This tournament is part of the Living Tournament system. You are welcome to read this, play the scenario, and post your results (in that order). Place well enough, and you may just end up with a Living Tournament World Ranking!

Scenario: Escape from Dol Guldur
Deck Parameters: Open Build*
Number of Players: Solo Player

Tournament Parameters:

1) This is a Living Tournament. You may play and post results at your own pace.
2) *Open Build means you may use any legal LOTR LCG cards at your availability.
3) A valid result in this tournament consists of reporting your results (wins and losses) from 3 back-to-back games (may be spread out over as much time as you like), using the same deck for each of those 3 games. (Please observe the mulligan rule, and all other rules, from the LOTR LCG rulebook and subsequent official FAQ documents.)
4) After you post your results, the results from your 3 games will be calibrated using the RGun formula** to obtain your Weighted Result.
5) Weighted Results will then be ranked against other player’s Weighted Results, and the rankings will be updated over time as new results are posted to the thread.
6) You may play this tournament as many times as you would like (so you can try out different deck builds over time), but you can only hold one spot in the overall tournament rankings at a time (i.e. this gives you a chance to try and best your own result while only occupying one spot in the rankings).
7) Do not cheat. Just don’t. It destroys the fun and integrity of the tournament system. If you realize you have made a mistake at a later date that had serious implications for a result you had posted in the past, please make a new post in this thread drawing attention to that fact – that past result will be invalidated, and of course, you are welcome (and highly encouraged) to try again.

**The RGun formula has been designed to value both Final Score (per game) and overall Win Ratio (from your 3 games, cumulative). The formula is: (Average Score of Games Won) x (Total Games Played/Games Won). For an expanded discussion on how this formula was created, you can read the thread called Measuring Success.

Posting Your Results (Required Information):

When posting your results for this tournament you are encouraged to cut and paste from the following template and complete the requested information:

Heroes:

Game 1 Result: (Report Final Score or Loss)
Final Threat Level:
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero:
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes:
Victory Points Earned:
Number of Rounds Completed:

Game 2 Result: (Report Final Score or Loss)
Final Threat Level:
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero:
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes:
Victory Points Earned:
Number of Rounds Completed:

Game 3 Result: (Report Final Score or Loss)
Final Threat Level:
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero:
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes:
Victory Points Earned:
Number of Rounds Completed:

Posting Your Results (Optional Information):

After completing the above, you are welcome to include any other details you would like to add. Some suggested ideas are: your specific available card pool (number of Core Sets used, specific Adventure Packs used, etc…) and additional narrative to share epic tales of your adventures through Middle-earth.

Living Tournament Rankings:

1. Fanfan ~ 117 (August 30, 2012)
2. Ganjalf87 ~ 117.67 (December 10, 2012)
3. muemakan ~ 165 (May 23, 2012)
4. Robert McMutton ~ 178.5 (April 21, 2012)
5. masonos ~ 180 (August 4, 2012)
6. DevastazioneH88 ~ 184.5 (December16, 2012)
7. lleimmoen ~ 255 (June 2, 2012)
8. SiCK_Boy ~ 372 (April 27, 2012)
9. leptokurt ~ 423 (March 17, 2012)
10. jjeagle ~ 489 (June 10, 2012)

Last Updated:

January 26, 2013 (1:56am) [FFG Time - Forum Time Stamp]

Home Link:

Living Tournament Library & World Rankings
 

I finallly beat Dol Guldur!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heroes: Glóin, Dáin Ironfoot, Bifur

Game 1 Result: 141
Final Threat Level: 44
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: 0
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: 2
Victory Points Earned: 5
Number of Rounds Completed: 10

Prison: Bifur

Game 2 Result: Loss
Prison: Bifur

Game 3 Result: Loss

Prison: Bifur

Decks used: 1 core set, all Mirkwood expansions and KD
 

I played six games at all. In two of them I got to stage 2B, in 3 of them I got thwarted in stage 1B, and in one, oh baby, I made it out of these dungeons! Encounters were (IIRC):

Setup: Eyes of the Forest / Caught in a Web / Cavern Guardian
1 Dungeon Jailor
2 Necromancer's Reach
3 Mountains of Mirkwood
4 Mountains of Mirkwood
5 Necromancer's Pass
6 Under the Shadow
7 Enchanted Stream
8 King Spider
9 Iron Shackles
10 Dol Guldur Orcs
11 Ungoliant's Spawn

It was pretty helpful to have Henamarth from round 4 on. That's why I could send everyone questing once I got the Jailor defeated and I was prepared when the King Spider was drawn. Faramir and Silverlode Archer joined my group early, and I was luck to have both Steward of Gonder and Song of Wisdom in my hand, so I could play lore allies before I got Bifur out of jail.
 

