Captains of the West: 4-hero variant play

This is one of the two fellowships I used in a five-handed solo Saga campaign, culminating in The Black Gate Opens. I played an incredibly fun 4-hero variant, which works like this:

-Each player uses four heroes instead of three.

-Each player's starting threat is the total of their heroes' threat costs minus ten.

-The first player draws an extra card during the Resource phase.

-The first player draws an extra (fourth) card during the Staging step.

-Quest card and Encounter Deck effects that refer to the number of players are treating as having an additional player, unless it doesn't work for the game. For example, I used four Wraiths on Wings in my Burden pool instead of three, but in The Breaking of The Fellowship, I would create three separate staging areas instead of four.

Four-hero play does a great job of allowing players to include more of their favorite characters in massive fellowships! Also, it lets players build their decks with the knowledge that they are more likely to see their favorite cards and that they are more likely to be able to afford interesting higher-cost cards. Meanwhile, the extra encounter cards more than make up for the benefits of the fourth heroes.

Since RingsDB won't let me post four-hero decks, the entire Fellowship is:

-Beregond/Boromir/Gimli/Prince Imhrahil, threat 33

-Elfhelm/Eomer/Eowyn/Theoden, threat 31

-Arwen/Elrond/Gandalf/Glorfindel, threat 31

So if you want to try a three-player (or three-handed) game with three decks that support each other well, and you are excited by four-hero play, give this Fellowship a try!