Curin,

I'm in the middle of a saved game where I'm using your rules and the game, so far, is much more satisfying. Thanks again for coming up with this.

I do have a question though. The rule where you can attack with your heroes if your threat/cost minus damage is greater than the engagement cost of the enemies in the staging area. So say, I was able to attack 1st and didn't kill the enemy. I assume the enemy then has the opprotunity to attack. That's the way I played it last night.

that's how i play it too. that way makes it more fun i think, because you can try to go all out attack, and commit a load of characters to try and kill him before he gets a chance to attack back, but sometimes he will flip over his shadow card and save himself, and then you are faced with having to defend with no one left.

So, the next turn does that engaged character attack 1st as normal or do I have another oppotunity to attack first based on the cost of enemies in the staging area? I hope that question makes sense.

For example, I have the Hill Troll down (playing Journey Down the Anduin) engaged with me. I was able to attack first but wasn't able to kill it. So, he attacked me, I defended it. I'm just not sure how engaged players work with the "heroes attack 1st" rule.

i total up the numbers again each round. i dont let a character attack first just because he did the previous round. you have to check the numbers again each round because they are going to change all the time, with your extra wounds, and new cards coming off the encounter deck.

if you've got any tweaks to the rules though, after all your play testing, to make it play better, i'd be well happy to hear them. im still trying to think of a good way for solo players to be able to use sentinal and ranged

@ schmoo34:

About your idea of adding up the threat and divinging by 2, and only using one tracker, i did try it that way first of all because that's the obvious way to do it, but don't you think the threat rises just a little bit too quickly doing it that way? Do you just draw one card off the encounter deck every round, or two? If you are using 6+ heroes then i presume you are drawing 2. but you could end up with 2 treachies then, or Doomed cards, which both add threat to your single tracker -- which is too much. that would never happen to a solo player. he'd only ever get one (unless he had surge of course, but that's okay). but if you use two trackers, and add the threat to the lowest one every time, it goes up a little bit slower, which is more like how it should be

Thanks for the clarification Cunir.

So, I wasn't dealing the enemy a shadow card until he attacks. Do you deal him a shadow card even when you attack first? Does that mean, if the enemy survives that he is dealt another shadow card?

So, I wasn't dealing the enemy a shadow card until he attacks. Do you deal him a shadow card even when you attack first? Does that mean, if the enemy survives that he is dealt another shadow card?

Allow me to clarify the statement. What I mean is the enemy allowed a shadow card if I attack first and then another one when he attacks us?

you still give him a shadow card like normal, at the normal place, before anyone gets to attack and defend. and you flip it over after you have committed your characters (to attack or defend). i dont deal him a second one after that.

did you download the .word document at that link? (download the file at BGG) that's where i wrote out all the complete rules, including all the numbers of cards and at what stage you are supposed to do things

I play this exclusively solo, and use the official rules (so far as I can remember them - 3 heroes, etc etc). I have a tremendously poor quest-completion history, which I like to blame on this. I just can't imagine using more than three heroes, though - it'd just feel wrong! And faffing about with two decks etc just seems like too much work. I play this game for fun, after all!

spalanzani said:

I also play exclusively solo, and use the official rules to the letter, at least as rightly as I can. I'm quite a purist of correctnest and I'm not so much a friend of house rules unless they are absolutely indispensable. Fortunately we have great resources at our grasp, like so many helpful and knowful fellows here in the forum, the faqs for the game, and access to elevate questions to the designers in order to play as intented. Anyways, this works for me, and it's great that people houserules things if they could get so a better gaming experience.

Greetings.

I play solo, which is tough and enjoyable in most cases, but recently (just as an experiment) played with 3 sets of heroes (7 dwarves, frodo + bilbo) and each set of 3 had its own deck that i built. I chose 5 random quests and was surprised when i beat all 5 first time. It seemed to me that multi player was a lot easier than solo. I may have just gotten lucky but it did make me think how tough us solo players have got it. Dont get me wrong, this isnt a moan, i enjoy the solo challenge but it was interesting to see the multi player side. Cheers. ( Oh, i always strictly stick to the official rules aswell like some guys above).

According to me nobody follow the solo rules eveybody want to clear the missions in anyway like cheater codes and so many dffterents to get victory in games.

Yeh there are many types of players arent there. In richsabres recent survey some players play just to win, others dont mind losing and some play themed decks etc. All enjoy their games i expect, whatever type of player they are, as thats the whole point of all this. In my case i have to stick to the rules or else the win will seem a bit cheap to me but thats only my view, its not an intended slant on those players who have house rules. Cheers.

tangobit4 said:

i, along with many others. always follow the solo rules and always have

lose or win, i can certainly vouch for that

tangobit4 said:

The problem is that your "average" player is going to want a fair chance at the game in solo mode and a lot of the missions are just too difficult. People find their own way to balance out solo play.

A friend of mine swears by four heroes but only count the threat of the highest three, and finds that a suitable balance. Another doesn't use shadow effects as they find they unbalance in solo play.

I'm even trying out (more for fun than actual beat the solo) of playing through each scenario with a starting threat of 1 and working up from there. Not because it makes the game easy (which is does) but because it makes the solo play enjoyable. I hate to waste an evening getting more and more frustrated until I give up in a right huff.

It's all about what makes the solo game enjoyable for each individual person.