My feelings haven't changed. After Heirs of Numenor was released veteran players were warning newbs off of the box because it was "brutal". The release of the adventure packs was subsequently delayed and "easy mode" was released in short order. I think they downgraded the difficulty of the APs during the delay because you don't want to turn new players off your game.

As a pure solo player, Steward's Fear I thought was a very good quest, but the next four have been a bit disappointing.

derailing this dying topic real quick: anyone find it...well not necessarily disappointing; but maybe just surprised that ranger decks are pretty terrible against this scenario?

Got my pack in yesterday and put a ranger deck together using the much anticipated Anborn and pretty much got wrecked. Had much more success with a leadership/tactics build

Just played 2 games solo. Both wins with an experimental Gondor deck I have been working on the past few day. I don't think it is a particularly strong deck, but it handled this scenario pretty well. I think it is a neat quest, and the hidden mechanic can easly lead to an enemy swarm. Decks that cannot handle seige quests or multiple enimes engaging at once will struggle.

Was it easy? Sort of, it did have a challenge, and moments where I might lose. But, in the end it only took about 15 minutes to complete, and this is how many of this cycles scenarios are going. Cool mechanics, but very short to complete, which tends ro make it easier. One more quest card or some other win condition in these scenarios would extend the challenge of the game.

Waiting a month or more for 15 minute victory is kind of disapointing, especially when it does not push my deck building skills to try and solve the new puzzle of the scenario.

This is probably one of those quests that is pretty good with 2 players, and i bet with 4 it's really tough.

Make sure to post that deck when its done! I basically just use/tweak yours haha. Awesome decks

I'm wondering if part of the dissappointment is simply a let down from the Black Riders quests which were great.

That certainly may be part of it. BR is not too difficult, which is fine, because the quests are really interesting, and there are cool decisions to be made, and the scenarios usually cannot be won in a few rounds. There is more game to them, which makes me feel like I have accomplished something when I complete each scenario. I don't have to loss to enjoy the game, but I would like scenarios that give me more than a few rounds of play before I win. With a longer scenario designs at least there is more of a chance for things to go wrong, or I may even threat out. Another scenario card for Amon Din, AOO, and BoG could have made these quests a much better experience and gave the scenarios more effort to complete. SF and TDF have more game to them because of this. Of course this is all from a solo perspective.

Maybe this cycle has been a reboot for new players to get into the game, since they may not have all the player cards to work with. maybe the scenarios are easier when a player has access to the complete set of player cards.

I would love to hear a new players perspective on this. Of course i could limit myself to the core set, HoN and cards from the cycle. Has anyone tried that? Any difference?

Hopefully, Morgul Vale will turn this around for me.

While I agree with most of what you're saying (haven't played BoG yet thanks to getting BR at the same time, but I trust your word here), I think this cycle has to offer some scenarios that take longer to play. TSF is not one of the longest, but it's certainly no quick rush through experience. And Druadan Forest can take ages (certainly one of my fav adventures) before ou get to convince the chieftain.

One problem is that FFG is apparently designing their quests for multiplayer. While that is ok, I think it would only take a little effort to adjust some mechanics to solo player mode. TSF became too difficult to play it solo, AaO turned out to be too easy. I wish they'd add some extra quest cards for solo play. Not in every game, but in those in which the number of players plays a bif role.

One problem is that FFG is apparently designing their quests for multiplayer. While that is ok, I think it would only take a little effort to adjust some mechanics to solo player mode.

I agree - I play almost exclusively solo, and while i occasionally play two decks, I usually play one, and have found this cycle (after The Stewards Fear) to be a letdown. I got Blood of Gondor through the post a couple of days ago, and tried it out yesterday, with a tactics deck I usually reserve as backup to a stronger deck, and beat it three times in a row in 3-4 rounds each game, with no danger of being anywhere near losing in any of them. I think The Black Riders raised the bar for enjoyability of quests, so for the next release to be this is disappointing.

One problem is that FFG is apparently designing their quests for multiplayer. While that is ok, I think it would only take a little effort to adjust some mechanics to solo player mode.

I agree - I play almost exclusively solo, and while i occasionally play two decks, I usually play one, and have found this cycle (after The Stewards Fear) to be a letdown. I got Blood of Gondor through the post a couple of days ago, and tried it out yesterday, with a tactics deck I usually reserve as backup to a stronger deck, and beat it three times in a row in 3-4 rounds each game, with no danger of being anywhere near losing in any of them. I think The Black Riders raised the bar for enjoyability of quests, so for the next release to be this is disappointing.

