That definitely looks nice! Better start looking for some storage solution as well.

The picture from Ecthelion, is that a good indication for how many cards one might have after owning every expansion?

I do think the case wont fit a complete collection though. Sleeving cards does take up extra space.

The picture from Ecthelion, is that a good indication for how many cards one might have after owning every expansion?

No. I only own:

1 Core Set

Conflict at the Carrock

Khazad-Dum

The Watcher in the Water

Foundations of Stone

Shadow and Flame

Heirs of Numenor

The Steward's Fear

The Lost Realm

The Black Riders

The Road Darkens

The Treason of Saruman

I'm going to need to make a new one soon.

Only Passage Mirkwood as nightmare? Where do you place the other encounter cards?

Sadly, Passage through Mirkwood is my only nightmare quest. I picked it up to make the quest have a playable level of difficulty, although with my ever-expanding card pool I will probably be grabbing the Saga Nightmare quests at some point.

I'm going to need to make a new one soon.

Anyone know where I can find a picture of a complete collection?

I would rather start with a storage solution with which I can expand, than to start over after every adventure pack.

I'm going to need to make a new one soon.

Anyone know where I can find a picture of a complete collection?

I would rather start with a storage solution with which I can expand, than to start over after every adventure pack.

This is a full collection up to Voice of Isengard. It doesn't look expandable, though:

http://www.outpostzero.net/2014/09/lotr-lcg-storage-solution.html

Master of Lore uses a binder for the player cards and a smaller box for the encounter cards. There's still quite a bit of space:

https://masteroflore.wordpress.com/2013/09/14/player-card-binder/

https://masteroflore.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/encounter-deck-dividers-update-1/

Do note that sleeving cards in sleeves at all, or penny sleeves or quality sleeves all make a big difference. In some cases it doubles the storage space needed, so when deciding what to get, be aware that your sleeving choices may well affect the result.

Also be aware that you may at first deceide against sleeving, then later decide you want to..

With my solution, it is already very heavy and when full will be very very heavy, so a bigger case would be a poor option I feel for me (I sleeve all encounters in penny sleeves and all player cards in quality sleeves). So I plan to buy a second case to-match. This will split the weight better and I think more than cover the capacity for years to come. Two cases isnt too bad to manage.

I am also thinking about some kind of double size deckbox that will hold my current deck, current encounter deck as well as counters. That way it would be a mini portable kit for lunch breaks and such.

I think I'm going to, instead of making a new case, remove my player cards and put them in Ultra-pro deck boxes. Then I'll have enough room for the encounters.

One helpful thing is to download all of the rules documents and inserts and put them onto an iPad or other tablet. I throw away all of the inserts and simply save everything electronically. It is so nice to be able to sit at a table and play and not have to get up or dig through things to get rules clarifications. Or, sometimes I will be playing in some public space, such as a coffee shop, and it is nice to always have all of the rules documents readily accessible. Plus, it saves space.

Excellent idea. I love the thought of visiting the inlaws (outlaws) and putting together decks, playing around with sphere-combos etc all on a tablet just to pass the time! hehe. Not that I dislike my inlaws of course - I love them to bits. Its just nice to have the option since we see them every week.

"Huh? What am I reading? Er, Lord of the Rings. No, you can't borrow it once I'm done...erm sorry."

On the topic of stoarge, here's a link to GeckoTH's very well done LOTR: LCG card dividers on Boardgame Geek:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/76256/geckoths-lotr-dividers

The topmost update should provide dividers up through the Lost Realm. GeckoTH's work is very thorough - he has dividers for encounter decks, player cards and quest cards. I have not yet taken the time to print these, but for those of you that have the time, inclination and ink resources these are some very nice dividers. One of the players in my monthly group uses them and they look really sharp.

Lots of good storage ideas in this thread. As an owner of all currently available material except most of the Nightmare packs (I own the first 6 NM packs) I can let newer players know that a full collection takes up quite a bit of space. At this point in my LOTR:LCG career I typically take my full player card set + about a half dozen scenarios I might want to play to a gaming session. I'm lazy and cheap so I simply use about one large and three small baseball card boxes to store them. Full collection requires several more baseball card boxes.

Glad I discovered this game in 2012; it would be a wee bit costly to purchase everything all at once nowadays.

Some great ideas in this thread. I second the idea of playing through the quest a few times yourself before you play with a new player to help minimize the 'rule looking up' stuff in play.

With respect to deck ideas, a deck made up of eowyn/Aragorn/ and either other spirit hero should be good. You can pump Aragorn up with attachments, always fun.

