out or my threat is exhausted.

I have tried a tactics deck, a Spirit/Lore deck and even a Leadership/Tactics deck.

Any other suggestions? I may be able to go longer in the quest if I could get this troll off my back quickly.

hendersondayton said:

i tend to do anything BUT fight it, so ill get a low starting threat, use galadhrim greetings to get it lower, then pick away at it with dunhere, and sneak attacked gandalfs.

then that should have it with plenty of damage, if all else fails i let it engage for a turn, use a cheap ally, take the extra threat, then finish it off.

you could also try forest snaring it, but of course that means it has to attack at least one, unless you use faint, so let it engage, faint it, then snare it, and its useless

Check, Check, and Check. Just built a new deck that should hit all your points. Trying to get a resource heavy deck that allows me to play ally's to absorb the damage. Will keep you posted.

So look like you are new player and sure troll is the first big problem what you can meet in core set. I give you deck list build up only core set.

This deck can beat Anduin quite easy so you just need to learn a bit how to play and then you can make your own.

Total Cards (50)

Hero (3)
Eowyn (Core) x1
Gimli (Core) x1
Theodred (Core) x1

Ally (11)
Faramir (Core) x2
Gandalf (Core) x3
Northern Tracker (Core) x3
Lorien Guide (Core) x3

Attachment (14)
Celebrian's Stone (Core) x2
Citadel Plate (Core) x3
Dwarven Axe (Core) x3
Steward of Gondor (Core) x3
Unexpected Courage (Core) x3

Event (25)
A Test of Will (Core) x3
Dwarven Tomb (Core) x2
Feint (Core) x3
Quick Strike (Core) x3
Sneak Attack (Core) x3
Stand and Fight (Core) x2
The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x3
Valiant Sacrifice (Core) x3
Hasty Stroke (Core) x3

Glaurung said:

this does need 3 core sets though..........

I think that is where the "quite easily" comes in. I only have 1 core set and HFG, CAtC, and JtR Adventure Packs.

hendersondayton said:

the 3 unexpected courage is a huge help....i only have 1 core set but man...if you could only buy singles then i would get 2 more of those

UC is not really important. 2 is enough to. I have only 2 core set. So other cards you just make a proxy.

richsabre said:

Wait, an enemy has to attack so that I can trap it? I thought it's enough to engage an enemy as I can then perform player actions.

Or can I only play it in the 1. phase because it counts as an attachment?

Attachments, like Allies, can only be played in the planning phase at the start of the turn. Against this quest I try to keep my threat low, get some allies out, let one of them take the hit from the troll and then forest snare it.

So Aragorn, Gloin, and Theodred is not a good idea?

Everyone is saying start low...how low? I played Aragorn, Gloin, and Theodred and was fortunate enough to be able to play The Galadhrim's Greeting and lower the threat....kept the troll in the staging area for a few rounds but, i couldn't draw enough allies to absorb damage when the troll finally attacked.

This was my last attempt:

2 Faramir
3 Guard of the Citadel
1 Longbeard Orc Slayer
2 Snowbourn Scout
2 Son of Arnor
1 Celebrian's Stone
1 Dunedain Mark
1 Dunedain Warning
2 Steward of Gondor
2 Ever Vigilant
2 For Gondor!
1 Grim Resolve
3 Second Breakfast
2 Sneak Attack
2 Valiant Sacrifice
2 The Favor of the Lady
1 Unexpected Courage
2 A Test of Will
2 Hasty Stroke
2 The Galadhrim's Greeting
1 Henamarth Riversong
1 Dark Knowledge
2 Forest Snare
2 Protector of Lorien
2 Self Preservation
3 Gandalf
3 Song of Wisdom
Heroes:
1 Aragorn
1 Gloin
1 Theodred

low as you can, i choose heros under 10, i think 9s a good amount....dunheres 9, eowyns 9, elanors a 7 (i think im right with them 3) aragorn is too expensive for this quest in my opinion. try frodo.

you really do benefit from giving yourself loads and loads of time....to the point where you have like 10 turns to deal with the thing, in 10 turns alot can happen....you can have a whole army of allies out by then, you can have attatchements on every hero, the whole lot, then the troll will fall in 1 or 2 turns easily

and to the above no you cant snare an enemy that has just engaged, you can only play attatchments in the planning phase

I've had very good luck with a Spirit/Leadership/Lore deck, using Eowyn, Theodred, and either Denethor or Beravor, which puts your starting threat at either 26 or 27. If you have the resources to pay for it, I've found the combo of a Son of Arnor and Forest Snare to be very effective. Force the Troll to engage during Planning and Snare it while you can play the attachment.

I am giving Dunhere, Elenore, and Gimli a go. Starting at 26. Gives me 4 rounds to try to get enough ally's on the table to deal with him. Will also try to add some attachments to Dunhere to increase his attack strength and get the troll while he is in the staging area and cannot attack.

hendersondayton said:

sounds like a plan

Not able to use son of Arnor this game (didn't include a Leadership Character or Song of Kings)...will have to hope for ally's to absorb the damage the same turn i play the Forest Snare.