I long time tell about it.....you got the quest and win in without any problem......bad feeling. so disappointed to wait for 1 or more months and then just pass it in 15 min..........

what i find interesting is that whilst many players on this thread are commenting on the easier side of this cycle, all the players who posted on my 'accessibiliy to the game' thread tended to support the design swing to accessibility for newcomers to the game.

i realise there were very few people who posted on that thread, so i would like to know what those who are dissapointed with this current cycle think of that topic (either here or on the other thread so this one doesnt get side tracked)

rich

I like BoG. Used and tweaked my Hobbit deck a bit. Lost most of the time, but finally won it. Pretty tough one, though tactics decks should have it easier. Nice design though a bit complicated with all these new rules and card effects.

As for the ongoing discussion about scenarios being too easy or too difficult:

As I see it there are mainly two ways to design a quest:

1) Make the quest difficult, so that only 2 or 3 special designed decks are able to win

2) Make the scenario easier, so that players can build a variety of decks to beat it

Currently we have a good mix of both attempts. SF is a scenario that is (way too for my taste) difficult in solo mode and challenging in two-handed mode. Amon Din is a scenario that can be beaten easily with a proper deck, but players can be creative and test multiple decks against it.

I prefer the second attempt myself. Building themed decks that might not be the most powerful, but can still beat a scenario is a challenge that is so much more fun than simply putting three Test of Will in your hand, playing Sneak Gandalf and letting Asfaloth ding all the dirty exploration all of the time. Or to put an army of Dwarves in with bilion synergies in your deck.

Each scenario can be fun, if you only forget about building the best deck possible. Restrict yourself!

I prefer the second attempt myself. Building themed decks that might not be the most powerful, but can still beat a scenario is a challenge that is so much more fun than simply putting three Test of Will in your hand, playing Sneak Gandalf and letting Asfaloth ding all the dirty exploration all of the time. Or to put an army of Dwarves in with bilion synergies in your deck.

Each scenario can be fun, if you only forget about building the best deck possible. Restrict yourself!

exactly

Each scenario can be fun, if you only forget about building the best deck possible. Restrict yourself!

I have been restricting myself, i don't play outlands or dwarves anymore. I'm starting to eliminate sp Glorfindel from my decks. I'm designing decks that I consider to be sub par and experimental, meaning that i have not landed on the right synergy for the deck. These decks are interesting and fun to play, but i am kind of shocked when i play a deck like this against a new scenario and it wins first try. That type of experience kind of puts a dead end to the deck building experince, since i am already using a deck that in my opinion is mediocre and still needs more tweaking.

What am i to do? Make an an even worse deck to enjoy the game. The challenge of the game then starts to become how weak of a deck can i make to beat an easy scenario, rather than how can I make a great deck to take on the challenge of a difficult scenario.

Rich's question about player accessibility may play into this cycle. I think an interview with the Caleb mentioned that they also playtest the whole cycle with just the cards from the core, delux expansion and the current cycle. So, if they are expecting a player to get victories with just those products, then a player who has three cores and everything else is probably going to feel these scenarios are easier.

My fear for the veteran players is that each deluxe expansion and the following cycle may look similar in terms of difficulty, since FFG will want to make sure they can continue to pull in new players with each new cycle, and give them some success to want to continue playing. Probably one scenario each cycle will be really big challenge, in this cycle i hope that will be Morgul Vale, although I must say HoN scenarios did deliver, but many players were outraged by the difficulty, so we might not see that again.

The challenge for veteran players is going to come with nightmare packs, which at this point I agree Glaurung that they should be made available on release of the AP, since it will ensure that new players and old will be satisfied right away.

Here's a suggestion (I haven't tried yet):

For easier scenarios, just treat the number of players as +1. If you're soloing, reveal 2 cards during staging and Archery X (number of players) becomes 2 for example. That would ramp up the challenge substantially for solo players and still quite a bit for 2-3 players.

If you try it, let us know how well it works.

I don't think they will publish nightmare along with normal pack, as they said that they response to player strategies.

What am i to do? Make an an even worse deck to enjoy the game. The challenge of the game then starts to become how weak of a deck can i make to beat an easy scenario, rather than how can I make a great deck to take on the challenge of a difficult scenario.

I'd call it "searching for a challenge" myself. Choose a theme, build a deck and try to master the scenario with a deck that at first glance isn't designed to beat the scenario. Try a Hobbit deck against BoG, for example. I am having tons of fun right now, as BoG allows you to make a lot of tactical decisions, and the Hobbits' traits play right into that.

Perhaps the true problem does not lie within the scenarios, but it is caused by over-powered player cards?

I stand with my opinion that BoG is a tough scenario when you're not using tactics decks. Yes, the second stage could be a bit more challenging, as I rarely have hidden cards when I enter this stage. But the first stage is full of making tough decisions and I seldom found myself thinking that long about which card to play.

