Need Help w/ Fellowship Sealed

[Cthulhu]

He bids 3 (?!)

What about it? I usually bid 4 in this sealed, unless I open The Prancing Pony, in which case I bid 3. There is not really a corruption going on in this sealed, the only thing you have to watch for is getting to 5 burdens for Enquea and Summit of Amon Hen in Moria. You also have Son of Hamfast.

[sgtdraino]

I'm curious, do you bid to go first or second?

Because with all my games, if I went first, I died.

[zen89]

I'm curious, do you bid to go first or second?

Because with all my games, if I went first, I died.

I bid 5 every game of the first serie to go first. Started Sam SoH. Probably was slightly over-aggressive as I had a couple deaths to Moria, but overall it worked out non-horribly given my mediocre fellowship.

[Eukalyptus]

I'm curious, do you bid to go first or second?

Because with all my games, if I went first, I died.

You want to go first, no doubt. Better against Uruks, better against Moria mirror match. This is not Expanded. You know which sites will show up and prepare accordingly.

[sgtdraino]

That was the strategy I used in my first 8 games. Lost every game. Killed by Shadow every time.

[dmaz]

I still think going first gives you the advantage in most cases. It always puts a small amount of pressure on your opponent right away, which you can leverage to your advantage. You also have the flexibility to accept a stop early on, if you don't want to risk them having a great hand.  I would bid 1 or 2 depending on what I knew about my opponent, to try to go first ever game.
Out of my 4 losses, 3 were from my opponent bidding higher or winning the toss, and being able to outrun me, the other was from Worry coming down at site 2 and a Soldier discarding my Sleep.
While I do think it's smart to try to bid to go first when you can, I do think that you need to know when to accept a stop and let your opponent pass, at times...

[zen89]

That was the strategy I used in my first 8 games. Lost every game. Killed by Shadow every time.

What was your fp? Who did you start?

If I was playing Gandy starter I'd be significantly less aggressive about bidding to play first.

[sgtdraino]

I still think going first gives you the advantage in most cases. It always puts a small amount of pressure on your opponent right away, which you can leverage to your advantage. You also have the flexibility to accept a stop early on, if you don't want to risk them having a great hand.

It seemed to me that many of my opponents didn't want to pass me because they wanted their sites. That especially goes for the site 6. Single moving didn't help me, I still died.

What was your fp? Who did you start?

I was running the Aragorn deck. For those initial games, I tried starting Gimli and Legolas. Later I tried starting Aragorn, and held out longer. It wasn't until I stopped bidding to go first that I started winning games, though.

If I was playing Gandy starter I'd be significantly less aggressive about bidding to play first.

I can definitely see that, since that Moria site 6 can win the game. If you go first, you probably aren't going to get your site 6.

[Eukalyptus]

Well, Pathfinder is 2x in the starter to avoid such sites, same as site 8.