Okay, I'm the idiot and I need a guide for this one. I beat it once before with an Eagle deck, but I played over 10 games to get my one win. I'm struggling to figure out how to beat this one consistently.

The general strategy for this quest, it seems to me, is to not advance to stage 2 until you are ready. The problem is, it seems like you need a lot of things to be ready. You need allies to die (or Grimbeorn), you need a good amount of fighting power to deal with trolls quickly, and on top of that, you need enough questing power to keep your threat low when they all appear in the staging area. I find that if I take the time to build up enough will power to engage them when I want without reaching 34, well, by then I'm way over 34 anyway. If I try to get to stage 2 before my threat is high enough for them to engage me, I don't have the will power to survive a quest phase against them (and hence they engage and overrun me that round).

It just feels like the cards don't line up for me with this one, and I hate feeling like victory lies in luck, rather than strategy.

Which spheres do you play?

Tactics has got Feint and Thicket of Spears as best weapons against the trolls.

What's your cardpool? Providing you with a decklist may work better than offering strategies, as you seem to understand the basics.

Yes man we need the deck list. Show it up!

Well, I was planning on competing in Juicebox's current tournament, so if I get help, it feels like cheating and probably shouldn't participate, but I'll try the scenario out anyway.

My card pool is 1 Core Set and the complete Shadows of Mirkwood cycle.

Heroes: Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli

Allies
(T) Gondorian Spearman 3x
(T) Vassal of the Windlord 3x
(T) Winged Guardian 3x
(T) Descendant of Thorondor 3x
(T) Eagles of the Misty Mountains 3x
(L) Snowbourn Scout 3x
(L) Son of Arnor 2x
(N) Gandalf 3x

Attachments
(T) Horn of Gondor 1x
(T) Dwarven Axe 2x
(T) Born Aloft 1x
(T) Support of the Eagles 3x
(L) Dúnedain Mark 3x
(L) Celebrían's Stone 1x
(L) Steward of Gondor 2x
(N) Song of Battle 2x

Events
(T) The Eagles are Coming! 3x
(T) Quick Strike 1x
(T) Swift Strike 1x
(T) Feint 2x
(L) Common Cause 2x
(L) For Gondor! 2x
(L) Sneak Attack 2x
(L) Valiant Sacrifice 2x
(L) Grim Resolve 1x

Total cards: 54
Leadership: 20; Tactics: 29; Neutral: 5;
Allies: 23; Attachments: 15; Events: 16

Support of the Eagles, Valiant Sacrifice, and Gandalf are my only sources of card draw
Aragorn and Common Cause are my source of Action Advantage
Steward of Gondor and Horn of Gondor are my sources of resource acceleration
Gandalf is my only source of threat reduction

Hmm. Needs more Dunedain Warning. If you have enough resources, but in the wrong places, try Parting Gifts or a different Song. Other optional heroes would be Boromir, Theodred, or Gloin. It might be worth dumping Grim Resolve just to help get you closer to an even 50 in your deck.

In my opinion, it's primarily the starting threat in your heroes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the encounter deck for this scenario contains two hill trolls. With your starting threat they're going to engage the minute they hit the table. You also give yourself only about three turns of successful questing (obviously fewer with unsuccessful) questing before all the trolls will come out to play when you get to stage 2.

If you're set on leadership and tactics as your spheres, I'd suggest finding a mix of heroes that lowers your starting threat level.

The decklist the OP provided is from Juicebox's latest tournament where you are forced to use Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli as your heroes.

But I believe the original question was more about generic strategies for the scenario.

I'll give it more thought tonight with that card pool kept in mind.

Yeah, this group of heroes is really limiting. I feel like my current strategy is to draw Gandalf, and Sneak Attack in my starting hand so I can give my self more time by decreasing my threat right away. You're right about the hill trolls, Scoob. That's been the main killer for me, as well as Sacked! Since I don't have a way to remove it and I'm not making it to stage 2 where I can defeat a troll and remove it.

Do you guys think Citadel Plate on Gimli is a good tactic for this deck? To be honest, I've only been using Gimli for questing (and his threat is way too high for that). When Sacked! comes out, I usually throw it on Gimli, especially if Celebrian's stone is on Aragorn by then.

Maybe I just need to be willing to lose 10 more times before I get the right card combos. I'm excited to beat it with the Three Hunters so I can move on to a Spirit/Lore deck. I think that could be really fun with this scenario, but I'm not moving on until I beat it with these three!

For the record, though it's surely a broader discussion than just my opinion, I don't see getting help as cheating.

It is a "cooperative" game, after all.

I played again tonight and solved my own problem. It occurred to me that the Eagles were just too costly for me to afford them all, so I abandoned that theme. Here is my new deck list.

Heroes: Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli

Allies
(L) Snowbourn Scout (3x)
(T) Gondorian Spearman (3x)
(S) Westfold Horse-Breaker (3x)
(N) Gandalf (3x)

Attachments
(L) Celebrían's Stone (1x)
(L) Steward of Gondor (2x)
(L) Dúnedain Mark (3x)
(T) Horn of Gondor (1x)
(T) Born Aloft (3x)
(T) Dwarven Axe (2x)
(S) Unexpected Courage (1x)
(S) Ancient Mathom (3x)
(N) Song of Kings (2x)
(N) Song of Battle (2x)
(N) Song of Travel (2x)

Events
(L) For Gondor! (2x)
(L) Ever Vigilant (2x)
(L) Valiant Sacrifice (2x)
(L) Sneak Attack (2x)
(L) Common Cause (2x)
(T) Quick Strike (2x)
(T) Fent (2x)
(S) The Galadhrims Greetings (2x)

Total: 51 cards

I found this deck worked really well together. A big part of that was keeping the cards cheap. The most expensive card was Gandalf, followed by The Galadhrim's Greetings. Cheap cards are important in this deck because you don't have a lot of time to build resources, even with Steward of Gondor. Also, you want to save up your Leadership resources so you can buy Grimbeorn the Old. In my experience, he's key to defeating the trolls -- worth every single one of the 8 resources it takes to use him.

I felt much more in control with this deck. The Westfold Horse-Breaker was certainly part of it. Having them on the table meant I could quest for +1 will, and not be afraid to send my heroes questing, because after the Quest Phase I could discard them and ready a hero. I rarely needed to do that, so it was nice to get the extra willpower from both the horse-breaker and from my heroes. In addition to the action advantage provided by Westfold Horse-Breaker, Ever Vigilant and Common Cause were also excellent to have. Ever Vigilant was great for allowing Grimbeorn the Old or Gandalf to either quest and attack, or attack twice in the same turn. Common Cause was great because I could load Gimli or Legolas with attack buffs and still let them quest because Aragorn could ready after questing and I could exhaust him to ready my fighter. (The alternative strategy, of course, is to just buff up Aragorn.)

The Galadhrim's Greeting was definitely a good card for reducing threat, but even more amazing was using Sneak Attack and Born Aloft. If timed right, you can play Gandalf 8 times with those cards. It was very useful.

Perhaps my favorite card of the entire game is Ancient Mathom, and it really came through for me in this deck. Combined with Valiant Sacrifice, this deck holds it's own in the card draw department. Gandalf could be used that way too, but I feel like he's needed much more for threat, and if not threat then for damage. Using him for card draw was definitely a last priority in this deck.

If you want to here how this deck fared in the field of battle, please check out this link to Juicebox's tournament . I had an awesome round, but I don't want to post it twice in the forums.