Hi all, I am a new player having a rough time with solo play. It was the main thing that interested me about LOTR, but it seems that solo play is extremely difficult. Right now I have almost all the cards, and still can't make a deck that consistently beats the intro adventure.

I managed to beat it twice the other day with a Leadership/spirit deck, but since then I've lost about 4 straight times. I can't imagine trying the other adventures yet if I get creamed most of the time with the easiest one.

The biggest problem seems to be trying to be able to do everything in one deck. If I quest well the spiders kill me, if I fight well I can't quest. It seems hard to find the right balance so far. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but so far I'm finding it really difficult to quest without Eowyn as a hero. Card draw seems very important, but if I mix Eowyn and Beravor, my threat seems too high.

Any tips?

Hi badash,

IMO you should try Éowyn, as she is capable of doing the questing alone in the first few rounds, leaving 2 other heroes to fight the spider. Perhaps you could Glóin as second hero. He could defend the first attack which gives you 2 extra leadership resources. Théodred is a good fighter, but his ability to provide you with extra resources is amazing.

General tipps:

Don't be afraid to sacrifice an ally when it helps you to defeat an enemy one round earlier. Use Snowbourn Scouts as meat shields against attacks. Try to lower your threat when you can. Faramir and Northern Tracker are especially helpful when it comes to questing. Keep one Gandalf in your hand in case you have to face Ungolint's Spawn in the end of the scenario (or to get 4 extra WP when you got Beorn's Path).

Are you sure you aren't "missing" on any basic rules?

A mistake often made by beginners is to keep counting the threat value of engaged enemies when questing. This could explain why you worry about your questing power...

If you go to the Player Community sub-forum, look at the Solo - Passage Through Mirkwood post. You'll find numerous decklists that beat the scenario multiple times in a row. These could make good starting points for you.

Thanks guys! Well I haven't been counting engaged enemies, but it's possible I'm not doing something right. I have usually been putting two heroes on the quest in the first round so I don't fall behind on threat. Is that a bad idea? When I loose I tend to not be able to make a lot of progress. I end up with too many engaged enemies and it takes everything to just defend their attacks.

badash56 said:

Do you ready a hero after travelling to the Old Forest Road?

IMO it's ok not to quest successfully in round 1. You could thus only send Éowyn and keep the other heroes ready.

Another strategy is to use Gimli. Send Éowyn and him questing, travel to OFR and ready Gimli, let the spider attack undefended, apply the damage to Gimli, and let Gimli kill the spider with a single strike.

leptokurt said:

Hmm that's a good idea. I haven't really tried the Tactics sphere yet. What would you do about the damage on Gmili then? I'm slowly getting better I think. I made another deck late last night and finally beat it. This time I used Eowyn, Theodred, and Beravor as heroes. I was a little weary about using three spheres, but the healing cards really helped out defending.

Which heroes are you using? Because honestly, you will never win against the majority of the encounters by yourself with some of the hero choices.

I've been playing for a couple of months and have tried a lot of different combos with the game. Leave your tactics cards in the box - that is the "support" sphere and cannot EVER win when used in solo games.

Likewise for almost all of the Leadership cards. You can splash Theodred or Gloin in the hero pile if you want but to do so means you will have to play a 3-sphere combo and without Song cards it is almost impossible.

A solo deck, regrettably, MUST be centered around Lore/Spirit, if you want to have a chance at winning. And you pretty much have to use the "tier 1" heroes. This means:

Eowyn/Dunhere/Bifur

Beravor is awesome. Theodred is awesome. The Lore guy that lets you look at the top card of the encounter deck is awesome. But I have tried them all, and the fastest, most effective route to winning overall (I am talking about all of the quests) by yourself is with the combo above. Your threat starts at 24, which is low enough to allow Dunhere to fight the enemies in the staging area. Eowyn is your quester with Bifur as back-up when needed. But Bifur is your blocker for the times an enemy comes your way. In terms of resources, the three of them interact very well. Bifur can get 2 resources a round, and the double spirit heroes provide 2 per round as well. I've had turns where I didn't do anything except move tokens to Bifur, and I never have problems playing any of the cards in my hand.