UPDATE: Lost this quest due to threat level In the middle of turn 9. I was able to deal with the Hill Troll pretty quickly by using Dunhere and the Dwarven Axe to apply a point of damage per round while it was in the staging area...Forest Snare helped after I threw an ally at it to absorb damage (took a few points to the threat level for that). However, I couldn't get out of Stage 1B before my threat went up.

Started at 26 and hit 50 in the refresh phase of turn 9. Most of it was location damage. I didn't have enough Willpower with the three hero's i chose (5 if I quested all of them) and when your dealing with locations like "The Brown Lands" (threat 5), "Necromancer's Pass" (threat 3), and pesky enemies like Eastern Crows which surged another Eastern Crows and then a Wargs Encounter card....it gets away from you pretty quickly.

Northern tracker helped a lot as I was able to get rid of 3 locations while in the staging area.

This make 5 loss's in a row at the hands of the Anduin. I am not moving on till i beat this thing!

hendersondayton said:

firstly for the brown lands use striders path if you can- takes you straight there without having to deal with its 5 threat

as you said trackers are good, try and get both in if you can

did you draw any galadhrim greetings? two of these -12 threat, then get a gandalf in thats -5 threat, so you could get -17 threat with just three cards there

point is is that you have to draw them! so are you using any card draw techniques? gleowine?

also use riversong as well....at 1 cost hes a great ally

also it probably took me embarrasingly more amount of trys till i got this one- stick at it

This was my deck:

1 Beorn
2 Gondorian Spearman
1 Horseback Archer
3 Winged Guardian
1 Blade of Gondolin
1 Citadel Plate
2 Dwarven Axe
2 Feint
2 Quick Strike
1 Swift Strike
1 Eomund
1 Northern Tracker
2 Westfold Horse-Breaker
2 Power in the Earth
2 The Favor of the Lady
1 Unexpected Courage
2 A Light in the Dark
2 A Test of Will
2 Hasty Stroke
2 Mustering the Rohirrim
2 Strength of Will
2 The Galadhrim's Greeting
3 A Burning Brand
2 Forest Snare
2 Self Preservation
3 Gandalf
3 Song of Wisdom
Heroes:
1 Dunhere
1 Gimli
1 Eleanor

I was out before I could draw the Galadhrim or Gandalf but at the rate that I was playing ally's I was out of Resource. My strategy (tell me if it is a bad one) was to have two spheres covered with Hero's (Spirit/Tactics) and then add the Song for the Lore cards I was wanting (Forest Snare). I just couldn't keep resources on the table so even if I did draw Galadhrim or Gandalf, I would not have been able to play them without the sneak attack card which is in the leadership sphere.

I did see the strider's but was not able to get them in the deck. Would not have helped much in that situation because another location was in play (The East Bight)

Please make suggestions on how I could revise the above deck keeping in mind I have 1 Core, and AP's HFG, CaTC, JTR, HoEM.

hendersondayton said:

ok my two ways that id go about this

1. switch out gimli for thalin.....get rid of them infuriating crows and their surge...surge really can kill you in any quest...or....

2.forget about the 3 sphere deck- it isnt wrong at all what your doing, infact i think most players do this, but i prefer to have just 2, 3 waters things down too much. all of my shadows of mirkwood and khazad victories were with double sphere decks. i would go spirit/lore and have 3 heros that corespond to that, so maybe bilbo, eowyn, dunhere, all lowish threat, or if you want lower switch out one for frodo or elanor

concentrate on two things

spirit for questing power and threat reduction

lore for card draw and getting those important cards then using protector of lorien to exploit that unlimited action per turn

when you have the cards you want, and with bilbos extra card draw and gleowines 1 card per turn, you will have 10-20 cards in your hand at a time, so no more waiting for what you want, so when you have them only having two spheres should help with paying for them, obviously include songs of wisdom and im not sure which pack song of travel is in but if you have it use it

my only strategy i can vouch for for this quest is threat reduction and sniping off the troll as stated before....then with spirit and protector of lorien you can discard 10 or so cards at a time

eowyn with +1 = 5 willpower

say frodo or someone like with protector and +10 willpower

you have yourself 15 willpower there, its basically

1.card draw

2.threat reduction

3.card discarding to buff up willpower for 2b

Thank you rich. Will get to work on this!

P.S. - Song of Travel was in HoEM which i just picked up last night!

hendersondayton said:

sweet....great quest for solo play...also interestingly enough from emyn muil through to return to mirkwood, they are the only ones ive had good success using a single sphere spirit deck

I am building the deck now...without Son of Arnor how do I apply Forest Snare before the Troll Engages?

As an extra buffer to rich's comments, you could put in Longbeard map-maker. Lorien guide would also help. Try to key in on ur main cards and put as many in as you can up to the 3 limit. I know you will only have 2 of some, but do what you can. Also, favor of the lady. Finally, when you get to the stage where you're on the river, the middle stage, even though you don't have to engage, do it anyway, through dunhere if you want, so that the final stage will be easier.