Most people seem to think you can start where you like, but if you get powerful new cards first, then older packs, the older scenarios might be too easy. So there's a judgement call.

Most people think the saga expansions are pretty independent and the Black Riders pretty awesome, so seeing as the Mirkwood cycle is currently being reprinted, maybe buy Black Riders to bridge the gap until Mirkwood hits the shelves

I was looking at the sagas. But I was afraid they would be to hard with out the up to date cards. It would be cool to follow along with the movies

Easy mode makes them quite doable, and a first-try victory against Escape from Dol Guldur isn't something to scoff at. The player cards in each saga box are pretty fantastic, too.

Ok, cool. I might start there then and pick up the shadows of Mirkwood cycle once it has been reprinted. I need to find a better way to play solo as well. Maybe play 2 decks ? IDK, but I do know I have done better when its 2 players

I highly recommend buying things in the order that they were originally released.

I highly recommend buying things in the order that they were originally released.

I second that. I've bought all the packs (Deluxe expansions, APs, Saga Expansions, NM Scenarios, POD) in the order they were released and restricted myself to only use cards that were available at the time the scenario was released. It's been a lot of fun and I just completed the three scenarios from the Lost Realm...I'm almost all caught up

I highly recommend buying things in the order that they were originally released.

I second that. I've bought all the packs (Deluxe expansions, APs, Saga Expansions, NM Scenarios, POD) in the order they were released and restricted myself to only use cards that were available at the time the scenario was released. It's been a lot of fun and I just completed the three scenarios from the Lost Realm...I'm almost all caught up

Agreeing with this too

Yea. I like that my wife and I can play together also. That is what we have been looking for. And we both like LoTR. I guess I was just expecting more in the beginning box coming from games like Descent, RoTR, and so on. We are going to stick to this game though and play a few cycles.

I have yet to beat any of them solo. I have lost every time solo.

My reason for the post wasn't to question the difficulty. I think the game is hard! I was looking at the amount of content in the box. However, we are going to continue to play and see how it goes.

Yea it is really worth it remember it is a core set while you can play with just the core set they expect you to buy adventure packs they really do give a lot of cards with the the core set plus the first cycle you have 600 cards plus for a decently small investment

Yea. I like that my wife and I can play together also. That is what we have been looking for. And we both like LoTR. I guess I was just expecting more in the beginning box coming from games like Descent, RoTR, and so on. We are going to stick to this game though and play a few cycles.

I have yet to beat any of them solo. I have lost every time solo.

My reason for the post wasn't to question the difficulty. I think the game is hard! I was looking at the amount of content in the box. However, we are going to continue to play and see how it goes.

Yea it is really worth it remember it is a core set while you can play with just the core set they expect you to buy adventure packs they really do give a lot of cards with the the core set plus the first cycle you have 600 cards plus for a decently small investment

I just bought the mirk wood cycle. And I have still been playing solo mostly by playing two handed. I also have started playing with people on OCTGN. And I must say, my opinion has changed a lot of this game. Now I am really hooked on it, I'm glad I gave the game a second chance.

Personally I love the game because it hits all the same pleasure centers that Magic did. I love the puzzle of building a good deck and finding cool combos. But I never much cared for that competitive environment and hated the collectible card game model. As an added bonus the LotR setting is fantastic.

This is probably one of the best LCG's on the market today for cooperative play with Game of Thrones being its counter part for competitive play. For a Lord of The Rings fan its without question the pinnacle of thematic experience but I will second what the OP said in that the core set is actually quite disappointing and its only if you expand your game that the flavor and challenges of the game really come out.

I am surprised you where able to beat the 2nd and 3rd quest in the core set with just the core set on your first day, I know people who have played this game religiously since day one and consider the third quest in the core set to be one of the most difficult in the game. Personally I have yet to beat the 2nd or 3rd quests using just the core set cards.

Now in terms of progression one thing I wish someone would have told me when I started is that its important to play the expansions in order of release and to only use cards up to the expansion your playing when questing. This maximizes the challenge and creates a thematic resolution to the games quests. The only exception is the stand-alone expansions which so far have been some of my favorites (Murder at the Prancing Pony is without a doubt my favorite among those).

