I'm noticing a trend lately where cycles are starting to have creatures with 6+ attack and 3 defense. Durin's bane, cave trolls and I even caught a glimpse of catapults coming in the next cycle.

With my usual style of playing 6 heroes and one deck, I can typically handle this by ensuring one of the heroes is Frodo and another is Loragorn (so the resulting threat increase due to damage taken can be countered once in the game, thus buying time to complete the quest). I stil lhave heroes who can quest and can group together to attack and overcome the 3 defense.

But here is my question…I'm technically not following the core rules to accomplish this. If I were building a solo deck, here is what I'm faced with. Loreagorn and Frodo to deal with the high attack and resulting threat increase. Then I throw in Glorfindel as my third. Assuming Frodo defends, I need Glorfindel AND Loragorn to both attack in order to do damage since the monster has 3 defense. THat leaves nobody left for questing unless I have allies.

But let's say for a second, I want to use the ninja twins or Denethor or Dain. Even with three defense (the highest defense a hero provides), these new creature cards do 3 or more damage each turn and shadow cards can be devastating. What is the possibilities here?

Feign? Forest Snare? Healer of Gondor?

I just dunno how you guys do it…and I think this is why I enjoy the game more with the 6 hero variant. And perhaps it is why some quests are more doable with 2 or more players.

Massing at Osgiliath comes to mind as a quest which is EASIER to do solo than with more players but it is a rare exception.

What are some common strategies? I cannot do it unless I use Frodo and Loreagorn…I see a lot of you guys like Daerun's runes and I truly do not understand why card draw is that important to you. Is there really one card that is a must have? I can usually win no matter what card is drawn…or, conversely, I can usually lose no matter what card is drawn!! HA!

This shadow and flame cycle destroys me if I do not use healing/lore cards and Frodo. I also can't do it solo or haven't been able to. If I pair up with a 2nd player (my son), we can both win and usually do. I have Elrond, Frodo and Loreagorn and he uses Dain, Gimli and Gloin. Durin's Bane will attack Dain on his side and Frodo on mine. I use healing allies along with Elrond's ability to heal Dain every turn and we can chip away at it and eventually win. The cave trolls can be devastating, however, when they appear along with Durin's Bane and can usually get us. Also, the treachery where we have to discard allies can get us simply due to our relying on healers to win.

schmoo34 said:

well, the new hero in HoN has a defense of 4…and there tactics event they spoiled bumps that up even further. and I'm sure they will give us tools to help with defense in this cycle.

The Ninja Twins are great at handling lots and lots of low hit point enemies, but can struggle against 'boss monsters' unless properly equiped. One strategy that I'm going to try is putting a copy of Keeping Count on Elledan early and letting him build up a lead over Elrohir. Then, late in adventure when you need a big hit, use another Keeping Count on Elrohir.

Regarding this being a 'trend', I just think it's the ebb and flow of the game. There were a lot of decks that struggled against the massing goblins of The Seventh Level, but I was still persisting with my Three Hunters/Eagle deck and found it somewhat easy. (And it's a cake walk for the twins.)

I dabble with the twins a lot…and you hit the nail on the head, they are fantastic at cleaning up smaller creatures. Durin's bain can literally kill one of the twins in a single blow and so can a cave troll, for that matter and that is my struggle…and apparently yours as well. Citadel Plate helps a lot if you can get it in time.

Also, with the twins, I tend to put the Dunedain cards in so I can get +1 attack, willpower and defense. THese help boost them some. If you can get up to 4 or 5 defense, then you can take on just about anything. Dain Ironfoot is a good option as he gives +1 Def to any other dwarf. It would be nice to have ANOTHER dwarf with 3 defense so you could accomplish 4 defense, however Dain is the only one.

I also dabble with the Gloin healing thing where smaller creatures attack Gloin undefended so I can rake in the $$ and use healing Allies to cycle him back. Again, the big bosses are too powerful for Gloin. You might be right regarding this just being a trend and I've never used keeping count before. I might dig those out and read those and see what I can do!

my star deck is my flight to the ford deck which is the same heros you state- frodo, aragorn and glorfindel…..that deck performs well in just about every scenario…i guess its the threat reset mixed with glorfindels 5 threat and frodos ability that makes it work

i use snare alot (which can be recycled) and i use fast hitch with burning brand and song of wisdom on frodo-…add to this threat reduction such as greetings and elronds counsel and all this comes to a very able defender that can defend multiple times per turn….albeit only use his ability once.

now for the killing of such creatures- perhaps use mirkwood runner to get it to no defense? that will obviously take a while as you can only attack with one runner.

alternatively battlemaster could reduce such creatures to dust in a couple (or one if you have enough dwarves in play) of turns….i think dwarves are the guys you want here.

also try protector of lorien for defense- not as great as it was but still good.

lastly and i hate to admit this- but i tend to sacrfice alot of my poor allies in order to kill really bad enemies…..i tend to play very fast with high willpower so getting through my deck in a quick game is quite normal for me

rich

Rich, I have often wondered about burning brand and if putting a song of wisdom on the hero qualifies as that hero now being a lore hero. Didnt think that would work but it does?

Shockeffect said:

yes it was officially answered a while back- even if you lose the card it still works- also you can use narvis belt for a 1 turn to attatch it

rich

Shockeffect said:

It does. Song of Wisdom + Burning Brand on Elrohir. Get Awen into play and maybe a Dunedain Signal or two and he's a wall. (And no allies die.)

schmoo34 said:

Dain only gives +1 Willpower and +1 Attack to other dwarves, but not +1 Def.