Faramir is an ally? Lame sauce. Well, here is more hope from me that they'll have hero and ally versions of the same characters - although I doubt it. :/

I have only one question sky.Is this game as good as we wanted to be or...

Thanks Sky for all the info. I just have one more question do You have the English or German version of the game?

I think this game has great potential. But rmemeber my opinion is based on the following facts.

I've been through 1/2 of the encounter deck (incluing shadows cards) of one quest, i have been through 1/2 of my sphere deck.

So I have seen in action about 1/8 cards of CS.

What I am afraid whether this game will become "feasible" as 1-man experience. I will seldom find someone who would like to play it with me. In a multiplayer game each player can concentrrate on some aspects of the gameplay. If You are mediocre at some areas is not so crucial if You can assign Your assets properly. Playing it alone forces You to find combination of 3 heroes that stands out multiple areas so much that You can make some mistakes and still win the game.

I will make another attempt in few hours. I shall tell You if I learnt anything on my mistakes, Yet I wander why, when I look ijn the mirror I see one mindless Orc. :)

I have Polish version of the game and it is called Wladca Pierscieni here :)

Oh man... come on ! When will I have my copy ? :( I cant bear it ! The one ring is too heavy for me !

As far as single player gameplay goes, if only having one set of heroes isn't strong enough, you could always use two different decks but control both. Not saying it's ideal, but if you want to try different sphere combinations or see how different decks can work together, it might be helpful.

This Time it was not about Honor. It was about revenge. As soon as the first spider emerged from the shadow I allowed it to hurt Glorfindel a little just to align it with a great oak. And then we impaled it and watched as life slips from the eight alien eyes. The Uthak started to hunt us again but Radaghast Wit allowed us to fool it just for this time. It gave us enough time to get sure that the old road we were traveling was completely safe. Were we not afraid of threat which seemed to lurk in the near Pass we could advance much further.
On the pass Uthak caught up with us and we started dealing blows. Soon we managed to reach beyond the pass but one after one two Beast Tamers blocked our way. We were able to almost kill one of them, when again it was time when red, watchful eyes surrounded us. In the grave silence last sound we heard was a faint creak of many bowstrings.
I shall give encounter deck to my son to shuffle – one cannot prevail alone facing three of most dangerous creatures in a row.
LotR – Sky
2-0
Nothing big so far. Our national soccer team many times lost in a worse matter. ;)
 

As I stated befere why should I mix spheres when I do not know how each sphere works (so far). I start to understand mechanics of the game - it starts to feel smooth. After two - three attempts i will try to move to other sphere.

Maybe solo play with just the starter decks is not possible.Maybe  the game forces you to make a deck of 50 cards minimum to win a solo scenario.For example it will be more easy if you have 3xsneak attack and 3xGandalf than only 1 Gandalf and 2x sneak attack.

But i think is  good that this game is hard.That means that you must waste time to win all 3 scenarios and think so many different ways to overcome the shadow or my cusre works and you will never finish a scenario unless i take my copy of the game .

Any hope we can get spoilers on some of the ally cards?  I'm really interested in Faramir and Beorn!

I definitely agree on the view that it's best that the game is hard.

I never enjoy playing against a dumb opponent, but quite the contrary. The more you are forced to think of strategies, the tenser the game, and the most satisfaction once you beat a given scenario.

I can't wait for this! I ordered my first on Amazon.uk (~£20), but knowing how they handle new releases, I have also ordered another copy from iguk (~£29).

I am pretty sure my translation back into English will not be 100% fair, so do not scald me for any mistakes :)

Faramir

4C 2-1-2 3HP

Gondor. Noble?. Watcher?

Action: Exhaust Faramir to choose player, Until the end of the Phase Each character contolled by this player gets  +1 Will.

Beorn

6C 1-3-3 6HP

Beorning. Warior.

Action: Untill the end of the Phase Beorn gets +5 Str. At the end of the phase, You activated the effect, shuffle it into Your deck (only once per Round).

Now about Allies

Lore Deck 

Daughter of the Nimrodel

3C 1-0-0 1HP

Woodelf.

Action: Exhaust DotN to cure up to 2 HP of any Hero.

Erebor Smith

2C 1-1-1

Dwarf. Craftsman?.

Response: When U play ES, move the top Attachement from the discard pile of any player to the deck of that player.

