***Update***

With the same deck I have now made it through CAC, JRT and HEM.  I did make it throught HFG but I had to make changes to my deck for CAC so I am going to go back for HFG.  I think there is so much luck that goes into CAC that "expert mode" is out of the question almost right away.

But off to Dead Marshes and RTM!  I'll keep you posted on how it goes, and if I can in fact get through all of Mirkwood using "expert mode" rules.

***Update***

Dead Marshes went without much of a fight.  The only issue was having to do an escape check with enough power left over to fight off a marsh adder.  RTM got me though.  Pretty exciting game; I even thought I was going to win.  One deck had a 48 and the other had 49 threat on the last turn.  Quested almost everyone, but pulled hill troll.  Got 15 will to 3 threat but didn't have enough power to beat the troll in the combat phase so the turn ended an I lost due to high threat. 

I would really like to see some of these decks people are using to play 2 handed solo. Would anyone be willing to post them?

hendersondayton said:

i havnt time now to post decklists but my general idea when approaching two handed is split each deck into the 2 obvious needs- questing/healing and fighting/defense with card draw and resource draw split between the two

one deck is usually single tactic with hama/legolas and other….beregond at the moment. i have thicket of spears so this with hamas recycle cant really keep enemies back. then the heros get through them easily enough

feint is in there for when i dont want to use all 3 resources.  usual weapons….rivendell an gondolin blades and bow for legolas. citadel spear  and plate for beragond. hama i usually leave as is.

the other deck changes but i was using my flight to the ford deck- frodo/glorfindel spriit/ strider lore

sometimes i switched frodo for elrond to give more ally options.

the deck is pretty much noldor with all the dwarrowdelf power cards in.

after that it really comes down to using ranged and sentinel effectively so that the questing deck need rarely be ready. once allies are out the killing power can get quite high

im currently working on two decks that are gondor and rohan to be able to use all the new cards along with the event with the banners on. it should be a nice theme deck

rich

I will try to work thru your suggestions. I also look forward to seeing your deck build.

lol @ thread title. 

***Update***

RTM has been defeated!  It seems like if you don't make it in 6 turns forget it.  I have to repeat HFG since I changed the decks radically to beat CAC.  I don't foresee any problems, but I will post a list after I make sure I can do HFG.

Ran through HFG very quickly beat it on the first try with this deck.  So as requested here are the decks I used to beat every scenario without changing a single card (using all 6 Mirkwood chapters and 1 core set):

Deck1:                                                                                                                           Deck 2:

Heroes:                                                                                                                         Heroes:

Eowyn/Frodo Baggins/Theodred                                                                                  Brand son of Bain/Denethor/Legolas

Spirit Allies:                                                                                                                   Lore Allies:

Elfhelm x1                                                                                                                     Gildor Inglorion x1

Northern Tracker x2                                                                                                      Haldir of Lorien x1

Lorien Guide x3                                                                                                             Miner of the Iron Hills x2

Eomund x1                                                                                                                    Tactics Allies:

Westfold Horse Breaker x3                                                                                           Landroval x1

Escort from Edoras x3                                                                                                  Decendant of Thorondor x1

The Riddermark's Finest x3                                                                                          Eagles of the Misty Mountains x2

Leadership Allies:                                                                                                         Veteran Axehand x3

Snowbourn Scout x2                                                                                                    Gondorian Spearman x3

Neutral Allies:                                                                                                               Winged Guardian x3

Gandalf x3                                                                                                                    Vasal of the Windlord x3

Spirit Events:                                                                                                                Neutral Allies:

Ride to Ruin x3                                                                                                            Radagast x1

The Galadrim's Greeting x2                                                                                        Lore Events:

Mustering the Rohirrim  x3                                                                                          Gildor's Council x3

Astonishing Speed x3                                                                                                 Lore of Imladris x3

Leadership Events:                                                                                                     Tactics Events:

Sneak Attack x2                                                                                                         The Eagles are Comming x3

Spirit Attatchments:                                                                                                   Meeldor's Flight x3

Ancient Mathom x3                                                                                                   To the Eyrie x3

Leadership Attachments:                                                                                          Lore Attachments:

Stewart of Gondor x2                                                                                               Self Preservation x2

Dunedain Signal x2                                                                                                  Forest Snare x2

Dunedain Warning x3                                                                                              A Burning Brand x2

Dunedain Mark x3                                                                                                    Tactics Attachments:

Neutral Attachments:                                                                                               Support of the Eagles x3

Son of Kings x2                                                                                                        Blade of Gondolin x1

Song of Travel x1                                                                                                     Horn of Gondor x1

                                                                                                                                 Neutral Attachments:

                                                                                                                                 Song of Wisdom x2

                                                                                                                                 Song of Battle x1

Hope any of this helps.  Also any ideas for improvements are welcome.  Also please keep me posted if you try to duplicate my results.  My games were (wins/total/score) HFG 1/1/119, CAC 1/12/165, JTR 1/2/150, HEM 1/2/184, DM 1/2/163, RTM 1/4/128.  Pretty good scores but my win rario is terrible in CAC.

