Welcome & Introduction:

Welcome to my eighth Solo Player LOTR LCG Tournament. This week’s tournament marks the grand finish in a series of solo player tournaments exploring the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. The idea behind this tournament is that for one week (Sunday – Saturday), everyone is invited to participate in playing a particular scenario with particular deck building requirements in a Solo Player Tournament. You are then invited to record and post your final score, the heroes you used, and any additional narrative that you’d like to add.

Note: this is not a place to post results from the past. The tournament has a one-week lifespan, and only games played and recorded throughout this week are valid. As the week unfolds, I will keep this first post updated with the Top Ten results. (Each participant can occupy a maximum of one Top Ten spot at a time, so you’re welcome to try and best your own result throughout the week.) See also, The juicebox LOTR LCG Top Ten Hall of Fame.

Will you place in the Top Ten for the week? I hope you’ll participate and find out!

After the end of this week’s tournament, you are welcome to continue to post results to this thread if you continue to play this particular scenario under these particular parameters. However, the Top Ten on this first post will not continue to be updated after the week is over, thus preserving (like a time capsule) the results from this week’s tournament. In the mean time, if you have ideas for a future tournament, feel free to post them in the Ideas Thread.

And now… on to this week’s Solo Player Tournament!

Solo Player Tournament #8:

Quest: Return to Mirkwood
Deck Parameters: 1-3 Core Sets + All Shadows of Mirkwood Adventure Packs
Number of Players: Solo Play – 1 Player/1 Deck

Top Ten:

1. muemakan ~ 64 (Théodred, Éowyn, Beravor)
2. Memetix ~ 66 (Berevor, Éowyn, Théodred)
3. Zjb12 ~ 70 (Éowyn, Glorfindel, Frodo)
4. leptokurt ~ 77 (Éowyn, Frodo, Glorfindel)
4. Chac ~ 77 (Éowyn, Théodred, Prince Imrahil)
6. plueschi ~ 92 (Bilbo, Beravor, Denethor)
7. gatharion ~ 96 (Éowyn, Eleanor, Prince Imrahil)
8. juicebox ~ 97 (Éowyn, Théodred, Glorfindel)
9. Fatty ~ 100 (Théodred, Beravor, Éowyn)
10.

Last Updated:

January 29, 2012 (3:04am) [FFG Time]

[This week’s tournament will run from January 22-28, 2012 and will officially close at the end of the week (midnight) as time-stamped by the FFG forum time clock.]

This was my first time playing the quest solo and I've now learned how hard it is to keep the threat under control, 4 a turn is painful.

I was also plagued by an annoying Warg that kept running away (I would have finished 2 turns earlier with a bit more luck)

Heroes Berevor, Eowyn, Theodred - 1 core set + all Mirkwood APs

Turn 8 (70 points)

Damage: 0

Threat: 38

VPs: 4 (Troll)

Score: 104

Finally got a result, although it's probably not the best. I used 1 core set + all expansions

Heroes: Glóin, Dain, Éowyn

Heroes Damage: 12 (Glóin died last round)

Heroes Threat: 49 (phew)

Rounds: 60

Victory Points: 12 (Marsh Adder, Hummerhorns, Hill Troll)

Result: 109

As you can see, this wasn't a walk in the park. Fortunatly I had SoG plus 3 Gandalfs. One Gandalf killed the Hummerhorns which were dealt during the setup. Another Gandalf damaged the Hill Troll with 4 points. One Gandalf lowered my threat.

The game went smoothly, even the Marsh Adder didn't pose a real problem. Then I got the Hill Troll on turn 6, and I was already at 4B. Could have had a result below 90, ****. I had Gandalf in play that round and had 2 x Ever Vigilant so he could both defend and attack against the troll. Dain helped him so the troll had 3 damage when round 7 started. Of course I got "Gollum's Bite" which killed poor Glóin. Gandalf gave the troll another 4 damage, the Longbeard Orc Slayer was sacrificed and I had to raise my threat from 48 to 49. Then Gandalf and Dain delivered the final blow.

