The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a cooperative card game that puts 1-2 players (or up to four players with two Core Sets!) in control of the most powerful characters and artifacts of Middle-earth. Players will select heroes, gather allies, acquire artifacts, and coordinate their efforts to face Middle-earth’s most dangerous fiends. By cooperating to overcome the obstacles drawn from the encounter deck, you will complete the quest before you and claim victory!
The Core Set includes 226 cards that can be used to assemble a wide variety of decks right out of the box. Included are three perilous quests that, along with countless combinations of settings and enemies, offer near-limitless replayability.
Additionally, players can build a party from a set of 12 hero cards, and focus their decks on any combination of four distinct spheres of influence: Leadership, Lore, Spirit, and Tactics. Each sphere offer unique benefits to the party, so choose wisely!
Monthly 60-card expansion packs called Adventure Packs will introduce new quests, heroes, allies, attachments, events, and encounters, allowing players to fully customize their game and continue their fight against the Dark Lord!
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We’ve got to cross the river! Okay, so far I have experienced the quests in the main game, a little bit of The Hunt For Gollum and the Massing at Osgiliath. Rivers are the bane of all heroes! Water is supposed to be the source of all life and goodness. Well, not in Middle Earth. I digress.
I would hate for the bold statement at the top of the page to make people think that I don’t like this game. That would be so not true that it would be unfair to FFG and Tolkien.
The gist of the game:
Each player has a group of 1-3 heroes (no reason to use less than 3 really). The players work together to go on quests where they must fight enemies, travel to locations in Middle Earth, and quest their way to victory. There is an Encounter Deck that reveals threats for the heroes to face. Each player has their own deck of cards (in a deck that they have pre-constructed). Survive and make your way to victory!
You lose when all your heroes die or your threat goes up to 50. Think of threat as sort of how visible and famous that your party is. The higher the threat, the more the bigger guys are paying attention to what you do.
You must balance your group into characters that will quest, defend your party, and attack. These choices can mean life or death.
Replay Value:
Constructed deck games have massive replay value. I have tried many many different sets of cards and heroes together. The challenge of the quests makes you want to try again and again to beat your last attempt.
Components:
The cards are a little bit flimsy so you will want to invest in at least 50 card sleeves for a tournament worthy deck or even at least 60 for two mono source decks right out of the box. The threat counters are great. The tokens look nice and are rather sturdy. Also, you can play with 4 players out of the box, but you will need some dice or paper to track the 3rd and 4th players threat. The decks will be only 30 cards each, but they work for your first few games.
Easy to Learn:
If someone knows the rules to begin with, the game is much easier for people to learn. The people that I have taught so far have had a strong grasp of the game after getting through half of a quest. The nuances of when to engage optionally and who to send on quests is what takes time to figure out.
1-4 players The game is very difficult, if not impossible with just 1 player. The more players there are, the easier the game seems to be. This is true especially if all the power sources are covered. 13+ age I can’t suggest this game for a younger crowd unless they are sharp as a fresh set of kitchen knives. 30+ minutes It is really hard to say how long the game will take and it almost makes me laugh thinking about the variance in game lengths. You could be done in 5 or less minutes as a loser or you could take 90 minutes when you make it to the end. It doesn’t always take 90 minutes.
Conclusion:
The Lord of the Rings LCG is going to be a game that I will be spending a lot of money and time on. If you like deck construction, this game will give you hours of entertainment. Deck construction is so insanely fun since you can also play the game in solo to try out your decks. I have spent hours and hours doing just this.
If you are a man with a woman who isn’t huge into gaming, this one could bring her in. IF you have a girl that is into Lord of the Rings, that could draw her in. Since it is cooperative that makes it much easier to drag her in. So I wouldn’t say that this is a gateway game by any means, but it is a girlfriend/spouse pleaser to many ladies.
The quests are challenging, but that makes it very exciting when you do beat the quests. You will literally cheer!
