If I was only able to buy the core set and 2 expansions for this game from my local shop which expansions should I get? I want the most utility for my $ but at the same time I'll be playing this primarily solitaire at first.

The Hunt for Gollum and The Hills of Emyn Muil would be my suggestion because they are the easiest and most likely to let you learn and have fun simultaneously. Some of the others are very hard solo and can lead to frustration. Nice to have more local people playing by the way.

Howlix said:

hunt for gollum is one of the best solo packs so far, alot of people like conflict at the carrock

you may also want to look at the cards you get, as that may influence your decision

richsabre said:

Like richsabre mentioned, I would also investigate the player cards included each pack. Is there a sphere you love playing with most? Then get packs that will be good for those spheres. For example, when I had just the core set, I loved Spirit the best. I knew I wanted Hills of Emyn Muill because of all the locations, but card draw was always an issue for me so I knew I wanted the card "Ancent Mathom" which is from A Journey to Rhosgobel. So check online for which player cards are in each pack and that might influence the ones you want.

forgot to say all current cards can be found on cardgamedb.com

I recommend Hunt for Gollum but if it was my $$$ I'd skip the adenture packs and save up for Khazad-Dum. Three good adventures and a lot of replay value.

jrd said:

while i admit that may be tempting the only problem here is that you miss alot of key cards out of the packs- khazad is more difficult that the mirkwood cycle even with all the cards, and if you dont have songs, eagles or rohan, your gonna find it a tad hard

Hunt for Gollum is a fun pack; easy to play and some interesting sphere cards, but Bilbo is by far the weakest hero.

Journey to Rhosgobel brings Radagast and some great questing pieces and allies, but offers a hero that isn't often useful as he's very similar to Aragorn.

Emyn Muil brings a fun quest, a great hero in Brand, and awesome sphere cards. For me its a must buy.

Return to Mirkwood has Dain, who is one of the best hero's for deck building. It also has some key allies, both Eagle and questing.

There are very few bad choices. I would avoid Carrock b/c it's such a hard quest and Dead Marshes just isn't my favorite.

I do happen to love Khazad Dum, mostly for the addition of Bifur and all of the dwarf cards, but I agree that without cards from the adventure packs it would be a challenge to make it through the quests.

ragnarhedin said:

CatC is a great quest and one of the easiest in teh entire mirkwood set.. once you build a decent deck. It also has a really good selection of player cards.

Return is a terrible quest though but it has some FANTASTIC cards in it...

All in all I really recommend buying them in order.

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