Hi,

New to the game, and trying to beat the first senario (its level 1). But I get beaten every single time. I try to play a Spirit/Leadership of Lore/Leadership deck, and only have access to the basic box and first 6 expansions (the green ones).

Or I lack combat ability, so I get beaten by that, or I lack questing ability and the threat gets to high and I need to give up.

Would love some help so I can beat this senario

Laiyna

hey

which hero's are you fielding? theres some good choices and some bad ones- i dont want to bring up the whole ewoyn argument, but she is especially great for starting out, make sure to try and use her +1 willpower buff

also dunhere s good if we're stickign with spirit- can get rid of hummerhorns and other things in the stagin area, and is a solid guy

aragorn is a again good as he can ready after questing, and he also gives you access to all those nice leadership cards.

these are very important cards- use them if you are using that sphere:

unexpected courage (spirit)

northern tracker (spirit- can clear several locations at once)

test of will/hasty stroke (spirit- core treachery cancellation)

steward of gondor (leadership- extra resource draw)

sneak attack- (leadership- use this on gandalf to get his awesome power twice before he gets discarded)

gandalf x 3 obviously

protector of lorien (lore- unlimited willpower buff- use this with extra card draw combos such as bilbo, beravor and gleowine- all lore, you can really end up with a lot of power with this combo as you are drawing many cards per turn, and can discard them at will)

forest snare (lore..trap that nasty spawn of ungoliant)

just realised tht you have mirkwood packs- use the song cards in mixed sphere decks- again they are core cards to use

hope this sort of helps

extras- (i had to go out)

solo play (i assume you are soloing?) is all about balance. as you say if you have good fighting your questings poor and if you have great questers you are wek on the fighting side. its all about getting a balance of spheres, heros and player cards that all work well together to make the best of the specific quest your are tackling.

now mirkwood is a very generic quest as its the intro, so its good to try decks out on to see how they generally fare.

if i was to say to bias anything it would be questing. you can get away with trapping enemies, gandalf zapping them, and other stuff, but there really is not other way but to quest- i mean thats how you win right? so if anything you want a deck with some good quest cards----this does not mean spirit. i used to think that spirit was the be all and end all of questing but not so. lore is the best in y opinion, though it takes a bit of practice to get results, but its far more reliable. (especially with the likes of long beard map maker, and protector of lorien).

you do however want plenty of allies, if you dont you are gonna end up with no defenders left, and taking damage direct from undefended attacks- this = game over pretty quick. i read somewhere that at least 50 % should be allies (i think thats correct) and this is about right

50 % allies

25% attatchements

25% events

thats what i would try and do. there will be others who think differently, but if you think about it, in solo you only have 3 people to do EVERYTHING. so you need to draw out some buddies and quick

Things I did try:

Eleanor, Eowyn, Theodred

Bilbo, Glorfindel, Theodred

And some minor variations on this. about 20-25 cards of the 50 are allies, rest other types.

ok to see if i or anyone else can help more- what exactly is tripping you up- is there a certain point? you say about finding it difficult to balance, ive tried to help on that, but is there anything more specific....say a certain enemy? or a certain quest point?

id switch out glorfindel- he's too high threat for his ability, fair enough aragorn is high too, but he's much more useful

oh and i forgot galadrims greeting- this is awesome to get your threat down- along with gandalf's threat reduction, use these and threat should become less of a problem

rich

When I play with spirit I end up with Ungoliant's Spawn I can not kill, prity much I can not damage so my threat builds up till 35 and I lose the game.

When I play with lore I usualy end up with 5-6 treat to defeat while questing, and it grows faster then I can solve it. And if I take the more heavy Hero's I get swarmed over by the creatures.

Cards en resources I seem to do well, playing 1-2 allies a turn and some cards to spare. Trying to stay below 25 threat works at start but I get swarmed so fast when I get above it.

Maybe I do something wrong, if I do not quest, do I still draw a card at the quest stage to increase the encounters? Can I attack a creature with several Hero's at the same time? And if so, how is damage resolved? if 2 attack the same target, the damage they do both get the reduction of the defence of the creature? (creature is 2/2 I attack with 2x 2/2, is my damage 0 or 2 on the creature?).

