I appreciate all the input on this site. As a newbie, I've learned a lot. However, I'm having trouble with the actual "questing" aspects of this game. I feel like I either quest too much and don't have enough blockers or I try to quest with less and I lose every time and the staging area just fills up with enemies and locations and I get the "ball rolling" so to speak. Is it just really hard to quest sucessfully for the 1st few turns? I've been just playing the core quests. Passage through Mirkwood is just the deck I test my decks against and it works out fine. But, I'm having trouble with Journey Down the Anduin. It's been really tough for me to beat. I know that sometimes I just get a bad draw from the encounter deck but is this game really THAT difficult that I struggle to beat a difficuly level 4 quest?

Hopefully I'm following the rules correctly too. I've read them over a couple of times but I suppose I could still be missing something.

Also, 2nd question is:

I play alone almost 90% of the time. Is it better for me to play solo or is it a better idea and more often more successful to play a 2 or 3 player version?

Thanks in advance.

I should say I "can't" get the ball rolling.

I should also say that I own the entire Mirkwood cycle, KD and RHG and RTR AP's.

hey

firstly i play just solo- had alot of success, so i would stay stick with it, its definatly easier when you get a bit of play experience behind you

now for the advice…..are you utilising combinations of cards? for a solo deck to work well it needs to draw on certain aspects….card draw and resource draw being the top 2 (which is true for any deck really)

so example are steward of gondor and longbeard map maker……put these two together with bifur taking 1 resources off another hero per turn and you have a lore resource machine that can feed extra willpower to map maker

this means that potentially you can get the ball rolling in only a few turns, and you can quest with say 2 characters- bifur and map maker, freeing up your blockers and attackers

thats just 1 combo but theres many

also throw in people like northern tracker to relly get rid of locations like (east bight? the one that has 5 threat but only 1 progress needed)

another point is hero choice- this is key….a poor three heros, or heros that dont work well together will mean the deck wont work correctly….

try dain with bifur and thalin- thats my winning deck…thalin really kills them crows- remember no surge!

also a deck needs alot of allies….i tend to go perhaps 40-50 %….

id like to add anduin is probably harder than the difficulity level it is given, certainly with the core set it is

rich

Thanks richsabre. I really appreciate the response. Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder if it's just my lack of skill with knowing how to put a deck together and maybe even not knowing how to play the game itself properly. The problem I seem to run into with a solo deck is that all the colors have great cards and I find it difficult to construct a sturdy tri-sphere deck. Is this possible?

Can you send me your deck list for the dwarves you use please? Maybe that would give me a good head start. Also, do you win most of the time no matter the quest deck?

And, like you said, I think it's just a matter of looking at the cards and staying with it I'm sure.

I was running Legolas (offense), Glorfindel (Lore - questing/healing) and Bilbo (defense with fast hitch and burning brand). At least that's my beginning strategy. I also may be running too few allies and relying too much on attachments. I'll have to go back and look at that.

Thanks again in advance.

Edit- deck below

of course- ill get to writing the deck up now and will post when im done

and ill be perfectly honest and say i do lose a bit….not so often as i did. depends on what quest. quests like the long dark i have lost about 1 in 15 games, anduin with the deck im going to post, ive won perhaps 70% which is good for me!

i think it is possible to make a tri sphere deck, though you need song cards or narvis belts out in play fairly quickly…though with gloin you basically have a song card right there

rich

ok heres the deck, not genius by any amount, but its consistent. i tend to swap a few cards in and out, but this is the general idea. the biggest problem is i only have 2 test of wills as i have only 1 core set, so if i lose a game 90% of the time its due to treacheries i cant cancel…..get erebor battle master out and some mail on dain and NO enemy can get through you, and if they could, you just snare them….but usually once i have say 6 dwarf allies out, battle master gets 1+6+ Dains extra 1 attacks….so he can easily cut through enemies, get two in and youre laughing

problem is you dont have him in your card pool- though i think you should have most of the deck

main strategy is to get steward and narivs belt on bifur allowing him to get all the extra resources plus one off another hero and then he can freely spend them on any sphere (once per turn of course)…song of travel is there incase i dont draw the belt quick enough

daerons runes in a great card- really get through your deck quick

ive touched on battle master already

thalin quests with bifur with dain ready to give +1 willpower

dain stays to defend, then i get allies to either defend more and leave attacking to battle master

burning brand is left in there when i used to put narivs belt on dain and also had song of wisdom in, but im going to take it out

Hero (3)

Bifur (KD) x1

Dain Ironfoot (RtM) x1

Thalin (Core) x1

Ally (22)

Erebor Battle Master (TLD) x3

Erebor Record Keeper (KD) x3

Gandalf (Core) x3

Longbeard Elder (FoS) x3

Longbeard Map-Maker (CatC) x3

Miner of the Iron Hills (Core) x2

Veteran Axehand (Core) x3

Warden of Healing (TLD) x2

Attachment (18)

A Burning Brand (CatC) x2

Forest Snare (Core) x2

Horn of Gondor (Core) x1

Legacy of Durin (TWitW) x3

Narvi's Belt (KD) x3

Ring Mail (TLD) x3

Song of Travel (THoEM) x1

Steward of Gondor (Core) x2

Unexpected Courage (Core) x1

Event (14)

A Test of Will (Core) x2

Daeron's Runes (FoS) x3

Feint (Core) x2

Fresh Tracks (TLD) x3

Hasty Stroke (Core) x2

Sneak Attack (Core) x2

Thanks for the quick response. I'll give that a whirl once I've got the cards for it. Looks like I have yet to get quite a few of the good cards. I'm going to be ordering a 2nd core set soon too so hopefully that will make a difference.

yes the packs from long dark onwards have had some extremely good cards in them….so id recommend them when you can

rich

This is very helpful! When I play solo, or try my hand at deckbuilding, I end up in the same place as the OP: frustrated.

On the one hand I want to figure things out on my own and build a good deck. On the other, I really just want to play! So, even though it feels like I'm ripping someone off, it's really helpful to have other deck builds to peruse. So thanks!

Just wanted to say I finally got around to trying your deck out, Rich. I like it! It's a bit bulky (at 54 cards), but once it gets rolling it works nicely (I had enough resources to crank out a couple Gandalf's for extra draw).

shipwreck said:

pleased you liked it!

rich