I've wondered why this is: why does it seem that play style can so drastically effect this? It's really interesting to me that, for example, Dain and Glaurung see Steward's Fear so differently.

if i remember correctly, glaurung said earlier that all of the quests this cycle are too easy - so i was just as surprised as you are to see him backtrack a bit on this quest!

...but honestly I've never found Into Ithilien, even before the errata, to be that nasty. Certainly not to the level that some find.

same. I don't see why people think its crazy hard. Its really not that bad. It's hard, yes, but I can win it a fair amount of the time.

i dunno if you've been playing 2+ player, or not, but into ithilien is one of those quests is that is substantially easier solo, than multiplayer (like the druadan forest, as well).

Yeah solo

Yeah solo

that explains it then

5) The Steward's Fear: The Hills of Emyn Muil 2.0 (slightly better, but for me, not by much. theme isn't enough to promote it off the list).

Ahem, you can't be serious about comparing SF to HoEM! These are completely different quests. HoEM is all about questing AFAP. SF is about creating a strategy that allows you to make progress, defend against some of these nasty AtS enemies and to prepare yourself for each of the possible plots.

I disagree with you - THoEM is about racking up enough location VPs to win and TSF is about cleaning 8 locations to pass the quest stages - I find that extremely similar.

the enemies are a joke and very easy to deal with and the plots/villains have never been much of a problem with solid deck construction.

both quests are focused heavily on location clearing - which is somewhat dull.

note that I don't call them identical - I think TSF is a notch above THoEM - but only barely for me. it's an artificially slow quest - like THoEM due to all of the locations you must clear and the enemies pose little threat in most of the games I've played.

I think SF is quite difficult quest....but sure if you buildup the deck against certain quest yes this is make whole game easy.

try to bulid up deck which is play again any quest. is much more challenge and interesting. Make a deck agaisnt specific quest is a bit boring a?

It's about cleaning eight active locations, so you can't circumvent the quest with NT or Asfaloth. And under most locations you find enemies that are far away from being easy (beside the Pickpocket), so clearing locations in the staging area doesn't really help, as most enemies have a similar threat as the location. And let's not forget all these nasty treacheries and the plots. You just don't quest here, but you quest and you prepare yourself for any possible enemy to come up from the underground. And pray that you don't draw sewers when you're short of defenders.

I can beat this scenario with Outlands and with a special lore mono deck and I gues dwarfs should also do fine, but my current leadership/spirit deck gets crushed all the time. Boromir ain't happy!

I've wondered why this is: why does it seem that play style can so drastically effect this? It's really interesting to me that, for example, Dain and Glaurung see Steward's Fear so differently.

if i remember correctly, glaurung said earlier that all of the quests this cycle are too easy - so i was just as surprised as you are to see him backtrack a bit on this quest!

I guess he smoked some crack when he said that. SF isn't easy at all, DF is a fun and challenging quest (just don't play it with Outlands etc), and even EaAD is entertaining, though not perfect.

5) The Steward's Fear: The Hills of Emyn Muil 2.0 (slightly better, but for me, not by much. theme isn't enough to promote it off the list).

Ahem, you can't be serious about comparing SF to HoEM! These are completely different quests. HoEM is all about questing AFAP. SF is about creating a strategy that allows you to make progress, defend against some of these nasty AtS enemies and to prepare yourself for each of the possible plots.

I disagree with you - THoEM is about racking up enough location VPs to win and TSF is about cleaning 8 locations to pass the quest stages - I find that extremely similar.

the enemies are a joke and very easy to deal with and the plots/villains have never been much of a problem with solid deck construction.

both quests are focused heavily on location clearing - which is somewhat dull.

note that I don't call them identical - I think TSF is a notch above THoEM - but only barely for me. it's an artificially slow quest - like THoEM due to all of the locations you must clear and the enemies pose little threat in most of the games I've played.

I think SF is quite difficult quest....but sure if you buildup the deck against certain quest yes this is make whole game easy.

try to bulid up deck which is play again any quest. is much more challenge and interesting. Make a deck agaisnt specific quest is a bit boring a?

It's about cleaning eight active locations, so you can't circumvent the quest with NT or Asfaloth. And under most locations you find enemies that are far away from being easy (beside the Pickpocket), so clearing locations in the staging area doesn't really help, as most enemies have a similar threat as the location. And let's not forget all these nasty treacheries and the plots. You just don't quest here, but you quest and you prepare yourself for any possible enemy to come up from the underground. And pray that you don't draw sewers when you're short of defenders.