Overview
LOTR is a great card game that will let you experience the dark thrill of much of Tolkien’s saga in games of 1–4 players. You each take on the role of three heroes (mostly, but not exclusively, characters found in Tolkien’s novels) and embark on a quest that touches upon the events of the books (usually, the quests take place slightly earlier than the main events of The Lord of the Rings books). The game combines varied gameplay, beautifully rendered components, thrilling experiences, a true Tolkien saga feel, and hours of fun as you team together to try to beat the game in different scenarios (called quests).
I gave LOTR a strong 9 on a scale of 10. The only thing stopping me from giving it a definite 10 was the fact that the basic game only includes three quests (which means that you have to start buying expansions quite soon) and two threat trackers (which means that you have to use pen and paper to record threat levels if you play with 3 or 4 players;
Components
The box contains two threat trackers (a kind of score boards that are beautifully made), 96 tokens of different types (used to display resources, damage, and quest progress; these too are really appealing), a first-player token (this is the only unattractive and disproportional, albeit useful, piece of the game), a rulebook, and over two hundred cards (featuring player characters, events, attachments, enemies, quests, etc.).
Game mechanics
LOTR is a cooperative game. As mentioned above, each player picks a team of three heroes (as you get more expansions, you have the option of switching heroes and building specialized decks), get the corresponding deck and starts on a quest of their choice. In the basic game, you will get four sets of heroes, each set with its own deck of card with allies, items and events. Each of the four sets has a really different feeling and varying focus, which translates to more variation and challenges. The quest differ somewhat, but have in common that you travel through different Middle-Earth locations, while trying to pursue your quest without attracting to much attention from Sauron’s minions. Each character (either the three heroes that each player starts with or the allies that they soon call to their aid) can only make one action each game round: pursue the quest, attack an enemy, or defend against one enemy. This makes for a great menacing feeling, as you always have to give something up to progress through the quest; there never seem to be enough characters to take care of all enemies and move on at the same time. Every turn the threat level of all players increase, so if you do not make progress you will soon perish..
Difficulty
LOTR takes a while to learn and play, in terms of the difficulty of the rules. There are many rules and although the rulebook is (mostly) clear you do need to play a few games and re-read the rulebook in order get acquainted with everything.
In terms of difficulty for the player characters, LOTR really provides you with many challenges. The quests are all weighted for or against the players in different ways, which means there are some quests that are quite easy and others that will prove a challenge even for experienced players. The three quests included in the basic game have different difficulty levels of 1, 4, and 7, respectively, on a scale of 10.
Will you like it?
You will probably like LOTR if you enjoy at least one of the following: the thrill of bonding together against an unforgiving game found in cooperative games, the kind of deck-building found in collectible card games, the possibility of playing solo, fantasy games of different types, or if you in any way are interested in The Lord of the Rings saga.
Pros and cons
Among the pros are the creeping menace that grips you while playing (you really have to choose among several bad options and try to stay alive long enough to solve the quest), the versatility of varying quests and the deck building capabilities, the exquisite game components, and the many expansions. Among the cons is the fact that the basic game only includes two threat trackers (since you really do not need to buy another basic game in order to play with 3–4 players, FFG might as well have included threat trackers for 4 players) and that it, with three quests, will only serve you so long before you will need to buy expansions.
Value for money
At almost $40 (MSRP), LOTR is not expensive, especially when compared how great the game is and how beautiful the components are (everything from the tokens to the cards are truly exquisite). On the other hand, you will both want and need to buy expansions in the form of adventure packs and at almost $15 (MSRP) these will put a drain on your game funds.
Summary
LOTR combines the best parts of cooperative games and deck-building games with beautiful components, a true saga feeling, and great versatility through varying quests and solo-play possibility. It became an instant hit with our gaming group for many different reasons and that it perhaps the greatest perk: there are so many things in this game’s rules, appearance, quests, cards, and feeling that most players will find something to fall in love with. I warmly recommend it.