The final verdict I think is that "expert mode" as defined in the rules is not possible.  I think it is just too unreasonable not to reset your threat after each chapter.  So I propose a "story mode" since it is not used yet.  Follow all expert mode rules except clear damage and reset your threat after each quest.  The catch is you cant change your heroes or deck from adventure to adventure.

I dont know if anyone will particularly care, but if enough people are interested I will give the same type of update to the Kazad-Dum and Dwarrowdelf cycles.  Also more stuff as it comes out.  I can also go back and redo the core set if anyone is clammoring for it.

Dont know if anyone is still reading but I'll post this anyways.

I have finished Kazad Dum actually very easily.  Single handed it was always close and you could get overwhelmed very easily.  With a deck for questing and defense and another for fighting and healing I actually breezed through it two handed.  I will admit on "Flight From Moria"  I was extremely lucky and found the abandon tools on the initial staging and got "Escape from Darkness" as my third quest card, which enabled be to beat the quest in 5 turns.  The hardest quest was actually into the pit for me due to bad draws in the initial staging.  So my record for going through Kazad Dum (using only 1x Core + all 6 Mirkwood chapter packst + 1x KD expansion) is:

Quest (Win/Total Games/Score)

Into the Pit (1/3/153), The Seventh Level (1/1/151) and Flight From Moria (1/1/122).

For the Deck I wanted to make a Dwarf themed deck so I totally started over.  In hindsight the Rohan runner deck I have listed previously would have worked better because of Eowyn's willpower, but storywise you cant explore mines with horses so I changed it up.  So for my decks I have a Leadership/Spirit and a Tactics/Lore, the idea being Quest and defense in one and fighting and healing in the other.  The decklist is:

Deck 1:                                                                                                                 Deck 2:

Heroes:                                                                                                                 Heroes:

Dain Ironfoot/Dwalin/Gloin                                                                                    Bifur/Gimli/Thalin

Allies (Leadership then Spirit then Neutral):                                                          Allies (Tactis then Lore):

Snowbourn Scout x3                                                                                            Horseback Archer x2

Faramir x1                                                                                                            Gondorian Spearman x3

Longbeard Orc Slayer x2                                                                                     Veteran Axehand x3

Silverlode Archer x2                                                                                             Veteran of Nanduhirion x3

Guard of the Citadel x3                                                                                        Miner of the Iron Hill x2

Zigil Miner x3                                                                                                       Daughter of Nimrondel x3

Lorien Guide x3                                                                                                   Events (Tactics then lore):

Gandalf x3                                                                                                           Stand Together x1

Events (Leadership then Spirit):                                                                          Feint x2

Sneak Attack x2                                                                                                   Khazad! Khazad! x3

Durin's Song x3                                                                                                    Blade Mastery x3

Untroubled by Darkness x3                                                                                 Quick Strike x2

Will of the West x2                                                                                               Ancrestral Knowledge x3

A Test of Will x2                                                                                                   Gildor's Council x3

Hasty Stroke x2                                                                                                    Lore of Imladris x3

Strength of Will x2                                                                                                Attachments (Tactics then Lore):

The Galadrim's Greeting x2                                                                                 Dwarrodelf Axe x3

Dwarven Tomb x1                                                                                                Citadel Plate x1

Attachments (Leadership then Spirit):                                                                  Dwarven Axe x2

Celebrian's Stone x1                                                                                            Horn of Gondor x1

Stewart of Gondor x1                                                                                           A Burning Brand x3

Dunedain Warning x3                                                                                           Forest Snare x2

Dunedian Mark x3                                                                                                Self Preservation x2

Unexpected Courage x1

Favor of the Lady x2

The first thing that jumped out at me was how few dwarves there are up to this point.  So to get to 50 I did have to add some men and elves and of course never travel without the grey wizard.  It is not the best dwarf deck thematically, but oh well.  I have alwaysed used Eowyn as a crutch because of her high will and basically been good to quest with her, but Dain Ironfoot is fantastic to help others quest.  Also Dwalin kicks @$$, his threat reduction is so amazing I used him mainly to attack orcs.  I think these excersises in minimalism, using only what is released up to the point of the quest publication has helped me discover much about this game and how different cards work.  Playing two handed has also expanded the card pool and helped me see value in teamwork cards like "wandering Took" and "Gildor's Council".

