Hello guys, I tried looking for some clarification on the internet, but I didn't find much (my google-fu is admittedly weak), so I was wondering if anyone can help me with this?

I am really interested in the idea of a co-op cardgame with a campaign, but I am somewhat at a loss on what to focus on.

The core game, I believe, provides a player with everything he needs to play the game with another person and it has 3 quests that are very customisable. Furthermore, the small packs add new quests, heroes, allies, attachments, events and encounters to further customise the game. I suppose you need two core sets to be able to play it as a 4-player game.

Are the cycles then the campaign, and are they listed in order on the FFG product page? What are deluxe expansions? Do they just add more cards on a larger scale than the smaller packs? I assume Saga expansions sort of converts the game into the Hobbit or other specific storylines based on the books.

Is it mandatory to get all the smaller packs? And is there some kind of continuity list that tells the player what to play in order, in terms of the scenarios? What would you guys advise a new player to purchase?

1) Cycles are a set of thematically related adventures.

2) Deluxe expansions, in addition to new player cards, introduce three scenarios and include encounter cards you'll need to play through it's associated cycle.

3) Yes.

4) Not at all.

5) There's no enforced order in which to play through the scenarios, but a lot of people like to play through them in release order.

6) https://talesfromthecards.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/new-player-buying-guide/is a fairly good purchasing guide for new players.

Those quests are not customizable (at least not in the meaning I know). They're fixed set of cards that is the same every time you play given quest.

Expansions introduce new player cards, but they also introduce new quests, not something to customize old quests with. There are packs that customize old quests - they're called "Nightmare Expansions", and as you might guess from the name, they not just customize the quests, they increase the challenge.

No, you don't need two core sets to play with 3 or 4 players, but there is only 2 threat trackers in one core box, so if you're OK with it, you can always use a piece of paper, a couple of d10 dice or something to track two other guys threats.

Regular cycles are not actual campaigns. They have some flavor ties, but ultimately there is no official campaign system to play them. There is Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Saga campaigns however, both of which do indeed have established official campaign.

There is no mandatory to get anything outside of the Saga expansions in terms of campaign playing.

It can be intimidating coming to a game with so much content, but it really is a great game...

Core does provide all the stuff to play 2 player and includes 3 quests. You can play with 4 players and just 1 core set, but will need to use dice or notepads to track threat.

Deluxe expansions kick off a cycle and are needed to play any of the adventure packs from that cycle (the core set being the "deluxe" for the Mirkwood cycle). They do add more player cards (and might be considered a better value), but they also have encounter sets that the small packs use to build their adventures. You are right about the sagas (they are stand alone).

You don't have to get everything by any means...The only real rule is that you will need the deluxe expansion associated with any adventure packs you buy. That said...I think quests have gotten generally harder and I think that difficulty kind of assumes that you have access to the majority of the released card pool. Getting a core set and the latest stuff might lead to frustration.

Below is a link for a very detailed buying guide.

https://talesfromthecards.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/new-player-buying-guide/

Welcome to the obsession!

EDIT: D'oh! not quick enough!

Thanks for the replies everyone. The buying guide at the wordpress site is really helpful. Mostly, I would just want to toy around with the non-book/film stuff, which is why I am probably going to purchase the Core book and a few of the Mirkwood Cycle. I might go for the Saga expansions later because they add a lot of cards you can still use for the rest of the game.

That sounds like a great idea.

For my money I would get the Core Set to see if you like the game and then move on to get the 6 Mirkwood Cycle APs if you find that you do enjoy it.

Couple of points to consider though for when you do get the game—

1) Of the 3 Quests in the Core Set, only the first, introductory, scenario (“Passage Through Mirkwood”) could be considered easy with only Core Set player cards. The difficulty ramps pretty extensively from there with the second Quest being pretty hard and the third being almost unbeatable in 1-2 player with only Core Set cards. That’s not a bad thing, but it can be frustrating if you don’t know that going into it.

2) The 6 APs of the Mirkwood Cycle form a kind of “advanced tutorial” for the game. The first AP digs into how Objectives work, the second teaches how to deal with Big Bad enemies, the third shows you the significance of Treacheries, etc, etc, etc. I’ve found that a great way to learn the game and improve your deck-construction skills is to build kind of a basic, good, all-around deck from the Core cards and the first 6 APs and then play through the Mirkwood cycle APs in order and tweak your deck as necessary to deal with each new challenge. Then run back through again with the end-result deck and see what you’ve learned.

