Hello all, just wanted to share my 2 cents on the new scenario itself since it seems most of the discussion on the boards has been about the player cards and the not quest.

The quest is the prototypical 3 stages. The first stage has no effect, the second says that all archery damage must go on heroes, and the third is really interesting in that it brings into play the "boss" enemy Dru-buri-Dru has the siege keyword, and requires players to attack enemies using they're will power. When attacking the enemies in this manner, instead of damage travel tokens are placed on the enemy. When the enemy has as many travel tokens as health, they are put in the victory display and the progress tokens are put on the quest stage which causes this last stage to end relatively quickly. I think its also a cool mechanic how at the end you're not necessarily "fighting" and killing the woses.

The two most dangerous treacheries IMO are Stars in the Sky and Leaves on Tree. The former requires you to discard 2 resources then each questing hero has to pay a resource or is removed from the quest. Out of the 4 times i've played the scenario since receiving it yesterday there have been several instances where this has resulted in me and a teamate contributing zero willpower and getting crushed by threat. Leaves on Tree will likely be more damaging depending on the deck but it has surge and causes each player to pay a resource for each attachment they have or discard all attachments they have. Later in the game with an attachment heavy deck this likely means you'll lose everything.

The most dangerous enemy, especially in multiplayer games is the Druadan Hunter who gains 1 archery for each hero without a resource. In a 2 player game this often resulted in 6 archery damage

Playing the scenario myself i had 2 attempts solo and 2 attempts with a friend. Each game I used the same deck, a Glorfindel (spirit), Elrond, and Frodo deck. My friend used a mono tactics deck (Thalin, Beregond, and Legolas) and Dwarf (Thorin, Dain, Ori). Surprisingly the only game we lost was when my friend used his Dwarf deck although we came very close to losing when he used the tactics deck. I handeled the quest fine solo, although the only reason i did was beause of all the healing. 3 stewards of healing plus elrond was essential for each victory, otherwise the archery stacking up can be insurmountable. I can imagine any deck on its own or in combination especially winning this scenario without some time of healing, just too much direct damage by the woses. Resources are another issue. Each turn the players are basically in a mental battle with themselves over whether they should spend their few resources on the cards in their hand, or save them to be simply discarded by the encounter deck's nasty effects. It is basically guranteed unless you get some lucky cards in the staging area you will have to forfeit resources each turn.

All in all i really like the scenario, its very thematic and all the encounter cards really combo off one another which is cool to see. Would love to hear other people's opinion of the quest itself below…

edit: ment on stage 2 all archery damage must be placed on allies not heroes

This quest increases in difficulty with the amount of players playing. In a three player game, with Glade of Cleansing and the Druadan Hunter and other cards, we were assigning 13-15 points of archery damage a turn. I almost thought this quest was impossible. We finally beat it two player, but again, I felt we got lucky more than anything else. I then tackled this quest solo, and I found it extremely easy. I had built a mono Lore deck with Denethor, Mirlonde, and Aragorn, and using Denethor's ability, I was able to plan what I was going to do that round (i.e., save my resources, play an ally, hold back for combat, etc.). I have read some people building decks showcasing Elrond's healing ability, but this is a much more effective way of dealing with this quest. I also think that mono Lore fits the theme of this quest very well, kind of sneaking around in the forest, knowing what is going to pop up around the corner.

i defintely agree, i played the quest a few more times since this morning with a low threat Mirlonde, Glorfindel (spirit), and Denethor deck and then with a Gondor themed deck and won all but one time. I cant imagine playing this with 4 people, the amount of archery damage would be laughable.

another thing i like about this deck is that it keeps things simple. there isnt' an elaborate set up and it only uses 1 other encounter deck set (which is a huge bonus when re-organizing when i'm done playing). Me personally i like playing any random scenario and just jumping right into it, playing 1 or 2 games here and there so taking the time to put the encounter deck together and then apart when i'm done is actually kind of an issue for me

Just tried this quest for the first time. We played 2 players and played it blind (didn't peek at the deck before playing). We used some decks we have been using recently, with Elrond, Aragorn (Lore), and Glorfindel (Spirit) on one side and a Dwarf deck with Dain, Thorin, and Nori on the other.

