I've been strongly tempted to dive in for a long time. There are so many positives: Middle-Earth, great art, strong narrative, solo play. I'm worried about deck building, though. I'm just not a huge fan of it, beating my head against a wall and tweaking until beating a scenario worries me. Same with MtG, I was always happiest playing the fixed starter decks that they put out with each release. Should I just skip this? Also, is there a place that compares and constrasts with MEtW CCG from I.C.E.?

Many people have asked this question recently. In short, yes, deckbuilding is a big part of the game, to the point that there are people who build decks to tackle a specific scenario. So if you do not enjoy it at all, you'd be missing out on it (I personally love deckbuilding). However, you could always net-deck. There are numerous blogs about this game where many powerful decks get posted, as well as in the deckbuilding section of the forum, so you could just copy those and play.

When comparing this to MECCG, it gets a bit tricky. At first it seems like this is a very similar game to that one, since both explore little-known parts of Middle Earth, both are based exclusively on the books, and both create this "expanded" view of Middle Earth quite well (this game though is not quite there yet, since it progresses so slowly. We have only had a few glimpses of Haradrim culture, for example). However, there is one fundamental difference in my opinion. While in MECCG you can wander around freely with your company of heroes as you please through Middle Earth, be it to hunt dragons, find magic rings, or destroy the One Ring, this game is scenario driven, particularly through the Quest cards, which essentially tell a story within a cycle of many quests, and each cycle takes place in a region of Middle Earth. So for example, the Mirkwood cycle revolves around the Hunt for Gollum, and one of its scenarios takes place in the Dead Marshes. So in this game we are able to explore the Dead Marshes, explore the swamps, encounter spirits, etc, but here's the catch: you can only explore the Dead Marshes within this story of capturing Gollum. You can't just go to the Dead Marshes to do whatever you want. You can only go there in your search for Gollum, which will then take you to Return to Mirkwood, and so on. Instead of having the freedom to make your own quests in whatever place you wish to go like in MECCG, we are railroaded by the narrative of the particular cycle the location or region is featured in. Now, this has its own advantage, the stories themselves are pretty interesting (now more than ever) and the particular episodes lend themselves to create different mechanics and playstyles unique to that scenario. So for example the Steward's Fear is all about exploring the underworld of Minas Tirith in search for clues to unmask a conspiracy, while hidden brigand and assasin enemies lurk in the shadows and may surprise you. A Journey to Rhosgobel is about taking a wounded eagle to be healed by Radagast, and so on. It really depends on how much freedom you're willing to sacrifice in order to get a unique play experience.

As stated above, there is nothing wrong with the net-deck. I think it's also worth noting that learning how to build decks in this game is very rewarding. Don't let it keep you out of the fun!

Gizlivadi, thanks for the excellent comparison to MECCG. The narrative certainly feels much tighter in the LCG than the CCG. It may be worth giving up the incredible "sandbox" feel of the CCG for that. How much background is given on the various quests / goals? Is it mainly suggested via the elements (foes, encounters, heros, etc.) in play or is there a paragraph or two in each deck that set it up? One thing I really loved about MECCG was the feeling of building an adventuring party, equipping them, and setting out to explore. I get that exploring is pretty much out (though could you do something like adding a meta game on top -- perhaps even using the excellent MECCG map -- and then just choose to play LCG encounters within the places you go? Or are the decks to beat the various encounters just too specialized), but I imagine building the adventuring party is still very much in in the hero choices made. How about equipping, though?

Also, thanks (to you and shipwreck) for the endorsement of net-decks. Maybe the best way to get into the game is to buy the core and try it out with some net-decks and see if I like the game enough and also if deck building appeals to me. My only real point of comparison is MtG and MECCG and I didn't enjoy that as much, but part of that may have been the CCG aspect. Also, solo'ing, do most people two-hand it? Can the game reliably be one-handed?

Don't take this as an insult because it's not meant to be, but I honestly don't understand how you can enjoy this game without enjoying the deckbuilding aspect of it. To me, it's an integral part of the experience - like planning your journey before taking the first step. It's also far more enjoyable when working with friends to develop complimentary decks. When faced with a scenario that is kicking the crap out of us, we can usually chat about deck weaknesses and make a few quick substitutions before giving it another go. Once we settle on a good deck, we'll often try to continue using it until we hit another scenario that seems unbeatable by it.

