I beat this solo last night, after figuring out how. I tried it once before and got kicked all the way back from Anduin to the Shire, so I was quite prepared to lose this time around as well. But now, I had cracked it: don't rush the first stage.

I used my usual hero lineup (Elrond/Loragorn/Glorfindel [FoS]). Light of Valinor gave me a free 3 WP to quest with every turn, and I used Henamarth to see what was coming and try to keep the WP and threat as even as possible not to rise too much in threat nor progress past stage 1. I used Asfaloth to pick off locations without travelling. An abundance of resources and Elrond/Vilya/Stargazer always let me play 1-2 allies per turn. Once I was at 48 threat, I lowered it to 30 with Loragorn, progressed to stage 2, lowered it by another 10 with 2 Gandalfs in the following rounds and could easily pick off the trolls one-by-one. (I deliberately left Oak-wood Grove in play for a few rounds in order to spend Lore and Spirit resources on Grimbeorn.)

Final threat: 37. Final number of allies: 13. All heroes alive, and trolls absolutely overwhelmed.

How did you go about beating the Carrock?

pretty much like you did....in fact this is the sure way to beat this quest.....quest only enough to not gain threat using deck peaking cards so you know how many heroes to commit, whilst building up your army. then lower your threat and take the trolls one by one...well done!

rich

Congrats on your well earned win over one of the hardest quests from the first cycle.

In solo play, low threat is an absolute must for most quests. I cringed when I realized you had a starting total of 30. The issue with this quest is that when you hit that magic number of 34 while the trolls are in the staging area and can't lower it immediately below that, it's over. I'm guessing you reset your threat to 30 before taking on stage 2, but that still only gives you 4 turns, and fewer than that if you can't overcome 8-15 threat in the staging area.

I use Denethor, Eowyn, Glorfindel and hold my threat at between 15-27 as I push through stage 1 hoping to find Grimeborn. Then I drop Gandalf over the next 3 rounds and take out the trolls one by one.

Had a 24-round Conflict another day...

Beat it and didn't have peeking on encounter deck.

Finished it with 30 threat.

Used a mono-spirit deck with Glorfindel, Eowyn and Dwalin...

It was the most fun quest i did till today...

Each troll killed in 1 turn and faced yet at least 1 Hill Troll...