Any suggestions for a card list to complete the first quest?

I have the core, the first Mirkwood cycle of decks, Khazad-Dum, and the Hobbit saga expansion.

Thanks!

peterstepon said:

It feels like the Dwarrowdelf cycle is a must to survive the Hobbit quests with regularity. You'll find some of the other dwarves from the Hobbit in that cycle, too, I believe, so I picked the cycle packs up despite not liking the theme of the Dwarrowdelf quests.

At the very least get Erebor Battle Master, who is +1 attack for each Dwarf in play. He's in The Long Dark.

The funny part about my recent play-through (which makes use of this deck) is that my threat was so high I ended up engaging the Trolls from hardest to least instead of the other way around, but that was alright because I had so many dwarf allies in play that there were plenty of sack targets other than the Battle Master. Card draw from Ori provided me with enough Khazad! Khazad!'s and Goblin-Cleavers and Dwarrowdelf Axes that the Battle Master ended up one-shotting each troll to the awe of Gimli and company.

I think engaging from most-HP to least also allowed me to one-shot the trolls one after another, because I lost one dwarf ally to blocking each turn. I only just made the kills each time.  I don't recommend this methodology, though.

It sounds like your deck worked really well, the battle master does make the final fight a lot easier.

I'm a bit confused how you managed to take on the trolls one at a time if your threat was so high, surely they would all have engaged you together i.e. on the same turn, adding 4 sacks (1 of which you could remove with Bilbo and a Troll Camp). Unless I've been playing it wrong, the only way to optionally engage them 1 at a time is to have your threat below 23.

Memetix said:

It's actually CaffeineAddict's deck, not mine (and the link to it got messed up somehow in my previous post; here's the actual link, unless I've messed up the URL again).

The most enemies that can engage you at a time is two: one is optional and your choice, the other forced. Take a look at the engagement rules again; I was forced to engage a Troll, the highest threat one possible that was still at or under my threat (which was in the 40s, so it had to be the biggest, hairiest one). But only one. Otherwise the game would, indeed, be extremely, extremely hard.

ArachneJericho said:

I wanted to add a clarification here: that's the most enemies that can join the possibly monstrous cadre currently beating your party. If I hadn't one-shotted the biggest troll, the next biggest would have joined him on my next turn, and on the next turn after that, the smallest one. I could have indeed three trolls beating on me, it just takes three turns to accumulate them.

ArachneJericho said:

This is very wrong. Check the rulebook again, page 16:

"Once all players have made an engagement check, the first player makes a second engagement check. Players continue making engagement checks in this manner until there are no enemies remaining in the staging area that can engage any of the players."

So if your threat was at 40, all 3 trolls are engaging you (assuming you are playing solo obviously).

I am playing solo, but rather than one deck I am playing 2 (Simulating 2 players).  I actually replicated the 2 decks on the back of the over hill, underhill booklet which use the cards from the core and the Saga edition.

Here are some thoughts,

I think I rushed through the first quest phase too fast.  I need more cards to engage the trolls

This feels like a refined version of "Conflict of Carrock", start slowly, build up an army and keep your threat low, then move in to engage the trolls.  Probably using Gandalf from the Core would be a good way to reduce threat, as well as other threat reducing cards. 

Gimli will probably be my MVP with a suit of armor, since he will be able to dish out enough damage to kill the trolls very quickly.

You need lots of allies in play to act as defense fodder against the trolls

The one thing that really really bothers me is Tom (the Troll's) special ability, that Trolls can only be attacked by one character at a time.  This would make the game a nightmare because it would take teamwork to destroy the Trolls in the first place (having 3 attack one for instance).  I can understand not being allowed to use attachments, otherwise using "Forest Trap" would make this too easy.  Attacking one at a time means that their health can only be bled slowly.  If anyone can clarify this I would appreciate it. 

wlk is right - all three trolls will engage you when our threat is too high. There is no restriction to the number of enemies that can engage you.

peterstepon said:

Well, I only play solo, but I think the same strategies should apply to two player games. When playing this scenario I usually try to keep my threat low enough so that I only have to fight one of the trolls at a time. I think everything else will not work, no matter how good your deck might be.