Maybe you could try setting up a couple of decks and just play them through as many scenarios as possible, only making critical substitutions as needed.

Another thing I'd recommend:

One method of deckbuilding I find really fun is to pick a particular challenge for yourself - build around a less-used hero, try a mono-sphere deck with a sphere you're not used to playing, build around a less-developed trait, build around a difficult strategy (direct damage into the staging area, ignore/delay enemies and power quest, extreme threat reduction, no allies), etc.

You may find that this kind of challenge gives you something to focus on while deck building and can make the gameplay more enjoyable as you experience the surprisingly powerul or humorous results of your efforts.

In short: go for it, you can bypass the deck tweaking aspect by using Internet resources.

I am in this game mainly for the Tolkien flavor: the storytelling and the art. While I do not really mind deck building (if anything, it gives me an excuse to go through the cards and admire the glorious artwork), it is not something I am huge fan of, or particularly good at. But there is so much on-line resources for deck building, including decks to download, that you do not have to tweak your own decks if you do not want to. If you do not mind copying a deck from the internet you will be fine. And this game does deliver in terms of telling you a story and providing the "Tolkien feel".

Oh, there is also an easy mode available, which is much more forgiving and . It allows for less-refined decks to have a decent chance. You can download the easy-mode rules for free from the FFG webpage.

I'm not super good at deckbuilding from a tactical standpoint. I prefer to choose a theme and do my best to make a workable deck out of it. Thankfully I play with 3 other people who do the same and we cover each others bases pretty well. My current decks are a Rohan and a Silvan deck.

While some quests can be a lot tougher with 4 people, usually it allows us to specialize a bit. One of my friends plays a Noldor questing deck, another plays a Godor defensive deck, my Rohan deck is more combat oriented and my Silvan deck is attempting to be a jack of all trades. It's not quite there yet but with the next pack(O Lorien and Haldir) it should work a lot better.

There are tons of deck lists online. Don't let deck-building stop you from playing, though I believe it adds to the enjoyment, but not everyone agrees.

Keep in mind that soon there will be almost 50 quests in this game, and that excludes Nightmare mode.

IMO you can play theme decks in Easy mode, play regular decks off the net without any tweaking in standard mode, and only need to deck build for Nightmare mode if you chose to go there, but you'll be several hundred hours into this game before you even need to touch Nightmare mode.

Don't let the deck building stop you. And don't wait any longer either. Great game that's really hitting its stride.

Gizlivadi, thanks for the excellent comparison to MECCG. The narrative certainly feels much tighter in the LCG than the CCG. It may be worth giving up the incredible "sandbox" feel of the CCG for that. How much background is given on the various quests / goals? Is it mainly suggested via the elements (foes, encounters, heros, etc.) in play or is there a paragraph or two in each deck that set it up? One thing I really loved about MECCG was the feeling of building an adventuring party, equipping them, and setting out to explore. I get that exploring is pretty much out (though could you do something like adding a meta game on top -- perhaps even using the excellent MECCG map -- and then just choose to play LCG encounters within the places you go? Or are the decks to beat the various encounters just too specialized), but I imagine building the adventuring party is still very much in in the hero choices made. How about equipping, though?

The quest cards themselves tell briefly the different parts of the story, and each expansion and pack comes with inserts that narrate it with greater detail. The first cycles were pretty simple - hunting Gollum and taking him to Thranduil's Halls, escorting Arwen to Rivendell and then exploring Moria to investigate orc activity - but the more recent cycles have a much more interesting storyline. They even hired a writer to write these inserts, which tell the story through proper narrative and dialogue (nothing spectacular or comparable to a novel of course, but enough to draw you in).

As you said, exploring Middle Earth in a big scale (from Rohan to Gondor, for example), is out of the picture, but in a particular scenario the different locations you can explore are "smaller", so to speak. From a dimly-lit hallway in Moria or a forest grove to unique locations such as Caradhras and the Doors of Durin. Sadly, the "good" locations such as Edoras or Rivendell, something which I'd really like to see, are not featured like in MECCG.

Equipping is also rather easy. You don't have to "find" your objects, you just draw them and play them on your characters by paying resources. Nothing particularly interesting about it, but simple enough.

