Great idea!

I'm playing the 1 player version with Dain, Gloin and Bifur.

1. Passage Through Mirkwood: quite fast and easy, specially since I play Gleowine first turn to draw extra cards. 1-0

2. Journey Down the Anduin: 27 starting threat is a good amount to deal with Hill Troll, specially if you play Gandalf just in time. Later I spent a few turns crossing the river (too many sites in play), but it was good enough to enter Lorien (a dwarf host entering Lorien! hehe). 2-0

3. Escape from Dol Goldur: I guess I could play a hundred games with no chance of win this scenario. Anyway, this time Bifur was imprisoned, so no green resources, so end of story. 2-1

4. Hunt for Gollum: an interesting and close game. I had collected two clues when I was facing a 1-wound left orc and some crebain. I was thinking about not defending the orc, but finally I play a Longbeard Slayer with Sneak Attack, slaying him. Then I discarded his shadow card, and it was Hunters from Mordor! Its shadow effect would have killed both Bifur and Gloin, since they were already wounded. So I said no more risk!, and I managed to defend every other attack through the end of the game. 3-1

5.Conflict at the Carrock: long game. First I have to deal with some sites that prevent me to reach the Carrock. When I make it, threat is over 34 but I play a sneaky Gandalf to reduce it. Then I can face one troll at a time, which makes thing easier. 4-1

To be continued…

It has been a while since I have been able to post our narratives and honestly I don't remember much of the details of our quests, but I will try to recall all that I can from our recent excursions into Middle-Earth. I am excited to see a number of 1P entries begin to come in and hope that in the weeks to come we will begin to see more multi-player adventures enter into our standings.

Mdowd and Idowd2P Narratives:

Journey to Rhosgobel: It was yet another tough fight to keep Wilyador alive and in the end he fell by damage and we were defeated (4-2)

Emyn Muil: This one was embarrassing. I don't remember the last time we lost in this quest. I honestly think I have only lost to the quest one other time. Locations simply piled up in the staging area and our threat soared through the roof. Eventually we both hit 50 threat and our quest came to an end and we were infuriated (4-3)

Dead Marshes: The losing streak finally came to an end. We were able to maintain a relatively small number of resource tokens on Gollum (4 I believe) and MDowd's final escape check was a breeze with a board full of solid questing allies. (5-3)

Return to Mirkwood: This one was close in the early stages, but then unexpectedly IDowd lost all of his heroes in the third stage of the quest and MDowd was forced to continue the journey alone. All the progress tokens were placed on the final quest, but a lone Attercop Attercop prevented MDowd for taking the team to victory. Once again, this is a deck that is ill prepared for combat and this quest proved it again. (5-4)

Into the Pit: The second half of the "season" began with a bang as we quickly marched into the pit and to victory. It was nice to see the newer encounter sets after 9 quests against the original sets. (6-4)

Mdow d, Idowd, and Adowd 3P Narratives:

Journey to Rhosgobel: This one was truly frustrating. The third player offered even more opportunities for Wilyador to receive damage off of the encounter deck. While it did bring out all the Athelas into the playing area we were unable to free all of it and attach it to our heroes before Wilyador fell. For Mdowd this puts my record against this quest at 0-3 for the tournament. As has been mentioned, this is the quest that screams "build a deck for me" and is a hard quest to win without the right deck construction. (5-1)

Emyn Muil: ADowd's questing heavy deck was wonderful in this quest as we dropped progress tokens all over the place. Finding the required amount of victory was never a problem in the quest. Clearing out all of the Emyn Muil locations, however, proved to be a challenge. In a similar situation as my 1P journey to the hills of Emyn Muil it was an eventual victory, but it was slow…painfully slow. I truly love the variety of the quests in this game, but I'll have to admit that the Hunt for Gollum and the Hills of Emyn Muil are my two least favorite quests and I am happy to have made it past these two quests in my 1P tournament, and our 2P and 3P tournaments. (6-1)

Dead Marshes: This one was crazy. As the encounter deck came to the point where it became depleted Gollum was given the dreaded 8th resource token. The encounter deck was reshuffled and we all hoped that Gollum would not find himself coming off as a shadow card or as an escape test card from an encounter card effect (which seems preposterous if Gollum isn't even in play). About half way through the encounter deck, after resetting to 1B a couple of times in between, and using threat reductions throughout, the slimy little creature was discovered and we blazed through the marshes in quick order. I think this marks only the second time we have done a "lost and found" with Gollum and actually won the quest. (7-1)

Solo Player - Lore Masters deck. Bifur/Bilbo/Strider

10. Into the Pit: WIN.

11. 7th Level: WIN

12.Escape from Moria: WIN - I felt very happy to go through Moria unscathed.