Much more to say, it was so epic. If they had only done something abut the threat - I hate to stop an adventure just when it starts to get interesting.

Forget the last result. I forgot to add the damage caused by the Marsh Adder's forced effect. Actually my threat was at 50.

The good news is that I managed to accomplish a win:

Heroes: Glóin, Dain, Éowyn

Heroes Damage: 0

Heroes Threat: 46

Rounds: 50

Victory Points: 3 (Marsh Adder)

Result: 93

Encounters were:

Setup: Brown Lands

1. Despair

2. Wasted Provisions

3. Mountains of Mirkwood (travelled to; replaced with, argh, King Spider)

4. Marsh Adder

5. Dry Watercourse

6. Woodman's Glade

I was able to play Celebrían's Stone on Éowyn and Ancient Mathom on Brown lands in round 1. Made it through 1B in two rounds. In round 3 I got SoG and could play Faramir and Westroad Traveller. No problem to finish 2B. Everyone but Dain quested in round 4. Éowyn's ability gave me the extra WP point that I needed to make it through 3B in one round. (I guess it's allowed to discard a card in 3B?) I readied Faramir with Ever Vigilant and he took the bite of the adder. Dain defended against the Spider. In round 5 I could play a Song of Travel so I could play GG. Éowyn quested alone, the traveller got eaten by the adder and Gollum distracted the King Spider which was then slain by Glóin + Dunedain Mark. Dain then attacked the adder for one damage. In round 6 I played the Longbeard Orc Slayer. Éowyn quested, Faramir didn't survive his second battle with the adder, but the angry dwarves avanged him right afterwards.

Tried doing this with a Monosphere spirit deck, but couldn't win. Changed out around a dozen card and put theodred in instead of Eleanor and got this result:

Heros: eowyn, dunhere, theodred

No damage, no dead Heros, no victory points.

Threat, 40.

Rounds 4 (40).

Score: 80.

Big key here was I got 2 celebrians stones on eowyn and an unexpected courage on dunhere. Theodreds kick back helped to, along with elf helm (the one time I got to use him) kept off a point of threat. I also only faced one enemy the whole game, a king spider. The encounters were: setup-despair; then despair; then king spider; then the spider's ring; wasted provisions; brown lands.

I am too tired to post a more detailed report as I usually do.......I will post when I get a better score.

Heroes: Theodred, Beravor and Frodo (3 core sets and all Aps)

Rounds: 10

Wounds: 0

Threat: 0

Total: 100

Zjb12 said:

I hope you didn´t mean 2 celebrians stones.....

Zjb12 said:

Celebrian's Stone is sadly unique.

Ugh! Nuts, so forget that score. But I will try again and demolish the deck, coming up with a score of......3. Ok, maybe not. But perhaps it will have a 3 in it. Like, 93...then I can tie leptokurt!

So as always on sundays I sit here in Austria and watch football and play lotr.

2nd attempt at this weeks tournament:

Heroes: Eowyn, Frodo and Beravor ( 3 core sets and all APs )

Rounds: 8

Wounds: 0

Threat: 0

Score: 80

Setup: Dry Watercourse

Encounters:

1. Dry Watercourse

2. Gollum´s Anguish

3. Spiders Ring

4.Caught in a Web ( got ride of it after 2 turns with the green dwarf )

5. Dry Watercourse

6. Gollum´s Anguish ( was cancelled )

7. Dry Watercourse

8. Spiders Ring

9. Dry Watercourse

Thanks to Shadow of the Past and R.Finest Dry Watercourse was my beloved encounter.

Hmmmm with those encounters I should have tried a questing deck…….too bad.

Okay, now for a legal score! Heros: eowyn, theodred, dunhere. No vps or dead heroes. Damage: 2; threat: 39; rounds: 5 (50); total: 91. Only used 1 celebrians stone this time!