Use decks that players share around net.

After a while you will improve these decks with your own ideas.

As stated above, there is nothing wrong with the net-deck. I think it's also worth noting that learning how to build decks in this game is very rewarding. Don't let it keep you out of the fun!

Seconded! I originally thought of deck-building as a tedious exercise as well, but last weekend I took [what I believed to be] my best Spirit deck into Khazad-Dum. Utterly annihilated on the first quest card! While to some, this loss would seem frustrating, I took a few deep post-defeat breaths, and then decided to re-work my deck to cancel additional threats and to include more dwarven heroes and allies to try and counter some other nasty K-D-specific effects. One week later, and I still haven't gone back (just finished a slow quest-per-weekend cycle of the Core set with a friend who's a stay-at-home dad and doesn't have a lot of free time), but I'm excited to see if my next deck will allow me to defeat the first quest! Saturday will be the most likely time to try and enter the mines, but believe me, the deck-building gets pretty exciting. What you are basically doing is trying to maximize the statistical efficacy of the deck you have constructed, while still leaving enough options open to counter threat-raising scenarios/treacheries/quest effects/When Revealed effects/etc. My current mono-Spirit deck has roughly 60 cards in it, but it feels like it will be much more effective versus the current scenario, and therein lies the fun...testing your mental mettle!

Please note that if you're strictly playing for fun, and not necessarily to be a rules-stickler, it's okay to play Easy Mode. To teach my wife to play, I plan on first starting off skipping over Shadow Effects during the combat phase to lighten the load, so to speak. If that doesn't work, we'll remove the gold-marked cards to make the game more accessibly enjoyable. It's a game system with so many customization options (and not just related to your own deck, per se) that it really can be fun for anyone with just a few tweaks!

Many of the players on this forum have inspired me to "Go hard", i.e., to take my lumps as the game designers intended. My friend and I play the standard rule set with all pertinent card effects played accordingly, and we are continuing to try to make sure that we aren't taking any illegal action windows, but all the same...at any free moment, I could sit down and play Easy Mode if I want, and it doesn't take away from my enjoyment!

TL;DR: Don't let the concept of deck-building as a tedious task deter you! There is much enjoyment to be had.

Lord of the Rings LCG was the first game I played which included deckbuilding, let alone the first card game I ever played. I'm just a huge fan of Tolkiens work and just gave it a go. I was really attracted by the idea of new stories in Middle-Earth and I bought the Core Set. I must say that at first I was hit by all the rules and I really had to pay extreme attention to the game to be sure I didn't miss anything. The deckbuilding wasn't eveb the hard part. First I found Beorn's q Path (luckily he keeps continuing it) and copied his Leadership/Lore deck. But after that, I just chose three heroes which I devided by tasks. I needed one defender, one quester and a defender. But most of all, I needed to like them. And after that I just took a look at the cards and chose those who's abbility seemed nice to me. And thus I built my own deck. After refining the deck I had a quite strong deck. And the feeling of playing an own strong deck was quite nice!

And then I found out that this game was really alive and that there were more expansions available and that there is a lively community with extraordinary people playing this game. Some of them are writing interesting/helpfull/fun articles on their blogs (TalesfromtheCards, HallofBeorn, MasterofLore) or creating podcasts to give info or help new players out of their troubles (GreyCompany). I am very sure that they'll love to answer any questions about deckbuilding or any other problem. The day that I found out that this game was aliveandkicking, my heartbeat raised immediatly!

I, as a new player (bought my Core Set in July) would sure as hell not let the deckbuilding keep me from playing this game. There are much sources, as people above me have stated already, that have prebuild decks.

One disappointment from my part, since I live in the Netherlands the chanche to find another LOTR LCG player is extremely lpw. No Fellowship events here.. The community is only available through Internet. The thought of flying to the Undying Lands at GenCon next year becomes stronger every day.

But hey, you probably live in the States, so that probably doesn't matter!

Enjoy playing and good luck!

