So this playthrough was interesting, after a very quick loss we picked up and played again and had a LONG playthrough that we won. We ended up stuck on the first quest card for way too long with too much building in the staging area, however, we did ultimately overcome it and win. This being said, both decks could use a lot of fine tuning, and in fact we may fine tune them and play through again and post the new decks. The tactics deck needs a lot more fine tuning, for example we wanted to be fun and go for an eagles deck, however, we buffed Gimli so much that Eagles of the Misty Mountains was unnecessary for extra damage to the balrog. We did take Gimli and Thalin but we still wanted to avoid a dwarf deck as the hobbit boxes are upcoming and I'm sure we will use loads of dwarves then. We had a bit of a rough go of it getting both trolls early and having their threat sit in the staging area for a while. Notably Gimli was a powerhouse with Citadel Plate and damage in terms of nuking down the balrog. He had 8 damage and a Dwarrowdelf Axe on the turn I attacked the balrog with Khazad Khazad and Heavy Stroke in hand. He made quick work of the balorg. Also, Boromir had a citadel plate and two Support of the Eagles targetting the Winged Guardian for super balrog defending. I also drew Song of Travel and a Hasty Stroke early so my monoshpere tactics had earlier access to spirit. On the flip side, the quest/support deck needs less refinement. As with the tactics deck, this deck too could use even more cheap allies to chump block the balrog early game until we get attachments on the heroes. Particularly, we can afford to use cheap allies even in an Elrond deck because we did not use Vilya so we didn't care about putting high cost allies into play for free. Elrond was just used for his high stats as his initial threat is mitigated by this scenario. Changes we'd make in the future: Lore/spirit deck - remove 1 Haldir of Lorien and 2 Out of Sight and add 1 Snowbourn Scout, 1 Erebor Hammersmith and 1 Warden of Healing which gives more opportunity for more low cost allies to chump block; for the tactics deck: remove 2 Rivendell Blade (Gimli gets pumps up plenty, left 1 copy in case lore/spirit is first player and it happens to help), 1 Horn of Gondor (allies leave play earlier but then once Boromir is beefed up for defense you stop losing allies), 1 Khazad Khazad (again Gimli is strong enough), 2 Dwarrowdelf Axe (again was overkill), 3 Eagles of the Misty Mountains (not needed, Gimli takes care of it) and 1 Swift Strike (yet again, direct damage not needed when Gimli alone is so strong and add to the deck 1 Blade of Gondolin (We actually had some slow progress with the few locations plus quest progress cards and this could help push through), 3 Veteran Axehand (this deck needs more chump blockers early), 3 Watcher of the Bruinen (again more chump blockers), 1 Citadel Plate (more opportunity to draw and buff up Gimli and Boromir and actually Elrond too!) and 2 Resourceful (Works more reliably than Horn of Gondor because this scenario starts in deep in secrecy and you stop losing allies after a bit).