Using a dwarf deck with Nori makes the 1st quest pretty manageable.  I dont use the Galadrium's Greeting or use Gandalf's effect to lower my threat just because the sheer number of allies i can put in play lower my threat by more than enough…all i need to do is set up the allies then once Erebor Battle Master has enough to 1-shot a troll (or two shot with the help of record keeper) i can progress thru the trolls cleanly.

Pharmboys2013 said:

The record keeper can't help out I'm afraid. The rules only allow you to attack once with the battle master against each enemy.

 Finally beat #3.  Took more than two hours and I wasn't stalling at all.  A couple of keys:

Getting Path of Need on Lake in the Cavern.

Next, lots and lots of one cost spirit events and then recycling the deck with Will of the West.  I really don't think the quest is doable without Will of the West.  It takes so long to get nine progress on 2B and you have to discard so many cards.

Bullroarer Took said:

You know you are most funny player for me. I read many times your comments and almost all of them is declare you play this game quite long already but looks like you really dont know even basis rules. But your last comments is a grown of this!

How you can play Path of need on location which is immune to players card effect?  And how you can travel to Lake ???

Even if it was available to play PON to Lake is doesn work anyway cose PON never  can be Active location!!!

Really cool man! I think you are the best in your genre. Nothing personal just fact. Or maybe i dont understand something?

 I never travelled to the Lake.  I just played Path of Need on it.  Caleb has already ruled that PoN doesn't directly interact with the card it's attached to so it is legal to play it on it.  But you're right that PoN's effect only works when the location is active.  Back to the drawing board.

I have been playing the game since it came out, but this is my first card game.  You should get your own forum because clearly none of the rest of us are worthy of you.

Bullroarer Took said:

Really??? Caleb say this? . I never heard about it……..Can you show me a link about?

Anyway so how you can use POD if you cannot travel to Lake so POD is useless right? And i still dont understand how yo can play POD on location which one is immune to player card effect.

And please speak from your self ok Dont talk from community here. No one can do it.

I have nothing against you personally. Dont worry about it. Everyone do mistake but dont everyone point your mistakes. I do.That all.

I have to agree with the comment about will of the west. My deck (Beorne, Ori, Nori) walked the first 2 quests but ran out of cards on the 3rd quest. I added a second will of the west and a dwarven tomb to address the problem.

I was surprised at how effective Beorn is, he was able to block when needed and the damage built up but he never got more than 7 in any of the games. I haven't tried him with any "non-hobbit" quests yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Memetix said:

He is very good. i mean Beorn. Very good combine with Fortune or Fate as well. I really want to make deck with him.

 I prefer to heal Beorn with Dori.

Pharmboys2013 said:

I used a similar approach after I got my head around the quest, and managed to hack the big guys down after "slow-playing" the first stage.  I think the mechanic of blasting through the deck to symbolize the passing of the evening unto sunrise vs. trying to swarm the trolls was pretty ingenious.  As it happens, I had exactly 12 Dorfs out there.  How thematic was my victory - save perhaps for the use of Gimli.

I don't even bother to read Glaurung / Boored comments anymore.

For  me, the dwarven approach is the only feasible one, at the moment I couldn't accomplish any of the quests (not much time), but I expect to go on it next weekend. I'll tell you how was my experience.

Regards!

Glaurung said:

Yup.  I haven't had any problem winning the first quest (you get a bit intimidated the first time seeing all those trolls).  But I think the challange definitely lies in trying to win AND secure the treasure.  Adds quite a bit to the difficulty.  You really have to quest and engage very prudently.

 I wondered who this Erebor Battle Master is so I looked him up. Holy dwarf shit no wonder you guys are having no trouble with the Hobbit 1. I only have the core and the doom set. Looks like I need The Long Dark.

benhanses said:

Yes this is idea to get treasures. But i didn get exited about it. I dont care about treasures. My strategy is : start slowly, build up allies army, go to second quest, engage first troll, defend against him every round and meantime quest very active to discard all encounter deck. This strategy work very well but yes no treasures then. Anyway Hobbit is really cool i love it! This time FFG make cool job!

Has anybody been able to win the first quest solo using only 1 Core set and the Hobbit expansion?  I've got all of the APs to-date, but decided to challenge myself by trying to play the Hobbit with just the Core set and Hobbit cards.  So far, I've tried 5 times and have not yet been able to get past stage 2B, or for that matter kill a single Troll.  Not having access to the Song cards is hurting - I'm playing a tri-sphere Leadership (Thorin), Spirit (Nori), Tactics (Beorn) deck.  I'm close to surrendering and giving up on this approach.