Suffice to say though its not a game that wow's you with the core set, the truth is that the genius and challenge of this game is trying to complete the games adventure packs with the resources available to you to that point and of course the ultimate challenge is to try to complete the campaign mode Saga's. There are tons of challenges in this game but I think of everything that has been released the Core set is probably the only thing they could have skipped, it really makes for a very poor introduction into the game because its really not a good representation of what your experience will be.

I think of everything that has been released the Core set is probably the only thing they could have skipped, it really makes for a very poor introduction into the game because its really not a good representation of what your experience will be.

You need the encounter cards in the core, and the player cards are certainly useful (essential in some cases). I don't see how it could be skipped, but it would have been better with more modern distribution. But LotR has a slight problem because of the two groups of cards. More of the player cards are useful, but buying a second core gives you a ton of encounter cards which don't add anything. I sometimes wish the core was two smaller boxes, but FFG love their "self-contained" cores which aren't really.

(AGoT 2e is still perfection in core distribution!)

Great thread with a lot of good information for newbs. As someone who is looking to get into the game myself I find that the options beyond the core can be quite over whelming. Is there a list or diagram anywhere that displays what comes in each pack? Besides going through each individual product on the website. For instance, This includes 1 mission, 3 quests, 2 heroes etc.. more of a component break down that is easily accessible? A flow chart would just be great. I understand it isn't all linear, but there is a lot of text in this thread putting things in order.. I am more of a visual person

Edit: Ahh the first few paragraphs of that buyers guide do a good job, but still a visual would be nice.

Great thread with a lot of good information for newbs. As someone who is looking to get into the game myself I find that the options beyond the core can be quite over whelming. Is there a list or diagram anywhere that displays what comes in each pack? Besides going through each individual product on the website. For instance, This includes 1 mission, 3 quests, 2 heroes etc.. more of a component break down that is easily accessible? A flow chart would just be great. I understand it isn't all linear, but there is a lot of text in this thread putting things in order.. I am more of a visual person

Edit: Ahh the first few paragraphs of that buyers guide do a good job, but still a visual would be nice.

There are a few decent resources out there but my personal experience has been pretty fantastic just buying things in order of release so I have largely ignored most of the advice. I find most of it to be "gamer centric" as opposed to "experience centric" if that makes any sense. Basically it seems like 99% of the guides assume that the entire experience (purpose) of the game is about "getting the best cards" and building the best decks so most of the advice circles around what you get if you buy X or Y expansion and what you can do with it for deck building purposes rather than what you get in terms of quests and quality of games and challenges.

I think the only good advice I ever got was to to work your way through the first cycle as this both gets you some good cards to work deck building with and some decent quests and then quickly switch over to doing the Saga expansions with other cycles sort of acting as a way to entertain yourself cheaply. To me the Saga expansions - playing campaign mode are probably the most fun thing to do with the game. Now grant it I'm a newb so I'm not sure you want to take advice from me, but as I sort of fumble through the game I find the thing I'm looking for most is interesting and challenging quests as opposed to "good cards" to build decks with.

Many of the stand alone expansions are really great though and I think those are worth picking up early if for no other reason then that they might not always be available.

In general though I find that try to be a completist is counter productive, once you have everything, with good experiance most of the challenge in the game is lost which is why I always suggest only using cards from the cycles, expansions and sagas your playing.. this makes the game more of a challenge and I think more thinking went into the design with those cards in mind. There are some exceptions but in general this seems to be true... If you find yourself in "easy mode" its likely because your card pool is too big.

BigKahuna, on 24 Jul 2016 - 12:14 PM, said:

Now in terms of progression one thing I wish someone would have told me when I started is that its important to play the expansions in order of release and to only use cards up to the expansion your playing when questing.

When people tell me things like that I tell them to sod off

Well I only say that because there are a lot of complaints that the game is on "easy mode" once you get a big enough card pool and I think its because if you use cards created after a certain pack or expansion there was no design though put into how those cards would effect it. For example if you play the first adventure cycle using the 2nd and 3rd adventure cycle cards, most of the challenges are so easy there is no point in playing them because of the cards available, but if you play it with the cards from that adventure pack, its much tougher and as a result far more interesting and entertaining.