Thanks RobOz, that will definitely come in handy further down the line. I will bookmark that. Nice one.

OKTarg, thanks for the tip. I can see my wife having no problem with attachments as they make literal sense. A deck geared (no pun intended) to this would be ideal.

Hello everyone,

Just an update really. I've played through Mirkwood with each of the 4 core sphere decks (without shadow effects), although not all in one sitting. I started with Tactics which was a newbie mistake as I got absolutely trounced for the reasons most of you are now sniggering at. 4 locations in a row and no way of clearing them.

Next I played Spirit which looked best for questing (Eowyn is amazing) and took out the gold ring cards and added an extra resource to each hero at the beginning of the game. If I couldn't win this time I was doing something wrong! Oh and I also added 2 more copies of Gandalf (for 3 total). I kept threat really low thanks to the grey wizard and only just beat the Ungoliants spawn with a timely arrival of Gandalf which did 4 damage off the bat and then sacrficed some questing characters to take the blocking hits from enemies before everyone else jumped on the spider stabbing away which JUST killed it. Another turn would have been bad...

I loved this, it was so cinematic (in my head). I could just imagine Gandalf turning up at the darkest hour to save the day. Immense stuff

I looked through player deck after and there was a generic human scout (apologies can't remember name) which looked really really useful but I never saw any copies during the game which was maybe why it was difficult. Dunno.

Next up was Leadership which seems middle of the road? Aragorn is an absolute beast. I can see why he costs 12 threat. Readying for one resource is top notch. Early combos with Theodred when resources were scarce meant I always had a resource for Aragorn to readying after commiting to a quest.

I beat the scenario but everyone was brutally wounded and close to death. Gloin and Aragorn had one health left and Theodred two. This was without having to fight Ungoliants spawn too!

Finally the Lore deck. I had the least idea about this one and so I was glad to play it last.

Oh my. Oh my oh my. I love this sphere! I absolutely walked it. Might be because I was now a bit more familiar with the game and the scenario sure but wow, I was able to keep threat low ( I used a starting Gandalf to instantly lower threat. I know it increases by 1 in refresh) and kept locations and enemies at bay. Health was never an issue as there are so many ways of regaining it in this deck. What I loved most was the card draw! So many lovely cards. So many options to choose. This was the one sphere I was actually 'resource poor' all of the time. I actually had to plan ahead in order to use cards haha!

I killed Ungoliants spawn with the tried and tested Gandalf bomb. I think Glorfindel and Denethor both had a wound token each thats it.

All in all I absoutely love this game! I know I have to add the gold creatures and reduce starting resource thats fine. What I don't think I am ready for though is shadow effects. Man do they seem nasty!

Anyway, the point was to learn the game well enough so that my wife could play with me. I feel confident that if I give her the tactics deck that I can fully quest to mitigate. Probably spirit or Lore (for the health boosts).

What do you think?

PS. Thanks for reading.

Really glad you loved it!!

Thats all great experience. Every time you play a new scenario OR introduce new mechanics (eg shadow effects) you will likely get hammered, but then with each game learn how to handle those until you are on top of them. Similarly, as your card pool sliwly builds, you will learn which cards work well for which scenatios (which isnt as easy if you instantly buy a huge card pool) and you will start building and tuning effective decks and having multi sphere decks.

So great.

This game is about the journey, not always then win. I lose more often than win but its such fun.

Wait till you get to journey down anduin, it will hammer you... but you will learn to beat it. Without spoiling, its very thematic with each stage being very different. Very difficult but great fun.

Dol guldur is worth playing twice then putting away to get out again in say six months when you are more practiced with a bigger card pool. Ive not yet beaten it and have put it away.

Mirkwood and Anduin are both great thematic quests. So great you are enjoying

Ps: when you do add shadow effects, you will really start to see spirit sphere differently

All in all I absoutely love this game! I know I have to add the gold creatures and reduce starting resource thats fine. What I don't think I am ready for though is shadow effects. Man do they seem nasty!

Ah, but that's why Spirit has the 1-cost Hasty Stroke card… a cheap way to deal with Shadow effects (save your Hasty Strokes for the really nasty ones).

I love the uncertainty that shadow effects bring to the game… can't imagine playing without them. But I'm sure you'll get there when you feel ready…

I don't necessarily agree that you need a bigger card pool to beat Dol Guldur with 2-players. It's definitely a veeeery tough quest (much harder than Anduin), but my wife (who is not a huge gamer/LCG nerd) and I have beaten it using the cards from only one Core set (using dual sphere decks)… with practice and luck (and the right deck construction/strategy), it's definitely doable. That having been said, if your wife gets easily upset after repeated losses (like mine sometimes does ), you might want to heed alexbobspoons' advice and "save it for another day"… and save your marriage by doing so?