Pros: challenging, complex, thematic, scalable, portable, easy to set, fast, expandable, cheaper than ccg
Cons: core set doesn’t include 3 copies of all the cards, cards could be thicker, not so cheap when you want to keep up with the expansions. And believe me, once you get your hands on it, you’ll want!
You’ll like it: if you like the Lord of the Rings or similar settings, if you enjoy playing solo and/or coop, if you enjoy complex card games, if you want a challenge.
You won’t like it: if you hate the theme, if you seek a competitive game, if you get overwhelmed when having to track complex rules, if you don’t have fun losing.
Difficulty: The core set includes 3 adventures. One is a piece of cake, thought for introductory games. The second one is quite challenging, specially if you have not mastered deck building yet. The last one was designed by the Dark Lord himself and it’s just cruel.
This is not an easy game, and you will find yourself losing 50% of the time, if not more often; but that’ll give you a nice feeling of achievement when you finally manage to beat the Shadows, making solo play interesting and rewarding.
Theme: As a matter of fact, the theme kept me away from this game for some time. I expected it to be some cheap franchise-milking scenario; plus, even though I used to like LOTR as a teenager, I had grown to find elves, dragons and the such a little cheesy. Still, sthis game somehow managed to suck me in and bring me back those feelings of adventure and magic I had forgotten. The purist won’t be happy with a few inconsistencies (but when are they, anyway?), but the card art, together with the quest mechanics, manage to bring the most theme you could get from a card game.
The game has all these little details, such as when Gandalf enters play to help and then just leaves you when you need him most; or when you use a torch for exploring a dark passage, under the risk of bringing new enemies to the staging area*; or playing the sword that was broken on a hooded Aragorn, so he gains the leadership sphere icon* (leadership being the sphere of noble characters).
Mechanics: As there is plenty written about it, I won’t get into details, but the mechanics are well thought and fun. They manage to make a solo game difficult and surprising, while it scales perfectly well when adding other players. For instance, the shadow effects during combat are a random way of surrogating the events (instants, if you play Magic) that an oponent would play on you when you thought you had his minions under control. The threat counter is not just a way of losing, but it also gives Sauron a reason and time for sending his forces upon you. And so on.
Interaction: For a game that plays so well solo, it has a good deal of interaction. Some cards have special abilities that won’t be useful unless more players are at the table, and they do work really well. It’s not the most interactive game ever, but it’s not a multiplayer solo. There are decisions to take together, cards to play on other players and strategies to devise in order to defend and attack the minions as a team. My best deck is a multiplayer support deck.
Closing thoughts: I feel this game is sometimes overlooked because of its theme, because of being a LCG or because of its solo/cooperative nature. Yet the theme is nicely developed and interwoven with the mechanics; the LCG system, if a tad expensive, is still cheaper than games such as Magic; and the solo and coop mechanics work quite nicely, offering something different to bring down to the table.
LCG addendum: You may be thinking about getting just the core game, but are afraid of an endless number of expansions. Well, don’t! When you start enjoying the game, you’ll probably want to add some, but you don’t need them to have a good time, nor do you need to get all of them. I got Khazad Dûm and then bought a couple of minis from the Dwarrowdelf cycle. Now the Hobbit is on its way… and that will be enough for some time. Also, the fact that every expansion comes with some new quest, makes the purchasing of new expansions quite similar in price and experience to getting some adventure book each month, or going to the cinema every other week… plus you end up with a bunch of new cards for your decks!
*These two last examples I got from cards not on the core set; but that doesn’t mean there are no such details on them, I just couldn’t trouble myself to find them.
Lord of the Rings – The Card Game is a co-operative, Living Card Game that pits the heroes of Middle Earth against the forces of darkness. The game is loosely set in the time between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy and is broken down into a variety of modular quests. The game is highly customizable as both the quest and players assemble decks of cards which modify the play experience.