BigKahuna, on 24 Jul 2016 - 12:14 PM, said:

For example if you play the first adventure cycle using the 2nd and 3rd adventure cycle cards, most of the challenges are so easy there is no point in playing them because of the cards available, but if you play it with the cards from that adventure pack, its much tougher and as a result far more interesting and entertaining.

Most of the cycles were designed as a whole from what I've read, so I don't think the 6th pack shouldn't be ignored while playing the first eight scenarios. Bringing in cards from later cycles may at times be considered cheating though, but in my defence I suck at deckbuilding so it all evens out

BigKahuna, on 24 Jul 2016 - 12:14 PM, said:

For example if you play the first adventure cycle using the 2nd and 3rd adventure cycle cards, most of the challenges are so easy there is no point in playing them because of the cards available, but if you play it with the cards from that adventure pack, its much tougher and as a result far more interesting and entertaining.

Most of the cycles were designed as a whole from what I've read, so I don't think the 6th pack shouldn't be ignored while playing the first eight scenarios. Bringing in cards from later cycles may at times be considered cheating though, but in my defence I suck at deckbuilding so it all evens out

In as a whole if Lord of the Rings the Card game is anything at all it is first and foremost a deck builder game. I would venture to guess that for most people spend the majority of the game takes place in preparation, thinking about tactics and trying to find ways to solve the various quest puzzles via deck building. I think what I'm trying to say is that, if you find scenarios too challenging, yeah definitly dive into your collection and solve the puzzle anyway you can but I often find that the sentiment "the game is to easy" comes up when talking about this game and in those cases you can typically trace it back to people using cards and sets from various expansions to crush older adventure packs and quests ... I think in part Nightmare mode was created to counter that very element as if you have ever tried any of the nightmare scenarios they are pretty much impossible unless you whip out every trick, card and set you can get your hands on. I think however the game when played in sequence doesn't really require nightmare mode to create a solid challenge and in a lot of ways creates challenges that are less about deck building and more about how you play the game which is something that sort of gets lost with these huge card pools applied to the any cycle, in particular older ones. It just becomes a forgone conclusion that with a proper card pool, the deck build beats the challenge, not the players ability to play the game well.

Don't know if that makes much sense but what I guess I'm driving at is that, knowing how to leverage limited resources makes the game a lot more interesting then applying everything you own to beat the crap out of the game. Sure sometimes you just get stuck, and pulling out those big cards from newer sets can easily solve the problem but Its not unlike any other CCG where the most competitive players are the ones with the best (rarest and largest card pools) able to create crushing combinations that when applied to a lesser card pools typically wins. In the case of Lord of the Rings instead of beating smaller card pools you can crush earlier released quests/expansions. Since a common complaint by veteran players is the lack of challenge this is sort of an answer to that.

Very new to this, only bought the Core Set and the first couple of Adventure packs last week. I've played the first Quest in the Core Set and it's been great fun, I think I've played it around 14-15 times using all the various decks either solo (though really didn't enjoy Tactics) and then starting to mix the decks together and trying out different combos. Moved onto Journey Down the Anduin and it's certainly a lot harder (yay for drawing a second Hill Troll on my first turn...) but I like that I'm having to think more. I've been playing solo, though intorudcing a friend to it (I like solo games, being rather anti-social at times!)

I've since bought what I've been able to (I've got all of Mirkwood bar Emyn Muils, though I gather that's no biggie). Managed to snag Khazad Dum and a couple of Adventure Packs, but I'm hitting the problem I'm having with Black Riders; I can't find some of the packs anywhere. Granted, this is specifically TWitW (which has the fantastic Lore Aragaorn thatI'm struggling to find; Lore has been my favourite Sphere so far) so I've settled for most of Against the Shadow cycle.

I'd definitely recommend, looking at the cards, playing the Core Set and all it's myriad ways of playing a good couple or so dozen times to get a feel for it and then slowly working your way through the APs. I'm going to, as has been suggested above, use only those cycles available at time of release when I play each AP quest.

Best game I've played in a very, very long time :-)

There are many fan made scenarios that expand gameplay for the core set. I didn't print them (used iPhone or written notes on index cards) and they still worked well.

There are also a number of core set only decks posted out there.