Dol Guldur and Return to Mirkwood (and, to a lesser extent, Journey to Rhosgobel) are without a doubt the hardest quests in the Core/Mirkwood cycle.

Really glad you loved it!!

Thats all great experience. Every time you play a new scenario OR introduce new mechanics (eg shadow effects) you will likely get hammered, but then with each game learn how to handle those until you are on top of them. Similarly, as your card pool sliwly builds, you will learn which cards work well for which scenatios (which isnt as easy if you instantly buy a huge card pool) and you will start building and tuning effective decks and having multi sphere decks.

So great.

This game is about the journey, not always then win. I lose more often than win but its such fun.

Wait till you get to journey down anduin, it will hammer you... but you will learn to beat it. Without spoiling, its very thematic with each stage being very different. Very difficult but great fun.

Dol guldur is worth playing twice then putting away to get out again in say six months when you are more practiced with a bigger card pool. Ive not yet beaten it and have put it away.

Mirkwood and Anduin are both great thematic quests. So great you are enjoying

Ps: when you do add shadow effects, you will really start to see spirit sphere differently

Thanks. I think I will keep things as they are at the moment when I play with my wife. I will refrain from making suggestions and just try to react to what she does by supporting her actions. When I play on my own however I will try the shadow effects and see how badly mauled I get! Fun times await! haha.

Ah yes. I did notice the ability to negate nasty effects in spirit deck. Its a good point. I'll probably start with that sphere. Maybe dual with Lore or Leadership. In fact Aragorn can gain spirit with an attachment can't he? So looks good. Actually, quick Q: with non restricted, generic attachments can you put more than one onto a character? If so do their effects stack? I'm thinking not so have not done so but wanted to check. I had other questions whilst I was playing but forgotten then now!

All in all I absoutely love this game! I know I have to add the gold creatures and reduce starting resource thats fine. What I don't think I am ready for though is shadow effects. Man do they seem nasty!

Ah, but that's why Spirit has the 1-cost Hasty Stroke card… a cheap way to deal with Shadow effects (save your Hasty Strokes for the really nasty ones).

I love the uncertainty that shadow effects bring to the game… can't imagine playing without them. But I'm sure you'll get there when you feel ready…

Sound good! I will definitely try that, cheers! I'm sure once I add shadow effects there will be no going back (at least when I play solo).

I don't necessarily agree that you need a bigger card pool to beat Dol Guldur with 2-players. It's definitely a veeeery tough quest (much harder than Anduin), but my wife (who is not a huge gamer/LCG nerd) and I have beaten it using the cards from only one Core set (using dual sphere decks)… with practice and luck (and the right deck construction/strategy), it's definitely doable. That having been said, if your wife gets easily upset after repeated losses (like mine sometimes does ), you might want to heed alexbobspoons' advice and "save it for another day"… and save your marriage by doing so?

Dol Guldur and Return to Mirkwood (and, to a lesser extent, Journey to Rhosgobel) are without a doubt the hardest quests in the Core/Mirkwood cycle.

Haha my wife probably wouldn't enjoy constantly losing but I know she's a perfectionist so I bet she would insist on beating the scenario eventually. That or she'll hate it intensely and give up entirely ...a fine line for sure. I just have to hope the theme keeps her engaged.

Actually she gave me Journey to Rhosgobel as one of my Birthday presents! That scenario looks hard! But my the eagle cards look rocking. Veyr useful.

I ordered Dead Marshes for Boromir and can't wait to have a look at that.

Thanks for all of the help! Onwards and upwards!

Ah yes. I did notice the ability to negate nasty effects in spirit deck. Its a good point. I'll probably start with that sphere. Maybe dual with Lore or Leadership. In fact Aragorn can gain spirit with an attachment can't he? So looks good. Actually, quick Q: with non restricted, generic attachments can you put more than one onto a character? If so do their effects stack? I'm thinking not so have not done so but wanted to check. I had other questions whilst I was playing but forgotten then now!

You can have as many non-restricted, generic attachments on a character as you like/can afford. There is no "stacking limit" to these, and their effects are cumulative.

Keep in mind that while not "restricted," Horn of Gondor, Celebrian's Stone and Steward of Gondor are all "unique" attachments, meaning that even though they don't count toward a character's 2 restricted attachment limit, there can only be one copy of those unique cards in play at any one time, regardless of how many copies you may have in hand, how many players there are, etc.

