sorry couldnt resist the pun

just arrived today- thought id give my beloved dain/bifur/gloin deck a shot....and won, easily...thats rare for me!!

anyways i just wanted to say how good a job FFG has done with this quest, its fun, themeatically great, and the enemies/locations have really great effects

i especially like the snow warg.....

i lost gloin to the cold near the end, but luckily i had a load of dwarf characters getting dains +1 buff, so it was ok. I also think arwen is a great help in this, usaully till now the objective cards have been a pain, and i admit i always sighed when i seen a pack came with 1, but i really like her resources draw too

 Got it yesterday as well and won my first try with a Miner deck. However, I'm a bit worried about the difficulty of finding those victory points in a deck where there are so little cards with them. The trolls should have been given a victory value as well...

Also, they should have thought about the possibility that Caradras would get explored via Northern Tracker before it becomes the active location. I did it and ruled that it was to come back as the active location after completing quest 2B, even if it already was in my Victory display. A specific mention that it works this way (the victory display zone isn't covered much in the rules; is it an "out of play" area or can it be affected by other cards?) would have been nice. Or, even better, a phrase on the card stating "no progress can be put on Caradras is it isn't the active location" would have made it even better.

But I agree the quest has a great feel, very thematic. Really makes you feel like you're trudging in the snow, running around in circle. It's a quest that focuses on "questing", but whereas HoEM was also in that line, the Redhorn Gate still offers plenty of challenge in the form of combat and nice treachery. Also, there's enough shadow effects that the Wargs are much easier to defeat than in quests using the Wilderlands sub-set.

I agree with all the comments above - really enjoyable quest and the theme shines through.  My first game was very fun as I didn't look at the quest or encounter cards before playing and it really added to the sense of adventure and a surprise around every corner.  I was sailing through it and thought I was going to finish up easily when I flipped over the last quest card and half of my adventurers died as we'd just been hit by an avalanche and everyone was committed to the quest (many with 0 willpower including poor freezing Beravor).

I'd also add that the artwork is excellent in this adventure pack - probably my favourite one so far for artwork and I've found it good in all of them so far.

agreed rgun....what i found a shock was that i didnt pay attention to snowstorms shadow effect and when i was adding them to the encounter deck, i was like meh....i can deal with you bring it on! then i drew it as a shadow card and went oh shi...........

 I was so happy when I beat the Redhorn Gate on my first try with my Eagles deck. Unfortunately, I somehow misread the final quest stage and thought that it was only questing characters with 0 Wilpower who got discarded.

Not to take away from anyone's hard fought victory, but I want to point out one item that I've seen some folks miss...

When you complete stage 2, Caradhras immediately becomes the active location.  As it is still the quest phase, all questing character take -1 Will.  You then roll into stage 3 and all 0 Will characters die!.  Since you're still in the quest phase, the -1 from Caradhras means all your 1 will (and 0 of course) questors succumb to the mountain! 

Lesson here is not to quest 1 Will characters on stage 2 if you think you are going to clear it.  Of course the treachery card (Avalanche I think) that makes everyone quest can play havoc with that plan.  Two friends and I were running it and hit that treachery card, sending everyone like it or not, and clearing 2.  Legolas, Dain and a host of 1 will allies never made it off the mountain!

Woz said:

Eleanoooor! But yeah, that particular scenario usually results in a pretty quick GG.

Woz said:

yes i have been beaten several times with this, and even on this easy win several died....but i still love this one, great fun

Rich,

I agree that this is an excellent scenario.  Like most of the scenarios, they do a great job of capturing the theme and translating it to meaningful game play. 

