Just thought i would share my experience of questing during Return to Mirkwood this afternoon as i couldnt have had two opposite games if id tried. But hey thats what i love about this game!! My first game lasted 9 turns and the cards couldnt have fallen better. My heros were Eowyn and Glorfindel for their questing power and Denethor as defensive backup. Basically i quested like a mad man and raced through the stages as quick as i could and ended with my first win with this quest. The second game was somewhat different!! I turned a Hummerhorn first up which Gandalf managed to swat in turn 2, then to my shock Attercop Attercop turned up followed by a Troll. Game over!! Anyway, i absolutely loved every minute of it and the unpredictable nature of this game still keeps me enthralled. Cheers.

Nice Ted; wow, even though you had fun in that second game it still would have pissed me off. I finished playing through a few scenarios earlier won some and lost some. I have a deck I am working with now that can beat a lot of scenarios, but it failed twice at Journey Down the Anduin...this is a hard quest! If you don't have the attack power to take care of that troll, you are done for it seems.

Indeed, I had the same experience, especially in solo ! In multiplayer, it doesn't occur as much, but it is still frequent enough to keep you on your toes. Sometimes, a quest will be a breeze, but later on, a combination of Encounter Cards will make your adventure near-impossible. I think it adds a lot to the replay value.

However, I think that some of the newer scenarios add too many insta-death treacheries with catastrophic effects...cards that are so nasty that you effectively end up gearing your deck towards preventing them from taking effect. I like a challenge, but I usually prefer it when it's fair. Sleeping sentry, I am looking in your direction....

Glad you like it.

Just a slight idea, maybe next time do not worry about Hummerhorns that early in the game, even though the threat in this quest rises steeply, you might have time avoid it for some time - and the threat of 1 is not a big deal in the staging area. Thus you could have used Gandalf to block and hit the Attercop, even though this early in the solo, it is a deadly card indeed.

And a question, did you scout the encounter deck with Denethor? Especially at the end of round 1, or did you have to defend?

Yeh i stupidly held him back to defend instead of peeking at the top card. In future games if i havent got that Riversong card out i may use Denethor more to look at the encounter card.

The way I do it (and it may not be always right but it generally works) is to wait till combat, and then if he was not needed, use the ability to know what's coming in the next round. The first round will thus always be blind, unless you use Henamarth or Rumour of the Earth. With both Denethor and Henamarth, I would still wait on round 1, then at the end use Denethor first, and if you move the card, use Henamarth to still know what is coming.

Funny, I have just written about this in the little series of mine. Cheers.

This sounds like my first two plays of RtM. Game one I get attercop, attercop in setup and hill troll on turn one quest phase. Only lasted until turn two combat where I was forced to take the hill troll undefended killing Gollum.

Game two, six turns of heavy questing and not a single enemy showed up the entire game.

Ninjawa said:

That's why RtM fails in solo mode. I am playing I right now again and it feels more like a lottery than a tactical game. I never would have thought that I was happy to see Caught in the Web during the setup. Still better than Attercop, Attercop or Mr Hill Troll, those stupid bats etc

I will be giving RtM a go in 2 player mode later just to see how different it is as i play all my games solo. Ive been working on my 2 decks this morning, firstly 3 Tactic heros for Ranged attacks and allys(only Thalin will be questing mostly) then secondly a Spirit/Lore deck with Eowyn and Glorfindel for heavy questing plus Denethor for defence. Ive gone back to the start and played PtM which was enjoyable and beat it ok, ive just finished Journeying down the Anduin and that ran me close but i managed to beat it before my threat expired. Both decks were mid 40 threat. The stand out features were Denethor defending really well and the ranged attacks of Legolas and Brand. Dol Guldur is next but i havent beaten it yet so here goes!! Anyway, im really enjoying the 2 player mode which ive poo-pooed in the past. Cheers and thanks for all the tips in your previous answers.

Between this thread and the 20 heroes in Lore thread that mentioned Frodo, Glorfindel, and Eowyn as a team, I decided to try that combo out on Return to Mirkwood tonight. The first game started off great! I got Unexpected Courage (1x in my deck) and Fast Hitch in my starting hand. I played them both on Glorfindel and Frodo, respectively. It went really well, until the final stage where a Hill Troll was revealed. Try as we might, we just couldn't muster the martial prowess to take that troll down. I was kinda disheartened because I got so close, and I knew I wouldn't get that in my starting hand a second time. But I tried again.

Wouldn't you know, it, I got those two in my starting hand again! To make things better, I just got a measly Treachery card as the 1 card revealed per player. I was all ready to go. Sent all three of my heroes questing and BAM! Mirkwood Bats, surge. BAM! Wolf Rider, surge. BAM! Attercop, Attercop! I pretty much folded then and there.

Oh well. Tomorrow's another day.

Wow that is real bad luck! Im sure you will beat it though with that combo, my win ratio isnt great with RtM but i get a "glow" when you win. Earlier in this thread i mentioned i was playing Dol Guldur for the first time in 2 player mode and hey i beat it. Its weird as i have played this scenario in solo about 15 times and never won but first time up as 2 player, i win. Im thinking maybe i got the luck of the draw as a combo of eagle cards really made legolas and brand killing machines.

Dol Guldur solo is nigh impossible. I know it is beatable with a great amount of luck but it is a terribly scaled scenario for solo because most of the game you won't even last a few rounds. Who would want to keep shuffling all the time then? Osgiliath is way easier solo but much harder coop where Dol Guldur scales nicely for 2 or 3 players, becoming almost easy with 4. Those two scenarios seem to scale like night and day. Return to Mirkwood is similar to Dol Guldur but much better still, quite beatable and certainly more fun at the beginning for solo play. It is a very luck dependent quest though - more than others anyways, I feel.

I play all of my Dol Guldor games Secrecy style with only Aragorn as my Hero. Haha

The rules get a little complicated when he is "randomly" removed as a prisoner. Seriously though, isn''t it impossible to play this scenario with a single hero►