Ok I have read the adventure. I have the minis selected for the encounters. I have spell cards prepared and note cards for the encounters with the creatures stats. My players have their characters ready, various pc's they had run previously to be the approiate level. I have notes fotr the treasures they may or may not find. Am I missing anything? Those of you who have already ran this campaign do you have any advice? Any probelms that you ran into I need to avoid? Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

My main advice,have backup characters. I have had 4 PC deaths throughout the campaign so far and I have read other accounts of TPK's.sometimes mulitiples After the staff of life theres not much chance of a raise dead in the game for quite a while and a PC death slows things down while the person rolls up a new character. There are many encounters where if the party isn't at full strength its difficult of not downright impossible to finish.

Someting else to remember is the party is on a timetable for the first half of the game so you should make sure they get on with it and don't dawdle around, it took me awhile to get across that the horde wasn't going to wait on my party to get that magic greatsword made or wait till the alchemist got in another shipment of potions or alchemist fire/frost.

Reoccuiring villains, evrey named badguy that survived has come back to haunt my party and in every encounter I alway try to have someone survive by running away. That lets me let the Horde have intelligence on the party so they can prepare for them,know there strengths and weaknesses this helps later in the game when the horde sends assassins after the party,they know what to expect so are prepared to fight the party. There is something so grand about your party trying the same tactics that have worked on all the battles before and have that used against them. It forces the party to think on its feet and use their brains instead of brute force to get out of a battle. By the same token you might want to hint that sometimes retreat is an option, my group was headstrong and seemed to want to fight to the death even when they were obviously in over there heads. It took me a while to convince them that sometimes retreat,regroup and rethink stratagy is the better option.

Just my 2cents worth

OH nearly forgot maps,  the kings road map is perfect for the road encounters at the beggining of part 2 and some of the random encouters thoughout. I found the dragonsdown grotto is pretty good for wilderness encounters especially in the thornwaste. And I think the Dragons graveyard and spawnscale nursery maps can be adapted to part 5 of the adventure.

here are some maps Bijaj137 created for the RHoD I used them in my campaign with great success, but beware they use a lot of ink.

http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=6431&PN=5  swamp and causeway

http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=6656&PN=6 bell tower and rhest town hall

http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=6428&KW=red++hand+of+doom  skull gorge bridge
 

A third on the deadliness.  I started my players at 7th level and have killed 2 PCs already, plus some close calls.  My players actually aren't very happy with the adventure, it reads well for DMs but the constant hammering of the high CR encounters isn't making them fans.

Certain class choices can influence the campaign.  The Warmage in my party did major damage to the Horde (single handedly taking out many encounters), however he was eventually taken out by Regiarix.  Paladins may not want to make a deal with the certain evil NPC that can sway the big battle in favor of the Horde.  My players are there, although they almost skipped heading that way.  The Paladin has threatened to disrupt the deal the other players make with him...

Some of the skill checks may be tough for all characters to make.  My players had some problems convincing the Elves to help out as well, mainly because they felt that they should stand back and not interfere at the funeral (and a VERY bad roll from the PC who did try a performance).  They were also 'blissfully' unaware of the spy, even though they knew something was up in that encounter.

The adventure can be pretty deadly for a party that doesn't use smart tactics.  My group has had 2 deaths and been forced to surrender to prevent further deaths (to a certain hobgoblin bard).  They managed to escape with a bit of DM fiat, and are back on track now, preparing for the battle of Brindol.  I've already warned them to have backup characters ready for this week's session, as they won't have time to get dead characters raised during the battle (and there's no cleric high enough to do so in Brindol, anyway).

A lot of the fights in the adventure give some strategic advantage to the opponents which the party will need to overcome by creative means.  My players are hampered by a lack of useful support magic, having a warmage and a favored soul as their only spellcasters.  They also have ignored some goodies that found their way onto their character sheets, like potions of fly and invisibility.  I'm hoping they wise up a bit before this week, or they're going to find themselves in a whole world of hurt, when the red hand horde comes knocking at the gates.