Celembrimbor's Secret - Progression - Very Good Win %

This scenario grew on me the more we played it. It's very difficult, and you never feel safe. Every time we won, it felt like we were in danger the whole time. We played this probably 20-25 times, and once tweaked, we were winning like 80+% of the time. There are some encounter card combos that can kill you almost instantly early in the game, no matter what you do.

The key is to kill enemies in the staging area, but also you need to quest a lot from the very start.

If/when you have to engage enemies, Player 2 should do it almost all the time, because Haldir can use his combat action to kill enemies not engaged with Player 1, meaning in the staging area or engaged with Player 2.

Player 1 should mulligan for Nenya, of course. Mirror is a frustrating and unique card, so I only put one in. Master of the Forge should help get Nenya out, if you don't draw it. Worst case, Galadriel can keeping lowering threat and drawing cards each round. Light of Valinor is also crucial, and goes on Haldir. Reason being, Celeborn usually quests, but then is usually unused after that, so it's a waste on him. Whereas Haldir gives you 2 quest points, and then you almost always use him to attack.

The Sylvan power of Player 1 really isn't that great, and I was debating using a different Leadership hero instead of Celeborn, but none are much better. Celeborn's +1 stats on emerging Sylvan's is "ok", but not game changer. I was also debating using a Spirit hero (Glorfindel+Asfaloth) instead of Celeborn, but the Leadership cards in the deck are extremely useful, so I decided to stick with them. I may try Glorfindel instead of Celeborn at some point. Asfaloth would be very useful in this scenario, if paired with Glorfindel.

Player 2 should mulligan for Bow of the Galadhrim or Rivendell Blade. These go on Haldir first. Unexpected Courage is good for Dunhere, as Haldir can't attack twice into the staging area, but Dunhere can. Spear of the Mark is good for Dunhere also.

Ideally, you get Bow of the G. and Rivendell B. on Haldir. He can attack an enemy in the staging area at the start of the Combat Phase, and if he doesn't kill it, the -2 shield persists until Dunhere can attack in the normal attack phase. If you get Spear of the Mark and Unexpected Courage on Dunhere, he will have 5 attack against the staging area, twice. Dunedain Mark on him would make that 6 attack.

Toward the end of most games, we were often able to kill 3 enemies in the staging area in a round.

Aside from trying to buff Haldir and Dunhere as much as possible, getting questing power is crucial. Faramir can be a life saver late in the game. Lorien Guide is too expensive for what its worth. Northern Tracker is useless because certain encounter cards penalize you for using it. You draw few cards in this game, so you can't afford to have any useless cards, or too many duplicate copies of unique Allies or Attachments.

Early on, you need to prevent cards from going under The Orcs' Search. Later in the game, sometimes it's advantageous to get Location threat out of the staging area and under Orcs' Search, but you have to be a round or two away from victory at that point to make that work. At the very end of the game, we could often kill Bellach in the staging area in one round, so he doesn't even have to come out.