Resources:

https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/16397/guide-new-lotrlcg-solo-players

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1108855/back-basics-killer-deck-using-only-cards-single-co

I've bookmarked other decks ... You can search for "one deck core set only" or something like that

I just bought the base game and played it with my wife last night. And we are trying to decide if want to continue and investing in the game. First it was a lot of fun to play, we both enjoyed the game. But I was disappointed with the lack of content in the base game. We played and beat all 3 adventures the day we bought it and I personally was expecting more for my money. I am use, from other fantasy flight games I have purchased, for more content to be packed into the base game.

Looking at all the expansion that are out now for this game, is this normal for the game? Should I expect the expansions to go this cast as well?

What do you guys think of this game considering cost vs content?

Me and my girlfriend were in a similar situation last year, the only difference was that we had had the option to play the game in a neighboring shop, so we knew more than the base game.

I agree with you. The game base is a bit disappointing, honestly I cannot believe how the game became so popular when it was launched. Nevertheless, let me tell you as well that we have invested in expansions, so far the two boxes of the Hobbit, the two first boxes of the Saga and the 6 adventures of the Darkening of the Mirkwood cycle. We really love the game and we are already looking to buy the Khazad-dum expansion and more saga boxes.

This games is great and the more you get the more you enjoy!

Hi All,

I've just got the core game about a week ago, and must admit I've spent now many many hours on it and I did not even play 2nd quest of the main game. I've played each mono sphere deck until had 3 wins again PtM quest and then as advised by other players I've played downloadable quest "The Old Forest" on which now I customise my deck and try things out. I want to be prepared before going out on those dangerous adventures. I've constructed Tact/Spi deck - no main theme, just things I think work the best, and I've won 1 game out of 7. I think I'm up to speed with the rules now and I'm not making it easy on myself by any stretch. Game is really hard with limited cards and it defo for people who like the challenge and those who don't get discourage very easily. Can wait for another attempt to beat "Old Forest", so I'm going now

Ps. Just ordered 5 out of 6 Mirkwood cycle (Hunt for Gollum still waiting for printing) and will tell you there will be some serious deck building involved once I have it.

Hi All,

I've just got the core game about a week ago, and must admit I've spent now many many hours on it and I did not even play 2nd quest of the main game. I've played each mono sphere deck until had 3 wins again PtM quest and then as advised by other players I've played downloadable quest "The Old Forest" on which now I customise my deck and try things out. I want to be prepared before going out on those dangerous adventures. I've constructed Tact/Spi deck - no main theme, just things I think work the best, and I've won 1 game out of 7. I think I'm up to speed with the rules now and I'm not making it easy on myself by any stretch. Game is really hard with limited cards and it defo for people who like the challenge and those who don't get discourage very easily. Can wait for another attempt to beat "Old Forest", so I'm going now

Ps. Just ordered 5 out of 6 Mirkwood cycle (Hunt for Gollum still waiting for printing) and will tell you there will be some serious deck building involved once I have it.

Excellent post and welcome to the game.

Its a wonderful wonderful game with so so many different types of decks and scenarios its just so varied

Its a challenging game at the best of times, but as you probably know from reading, the other 2 quests in the core sets are (in order) very hard and ridiculously hard, though very much fun. The MIrkwood cycle gets a bit easier and more focused after that.

So as long as you enjoy the game and dont mind losing, its FANTASTIC!!

But dont give up.

I am a rubbish deck builder but so far just on trial and error have completed 19 different quests out of the 20 I have so far tried. So even a rubbish deck builder can do this with continued effort

Welcome and enjoy!!!

Sorry I am also new but what do you mean by 'downloadable' The Old Forest? From what I can tell you have to purchase it from the products page. Is there other ways to acquire this event scenario?

Sorry I am also new but what do you mean by 'downloadable' The Old Forest? From what I can tell you have to purchase it from the products page. Is there other ways to acquire this event scenario?

I believe they meant "Print on Demand" instead of "downloadable." The POD scenarios have cards that feel slightly different from the usual core set and expansions, so they don't have player cards in them and they are completely self-contained (meaning they don't rely on deluxe expansions for encounter sets)

NinjaDorg created a fan made scenario titled "The Old Forest" that was posted online before the FFG scenario of the same name.