This section describes items to review before you begin.


There are three quests to complete and four quest rewards:

• The first quest is to just finish the adventure. You will unlock its two rewards automatically after your first playthrough.
  
• The second quest is to hold the East Bank for 4 rounds. This just means getting to the Hold the East Bank location and surviving for four rounds. The game even helps you keep track of your progress by giving you a progress update at the start of each round at this location. This quest has one reward associated with it.
  
• The third and final quest is to equip Theodred with a Warrior Sword and have him keep it until a certain critical moment in the To the Last location. It is imperative that Theodred not lose the sword by being attacked by a Dunlending Axemen minion as they will send the sword back to your deck and you will not have time to draw it and re-equip it.

In the interest of avoiding spoilers, this guide will not describe what the rewards are until the Rewards section near the very end.


This guide recommends playing on the Standard difficulty for the following reasons:

• The adventure is arguably more fun at this difficulty as drawing two cards each turn gives you more interesting choices to make each round.
  
• Playing on higher difficulties makes completing the quests more difficult as Saruman has access to more resources and better minions.
  
• When playing on Standard, your deck will eventually run out of cards. This makes the fate events worth using.
  
• There is no additional reward or benefit for playing on a higher difficulty.

If you do enjoy a challenge, you can play on higher difficulties on later playthroughs after unlocking all of the quest rewards.

If you prefer watching a video over reading a guide, then the following playthrough video may be of use to you:

You start the adventure by building your deck. This involves choosing 3 of 5 possible cards a number of times. You do this twice for your deck's allies, twice for your deck's attachments, and twice for your deck's events. You are then prompted to choose between 1 of 2 possible strategy effects. For your deck's heroes, you have Theodred and Grimbold, both of whom have decent stats and a very high amount of health. It is hard to go wrong here, but here are some helpful tips for completing the quests:

• You will need to choose the Warrior Sword and give it to Theodred for the To The Last quest. Ideally you also want to give him a Raiment of War. This will result in him having 6 attack and will thus allow him to kill Dunlending Axemen minions in one hit. Not only that, but having an armour attachment makes it less likely that a Dunlending Axemen will remove Theodred's Warrior Sword. If you don't get both of these cards in your hand, restart the adventure until you do.
  
• An Ever My Heart Rises attachment on Grimbold is nice to have as it will result in the Threat meter staying reasonably low throughout the adventure. You do get the option to reduce Threat by 10 later on, but if you can, using this attachment is recommended.
  
• A Horse Hair Bow on Grimbold is also recommended.
  
• Preparation events (in particular An Oath Taken and In Dire Need) are recommended as you can potentially transfer their effects to the Defend the East Bank location for the East Bank quest.
  
• For allies, generally the higher cost allies will survive for much longer but it is still hard to go wrong here. The Shieldmaiden of Rohan and Theodred's Guard allies are particularly good choices.
  
• Choose the Plan Ahead strategy as the extra resources in the next Marshaling location will help you with the East Bank quest.

You will then draw 10 cards and be able to spend 15 resources to play them onto the board. Prioritize equipping the attachment cards described above and then spend the rest of your resources on allies and other attachments. Do not play your preparation event cards just yet as it is best to save them until right before the second Marshaling location. Any cards that you do not use here will go back into your deck.

If you have a Shieldmaiden of Rohan ally on the board, you can use her power to give the Protect status to one of your other characters.

Click the Travel button when you are ready to proceed to the next location.

To get through this location, you just need to defeat 4 minions. This is pretty easy. You should be able to do this in just one round. Attack each minion with a character that can kill it in one hit. Make sure that Theodred kills a minion so that his special ability will restore 1 health to each of your characters (including Theodred) at the end of the round.

If you drew any ally or attachment cards and can play them on the board, then do so. Any units that still have actions can either defend or charge the fate meter. Make sure to use the power of any Shieldmaiden of Rohan allies you have as it is a free action!

Throughout this adventure, there is only one fate event and it is called Ride to War. You can use it 4 times (each time it costs more) before it is gone for good. It is best to use this fate event when your deck is out of cards as you will not then have to worry about drawing a bad random card instead of a good card that was still in your deck.

Travel once each of your characters have acted.

To get through this location, you need to kill the two White Hand Pikes minions and then kill a few of the remaining minions. The White Hand Pikes minions have Guard, Counter, and 4 attack so it's best to attack them first with one of your heroes. If Grimbold has the Horse Hair Bow equipped, then he can use it to attack both pike traps without suffering retaliation damage. Prioritize killing the pike traps. Once they are dead, start killing Saruman's other minions and eventually a rider will appear telling you to retreat and the location's objective will be completed.

As usual, play any allies and/or attachments that you can and have any remaining characters either defend or charge the fate meter.

