This is a tough scenario.  I tried several times with the two decks on the back of the booklet, but the threat levels go too high even before you engage the trolls.  Too many cards do things like add Doom to the track and kill your allies.  I tried again with a single deck and tried to keep my threat low but that did not seem to work either.

Any suggestions, I assume I am playing this right because it looks really hard.  How did you guys win?  I would hate to have to bust my credit rating to have to get more decks. 

peterstepon said:

Here are my thoughts, for what they're worth.

To survive this quest, you need good threat management. That almost certainly means running Core Gandalf (rather than new Gandalf, unless you have threat under really good control), definitely Galadhrim's Greetings, and at least one Dwarven Tomb to recycle a Greeting. If you run with Nori, every dwarf you play will reduce  your threat by 1---a big advantage if you're running almost all dwarven allies.

The dwarf heroes in OHaUH have synergy with large numbers of dwarves in a deck---Ori draws cards based on having five+ dwarves in play, and Thorin does the same for his excess resource generation. This is why the set resonates so well with the Dwarrowdelf cycle. Every additional dwarven ally counts.

Even without the Dwarrowdelf cycle, though, there are still a lotta dwarven allies.

I think you can do things with Thorin, Ori, and Nori; and as many dwarven allies as possible. That gives you Spirit, Leadership, and Lore: and gives you resource generation, card draw, and threat reduction. Card draw will be particularly essential to getting any deck off the ground, and you need every draw in this quest. You want five dwarves in play STAT as soon as possible; fortunately, you can get your pick of cheap dwarves with Zigil Miner, Erebor Record Keeper, Miner of the Iron Hills, Erebor Hammersmith. More expensive dwarves like the Longbeard Map-Maker and Longbeard Orc Slayer are hardier, and with excess resource generation from Thorin, the Slayer can be more reliably played.

Stick in the Galadhirm's Greetings and the Dwarven Tomb. Add in more card draw support, like Ancient Mathom. Remember that Gandalf (Core) can also give you cards. Durin's Song will help, as may Ever Onward. You also have access to Dunedain Mark. And naturally Steward of Gondor. If you have a Song of Wisdom on Thorin, you need not worry about not having enough resources to pay for Lore allies.

I came up with a decklist containing nothing but cards from 1x each of Core, Mirkwood Cycle, and Khazad-Dum, ETA: and Over Hill & Under Hill. I also tested it out.

Here's the deck:

Hero (3)
Nori (OHaUH) x1
Ori (OHaUH) x1
Thorin Oakenshield (OHaUH) x1

Ally (25)
Gandalf (Core) x3
Brok Ironfist (Core) x1
Dori (OHaUH) x2
Erebor Hammersmith (Core) x2
Erebor Record Keeper (KD) x3
Fili (OHaUH) x2
Kili (OHaUH) x2
Longbeard Map-Maker (CatC) x3
Longbeard Orc Slayer (Core) x2
Miner of the Iron Hills (Core) x2
Zigil Miner (KD) x3

Attachment (13)
Song of Wisdom (CatC) x3
Protector of Lorien (Core) x2
Steward of Gondor (Core) x1
Unexpected Courage (Core) x1
Ancient Mathom (AJtR) x3
Dunedain Mark (THfG) x3

Event (12)
A Test of Will (Core) x2
Durin's Song (KD) x3
Dwarven Tomb (Core) x1
Ever Onward (KD) x2
Hasty Stroke (Core) x2
The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x2

Running it against the first scenario, I actually managed to win. But it was an extremely close win---this deck is fragile preciseley because some of the best cards from Core only have two copies. A Test of Will and The Galadhrim's Greeting stands out among these cards. However, I managed to pile in enough dwarves and dwarven allies to keep the dwarf synergy with the heroes going after turn 2.

Some highlights:

- The Galadhrim's Greetings could not have come later and still have me win the game. It was, like I said, a very close thing. They kept me from having two trolls engaged at the same time.

- Gandalf was also, for some reason, in the second half of the deck. Good thing Ori had serious card draw; at the end of the game, only three cards were left in my deck.

- Fili and Kili popping out together was a surprisingly huge help. 2 dwarves for 3 cost is amazing.

- A Test of Will was so necessary to deal with treachery-heavy decks that I recycled one with the Dwarven Tomb. Hasty Stroke also helped, since some of the shadow effects are equally nasty.

- I had no choice---I had to engage the trolls from least to greatest. Things got easier after the second troll died.

- Bilbo kept sacks away. Thorin was a sack magnet, so I had to exhaust Bilbo and pay threat to keep trolls engaged. :-/

- Unsacked by Bilbo, Thorin had two Dunedain Marks on him, and with plentiful application of Durin's Songs, managed to kill the smallest and the middle trolls before I took on the big guy (who I actually chose to engage for once).

- Protector of Lorien played a huge roll in keeping threat down during the endgame with the trolls by turning card draw into will power. The Map-Makers also helped---every Lore resource helped.

- With the final troll engaged to me already and killing one of my allies, a final Gandalf managed to damage him and then, with the help of Thorin, kill him.

- I got the Key, but it was attached to the final troll and everybody was too busy killing him to explore the Cave properly. Closest I have ever gotten to the treasures.
 

Edit: final score -

Threat: 37
Dead heroes: 0
Wounds: 0
Victory points: 12
Turns: 14

so… 165. I seem to hit that pretty regularly.

I had a similar deck when I played, I finally got it.  Here were some thoughts on how to win

Gandalf (Core set), Sneak attack, Galadrim's greeting, and Dwarven tomb were essential to keeping threat low

Having 5 dwarves in play was essential to activate the special powers of Thorin, Ori, and Nori

Secret paths was essential in round two when the trolls appear to eliminate the threat levels of any locations once the questing sprint appears. 

Henmarith Riversong is essential in a solo game.  He basically allows the player to manage every encounter before it appears.  This helps time exactly how long one needs to stay at the first part of the game. 

I found that it is best to save your allies until the second part of the quest when the trolls appear, there are too many treachery cards which will kill your allies before that.  In addition, there is nothing in the first part of the quest that your heroes cannot handle. 

Once the Trolls appear, activate EVERYONE to the quests (including Gandalf) and make a mad dash to eliminate every remaining encounter card.

I played for a really long time.  I basically played until I had most of my cards. 

Burglar Baggins is really only used at the second part of the quest when the Trolls appear. 

My impression is that fighting the trolls is too risky.  Considering that you can only use one person to attack (Because of Tom) and cannot use attachments, makes a long drawn out melee too dangerous.