If I had to get one expansion or add on with the core set, what should it be to make it decent for solo or two player play?

Not a very helpful answer I know, but I don't think that any one expansion would expand your deckbuilding possibilities significantly. The reasons being that (1) the number of player cards in each expansion is pretty small (one hero plus 5 other cards), and (2) themes and the cards that support them are therefore spread across a number of expansion packs. For example, if you want to build a Rohan deck, an Eagles deck, or a Dwarf deck, you need many expansion packs before you are really in business.

If pushed, I would probably nominate two of the most recent expansions as those that on their own would give you a lot of strong new possibilities:

The Watcher in the Water - new version of Aragorn, powerful Aragorn-specific attachment, powerful Arwen, and very powerful Elrond's Counsel that works with Arwen perfectly.

Foundations of Stone - new super-powerful version of Glorfindel and two strong cards that work with him very well indeed.

i agree with jjeagle but shall differ my answer- i would say get more, but if this is not possible then i would choose depending on

1.theme- do you want to go in order of storyline? if so get Hunt for Gollum (this is an excellent quest anyways)

2. playability and difficulty……do you wanting questing or fighting or a mix? how difficult?

HFG- a mix mediuim diff

Conflict at the carrock- fighting, hard at first, but become easy after

journey to rhosgobel- questing and healing, hard

emyn muil- very linear- lots of questing, easy

dead marshes- lots of questing, bit of fighting- medium

return to mirkwood- hard for solo- very fast quest

hope this helps you decide

rich

If you're like me, and not too adept at deck-building, I highly suggest Emyn Muil as a quest because it is easy and after getting slaughtered by Anduin and Dol Guldur, it is a breath of fresh air.

Of course, that does nothing for helping you find something that will expand the game for one or two players.

jjeagle's suggestions are pretty good.I love the the dwarves, so I would suggest Return to Mirkwood and Khazad-Dum. Dain Ironfoot is arguably the best hero in the game, and Khazad Dum has some pretty crucial dwarf cards and 3 new quests. Looking at my solo deck right now, though, it is at least 60% core cards. There are some great player cards that are spread out between the adventure packs, though (the Eagles if you like tactics, some Rohan and Dwarf synergy, the song cards that add a resource icon to your heroes, etc…). But those are the expansions that I would suggest.

By the way, just got my Foundations of Stone expansion pack today. In terms of player cards, it might be one of the best packs to date. Glorfindel, Light of Valinor, Asfaloth, and Daeron's Runes are ridiculously powerful cards. So I guess I would change my answer to Foundations of Stone and Khazad Dum, since you need KD for that quest.

Foundations of stone seems to have the highest quantity of really playable player-cards yet, and its a pretty fun quest. I'd go for Khazadum as well, as that set is just really thematic and fun, and has a bunch of good cards in it too, such as Bifur and Narvi's belt which are good multi-sphere enablers if you're not going to pick up the whole mirkwood cycle to collect the songs.

Not the answer you wanted to hear, but I picked up a couple of expansion packs, but didn't find that my deck-building possibilities really opened up until I got a second Core Set. If you want to get serious about deck-building, a second Core Set is the way to go.

Beyond that, I second the recommendation for Emyn Muil - not that the player cards are all that great, but I enjoy the very slow-paced quest, it's great for testing new decks with. Beyond that, I think Khazad-Dum is certainly the next best option, as it has more player cards than the smaller expansion packs do, and many of them are quite powerful.

ive played for since release and have never had a 2nd set- i dont think its a requirement for good deck building, it certainly helps thats true….but not a requirement

Kaza-Dum and Foundations of Stone. Dwarves are really amazing and it would help you to have the Zigil Miner. Have a blast! I really is fun to play this game, Benhanses, my brother and I really enjoyed the Watcher in the Water encounter as well. But that is a different thread…