It’s worth a little side discussion to define a Living Card Game (LCG). A LCG is Fantasy Flight Games’ proprietary term to describe a customizable card game with a fixed distribution of cards. This simply boils down to how the cards are distributed and purchased. Rather than buying randomized cards, an LCG will provide you with a set of cards in which the contents are fixed and known prior to purchase. Once purchased, the cards can be played as deemed useful to the player, keeping the customizable element, but reducing the need to purchase blind packs of cards in hopes of finding the rare cards a player wants to play with.
Prior to playing LotR – The Card Game, a single quest must be selected by the players. The base game includes three quests to choose from and they have varying difficulties; further expansions increase the amount of quests available. With a quest chosen, players will create both an encounter deck (composition is determined by the quest), which represents the forces of darkness, and player decks (composed by the players) that represent the hero’s resources. As with most customizable card games, the cards interactions are what drive the complexity and strategy of the game and both encounter and player cards are broken down into a vast amount of sub-groups and sub-types. Quests are typically broken down into multiple stages that are revealed in sequence and the individual stages as well as the overall quests have variable requirements for success.
At the core of the player decks are the heroes that are in-play from the beginning of the game and generate the resources necessary to play the remaining player cards. As a player, the heroes and remaining cards from the player decks are used to address three conflict areas presented by the encounter deck for each quest: questing, defending, and attacking. Players can typically only commit their heroes and supporting cards to one of these conflict types at a time, so the game is essentially the management of all three conflicts with the resources available to them. A game is won when the players meet the various requirements of the chosen quest. The game is lost when all player heroes are killed or accumulate too much threat (essentially a negative resource) thematically receiving the wrath of Sauron.
I have intentionally written this review to provide a basic overview of the game, and avoided detailed discussion of deck assembly. Players familiar will collectible card games will find many aspects of deck construction comparable, but may find the mechanics to make this game co-operative innovative and exciting. Since LotR – The Card Game is based on a LCG business model, be prepared to make further investments in expansions to get the full value of out this game!
Replay: Customizable player decks and multiple modular quests are what drive the replay value of LotR – The Card Game. Played alone without expansions, the base game is slightly limited since it includes only a starting amount of cards and the depth of strategy grows with each expansion. Unlike many other collectible card games, the LCG model and co-operative play encourage a gaming group to pool funds to take full advantage of the expansions and expanded replay. The game also includes a point tracking system to rate the success of given quest, allowing players to compare final score or play again to beat their own records.
Components: The cards are standard quality, however the artwork is fantastic and completely new. While I enjoy the artwork of Alan Lee, John Howe, Ted Nasmith, the Hildebrandts, and Tolkien himself, the game has made a wonderful decision to create their own art to illustrate their vision and does not use images from the recent films either. The game also comes with a handful of tracking tokens and threat trackers for two players. As the game will support one to four players, the choice to only include two threat trackers seems odd – my full thoughts on this are included in Personal below.
Learning Curve: Medium. The rules are designed to work under a variety of quest scenario and are fairly straight forward. Basic terms will need to be learned, but the rulebook is very helpful and provides good player guidelines. As the game expands, individual card updates and errata will be released and card interactions may need to be clarified.
Defense:
Co-op card game? – While this game can be played solo against the quest, the game really does shine with multiple players. The innovation to combine the customizable elements of the player deck and a modular quest experience is amazing.
Collectible games cost lots of money – Yes, however the LCG model reduces the costs considerably and you can choose to pay for the cards you want to play with. Additionally, the co-operative game play makes pooling funds an option that doesn’t work as well in a competitive format.
Another Lord of the Rings game – I will admit that I get a chuckle out of the name “The Card Game”, but that aside I really feel like the co-operative game play and individual quests really support the theme. The game designers have done an excellent job capturing many of the elements of Tolkien’s world.
Personal:
I agonized over purchasing this game because I love the Lord of the Rings setting but worried about the execution and many of the reasons listed above. I should say I agonized until someone showed me a demo of the game – I fell in love instantly. I have a history of enjoying collectible card games, but like to be conscience of my budget so I really appreciate the LCG format.
