Got my copy of Foundation of Stone yesterday, and did my first solo play through of it today (Theodred, sGlorfindel, and lAragorn). I managed to get to the last stage of the quest (It has five stages), before I was killed off by some orcs and nameless things. It was rather fun and had some nice twists to it (stage 3 and 4), and with some adjustments to my deck, I think I could take it after a couple more playthroughs. It's rated as a difficulty of 6, but seems harder then the last adventure pack. (I don't put much weight into the listed difficulty rating, since I've found most of the ones in the current cycle not to be the best measuring stick) I would recommend picking up when you can get it, if not just for the new hero Glorfindel, who is as advertised.

Cool - being in the UK, it will be another 3 weeks before I see it, could you share with us the player cards and brief overview of the quest please?

There are basically 4 more player cards that haven't been spoiled yet.

Already revealed were: Path of Need, Healing Herbs, Asfaloth, Light of Valinor, and Imladris Stargazer.

Once again there are no neutral cards, so we get an extra Lore card:

Daeron's Runes, basically it's a free cost event that lets you draw a couple cards, but then you have to discard a card from your hand. It's ok I guess cause it is free, but not that impressive.

The two tactics cards are:

Heavy Stroke, 1 cost event that lets your Dwarf deal damage to an enemy after your dwarf has inflicted damage on that same enemy. Basically if you damage a monster for 3 damage, play this card and do another 3 damage to the same target.

Trollshaw Scout, 2 cost ally. This noldor ally is very similar, yet opposite of Watcher of the Bruinen. The attack and defensive stats of the cards are switched. But it has the same mechanic having to discard a card if, in this case, it attacks. Has ranged, instead of sentinel too.

The other leadership card is:

Longbeard Elder, yet another dwarf ally, at 3 cost, and will of 2, you'll be questing with him cause he has a response that let's you look at the top card of the encounter deck. If they card you looked at was a location you get to put a progress token on the current quest, if it wasn't, he loses one will till the end of the phase. Since he's a dwarf, and leadership, he'd be good in a Dain deck, otherwise I probably wouldn't take him.

The one thing that is interesting with the quest, which doesn't make much difference if you play solo, is that during the quest the players get split up and have to play solo for a little while. This seems like a neat mechanic and would be fun to play with more people. Definitely will be tough if your deck cannot support itself. You're not allowed to play cards on other players, and none of your cards have any effect on the other players. Each player get's their own staging area, and quest card to deal with.

EDIT: I was too slow.

So the Lore Event goes like this? Cost 0, Action: draw two cards (any player or you only? guess the latter) and then discard a card from your hand?

Thanks a lot for the info! I am liking the scout very much.

Zdawg88 said:

Zdawg88 said:

The last part sound cool!!! Really like it! Looks like is a cool quest!!! And really love idea first quest with 5 quest card. Difficult 6 is also sound good!!

We really have now cool quest like RHG, TLD and WIATW. RTR i think is most bad quest but is much better then previous cycle where is half of the quests is rubbish in my opinion. Good News!!!

Please give us more info about quest cards and encounter cards. I know most of the players want to know about players cards but in my opinion most important is quest. Thanks

Glaurung said:

I'm in the same boat. People are always spoiling the player cards, but you have to beg, plead and threaten their families before anything of the encounter and quest cards is revealed. Hell, if FFG put out a pack with two quests (30 cards each, or maybe a hero, so 30+29), I'd be all over it, actually at this point much more happier than the current format, though no chance of change. Would mean A) I wouldn't have to go through my decks yet again to see if there are cards to get swapped with the new cards and B) 20 plays (or two weeks) per purchase.

lleimmoen said:

If Daeron's Runes does that, it is a must include for almost every deck that has a lore hero (save for a Zigil deck).

Daeron's Runes just effects yourself I'm assuming. Card text reads "Action: Draw 2 cards. Then, discard 1 card from your hand."

As for the quest. There are five stages like I mentioned. Stage 4, has 4 card quest cards (each player is dealt one). I actually play through every quest the first time without even looking at the quest cards. Makes the game more surprising the first time around, but usually I lose. Also, foundation of stone uses twists and turns, deeps of moria, and goblins of the deep encounter sets. The foundation of stone encounter set is set aside at the beginning of the quest and is not used till later.

Stage 1, nothing really special here, need 9 progress to get through.

Stage 2, 12 progress, every player that commits characters to the quest has to discard 2 cards off of their deck. If you can quest quick, this one doesn't hurt you for more then a round. Plus if you are using Imladris Stargazer you can stack your deck so you can lessen the blow of what cards you lose. That card definitely changed the game.

Stage 3, 0 progress. This stage goes by really fast as you are "Washed Away!" (name of the stage) This is where the party gets split up. You also lose some of your attachments, depending on type. Also, the foundation of stone encounter cards get shuffled in, with all the enemy and treachery cards of the other encounter sets. This becomes the new encounter deck. I'm not sure if I did this exactly right, seemed kind of confusing the first time. Each player gets a random stage 4 card, and is basically on their own.

Stage 4. They range in progress requirements. I didn't notice until I looked at them now. This is pretty cool that they are all different. Low progress value is 5, high is 17. Basically when you complete your stage 4, you join up with another player (your pick), or if everyone is together, you move on to stage 5.

