Return to Mirkwood (true solo, retro-gaming) 1.0

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• 1.0

Here is a deck calibrated to maximize your chances of defeating Return to Mirkwood in true solo. It is maybe one of the best (if not the best) to win here, and is very very closed of Copterman's one (I replace Rivendell Minstrel by The Riddermark's Finest).

After testing several hero configurations, I selected this one which offers concrete and immediately mobilizable solutions. Its only weak point on paper would be the absence of a resource generator. However, in practice this two-sphere deck, which does not require a huge number of allies and which must take its time between quest steps 2 and 3, works very well without the options Theodred + Steward of Gondor or Minstrel of Rivendell + Song of Kings + Steward of Gondor.

Denethor is the hero who keeps the deck running and allows us to move forward without fighting (each enemy probed will be systematically sent back under the deck, like dust under the carpet). He will inherit all Unexpected Courage attachments and probe in conjunction with Rumour from the Earth. With two attachments of this card on him, the game is not won of course, but it is not far from being won...

Éowyn remains a major asset in quest, even in a complete collection. I find its action incredibly useful and comfortable here. Whether we have anticipated the next card with Denethor or not, we engage Eowyn in quest, we play the staging step, then we exceptionally discard one or two cards from our hand to obtain the one or two small points that we are missing for pass one of these four damn quest stages.

Eleanor is the third hero and is a multi-tasker. It intervenes as a last resort, if such treachery or potentially devastating effect could not be anticipated and avoided by Denethor; she tilts to trigger Strength of Will; and it provides a second energy resource each turn for a rather low threat level.

Three other types of deck exist, which keep Denethor and Éowyn in their positions, but substitute another hero for Eleanor. One of them employs Bilbo Baggins to speed up the draw. The energy sphere being the most important in this deck and Eleanor having an ability likely to save our lives from the start, I prefer the Gondorian here to the Hobbit, especially since the draw is not a real problem in this deck and facing this scenario. The other two main axes of deck-building choose a third hero, intended to neutralize or manage a particular big thorn in the encounter deck. Thus, Frodo Baggins is entrusted with the exclusive responsibility of defending against the nightmarish Attercop, Attercop, and Thalin of protecting us against the Bats of Mirkwood. These two hires seem suboptimal to me because they are circumstantial, whereas Eleanor will be permanently useful. Additionally, Frodo's ability in this scenario requires spending time and resources to increase the recursion of Greetings of the Galadhrims, to offset the dangerous acceleration of the threat. Denethor's probe/"near-discard" mechanism, supported by Unexpected Courage, actually saves us from all these problems. The only scenario where Frodo would prove decisive would be the one where Attercop, Attercop would be drawn from the setup. However, the informal and almost unanimous instruction from the gaming community is, in this specific case: "Flee, you poor fools! And do a reset!" ;-)

Most of the cards and combos effective against this scenario having been planned from the original cycle, we therefore battle in retro gaming.

Gandalf plays his usual role as a Swiss army knife, with a preference for "Threat reduction then quest at 4". If you are missing allies at the table before quest step 3, its draw action can also be crucial.

Dwarven Tomb serves to multiply the Greetings of the Galadhrims, while Stand and Fight makes Escort of Edoras and its super boost recursive (very appreciable in phase 1 or phase 3).

Strider's Path can be used to bypass the travel cost of various maps, particularly Mountains of Mirkwood.

The Shadow of the Past is the ad hoc event, produced to help us get through this scenario. For example, as soon as a location with 1 or 2 threat has been placed in the discard pile, we probe the deck with Denethor and if a location approaches, we play Shadow of the Past to have two locations with known threat levels ready to be drawn from the top of the encounter deck; we straighten Denethor so that he adds his will point to the quest and we quest quietly for two consecutive turns, which gives us plenty of time to complete a quest step or strengthen ourselves. Properly juggling the polyptych Denethor + Unexpected Courage (and possibly the Westfold Horse-Breaker) + Rumor from the Earth + Eleanor + Shadow of the Past is the key to success here.

First hand, we love seeing Unexpected Courage. And pretty quickly too, Elfhelm. The sooner it is in play, the more peaceful and efficient the implementation will be. In general, it is he who prevents us from losing by exceeding the eliminatory threshold.

Once you have attached one or more copies of Unexpected Courage to Denethor, you will only have to answer the following questions each turn:

1) Should I discard this encounter card, or can I manage it? (Answer: anything that doesn't kill us, makes us stronger = if such a card is not an enemy, does not destroy a hero, or does not explode our threat level, then we do not place it under the deck - including Wasted Provisions for which you can easily save a copy of Test Your Will)

2) Given the next card, which card would be wisest to play now? Wouldn't it be in my interest to save money during this tour?

In this deck, the tension on resources is greater in the energy sphere than in the knowledge sphere. If a significant capital were to vegetate on Denethor and Gandalf was to be slow to appear (or you preferred to defer his payment), these reserves could be usefully bypassed by bringing Rumor of the Earth into your hand, or by accelerating the draw thanks to Lorien's Wealth.