13. The Redhorn Gate: WIN

14. Road to Rivendell: LOSS. Sleeping Sentry, of course.

15. Watcher in the Water: WIN - Lore's great at this thanks to being able to peek at the deck, no fighting the Watcher though…

16. The Long Dark: LOSS - WHAT!?! I was so pissed about this. This scenario is so easy but I got a couple bad shadow cards and fate killed me.

2 Player Tournament: Eowyn/Frodo/Gimli and Bifur/Dain/Beravor Cont.

5. Conflict at the Carrock: WIN, one of things I like most about this tournament is that we don't have to worry about score. It's a nice change of pace from the other tournaments and requires a different kind of strategy for your deck, ie consistency (and flexibility). So with the Carrock, we just took our time and made sure we were ready before taking on the trolls. Not too hard but still fun.

6. Journey to Rhosgobel. LOSS. Too much damage on heroes from all those treachery cards!

7. Hills of Emyn Muil: WIN. Boring.

8. The Dead Marshes: WIN. My brother and I hold the top spot in the Juicebox 2 player tournament for this quest. I always find that the final escape test always is anticlimactic and gives you hardly any escape value to worry about. Frodo with Protector of Lorien and Fast Hitch really made this one possible.

9. Return to Mirkwood: WIN This was much more challenging and a good scenario. The strategy around who holds Gollum is very engaging, I like it. We faced an early Attercop and Ungoliant's Spawn and still came out on top.

Mdowd said:

I'll be looking to start a 2P campaign within the next couple of weeks. Hoping also to see more players join in.

Here is what I have so far with my dwarf deck (Dain Ironfoot/Bifur/Gimli)

Passage Through Mirkwood: Not too bad Won in eight turns. (1-0)

Journey Down the Anduin: Close Win on 11th turn with 44 threat (2-0)

Escape from Dol Guldor: With a three-sphere deck, not a chance. (2-1)

Hunt for Gollum: Win on turn 5. (3-1)

Conflict at the Carrock: My deck betrayed me in the end. Loss. (3-2)

Journey to Rhosgobel: Stupid bird. Heck with it. Giant drumstick anyone? Loss (3-3)

Hills of Emyn Muil: Yes, no problem. Win. (4-3)

Dead Marshes: A troll eats Gimli whole on the first turn and I lost. (4-4)

Return to Mirkwood: Too much corruption and a biting Gollum who doesn't brush or floss and I lost. (4-5)

Into the Pit: A breeze and I'm in my element. Win. (5-5)

Seventh Level: Tough game with two early cave trolls but I survived and won! (6-5)

Flight from Moria: Run away! Run away! Aaaghhhhhhh! Loss. (6-6)

The Redhorn Gate: Much snow plowing by dwarves. We lost Dain, but won! (7-6)

Road to Rivendell: One Sleeping Sentry as a shadow card and my party of three heroes and six followers were gone. (7-7)

Hoping to pull of a winning season with four games left to play.

Poor me!

Won every scenario apart from Escape from DG and Return to Mirkwood.

Then I read the rules again….Argh, I used the new Glorfindel.

Whoops…I'm sorry. Another go perhaps?

2 Player Tournament - Bifur/Dain/Beravor and Eowyn/Frodo/Gimli

10. Into the Pit - LOSS

11. 7th Level - WIN

12. Escape from Moria - LOSS

13. Redhorn Gate - WIN This win took us 14 turns! We got stuck by not drawing either of the other peaks the whole first time through the deck. By the end we were in total control of the staging area and were just waiting for that final 2 victory points, wheww!

14. Road to Rivendell - WIN

15. Watcher in the Water - WIN (Score: 95) This was a great score for us and was provided by Rumour from the Earth and getting through the Doors quickly.

16. The Long Dark - WIN I actually really enjoyed this game. We lost a location test early in the game and so LD actually provided a challenge for us. Usually this scenario is very boring.

17. Foundations of Stone - WIN We did not add any new cards from Foundations of Stone, mostly because I forgot! As usual, go slow at the beginning and prepare yourself for being washed away.

