And some more….

Escape from Dol Guldur: I've never beaten this solo, and I didn't expect to do so this time. With Beravor imprisoned, I rapidly got location-locked (locations guarding each objective), and early Hummerhorns and a host of spiders overwhelmed me rapidly without making any progress whatsoever. (2-1)

The Hunt for Gollum: This was a very comfortable victory - nothing more specific I can really say about it. (3-1)

Conflict at the Carrock: My deck provided me with the perfect start (first turn Henamarth, second turn Broken Sword, Steward, Celebrian's Stone all on Strider). The encounter deck also gave me a nice early Grimbeorn, but also a Hill Troll who was rapidly snared and gradually killed. I was able to pick off the trolls quite easily one at a time. (4-1)

A Journey to Rhosgobel: It took some time to draw into the Lore of Imladris, so I completed stage one on turn 4, and next turn was able to play Lore twice which, with two Wardens of Healing sacrificing themselves, was sufficient to heal Wilyador fully and quest through for the win. (5-1)

The Hills of Emyn Muil: I'm not quite sure how you could ever lose against this scenario. It's just a question of grinding through, which I did without any real problems emerging. (6-1)

And instalment three:

The Dead Marshes: I have never actually lost to this quest, but for some reason it always makes me nervous that I will. My method was to move cautiously and prioritise preventing any tokens from being placed on Gollum, and this I was able to do (thanks in large part to being able to cancel two treacheries). This made the final escape test trivial and I won on turn 7. (7-1)

Return to Mirkwood: When this was first released, it seemed close to impossible (and not much fun) solo. Now, thanks to Strider to deal with the huge threat gains, it seems to me to be a very difficult but good, challenging quest. This was an epic game: in the end, I lost on the final stage on turn 7, overwhelmed by Hill Troll and Hummerhorns with threat in the high 40s. Key turning points were first turn Gollum's Anguish, which meant I had to reset my threat much earlier than planned, and my decision not to cancel turn three Caught in a Web, fearing the even worse treacheries - this hamstrung me for the rest of the game. (7-2)

Into the Pit: My method here was again to proceed slowly and cautiously, taking advantage of the East-gate to build up a strong position while the enemies mass inside. Thus, by the end of turn 8 I was still on stage 1, engaged with four enemies and with a wounded Faramir my only ally. Nevertheless, I was able to power through rapidly from here, aided by multiple Gandalves, and won on turn 11. (8-2)

And again:

The Seventh Level: My experience of this quest has been that it can be surprisingly tricky. This time, I followed the strategy of avoiding engaging enemies where possible, and killing them as fast as I could, on the grounds that engaged enemies rapidly turn into more enemies via shadow effects. I was able to manage this and to quest through and win on the fourth turn. (9-2)

Flight from Moria: This quest is, as far as I can tell, pretty random. Without readying abilities, the Abandoned Tools route isn't so good for my deck, so my best plan is to use Henamarth to scout the encounter deck with a view to winning via Blocked by Shadow. As it happened, Blocked by Shadow was the top quest card and I was able to follow this path. It took me a while to get through, but fortunately no New Devilry showed up to throw me off path and I won on the fourth turn. (10-2)

The Redhorn Gate: The vital second mountain conveniently showed up on turn four, and with the aid of multiple Gandalves I was able to quest through comfortably to victory on the sixth turn. (11-2)

Road to Rivendell: The deadly cards here are obviously Sleeping Sentry and Orc Ambush. I did see both, but the SS was innocuous as a treachery turn 2, and the Ambush consisted only of a lone Archer charging suicidally at my party, so I was able to mass my forces and drop 47 questing on turn 8 for victory. (12-2)

Additional Narratives

Mdowd, Idowd, Adowd 3P: Conflict at the Carrock.  This quest allowed the combat centered deck controlled by Mdowd to shine.  Threat management was a key, especially when we had a much harder time than usual getting the timing right and moving out of the first stage of the quest when we wanted.  However, between Idowd and Mdowd we were able to take two trolls a turn and demolish them due to some beefy and multiple-readying heroes.  It was a bit difficult early on when the staging area was clogged up, but the quest became a breeze when we charged the lair of the trolls. (5-0)

