First run: WIN. 32 threat. My initial concern was that the threat generation would get to me, but it wasn't really hard to make sure I quested enough to stay ahead of the encounter deck. However, I couldn't avoid the comabat like I could with Spirit. Fortunately, I learned real quickly that my MVP of these Leadership decks was going to be the Longbeard Elder. The ability to see the top card of the encounter pile without having to discard a card or exhaust and ally or hero was just crazy good! This game ended with being able to freeze those final dropped enemies with some Fresh Tracks, then hitting them with the Sneaky Gandalf combo...

When you are using Longbeard Elder's ability, you only see the top card of the encounter deck after committing your characters to the quest. So there is really no benefit for a player (except if you have some actions to remove that card).

Spirit:

Heroes - Eowyn, Glorfinedel, Eleanor

Game 1: Win - 84 (Score)

Game 2: Win - 76

Game 3: Win - 88

No Test of Will

4 points

Lore:

Heroes - Bilbo, Glorfinedel, Mirlonde

Game 1: Win - 128

Game 2: Win - 87

Game 3: Win - 75

No Burning Brand

4 points

Tactics:

Heroes: Beregond, Gimli, Legolas

Game 1: Loss - Just plain hard and was trying to figure out how to even quest. I had VERY bad card draw.

Game 2: Loss - 1 damage to Arwen on first turn cause of undestirbed bones + 2 sleeping sentries as next 2 turn cards

Game 3: Loss - Got to stage 3 (high score) but also got 2 sleeping sentries yet again which wiped out my whole army of allies.

No Feint

1 point

Got so unlucky with Tactics but absolutely dominated with Spirit and lore. Will try and get Leadership in soon

leptokurt said:

When you are using Longbeard Elder's ability, you only see the top card of the encounter deck after committing your characters to the quest. So there is really no benefit for a player (except if you have some actions to remove that card).

****. Edited my entire post (this one). Totally forgot the FAQ updates. Answered my own question, and I played LBE wrong. Will replay the entire Leadership sphere.

leptokurt said:

When you are using Longbeard Elder's ability, you only see the top card of the encounter deck after committing your characters to the quest. So there is really no benefit for a player (except if you have some actions to remove that card).

****. Edited my entire post (this one). Totally forgot the FAQ updates. Answered my own question, and I played LBE wrong. Will replay the entire Leadership sphere.

No problem!

Tactics:

Heroes: Beregond, Gimli, Legolas

Game 1: Loss - Just plain hard and was trying to figure out how to even quest. I had VERY bad card draw.

Game 2: Loss - 1 damage to Arwen on first turn cause of undestirbed bones + 2 sleeping sentries as next 2 turn cards

Game 3: Loss - Got to stage 3 (high score) but also got 2 sleeping sentries yet again which wiped out my whole army of allies.

No Feint

1 point

Crap. That's just bad mojo. Hopefully, you sucked up all the Tactics bad luck for me when I run mine later tonight... lol

Leadership

Boromir Aragorn Theodred

game 1 - Win

game 2 - Win

game 3 - Win

No steward

Total points: 4

Grand total challenge points: 13

Aaaaaand finished my spirit runthrough. 'twas easier than I thought. My Frodo/Theodred/Dwalin fellowship started with a threat of 24. I tried to keep it at that level or lower. In one game I didn't engage a single enemy and ended with a threat of 15. In hindsight I should have added at least some low threat enemies to the quest. I didn't use A Test of Will, so that's 4 points.

Result:

leadership: 2 points

tacticts: 3 points

lore: 4 points

spirit: 4 points

Makes 13 points

Leadership run 2.0:

First run: Dain, Gloin, Balin

Win @ 37 threat

Pretty straight forward on this one. Opening hand was Sneak Attack (x2), Longbeard Orc Slayer, King Under the Mountain, Hardy Leadership... amongst others. Quested as hard as I could. Held onto the Sneak Attacks and dropped Orc Slayer repeatedly to help clear all the orcs on site 3B.

Second run: Dain, Thorin, Balin

Win @ 46

Okay opening hand- Sneak Attack, King UTM, We Are Not Idle, Snowburn Scout... This game was more difficult than I expected. Sleeping Sentry was my first round draw, which REALLY hampered the rest of my questing obviously... To be honest, I was about to toss this game in, but got just enough allies out and alive to pull it off. Had nine enemies on the table and with my threat increasing quickly, I ignored attacking. Defended with everyone, then quested everyone on the table (with Faramir doing his thing) in order to barely pull it off (got two more pregress than I needed...)

Third run: Dain, Thorin, Theodred

Win @ 37

Pulled Sleeping Sentry AGAIN on the first round... but with Thorin and Theodred generating resources for me, I didn't need Arwen's extra resource as much... I got to site 3B quickly, had 6 enemies sitting on the table. Defended with everyone holding Strength of Arms to ready all my allies. Between that, having the resources to play 2x Orc Slayers and a Sneaky Gandalf combo pretty much cleared the board of most of the enemies... then the Faramir-fueled dwarven horde finished off the quest.

