Arghhh…after playing this quest solo 2-handed about 15 times over the last month and not yet winning I finally thought I was going to claim victory tonight only to have it snatched away from me at the last minute!  I was on the final quest stage and it looked like if I committed all my characters to the quest I could win through….so with 13 characters committed I started turning over encounter cards….wham…first card is the @#$%$ Watcher in the Wood…"When revealed raise each players threat by the number of questing characters".  Game Over.  Finished.  Nothing left to do but pack the cards away.

Into Ithilien is a pain to be sure. Took quite a few (alot actually) tries before I solved it with my lotr partner. In the end we found that lore cards to look at and manipulate the encounter deck raised our chances.

RGun said:

I've had that happen a few times.  The trechary cards are brutal in this quest, so I just tried a deck including Eleanor and three test of wills and two dwarves tombs to counter this.  In a solo one handed game last night, I used her, Beorn, and Beregond, and they really hung in their for the win.  21 rounds, 49 threat, and both Beregond and Beorn were destroyed.  I almost went through the encounter deck twice.  A lot of this is attributed to the consistent treachery cancelation of Eleanor and the spirit threat reduction cards she has access to.  What a game!

Tracker1 said:

Prefer Out of the Wild (lore event) myself for those prolonged games. Gets rid of those nasties once and for all.

Nerdmeister said:

Indeed, and if we ever get some Lore event recursion like Hama does for Tactics, we'll really be in business!

Tracker1 said:

Everyone who claims to have problems with this scenario should give Eleanor a try.

The scenario is yet another reason that A Test of Will is the most important card in the game. Any deck I make that I want to beat multiple quests will use 3x A Test of Will and at least 2x Will of the West (to allow me to recur A Test of Will, among other cards). Until another sphere gains reliable methods to cancel scenario-breaking Treachery cards, any deck I run will have at least 1 Spirit hero, Song of Travel, or Aragorn plus Celebrian's Stone.

That said… If you learn which treacheries are likely to hit you, the scenario's not that hard if you have A Test of Will and can soak the early pressure (I like Frodo for that bit).

Thorongil said:

There is the way how to win without spirit and without Test of will. My Thorin Company deck can win all quests( Dol-Guldor is only one problem) and there is no spirit only Lore/Leadership.

Literally beat this quest yesterday (albeit on my second try) solo using a very similar version of Galarung's "Thorin and company" deck

I have to say, "hardy leadership" is so necessary to avoid the destruction of cheap allies from blocking wargs.  Everything else is managible 

Glaurung said:

How do u make it through Cair Andros? I feel like the deck doesn't have enough defense to quest successfully especially early game when traveling through the battlegrounds is so important. Playing with a second deck it can be done, but solo it's quite the obstacle 

Henamarth Riversong (look at the top card of the encounter deck) helps me a lot in Ithilien.

Then you can see if there's wargs or watchers and quest accordingly.

Pharmboys2013 said:

I just got to play this quest for the first time last night. My wife and I beat it on our first go through. She was playing a Spirit/Lore deck (Glorfindel, Frodo, and Elrond) and I was playing a solid Tactics deck (Beregond, Hama, & Legolas).

With the Battle and Siege keywords, those cheap eagle allies become super questers (Blocking Wargs is a big danger to them of course). Add Support of the Eagles and suddenly the Tactics deck is bringing some massive questing strength.

Support of the Eagles + Plus Rivendell Blade + Hands on the Bow + Legolas (+ Hama to retrieve Hands on the Bow) = Lots of dead enemies in the staging area w/ that nice bonus of an extra two Progress Tokens each time.

It was still close though. We both had 47 threat when we completed the 4th stage (We quested with a whooping 30 to burn through that stage!). A timely use of Test of Wills to cancel a Watcher in the Wood earlier in the game was part of what made our victory possible.

I think the Quest would have been VERY difficult with three or four players as those Blockin Wargs would have just kept coming out time and again.

Pharmboys2013 said:

Hardy leadership so powerfull and neccesery card for dwarfs deck. 

Really important one! Without this card many scenarious can be much more harder!

Still, Thotin company deck is broken! Should to get some errata!

Tracker1 said:

I tried adding some of the lore encounter deck manipulation cards to my deck, as well as Eleanor and still got destroyed 3 more times.  This quest just has me tied up in knots for some reason, to-date it's the only one other than the PODs that I haven't been able to win.  I've only played it solo 2-handed though, maybe it's easier solo with one deck.  I'm going to take a break for now and move onto Seige of Cair Andros…maybe some cards in the new Hobbit expansion will be what I need to get through it.