I'm really happy that we made it through the Dwarrowdelf cycle with wins!

We've just started our three player campaign:

Passage through Mirkwood - won

Journey Along the Anduin - won

Both fairly comfortable victories. More to follow shortly, I hope.

And I'm back on the solo tournament trail with victory against Foundations of Stone. I don't think this quest is too hard solo once you know how to play it, although it does have some nasty tricks. I didn't really see any of them, flipped Endless Caves for stage 4 which is I think quite favourable, and was able to go through stages 4 and 5 in one turn each to avoid seeing much of the FOS encounter deck. So I am 15-2 with just one to play….

Just a question on how the new FAQ/errata should affect this tournament, for those of us who are in the middle of playing the sequence of games.

Should we just implement the new errata for future games and plough on? Or should we consider that the errata render our previous results "invalid" in some sense?

Due to the fact that this tournament began using 1.2 rules and there has already been many quests logged, we will not adhere to the 1.3 card errata as it applies to Beravor, Zigil Miner, and Protecter of Lorien; however, please use the rule clarifications and the FAQ's included in 1.3.

We've finally managed to get going on the two-player front, and I'm hopeful we'll have time to get through the campaign within the time window.

Results as follows:

1. Passage through Mirkwood - WON

2. Journey Along the Anduin - WON

3. Escape from Dol Guldur - WON - got a pretty tough draw (three enemies on the objectives) but fought our way through

4. The Hunt for Gollum - WON - almost got location locked but saved by Northern Tracker at the crucial time

5. Conflict at the Carrock - WON - actually nearly messed this up due to high threat

6. A Journey to Rhosgobel - WON

7. The Hills of Emyn Muil - WON

More to follow soon, hopefully.

Hello !

I am a newcomer as a poster in this forum, and I am posting here as I absolutely LOVE the idea of making and comparing decks that can sustain different kinds of quests.

However, there are a few rules I don't really like:

• what's the point of the sideboard ? it kind of breaks the idea of 'one deck to rule them all' according to me.

an example: 'Healing herbs' or 'lore of Imladris' are situational otherwise, but they shine in the Voyage to Rhosgobel. I prefer having a difficult choice to make: to accept the burden it/they may be to your deck in other quests in order to profit from them in that one.

• the rules have changed with the last FAQ, let's play with it. We can still consider and compare the results of the previous entries played with the old rules, but it would be strange playing now (and 'officially' abusing) with obsolete cards.

• I have started to play recently, and I'd be glad to see how Glorfindel or Elrond compare with the older heroes. The game has changed since the contest started, some decks using the old Beravor & miner used to be better, some are better now with new cards, that's the way it is.

So, of course, I am not asking you to include my results as they don't exactly fold into your rules (at my disadvantage for not using a sideboard, & at my advantage for allowing the use of new cards), but I am posting them here for the readers' interest of how some decks can perform or not.

I am planning to share the progress of several decks, I'll start with a solo deck that has been my best competitor among the pre-Shadow & Flame decks, then I hope to also list the results of other solo decks (maybe one 'by the rules' )& a more casual 2-players game with my wife.

My little company is getting ready to face the shadows of Mirkwood cycle this evening!

I am playing a 3-sphere deck (Leadership, Spirit, Lore) featuring Theodred, Glorfindel (S), and Aragorn (L) (Yes, not by the rules, but I wanted to see and share how my most efficient deck is doing - also, I am not playing with any sideboard)

I am not aiming for high scores, only trying to improve them a little when I get confident I am going to win.
(basically resetting my threat on the penultimate turn and then playing gandalf for additional threat reduction on the last turn, on easier scenarios)

• Passage through Mirkwood (WON - score 71)
• Journey down the Anduin (WON - score 70)

I faced two trolls instead of one, but my low starting threat gave me enough time to get ready for them.

• Escape from Dol Guldur (WON! - score 206)

Third scenario - and already an extreme challenge

My starting hand has Steward of Gondor, Celebrian's stone, 1 lore card and 3 spirit cards. I don't muligan,
thinking I have a chance if Theodred or Glorfindel are my prisoners. If Theodred is captured, I will still
be able to play most of my cards, and will have my two strongest characters, just be very short on resources.
If Glorfindel is captured, celebrian's stone could save the day by allowing Aragorn to play my many spirit cards.

Theodred is captured, and the first three shadow cards include a no-effect treachery card, a location and a minion,
so I think I stand a chance.