 Henamarth The River Song

1C 1-1-0 1HP

Woodelf.

Action: Exhaust HtRS to see the top card from Encounter Deck

Miner from the Iron Hills

 2C 0-1-1 2HP

Dwarf.

Answer: When MftIH enters play choose and discard 1 Condition Attachment

Gleowin

2C 1-0-0 2HP

Minstrel. Rohan.

Action: Exhaust Gleowin to choose Player. This player draws 1 card.

 Gandalf

5P 4-4-4 4HP

Istari.

At the end of the round discard Gandalf from play.

Answer: When Gandalf enters play choose 1: draw 3 cards, deal 4 wounds to one enemy in play or lower your threat level by 5.

Now some update on my brain wrestling. I had not been able to play through my whole 3rd game but this time I made myself sure to shuffle all cards as good as possible,

I was able to kill staff now, and to get rid of one or 2 locations. Once Gandalf hit the playing area i lowered my threat lvl by 5 and went back under 40. Should not my chores interupt me i would try to see if i could reach stage 2 or maybe three of the quest. My insights into Lore deck as a standalone solution are still grim.

This deck cannot  mange threat in any way (apart from Gandalf - from now on i shall treat 3xG as a must in this deck) and its ability to get cards back from the discard pile is very limited. Apart from that it lacks Allies comparable to Faramir or Beorn (You had the nose to ask for them - as u can see Beorn is one of the cards U may think is not necessary to have 3 copies - apart of the situation when U want him as soon as possible). So the whole fight depends on heroes. U can decide that You will not defend with them but then cards like Uthak will force U to sacrifice Hero (not to good idea as in th CS there is no way to get him back) or Ally. So Beravora and Glorfindel have total str of 5 and it is Your main hit force. When U commit them to the quest, You cannot strike back. I wander how much can U squeese of them.

Some of the early reports from demo sessions said that the players felt as if there were too many locations in the deck. Seeing you can only travel to one of them every turn, and the fact that in multiplayer games you might get more then one per round, leading to inescapable growing threat in the staging area.

Do you have the same experience with your solo effort so far?

That can be a serious problem. Though You just have to know the game to develope some skills. In my first game i was overcurious. Ah location, phew no problem -> active location, ah second location -> we will cope with it soon, ah 3rd location -> why do i have to get 5 additional threat....

On the other hand You just do want it to be hard. I am sure I will remember very well the first game I will matke through the I Quest :)

Soon we will see real geeks dig into everything (even flavor text :P ). I just hope they will not find anything game breaking.

Infyra said:

There is a problem with the wilderness deck. Two types of the locations included (Brown Lands and East Bay - or something like that, these are literal translations) are a somewhat broken combo. Brown Lands have a threat strength of 5 but once you travel there, it is automatically explored. East Bay on the other hand has a moderate threat strength but very high quest points (6). Moreover it forces the player to travel there if this card is in the staging area. If those cards hit the table in combination, with another Brown Lands card added in a round or two later, the game is lost (at least with the standard decks).

Except for this, I don't consider the frequency of locations turning up a problem of the game. It's rather a central aspect. The spirit sphere deals with locations while the tactics spehre deals with enemies. Here's a distribution of cards in the respective decks:

Set - Enemy - Location - Treachery - Objective - Total

Wilderness - 8 - 4 - 2 - 0 - 14

Orcs             - 7 - 4 - 3 - 0 - 14

Dol Guldur  - 5 - 4 - 3 - 3 - 15

Spiders        - 4 - 5 - 3 - 0 - 12

Mirkwood     - 6 - 4 - 0 - 0 - 10

Anduin          - 3 - 5 - 1 - 0 - 9

Lidless Eye - 3 - 0 - 7 - 0 - 10

But maybe it should be that way. If my undeveloped 1 man army encounters Uthak, and on the two following 2 turns two Tamers (16HP total) I should loose. There is beauty in it. Encounter deck threatens You. How high should be the danger it creates to justify the words "Danger" and "Threat". Should You be able to cope with everything it throws at You in any sequence, would it be a threat? If some Enemy has the ability to get 2 shadow cards on himself, shoudn't he be dreadfull to You. How can one accomplish it without posing a risk of failure of the Party with one unlucky shadow effect - i got one time: Your threat  rises by 4 - i started to cry :), and than i did phew as i defended this attack, and the rest of shadow deck was: or by 8 if this attack is undefended.