Hope you have fun with the game and come back and let us know when you have a chance to give it a play!

That sounds like a great idea.

For my money I would get the Core Set to see if you like the game and then move on to get the 6 Mirkwood Cycle APs if you find that you do enjoy it.

Couple of points to consider though for when you do get the game—

1) Of the 3 Quests in the Core Set, only the first, introductory, scenario (“Passage Through Mirkwood”) could be considered easy with only Core Set player cards. The difficulty ramps pretty extensively from there with the second Quest being pretty hard and the third being almost unbeatable in 1-2 player with only Core Set cards. That’s not a bad thing, but it can be frustrating if you don’t know that going into it.

2) The 6 APs of the Mirkwood Cycle form a kind of “advanced tutorial” for the game. The first AP digs into how Objectives work, the second teaches how to deal with Big Bad enemies, the third shows you the significance of Treacheries, etc, etc, etc. I’ve found that a great way to learn the game and improve your deck-construction skills is to build kind of a basic, good, all-around deck from the Core cards and the first 6 APs and then play through the Mirkwood cycle APs in order and tweak your deck as necessary to deal with each new challenge. Then run back through again with the end-result deck and see what you’ve learned.

Hope you have fun with the game and come back and let us know when you have a chance to give it a play!

Point 2 is a really good suggestion. Now that I think about it that is actually very similar to what I did. I put together the best deck I could from the core set, shadows of mirkwood packs and admittedly from a few other AP's as well (I bought a few AP's in the dwarrowdelf cycle as well as HoN just for some of the player cards ) and then proceeded to play through the core and the shadows of mirkwood cycle start to finish making deck changes as I went along. It definitely teaches you how to play the game and tweak/create a deck for different quests. It also gives you a good idea of what you need to include in a deck built to take on any quest. Then you get to go back through the cycle with your end result and smash some face (or at least do a lot better)!

oh and welcome to the forums Grivenger, good luck with the core set! Looking forward to hear how it goes.

Buying a core plus one or two random expansions with heroes you think are cool is the way to go at first imo.

Hello!

As a fellow newbie, I would recommend getting the Core and the Mirkwood run. I ordered my stuff from www.cardhaus.com pretty good prices, quick shipping.

Probably not best to do what I did: order the core, play a couple games, really dig it, then have too many rum and cokes, pull out the charge card and order almost everything

I guess I'll have plenty to keep me busy for a couple years

Peace

Roger

Hello!

As a fellow newbie, I would recommend getting the Core and the Mirkwood run. I ordered my stuff from www.cardhaus.com pretty good prices, quick shipping.

Probably not best to do what I did: order the core, play a couple games, really dig it, then have too many rum and cokes, pull out the charge card and order almost everything

I guess I'll have plenty to keep me busy for a couple years

Peace

Roger

Grivenger (and Roger) welcome to a fantastic game. If you prepare yourself for the difficulty of 2 of the core quests like Jon says, then you won't get disappointed.

I worked through Mirkwood only adding to my card pool the cards from each pack individually. It meant I wasn't over faced with too many new cards and also, the cards with a pack often had some abilities designed to complement the adventure they came with. Worked great for me.

Awesome game. Look forward to such different quests: escorting nobles through dangerous areas, hunting out secrets, healing giant eagles, city sieges, sea voyages, haunted castles, dungeons, epic monster battles, investigating spies,capturing enemies, forests, snow covered mountains, dragons, balrogs, murder mysteries and so much more, all somehow in a card game. Welcome.

I am a completionist when it comes to board games. However, with LotR, that isn't necessary at all. Once you have the core set and learn how the game plays, then the more you move into the expansion content, the more quests you will have to play. I ramped up pretty quickly, and found myself owning like 24 quests, which was way more content than I could get through at the time. It was not necessary to obtain so much content so quickly. Don't let the availability drive your expectation to acquire a lot of the game content early on. Just know it's there as you need it.

As you do progress into the content of the game, you will realize that the game really comes alive in the deck building department. I will usually start a quest with a pretty generic deck, and then I typically end up losing the scenario. Then, I go back to my cards, and customize my Hero's and cards to best deal with the mechanics of the specific quest. For me, I have experienced some of the most rewarding and fulfilling board game moments with this game when I pull off a win after building a deck that I think could handle the scenario that just wrecked me.

