by VTSvsAlucard
I played my first 3 player games last night. Previously I have played the Core set missions 2 player successfully albeit with very close calls and have not managed to get past the evil hill trolls soloing (it seems I always draw both and have too much threat to avoid them).We only have one core set so we decided to each do a monosphere deck. I took Spirit, one friend took Tactics, and the other took Lore. I really enjoyed this decision because I got to learn about some interactions I hadn't seen yet.
I was surprised how well we managed to do with just the starter decks! Passage through Mirkwood was pretty simple, making a great way to learn the mechanics for our new third player. Afterwards, the real fun started.
For Journey Down the Anduin we started with the Hill Troll and Marsh Adder in play. Being the great guy I am, I used Greeting to lower one player's threat, putting us all below 30. Not really a big deal since we decided to engage the hill troll anyways. For the initial few turns Tactics let Gimli take a beating from the Hill Troll, I used Dunhere to strike the Adder (which gave me a great respect for him!) and Lore kept Gimli from dying. I think the Hill Troll was toast on turn 2 after knocking Gimli to one hit. The dwarf and his partner in crime Legolas decided this was no good.
For the beginning of the game we progressed rather slowly due to the high number of locations coming out with 3 Angry Towers. Fortunately a Dunedain Ranger arrived to reassure us it wasn't so scary. Thalin would knock new monsters as they came out and Dunhere would ride by to finish them off. I will note that we played the Crows incorrectly, completing the surge effect before shuffling them back in. The Thalin-Dunhere combo as particular effective against the Wargs that would return to the staging area, allowing them to be picked off immediately. Our MO fell into place: I send the questers, with a little Lore help and Thalin; Tactics picks up a couple of Monsters, Lore picks up the rest; Tatics kills everything and snipes the Lore Monsters, and I send Dunhere to blow some stuff away.
Once we arrived to Stage 2 things took a much slower turn. We actually made a pretty big mistake I didn't catch til I looked at an old thread on here: We were revealing 1 additional card PER PLAYER! So we kept pulling out 6 each turn instead of 4! Although the Combats were manageable the locations kept stacking up, forcing us to only get 1 or 2 tokens a turn (and the dreaded Misty Mountain Goblins wouldn't want us to keep those!) Lucky Legolas would add a few each attack. Finally a second Dunedain Ranger arrived and we started to tear though the locations. But that didn't help the treachery cards that would kill everything we had! Eventually we broke through and upon landing on the river we were able to easily pick off the stragglers.
We beat it with one player at 46 threat (the highest).
It really was a great game but I am concerned about the game's scaling to 3 players considering we were adding TWO extra encounter cards a turn and still beat the quest without losing a hero (although there were about 9 close calls!).
Also, while with 3 players it seemed to be less tension, I think that was because we could manage the combats easier. With two you are trying to cover combats and questing, and this time I wouldn't worry too much about leaving a defender. On the other hand it gave us a chance to see the Hero actions Lore has put to use as one would usually be available a turn. Speaking of these, does anyone find they regularly use these abilities? I wonder if I use my heroes for other things too much.
One thing I have new appreciation for is Dunhere's ability to kill things like the Goblin Sniper and Marsh Adder before they've engaged. Combined with Thalin's 1 damage when they come out means you can pick off a lot of guys.
So, I guess from here I may look into making 3 players a little tougher. Maybe we can play with just 2 heroes each, although I do fear that may swing the pendulum too far. Might as well try it though, right?