In solo mode, there are only 2 things you need to rely on - threat reduction and healing. That's it. Ironically, the spheres that specialize in those abilities the strongest also happen to have the best questing allies. And most of those questers can fight, too, which is nice. I don't know what your deck build is, but let me walk you through mine. I have been tweaking it from the time The Redhorn Gate came out, and I am actually at a point where I am getting bored with the game because I hardly ever lose.

I don't know the name of every card but I can hit the highlights of what's in my deck.

Gandalf x3, obviously. Every player should have 3 of him. He is also the only 5-cost card in the deck, or at least the only one with 3 copies. There is one copy of the guy who lets you look at the top 3 cards. I've been able to play him every game, even just having Bifur.

West Road Traveller x3 - another must have. Use these to swap disadvantageous locales with ones that provide a boon. For example, I will travel to Old Forest Road and then swap it for the one that makes me discard 2 cards at random as part of the travel cost, thus bypassing the penalty.

Heimdall - I think that's his name. He costs 1 lore and lets you look at the top card of the encounter deck. I was crazy enough to buy 2 starters, so I run both copies of him. He is a life-saver. At the end of every turn, he looks at the top card so I know how many cards to commit to the quest on the next turn. Sometimes, he blocks and dies when something unanticipated happens. But that's okay, because I have...

Stand and Fight x3 - I almost took this card out of the deck when I learned you can't use it to bring Gandalf back, but I am glad I kept it in there. It can pull back cheap allies who can block a second time or, as in the case of Heimdall, go back to performing its standard function for the deck.

The 2-cost Lore card drawer - Again, I run 2 copies of this guy. When I draw the second one, it gets discarded to Eowyn for the quest bonus, or to...

Protector of Lorien x2 - Bonus to defense, bonus to quest. I've actually won games because of this card. I would dump my whole hand into the discard pile to get the last tokens on the quest, or to keep Bifur alive.

The event healing card x3 - I used to use the Daughters of wherever, but this card is better. You can heal any character, not just heroes. In team games, I will toss the Daughters back in, but they aren't really necessary for 1-player games. I realized a while ago I am a better player without them as a crutch.

Greetings from the Galadrhin x3 - I tried this with 2 copies and it worked okay, but you wouldn't believe what that 3rd copy does for the game.

Test of Will x3 - If this isn't in your opening hand, reshuffle.

Hasty Strike x3 - I was on the fence about these since I also run 3 copies of A Burning Brand, but I hate Shadow effects, and Bifur can't block everything. This has saved my butt many, many times.

Dwarven Tomb x2 - If I had a 3rd copy, I'd run it. Pulls back the greetings. Pulls back Spirit allies. Pulls back Test of Will or Hasty Stroke. Fantastic!

Ally protectors something or other x3 - These are the guys who quest for 4 but then die at the end of the round. When Watcher in the Water comes out, I'm dropping them for the Arwen card and whatever other goodies are in the set. But right now they play nicely with Stand in Fight when I really, really need a quester.

Mirkwood Runner x3 - 3 Defense? No problem, you take 2 damage! 7 Defense? No problem, you take 2 damage!! These guys cut through anything when they fight alone, and with the help of Dunhere and Gandalf they frequently deal the killing blow to a bothersome Hill Troll or some other enemy that's been sitting in the staging area for a few rounds waiting to be pulled.

A Burning Brand x 3 - Bifur blocks. Bifur cancels your shadow. Additional copies provide questing power bonuses.

Bofur - I like to play him for 1 spirit on a round when I know I will quest unsuccessfully. His stats rock. If he's not questing, he's blocking or attacking something. The second copy is my replacement for when he dies the first time.

Miner of the Iron Hills x2 - This is the only card I drop sometimes, if I know the quest I'm facing has no conditions. But he saves the day against ones that do run conditions when you don't have Test of Will in your hand or want to save it for something else.

Dwarven Craftsman x3 - I discard my attachment for +1 Willpower. I play him and put it back in my hand. He blocks. He dies. I discard an attachment for +1 Willpower. I play Stand and Fight and put him back in play. I retrieve my attachment. He blocks. He dies. I discard my attachment for +1 Willpower. You get the idea.

Northern Tracker x2 - This guy needs no explanation. You can get overwhelmed by locations very fast and he takes care of it.