New player here too -- I found the Tales from the Cards New Player Buying Guide to be very helpful in figuring out where to start.

At this point I've played through the Core, Khazad-dum, The Hobbit Saga, and have started the Fellowship of the Rings Saga. The recently re-released Mirkwood expansions are on the shelf now, waiting for me to finish my adventures with Mr. Frodo.

I didnt read the whole thread but what i have to say....

My main pros for this game.

1.You can play it solo but it will happen alot that the game will tear you to pieces until ya learn the game better

2.GET A SECOND CORE SET!!!

3. This game is the most thematic lcg i have ever played.

4.its exciting if you play with others the more players you got the more it changes. Thing can get easier but often not.

5.each cycle not only has a different theme but alot of new nasty stuff.

6. 2ND CORE!!

Well i would suggest to get the stuff in chronological order because each cycle has cards that will be essential in later games.

Example: i had to wait some time to get the first two packs of the first cycle. One very important lore card (Burning Brand) made life alot easier.

I suggest you grab a cycle each month. You got enough to do even if you buy one cycle per 2 months.

Some scenarios even have replayability cos there different objectives chosen at random (stewards fear or pony anyone?).

But be warned it can be hard to play but when you win it really feels like an acomplishment

A second core is such a waste of money.

I thought too then i got my third sneak attack and second riversong

I must admit i got my 2nd set for 10 nucks on ebay.

I only have one core and beating every quest (never tried nightmare) is doable, so you really don't need a 2nd one.

For some hardcore power decks (which mostly require many expansions, so it's nothing a beginner would/could play) 2 or even 3 cores can be needed, for example to get all 3 copies of unexpected courage (the only card I ever used a proxie for xD)

If you feel you need an extra copy of card, I recommend a proxie (take a card you would/can never play in your deck and treat it as the desired card), Of course not everyone likes this, but I think it is a good test to see if more copies of a specific card help your deck.

Of course you can prox too.

But iam a freak about proxis everybody like he wants.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Unfortunately, the dealer I want to order the card game at won't have the core-set in stuck until the end of February. So I will let you know how things went once I have had a chance to play with it a bit. The tip of getting the expansions with the heroes I like was a good one, so I'll be looking at the possibilities there as well.

Grivenger,

Along with the buying list already mentioned, this is one of the things I wish I had had when getting into the game.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1108855/back-basics-killer-deck-using-only-cards-single-co/page/1

One of the things about this game is its apparently difficult core set synergies. This is do, in part, to the many shortcomings of the Tactics sphere cards. Many just "want to have fun" and not spend time getting beaten senseless time and again while sojourning down the Anduin. This deck construct should help with that.

Im thinking lcg is good for a lot of things (i dont comment it) but by other side, it gets a problem each time bigger, the huge extension is getting for new players that starts from 0.

I would agree with what JonofPDX said before. You should get one Core set and see how you enjoy the game first. If you like what you see (and I don't see a reason why not), then the Mirkwood cycle is a great cycle to cement the basics of the game.

Aside from the tales from the cards buy guide (which is awesome), I recommend you to check their campaign mode variant as it seems to be something you might also enjoy. It has a set of extra rules aimed and have a comprehensive guide of what can be used and what can't during each cycle froma thematic point of view.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1214867/tale-years-mega-campaign-mode-lotr-lcg

Im thinking lcg is good for a lot of things (i dont comment it) but by other side, it gets a problem each time bigger, the huge extension is getting for new players that starts from 0.

I think that is not entirelly true. I just got the Core Set a month ago, and unlike Netrunner or AGOT, this game doesn't punish you for the lack of content or not being up to date. It's not a competitive game where the meta will destroy you if you are not well prepared/don't have everything. Yes, some quest might be hard to do and will require you some extra packs, but the guide listed above should allow you to choose your next pack carefully so you can get the most out of each small inversion and slowly build your own adventure.

Sorry that I got so late to reading the new additions. I have been unable to require the game as of yet, still out of stock. Will definitely look over the Campaign Mode Variant, as well as the Deck construction on the previous page. I have just noticed a lot of those things are for the single player. I plan on playing the card game with a friend. Are there any deck constructions for two players? If so could someone point me in the right direction?