Finally played through "The Long Dark" last night in a two player game. I was playing my Dwarf Lore deck (Using Gloin, Bifur and Benavor) and my brother was playing my tactic deck (Brand, Legolas and Thalin). We got off to a shaky start because he failed the first locate test because my brother didn't want to discard his cards from his hand so we had to raise our threats by 7. However after that we kept the staging area clean and never had any of the lost effects triggered.

For being "The Long Dark", I thought it was weird that it was only two quest cards and being a 7 didn't make much sense. We fought some pretty nasty enemies but with Thalin (Which is a must include) we managered to take them out during the round they engaged us. Anyone else have a easy time with this quest?

Yeah ive played it three times in the last few days, once solo and twice with 2 players (each different people). The only time i lost was solo, simply because i was trying a new eagle multiplayer deck i used during the first co-op win and simply didnt have the questing ability i needed fast enough. Still it never really gave us much trouble. when i want a little challenge i usually spin through carrock solo

Hey Livingspeedbump, I absolutely agree with you! By the way, had a lot of fun Questing tonight!

Rhosgobel 6 >>> Long Dark 7

Road to Rivendell 4 > Massing at Osgiliath 9

as well as

Redhorn Gate 6 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Carrock 7 (even bigger gap if I were to put RtR at DL 4 here)

At first I would agree with you. My first attempt, just to test my decks, was 2 player using only Dwarves (Heroes and Allies) plus Gandalf. We couldn't believe how quickly we won. Only lasted 5 turns and we passed the only 'Test' on the 2nd attempt. Not believing it could be so easy, we played again with the same decks and hopefully better knowledge of what to expect. Result:- Arses whooped!!!! Fought on bravely for some time but just lost too many Heroes. Thoroughly enjoyed it but now know that it can and will turn nasty very quickly.

It seems to depend on 'when' you get the 'nasties'. One at a time can normaly be dealt with, but get 2 close together and watch out! Exausting all characters with enemies about hurts like hell! Having to discard an ally each that you kept back as 'canon fodder' can easily lose a Hero or two! Failing a 'Test' with lots of 'Lost' effects in play normally spells the end. Yes, it is all about 'timeing', which you can't control much, except with cards like 'Rumour from the Earth'. Overall I would have set it at level 5 as it is just 2 long hauls - Dain boosts Willpower - with only 1 really tough enemy, the Cave Troll - Dain boosts Attack. Nothing really new and similar to the Khazad Dum basics. The Watcher was my favourite with all those tentacles. Cheers!

Dam said:

Oh, kidding? Massing at Osgiliath is like hundred times harder than Road to Rivendell, I find that to be surely the easiest quest from both cycles. Have only done about 10 games of it which may not be enough but was never once threatened - and I certainly cannot say that about any other quest - even Hills of Emyn Muil gave me a struggle once or twice. Really the only way to lose this one is to that Sleeping Sentry Shadow card but if you keep the threat low - which is very easy here, you should not fight until you're prepared.

But this again shows people have different approach and style which fit different quests. I for instance had quite some struggle with the Carrock solo until I learned to wait, but then still, you can get Sacked and crippled big time and the Adder or Hill Troll can also hurt.

i found road to rivendell easy too - seems the only thing that could go wrong is sleeping sentry and if you have cancellation cards….

also watcher is fairly easy….its easier than what i thought to just snare the watcher and then open the doors at leisure

lleimmoen said:

Nope. Went 2-8 against both, honestly thought would go 0-10 vs MaO. RtR if you didn't draw your Shadow effect canceller in time, game lost. Or if you had your canceller but got nicked of your resources by a Treachery. Lost RtR even when I got Beravor + UC combo going off turn 1.

Here are two fairly normal games for me in RtR:

"Road to Rivendell

Leadership/Tactics and Spirit/Lore decks

Not much to tell. Double mulligan doesn't bode well, then Crebain sits in the staging area, meaning Undisturbed Bones hits Arwen for one. Pathless Country comes up as Shadow Effect, killing Arwen for a turn 1 loss. Heroes are defeated.

Road to Rivendell

Tactics/Spirit and Dwarf decks

Seven threat in the staging area after setup makes things look tough, but parties manage to quest successfully, even clearing a location and travelling to another. Then, three Enemies engaged, Sleeping Sentry as Shadow Effect kills Arwen. Heroes are defeated."

Carrock has never given me any trouble, in seven plays lost just one hero to Sacked + Roasted and even he came right back thanks to Landy.