Did not use Steward of Gondor for the bonus point.

Total Leadership points: 4

Previous Spirit Points: 4

Total so far: 8 points

Are you going to extend it longer yet? Or is it done? What are you thinking for next challenge?

Are you going to extend it longer yet? Or is it done? What are you thinking for next challenge?

I have no problem to give it another week. Not sure which will be the next one. I just got Steward's fear, but that doesn't seem to go well with tactics mono.

So, finished my runs yesterday (the 13th) just under the wire... but was to tired to write them up until getting my yardwork done today (mowing, pruning, picked some fresh berries for jam!)...

Lore runs

Agreed that this was one of the easier spheres to deal with for this challenge. Massive card draw and healing (except the third site of course) made this one a breeze.

First run: Mirlonde, Glorfindel, Elrond - win @ 38 threat. Only added 8 total threat the entire game. Pretty much says it all. Starting hand of Gandalf x2, Daeron's Rune, Rumours of the Earth, Gleowine and Master of Lore meant that I started with potential card draw, encounter deck scrying, cheaper played cards... Being able to use Master of Lore to play Henamarth, Mirkwood Runner, Haldir, and Warden of Healing all on a single turn for a total of 7 resources just felt like cheating. Game was pretty much done by the time I moved to site 3b. The Chieftan of the Pit had come out the turn before moving from site 2, and I had a Ranger's Spike waiting for him, then dropped Gildor and Gandalf the turn following getting to 3b and the questing was just a piece of cake.

Second run: Mirlonds, Beravor, Elronde - win @ 38. I actually thought I was going to lose this one from the get go... not a great starting hand, even after a mulligan. The first turn encounter draw was 2 surging Crebains into Black Uruks, with Pathless Country already on the table.. was adding 3 threat to start the game off turn one. But that's how good Lore was with this scenarion. It required a lot of stalling on my part, and playing 3 Gandalf's to reduce threat to keep me in it... but once Henemarth and Rumours of the Earth got into play, it just gave the advantage of knowing what the encounter deck was throwing down...

Third run: Mirlonde, Beravor, Aragorn - win @ 39. An okay opening hand (P.O.L, Warden of Healing, Gleowine)... but the key to this one was playing Risk Some Light on turn one to manipulate the encounter deck's first three cards. Made those first 2/3 turns a breeze. By that time, I had Henemarth and Rumours back into their cycles, and used 2 more copies of Risk Some Light to move one Sleeping Sentry to the bottom of the deck and just totally control the cards I faced.

3 wins = 3 points.

No Burning Brand played = Bonus point

4 Lore Points

4 Leadership Points

4 Spirit Points

12 total points so far.

Finally, Tactics.

I really thought this would be a walk in the park... And it was "feast or famine" for Tactics.

First run: Hama, Legolas, Gimli - win @ 36 threat.

Was able to slowly build my ally base, kill the enemies that popped out. Legolas + Hands Upon the Bow + Rivendell Blade + Blade of Gondor worked its magic. Got Radagast out early enough for him to be useful with the Eagles that I was playing (Eagles of the Misty Mountain x2). Trained for War was useful when needed.

Second run: Hama, Legolas, Thalin - win @ 37 threat. One of the craziest endings I've had to a game yet. With a handful of enemies on the table, I had Sleeping Sentry drop out and exhaust all my characters. The enemies ended up killing Hama and Thalin, and I thought it was pretty much over for me. But Legolas survived with 2 resources on him for the next round, and I was able to play Trained for War, and quested everyone I had on the table. Got 2 more questing points than I needed to squeeze out the win.

Third run: Legoals, Boromir, and Thalin. - loss. This was just one of those games that started off horrible. The n it got REALLY bad... lol. Even with a Trained for War and Gandalf to play in the first two turns, I ended up with 3x Pathless Country's and 2x Plundered Armories on the table from the first rounds. Gandalf and TFW only delayed the inevitable, as there was no way for me to get enough to compete with 15 threat in locations and no enemies for Legolas to kill. Threated out quickly. Hate ending everything on a sour note...

2 wins = 2 points

No Feint = 1 bonus point.

3 Tactics points

12 points (Lore, Leadership, Spirit)

15 Total points to end the challenge.

Here are the final results of this competition. Sorry for the delay, I've been quite busy this week.

Sooooo, the winner of the third Solo Mono Challenge is:

Glowwyrm

Congrats for a clean sweep!

Rankings:

1. Glowwyrm ~ 16 points of awesome

2. benhanses ~ 15 taletelling points

3. Narsil0420 ~ 14 astonishing points

4. Khamul the Easterling ~ 13 heroic points

4. leptokurt ~ 13 clone points

6. Pharmboys2013 ~ 8 threequarter points

I will be away over the weekend, so the next challenge might take a little while. I am thinking about using the Return to Mirkwood scenario this time.

SWEEET RETURN TO MIRKWOOD CHALLENGE!!!!! YES!!! CANT WAIT!!