The only issue I have is the starter box card distribution and threat trackers do not fit with the larger LCG concept. The game allows a maximum of three copies of a single card in any player deck, however the starter box provides only a single copy, or two copies of some of the more “powerful” player cards where as all the expansions provide three copies of every card. Combined with the inclusion of only two threat counters, it’s as if it was intended for players to buy two starter boxes, but you end up with useless extra quest, encounter, hero, and many player cards. It would make more sense to me to provide three copies of every player card, and if the price point needed to be managed, split the starter into two parts with two quests and two player spheres each half. This would keep with the overall LCG concept of only purchasing what you want to use. Based on their website, FFG’s deluxe expansion, Khazad-Dum, (which kicks off the next story block) has learned from this issue.
Having played this now as a 2-player and a 4-player, I really enjoy the game. It’s a co-op in which each player really has a distinct role to play which feels entirely different from the others.
We had an experienced player to teach the game to us, and that helped immensely, as we picked it up quickly and did not feel as though it were all that difficult. We had all played other LCG’s such as A Game of Thrones, so perhaps that helped as well.
Essentially, after crafting the decks to be used, each player has three heroes that form their band for the game. Each of those Heroes, while alive, generates a power token each turn which is spent to play cards from your hand, which fall into three categories. Allies, which are other characters designed to help you either attack, defend or which may have some special purpose. (Gandalf falls under this category.) Attachments, which are usually weapons and armor, but can also be magical in nature. And Events, which are generally played as a reaction to certain events and can help you or your fellow players.
There is a stack of quest cards representing what you are attempting to accomplish in the game. Each turn you can send some or all of your Heroes “questing” which exhausts (taps) them, but contributes towards the quest victory. Some decks will be better at questing than others. Legolas and Gimli, for instance, are not often sent questing. They really shine later in the turn, when it is time to kill monsters.
After the questing, there is an encounter phase in which you reveal locations and creatures from a single “evil” deck, representing things you encounter on the quest. Combat will ensue, and Allies, Monsters, and sometimes Heroes will die.
One of the neat mechanics in LotR TCG is the Threat mechanic. Heroes all have a threat value and at the beginning of the game you total the threat for all 3 of your heroes and that is your threat score to start. Each turn you will gain a threat, and failing in quests can also boost your threat total more quickly. Players with a high threat value will be assigned larger, nastier creatures than players Sauron is less concerned about. If any player ever reaches 50 threat, Sauron decides that player is far too uppity for their own good, and smacks them flat, removing them from the game entirely.
Decks fall under 4 types. Tactics, Spirit, Leadership and Lore. In a 4 player game, with one of each, it becomes very obvious the role each is designed to handle. One player will be healing damage dealt to heroes, and using attachments that bolster characters. Another will be playing gleaming weapons and polished armor on their characters, and wading into combat, with cards designed to mow through enemies. A third may be blitzing through quests with a high Willpower, but need to be protected from monsters. The synergy between the decks is well designed and very fun to work with.
All in all this was a very fun game I look forward to playing again soon.
I’ve been on a kick of solo-play games lately to fit into my unpredictable schedule and LotR easily tops the list.
Why you might like it:
-It’s deck building and collecting like Magic, but without the random boosters or having to find someone to play. The basic game has all you need, each adventure pack adds an adventure plus 3 copies each of some useful deck building cards (non-random).
-It’s thematic. The game ties to Tolkien enough that it feels right, but doesn’t sacrifice good play.
-It’s equally enjoyable with 1-4 players. The game works seriously well as a single player experience, but scales well up to four players. While the box says you need two basic sets to have four players, if you track Threat on scratch paper you can play with four people out of the box.
-It’s challenging. It takes skill and planning to beat any but the easiest missions, but the experience is always fun. You’re never stuck right at the start. Good deck building and play makes formerly impossible challenges beatable.
Why you might not like it:
-It’s challenging. Of the four starting decks I was only able to beat the first mission with one on my first try. Playing cooperatively makes the game slightly easier. Deck building makes a huge difference, particularly tailoring your deck for a challenge on the second playthrough.