I have this game as well. I thought the quests and scenarios would all be hooked together and continue in the next pack. It seems everything is in its own little world, thank goodness tolkiens, and im a little bummed about that, granted Ive only played through first 2-3 scenarios and found hunt for gollum that i picked up because I wanted to go in order. I think the game is great but it seems as far as deck building I would want a band of comrades that I could take through thick and thin but depending on the scenario you have to build another whole deck around something else to beat a certain scenario. I guess I thought it would be like a whole campaign deal going through 1 adventure to another and collecting loot and leveling up your party. Dont get me wrong , I still like the game and am still going to play it, I would just like to assemble a party I could stay with for awhile. Like I said, Im just getting into this more though Ive had the game for a little while. If anyone has any input let me know. I could be wrong on all accounts cause Im still a rookie. Thanks guys!

Gandalf, Im already planning a Gen con trip next year too buddy. I have to do it. I want to see some of these guys and shoot the bull and see whats what and just hang out and play some games man.

La1cajun, can't agree more! Really want to see some pros playing this game, and I would like to meet the GreyCompany; put some faces on top of the voices.

I have this game as well. I thought the quests and scenarios would all be hooked together and continue in the next pack. It seems everything is in its own little world, thank goodness tolkiens, and im a little bummed about that, granted Ive only played through first 2-3 scenarios and found hunt for gollum that i picked up because I wanted to go in order. I think the game is great but it seems as far as deck building I would want a band of comrades that I could take through thick and thin but depending on the scenario you have to build another whole deck around something else to beat a certain scenario. I guess I thought it would be like a whole campaign deal going through 1 adventure to another and collecting loot and leveling up your party. Dont get me wrong , I still like the game and am still going to play it, I would just like to assemble a party I could stay with for awhile. Like I said, Im just getting into this more though Ive had the game for a little while. If anyone has any input let me know. I could be wrong on all accounts cause Im still a rookie. Thanks guys!

I play with a party and decks I stay with. I change them slightly every now and then but stick with them for every quest.

There are only maybe 2 or 3 quests that my decks just don't work against (one of which is a nightmare quest), pretty much everything else they are sweet to take on.

It is doable! I too dreaded the thought of making new decks for every scenario (especially considering I play solo but like to use two decks) so instead worked on making two decks that can play pretty much any scenario and have small sideboards I can swap card in and out of if necessary. It has worked far better than I first imagined/planned and with all the new player cards being released recently they only get stronger and stronger.

I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum then PsychoRocka. I'll make 2 - 4 different decks for each scenario, and even try out older ones. For me deck building is a real joy in this game. With different decks and strategies each scenario can become easier or harder, and i enjoy seeing which of the decks seemed to be the best fit for the scenario.

In the beginning deck building was a real process, but now after playing the game for sometime and being familiar with all the cards, it's easier to see connections between cards. This is especially apparent when new cards are introduce and ah ha moments go off and a rough deck can be drafted out in 10 minutes, and playtested and tweaked for the next few days.

What keeps me playing the game regularly is play testing and tweaking decks. Even if i get some wins on a scenario, I'll continue to make subtle adjustments to the deck, and then I'll play the deck on a different scenario, and maybe tweak it, and then go on to another scenario and tweak some more. Eventually i'll go back to the original scenario and see if any of the additional tweaking changed the performance. It's amazing what a few cards changed can do to a deck.

Anyway, if you get the deck building bug this game offers an enormous amount of replay value, I'd say the replay value of this game is greater than any other co-op game i have encountered. In my opinion it's the best, and I go off and play lot's of other games, but i'm always coming back to this one time and time again.

Whether you end up like Tracker or myself either way you will fall in love with deckbuilding. It'll just be either making new decks with cool new combos/themes for each scenario/when you feel like it or instead constant refinement and editing of a single deck/pair of decks. Don't let the deckbuilding aspect scare you away! I used to play Magic and the deck building in this game is much simpler and much more rewarding I find as well. Now that I have this game I never even think about and definitely don't touch any of my magic decks unless a friend specificaly requests we play some.

The most i love in this game is the deck-building. I usually want to build a good deck and play it in a lot of different quest to test it. In adittion, not only solo decks, i like to build interactive decks, but without the other friend's decks. When friends and me meet we speak about which decks to play. It is good can say 'i have a deck that helps your'. However, i think it is a little boring to build decks all together. It could seem a monologue. Well, not always, only sometimes.

You should check out the Progression Series videos. They cover going through the game and evolving your deck as you gain new cards from the new packs.

Otherwise, if you own all the cards it's possible to build decks that can beat 90% of the scenarios and never need to change.