Laiyna

hi again

firstly yes, even if you do not quest a card still gets revealed from the encounter deck- i would say ignoring the quest phase is the last thing you want to do here

you can attack an enemy with as many characters as you have eligible for attack- but you may only attack it once per turn, so yes you can build up say 2 heros and 2 allies, and add all their attack levels together- so say if their combined attack was 10 and the enemies defense was 3- it would get 7 damage

so yes...they attack together always together and never separete- this isnt allowed in the rules anyways

you say you do well with resources and spare cards- use that to your advantage- do not have them lying in your hand, get protector of lorien on a hero and discard them- say you have a hero with 2 willpower and 5 cards you dont want to use- get rid of them- then you have a hero now with 7 willpower!

the same for resources- get rid of them or use them....if you have a lore hero, get steward of gondor on them (+2 resources per turn) and then use them to pay for longbeard map makers willpower increase

say you have 5 resouces on a lore hero- map maker has 1 willpower- pay 5 resources and he has 6 now

always think of combos- these cards are made to be used together (well most) and ive shown you some above but there are others

Thalin for instace (tactics hero) damages an enemy 1 point when its revealed from the deck- so you now have an enemy with 1 damage. then defend with Gondorian Spearman (tactics) who also deals 1 pnt of damage when he is declared as defender- so you now have an enemy with 2 damage and you havnt even fought it yet- it may even die if it has 2 hitpoints

other good combos are

legolas with blade of gondolin (tactics) - both of these cards allow you to place progress tokens after you kill an enemy, so they can be used in unison to greater effect

beravor (lore hero) with unexpected courage (spirit) use this to use her card draw ability and then use them to discard as stated above

spirit is a poor deck to fight with- you really need to pair it with another -so tactics or lore and use forest snare

rich

richsabre said:

Thread highjack!

I was just thinking about this during a game today, seeing Northern Trackers and Elfhelm in my hand, specifically if anybody had built (or if its yet possible) a "Fighting Spirit" deck. Not talking about "sissy" Dunhere rides into battle alone with threat down in teens, never engaging anything, I'm talking killing once Enemies engage. NT and Elfhelm had 2 attack, 2 def, 3 hp, solid in terms of combat allies. Pricey yes, though there is always Ziggy I suppose. Could a mono-spirit do or would you go 2-1 Spirit/? spheres? Splashing most allies, you can always bring them back via Stand and Fight.

i cant think of a time when ive thought 'thank god i went with spirit today, those enemies were aweful'

there are of course ways to buff them up, im thinking of dwalin with a few sharp axes on his belt, but yeah.....no is my answer to that

my best answer is as said a dwarf deck with spirit tactics, but then you'd want leadership for dain, so its not really a spirit deck anymore is it?

laiyna said:

Like Rich already siad, you can attack an enemy once per round with as many characters as you wish. If you play with Théodred, giv him some Dúnedain Marks to increase his attack. Try to have Sneak Attack and Gandalf in your hand when you enter stage 3B. Gandalf is able to deliver 4 damage through his effect and he can help Théodred to attack the monster.

Northern Tracker is perhaps the most useful card for you in this scenario. He is perfect for questing and also good in fighting. The other useful card is Snowbourn Scout. He is cheap and he serves you as a shield against Ungoliant's attack.

oh and also miner of the iron hills- get rid of them caught in a web attatchements

I always think Leadership/Lore is a good sphere combination for beginning players. It offers plenty of resource acceleration and card draw, allowing for a wide array of options in any situation. Maybe try Aragorn/Beravor/Denethor. Toss in Steward of Gondor, Faramir, Sneak Attack, Gandalf, and all of the 2- cost Lore allies. Forest Snare will shut down Ungoliant's Spawn, while Celebrian's Stone will provide plenty of questing power. You also get healing though Daughter of the Nimrodel and encounter deck scouting with Denethor and Henamarth Riversong. If you need a bit of extra oomph, For Gondor! can boost all your attacking characters to take down a Spawn or a Chieftain Ufthak.

leadership lore is my favourite combination of spheres by far at the moment, i also add a sprinkling of spirit

richsabre said:

Mine is still spirit / lore for solo.