Im presently stuck  in Ithilien. One month playing it - WINS = 0, LOSSES = 16. Anyone beat that?

Ouch, I feel ya.  It took us 13 times to get our first win after about 2 weeks of playing.  That was about 2 weeks ago; I haven't even tried the Siege of Cair Andros yet because I expect it to be hard as well, and we need to build our confidence back up before going on… :)

GrandSpleen said:

Dont get discouraged by Into Ithilien. The Siege of Cair Andros is far more doable than Into Ithilien. This is a very well designed quest and it actually feels that you can beat it. You can have a lot of fun with it without feeling the frustration that you could feel with Into Ithilien.

Ok i got good stand for my galaxy note 2 and record some video how i play random game against Ithilien. Sorry for quality this is my first video. Actually i have fun with this so i will make more videos sure. English is not my native language so sorry for some speech mistake. There is 2 mistake i done but they very small and doesn change notning. Check it out!

Here is link for first part:

http://youtu.be/L0lSm_vWGkQ 

Here is link for second part:

http://youtu.be/_awU88NW2i8

Thanks for the video. Have to say, having not built your deck to try it out, seeing it in action was impressive. Very effective use of dwarven synergy!

A wee note on the actual video. I liked that you play at a good speed, without explaining every action, but because of the camera angle the staging area is quite hard to make out. No need to fix the actual angle or anything, but if you mention what is coming out of the encounter deck as you reveal it, the whole process would be very easy to follow. As it is, I was at times working out what card had come out from what you put down in terms of progress etc, because the cards are really hard to make out. Otherwise, was good!

monkeyrama said:

yes you right! this is my first video and next ones i will try make  better!

Glaurung said:

Just say your video.

It was very interesting to see that your play style is totally different from mine, yet it has same result; I usually finish Quest 1 in about 3~4 turns, Quest 2 in 1~2 turns, and Quest 3 in 1~2 turns, which was very similar to how you did on your video.

I am very interested in trying out your way of playing (more playstyles I can do, better I'll be able to do against any quest) and have few questions regarding rules/strategy.

One minor rule question I have for you is when you played Very Good Tale for the first time, you first discard 5 cards and then bring back 2 allies from discard pile, so wouldn't you have been able to bring back a copy of Legacy of Durin from the Hammersmith you've gotten by Very Good Tale since Legacy of Durin was already in discard pile? (I know this doesn't change anything since you had another Hammersmith in your hand to bring back Legacy of Durin, but I just wanted to know if getting Legacy of Durin with Hammersmith you got form Very Good Tale was possible)

And I would like to understand your strategy further.

You were able to explore Ithilien Road on your first turn thanks to Ranger and a Sneaked Attack Gandalf. Is exploring Ithilien Road on turn 1 something you are able to do normally or was this an exceptional case of having Sneak Attack and Gandalf in your hand?
I see that you can generate 6 attack strength just by your heroes, but you need 7 Quest Power + 1 card (which I find to be around 3 threat) to clear the Road. And if you fail to clear the Road on first turn despite committing most of characters, I find chance of getting bad shadow that could kill your hero to be bit too high (2 x attack twice shadow, 3 x three attack strength shadow).
What is your usual opening move? Explore Road or not explore Road?

About halfway through your video, you assigned an Archery damage to 2 HP ally and then blocked Southron Company with him. Was this an oversight or was it as chance you took? It looked quite dangerous to me as there were 4  Blocking Wargs still in encounter deck and if you've gotten one as the shadow, 5 attack undefended would've killed one of your heroes.

And I find it almost impossible to win against this scenario if you get Mumakil early in the game (infact I lose everytime Mumakil enters play on turn 1). What is your plan in case of turn 1 Mumakil?…….. because I have none and would like to learn one if there is.

It was good video, I liked it was quick paced, and was nice to see an ally heavy deck in action. You should totally make some more of it.

Edit: As a newb to the cardgames in general (LotRLCG being my first one), I envy your shuffling skill. I wish my card shuffles were half as good or fast as yours were.

Ellareth said:

When i play first time A very good tale i put into play Erebor hammersmiht but i cannot use his ability to get back top attachment from discard pile cose to trigger his response i must play him from hand. A very goof tale put allies into play not play them.

About Road. yes sure you must to explore the location in the first round otherwise is 90% lost.

Mumak in the begin? 90% you lost a game.

I play card games for long time so i learn a bit how to shuffle card.

Thanks for the video, Glaurung.  Actually, we play a very similar strategy on this quest-- Ithilien Road MUST go on turn one or you're pretty much screwed.  

We Are Not Idle + Lure of Moria is a super strong combination (I don't own Shadow and Flame yet so I haven't been able to take advantage of it).  Even stronger in multiplayer-- if you're the guy with the Steward of Gondor, you can drop a boatload of cash on your neighbor with We Are Not Idle and then everybody's happy.

I still wouldn't call this quest easy even after watching your deck in action. The encounter deck was very kind to you!  No Mumak, you got an Ithilien Guardian out on turn 1… we did see Blocking Wargs, albeit only one time.  Watcher in the Wood is way deadlier in multiplayer games, when there are twice as many questing characters.  

Maybe we just use the word "easy" in different ways!  After all, you wrote:

Glaurung said:

Make sure you are counting those turn-1 forfeit / game restarts when you calculate your win%!  That is how I ended up with my current 1-12 win-loss rate.  If I ignore the crappy starts I have about a 1 in 3 chance of winning, but that's a meaningless number.  We play 2-player only, and that doubles your chance of a "game losing scenario" on turn 1.  

GrandSpleen said:

yes you right is not as easy as i say. Actually is quite difficult. But if i can win 4 times from 5 doesn matter how difficult it is but the numbers of win is easy. If you understand my points? About Mumak and other encounter cards. You must play fast and then encounter deck will dont have enouhg time to revealed more cards so you get less chance to get something bad. Dont waste time and play as quick as possible and most of the time you will run trought withoyt big problem. this strategy works fine for most of the quests.

Good video glaurung. Enjoyed the pace of your play and your english is excellent seeming as its not your first language. Good use of the combination of We Are Not Idle then the untapping card. Great resource generator. Can you call out the encounter card in future vids as i couldnt quite make out the staging area. Well done though, i enjoyed it. Keep them coming.

Glaurung said:

Lol, somehow I excactly pictured you playing like this. Please try not to destroy that table!

Good video!

leptokurt said:

Ha ha ha! Table suffer a bit. Leptokurt where you been? You should give a try for HON. Amazing box!

Glaurung said:

I got HoN on Wednesday. It's not even on amazon.de yet, had to wait until now to get it from another distributor.

leptokurt said:

OK  i see. You will like it for sure.