Stage 5, 11 progress. Each player cannot commit more allies to the quest then the number of heroes they have committed. I was down to 2 heroes at this point my first play through, so this made it hard to quest in a solo game where you often rely on a lot of allies. There's also a nasty treachery card that causes you to have to shuffle one of your heroes back into your deck (basically they get lost). You get to put them back into play if you draw them. I happen to fall victim to this in the last stage.

mmmmm……this quest seems very tailored to multiplayer- there seems to be alot of quest effects aimed that way…..how would the 'party' work when there is only 1 player?

Yes, that does seem like some fun is lost for solo. You still get to pick though. It also seems this could be called the Long Dark instead as it is rather long.

I am interested in that treachery, find it quite neat.

And yes, the Lore event will likely prove very strong.

I play mostly solo, and this, while the quest seems more geared toward multi-player, seems beatable solo. While the last adventure pack I thought was easier solo, then with a couple players, Foundation of Stone seems like it may be a little harder solo. One thing at least playing solo, you only have to take on one of the random four stage 4 cards.

Zdawg88 said:

I stand by my initial assessment. Daeron's Runes is an amazingly strong card and is an auto-include for any deck with a Lore hero.

Bohemond said:

I'm sorry but I cannot see why it is a strong card. You play this card, then you draw two cards and discard one card. The net result is zero card gain, but of course, you can try to improve the quality of your hand of cards in the process. At least I won't consider it an auto-include.

Yes, it does exactly that, and that's why it's an autoinclude. You play it as soon as you draw it, and the net result is you have seen 2 more cards from your deck and probably increased your hand quality at no cost at all. Your deck has been virtually reduced for all calculations by 3 cards, the 3 Daeron's Runes, as long as you can play them as soon as you draw them, and big news, shorter decks are better decks, they improve the probability of drawing the card/s you need.

Angus Lee said:

Stop thinking solely in terms of card advantage.

The card does two things. First of all, it trims your deck. In this card game (like most CCGs/LCGs) smaller decks are almost always superior to larger decks. The tighter your deck, the less random the game becomes and the the greater chance you have of drawing your most powerful cards. Assuming all other factors are equal, a 50 card deck will out perform an 80 card deck by a substantial margin. Daeron's Runes effectively trims your deck. If this card was a 0 cost event that let you draw one card it would still be valuable.

The second thing it does is allow you to more options. Given the choice between drawing 7 cards, and drawing eight cards and discarding one, you always want to chose the later (save for some exceptionally rare corner cases). You can choose the best cards, and get rid of the worst card. It gives you another way to burn unplayable uniques when Eowyn isn't on the board. In addition, discarding cards can actualy be advantageous. We have all had situations where we want to play Erebor Hammersmith, but have yet to lose an attachment.

Most importantly, the card has 0 cost. it doesn't use resources, it has event timing, it replaces itself. The card has no disadvantages. Short of not having sufficient copies for all of your Lore decks, there no reason not to include this card. Every Lore deck out their would be improved by adding this card in.

How did you picked it up? Site reads "not yet available".

Thanks to EchPiEl and Bohemond's explanation, now I see why the card is that good. Thank you.

Forget the status info on this homepage. Sucks big time.

So it's officially released and available for sale then?

depends what country youre in- usa yes

Any country from Europe - no?

(I mean not in retail store, but to order to ship from USA)

oh right- well i suppose you could order it from usa (ive never done this so someone may have some insight other than mine)….as for europe it takes a few weeks longer, here in the its UK often 3 weeks

Bohemond said:

As always you have nailed it completely there is not much to add to this… This guys doesn't post much in this forum but I know him form CoC and pretty much everything he says is bang on… listen to him… He is like RaidSkull but takes the time to explain properly.

The effect is called "sifting". As you sift though your deck and ensure that out of your draws you have better chance of having a value card in your hand. It isn't card advantage technically.. but it as stated above.. it is darn similar. The big draw back to sifting has always been card loss though discard.. but with teh insane card draw in this game and will of twh west card cycling this "drawback" is nearly meaningless.. added to that the including of Hama as the first card to basically turn your yard into a second hand… well… sifting is going to be a MAJOR effect in this game and I would expect many power decks to be using this maniac..

richsabre said:

I would recommend "LotusVaults" I deal with them through Ebay… but they have a website as well.. anyway.. they sell all the LCG stuff at a VERY reasonable price and also do combined shipping. In au we have to wait 1-2 months for it to come out, and then it is 20 bucks a pack. You can get a single pack form lotusvault including shipping for less.. but if you buy say 4 in a single go you can get it nearly the same price that yanks pay. LotusVault also gets their stock at zero day.

If you are willing to wait a little bit they "best" place is TheBookRepository. They are a UK store I think but have zero shipping costs to anywhere in the world and stock the entire FFG range… wish they stocked more boardgame companies like plaidhat otr riogrand… but oh well. Anyway… they get their stock much latter but still well before say Germany or Australia and other euro and ociance countries.. and I think they re the best place to getFFG products sent from overseas.. (assuming you want English printed text)