Nevermind my game shop here in Italy just got my copy yesterday.

Yeah, Caleb made a ruling with the example of Saruman and Pillars of the Kings. Basically any effect that lowers the value of your threat dial is "threat reduction", no matter which verb is used in the card effect. So Pillars of the Kings would not help you here.

Due to the terrible jumble the Setup rules are after some of the latest rulings from Caleb we are playing the Setup in a more straightforward way. We oftentimes not care about following the players' order in the planning phase (in a 4 players fellowship) when everyone is simply playing stuff on their own character, we simply usually play all at once to speed up the play time. Of course if there are cross table plays we strive to respect the proper order. When I play solo I often make decks with some restrictions (thematic or mechanic) to better enjoy different games, but I would not consider it an "house rule". We use (or not) the sneak errata seen in some of the latest reprintings based on common (dis)approval of the errata. For example we play A Burning Brand as restricted and having to exhaust it, Legacy of Durin has needing to exhaust it, but still play Thror's Map as after the 1st official errata.

If anyone has access to The Fortress of Nurn I would be very much interested in the story blurb than you can read after defeating the quest and I would ask anyone reading this and willing to do it, to contact me through PM and share the info. Thanks a lot.

By the way I am the only one participating in this month's League?

As predictable The Battle of Carn-Dum was a much harder challenge and I needed 5 Valar Tokens to finally overcome it. An early Thalion was key in the winning game, as well as a bit of luck in the second stage with Sorcery cards. Here is the usual playthrough

I hope everything is going well, and thanks to you for getting all this started.

🤣🤣🤣 right I copied the cells and totally forgot to change the name

Treachery of Rhudaur went well with 0 tokens, but it also gives you a lot of time to setup so it doesn't mean much. The true test will start from next quest. Here is the usual playthrough

I think I will go for a Dunedain Noldor Bond of Friendship deck

RNG chooses Fire in the Night and The Fate of Wilderland for the other two quests.

Try now

I created a page for the October Solo League, I hope Dale will forgive my insolence and that I did everything correctly. I think I will pick Wilds of Rhovanion/Ered Mithrin. I will tag @Thanee and @Bobbymcbobface to hear about their choices

Welcome to the LOTR Solo League. This month we'll be playing three quests from The Lost Realm and Angmar Awakened (well actually only from Angmar Awakened). The quests are: 1) Treachery of Rhudaur 2) The Battle of Carn-Dum 3) The Dread Realm 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 Erestor, Amarthiul, and Arwen. 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. Note: Amarthiul conflicts with her enemy/ally versions in one of the quests -- for the purposes of this league, if you use the Amarthiul hero this should be considered his identical twin brother, coincidentally also named Amarthiul. 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 Lost Realm/Angmar Awakened, SoH/Haradrim 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 Lost Realm/Angmar Awakened and SoH/Haradrim. More is better. 3rd) The number of heroes used from this list: Erestor, Amarthiul, and Arwen. More is better. 4th) The number of cards in the deck outside The Lost Realm/Angmar Awakened and SoH/Haradrim. Less is better, and core cards are considered "outside" for this tiebreaker. 5th) The number of cards outside The Treachery of Rhudaur, The Battle of Carn-Dum and The Dread Realm. Less is better, and core cards are considered "outside" for this tiebreaker. 6th) Performance in September'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 December'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 December's league. November's cycle will be chosen by the winner of August'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. The Treachery of Rhudaur: October 14th The Battle of Carn-Dum: October 21st The Dread Realm: October 28th 8 ) I've created a google spreadsheet for results here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1na4SYZ-jiDUxZrMRr5_96uTAxl8hD5BhVEumRGAJrQI/edit?usp=sharing 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.

I guess Dale is still wrapped up in the whole moving business, since we have no news about this League roundup or the next one setup.