Try Road to Rivendell with low threat beginning, actually try going under 27 at the start so that none of the baddies jumps at you in ambush. If you have got Háma already, try him with Dúnhere and Éowyn, for instance, you should have fun.

I had to try Road to Rivendell after this little discussion. This is a short report…

I take the three Rohan heroes I had mentioned. I get Follow by Night for set up, does nothing. Quest with Arwen and Éowyn, get Knees of the Mountain, discard useless Arwen (player card), place 5 progress. Travel to the location. Play Ancient Mathom and Horse-breaker next round. Staging is Undisturbed Bouns, kill the Horse-breaker, place 2 pt on the location, 4 on quest (total 9), nothing in the staging area. Play the Riddermark's Finest and Gondorian Spearman, quest with the two girls only again, staging is Bitter Wind, I lose some resources (four or five in total I think) and place seven more resources (after playing Elrond's Counsel), the threat is back on 26. Play Escort from Edoras but only quest with the girls again, staging is Goblin Taskmaster, I kill him with Hail of Stones (exhausting Horses, Escort, Spearman and Dúnhere), part 1 done, Goblin Gate enters play. Play another Horses and Ancient Mathom, quest with the two girls and 1 horses, staging is Followed by Night again, Goblin Gate finished, 3 cards drawn, 3 pt on the quest. Play West Road Traveller, quest with three girls now, staging is Orc Ambush, Taskmaster enters play from the discard pile, part 2 finished. I engage the Taskmaster, Spearman defends, leaves, Háma and Dúnhere finish the job, Háma exhanges Hail of Stone for another copy of Arwen. Staging area is again clean. Play another Traveller, quest with the four girls, staging is Sleeping Sentry which I cancel with A Test of Will. Had I not had the Will, I would have lost the two Travellers but were still half-way done, this way I only had 3pt left. Played nothing, staging was Orc Raiders, game finished.

I am not sure if this is lucky way for the things to go, I think the deck is very much suited for such a quest, even though I have not onced used Dúnhere's ability and only once Háma's. And the two have only attacked once. I haven't drawn Feint but having had drawn two copies of Ancient Mathom was quite lucky I guess, especially as there were exactly two locations in the entire game.

Overall, I think this is a very good example of a quest which is much easier solo than 4 players for instance. Also, it is a good example of a quest where Éowyn still seems super strong whilst Dáin could get killed early. Even if I could not use the player card Arwen, having the objective made playing Elrond's Counsel much easier.

Hope this helps, Dam, in your future experience with the quest…

RtR = secrecy scenario

-> Bilbo + Théodred

lleimmoen said:

I don't cherry-build for each quest. My decks are pretty much what they have been since I first put them together. Naturally weaker CS cards and AP cards have been dropped as better cards have come out and even a few heroes have been swapped here and there, but the basic structure (and idea behind them) is the same as it was.

I have five decks (from 2 Core Sets), which, when paired up once with each other decks equals 10 plays per quest. And key here is that no hero can be duplicated so that any two decks can be picked up and played.

Lore/Leadership (Denethor, Glorfindel, Gloin)

Leadership/Tactics (Aragorn, Theodred, Legolas)

Tactics/Spirit (Boromi, Brand, Dwalin)

Spirit/Lore (Eowyn, Eleanor, Beravor, on 7th level I had Dunhere instead of Eleanor)

Dwarf (Dain, Gimli, Bifur)

Wins against RtR were with Tactics/Spirit + Spirit/Lore (Beravor + UC spam from turn 1) and Lore/Leadership + Spirit/Lore (Beravor + BB + 2x UC).

Also, after I've played a quest those 10 times, whether I go 0-10, 5-5 or 10-0 is immaterial as far as playing the quest again goes, haven't bothered replaying any of the quest so far (bar Passage for a few test runs). And doubtful I'll bother revisiting any of the completed quests either. New quests are coming out with a steady rate.

I don't build decks with quests in mind either. I have a few decks like you do and take one (or more) that I feel most suited for the particular one. I don't even change a card, thus I still kept Arwen in the deck although there was not chance to use it in play.

I see you've got a really interesting approach to the game, with that 10 game limit. As for the decks you listed, I would suggest placing Dunhere with a Tactics hero, he seems to work so much better as such, being able to Unseenly Quick Strike enemies in the staging area.

leptokurt said:

Yes, secrecy or low threat in general. Bilbo Theodred seem a bit vulnerable but I haven't tried them. How do you deal with the enemies once you pass the threat barrier? Or do you manage to keep it down enough even without Spirit in the line-up?