I'm sure there are other cards, but that is the basis for the deck. I expect to make changes this week (I have proxied Arwen and she is amazing!), but I won't know all of them until I see the card list.

I'd like to focus now on the Passage to Mirkwood quest that you are having trouble with. Let me tell you about a typical round 1 for me. I draw my hand, and play at least 1 ally, preferably a 2-cost Lore one like Gleowine, who can draw me a card or block in a pinch. This lets me keep a spirit resource handy for Test of Will or Hasty Stroke. Even better, it sets me up for round 2 if I don't need to play one of those cards (or don't have them in my hand). I can use the one saved spirit token with the 2 new ones I get and play Greeting to reduce my threat. Really, it doesn't matter what ally it is. The only time I might not is play an ally if I have Gandalf in my opening hand, but truthfully I have gotten to a point with it that there are some games I just discard him. He's awesome but he's not always necessary. The biggest mistake I made early on was to play him as soon as I drew him AND had 5 resources. I don't do that anymore. If I don't need to lower my threat or for him to kill an enemy, then it stays put in my hand. I almost never use him to draw cards, either. Frankly, he could have that option left off and cost 3 instead. But anyway, back to the subject.

So I play an ally, hopefully something that can quest. If I have Bofur, then I spend one spirit as a quest action and drop him into the quest. The opening threat is three, so questing with Eowyn, the ally (usually a Willpower of 1-2), and Bifur, I'm hitting it for 7-8. Flip the card, deal with the effects and then Dunhere hits the spider. The worst that can happen is I flip the "boss" spider with the threat of 32 and he saps my willpower. But that's what Test of Will is for. Or I just discard to Eoywn to offset it. That happens so rarely, though. Outside of that worst-case scenario, the most common horror is flipping the location with the threat of 3 that requires you to discard 2 cards at random. I used to go ahead and do it but not anymore. I just play around it until the West Road Traveller or the Northern Tracker can take it out.

So we've quested. We added 1-2 progress tokens, typically. Then, it's time to travel. If I flipped a low-threat enemy that I know I will have to block, it's off to the Old Forest Road we go and Bifur readies. If not, then Dunhere just smacks the Spider for 2 damage and its onto round 2. This is where you either have to throw down a second ally or reduce your threat. The deck almost always plays itself, so the decision should be fairly obvious. Quest with Eowyn and the ally with the highest willpower (or the one that can't do anything special like draw cards or offer foresight about the encounter deck). Use Bifur to block the spider, and Dunhere to attack it for 1 more damage. You may have to do this a 3rd time if you don't have another attacker. If you have the Mirkwood Runner, send Dunhere against whatever is in the staging area and let the Runner deal with the spider.

The only time I lose against this quest is when the Forest Spider is engaged and I flip the King Spider without a Test in my hand, but that might be once every 20 games or so.

Finally, don't let the "challenge ratings" get you down. I disagree with the scores most of them are given, and I have wondered sometimes who came up with the number. Hunt for Gollum is a 4, but I found it easier than Passage to Mirkwood. The same is true for Conflict at the Carrock. Of course, you have to play some variant of THIS deck to have that level of success, at least that has been my experience.

Anyway, I hope that helps. Don't give up, you will get there. Happy hunting!

badash56 said:

You leave the damage on him. 3 damage tokens give him 3 more attack points, which is helpful if it comes to a fight with Ungoliant's Spawn. If yoou spent him the Citadel Plate he can even get stronger. Tactics also has cool cards like "Feint" or "Qucik Strike" which help you in case of emergency.

Boris is right though that the tactics sphere most of the time is not as useful as others, because it lacks allies with WP (in the core set; it gets slightly better with the adventure packs). However, if you combine it with two spirit heroes, you still have enough WP to make progress in the quest.

I don't agree about his opinion about leadership heroes. Théodred is simply one of the best heroes in the game, especially if you play three sphere decks. Glóin isn't too bad too, as he is very helpful at the start of the game when your party is still vulnerable. Combine those two with Gimli and try to get either Faramir or Steward of Gondor or the Sneak Attack/Gandalf combo in your starting hand - your fellwoship should be unstoppable. If you're able to play Gandalf in round 1 with Sneak Attack, don't hesitate to kill the Forest Spider immediatly with his ability. That way you won't get in trouble if you draw another spider in round 1. Fighting against two enemies early in the game can turn the game in a slaughterhouse. Killing the Forest Spider ASAP prevents this and gives you more time to build up your forces.

