I know, I'm a bit behind everyone. I've just started Khazad Dum, the first scenario: Into the Pit.

Normally I play 2-handed, but I'm currently travelling, and can only easily play 1-handed on this laptop.

The first time I played Into the Pit, I won pretty easily. I was playing Leadership and Lore, with as many dwarves as possible. Dain's boost to Willpower allowed us to cruise through the questing. Steward of Gondor ensure tons of resources per turn. Bifur helped balance the resources. By phases 2 and 3 there really was no challenge left; I had a large army that could easy handle anything. When I watched the Cardboard of the Rings video for the scenario, their experience (of finding it easy and a little uneventful) mirrored mine, so I didn't bother replaying it.

Instead, I created a deck out of the other 2 spheres: Tactics and Spirit. Again, I maxed out dwarves, so no Eowyn. I just had Gimli, Thalin, and Dwalin. This time I got slaughtered. Not just once but 3 times in a row. The heroes could only quest for 4, and they just couldn't bring out allies fast enough to help, not that their dwarven allies were much help. We couldn't progress, so the staging area filled up, and we just got out butts kicked, each time. Perhaps if I had drawn that dwarven willpower booster I could have made progress for a turn, but I don't think those boosters can help in the long run.

So, it seems like Dain is the key to a dwarf-centric victory in Into the Pit. Without him, dwarves don't seem to quest well enough to survive for long. At least, not the Tactic and Spirit dwarves (available at the time of Khazad Dum).

Is this a common conclusion? Is Dain the key dwarf (for dwarf-centric decks) for Into the Pit and perhaps other scenarios? Is it inherently difficult to win with Tactics and Spirit dwarves alone?

Or did I just get unlucky? Or pick bad cards for my Tactics/Sprit deck?

I guess there is another way round, but i always have dain when playing dwarves. I attach steward of gondor and narvis belt to help him buy other sphaire allies and he boosts questing

Dain is the centre piece for a dwarf deck against any scenario*. You already described his awesome abilities. He's additionally a superb defender.

* until the first Hobbit expansion which has Thorin Oakenshield who is almost as cool as Dain

there are other ways, but as others have said.....dain is the key to any dwarf deck

other combinations i have played you need the hobbit set for. even then they arent nearly as good

rich

^{My go-to dwarf deck is leadership-lore, with Thorin, Ori and Bombur, and boat loads of dwarf allies. Play one dwarf and I'm getting 2 resources per turn with Thorin and 2 cards per turn with Ori. Once I get steward of Gondor, Thorin is raking in 4 resources per turn. Add Narvi's Belt and I can bust out Erebor Battlemasters, which I've had with 12 attack before. That crushes all enemies. Thorin and Ori are excellent questers, and Bombur can be quite beastly defender with burning brand, Ringmail, etc.}

^{Dain who?}

^{My go-to dwarf deck is leadership-lore, with Thorin, Ori and Bombur, and boat loads of dwarf allies. Play one dwarf and I'm getting 2 resources per turn with Thorin and 2 cards per turn with Ori. Once I get steward of Gondor, Thorin is raking in 4 resources per turn. Add Narvi's Belt and I can bust out Erebor Battlemasters, which I've had with 12 attack before. That crushes all enemies. Thorin and Ori are excellent questers, and Bombur can be quite beastly defender with burning brand, Ringmail, etc.}

^{Dain who?}

Dain who was already published when KD came out unlike Thorin, Ori and Bombur who are likely not in the possession of the OP?

I just played Into the Pit again, this time with 2 hands. It was slow going on the laptop (since I am used to having 2 monitors, one for each "player"), but not as painful as I anticipated.

And again, I won, pretty easily. It was more fun this time than the first time, perhaps because I had both good questers and good fighters. And I think I made fewer mistakes in terms of the rules (or forgetting to use the Cave Torch).

Dain is definitely the MVP. He really makes the dwarves shine. I don't know if I could have won without him (if playing all-dwarven heroes). It certainly would have been a closer game. Of course, playing 2 handed helps.

In both times that I won, the 2nd and 3rd stages whizzed by without much happening. By the time I was to stage 2, I had a huge army, and was questing for 15-20 each turn (and that's with holding back half the characters for combat). Stages 2 and 3 seemed anticlimactic, which is the reverse from usual.

Is that everyone's experience, as well? Or did I just draw happen to easy cards during stages 2 and 3?

Matches my experience. The first bit of Into the Pit drags on, but after the first quest card it's a race to the finish.

Confirmed. Quest like hell through the 1, the rest is just formality. For some mysterious reason, I like to play it, though.

Playing without Dáin is a near impossibility solo with Dwarven decks. I was able to beat Into the Pit fairly regularly without him, but only using after getting all the cards from both Hobbit saga expansions. Here's a YouTube clip of my deck and playthrough if you're interested:

Kd was cool but now with all new player cards is a joke.

Nightmare mode will change it!! I really wanna play again KD quests in NM.

sure will be awesome!!!