Mdowd 1P: Return to Mirkwood is a quest that I have won in the past, but it has always been VERY difficult to conquer.  A first turn Hill Troll followed in the second turn by a surging bat that surged into a surging bat which surged into a Misty Mountain Goblin(!!!), which led to a third turn Marsh Adder.  Additionally, I saw two Gollum's Anguish come off the encounter deck as shadow cards.  I literally could have lost this game in all three ways that you can lose the quest…by threat, Gollum's death (he had 4 damage on him in the end) or by my heroes dying (only one hero was more than one hit away from death).  In the end, my need to keep guys back who normally quest in order to help defend the massive attacking enemy army led to my threat rising too quickly and 50 threat was hit before I made it through the first stage of the quest. (5-4)

Ok, here I go! I'm playing with a mostly moono-Lore deck. I've got Bifur, Bilbo, and Aragorn (Lore) on my team.

1. Passage through Mirkwood: Win

2. Journey down the Anduin: Win!!! This was tough as usual but I made it through thanks to Gandalf taking out the Hill Troll

3. Dol Guldur: Loss  I was really close on this one. It gave me a glimmer of hope and then shut me down…

(2-1)

4. Hunt for Gollum: Win

5. Conflict at the Carrock: Win. Took my sweet time and then used Strider to lower my threat right before I wanted the trolls to come out so I could take them on one at a time.

6. Journey to Rhosgobel: Loss. Just drew too many treacheries that damaged Wilyador too early

(4-2)

7. Hills of the Emyn Muil: Win

8. Dead Marshes: Win

9. Return to Mirkwood: Loss. This really sucked because I tested my deck on this the week before and beat it (for the first time ever solo!). I drew two Gollum's Tantrums, a Hill Troll, and Attercop all in the first 4 turns. Horrible luck.

(6-3)

I'll pause there and post up to the Long Dark soon.

And the final instalment (for the time being):

The Watcher in the Water: I was able to fend off the tentacles, reset to 30 threat turn 4, complete stage 1 on turn 5, open the doors with the aid of Henamarth and quest through to victory on turn 6. (13-2)

The Long Dark: As discussed at length elsewhere, this quest is laughably easy. I did unnecessarily ditch my entire hand to pass the locate test on Foul Air second turn, but it was plain sailing otherwise. (14-2)

Théodred (Leadership), Aragorn (Lore), Glorfindel (Spirit), Initial Threat 25

Quest 1, Passage through Mirkwood. I actually don't find this as easy solo. I mean it dosn't seem that much easier than some DL4. It may require felling a big foe so the deck has to have some kind of combat prowess. Well, enough of that. I did win despite some difficulty with the spiders.

1-0

Sorry to be a pain, but the rules for this tournament as they stand don't allow for the use of FOS cards in quests 1-16.

[quote] 5. REINFORCEMENTS: One exception to the "Unchanged Deck" rule is that player and hero cards released in the adventure packs Foundations of Stone and Shadow and Flame cannot be used in previous quests, but may be substituted in for other cards in your deck and/or sideboard when you reach each corresponding quest in the cycle. For example: Cards released in the Foundations of Stone adventure pack can only be used in the Foundations of Stone and Shadow and Flame quests while cards released in the Shadow and Flame adventure pack may only be used in the Shadow and Flame quest. This allows players to begin the tournament earlier in the summer without having the disadvantages of a smaller card pool. [/quote]

I've also begun the 2 player tournament! We're playing with Bifur/Dain/Berevor & Eowyn/Frodo/Gimli for dwarf synergy and some rohan stuff in there as well.

1. Passage Through Mirkwood: WIN!

2. Journey down the Anduin: WIN This game was crazy. We took care of the troll, no problem, thanks to Gimli. Then Eowyn and Frodo got knocked out in the same turn by double "deal 1 damage to exhausted characters" draws. Gimli was a beast but still fell prey to a untimely shadow effect. I was out of the game with just my wife to finish the quest. She was near the end but still had to face 4 enemies for the final ambush. She ended the game with maximum damage on all her heroes AND 49 THREAT!!! I've never seen such a close game… wheww!

