Play the game for the first time today. Went with the suggested starting quest. After a handful of rounds there was an active location (the one that won't let you draw cards) and three or four in the staging area. Couldn't make progress against the active location to move any in the staging area so the options for finishing was death by threat or death by the monsters that would get through if everyone was exhausted. Didn't bother finishing. Is this just a case of a complete random horrible draw, was it being played wrong, any advice?

thanks!

We're you playing Tactics? Start by learning to play the Spirit deck first.

I made a similar thread on BGG, where people answered with plenty of good advice: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/826491/how-do-you-deal-with-a-location-deluge

Such situations may happen, and with the pre-buillt monosphere decks of the core game, very often this means defeat. This is because the monosphere decks are too specialised in strategies and can only handle one type of game. For instance, Spirit will be great if you have a lot of locations, because questing effects and willpower are powerful, and you can control threat levels, etc. On the other hand, if you have a deluge of enemies, it will become difficult to win. Conversely, Tactics will be able to handle powerful enemies, but since questing is very weak, you won't be able to win if locations pile up in the staging area. Lore is more specialised in healing and advance card discovery. Leadership is more balanced, but is still specialised towards resource production.

The bottom line is that in solo monosphere decks are very dependent on the nature of Encounter cards to be able to win. Therefore in solo you will rapidly want to use multi-sphere decks, so that you can balance the various effect types (resource management, healing, knowledge, Q, A, D). And this will also mean that you will need the cards in the expansions.

On BGG, there is also a very good document explaining the card synergies, by type: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/75357/complete-player-card-list-combos . This is very helpful, but you may want to consider this document as a spoiler and want to discover this yourself first.

zelq said:

hey

one guy can save the day here- Northern Tracker….places progress on locations in the staging area

i would advice play Lore + spirit deck and avoid tactics until you have some more plays and more packs (unless you have a few of them?)

rich

richsabre said:

Yes, Northern Tracker is awesome, as well as any card that allows questing on locations in the staging area ; and this confirms what I wrote

richsabre said:

He was actually the first casualty! I'll give the lore + spirit a try, thanks.

What are some good packs to start with?

zelq said:

mmmm thats a though one.

firstly the packs with the song cards in are important allowing you to build multisphere decks without having to have the sphere heros.

it depends on what you want to do..do you want theme and go in order? or do you want most powerful first? there are some very powerful cards in the dwarrowdelf packs however remember you needs the khazad dum deluxe expansion to play any of those.

what about heros? frodo is an excellent character and is in conflict at the carrock

or perhaps you want to try easier/harder quests? i can provide opinions on solo difficulty levels if you want ( as the ones on the packs are great indicators)

have a look at cardgamedb.com or lotrlcg.com to see what cards are in each pack

rich

You are a wonderful fount of information! I'll take a look at both of those sites. I'm thinking easier quests to get the flow down, then work on complexity and power.

I was using two players (though I was both) and went with tactics and….leadership? (sorry not quite there yet) I'll look into some of the more mixed mode decks and such for solo play.

Thanks again for all this advice!

edit: theme and order would be nice, but whatever is most likely to get me to stick with the game

no problem

heres the solo difficulty level, though i will state the (general) forum opinion on how they get harder or easier with more players

1.Hunt for gollum - Easy/medium, getting harder with more players (this in my opinion is one of the best places to start- its got a bit of everything)

2.conflict at the carrock- Hard first few times round but medium once you know the specific strategy of winning it…easier with more players

3.journey to rhosgobel- Hard. not sure how it scales with more players. this one is difficult because it requires some very specific deck building centered around healing

4.emyn muil- Easy. lots of locations and not alot else. nice for artwork, but very linear playing wise. i cant imagine this one being much easier or harder with more players as its very easy to set off with (providing you have a good questing deck- go spirit and youre ok)

5. dead marshes- Medium. sort of a mix between hunt for gollum and emyn muil- nice quest in my opinion. not sure how it scales though. alot of questing and some nasty enemies. nice theme as well.

6.return to mirkwood- **** near impossible solo when it was released. i have won it through pure rush-luck, though its not a very satisfying solo quest. gets easier with more players. most of the enouncter cards target multiple players so theres not alot going on for solo play, just a huge threat increase. some really nice player cards though so worth getting at some point.

KHAZAD DUM- 3 quests, all medium/hard. this is required for ANY dwarrowdelf pack. lots of dwarf cards so if you like dwarves then its a good pack. may be very hard if you dont have any other packs apart from Core set.

1.redhorn gate-easy/medium with really nice quest, plenty of theme.

2.road to rivendell- medium, though alot of players say hard. it has alot of nasty card effects including the worst in the game so far….but its quite easy with a good draw.

3.watcher in the water- medium, its got tentacles in, what more can i say- pretty cool …some nasty enemies, but with experience they can be brought down

4.the long dark- easy. harder with more players. nice solo quest and not too hard at all. good to try decks out with as you tend to get through your deck quickly

5.foundations of stone- medium/hard. i really like this quest. nice mechanics, interesting enemies and a good challenge without being too difficult.

6.shadow and flame- hard. its a balrog, so its to be expected haha. easier with more players i would say. ive only recently got this so am still trying to beat it

HOBBIT, 3 quests, all very hard if you dont have alot of the earlier packs. not that you need them, this is a saga pack so can be used with core set only. i wouldnt advice getting this until you have had some more packs…though its quickly become my favourite- just for the artwork

that all at the moment, as for what order, for theme i guess you cant go wrong with timeline order, but you wont miss anything major if you decide to skip a few, and you certianly dont have to have packs within the cycle to play the later ones, so you could get 6 before 1 for instance.

hope this helps…any more q.s just ask or PM me

rich

PS as for sticking with the game…ill say one thing….it is very hard!! dont worry if you lose alot- when i got the game when it first came out i lost journy down tha anduin for about 6 months!!! (though that was down to poor playing haha)