-It’s moderately complex. It’s on par with Magic in terms of complexity. If you’re like me (a former Magic player who doesn’t want to deal with that whole scene) this is a huge plus.
Overall I can’t say enough good about this game. It’s amazingly enjoyable, fits into a busy schedule (since I don’t have to coordinate with others to make a game), rewards strategy, and fits the source material.
If you love LotR and co-op you’ll most likely love this. Living card game allows you to know exactly what you are getting when you buy an expansion. Great with 1-4 players (3-4 suggests 2 sets of base game). Most balanced with 2 players though.
Fight through scenarios with a set of 3 heroes that can stem from 4 spheres which I’ll include specialties but are not limited to – Tactics (fighting), Leadership (hero buffing), Lore (healing), Spirit (questing)
Build a deck of at least 50 cards to help your 3 chosen heroes and fight your way through monster, location, and treachery cards to complete your quest.
Once players have their decks ready the quest is set out in between them and then the flavor text is read aloud to set the mood. Once that is read do what the card says for setup and then its on to the players turn.
Each player then draws 6 cards and decides if they like their hand. If they don’t they can mulligan once and draw 6 new cards.
Players then go into the first step of the game which is resources. Each player receives 1 for each 1 of their heroes and puts it next to them. This is because each hero has their own separate pool of money. Then the players each draw 1 card.
The second step is planning and in the phase players (in turn order) are allowed to play ally and attachment cards from their hand paying the associated costs and making sure that they pay using currency only from any of their heroes with the same sphere as the card being played. The third type of card players will use are event cards and these can be played through out the game during every phase including this one, though they normally benefit from being played in later phases.
Now the questing begins and starting with the first player, players choose which heroes and allies they will be including on the quest. Whoever is on the quest will need to exhaust (kneel/tap/turn sideways) this means that they will not be able to defend or attack later unless able to exhaust because of special effects. Based on what cards are in the staging area from previous rounds or from set up players then need to equal or exceed the amount of threat generated by those cards and extra drawn cards based on number of players (1 card per player) with that of their combined willpower from all included characters. Equaling the threat from the staging area will break even and nothing will benefit or hurt the players. For every point over the players then place a progress point on the current location, if there is one, if there isn’t then they go on to the current quest. Failure to do so will increase player threat. If a players threat ever reaches 50 the players lose.
Once the quest phase has been completed the players may choose to travel to a location if they currently have no location active. Location cards cards usually give a positive or negative effect after traveling. Traveling to a location removes it from the staging area and removes some of the threat from questing in subsequent turns, but also works as a buffer between the quest (which is the main objective usually)
Next comes the encounter phase. Each player starting with the first player can choose to optionally engage a creature in the staging area. After that any and all creatures that have engagement costs equal to or less than the players will engage them.
The combat step follows and starting with the first player each engaged creature receives a shadow cards, which is just a card from the encounter deck. Players in player order then choose 1 and only 1 character to defend each attack from creatures in front of them. After defense is made by each player it is the players turn to attack.
Starting with the first player each player can choose any number of their attackers (other players if they have ranged attacks) to attack a single creature. This is done until all attacks have been made. Any creature still standing and the end stays engaged and doesn’t commit to the threat during the quest phase but they will attack during the next combat phase.
Lastly the players do a refresh phase which they can then un-exhaust all their characters and equipped cards (equipment exhausted separately from characters). They raise their threat by one and pass the first player marker to the next player.
This game can be so much fun but it can be also very frustrating at times. Knowing what cards can come up from the encounter deck helps when trying to build a deck. Some quests are location heavy and require a lot of questing power and some quests are monster heavy and require lots of strength and defense.
… said Legolas, bending his bow and fitting an arrow with hands quicker than sight. ‘You would die before your stroke fell.’
