Fire in the Night was a first game win too, ending with 49 damage on Hrogar's Hill and a killing attack with a Black Arrow (quite the fitting defeat for a dragon putting a town to the torch). I was quite lucky with the side quest order and I was able to clear 6 of them in 7 rounds. 0 tokens Here is the usual playthrough

We just finished playing against The Land of Sorrow, it was a brutal quest but we were still able to win it at the first attempt (despite some terrible luck during the first quest phase). This quest surely likes to pile up damage on you, I am sure that if we didn't have a dedicated healing deck (basically a Lore deck with Elrond and all the possible healing effects) we would not have gone past it. MVP was Dunedain Remedy, one turn saw it heal like 30 damage between all 4 decks). Hard but satisfying quest, less punishing than Under the Ash Mountains since it's more traditional in the difficulties you have to overcome. We were constantly at the edge of defeat but prevailed with a good strategy and a little luck. Dang if they are annoying those Wardens. Now onto Escape from Khazad-Dum before we have to change our decks for The Fortress of Nurn.

Ok we finally got our hands on this quest after a long wait and played it. The first time we were trashed by it, since we make a few bad timing decisions about wheter to clear side quests or advance the main quest. The second time around, courtesy also of slightly better initial hands we were able to prevail...with literally one card left in the deck. I must say that the quest is really good in making you feel the despair and dwindling resources of such and endeavor. Now onto leading a revolt among slaves...

So December will see us playing against Voice of Isengard/Ringmaker with the addition of cards from the Heirs of Numenor / Against the Shadow cycle. RNG selects To Catch an Orc and Celebrimbor's Secret to go with The Dunland Trap, so the mandatory heroes list is Tactics Eomer, Grima, Celeborn and Galadriel (Silvan decks seem to be up to a good start).

@Fredmans74 You can choose the supplemental cards cycle then

The first game against Journey Up the Anduin went quite well, with a Guardian of Esgaroth coming into shape early on (with the usual Wild Stallion + Valiant Determination package) and leading me to a long and careful but still relatively easy win. 0 tokens Here is the usual playthrough

I will go with a Dale deck, making the Guardian of Esgaroth the center piece of the deck (though this might make Fire in the Night a bit hard since I will start without a strong defender). I could have gone for the Spirit Beregond route, but I wanted to have all Dale heroes.

Let me know if this time the spreadsheet works for you guys, I might have found out what was wrong last time

Then I will choose The Dunland Trap

Welcome to the LOTR Solo League. This month we'll be playing three quests from The Wilds of Rhovanion box and the Ered Mithrin cycle. The quests are: 1) Journey Up the Anduin 2) Fire in the Night 3) The Fate of Wilderland Here are the rules: 1) Each player will construct a 50+ card deck, then use that exact deck against all three quests. You may use that deck freely against any quests (include the three quests in the league) prior to the run for testing purposes, but you may not use any trial runs for your official results. 2) At least one of the heroes must be from a box with those quests. This means that you must have at least one of Brand Son Bain, Bard Son of Brand, Thranduil, Radagast. 3) Your score against each quest will be how much help you need to defeat it, based on the Grace of the Valar variant invented by Seastan. It works like this: For each token you have, you can choose to draw a card or give a hero a resource. This happens one at a time, so if I use my first token to draw a card, I see the card before I decide whether to use my second token for a card or a resource. This can be done *anytime* during setup. The original variant starts at zero tokens and gains two tokens if you lose quickly (first five turns) and one if you do not -- however, for the purposes of this league I will allow you to start a quest at any number of tokens, and adjust by as many as you want. The only rules for adding/reducing tokens are these: Rule 1) If you lose a quest with X tokens, you cannot play that quest again with X or less tokens. Rule 2) If you defeat a quest with Y tokens, you cannot play that quest again with Y or more tokens. So for example, if I start with six tokens against Into the Pit and defeat it, I can play it again with 0-5 tokens. If I then try with three tokens and lose, I can play it again with 4 or 5 tokens. If I try with four and lose, I can play it again with 5 tokens. If I win, my final score for that quest is 5, and if I lose my final score for the quest is 6. (Alternatively, I could've decided that 6 was a good enough score the first time I played it, and just have my final score be 6 without playing again.) Remember that tokens do not carry over between quests. When playing Foundations of Stone it does not matter how many tokens I needed to defeat Road to Rivendell. 4) You are not required to publish your deck, but providing a ringsdb link is encouraged (otherwise I may need to ask you for your decklist at the end of the month if required for a tiebreaker). You are required to reveal which Heroes you used, and how many cards in your deck came from outside The Lost Realm/Angmar Awakened, SoH/Haradrim and a single core. Do not include outside heroes in this count, only cards in the deck itself. Note: Contracts (from the most recent cycle) are not part of the deck and should not be counted. A Loot Deck (from the Burglar's turn contract) is also not part of the deck and should not be counted. The One Ring or the Messenger of the King ally/hero should also not be counted *unless* your deck uses those cards to reach 50 -- the Master card fetched by the One Ring should be counted. You may follow contract/One Ring setup instructions at the same as hero setup, ignoring Caleb's ruling. 5) Tiebreakers have frequently mattered in this league. Here are the tiebreakers, in order: --- 1st) The number of outside cards (i.e. not from The Wilds of Rhovanion/Ered Mithrin, Shadows of Mirkwood or a single core) used in the deck. Do not count outside heroes in this count, only cards in the deck. Less cards is better. 2nd) The number of heroes specifically from The Wilds of Rhovanion/Ered Mithrin and Shadows of Mirkwood. More is better. 3rd) The number of heroes used from this list: Brand Son Bain, Bard Son of Brand, Thranduil, Radagast. More is better. 4th) The number of cards in the deck outside The Wilds of Rhovanion/Ered Mithrin and Shadows of Mirkwood. Less is better, and core cards are considered "outside" for this tiebreaker. 5th) The number of cards outside Journey Up the Anduin, Fire in the Night, and The Fate of Wilderland. Less is better, and core cards are considered "outside" for this tiebreaker. 6th) Performance in October's Solo League (if you didn't play or finish September's League, a median performance will be assumed). Whoever did worst wins this tiebreaker. --- 6) 1st place gets to choose the cycle for January's league, 2nd place gets to choose a quest from that cycle, and 3rd place gets to choose a quest *not* to be used from that cycle. In an effort to expand the diversity of decks used, the last place player will choose an additional cycle that may be used for deckbuilding in January's league. 7) Weekly deadlines will at 11:59pm Eastern on the 14th, 21st, and 28th. Only the final deadline really matters for scoring and cannot be extended -- the first two deadlines are only to be included in intermediate standings. Journey Up the Anduin: November 14th Fire in the Night: November 21st The Fate of Wilderland: November 28th 8 ) I've created a google spreadsheet for results here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iZeehdX7jYtDpUmzpsY1TWAY_SGhR8XN6wugqogInx0/edit#gid=0 To join the league, merely add your name and information about your deck to the spreadsheet, then enter your results as you have them. Please give a link to your deck if you built or published it on ringsdb, but it is not required. If you wish you may run additional decks against the quests and record your results, but only the first entry will be considered for the competition itself.