This is great, I finally beat Dol Guldur. After some tries, I did it. My first win at this quest. Although I had tried it sometimes, never seriously like today. So, here it is:

Heroes: Aragorn, Eowyn, Dúnhere

Game 1 Result: Loss
Prisoner: Aragorn

Game 2 Result: Loss
Prisoner: Dúnhere

Game 3 Result: 159
Final Threat Level: 35
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: 8 (Dúnhere)
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: 5
Victory Points Earned: 9
Number of Rounds Completed: 12

Prisoner: Dúnhere.

That started well, SG in my first draw, managing my threat low, and using Sneak Attack + Gandalf twice to deal with the Nazgul. In the last round Dúnhere died, but I didn't mind at that point .

Wow, it feels good .

Ok, now I am a little lost. I'm not sure if this is ok, so, let me know. Here is the question: after my previus post of Dol Guldur, where I finally won my first time, scoring Loss, Loss and a Win, I continued playing the quest. I had another Loss (what a surprise), but the next one I beat it again. So the problem is that I'm not sure if I can count this last 3 games for a new result to the tournament, because this games were back to back, or I can't because my first win was already used for one previous result.

If it's ok, this would be the stats:

Game 1 Result: 159
Final Threat Level: 35
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: 8 (Dúnhere)
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: 5
Victory Points Earned: 9
Number of Rounds Completed: 12

Prisoner: Dúnhere.

That started well, SG in my first draw, managing my threat low, and using Sneak Attack + Gandalf twice to deal with the Nazgul. In the last round Dúnhere died, but I didn't mind at that point .

Game 2 Result: Loss
Prisoner: Eowyn

Game 3 Result: 99
Final Threat Level: 28
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: 0
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: 1+2+2=5
Victory Points Earned: 5+5+4=14
Number of Rounds Completed: 8

This was almost easy. I started with Celebrian's Stone and Steward of Gondor in my hand, and this made me walk along the quest with some sense of control and knowing that I had possibilities. I could manage a lot of allies, and Gandalf appeared as many times as needed. Once rescued, Dúnhere, with 2 Dúnedain Marks attached, aided me to clean the staging area of foes.
 

I believe you are allowed to count it for scoring purpose in the Living Tournament format.

The only rules are using the same deck and playing 3 consecutive games. So I'd say you are okay.

Congrats Robert!

If you want a new challenge, try Into the Pit with only two heroes.

SiCK_Boy said:

I always play them in a set of three, starting with one game and ending the cycle with the third. A clarification by Juicy would be nice though.

SiCK_Boy said:

This is fine.

I am basing this on:

"3) A valid result in this tournament consists of reporting your results (wins and losses) from 3 back-to-back games (may be spread out over as much time as you like), using the same deck for each of those 3 games. (Please observe the mulligan rule, and all other rules, from the LOTR LCG rulebook and subsequent official FAQ documents.)"

I know at points, in discussion, the 3 back-to-back games have been referred to as a "set" sometimes, and I can see where that could create some confusion. I'm sorry if that's been cramping anyone's style. Since the above (quoted) interpretation is the most literal, I'll stand by it for the sake of trying to keep things as straightforward as possible.

Sound fair?

Also, huge congrats to anyone who has beat this scenario solo even once! Robert McMutton, to go 2 for 3 (or even 2 for 4, however you want to look at it) is pretty stellar and worthy of story in my book. Personally, I'm wondering how Secrecy cards may help out in the great jail break. I have yet to try it though.

leptokurt said:

Thank you, leptokurt. I saw that you are starting to play with secrecy and two heroes, and I want to give it a try. But I have a lot of quests remaining to make a result for the living tournament, so I think I will wait at least to Watcher in the Water, in order to have some more secrecy cards. But it's great to know that it works .

Greetings.

juicebox said:

Thank you, juicebox . It was a surprise, and I had a lot of luck.

Greetings.

That was epic....at eleast for me. I have never won the quest solo. After 2 days of tirying different decks and mostly failiing I managed one series of games were I won 2 and in the last game I thought I had won and quested with nearly everybody just to get the damned spider. So nothing lost I thought....I ´ll win next round. Just feed some poor ally to the spider. Then the Bees came as shadow card....that was the end of it.

So this deck then finally did it....The last game was awsome as I had the SoG in my starting hand and also a sneak Gandalf. Next I drew a lore song......from there it was quite easy. 

muemakan said:

And thinking I was proud of taking 2 wins at Dol Guldur... it's clear I have to improve that, man. Just WOW .

Robert McMutton said:

But as you may notice your result is not that far away from mine , although you have only won twice.

So my wins were painfully slow. And it is the first time I ever won games solo at this quest. I tried a few decks and mostly got 1 win if ever. 