Ahh, my all time favorite line from J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings, and part of the beauty of this game I am about to review…
I’ve been playing customizable card games since their inception in 1993 and I’ve tried out an incredibly large amount of the card games that have hit the market. Star Wars CCG by Decipher is still my all-time favorite even after it’s demise when the license rights went to Wizards of the Coast in 2001. That being said, this new Lord of the Rings LCG game by Fantasy Flight Games is already solidly in the #2 position and if the game continues on the path it’s currently on, I can see it becoming my absolute favorite. The biggest difference with this game and most customizable card games is the “Living Card Game” design FFG went with. Personally, I think it’s genius and for the cash savvy customer it makes life much easier as the focus is on gameplay, not rare hunting. Every month a new “adventure pack” is released that features new cards for your hero decks (and enough copies per card to fully stock your deck) and a new enemy scenario to play against. The scenarios follow an overall story arc so for those players buying the sets in order, they can follow an alternate adventure set in the world of Middle Earth. Diving into a box of booster packs and tearing through 36 packs of cards after an expansion release has always been one of the most exciting parts of playing CCG’s, but this new take gets you into the action faster, cheaper and at a steady even pace. I’m a fully fledged fan.
As for the gameplay… well, the Lord of the Rings saga is no stranger to card games, with the cult favorite from Iron Crown Entertainment called “Middle Earth Customizable Card Game” that came out in 1995 and the Decipher movie themed game “The Lord of the Rings: Customizable Card Game” in 2001. Those games had their merits, but I personally feel this game trumps them both. The game is unique in that the players all are on the same team cooperatively trying to defeat Sauron. This sets the bar pretty high for me since the essence of the story was about Fellowship and unity between the races and ties back to how I opened my review… ‘He stands not alone.’ so having a cooperative mechanic in the game imbues the game with another element of charm. The Shadow game mechanics are truly genius as you play against the deck and each scenario synergizes certain cards against you. Since the creatures and villains you need to fight get dealt “shadow cards” that can provide temporary boosts or other game effects that will affect your heroes and allies, that brings an element of the unexpected similar to players playing interrupts from their hand in other ccg’s. The game also scales based on the number of players playing (1-4 players) adding difficulty the larger the party (and threat) that party provides Sauron.
Another thing that I love about this game is that the mechanics are built to allow for solo play since you’re playing against a self running deck, just the same as multiplayer games. Solo play can be a little difficult at times, but strong deck building will assist in that department and later sets have added several cards to the pool to enhance solo play. It’s exciting to be able to play this game solo when your gaming group isn’t available. I find myself breaking out LOTR:LCG more often than turning on the PS3 or Wii lately.
The core set provides you with a handful of the Fellowship players, but saves the ringbearers themselves and others associated with the light for future expansions. Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas are all available, as are some other familiar Middle Earth heroes like Gloin, Eowyn, Thoedred, Thalin, Glorfindel and Denethor as well as some not so familiar faces such as Gondorians and Dunedain Rangers. Now take fantastic game mechanics, easy access to the card pool and a simple complexity and add in the stirringly beautiful art work and you have the makings of one of the best Tolkien-based games, if not one of the best games period, on the market today.
After playing through a few games, getting used to some of the timing rules like when to voluntarily engage enemies versus having them seek you out to fight you, I was salivating for future expansions and hit my local gaming shop on release day to get the adventure packs. If you enjoy the Lord of the Rings, quality gaming, a moderate level of complexity and strategy and/or beautiful art work… this game is so definitely for you. If you do decide to play this wonderful game, be sure to check the game’s discussion page here on BG, there’s a lot of great discussion going on about rules, resources, and the like.
I look forward to reviewing the expansions of this game soon, since they each bring about new elements to the game system that deserve a look on their own merits. Until then, good luck questing and thanks for reading!
This is my first true experience with a collectible deck building game. I really like Fantasy Flight’s Living Card Game format because I don’t want to be pressured into buying booster packs a la Magic. The Chapter pack expansions for this game are really nice because each one adds a new scenario to play, so instead of just adding cards to your collection like the Game of Thrones LCG, you’re kind of getting a new game with each pack.