Things get worse one first time as I draw two endless caverns (surge) and a great forest web, and I have a few tough
turns before getting the four resources to play a Northern tracker, who saves me from being location-locked.

Things get tough again as I draw 3 powerful enemies (Chieftain Ufthak, then dungeon jailor, and then Ungoliant spawn) that
I can't fight out. I am using Aragorn's once per game threat reduction when reaching 35 threat to avoid having fighting the
Chieftain with only 3 characters and no forest snare.

I am slowly building a good support of allies, but Hummerhorns shadow effect kills both Henemarth Riversong and my last
warden of healing (meaning I don't have any ways to remove wounds anymore - my first warden sacrificed to Ungoliant's spawn).
That's a worry as I was planning to pick 'Shadow key' to pass to stage 2 of the quest (I desperately need Glorfindel and
Aragorn's combat skills, and thus can't take Gandalf's map, and Dungeon torch seems to just hurt too much)

I am finally getting to phase 2 after 13 turns stuck into phase 1, but at that point I am starting to be more confident, as
the leadership resources will allow me to play sneak attack on Gandalf to reduce my threat several times, and bring some
fighting power against the Nazgul. The many turns in phase one and the several ancient mathom I could play thanks to Erebor
Hammersmith gave me a large hand that allows me to go through phase 2 and 3 quite fast, which is mandatory with the 'shadow
key' ticking on my badly wounded characters.

I had a great time playing this game, where practically every line and number on every card proved useful,
after feeling on the verge of being defeated three times.

• A hunt for Gollum (WON - score 91)
• Conflict at the Carrock (WON - score 112)

This scenario seems fairly easy with Aragorn lowering your threat just before hitting phase 2. Also here, Theodred boosting
his own resources to get a fast Grimbeorn was extremely useful.

• A Journey to Rhosgobel (WON - score 88)

This scenario could be very random and extremely challenging with a deck that does not pack a bunch of healing herbs/lore
of Imladris.

In my case, I have a single 'healing herbs' in my whole deck (and no sideboard), hoping it would be enough, as this card is
not very strong in my deck against other scenarios.
Despite its high randomness, this scenario involves a large number of critical decisions.
You have to consider everything that could wound Wilyador to try to avoid those, and also be conscious of all the timing issues.
For example, for a forest grove to provide you an Athelas in one turn, you need to explore it,
then deal with the card guarding the Athelas (like keeping a sneak attack with Gandalf to direct damage a minion), then be
ready to have a character to exhaust to get the Athelas.

I kept a really good starting hand of 'Forest snare, sneak attack, ancient mathom, a test of will, light of Valinor and Asfaloth',
despite not having my healing herbs. After re-playing multiple anicent mathoms thanks to Erebor hammersmith, and also drawing with Gandalf,
I finally got my healing herbs, together with other useful cards. I did reset my threat when at 32 to avoid having to 'fight'
the big birds with no archer. I reached stage 2 on turn 2 in order to use Wilyador's power, but it took me 4 other turns
before finally seeing an athelas. Then I had a good draw on turn 8 of another Athelas and forest grove, and was able to get to stage 3
in a single phase. Wilyador never got damaged by the encounter deck, mainly thanks to three 'a test of will'
(he got 16 wounds for 7 turns + base 2 damage + 5 wounds from stage 2b ability = 21 - 5 (healing herbs) - 1 (warden of healing) -
15 (3 x Athelas)

• Hills of Emyn Muil (WON - score 65)

The dead marshes (WON - 123)

I missed once capturing Golum on a very bad draw of high 'escape' cards and got worried I could lose him to the deck if he got another resource, but finally got him on turn 10 after drawing a lot of allies and willpower boosts.

I am having a break before the next very big challenge: Return to Mirkwood!

Goblin King said:

2 Player Tournament: Eowyn/Frodo/Gimli and Bifur/Dain/Beravor Cont.

Ok, we finally completed this tournament!!!

18. SaF - WIN!!! (score 69)

We were really happy about this because these decks now look wimpy six months or so after being built, compared to all the new cards that are out!

We traded in a few new cards and took on the Balrog with success. MVP definitely goes to Gimli who had Unexpected Courage/Dwarrowdelf Axe/Dunedain Cache (Ranged) on him.

I'm sorry it took so long to complete this tournament, it was a really great idea! I'd love to do another one with the Hobbit saga once the second half comes out!