3. Escape from Dol Guldur: WIN! This wasn't too hard. We got lucky on our initial staging area settup and then managed everything that was thrown at us. The Nazgul went down in one round thanks to dwarven might.

4. Hunt for Gollum: LOSS! I couldn't believe this one. We were doing great. So good that we even chose to put a Hunters from Mordor out into the staging area because we could handle them so easily! Then, right before we won we were hit by a "Pursued by Shadow" which was attached to a Clue card that we put out before we committed characters as per quest card 2a. This raised both of our threats by 10 and knocked us out of the game!!! Agggg!

to be continued…

Great idea!

I'm playing the 1 player version with Dain, Gloin and Bifur.

1. Passage Through Mirkwood: quite fast and easy, specially since I play Gleowine first turn to draw extra cards. 1-0

2. Journey Down the Anduin: 27 starting threat is a good amount to deal with Hill Troll, specially if you play Gandalf just in time. Later I spent a few turns crossing the river (too many sites in play), but it was good enough to enter Lorien (a dwarf host entering Lorien! hehe). 2-0

3. Escape from Dol Goldur: I guess I could play a hundred games with no chance of win this scenario. Anyway, this time Bifur was imprisoned, so no green resources, so end of story. 2-1

4. Hunt for Gollum: an interesting and close game. I had collected two clues when I was facing a 1-wound left orc and some crebain. I was thinking about not defending the orc, but finally I play a Longbeard Slayer with Sneak Attack, slaying him. Then I discarded his shadow card, and it was Hunters from Mordor! Its shadow effect would have killed both Bifur and Gloin, since they were already wounded. So I said no more risk!, and I managed to defend every other attack through the end of the game. 3-1

5.Conflict at the Carrock: long game. First I have to deal with some sites that prevent me to reach the Carrock. When I make it, threat is over 34 but I play a sneaky Gandalf to reduce it. Then I can face one troll at a time, which makes thing easier. 4-1

To be continued…

It has been a while since I have been able to post our narratives and honestly I don't remember much of the details of our quests, but I will try to recall all that I can from our recent excursions into Middle-Earth.  I am excited to see a number of 1P entries begin to come in and hope that in the weeks to come we will begin to see more multi-player adventures enter into our standings.

Mdowd and Idowd2P Narratives:

Journey to Rhosgobel: It was yet another tough fight to keep Wilyador alive and in the end he fell by damage and we were defeated (4-2)

Emyn Muil:  This one was embarrassing.  I don't remember the last time we lost in this quest.  I honestly think I have only lost to the quest one other time.  Locations simply piled up in the staging area and our threat soared through the roof.  Eventually we both hit 50 threat and our quest came to an end and we were infuriated (4-3)

Dead Marshes: The losing streak finally came to an end.  We were able to maintain a relatively small number of resource tokens on Gollum (4 I believe) and MDowd's final escape check was a breeze with a board full of solid questing allies. (5-3)

Return to Mirkwood: This one was close in the early stages, but then unexpectedly IDowd lost all of his heroes in the third stage of the quest and MDowd was forced to continue the journey alone.  All the progress tokens were placed on the final quest, but a lone Attercop Attercop prevented MDowd for taking the team to victory.  Once again, this is a deck that is ill prepared for combat and this quest proved it again. (5-4)

Into the Pit: The second half of the "season" began with a bang as we quickly marched into the pit and to victory.  It was nice to see the newer encounter sets after 9 quests against the original sets. (6-4)

Mdowd, Idowd, and Adowd 3P Narratives:

Journey to Rhosgobel: This one was truly frustrating.  The third player offered even more opportunities for Wilyador to receive damage off of the encounter deck.  While it did bring out all the Athelas into the playing area we were unable to free all of it and attach it to our heroes before Wilyador fell.  For Mdowd this puts my record against this quest at 0-3 for the tournament.  As has been mentioned, this is the quest that screams "build a deck for me" and is a hard quest to win without the right deck construction. (5-1)

