so my pack is on its way- ive seen alot about no.1, but how hard is 2 and 3? what are we comparing it to here? (as i know theyve done away with the levels)

thanks

rich

richsabre said:

Urgh, mine's at the sorting office as I type, can't pick it up until tomorrow. I am in agonies!!!

Just thought I'd share this with everyone

2 is quite difficult as well. its basically split into two parts; the first part pits you against strong mountain giants and devastating treacherys while the second part just throws a ton of enemies at you. To compare it to a previous quest i suppose its similar to Journey down the Anduin but it doesnt feel redundant at all. I havent attempted the third yet

spalanzani said:

mine wont get here till monday now….**** you 2nd class post!!!

Our group (playing 3 player) has gone through quest two really easily. However, the third quest is very fun as you are answering riddles and bilbo in a way quests seperatly from the main party for a while, and then you meat up at the end. It is actually my favorite quest that ffg has put out, other than FoS.

Shockeffect said:

I know this is probably just a typo, but your homophonic slip of "meat up" gave me a particularly satisfying image, especially given that it is a Friday.

And yes it was a typo

Rich, since I know you pretty much solo exclusively, I can say that having just got mine, the first two are fun, but relatively easy.

The first one does have the 4 trolls you have to contend with, but you're really trying to accomplish two things there… Win the encounter, BUT do so in a way that lets you "meat" (sorry, Shockeffect) the objectives for "discovering" the treasures as well. The hardest part is using the encounter deck wisely if you are trying to win the treasure (yup. I said encounter deck). There are a couple key locations you actually want to keep around. The Troll Camp is a double-edged sword… it gives all the trolls extra threat in the staging area… BUT also lets Bilbo use resources to discard the "sacked" cards the trolls drop on your heros/allies just for engaging. The other key location is (forget the name) one that recycles the encounter discard pile back into the encounter deck. Usually not a good thing, but since you have to have the Troll Key objective card on Bilbo in order to travel to the Troll Cave (and have to have the Troll Cave in your victory display to discover the treasures as a win effect), it can be important to get the Troll Key and Troll Purse back into the deck if they somehow end up discarded.

The second encounter was actually pretty easy as a solo palyer (althouugh I'm sure I had fortunate draws). It is split into 2 encounter decks. There are three sites, but the first quest site is purely set up and moves you directly to the second quest site (the Stone Giants) and its deck. The third site, you discard all previous encounter cards (the stone giant sets) and replace with the second encounter deck (centered around The Great Goblin). He basically just churns out a Goblin horde to try and overrun you….

I ran with a Elrond, Frodo, and Imrahil deck (I know, I know… horrible for theme - it's what I had built, wanted to just see what it played like). I am immediately starting work on a Dwarven deck (to redeem my theme-offense) that can run through these! I enjoyed the uniqueness of the first two encounters. Look forward to the third!

cheers for that - i look forward to tackling it myself!

rich

For Solo play I'd say

Quest 1: DR 6

Quest 2: DR 4

Quest 3: DR 7

Don't know about the first one, but I'd say No. 2 is very hard unless you have a deck that's good in combat or has low threat. The first part is easy enough, but the second part… So many goblins…

For those who have given an opinion on the difficulty, are you playing with decks that use the full card pool released to date? How challenging would this be as an expansion for somebody who only owned the core set, for example, or maybe the core plus deluxe expansions but not the chapter packs?

if you only own the core set it would be incredibly difficult

rich

richsabre said:

Without a doubt.

Edit: I know they do include those "Core only + Hobbit expansion" decks on the back of the rulebook. I didn't even bother with them. A friend of mine played with those, and confirmed my suspicion that they weren't the greatest decks to play… but good for theme. However, since the third quest (the riddle part anyways) will probably be easiest with minimal=sphere decks, perhaps those suggested decks would serve as a decent base for completing the third quest.

richsabre said:

That confirms what I suspected.

It's too bad, really, because this is a game I could happily play on occasion, and I would enjoy some variety, but it didn't make my list of must-buy-everything-that-comes-out games.