Boris also made some very useful suggestions about which cards to use. Some of these are not in the core set though, so you might not be able to use them yet. I'm not sure if Erebor Hammersmith's (Dwarven Craftsman) ability triggers when you put him into play via Stand and Fight.

Wow thanks for the posts guys, lots of great info! Boris, I appreciate the breakdown, it's very helpful. I have played a few matches with spirit/lore, but had a different hero make up and ended up with too high starting threat. Ended up with two engaged enemies on the first turn. I have most of those cards I think and will give it a shot tonight.

I still like leadership also, but I think my trouble was using two leadership heroes with high threat, and paired them with Eowyn. Then just had too many spiders to deal with.

Will report back how it goes!

The bleow deck has proven itself to me through the first two encounters of the core set, and all three encounters of Khazad Dum. I have solo'd them all. While I generally agree with some of the above sentiments, this deck proves that it is possible to build a great deck that uses three separate spheres (although, not the Tactics, as noted above). I wish I could claim this build, but it was actually posted on the website a couple months ago in an article, and I had to try it out. I will move on to anothe deck build soon, as this one has already proven itself to me. I'll follow the list with a few notes on strategy of this deck.

Heroes:
Bifur
Dáin Ironfoot (Return to Mirkwood, 116)
Dwalin

Starting Threat: 27

Neutral:
Gandalf x3

Leadership:
Brok Ironfist x1
Faramir x2
Grim Resolve x1
Longbeard Orc Slayer x2
Sneak Attack x2
Steward of Gondor x2

Lore:
Beorn’s Hospitality x1
Daughter of the Nimrodel x2
Erebor Hammersmith x2
Erebor Record Keeper x3
Gildor Inglorion (The Hills of Emyn Muil, 79) x3
Gléowine x2
Henamarth Riversong x1
Miner of the Iron Hills x2
Protector of Lórien x2

Spirit:
A Test of Will x2
Dwarven Tomb x1
Fortune or Fate x1
Hasty Stroke x2
Northern Tracker x2
Stand and Fight x3
Untroubled by Darkness x3
Will of the West x2
Zigil Miner x3

Tactics:
Beorn x1

Most of these cards are from the core set, with a few splashed in from expansions here and there. The key to this deck is resource generation and card draw. I have literally RUN OUT of resource tokens using this deck. I typically end up with 10-15 allies in play with little difficulty, so I refer to this as the HORDE deck.. lol.

The important mechanic for succes is based around 2 unlikely cards: Gildor Inglorien and Zigil Miner. Once you are able to get these out, it is crazy how fast you start getting cards out. Gildor exhausts to look at the top 3 cards of your deck, swap one into your hand, and replace all three back onto your draw pile. Then exhaust Zigil Miner to "name a number" and discard the top two cards of your deck. If your number matches the cost of one of those cards (which it should, since you JUST LOOKED AT THEM with Gildor), you can place that many resources onto one of your heros. Which is why this deck justifies using so many 4/5/6-cost cards. Once you have used those two cards, you can use Gleowine to draw up the extra card (for more cards in your hand). The best part about this deck is the synergy it creates between the three dwarven heros of different spheres. Bifur quests, Dwalin kills orcs to lower your threat, and Dain pumps up the other's stats (and the Horde of dwarven allies you'll be playing soon), and defends when he must (be sure to pop the Dwarven Record Keeper to ready him again for his bouses). Don't be afraid to "burn" your high-cost cards using Zigil, since you'll be shuffling them back into your deck with Will of the West, or pulling those allies out of the discard pile with Stand and Fight, or using Dwarven tomb to keep the spirit "esacpe" cards in hand (Hasty Stroke, etc...)

Basically, if you don't draw up Zigil Miner or Steward of Gondor in your initial hand, mulligan to try and get one of those. I just introduced a friend to this deck, and he couldn't get either card in his initial draw or mulligan, and he STILL was blown away by how well this deck churned through the encounter deck for him. A GREAT solo deck.

