Everyone likes polls, right? I'm curious how people like to play LotR, so head over to BGG and fill out the poll. Feel free to add discussion here or on the BGG thread.

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1623812/poll-lotr-play-style

Voted. There seems to be quite a few 1 handed solo players like me...

I also play 1 handed solo most of the time. My issue is you need such an efficient deck to play that way the thematic element of the game becomes less fun. But the flip side is 2 handed solo is so hard to manage that it makes the game management aspect a burden and not as fun either. Woe are we who play this game.

*Edit: fixed misspelling(s).

I think it's because we still don't own anything past the first cycle, other than HoN and Steward's Fear which I bought long before I knew what I was doing, but playing solo 1-handed seems downright impossible haha

My partner isn't really an LOTR fan but she loves the gameplay, and is always eager to improve our scores on a quest. I had bought the core set like 4-5 years ago, and the HoN and Steward's Fear a couple years after that, but could never get someone to play it with me, and solo it seemed too hard. Luckily it's been something we do regularly together, since we're both super introverted and do our own things a lot.

Interested to know why 2-handed solo is "hard to manage"?

Oh man, you went straight to HoN? Those quests are brutal. 2-handed can just become difficult because you have two hands to keep track of and twice as many heroes, allies, enemies, etc. It's a lot easier to forget to collect resources, draw cards, trigger effects, raise threat, etc.

I liked to play both solo 1 handed and 2 handed in the past, but in the recent weeks I am playing more and more solo, as it takes less time (so I can play more scenarios in a shorter amount of time). Everything takes so long in 2-handed (what to play, how much to commit to a quest, who shall defend etc.), and I build a lot (I am not even playing all my decks) so the time factor is big for me. The hardest thing to remember in 2 handed for me is threat rising (both doomed and end of the turn). I think I never end up with the threat I should have (often 1-3 points less, but sometimes 1-2 points more).

I play 3 or 4 players game with coordinate decks usually, thanks to octgn. If not, i would play alone (one or two handed decks) till game would become boring.

Voted : 1 hand solo, nightmare.

Oh man, you went straight to HoN? Those quests are brutal. 2-handed can just become difficult because you have two hands to keep track of and twice as many heroes, allies, enemies, etc. It's a lot easier to forget to collect resources, draw cards, trigger effects, raise threat, etc.

Oh no, I bought them because Numenor and the kingdoms of men are my favorite things in LOTR, but I tried them solo like once and haven't been back since lol we've been playing in progression since actually learning how to play and not to play solo lol

I get that playing 2-handed adds a lot to keep track of, that would make things easier to forget. Makes sense.

Interested to know why 2-handed solo is "hard to manage"?

Just the extra logistics of setting up, making 2 complimentary decks, and keeping hands apart on the table is a big part of it. The other part is now I have to juggle an extra strategy in my head of what I plan to do and execute through the game. It can make a player make more mistakes in executing a response to the encounter deck, or just forgetting rules b/c their working on so much already.

Am I alone in this?

I play 3 or 4 players game with coordinate decks usually, thanks to octgn. If not, i would play alone (one or two handed decks) till game would become boring.

Do you coordinate decks prior to starting the OCTGN table? There is always some degree of coordinating to make sure you have all aspects of the game covered, but I was referring to detailed planning of decks, adding cards for other peoples decks, and other aspects that you would need to do before you sat down to the table.

Depend of the player.

Often one player load first, the second try to load a deck that brings the limitations of the first deck, same for the 3rd player, etc.

But there are players that you can build decks with 100% coordination. Few but there are some.

I play 3 or 4 players game with coordinate decks usually, thanks to octgn. If not, i would play alone (one or two handed decks) till game would become boring.

Do you coordinate decks prior to starting the OCTGN table? There is always some degree of coordinating to make sure you have all aspects of the game covered, but I was referring to detailed planning of decks, adding cards for other peoples decks, and other aspects that you would need to do before you sat down to the table.

When mndela and I play on OCTGN normally one person will load a deck and tell the other what they need in a very general sense, like "I have strong attack, medium willpower, and weak defence", and then the other person will find a deck in their library that fills out the necessary roles.

I think doing a card-for-card coordination in an OCTGN pickup game is asking too much.

Exactly, coordination requires a lot more effort and consistent partners. What you described I would call a pickup game.

I find one-deck games so much less interesting than two-deck games, but I can see that if you play with cards then two decks would be tiresome to control. I play all my solo games on OCTGN anyway, I don't really see any reason not to.

I added another question to the poll, so head back over and answer that one too!

I had to vote 0% on all the new questions haha I don't play without my partner, she would not be into going to a store to play with other people, and I don't have a PC for OCTGN lol

I'm actually surprised that around (right now) 60% of all players seem to never play in OCTGN. I play a lot of games there for two reason witch I thought would effect many other players. a) I play with some friends that are located in other towns of Germany so playing together in the same location is nearly impossible especially for regular play and b) OCTGN is so easy to manage and especially setting up a game is so quick that you can playtest new decks way better than actually using the "real" cards.

I play quite a bit (2-handed) solo, virtually all with the real cards. As someone whose job entails staring at a computer screen all day, for me, tabletop is often a way of getting away from electronic devices for an hour or two. And the particular tactile experience of a card game has always been appealing to me -- flipping over that treachery, or physically drawing into Gandalf, seems more dramatically epic than clicking on a screen and seeing a tiny card picture appear. Even the simple act of reshuffling the encounter deck when it empties -- a quick breath and an "Ohh crap, here we go again..." -- has its pleasures.

I grant that building and breaking down decks can take a while, but even that is fun for me. Flipping through my bindered card pages constantly reminds me of the awesome art in the game and gives me ideas for new decks simply by glimpsing the cards again.