What strategies did people use to good effect again Shadows and Flame in a 2-player game? It's difficult to have 2 good defenders taking on 6 attack every turn (9 with Flaming Sword), so what do people do to handle it? You can't just keep wasting allies. That becomes expensive and is difficult to keep up for long. Feint will work sometimes, but with its errata, it only works for one player now.

I have a strategy that worked really well once set up, but I'm curious what others did and I'd like to hear it before I reveal my strategy.

Hah, wish I had something useful to contribute here. This is one of my least-played quests, mostly because I think I got it just before I got The Hobbit, and I got carried away playing those. I tried S&F five times and won once (2-player). We did indeed just keep throwing allies at the Balrog. Brought Eleanor with us to cancel key cards, and even had Hama because we planned to exploit Hama-lock (this was pre-errata). Never drew Feint though.

In the end Eleanor died to an undefended attack and Hama got picked off after I ran out of allies. Gimli was the only character on my side of the table. He was a champ though, plunking down 6 to 7 damage on the Balrog each time he attacked all by himself. On the other end of the table we had Dain, Bifur, and Ori. No heroes croaked on that end.

So we just bulled through it. Didn't approach this quest with particular finesse.

I'll add that in the current game, multi-defending with Beregond and a Gondorian Shield seems like a pretty good idea as long as Durin's Bane doesn't get his attachments out. Slap on some Unexpected Courage, use Behind Strong Walls... Denethor with a Gondorian Shield can stand up to the heat a little bit, too. Just get some healing on the table.

I once played a game where I played Thorin, Ori, and Bombur, and my friend played another dwarf deck with Gimli, Nori and Thalin, while another friend played Gloin, Balin and Dain. With Dain ready, of course, there was so much synergy the adventure wasn't actually all that bad. But that was the only time we've beaten it.

Me and my gf completed this for the first time today, 2-player! I ran Elrond, Lore Aragorn and Spirit Glorfindel, and she Gloin, Gimli and Bifur. We failed it the first time we tried it, earlier this week, but now we were ready for some of the surprises.

The only ones of our heroes that could actually withstand a single attack from the balrog were Aragorn and Gimli, and we couldn't get healers into play quickly enough - so we did exactly what you say: sacrifice allies. We both have several allies that cost 2 or 3 resources and I could play extra ones with Elrond/Vilya, so that was what we kept up. We kept our threat low with cards such as Gandalf and Galadhrim's Greeting. My gf took some undefended attacks with Gimli, played an Erebor Battle-Master and went berserk at the balrog with some Khazad! Khazad! and Heavy Stroke (which are both extremely cheap compared to their effects). This allowed her to put at least 10-15 damage tokens on the balrog every turn she attacked. In the end I could easily use Imladris Stargazer to control my top 5 cards, discarded some expensive ones and outmatched the balrog's remaining health.

It was pretty easy the second time. First time felt hopeless, though. There are many ways to do it. Good luck!

Frodo is a star against this quest - he can block the Balrog easily, for a few points of threat. Throwing allies in front of the Balrog can work, otherwise get out a character with a decent defence strength and a burning brand and you're sorted (Elrond is good here). One game I got out Boromir with two Support of the Eagles (with a Winged Guardian in play) and that worked too. Or, use Hama to recycle a Feint each turn. As long as each deck has some way of coping with the Balrog's attacks you should be OK. Consider including secrecy cards (such as resourceful, risk some light) - with a starting threat of 0, you should be able to play them for most of the game.

Hope this helps!