Although I have not yet been able to be suucessful against Escape from Dol Guldur (difficulty 7), due to starting with one of your heros "captured"... it destroys the synergy, and it's not like you can use your Fortune or Fate to get him back... cause he ain't dead. On the other hand, I completed Flight from Moria (also difficulty 7) with a finishing score LOWER than my starting threat level! If you have most of the cards in the game, definitely give this one a try!

leptokurt said:

I should have explained the leadership sphere comments better. I did say that Theodred and Gloin are good heroes. The problem is that for a 1-player game, Leadership doesn't offer much more than Tactics does, and what I learned from playing with the different cards is that splashing Leadership just slowed my decks down - even with Theodred or Gloin as the Leadership hero - and that I was better off to limit myself to the 2 spheres that reduced threat and offered healing.

Of course, as more cards come out the limitations of these spheres could (hopefully) decrease. I would love to be able to solo a Tactics deck.

I had not thought about a Leadership/Tactics concept the way it was presented. I will have to try that out.

Also, I went back and looked when I got home and you are right. Stand and Fight doesn't work with the Hammersmith the way I thought. Oops, lol - oh well, that's not the first rules mistake I made and probably not the last either.

Okay, time to go to Rivendell!

I completely agree with your last post here Boris the Dwarf!

Hey guys, thanks for the advice! I put together a deck like Boris suggested, and it did very well. I went 3-4 on passage through mirkwood, the only loss being some really bad luck on encounter pulls. The final game I managed to score 65 which was the lowest I''ve gotten.

I tried the next quest also, (journey down the anduin), and managed to beat that one also! However my score was 141, it took me ten turns to finish. I was stuck on the hill troll for 7 rounds I think.

I think I have a better idea what is important to solo decks now, thanks guys!

Boris_the_Dwarf said:

That's a bit harsh. I've been running a Spirit/Tactics deck, and with minor tweaks to the heroes and deck depending on which quest I'm doing, I've had some pretty good success. I haven't been able to beat Escape from Dol Guldur with it, and I haven't tested it against Journey to Rhosgobel or Return to Mirkwood yet, but other than those quests I've been able to beat each quest after a couple of tries, even Massing at Osgiliath.

Saying that it cannot EVER win and telling OP to keep them in the box is limiting. Tactics might not work for you, but it can work for other people. I personally don't enjoy using Lore, and because of that I don't include Lore cards in my decks, but I wouldn't tell someone not to use Lore cards because I can see the inherent benefits that sphere brings. What's good about this game is that there are multiple ways of beating a quest, meaning every sphere is viable.

Cotillion37 said:

Ugh, can't get the quotes to work right so I will go back and delete it to clean it up. Here is my post:

You're right; it is harsh, and I make no apologies for that. I am glad you are doing well with Tactics and would love to know how you make it work for you. That said, I find the game to be imbalanced for solo in that a person cannot just pick up any sphere and run with it and expect to win a reasonable amount of the time (75% would be reasonable, I'd say).

The problem I have with Tactics is that almost all of the characters have 0 willpower. How do you deal with things like The Redhorn Gate or Hunt for Gollum where you most likely constantly fall further and further behind on questing? What about The Dead Marsh when you have to make Escape tests AND quest? I can pick any Lore character and accomplish the same thing you can with Tactics cards AND also be able to quest when necessary. I will win in half the time it takes you and with 1/4 of the damage at the end of the game. Not trying to sound crass or anything, but compare Mirkwood Runner to Veteran Axehand, or Infighting to Hail of Stone. Some of the cards that are in Lore should be Tactics cards. Anything Tactics can do Lore can do better, except perhaps Ranged attacks - which is another reason I call it the "support" sphere for 2-player games. Additionally, all of the Tactics heroes have a starting threat that is just way too high. If I had to wager, I'd bet your heroes are Legolas/Gimli/Frodo, and that you fight very bloody battles in order to squeak by on those wins. I realize some people have that play style, the thrill of a come-from-behind victory. I like that sometimes, too, but I also like knowing that I am not just stumbling recklessly through the quest deck counting on luck to carry the day. That is my play style. There's really nothing wrong with either approach.