Hey, I haven't participated before because I didn't want to deal with tearing my decks apart and figuring out which cards came from which sets, but since this one was included all of the Mirkwood packs I went for it.

Previously the Attercop Attercop or the Hill Troll always stomped me in this scenario, but this play through I got rather lucky and didn't end up facing anything worse than a King Spider.

My heroes were: Eowyn, Eleanore, and Prince Imrahil

Rounds: 6

Final Threat: 43

Damage: 3 (dang bats)

VPs: 0

Final Score: 106

Muemakan, how are you getting results with zero Threat?

gatharion said:

Card draw and Gandalf is key here. And deck recycling. Although stage 2B is a pain in the ass with such a deck.

muemakan said:

You should start playing in a lottery (the probability of drawing no enemy with 7-8 cards is < 3 percent).

I still wonder about your resource managment. You started with a threat of 26, plus 32 for 8 rounds makes a total threat of 58. To lower that to zero you must have played 5 copies of Gandalf and GG plus a sixth copy of one of those.

And here is my favourite setup draw so far:

Mirkwood Bats

surge: Gollums's Bite

This is just not fair:

Heroes: Glóin, Dain, Éowyn

Threat: 43

Damage: 8 (Dain died because of 2x Gollum's Bite!!!!)

Rounds: 40

Victory Points: 0

Result: 91

This deck keeps winning. Got a 93 and now a 91, and I only played 6 games!. The encounter were weird this time - 4 treacheries, 2 locations.

Setup: Gollum's Bite (damaged Dain)

1. Woodman's Glade

2. Gollum's Anguish (I never have A Test of Will in my hand when drawing this card)

3. Wood Elf Path

4. Gollum's Bite

5. Despair

Would have prefered an enemy instead of those treacheries.

Wow, three wins in a row!

Heroes: Glóin, Dáin, Éowyn

Threat: 38

Damage: 0

Rounds: 50

Victory Points: 0

Result: 88

Encounters:

Setup: The Spider's Ring

1. Wasted Provisions / 1B

2. Woodman's Glade / 1B

3. Caught in a Web (attached to Dáin) / 1B

4. Despair / 2B

5. Mirkwood Bats, Woodman's Glade / 3B (killed the Bats with Sneak/Gandalf during the encounter phase)

6. Dry Watercourse / 4B

I was able to play Dúnedain Quest and Ancient Mathom in round 1 and Song of Travel + Westroad Traveller in round 2, which helped me to get along with the questing and provided me with some extra cards. The only other cards I played were GG, Sneak/Gandalf, Gandalf and Escort from Edoras.

The deck itself seems to be stable and can handle a lot of different challenges. Dain is able to draw one Gollum's Bite, he's also there to defend against enemies. You can also exhaust him to travel to certain locations. Brok Ironfist can replace one of the dwarfs if neccessary. There are lot of cards that create more WP or your combat values, and GG is there to lower your threat. Those who have more than one coreset can build a better deck, but for those who only own one deck here is the deck list:

Neutral Cards:

3 x Gandalf

3 x Song of Travel

1 x Shadows of the Past

Leadership Cards:

1 x Brok ironfist

2 x Longbeard Orc Slayer

2 x Faramir

2 x Steward of Gondor

1 x Celebrían's Stone

3 x Dúnedain's Quest

3 x Dúnedain's Mark

3 x Dúnedain's Warning

2 x Ever Vigilant

2 x Sneak Attack

3 x Parting Gifts

Spirit Cards:

3 x Escort from Edoras

3 x West Road Traveller

2 x The Favour of the Lady

1 x Unexpected Courage

2 x Power in the Earth

3 x Ancient Mathom

2 x The Galadhrim's Greeting

2 x A Test of Will

1 x Dwarven Tomb

Managed another game; same deck with a better result.

Heroes: Eowyn, Theodred, Beravor

Setup: Woodman's Glade.