I can beat this scenario with Outlands and with a special lore mono deck and I gues dwarfs should also do fine, but my current leadership/spirit deck gets crushed all the time. Boromir ain't happy!

i know how the quest works, silly.

and it's still very easy, and largely dull. just like The Hills (for me). the plots and villian happen too late to really matter much, and in my play-throughs, it's over in a round or two after they are revealed. and i still think all the enemies are easy. never once have they posed a significant problem.

but to each his own! it's very interesting to see how different folks react to different quests.

at the end of the day - for me - it's not a quest i'll bust out to play very often.

p.s.: should i bother pointing out i took TSF off my "worst" list after playing Encounter at Amon Din? haha.

5) The Steward's Fear: The Hills of Emyn Muil 2.0 (slightly better, but for me, not by much. theme isn't enough to promote it off the list).

Ahem, you can't be serious about comparing SF to HoEM! These are completely different quests. HoEM is all about questing AFAP. SF is about creating a strategy that allows you to make progress, defend against some of these nasty AtS enemies and to prepare yourself for each of the possible plots.

I disagree with you - THoEM is about racking up enough location VPs to win and TSF is about cleaning 8 locations to pass the quest stages - I find that extremely similar.

the enemies are a joke and very easy to deal with and the plots/villains have never been much of a problem with solid deck construction.

both quests are focused heavily on location clearing - which is somewhat dull.

note that I don't call them identical - I think TSF is a notch above THoEM - but only barely for me. it's an artificially slow quest - like THoEM due to all of the locations you must clear and the enemies pose little threat in most of the games I've played.

I think SF is quite difficult quest....but sure if you buildup the deck against certain quest yes this is make whole game easy.

try to bulid up deck which is play again any quest. is much more challenge and interesting. Make a deck agaisnt specific quest is a bit boring a?

It's about cleaning eight active locations, so you can't circumvent the quest with NT or Asfaloth. And under most locations you find enemies that are far away from being easy (beside the Pickpocket), so clearing locations in the staging area doesn't really help, as most enemies have a similar threat as the location. And let's not forget all these nasty treacheries and the plots. You just don't quest here, but you quest and you prepare yourself for any possible enemy to come up from the underground. And pray that you don't draw sewers when you're short of defenders.

I can beat this scenario with Outlands and with a special lore mono deck and I gues dwarfs should also do fine, but my current leadership/spirit deck gets crushed all the time. Boromir ain't happy!

i know how the quest works, silly.

and it's still very easy, and largely dull. just like The Hills (for me). the plots and villian happen too late to really matter much, and in my play-throughs, it's over in a round or two after they are revealed. and i still think all the enemies are easy. never once have they posed a significant problem.

but to each his own! it's very interesting to see how different folks react to different quests.

at the end of the day - for me - it's not a quest i'll bust out to play very often.

p.s.: should i bother pointing out i took TSF off my "worst" list after playing Encounter at Amon Din? haha.

Actually i think is about heroes. I mean which heroes you choose to play. That what make some quests easy and some more difficult. For example Thorin companu deck can be good almost against all quests. But siege of Cair adros is really difficult for this deck. Even if i win i never ever can expolre battleground locations so i hane a long way. SF is quite easy for TH Company unless you didn get a certain plot....... My Elrond deck can explore BG locations in SOCA and much more easy win this quest but SF is almost impossible to win.......

I love SF is quite cool . Plot cards is really cool!

Druadan and Amon looks easy solo so im not so happy with that.

BUt sometink tell me last 3 quest should be hard. Last one for sure about 8. Osgiliath looks very promising maybe 7. BOG also should be not less then 6.

Yesterday we played Into Ithilien again. 3 players. Its insane (although constructing special decks for it), i hate it and I have 0% fun playing it.

Yesterday we played Into Ithilien again. 3 players. Its insane (although constructing special decks for it), i hate it and I have 0% fun playing it.

I love this way. When you win you feel cool. Is not point to win easy......there should be struggle....

Into Ithilian I usually play two-handed (which, I realise, isn't quite the same as two-player), and I really enjoy the quest. Not as much as Peril in Pelargir, which is just so well designed it's almost always a great game. The key may be that I really favour archery heavy decks, and those can make it so much easier to cope early on etc with the enemies. The other quest I find really oddly hard is the first AP of the Mirkwood cycle. Can't explain why, but I often get a pasting against it.