Arma virumque said:

yes- it is unfortunate (though perhaps inevitable) for you that you will find it increasingly difficult to play future quests without at least a complete cycle or two

rich

I have been thoroughly enthralled by the Hobbit this last week . Quests 1 and 2 are hard but manageable solo, winning some, losing some but jeez is that 3rd quest a *****!!! Havent got near to beating it yet as a mix of bad riddle guesses getting Bilbo killed and swamped by that extra encounter card each round is finishing me off. Im playing with a dwarf themed deck which is maybe limiting my card choice so sadly i will have to look beyond the Hobbit storyline for the cards i need to swap into my new deck. Any thoughts on beating quest 3 consistently? Anyway im loving the 3 quests so much. Cheers

Quest 2 is boring as hell. Nothing happens, and the boss enemy is a joke. Played the third quest once and I'm not too happy about that riddle zone stuff. Too complicated, too luck dependent. Feels more like a lottery. Also, there are not enough card with riddle effects. I only got one each second round and managed to solve tow of the three riddlies with one point each. That way I need at least 18 rounds to get through the riddle phase! It also feels rather absurd that I have to use half of my deck to solve these riddles.

All in all I think this expansion wasn't worth the money. Hopefully the Gondor expansion will be better.

leptokurt said:

i agree to an extent here, though i have really enjoyed the overall feel of the pack, and the player cards were very nice

the obvious star is the first quest- lots of great ideas and art, the others could have been more entralling that is for sure. i like the riddle idea on paper, however in that quest its been rather annoying (probably because i cant win)

i think the smaug duel may be something like it

i think you shall be happy with numenor though- im pretty sure it will be the opposite of the hobbit, mainly centered around fighting and sieges (schmoo shall be happy.)

rich

First quest is really nothing interesting.

Yesterday we have chance to play by 3 players second quest. Really cool! we play 3 times and we lost every time. The encounter deck is really powerful and even with very strong player decks we cannot win! Really cool game session take about 6 hours.

last quest is quite difficult solo but by 3 players is really easy and boring.

I love Hobbit cose is bring you new kind of challenge but of course sure HON will be much better. I dont really like Hobbit book story………

More classic quotes. The Hobbit first quest is "not really interesting" and you dont like The Hobbit story. Jeez, what a guy. Your negativity is never ending.

In a highly surprising turn up for the books, I played my tactics deck solo against scenarios 2 and 3, and won both times!

I'm glad to see tactics got a real boost in this set, the key difference is card draw (via foe-hammer) and early options for blocking and counter attack with Beorn.

The deck starts really slowly on the questing, as Dam pointed out, the heroes can only muster 2 willpower between the 3 of them, but there are enough 2 WP allies to mean it soon picks up. I added 3 songs, 2 SoG and 2 sneak attack to the basic deck. Give it a go, it is a blast, there is quite a rush trying to complete the quest before your threat tops out. I'd quite forgotten that side of the game as I've been playing decks with plenty of threat reduction for a long time now. This is more on the edge and therefore more exciting.

Memetix said:

Yep, they did a good job with the tactics sphere in this expansion. I haven't tried Beron yet, but he sounds interesting.

How did you manage to get the 9 points for the riddle without "Will of the West"?

I had a few riddles that were just "name a sphere" so they gave about 5 progress (spending baggins resources), similarly name a sphere and cost were not too tricky. I only failed one riddle in the game, winning 5 to get to the 9 progress required. Thankfully I didn't lose any to those annoying treacheries.

I had reached the 14 needed on stage 1B already so I completed the quest stages after answering a riddle (on a treachery), putting Golum into play and removing the lake before I completed the quest phase. I then placed my progress on stage 3 - nice but not planned for.

leptokurt said:

He is quite cool. I make a deck with Beorn/Glorifindel/Frodo. Beorn is a tank. He defend, fight (together with Glorifindel he strike 8) and when he die you just get him back with Fortune or Fate. Is not a tier one deck but quite funny and powerful.But in coop game Beorn is not good in my opinion. We play and is real shame sometimes players cannot do nothning with him so later for coop i change him for Hama.