My first deck was built around Dáin as the main defender, pimped up with some Dunedain Warnings, Chain Mails and Arwen. The troll killer was Erebor Battle Master, who had an attack value of 7-10 with all these dwarves in play. So the plan was to delay the second stage until I had EBM and enough dwarves out, but not delaying it too long to avoid a fight with two trolls. Khazad-Khazad and Heavy Stroke are nice cards that help EBM to kill the trolls with one single blow. Instead of EBM you might also use Gimli + Citadel Plate.

My second deck was spirit/lore with the aim to play as many cheap allies with much WP as possible. Westroad Traveller, Erebor Record Keeper, Escort from Edoras, Arwen etc. Some of them got sacrificed to the trolls, the others allowed me to quest like the wind so that I gathered enough progress to complete the adventure before the trolls could even blink.

Btw, both stragies also work against S&F.

In your case I'd say that you should combine these two with one player defending (and perhaps attacking) and the other one questing. Remember you don't need to defeat the trolls, as the sunlight will take care of them once you have enough progress.

Re: Gandalf - I used the new version but it was quite counter-productive in this (in fact in all three) scenario which is why I dropped him. The old Gandalf might help, but since FoS I don't use him anymore. If you want to use him though, you probably should add Grave Cairn to your deck. Play Gandalf with Sneak Attack (or with Born Aloft) and use his ATT for one of your other characters.

wlk said:

Wow, thank you for the correction! My eyes are bad obviously, and now I am quite deservedly and duly embarrassed. (Not to mention losing that game!)

leptokurt said:

That is the missing point!  I thought that to pass through this quest you had to physically defeat all three Trolls.  Questing and eventually beating all 3 because you got all of the event cards makes this quest sooooo much easier.  Thank you so much for clarifying this for me.  I have not read the hobbit for several years so I forgot what happened in the book.

These scenarios are good, but there are many moving parts.  After I finish all 3 Hobbit scenarios in sequence, I am going old school back to the original core set and playing them again. 

I played again.  I find the most challenging is balancing the questing progress and the level of threat.  Quest too much and you run into the Trolls to early, quest too little and your threat goes up to high.  There are many treachery cards which send your threat level up. 

Playing with more players is better too because it "burns up" encounter cards faster, thereby making the second part of the game easier to overcome with a high level of questing. 

BTW, which are the best cards to managing threat?

peterstepon said:

Elrond's Counsel (The Watcher in the Water) - but you need a unique Noldor character for it (such as Arwen, who is good for multiplayer as well). Will give some other character +1 WP and reduce threat by 3.

The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) - reduce multiple player threats by 2, or reduce a single player's threat by 6.

Gandalf (Core) - he can reduce threat by 5.

Ever Onward (Khazad Dum) - not a threat reducer per se, but keeps you from increasing threat due to questing unsuccessfully.

ETA: Lore Aragorn (The Watcher in the Water): resets your threat to your starting threat.

I also played again with the same deck and the correct engagement rules this time. I managed my threat better and ended up engaging only two of the trolls at once (gah). A surprise Gandalf managed to keep my threat low enough so that the third troll did not join next turn (turn after that, though, I had three trolls). Ended up killing all three, but it was a very, very close thing. After running through the available, unsacked cannon fodder (woefully reducing the Battle Master's prowess), two feints kept the party alive, at least the part that was unsacked.

Final threat: 46, ouch

Turns: 7

Dead heros: Bifur, killed in the sack :( 7 threat

Damage on Gimli: 3

Victory: all three trolls for 12 points

Obtained the Troll Purse but didn't manage to get the Key, not that Bilbo had any resources left to pay for Key use anyways.

Now I want to make a Quest Like the Frickin' Wind deck.

ArachneJericho said:

The Troll Key is obtained not by spending resources but by exhausting Bilbo after an attack that damages the troll carrying it.

CJMatos said:

I know that; but even if I did get it, it would be useless, because of this on Troll Cave:

"Players cannot travel to Troll Cave unless Bilbo Baggins has the Troll Key attached and the first player spends 5 [Baggins] resources. (2 [Baggins] resources instead if Bilbo Baggins has the Troll Purse attached.)"

Bilbo had no resources left and I was clean running out of time and allies.