Bullroarer Took said:

Do u find that Navri's belt is sufficient to pay all the costs for the three spheres or do u include any songs?

Narvi's Belt is only to pay for the Tactics cards, particularly the Erebor Battle Master. I also have Ori and Nori for Spirit and Lore. With a heavy dwarf deck, Thorin is pulling 2 resources every turn, and with Steward he's pulling 4. Money is not an issue.

Shockeffect said:

Wow. You're right. Glad I've been using Bilbo. Out with the Miners!

So there's no official difficulty in these quests? I only play solo, so I'm not sure if I want to get this expansion if they are too hard to solo with one deck.

The first and third are difficult, but they can be done solo. Very fun quests. I would definately reccomend getting them.

lleimmoen said:

Dain, Nori and Ori were the trio I took with me in my first run-through of this today, despite the theme reservations. It went pretty well until Dain got sacked, losing the boost to all my other dwarfy allies (thank you, rich, I love that term!) and it was pretty much curtains from that point.

spalanzani said:

i am so jealous right now…..grr….the postman better have some prezzies for me on monday haha ….and youre welcome

rich

spalanzani said:

Is that right that Dain won't boost the dwarves when sacked? Because it says "can't trigger effects" I thought that only ment actions/response abilities. I've been playing that static abilities are still in effect.

Narsil0420 said:

You're playing it correctly. Static effects are never triggered, so Dain's boost will still work. In fact, since Dain can't exhaust while sacked, his ability will always be in effect.

Also note that the sack cards only prevent characters from triggering their own effects; you can still make use of most attachments a sacked character may have.

Is it just me, or is the 3rd quest with Gollum - "Dungeons Deep, and Caverns Grim" actually quite difficult? I played this 2-player with my buddy and we got demolished with our themed decks. There's just so many ways to lose!

1. You can lose through threat level because you up it quickly by using Bilbo's Magic Ring to put extra resources on Bilbo for more "guesses" on the riddles. The riddles are even more difficult if you're running a triple-sphere deck, because it makes them even more difficult to guess correctly.

2. You have to reveal 2x (!?) the amount of encounter cards per player during the staging step (so 8 encounter cards in a 4 player game) so you can quickly be swarmed by enemies/treachery cards

3. Failing the riddles 3 times loses you the game instantly because Bilbo dies (and you can't heal Bilbo).

4. And to top it off, there's always at least 4 Threat (in a 2 player game) in the staging area because of Gollum's island location is in the staging area, and cannot be traveled to.

It's a brutal quest. Glaurung, you're gonna love it I think.

I threw together a tactics/leadership deck stuffed full of dwarves and used the new Beorn Hero. It has a high starting threat and I hadn't previewed the quest so I didn't know what was coming up. Bad move.

I quested through stage 1 in 3 turns and 2 of the trolls engage me and Sacked 2 heroes (I only had 1 ally out). I couldn't quest the next turn and the 3rd Troll engaged putting all my heroes in a sack. Game over.

So I tried again and played slower. By the time I had about 6 allies out (about 10 turns) including an erebor battle master I went for it.

All 3 Troll engaged (my threat was 43) on their first turn but I feinted 2 of them and sneaked out Gandalf to damage and then block the last one. Beorn hit it.

Next turn I played Gandalf to finish off the weaker troll meaning I could now attack them with more than 1 character. I killed one more this turn and the last one the next turn. There were 2 Troll Caves in the staging area so Bilbo was busy freeing sacked characters allowing me to do enough questing to stay alive but not enough to stop my threat increasing.

I had no time to hang around looking for a key or purse and felt a bit dissapointed but mightily relieved when the Sun suddenly came up. I was expecting more to happen in stage 3 …..

starhawk77 said:

Well…dammit! I think I might just give that scenario another try then! I suppose, thematically, his nearby presence will still provide a boost, even if he is stuck in A Smelly Sack, or whatever…

richsabre said:

Fingers are firmly crossed for ya! I'm sure you'll be overjoyed once it arrives though - I've been on something of a high since I picked it up yesterday morning!

spalanzani said:

HA! since writing that i realised it a f-ing bank holiday this monday….why????

Sorry rich, us posties have got to put our feet up sometime!!! A whole day trying to get past these pesky trolls!! Bring 'em on.

Lenbo said:

Me and my buddy tried this quest 3 times last night and failed each time. We were ok with the riddles but the Cave just adds so much threat plus the xtra cards that are revealed make it easy to get overwhelmed with enemies. at least twice the two treacheries that 1) add two goblins to the staging area and 2) stop u from attacking enemies in the turn) where revealed together which basically just causes a slow painful death

On my first play through of the 3rd quest I ran out of player deck, I had gained control of the lake but my riddle progress was way behind. I started triggering the riddles where possible and having a 3 sphere deck it was hard work making much progress. I got hit by "Not fair" twice, both times removing 3 progress ….

Eventually I ran out of deck and therefore could never answer a riddle again.

Next play through I added an extra will of the west and a dwarven tomb to make sure I could recycle the deck and that made it all possible. Stage 3 was surprisingly difficult though, all the surge effects really piled out the goblins.

Overall, an excellent quest. I'm looking forward to replaying all the hobbit quests with 2 players now.

how does the riddle bit work? is it the same kind of mechanic that they used in the watcher in the water quest?

Cunir said:

No, but it's somewhat similar. Each riddle effect will list criteria for you to "answer" (e.g., "The first player names a sphere and card type."). You then shuffle your player deck, discard a certain number of cards (dictated by the riddle effect) and add one progress to Stage 2B for each card that matches ALL the criteria on the riddle trigger. So, using the above example, you might call "Lore ally." You'd then shuffle and discard the top few cards (usually two or three), adding one progress for each Lore ally you discard. If you don't find any matches, Gollum attacks Bilbo. Lastly, Bilbo's Magic Ring allows the hobbit to spend his resources in order to discard additional cards during a riddle attempt.

sounds interesting….come on tomorrow…hurry up! (man i sound like a kid on christamas eve)

Played the first scenario solo last night about 7 or 8 games. Failed every single one on the second stage. I cannot fathom out how you can do this. The trolls are too hard to kill more than one and my heroes just get sacked.

I tried the deck suggestions in the rules leaflet but those decks are just whack. I really don't know how to take this scenario on.

Play a deck that has lots of dwarf allies, three copies of Galadhrim's Greeting and three copies of Dwarven Tomb to recycle the Greetings. When you Sneak Attack Gandalf reduce threat.

Slow play stage 1 until you are ready for stage 2. You are not ready for stage 2 unless a copy of Troll Camp is in the staging area. Do not explore it; take the threat hit. Then Bilbo's job is to use his resources (which are almost useless otherwise) to remove sacks. Put an Unexpected Courage on him or a Fast Hitch. Play Path of Need on the Troll Cave. With lots of dwarven allies Erebor Battle Master should be swinging a heavy stick and can take down a troll in one or two swings.

I use Thorin, Ori & Nori and am soon collecting many resources and cards. With many allies out Ori and Nori often have time for Peace and Thought. Don't forget to reduce your threat every time an ally comes into play.

This same deck also fairs well against the second adventure unless you draw an early Guffawing Giants. The second adventure isn't so special imo. I haven't had a chance at the third one yet.

man- just had first play through with my flight to the ford deck- got killed

and yes this quest is all about timing

we need a card that allows you to discard cards to REDUCE your commited willpower

rich

The_Big_Show said:

Keep in mind that you don't actually have to kill any of the trolls. If you want, you can focus your deck around generating boatloads of willpower (Faramir, Astonishing Speed, etc.) and try to burn through the encounter deck.