Emyn Muil: ADowd's questing heavy deck was wonderful in this quest as we dropped progress tokens all over the place.  Finding the required amount of victory was never a problem in the quest.  Clearing out all of the Emyn Muil locations, however, proved to be a challenge.  In a similar situation as my 1P journey to the hills of Emyn Muil it was an eventual victory, but it was slow…painfully slow.  I truly love the variety of the quests in this game, but I'll have to admit that the Hunt for Gollum and the Hills of Emyn Muil are my two least favorite quests and I am happy to have made it past these two quests in my 1P tournament, and our 2P and 3P tournaments. (6-1)

Dead Marshes:  This one was crazy.  As the encounter deck came to the point where it became depleted Gollum was given the dreaded 8th resource token.  The encounter deck was reshuffled and we all hoped that Gollum would not find himself coming off as a shadow card or as an escape test card from an encounter card effect (which seems preposterous if Gollum isn't even in play).  About half way through the encounter deck, after resetting to 1B a couple of times in between, and using threat reductions throughout, the slimy little creature was discovered and we blazed through the marshes in quick order.  I think this marks only the second time we have done a "lost and found" with Gollum and actually won the quest. (7-1)

Solo Player - Lore Masters deck. Bifur/Bilbo/Strider

10. Into the Pit: WIN.

11. 7th Level: WIN

12.Escape from Moria: WIN - I felt very happy to go through Moria unscathed.

13. The Redhorn Gate: WIN

14. Road to Rivendell: LOSS. Sleeping Sentry, of course.

15. Watcher in the Water: WIN - Lore's great at this thanks to being able to peek at the deck, no fighting the Watcher though…

16. The Long Dark: LOSS - WHAT!?! I was so pissed about this. This scenario is so easy but I got a couple bad shadow cards and fate killed me.

2 Player Tournament: Eowyn/Frodo/Gimli and Bifur/Dain/Beravor Cont.

5. Conflict at the Carrock: WIN, one of things I like most about this tournament is that we don't have to worry about score. It's a nice change of pace from the other tournaments and requires a different kind of strategy for your deck, ie consistency (and flexibility). So with the Carrock, we just took our time and made sure we were ready before taking on the trolls. Not too hard but still fun.

6. Journey to Rhosgobel. LOSS. Too much damage on heroes from all those treachery cards!

7. Hills of Emyn Muil: WIN.  Boring.

8. The Dead Marshes: WIN. My brother and I hold the top spot in the Juicebox 2 player tournament for this quest. I always find that the final escape test always is anticlimactic and gives you hardly any escape value to worry about. Frodo with Protector of Lorien and Fast Hitch really made this one possible.

9. Return to Mirkwood: WIN This was much more challenging and a good scenario. The strategy around who holds Gollum is very engaging, I like it.  We faced an early Attercop and Ungoliant's Spawn and still came out on top.

Mdowd said:

I'll be looking to start a 2P campaign within the next couple of weeks. Hoping also to see more players join in.

Here is what I have so far with my dwarf deck (Dain Ironfoot/Bifur/Gimli)

Passage Through Mirkwood: Not too bad Won in eight turns. (1-0)

Journey Down the Anduin: Close Win on 11th turn with 44 threat (2-0)

Escape from Dol Guldor: With a three-sphere deck, not a chance. (2-1)

Hunt for Gollum: Win on turn 5. (3-1)

Conflict at the Carrock: My deck betrayed me in the end. Loss. (3-2)

Journey to Rhosgobel: Stupid bird. Heck with it. Giant drumstick anyone?  Loss (3-3)

Hills of Emyn Muil: Yes, no problem. Win. (4-3)

Dead Marshes: A troll eats Gimli whole on the first turn and I lost. (4-4)

Return to Mirkwood: Too much corruption and a biting Gollum who doesn't brush or floss and I lost. (4-5)

Into the Pit: A breeze and I'm in my element. Win. (5-5)

Seventh Level: Tough game with two early cave trolls but I survived and won! (6-5)

Flight from Moria: Run away! Run away! Aaaghhhhhhh! Loss. (6-6)

The Redhorn Gate: Much snow plowing by dwarves. We lost Dain, but won! (7-6)

Road to Rivendell: One Sleeping Sentry as a shadow card and my party of three heroes and six followers were gone. (7-7)

Hoping to pull of a winning season with four games left to play.