Anyway, a couple of things: A. Don’t let the 30+ min in the description fool you. Unless you lose quickly, it really means 30+90. B. Unless you are familiar with deck building and the flow of these Magic-esque games, the learning curve is going to be a little steep. Fantasy Flight is not known for the most easily digestible rulebooks and this one keeps with the trend. Basically, you have to understand how to interpret the flow of the game. In the rule book it says something to the extent of, ” Remember the Golden Rule: text on cards override rules in the book,” so the timing and order of things gets a little murky at times. I often have my laptop handy to Google questions about the rules. Luckily, Fantasy Flight has great customer support and lots of helpful things are posted on the game’s website.
The number one thing you should understand about this game before buying it is this: THIS GAME IS HARD. Solo or with a partner, the game is designed to present you with a challenge. But this is a good thing. If you could just pull a deck out of the box and beat all the scenarios on the first time through, what’s the fun in that? You’re going to get the most out of this game if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t mind losing as long as you’re learning things you can use on your next play though.
Perhaps my favorite things about this game are the production value and the theme. The cards are beautiful – they’re the only cards I’ve ever bought sleeves for. As someone who hasn’t delved into anything with much of a roleplaying element to it, I was really impressed at how the mechanics of the different scenarios reflect what was going on thematically. For instance: in one of the quests, you and your party are supposed to be traveling down the river on a raft, so for this portion of the quest, the enemies can’t attack you are “waiting for you on the banks.” Once you finish this stage, though, you are confronted by all the enemies that were waiting for you. I found this really cool.
So in the end, if you’re looking for something highly thematic and deep, that plays well solo or cooperative, and you’re interested in the deck building element, I’d highly recommend this one. If you’re like me and are a Lord of the Rings fan who hasn’t read the books/watched the movies in a while, you might find yourself really wanting to re-immerse yourself in Middle Earth.
GOOD STUFF
This game is hard. SUPER hard. And that’s a good thing. It challenges you to keep trying over and over to accomplish the quests. Of the three quests, I’ve only been able to complete the first quest with my brother-in-law. And we only did it once among the three times we played it. One other great thing about this game is that there’s a solitaire version to play. And it plays just as hard. I get demolished every time I play the level 4 quest. I haven’t even begun to attempt the level 7 quest.
Fantasy Flight Games has produced another great chunk of coolness by creating this card game. And it isn’t an ordinary card game. Most card games [think Magic: The Gathering] have rarity built in, which only the elitist of players are able to achieve by spending oodles of cash on the rare cards to make their decks stand out among the best. This isn’t like that at all. In fact, this is specifically called a “Living Card Game” which will grow over time, based on small and inexpensive expansions. The game is initially pretty affordable at $39 [possibly cheaper online] and the expansions are only around $14. And there isn’t a rarity involved. It’s just straight up cookie cutter cool. And with the expansions, it adds a series of new quests to tackle, all thematic. The first one involves the hunt for Gollum, and is a part of a series of 6 different Adventure Packs.
The last good thing about this game is the cooperative mechanic. I’ve done some cooperative games before, but this flows really well, giving you a sense of pride when you accomplish even a small portion of the quest.
BAD STUFF
Some might think the game is too difficult to tackle. They’re probably right. I personally love the challenge, but hard-to-win games are a big turn off to some people. I’m afraid they’ll pick it up and think that it’s worthless to even try, and will stay upon their shelf for years collecting dust. And the game really only caters to hardcore Lord of the Rings fanboys/girls AND to game geeks. My wife loves…LOVES the book and loves the movies, but when she saw the game…meh. The rules are a bit of a complicated mess to get through, which apparently is typical for Fantasy Flight Games.
Another problem is that the box has a terrible insert. There’s barely room for the stuff it came with, and certainly no room for the future expansions which will only be about 60 cards. What to do? I dumped the crappy cardboard insert, bagged all of the bits, separated the cards into their respective categories and types and bagged them too.