I have manage five more games against the Road today, they were usually pretty quick, around 10 minutes. I did lose one in the final part of the quest just as I was going over the line the Orc Ambush got me without A Test of Will. It really seams even much worse (in general) than Sleeping Sentry. When I was looking back to that lost game I noticed I wasn't trying hard enough to finish as quickly as possible, and it has just cost me. I wouldn't choose my favourite Denethor plus Hobbits to this quest as they are pretty slow and it can be ominous here.

lleimmoen said:

Bilbo + Dúnedain Mark/Protector of Lórien + Bruning Brand + Fast Hitch is enough to deal with two or even three enemies. I rarely had more than two who can engage my fellowship. Thanks to Arwen one is able to play Faramir and the expensive lore allies very early, so WP is not a problem.

lleimmoen said:

Dunhere was originally in the Tactics/Spirit deck (which back with just CS was Gimli, Thalin, Dunhere), but he was always the odd man out, plus the deck couldn't quest to save its life, usually dragged down the other deck with it as well. Swapped him and Eowyn around to give T/S deck some questing, but then Dunhere was all but useless along with Beravor and Eleanor.

Thing is, three of the decks have a starting threat of 29, one 30 and ladies weigh in at 26. Which means Dunhere at best can get maybe one or two attacks into the staging area before Enemies start auto-engaging. Mostly it was just Hummerhorns and original Sniper that he's been killing, 7th Level had so many "add Goblin X to staging area" that there were Enemies added during combat, meaning they didn't engage this turn, so with a single +1 attack, Dunhere was useful in keeping the staging area clear. Of the tougher Enemies that do lurk in the staging area (engagement cost 35 or 40+), he needs buffing quite a bit to kill them in two turns, I prefer to choose to engage, throw a fodder at it and then gangbang. In a solo environment where you can manage your threat + low starting threat, I'm sure Dunhere kicks ass, but when he is left to attack Enemies that are already engaged, he is mediocre at best, nor does he really have any other attributes worth including him, he can't defend, crappy at questing.

And attack? I doubted not that you can manage the defences but who does the killing in the deck? Mirkwood Runner I suppose? As we have talked elsewhere, he seems very good for such a quest.

Is there a list of cards from The Long Dark? I'm interested in encounter deck english card names.

Could someone please write the names in this thread? (just the names)

ive looked- strangely nowhere seems to be updating the card lists- bbg doesnt and cardgamedb doesnt

Dam said:

I have been trying Dúnhere from the start. Have always found him special, even though at some games - and especially early with the limited card pool - he seemed not very useful. From the long experience, I came to a conclusion that he needs another Spirit hero - to provide for an relatively early Galadhrim's Greeting, and a Tactics hero - one is enough to play the important events or the occasional Spearman (or even some Eagles).

I actually think he has gained quite a bit of importance with some devastating shadow effects like the Sleeping Sentry - which is relatively mild in its treachery form.

That said I do agree, he might cause some headache trying to figure out the proper deck, and he might require deckbuilding around him, which is probably something many people aren't willing to do with their decks being fixed at a different strategy.

I still didn get TLD cose dont have time go to my shop (pack is there alredy).

First i was happy about difficult 7 but……. Many players wrote on forums this one is more easy then RTR. I dont understand FFG again. We geting more and more powerful player cards (Like Asfaloth) but encounter deck same time going to be more and more weak. Sound at least strange……..

Glaurung said:

Agreed. The last few packs have seen some really powerful player cards, but the encounter decks are not being raised to the same level.

for once i tend to agree….since the start i have always had the opinion that the quests were about right, with a couple of exceptions(playing solo that is), but there have been some absolute killer player cards recently (sword the was broken for instance) that i believe are far more powerful than anything we saw in mirkwood

The difficulty of TLD are mainly the location tests. Only less than a fourth of the cards of the encounter deck has the "pass" text, so in most cases a player has to discard at least half his hand to get through.

SPOILERS:

There are two cards that can really destroy your fellowship. One is a "when revealed" treachery that deals 2 damage to every single character (from both players!) if the starting player fails the location test. The other one is a location (threat 3/4, depending on the adventure card), that requires a location test to put progress tokens on it. The first can be cancelled with Eleanor or Test of WIll, the second by the new (and otherwise almost useless) Hobbit event card (exhaust a Hobbit character to shuffle a revealed location back into the encounter deck and take a new card instead)

That's why I think TLD is harder than RTR, but less difficult than any other KD and Dwarrowdwelf scenario so far. I usually manage to pass one location test, but if there is a second, I get in trouble. But as I finish this quest in 6-7 rounds, this problem occurs only rarely.