Of course, I'd prefer if the Tactics sphere were more balanced for the 1-player game, or for Leadership cards to offer something more than a tertiary role in the game. Every time a new expansion came out with the first cycle, I found myself removing a leadership card in favor of a spirit or lore card.

I do have a tactics/leadership/lore solo deck, and I have played it with some success against the enemy-heavy adventures. I've also run tactics with leadership and with spirit and have had less luck. Maybe I am doing something wrong, but from my experience there was never any strategy in the deckbuilding with Tactics. I can't get past the fact that questing is impossible. That's how you win almost every scenario.

No, I don't think you're too far off. I love playing with Tactics, but I must admit that I'm quite tolerable of a low win percentage. Tactics is fun, but not always reliable. I must say, though, I've never felt like my Lore characters were very martial. It never feels like I can battle a horde of enemies with Lore like I can with Tactics.

It can be hard to keep pace. The Mirkwood Runner helps. So does the Northern Tracker and Dunhere. Miners of the Iron Hills have been known to kill enemies, usually by joining with another 1-2 Attack rating ally/hero.

Some serious tactics hate here!

If you play solo, you don't need to play 3 questing heroes. Sure, tactic sphere is not great with fighting locations but the game is not only about locations and questing! Adding someone from Tactic sphere gives you access to some amazing cards like feint, descendants, quick strikes, hail of stones, wassal of the windlord etc. Try to build balanced deck, that can cover a lot of different areas. So you can win multiple quests with the same deck.

I play 90% of my games solo and have had a lot of success with spirit/lore decks. I love tactics for the pure killing power but only play them in my few 2 player modes to be honest. Why dont we try a little experiment over the next month? Say we start with the core set and the Shadow of Mirkwood sets. We then note down which heros we play and go through the 9 scenarios, listing how many wins we get out of the 9 games. Then swap heroes each time, testing out new combos etc. At the end of this month(or weekly) we can put up our results and see which combos are most successful in solo mode. Anyone up for that?

Ted Sandyman said:

Once the Watcher in the Water is out there won't be many participators for this. Perhaps you might just take a look at Juicy's tournaments to see whivh heroes were used how often. I'm sure you will find out that most of the heroes are from the spirit sphere, and almost none from tactics. IMO tactics is a sphere that can be played solo and usually grants you a good win/loss ratio, but it's still far away from achieving those brilliant results that one gets with spirit/lore/leadership.

The exception might be the Darven decks. Dáin makes Thalin a 2 WP quester (Gimli gets even 3 WP, but you get a starting threat problem), and he allows you to use Veteran Axehand as a cheap quester who has also great fighting skills.

Beat Journey Down the Anduin again, I'm starting to get the hang of the game I think!

Any suggestions for a good 2 player hero set up for some synergy? I was thinking of trying to get a friend to play also. Maybe Leadership/Spirit and Tactics/Lore?

leptokurt said:

guciomir said:

Not sure if my comment from before was deleted or if it just didn't go through. In any case, to sum up my comments from earlier, I don't play 3 questing heroes. I run Bofur and Eowyn and Dunhere. Infighting is better than Hail of Stone. Mirkwood Runner ignores defense when attacking. It's true that the game isn't only about questing and locations, but that is the primary focus. If you aren't questing, you're losing. It's like Chess. You can stop to capture every enemy piece but you only need to checkmate the king to win. And after you capture every other piece, you still have to capture the king. The same is true here.

What's worse, while you're not questing, your edging closer to defeat because your threat level goes up and the game gets harder. Since Tactics has no threat reduction, you're just that much more in danger of losing. The only Tactics character that can do anything to score progress tokens is Legolas, but that means putting in a 9-threat hero with a worthless ability for solo play.

I have a balanced deck that I use for multiple quests. And I would daresay I can win any quest in half the time it takes a Tactics-based deck.

Boris_the_Dwarf said:

Are you insinuating that a Tactics-deck is inherently unbalanced? If you're using a balanced deck, of course you're going to win faster than a deck based primarily on Tactics. Change your sentence from "Tactics-based" to "deck with Tactics" and I think I could accept your statement. Hmm, now I really want to try out some solo Tactics . . .