Turn 1: (Threat 27)

Played: Nothing. Quest 7

Encounter: Wood Elf path (Travelled to) (4 progress)

Turn 2: (Threat 31)

Played: West Road Traveller (swap locations), Rivendell Minstell: Sneak Attack (Gandalf - 5 threat). Quest for 15.

Encounter: Despair (back to 0 progress)

Complete Woodman's glade and phase 1 quest. Travel to Wood Elf path (again)

Turn 3: (Threat 30)

Played: Song of Wisdom on Theodred, West Road Traveller, Erebor Hammersmith: Quest for 9

Encounter: Mountains of Mirkwood

Complete Wood Elf Path and phase 2

Turn 4: (Threat 34)

Played: Nothing. Quest for 11

Encounter: Marsh Adder

Discard 1 card to Eowyn, complete phase 3. Engage Marsh Adder - undefended (shadow Hill Troll) - 4 damage to Gollum

Turn 5: (Threat 38)

Played: Gandalf, The Galadhrim's Greeting (-11 threat = 27). Quest for 8

Encounter: Wood Elf Path

Block Marsh Adder with west road traveller (Shadow = Wasted provisions). Attack with Gandalf, Beravor, Theodred, Erebor Hammersmith

------

Threat: 27

Damage: 0

VPs: 3 (Marsh Adder)

Turn 5: 40

Score: 64

Memetix you forgot to add the extra 2 threat caused by Marsh Adder's forced effect.

Still looks like a great strategy (although at some points I wouldn't have sent everyone questing).

leptokurt said:

Thanks leptokurt - good spot - I completely missed that. I did take some questing risks but I'm always happy to have Gollum take some damage, payback for all his biting and moaning and general tantrums.

So my real score is 66.

Memetix said:

No prob, the same thing happened to me in my first win (which turned out to be a loss).

leptokurt said:

Just looked at it again and noted the encounter 6 and 9 should be swapped. Dry Watercourse came so often because I used shadow of the past on it.

It should go as followed:

Setup: Dry Watercourse ( that one was travelled to and get rid of in turn two)

1. Dry Watercourse ( this on is the one that kept poping up thanks to Shadow of the Past

2. Gollum´s Anguish

3. Spiders Ring ( this one came twice thanks to Shadow to the Past)

4.Caught in a Web ( got ride of it with the green dwarf after 2 turns.)

5. Dry Watercourse

6. Dry Watercourse (1B done)

7. Dry Watercourse (2B done)

8. Spiders Ring (3B done)

9. Gollum´s Anguish ( was cancelled and Stage 4B done)

Yeah you´r right. I guess no enemies was really lucky......as in my other games I played after that one. I had 2 Attercops in my first turn for instance. Or 2 Trolls in the course of the game. I had another 80 result which had enemies in it. I think as long as the first 2 rounds don´t have a monster enemy, I am quite ok.

Don´t forget I had Gollum´s Anguish in round 2. That´s an additional 40 threat. That makes 7 Gandalfs and one GG. Twice Gandalf was played to draw cards.

Resources is never a problem with the horn.

I'm confused about scoring.

I thought that every round of play = 10 points, but some people are posting ten less than their total rounds.

You don't count a round until you hit the refresh phase which is at the end of the round. So, in one sense, you begin with round "0" and then turn it over to "1" at the end of the round/before the beginning of the round. Thus, if finish the quest before the refresh phase, then you finish before the round marker goes up.

For example, let's say you played JtR: it is possible to quest through the whole first quest card in the opening quest phase. Then you go through the rest of the round, round tracker goes up to 1 at the end of the round. Then, let's say in the second round you heal all damage with a Lore of Imladris for the eagle, and fully quest through quest card 2 which sends you right on to quest card 3, where, voila! you have won and finished before ticking the round counter up to 2. Therefore, you used 1 COMPLETE round and a partial, but points would be only 10.

Hope that helps, probably someone else can make that clearer than I just did.