Most of the decks I tried failed in 2 or 3 rounds.......that scenario is soooo terrible balanced. Once my setup was Jailor, Hummerhorns, Spawn and the first card was Necromancer´s Pass. Yeah start the game with 8 threat in the staging area.

As discused in the Dead Marshes thread, I was counting wrongly the number of rounds. After muemakan and leptokurt explained me, I repost my result arranged:

Game 1 Result: 149
Final Threat Level: 35
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: 8 (Dúnhere)
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: 5
Victory Points Earned: 9
Number of Rounds Completed: 11

Game 2 Result: Loss

Prisoner: Eowyn

Game 3 Result: 89
Final Threat Level: 28
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: 0
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: 1+2+2=5
Victory Points Earned: 5+5+4=14
Number of Rounds Completed: 7

Total score: 178,5

Heroes: Aragorn, Gloin, Prince Imrahil

Game 1 Result: Loss
Final Threat Level: N/A
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: N/A
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: N/A
Victory Points Earned: N/A
Number of Rounds Completed: N/A

Prisoner: Prince Imrahil

Game 2 Result: Loss
Final Threat Level: N/A
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: N/A
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: N/A
Victory Points Earned: N/A
Number of Rounds Completed: N/A

Prisoner: Gloin

Game 3 Result: 124
Final Threat Level: 36
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: 0
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: 3
Victory Points Earned: 5
Number of Rounds Completed: 9

Prisoner: Gloin

Card pool: 3 x Core Set, All Shadows of Mirkwood AP, KD, TRG, RtR

Decklist

Leading out of the Dungeons

Hero (3)
Aragorn (Core) x1
Gloin (Core) x1
Prince Imrahil (AJtR) x1

Ally (23)
Brok Ironfist (Core) x1
Faramir (Core) x2
Gandalf (Core) x3
Guard of the Citadel (Core) x3
Keen-eyed Took (THoEM) x3
Longbeard Orc Slayer (Core) x2
Silverlode Archer (Core) x3
Snowbourn Scout (Core) x3
Son of Arnor (Core) x2
Dunedain Watcher (TDM) x1

Attachment (9)
Dunedain Mark (THfG) x3
Dunedain Warning (CatC) x3
Steward of Gondor (Core) x3

Event (18)
Ever Onward (KD) x3
Ever Vigilant (Core) x3
Shadow of the Past (RtM) x3
Sneak Attack (Core) x3
Taking Initiative (TRG) x3
Valiant Sacrifice (Core) x3

I initialy tried with a Spirit only deck hoping to make use of Good Meal and Stand and Fight, with no success. I figured I needed Steward of Gondor to have a chance, hence this deckbuild.

I played a 4th game after those 3, which I loss.

I just can't believe some people are able to post 3 wins in a row. There are so many setup that are insurmontable. How can you handle a setup with 6 points of threat?

Anyway, I did keep a full log of all games. I don't think there's much point in sharing them. My two loss were because I reached 50 threat. I just was never able to install myself and get Gandalf going. In game two, I mulliganed into a weak hand with no Steward, so it was soon over.

My win was obtained with a number of key plays: taking initiative on turn 1 to kill a cavern guardian (that card was designed for this scenario), 3 x sneak attack and gandalf and a starting steward of gondor. I had to play around a Caught in a Web on Aragorn for most of the game, but I just gave him the Map and he stuck to questing and readying from that point on. I kept fearing Ungoliant's Spawn would show up to wreck me (either as a shadow or in the staging area), but it was the last card in the encounter deck.

 Took me agaes to get another deck to beat it……

Yeeeesssssss………took me forever to get 3 wins in a row again. 

A real pitty was game number two….lost one objective early in the game and had to cycle through the whole deck a second time to find it on the bottom…..

Theodred was lost due to those dam Hummerhorns in the last game.  I really learned to love this new healer.

Game 1 Result: 85
Final Threat Level: 26
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero: 0
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes: 4
Victory Points Earned: 5
Number of Rounds Completed: 6

Game 2 Result: Loss
Final Threat Level:
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero:
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes:
Victory Points Earned:
Number of Rounds Completed:

Game 3 Result: Loss
Final Threat Level:
Threat Cost of Each Dead Hero:
Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes:
Victory Points Earned:
Number of Rounds Completed:

* Dúnhere, Éowyn, Legolas

Comments: This one is a long time ago. It is the only one victory I ever scored against Dol Guldur solo. I actually find it nigh impossible, especially doing it repeatedly. I think the odds are too great, even if you deckbuild for the quest (which I never do but I thought this deck was well suited). I don't actually recall the other two games but I put loss as I have lost so many times - mostly in first two rounds. The one super lucky win came on my birthday. I still think this quest is a bad idea solo, who enjoys reshufling the decks as much as playing…