I love fantasy themed games, but I've always struggled with Terrinoth based games because of the cartoony nature of the art. It feels very Warcraft to me.

One of the best parts of the LOTR LCG is the artwork/flavour text lore. If they are bringing that to this game with ffgs improving quality of minis, it will be a beautiful game on the table.

I am a fan of the Terrinoth games, so long as I like the system they utilize... it is a fairly vanilla fantasy theme, but because FFG own the IP I do not worry about it being suddenly discontinued like the Warhammer games.

The three games I enjoy based in Terrinoth are:

Runebound (both the revised 1E and 2E)
Descent 2nd edition
Heroes of Terrinoth.

That said... had any of these launched as Middle Earth IP, I would love them even more... and would more easily get my wife to join us at the table, as Middle Earth is her favorite setting in book and on film.

Also, None of these games are as steeped in narrative as Journeys in Middle Earth appears to be... In Descent, there are lieutenants that crop up each campaign, but I rarely think back on a plot when I think of the game.
I hope I am correct that this will play as a slightly more tactical Mansions of Madness in Middle Earth, based on today's article.

They would better republished Middle-Earth Quest...

I think this game will be an rpg lite game that will hopefully create the game experience that many who play Imperial Assault campaigns discover they want, including myself.

That's not to say Imperial Assault is bad, it's fun for what it is, but many have stated (including myself) that they wish that game had a little more.

As others have stated, this LOTR game seems to take successful mechanics from other games and push them into one. MoM, IA, Descent, LOTR LCG (the amazing artwork), etc.

I imagine that the game will send players on a variety of adventures that will ultimately culminate in a finale of sorts and complete a campaign (akin to IA and Descent). A main difference I see is instead of playing on a small localized map, each adventure will take place on a map similar to that of Fallout, with encounters/battles taking place on the smaller boards.

14 adventures total in the base game, and a complete campaign will probably consist of only half of those depending on successes and failures (much like Descent and IA) and perhaps even decisions made during encounters, although these may just add flavor to each individual quest.

I can see the base came coming with 6 heroes and all the "grunt" enemy minis with additional heroes and "bosses" available as expansions(bosses would be cardboard tokens like IA and Descent). I can't see them adding quests with these character expansions but I can see them adding skill decks and additional items and encounter cards and the like (or whatever mechanic the games uses).

Board expansions will be done the way of "small box" and "big box" as is done with IA and Descent also.

Will the game be playable without the app? I'm thinking no, as the variety of characters, roles of those characters (Gimli as say a smuggler/thief), decisions with encounters, and pathways of successes and failures would be a nightmare to keep track of with an overlord and pencil and paper. I'm not saying people won't come to the rescue and make their own adventures and make this possible, I think this game is perfect for it in fact, I'm just saying the base game won't have this ability.

Those are my thoughts for now, I look forward to the additional previews!

I am also interested to see how this will flesh out for expansions. Basically it could go either MoM or IA... or something in between.

MoM would be strictly box expansions, with the odd direct to App scenario/quest release that you purchase for a small amount like $7.99. As this is set up in a campaign structure.. I think it lends more to IA's structure. IA would be box expansions punctuated by figure waves, including having to purchase additional figure packs to flesh out the cardboard tokens provided in the expansions for 'boss' or named minis (IE: Saruman).

This is a more aggressive approach, but allows them to most likely cover more content and get more minis into our hands. Where this approach failed for me in IA was that the missions that accompany the figures you buy barely ever get played. Allies are not a great asset in IA, unless given to you in a mission already, and there are generally much greater rewards the Rebels will seek in their side quests. This is part of the reason I am glad they decided to include lore heroes versus made up ones, now instead of trying to do a side quest to get Legolas, we can play AS him for the whole campaign.

20 minutes ago, FrogTrigger said:

.. Where this approach failed for me in IA was that the missions that accompany the figures you buy barely ever get played. Allies are not a great asset in IA, unless given to you in a mission already, and there are generally much greater rewards the Rebels will seek in their side quests. This is part of the reason I am glad they decided to include lore heroes versus made up ones, now instead of trying to do a side quest to get Legolas, we can play AS him for the whole campaign.

This does ignore the IA skirmish mode, where the allies are more useful, and the skirmish maps can be fun additions.

For those of you that have experience with this type of game from FFG, how much table space will it need and about how long will a single game be?

19 minutes ago, Bullroarer Took said:

For those of you that have experience with this type of game from FFG, how much table space will it need and about how long will a single game be?

That's a really tough question considering what is actually known about the game.

I would hope that the playmat was all that was required and that size should give you a rough idea as to the footprint of the game. It's 3' x 3' btw and might only be made for map tiles and not player boards, card piles, etc.