Final standings: 0 General_Grievous (32) 5 Alonewolf87 (13) 6 rlogan4 (47) 10 Fredmans74 (47) @General_Grievous wins the league and can choose a cycle for December's league. @Alonewolf87 finishes second and can choose a quest to play from that cycle. @rlogan4 finishes third and can choose a quest to exclude from that cycle. @Fredmans74 finishes last and gets to choose a supplemental cycle for player cards. Join us next month for a trek around the wilds of Rhovanion, as we play Journey up the Anduin, Fire in the Night and The Fate of Wilderland

Impressive results, congratulations I fear that's not a public deck, but it doesn't matter

I added this part too

I must have done something wrong at the very beginning. I have input your results, do you also have a tally of the cards outside The Lost Realm/Angmar Awakened, SoH/Haradrim, and a single core?And possibly a link to a ringsdb version of your deck.

Take into consideration that without loads of location control this might end up backfiring, since you could end up shuffling back an encounter deck made mainly of enemies and treacheries. This specific case aside Guarded (X) cards (especially those limited to locations or enemies) are indeed useful for this kind of encounter deck thinning and "manipulation".

Strange, this time I am quite sure that anyone who has the link should be able to make changes to the spreadsheet. Just in case I wrote down the info you provided

It works, but it's debatable if it's actually worth the effort unless you play lots of encounter deck manipulation (or use scrying and are a bit lucky).

I was wandering if this quest will finally be a good place to use Dour Handed (especially if you bring some players side quest). It seems it might do some good work against Soldier of Nurn

O Outside the quest phase (safe for strange effects) the "current quest" is the current main stage quest you are on. If this treachery came out let's say in a combat phase, and there was already a side quest in play, you could have chosen that side quest to satisfy the When Revelead effect. Then for that combat phase the chosen side quest would be the "current quest", so you could use Legolas effect to put progress there and so on.

Just in case it's not a ruling precisely, but these are the actual rules for side quests (both player's and encounter's) as presented in The Lost Realm and Sands of Harad boxs (and as you can read here)

Not that I know of among players cards, but there are some encounter cards that do that (Heedless of Order from The Hobbit Saga for example)

Thanks for the playthrought, I am still waiting for my copy of Under the Ash Mountains (while I already have The Land of Sorrow and Fortress of Nurn) so I am quite eager to play these quests too. Besides the side quest bit at the start I think you made another mistake. When you choose a side quest to be the "current quest" for a quest phase, it's considered as such only until the end of the phase. In the next rounds, if you want to quest on that side quest you have to choose it again to be the "current quest", triggering again any effects relative to that (say the Forced effect on Unwelcome Travelers). Also you seem to deal shadow cards to enemy and defend their attacks straight away one at a time. Actually you are supposed to deal shadow cards to all engaged enemies at the start of the combat phase in engagement cost order, then proceed to defending them in the order of your choice. Maybe you are actually doing it like that at the writeup seems to indicate differently. It might be a small difference, it simply affects the order the shadow cards are dealt to the enemies (or chained whenever possible) so it's more of a style choice I guess.

A card "discarded from play" goes in the corresponding discard pile, so (unless a specific effect says otherwise) a card that's shuffled back in the corresponding deck it's not being discarded from play. So no, Gamling can't "rescue" Eomund when it's shuffled back in the deck due to Lothiriel's effect

The Dread Realm too went quite well (much better than in my 4 players run thanks to the lower number of Sorceries lying around) and I was able to finish it with 0 tokens. Once again being able to take the first few rounds to set up made all the difference. Here is the usual playthrough

Also especially since they are different games, so I don't see why the rules of one should affect the other.... I am reminded of another topic where a poster was considering a couple of LOTR LGC cards extremely powerful by taking into account some rules used in the Arkham LCG (I think it was stuff like Infighting in regard to moving damage to Immune enemies since it targets the damage and not the enemy, which was quite wrong). There might be some common ground design-wise, but they are two quite separate things.