Overall, this location will generally take about 2 rounds to complete. Travel when ready.

To get through this location, you need to either defeat every enemy or resolve the Break Away objective object. 1 progress point is automatically applied to the Break Away objective object each time that you take an action so it is likely that you will resolve it instead of defeating every enemy.

If you want, you can use the Another Way location-specific fate event to apply 5 progress points to Break Away. You can also use Grimbold's power to apply 2 additional progress points. These two things are ultimately not necessary as you will eventually resolve it anyway.

Do not forget to get a kill with Theodred each round so that his power heals all your characters for 1.

Overall, this location will generally take about 2 rounds to complete (1 if you use Another Way and Grimbold's power, but it's actually better to take 2 rounds so that you draw more preparation event cards). Travel when ready.

This location is similar to the previous one except now you are playing with just Grimbold and 3 Theodred's Guard allies and 1 Shieldmaiden of Rohan ally. To get through this location, you just need to defeat all enemies. Neither you nor Saruman draw cards or gain resources (but any cards still in your hand and resources that you have available can still be used!) Your characters and Saruman's minions essentially are just taking turns attacking each other until one side is dead. Since Grimbold has a very high amount of health, it is nearly impossible to lose here as long as you are attacking or defending with him.

If you have any preparation event cards in your hand, play all of them right before traveling! This will allow you to carry over their effects to the second Marshaling location and thus make the East Bank quest (holding the East Bank for 4 rounds) a bit easier.

Travel after playing as many preparation event cards as you can and using any characters that can still act to charge the fate meter or defend. For Stalwart units with both actions available, use their first action to charge the fate meter and their second one to defend. This location usually takes only 1 or 2 rounds to complete (depending on the board state at the end of the previous location).

Theodred and Grimbold leave you for now and you are left to strengthen the allies, attachments, and preparations that you still have from before. This location is similar to the Marshaling #1 location in that you build a deck by choosing 3 out of 5 ally, event, and attachment cards to add to your deck as well as 1 of 3 possible strategy effects. You then draw cards from your new deck until your hand is full (any cards that you had in your hand at the end of the previous location will still be there) and can spend 15 resources to strengthen your board. If you have been following this guide, then you should have 2 additional resources from choosing the Plan Ahead strategy in Marshaling #1.

In the next location, your goal is going to be to survive as long as possible (or at least for 4 rounds for the East Bank quest).

Some general tips are as follows:

• The Memories From Home attachment is a great choice as it will help your allies survive as long as possible.
  
• A Horse Hair Bow on a Dismounted Rider is a good idea. A Shining Lance on a Theodred's Guard is a great idea.
  
• Having multiple Shieldmaiden of Rohan allies will help your other units survive.
  
• Preparation events that prevent allies from dying (An Oath Taken) or heal your other allies when one does die (In Dire Need) also help you survive for as long as possible.
  
• In general, you want to have a full board with as many high cost units as possible, with some equipped with decent attachments and some preparation events set up.
  
• Choose the Strengthen Our Position strategy as it makes the East Bank quest easier.

If you have one or more Shieldmaiden of Rohan allies on the board, you can use their power(s) to give the Protect status to one (or more) of your other characters.

Travel when ready.

To get through this location you just need to... lose all your allies?! That's right, this location is just an endurance challenge. Ideally your board will survive for at least 4 rounds so that you complete the East Bank quest.

At the start of each round, a notification is displayed at the top of the screen telling you how many rounds you have held the East Bank for. What you want to do is keep your allies alive by proactively killing Saruman's minions before they attack or alternatively guard with your healthier allies so that damage is spread across your units. Once the notification tells you that you have held the East Bank for four rounds, it's okay to then just do nothing and pass so that Saruman kills your allies faster.

In general, the effects of the Memories of Hope attachment is very helpful here as well as the An Oath Taken and In Dire Need preparation events. You want to ideally have an ally with a high amount of maximum health die for An Oath Taken and have all your allies heal for 2 when In Dire Need triggers.

Holding the East Bank for at least 4 rounds is not that hard (especially on Standard difficulty) but you should pay some attention here to make sure that you complete the quest. Some players have even managed to go for more than 7 rounds so don't worry too much about optimizing everything perfectly.

If somehow you still have ally cards in your hand (keep in mind that a threat event might force you to discard them), you will need to play them onto the board in order to proceed.

Once all of your allies are defeated you will automatically travel to the next location.

To get through this location, you need to resolve the Push Them Back objective object. This objective starts at 6 progress points and goes down when an enemy is defeated and up when an ally is defeated. Your board consists of Grimbold, a Shieldmaiden of Rohan, 3 Dismounted Riders, and a Warskald.