I think the playtime would also be rather subjective based on AP and player count etc.

A single mission of Imperial Assault I'd say from setup to tear down is about 3 hours for myself and group but we've had missions go 4+ hours, but that's also without an App helping out so...

1 hour ago, Bullroarer Took said:

For those of you that have experience with this type of game from FFG, how much table space will it need and about how long will a single game be?

The FFG games I've played have always covered the table well. From what I can tell, this game will require some space for up to 5 players (a character card, several small cards and a deck/discard pile for each one) plus wilderness tiles and a couple of dungeon tiles in the middle of the table. I don't yet know whether these will be swapped out when switching between overland/dungeon modes.

I really hope this leans a little more towards MoM than Imperial Assault/Decent. It obviously has a campaign more like IA/D but I'd love for there to be more of an exploration/investigation theme than either of those have (at least in my somewhat limited playing). I'd like to see puzzles/riddles to solve as well as opportunities to avoid danger/combat. Something along the lines of seeing a big troll down by the river but we stick to a path high above to avoid his notice. I should be able to make a decision on whether or not we engage - at least in some cases. We'll at least TRY to slip through the Mines of Moria undetected while avoiding traveling too closely to Isengard. Maybe we can trick some trolls into staying up until dawn arguing instead swinging swords in futility. While I'm sure I'd still enjoy it, I'd be a little disappointed if this ends up being a run around and kill things kind of game. IA often has me feeling like the exploration is an afterthought - you open a door and a bunch of enemies are waiting (that sort of fits with Star Wars though).

On 1/11/2019 at 8:16 PM, Alternauta said:

It's more like LOTR Mansion of Madness and Runebound/Middle-Earth Quest with some Descent mechanisms. And personally I'm not sure if I like it. Too many full co-op games recently. And I prefer real person as the Overlord/Game Master than app. I hope AI will be better than in Descent app.

Someone forgot the pain to set up MoM1. One small error in the set up by the “real person” game master and ... your complete evening was ruined. The WORST and most awful gaming sessions in my life came from bad Game Masters.

Always wondered where all these surprising GM were situated... Not in my neighbourhood (except for a very few lucky evenings).

Also how could this be a Descent game? It doesn’t use dice, it has hexes as expansive world terrain and uses cards constantly throughout the game...

In fact of all the hybrid games I know only 2 have similar software. Descent2 and IA. X-Com completely different, MoM2 is very different, the Martian, The Witcher and many others all have different programs.

My theory is that MoM2 was the blueprint for how all FFG's big-boxed questing games will be from now on. A central app, and tiles divided into areas delineated with white lines, rather than having square grids. If Descent 3 or IA2 ever happen, I'd expect them to follow the MoM2 format rather than their previous versions.

It's just a feeling, but I have some confidence in it.

Not sure if that works with the spirit of a game like Descent or IA, as the MoM system is more RPGish with the disengage checks for combat. It really tends to slow the combat down I find. A game like IA needs fast paced combat, particularly for the skirmish side of things.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy the MoM game, but strictly for combat I prefer the grid system and it is more suited to what those games are about.

The good thing about this game is that it comes after Descent, Imperial Assault, Middle Earth Quest and Mansions of Madness. All the lessons learned and player feedback should make this the best of the lot so far.

On 1/11/2019 at 10:49 PM, FrogTrigger said:

Looks awesome, as I said in the other thread it looks like they took some mechanics from a lot of games like MoM 2nd, Descent 2nd, Runebound, Arkham Horro, and threw it all together to create a new experience.

At first I was disappointed as I've always thought a LOTR version of IA would be SOOO much fun.. but something new might be better in this case.

I very much look forward to the 'explore and adventure' aspect of the game, reminds me a lot of Tainted Grail which I just backed.

I am going to assume that the minis on the exploration board will represent encounters. So essentially if you choose to travel to that area, or maybe an in game mechanic makes them move towards you, and you end up on the same tile, then it flips into battle mode and you play out that battle on the encounter tiles before moving on.

Which is actually very similar to my favourite video game of all time, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, spoilered for size:

LOTR IP deserves something far better than a dungeon crawler. It needs to have an exploring gameplay, not just battle encounter.

On Friday, January 11, 2019 at 2:23 PM, Shirys said:

My first adventuring party:

Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas.

Let's hunt some orc!

Gotta buy 3 cores now so we can have 3 Hunter class character decks!

2 hours ago, HirumaShigure said:

Gotta buy 3 cores now so we can have 3 Hunter class character decks!

Are you sure that 3 cores is enough?

🤣

5 hours ago, HirumaShigure said:

Gotta buy 3 cores now so we can have 3 Hunter class character decks!

Eeesh, that's a hefty sum