We started a little rocky, unable to get allies down due to the Woses prowl effects and resource-depleting Treachery cards. On one notable round we lost the questing phase when Stars in Sky followed by Lost Companion removed everybody from the quest, including Gandalf. Luckily, this was fairly early on, and we only had to raise our threat by 6. Once we got going it was pretty easy, and there was not a lot of combat. More locations than anything else. Glorfindel and Thorin are great heroes for this quest. Thanks to their high Willpower and Attack they are flexible and can fight on stage 3 just as well as on stages 1 and 2. Aragorn's Sword that was Broken is a frickin' champ in this quest, essentially doing +1 combat power for every character on stage 3.

I enjoyed it, but I'll have to play it a few more times before I get a good feel for it. We may have had a easy time, or just happened to have good decks for this quest. We did have a couple of rounds where 6 archery damage went down, but Elrond plus 2 Wardens of Healing rendered that fairly innocuous.

I've played it solo, 2, and 4 player.

Solo depending on which deck i use is easy to moderate difficulty. For instance my outlands deck beat it in 4 rounds, but a normal deck could be 8 or more rounds, and some times loss..

2 player was moderately difficult and a good challenge.

4 player as another poster said was laughable. Never made it past the 2 nd round on 3 attampts. Easy to see more than 30 archery damage coming on the opening round. Right now i think it is impossible for 4 player, but I hope i'm wrong.

I do like the scenario alot., it is suspenseful, and there are some encounter cards that real change my plans for how I want to see the round go. it made me reassess how i use my resources.

it's a winable scenario for 1-2 players ( have not tried 3) but it makes you work for it. Like it. Good one to work on more thmatic types of decks and revisit cards that might be collecting dust.

We've tried this quest twice with 4 players each time. The first time we died on the first turn because we ended up taking 28 wounds in archery, the second time we made it past a few rounds, but never managed to put any progress on the quest. Ouch.

This quest is my favorite. I love the enemies. I don't find it too easy solo. I also love the story for the aganst the shadow cycle so far. It feels like you're reading a book and then stop to jump into the world and be part of that world and take part in the adventure and then you go back to reading again. Does anybody else think that? I think the quest is quite relaxed and balanced.

I also think Frodo is a Master at this quest. I beat it with a score of 76 on my first try with Flight to the ford deck. I'll try it with a Gondor deck next I think.

But yeah, I really love the story with these 2 new quests. Can't wait for Amon Din. So far I don't like either Hirliun or Mirlonde. But Mirlonde is ok I guess.

Khamul

P.S. I love the names of the chiefs in DF. Mor- Sari- Mor Ghan- Buri- Ghan Dru- Buri- Dru haha

How about Yar- Jari -Yar or Ploe- Kari- Ploe? haha

Khamul The Easterling said:

quote i agree with the story too. amon din cant come soon enough, and after that assault on osgilith because i NEEEEEEED faramir hero

What can i say. This new cycle looks pretty cool!

Actually Druadan forest is big disappoint for me…..Hope next quests will be better. I play for a while Druadan forest and Steward fear and then comeback to HON quests. Wow! HON quests is much more interesting and better and more hard then last 2 third cycle quests! Lot of think happen all the time very cool decision every rounds. DF and SF is just a boring story compare to HON! So i hope we will get back to HON quality level with the rest of the quests. At least with Morgul Vale and Assault in Osgiliath.

HoN quests are much more difficult. I found TSF and DF easy for solo play and experimented with lots of 2nd tier decks to try to make them more interesting and difficult.

I found DF very difficult with more than 3 - 4 players, but we did manage a 4 player win the other night, so not impossible like i once thought.