I apologize if you were already aware of this.

Horn of Gondor and Celebrian' Stone are restricted.

Keep in mind that while not "restricted," Horn of Gondor, Celebrian's Stone and Steward of Gondor are all "unique" attachments,

Horn of Gondor and Celebrian's Stone are both restricted as well as unique.

With regard to Rohsgobel, I would try not to read any guides or spoilers on that one.

Its a great quest and very very different thematically. There was no way my standard deck could handle it. I was beaten time and time again by it with tweaking my deck and then when I did get a deck design that worked, I managed to beat it fairly often. So I would say try not to read up on the trick to beating it (or tricks, there will be a few) because for me the journey of solving that puzzle was pretty intense. Now with my final designed deck, it doesnt seem as hard as it first did when it repeatedly hammered me. So the puzzle is often the key.

Gosh you (and me as another newbie) are in for so much fun. have you seen the variety of different quests? The new one just teased is a trek through a haunted castle. There are city sieges, monster battles, army battles, journeys, searches, spy infiltration... etc etc. Just read up on the cover-blurb on some of the boxes on the FFG website... so exciting!!

Keep in mind that while not "restricted," Horn of Gondor, Celebrian's Stone and Steward of Gondor are all "unique" attachments,

Horn of Gondor and Celebrian's Stone are both restricted as well as unique.

That'll teach me to post without double-checking the cards in question. Thanks for catching my obvious error, banana, PocketWraith. You'd think I would have memorized the traits of those particular cards by now, but I seem to be making a lot of inaccurate statements due to inattention these days… sigh… [sticks head in sand]…

You can have as many non-restricted, generic attachments on a character as you like/can afford. There is no "stacking limit" to these, and their effects are cumulative.

Oh wow. Their effects are cumulative. That seems a little cheeky somehow. Thanks for though.

With regard to Rohsgobel, I would try not to read any guides or spoilers on that one.

Its a great quest and very very different thematically. There was no way my standard deck could handle it. I was beaten time and time again by it with tweaking my deck and then when I did get a deck design that worked, I managed to beat it fairly often. So I would say try not to read up on the trick to beating it (or tricks, there will be a few) because for me the journey of solving that puzzle was pretty intense. Now with my final designed deck, it doesnt seem as hard as it first did when it repeatedly hammered me. So the puzzle is often the key.

Gosh you (and me as another newbie) are in for so much fun. have you seen the variety of different quests? The new one just teased is a trek through a haunted castle. There are city sieges, monster battles, army battles, journeys, searches, spy infiltration... etc etc. Just read up on the cover-blurb on some of the boxes on the FFG website... so exciting!!

No worries. I won't go spoiling any quests. If I did do then really it wouldn't be me (and my wife hopefully!) who beat the quest but somebody else's deck.

Really looking forward to what the future holds! You make its sound even better than even I had imagined! Glory awaits (post-continual defeats of course) !

Actually I just remembered another question: there is a card (sorry can't remember name but must be an ally) that allows you to engage an enemy when it is played. Does this mean that you initiate an attack against it straight away (ala Dunhere) or that you just bring it from the staging area to your side in front of your heroes?

Thanks.

Actually I just remembered another question: there is a card (sorry can't remember name but must be an ally) that allows you to engage an enemy when it is played. Does this mean that you initiate an attack against it straight away (ala Dunhere) or that you just bring it from the staging area to your side in front of your heroes?

The latter. You only get to attack enemies after they attack you in the combat phase (unless a card effect specifically allows you to make an attack). Also the card you're thinking of is Son of Arnor.

Actually I just remembered another question: there is a card (sorry can't remember name but must be an ally) that allows you to engage an enemy when it is played. Does this mean that you initiate an attack against it straight away (ala Dunhere) or that you just bring it from the staging area to your side in front of your heroes?

The latter. You only get to attack enemies after they attack you in the combat phase (unless a card effect specifically allows you to make an attack). Also the card you're thinking of is Son of Arnor.

Son of Arnor's response, like all responses, is optional. It is handy, however, if you want to pull an enemy from the staging area (especially one that is likely to attack you that round anyway) so that their will power can't be added to the enemy's total during the Quest phase.

Its also good to use son of arnor if you plan to play a specific card on an enemy that needs to be engaged, but you want to avoid the usual engagement situation whereby that enemy will get an attack/hit on you first (no spoiler on what those cards may be).