The second thing that is a bit bothersome are all these new mechanisms and card effects. I wouldn't be able to finish this scenario in 15 minutes even if I wanted to, because I still have to check the encounter cards' tetxts carefully.

Otherwise: excellent scenario!

Here's a suggestion (I haven't tried yet):

For easier scenarios, just treat the number of players as +1. If you're soloing, reveal 2 cards during staging and Archery X (number of players) becomes 2 for example. That would ramp up the challenge substantially for solo players and still quite a bit for 2-3 players.

If you try it, let us know how well it works.

I quite like that idea, I'll give it a go. That might go a way to fixing Assault on Osgiliath/Druadan Forest for solo play, at least.

Here's a suggestion (I haven't tried yet):

For easier scenarios, just treat the number of players as +1. If you're soloing, reveal 2 cards during staging and Archery X (number of players) becomes 2 for example. That would ramp up the challenge substantially for solo players and still quite a bit for 2-3 players.

If you try it, let us know how well it works.

I quite like that idea, I'll give it a go. That might go a way to fixing Assault on Osgiliath/Druadan Forest for solo play, at least.

Just tried a few games against Blood of Gondor, Solo, but as if there were 2 players, as suggested (revealing 2 cards per quest, setup as if two players, etc), and the same tactics deck that was breezing through the scenario no problem yesterday just got trounced four games in a row.

I think one problem is the change up from the Heirs box. In order to have a chance against those quests I had to build a power deck. I was expecting that I would need that power on the rest of the Gondor quests, and Steward's Fear made it look like I was right. But then Druadan came out and it wasn't so hard. "The next one will be," I told myself. And I've done that for a few months now.

FFG set the bar pretty high and then lowered it back again. I don't like building a new deck all the time so...

Also, Black Riders was soooooo much fun using a Hobbit deck.

Also, Black Riders was soooooo much fun using a Hobbit deck.

Agreed! Was very fun to run through those with characters who fit the theme. I never did that for the Hobbit boxes, and now I want to go back and use only dwarves who were on the quest... (no Dain!)

derailing this dying topic real quick: anyone find it...well not necessarily disappointing; but maybe just surprised that ranger decks are pretty terrible against this scenario?

Got my pack in yesterday and put a ranger deck together using the much anticipated Anborn and pretty much got wrecked. Had much more success with a leadership/tactics build

I'm late to the conversation as my Blood of Gondor finally arrived in the mail yesterday.

To your point about the Ranger deck, I too was shocked that just one AP after finally getting the much anticipated Faramir hero, we are given 1 (and given the victory narrative) apparently 2 final scenarios in which a Faramir ally objective means that you can't use the Faramir hero!

I've only played the scenario a few times (solo each time) but found that I wasn't making too many decisions during the Stage 1A. I turned over the hidden cards every time and therefore, never used Alcaron or Faramir for anything except for extra attacking and questing. Maybe I'm missing something?

I agree that the scenario was a relative breeze with mono-Tactics and it was fun to see the Outlanders stomped a couple times before turning to my Tactics deck (Legolas, Gimli, Beregon, toys and Eagles) which I had constructed for co-op play and never expected to use solo.

I was also really bummed about not being able to use Faramir.

One thing I tried was not using the objective Faramir and using Hero Faramir instead in a Ranger deck.

This was thematically logical and had the added bonus of making the scenario harder!

Try it out and let me know how it goes!

I played this one through with a few different decks. It does call for a certain type of deck, so i would not call it easy. My first attempts just happened to be with a deck that was a good fit for the scenario, which made it seem easy. But, I am finding that certain decks will struggle on it, even my uber-outlands deck got pretty beat up but prevailed in the end.

I agree with Tracker1. This quest can be easy with a mono-Tactics deck (Beregond being one of the heroes) and you can simply leave the Siege location in the staging area all game and just get a couple of defenders to quest through with relative ease. But even then, there was still a challenge with the hidden card mechanic adding more enemies depending on luck.

Overall, I really liked it and thought it was fun. I am excited to take down the Nazgul in the final scenario and finally get Theoden to run power mono-tactics!

Got mt copy will try tonight.

Wow is really cool one! I like it! For solo is challenge one. Just try couple of times....

Wow is really cool one! I like it! For solo is challenge one. Just try couple of times....

Then it's time to make new videos, don't you think? hehe. Well, only if you have time!

It's been a long time since you put your thoughts and gameplay of one on youtube!

Wow is really cool one! I like it! For solo is challenge one. Just try couple of times....

Then it's time to make new videos, don't you think? hehe. Well, only if you have time!

It's been a long time since you put your thoughts and gameplay of one on youtube![/

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I do video already..... it take 40 min but there is 2 mistakes. Really cool video on the edge every minute. I will make more video now, have time anf my new galaxy note3 have amazing camera