Try to keep the Warskald alive as it provides some useful healing as well as an attack boost the first time you defeat an enemy each round. Otherwise this location should not be too difficult as your allies are much stronger than Saruman's minions. You should either be proactively killing strong minions before they can attack or protecting your Warskald using the Shieldmaiden of Rohan's power or by defending with your other units.

At this point your deck will be out of cards, use the Ride to War fate event a couple of times in case you need cards in the next location.

This location usually takes only two rounds to complete, but you may be tempted to stay another round to add more cards to your deck with the Ride to War fate events. Travel when ready.

To get through this location, you just need to defeat 4 enemies. This sounds easy, but pay attention. Some of Saruman's minions are Dunlending Axemen. These minions are the enemy of anyone completing the To The Last quest as they might remove Theodred's Warrior Sword if they attack him. Fortunately, we have a few things in our favour:

• Theodred has a high enough attack to kill Dunlending Axemen minions in one hit.
  
• Theodred is also wearing an armour attachment (Raiment of War) so they might remove that instead.
  
• You still have other allies on the board and the Dunlending Axemen minions may attack them instead.

In any case, prioritize killing the Dunlending Axemen minions above all else. Do not leave any alive! If by chance, a Dunlending Axemen minion does remove Theodred's Warrior Sword, then stop what you are doing, open the pause menu, return to the main menu, go back to the The Fords of Isen adventure, and click the "Continue" button. This will allow you to restart from the beginning of this location (as opposed to the beginning of the adventure!)

Once you have defeated 4 enemies, you will travel automatically. This location usually takes 2 rounds to complete.

To get through this location, you just need to defeat 5 enemies in 3 rounds or less. This is not very hard to do. In fact, you may be able to do it in just 1 round! You should mainly go after the enemies with the least amount of health (obvious tip, I know). There is not any need to stay in this location any longer than is necessary.

If you still have any uses of the Ride to War fate event, feel free to use them here. Travel when ready.

You start this location with just Theodred on your board. Did you remember to kill all of the Dunlending Axemen minions before? Good. If there is one that is still alive, hopefully Theodred can kill it in a single attack. Otherwise, Theodred can attack anything you want or just defend. The enemies will attack him and he will fall and (if you have been following this guide) do so while holding the Warrior Sword.

Grimbold and the allies from the previous location will now arrive and you are told that you need to bolster the Theodred's Will objective object to 30 progress points. This is fairly difficult, but not impossible. Fortunately, just surviving until the end of the round seems to be enough to get through this location. The enemies generally will not attack Theodred so you do not need to worry about defending him. Just focus on surviving by proactively killing Saruman's minions or defending your weaker allies and you should get through this location just fine.

To get through this location, you just need to defeat every enemy. This is fairly easy as you now have a very strong board consisting of the hero Elfhelm and a nearly full board of allies with Block and equipped with Shining Lances (giving them +1 attack and Ambush whenever they attack an enemy). You will likely clear this location in only 1 round!

In this final Marshaling location, you can choose 2 out of 5 strategy effects. If you did not equip an Ever My Heart Rises attachment in Marshaling #1, then the Rohan Will Not Fall strategy is a good choice. The Quick Fortification and Hold the Ford strategies are otherwise good strategies to choose but this choice does not matter too much.

As before, you then draw cards from your deck and have a chance to prepare your board. No new cards were added to your deck though and you do not get 15 resources to spend to this Marshaling location will likely be fairly short.

Travel when ready.

To get through this location, you just need to defeat all enemies. There are not that many so you can probably do this in one round before Saruman even plays any cards. Travel when ready.

To get through the final location, you just need to defeat enemies until Saruman orders his forces to retreat. This also will not take long as your board should still be very very strong. You can probably do this in one round before Saruman even plays any cards.

Congratulations on completing the adventure!

The four quest rewards are as follows:

1. For finishing the adventure for the first time you receive a player card back
   
2. For finishing the adventure for the first time you also receive a Sauron card back
   
3. For holding the East Bank for 4 rounds you will receive the Grimbold hero
   
   with hero award challenge
   
   An important thing to note is that unlike in the adventure, the Dismounted Rider card only needs one other Dismounted Rider to be present on the board in order to receive the +1 attack and +1 health.
   
   
4. For having Theodred fall in the To The Last location carrying the Warrior Sword he is given in Marshaling #1 you will receive the Galadriel hero
   
   with hero award challenge
   

Hopefully this guide helped you both in completing the The Fords of Isen adventure as well as in unlocking all of the quest rewards. The rewards are quite nice and are a lot of fun to use in campaigns and encounters.

I am an amateur streamer and content creator who enjoys playing strategy games and writing guides for them. I have also written a guide on how to play all of the campaigns and encounters in single-player mode so if you enjoyed this guide, then you may also enjoy my Single-Player Guide.

Email: kingsknighttwitch@gmail.com

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