Good story on our first multi player try on it.  Two of us had already played it solo and won most games (a snow warg to start and another as the first enounter being the first loss for me).  We're running with a third guy and feeling good.  We've a ton of allies out, lots of strong attachments and some counters in hand.  We're getting a little cavalier.  I'm using resources to get my threat down under 20 so that I can say I used secrecy for Timely Aid.  All of a sudden we get some nasty treacheries that run out my counters.  Next turn we get a double snow storm on Caradhras.  Whole caravans disappear.  Glorfindel, Aragorn, Imrahil, Bifur, Dain all die along with allies as we were making a push to win it!  We scratched out a victory but by the skin of our teeth after thinking it was a walk in the park.

Solo you don't have to worry about multiple snowstorms!  I actually think this one and Into the Pit from KD are harder multi player than solo...

Rich,

I agree that this is an excellent scenario.  Like most of the scenarios, they do a great job of capturing the theme and translating it to meaningful game play. 

Good story on our first multi player try on it.  Two of us had already played it solo and won most games (a snow warg to start and another as the first enounter being the first loss for me).  We're running with a third guy and feeling good.  We've a ton of allies out, lots of strong attachments and some counters in hand.  We're getting a little cavalier.  I'm using resources to get my threat down under 20 so that I can say I used secrecy for Timely Aid.  All of a sudden we get some nasty treacheries that run out my counters.  Next turn we get a double snow storm on Caradhras.  Whole caravans disappear.  Glorfindel, Aragorn, Imrahil, Bifur, Dain all die along with allies as we were making a push to win it!  We scratched out a victory but by the skin of our teeth after thinking it was a walk in the park.

Solo you don't have to worry about multiple snowstorms!  I actually think this one and Into the Pit from KD are harder multi player than solo...

ha! thats exactly why i love it...it can be (like the passes) absolutely brutal!

 A great quest, and difficult too, but I've definitely found it easier than other quests of a comparable difficulty. Heck, I haven't managed to beat Road to Rivendell yet and that one is "easier".

Woz said:

We have played it twice with 3 players and where absolutely owned.  It was bloody and brutal!  We didn't peek at the quest cards or any encounter cards so the Snowstorms crushed us and the 3rd card of the quest killed so many allies and a hero or two.  On our 2nd time through we didn't even make it past the 2nd quest card.  I suspect playing solo would be easier as well. 

Absolutely a great quest with a great theme!

I love this quest. Is very good thematic and very hard as well.

My best deck name: Hobbits rush(Glorifindel, Bilbo ,Frodo) never lose against this one but many times is close to fall. I make my record scores 105 and i dont think i can make better. Solo game now is really cool. I still win mostly but now is much harder.

Actually this quest suppose to be more hard with 2 or 3 players cose then you will face all nasty encounter cards combo which one you cannot face when you play solo.

Just had my first play through on this scenario and had to chime in...

For so many of the reasons many of you have already listed, I found this quest to be VERY enjoyable.

Well done FFG!!! Now I'm looking forward to building a deck with mountaineering in mind.

(I'm thinking Dúenedain Quest may finally make a meaningful appearance.)

Also, Happy Birthday Glaurung!

I've started my rotation of RHG this week and so far, not liking the quest at all TBH. Three of the four games have taken an hour, with only one quick loss. Even those games where I won, it wasn't "yes, I won", it was very much "ugh, thankfully it's over". It just drags and drags. It's also weird that most of KD Enemies are weaker in attack (not counting undefended) than RHG Enemies, even the weakest, Mountain Goblin rarely attacks for less than 3. I play LotR for the 15-30 minute playtime that I think most of the previous quests all fall under. I'll play through the remaining six plays that are left, but really wish the quest didn't take forever. Of course, RtR doesn't seem to be any shorter, at least looking at the progress requirements for each stage.

Interesting note that I've been thinking about. Carrock and RHG look initially similar, each has cards set aside and a location that can't really be affected in the staging area. What I think really hurts Carrock, despite being a supposed DL7, is that after Carrock, nothing more hits the staging area before the first quest phase, whereas  in RHG you have Caradhras + X cards revealed, resulting in quite possibly 10 threat in the staging area just after flipping over to 1B (2-deck/player).