I hope this helps anyone who plays solo and encourages them to play two handed.  I was afraid it would be to complex at first, but now I dont think I will go back to single deck playing.  It has also helped me beat "Return to Mirkwood" and "Escape From Dol Guldur" for the first time and made it a truly enjoyable experience.

I am still here & enjoying this. I went through the same journey at the beginning of the year although I started out with the two handed version. I have now tried single player & can't imagine going back ;) TBH I have a buddy to play 2 player with now & Octgn is tricky 2 handed …

definately still paying attention! Thanks for posting!

Good to know!  I'll hopefully have an update on Dwarrodelf soon.  Right now I'm stuck on Road to Rivendell.  I keep questing with Arwen then getting a shadow card that says: " Discard exhausted allies."  And when Arwen leaves you loose, so that sucks.  Anyways thanks for the feedback and I'll try to post again soon.

flightmaster101 said:

Tip - don't quest with Arwen.  Early game or in emergencies you may have to but once you have some ally questing power she is better off at home along with as many heroes as possible.  I do not like the design of those two killer cards Sleeping Sentry & Orc Ambush but you can play around the first & the Ambush is very random (helpful if it pulls down a sniper).   I got huge satisfaction from beating this with my spiritless deck twice in a row now. 

Pickles said:

That is exactly what happened, early killer card.   In the first two turns I used her to quest for 2 reasons: 1. Will until I had Allies out and 2. Resource generation for Spirfindel.  So you can imagine my frustration shuffling three decks, prepping the play area only to lose in the combat phase of turn two.

I have only played this game solo 2-Handed, but I have found it to be a bit easier but tons more fun if you use slighty modified rules as follows:

Lord of the Rings, Living Card Game House Rules

Version 2.01 

1. In the original game a player only gained resource tokens equal to the number of Heroes, one per Hero. This severely hinders playing with less than 3 Heroes and significantly penalizes a player who loses a Hero. Instead, make it so that each player ALWAYS gets 3 Resource Tokens each turn and they can allocate these 3 resource tokens to the Hero or Heroes of their choice. This way, playing with less than 3 Heroes, is more playable, AND players can now shift which spheres of Influence gain resources each turn, depending on what cards they hope to cast.
2. Scoring Changes. Victory points were way too few, Change the scoring system as follows:
   • Victory points are gained at 2 times the number printed on a card. Victory points are also gained for killing enemies in combat and for exploring locations.
   • For enemy cards killed in combat: divide the Hit Points by 2 and round UP to get the victory points gained (in addition to the 2* victory points printed on the card as above).
   • For locations Explored: divide the Quest Points by 2 and round UP to get Victory points gained (in addition to 2* victory points printed on the card – this way those that are really important count more).
   • Also, instead of adding 10 times the number of rounds played, now add 5 times the total of the number of rounds played minus the Difficulty Level, i.e. 5*(# of rounds – difficulty level).

To facilitate this scoring system use decimal dice to record the number of rounds played, and another set of decimal dice to keep a record of victory points gained.

3. Exhausted Heroes and Gandalf can try to attack engaged enemies, but if they succeed they do so with attack strength of 1 or 2. To attempt to attack, each exhausted Hero rolls 1D6 and they can attack if the roll is less than or equal to (2 + their Attack Strength). If (2 + Attack Strength) is less than 6, and they succeeded in the 1D6 roll, then they attack with an Attack Strength of 1. If (2+Attack Strength) is greater than or equal to 6 then they can automatically attack with an Attack Strength of 2. They can combine with other Heroes or allies of the same player. This way, besides defending and/or questing, exhausted Heroes (and Gandalf) have a chance to make some contribution to the attack phase too, depending on how good they are at combat.
4. Do allow Heroes armor (shield) Defense Strength number to absorb damage from an undefended attack. However, every undefended attack will still result in at least 1 damage to the Hero. Also, an Undefended attack will only kill a Hero if they had only 1 hit point left, i.e. if the Hero had 2 or more hit points at the beginning of the undefended attack, then they will take at least 1 point of damage up to a maximum of (#Hit Points they have – 1). That way it takes at least 2 undefended attacks to kill a Hero. This makes Heroes a bit tougher and gives the players a chance to heal their Heroes before they get into critical condition.

Questions with answers

1. Do encounter cards with victory points get shuffled back in the deck or held aside? YES, they do get shuffled back in after the victory points are recorded (in this version).
2. Do engaged enemies stay engaged after refresh? YES
3. Do cards attached to other cards exhaust independently? YES
4. Does a player “control” enemy encounter cards attached to one of their characters? YES, see page 25 of rulebook.