Hi all,

Since it is such a popular question by new players, I wanted to answer what packs should be bought early. The target audience is either new players who are looking for packs containing highlight player cards and quests, and players looking to expand their collection with duplicate cards from these packs (We all need more Daeron's Runes in our lives right?).

That's why I created this poll that I would like to ask you fill in: https://forms.gle/SLMDC2Xf5wxyqUJ48

This poll asks what expansions are must-buys for players to get their hands on amazing scenarios and player cards. If you don't remember which packs contain what cards, I would ask you to please check Hall of Beorn. Even if everyone would just quickly review one cycle each, that would help me and everyone who is eventually going to read the article a lot. I intend to take all the data and make a short-list of the packs worth picking up and a brief explanation why. If you have comments on your decisions, please place the comments at the bottom of the poll, makes it easier for me to check than a thread like this.

If you have questions, feel free to ask. Otherwise, I would already like to thank you for filling in the form (in part) and will have the article ready in a few weeks.

Durins_Father

I certainly respect the resource you are trying to develop, but for me this is an impossible question to answer since what someone should start with seems to be rooted largely in that individual's own subjective preferences.

I think it's quite possible to build quality decks around pretty much any favorite Hero or favorite theme. If someone really likes Rohan, or loves the Hobbit and the big party of Dwarves, or has always had Faramir as a favorite character, that's going to really suggest quite different starting points for what to pick up first in order to start acquiring some key foundations for that theme/Hero.

Even then, I also recommend to all new players to start with the Mirkwood cycle, as it's got some excellent player cards throughout and its six quests link to the Core Set and give a coherent story if players want to play in order, giving them 9 Quests to throw their first decks against. The downside of grabbing the odd pack here and there to develop an early theme is that it's harder to play the quests in those packs (1) without the corresponding Deluxe and (2) without missing the linear narrative of the cycle in which that quest is couched.


So I think the "best" starting point for most new players probably looks a bit like:

+Core Set
+Second Core Set (while two isn't necessary, it is, unfortunately, very very valuable)
+Mirkwood Cycle
+Select Deluxe/Adventure packs that acquire favorite Heroes or foundations for favorite theme (requires a bit of research to know what comes in what)

Don't want to be difficult, but some of your questions are really tough to answer. For example Return to Mirkwood is not a good quest for solo one hand, but has Dain who is one of the best Hero's around. If there's the choice and you're short of cash, I would start with Khazad Dum and the Dwarrowdelf cycle because it has super player cards and decent adventures. All of the other cycles are perfectly decent but the later ones are often harder. The first cycle can be a bit variable as the designers were still finding their feet, but is perfectly OK and a reasonable choice to start with. Do buy a second core at some point (doesn't have to be immediate) as the extra player cards are useful, but don't bother with a third.

I'm not keen on the saga games personally but they do provide some decent player cards (I thought The Hobbit adventures were poor, and the LoTR saga cycle takes months to play which I find a pain - note to Caleb if you ever read this - everyone on the boards raves about the sagas but I prefer the more standalone games or more relaxed cycle adventures which you can pull out at any time and just play as one-offs). With regard to the PODs, Stone of Erech is an absolute must buy, and all of the others are perfectly good, but can be difficult.

I'd recommend the Mirkwood cycle first for the sole reason that you can follow Beorn's Path longer. Beyond that, I think availability trumps anything else.

I have a small suggestion: perhaps a "Must need (quest and cards)" option would be useful.

On 10/25/2019 at 6:36 PM, JonG said:

I'm not keen on the saga games personally but they do provide some decent player cards (I thought The Hobbit adventures were poor, and the LoTR saga cycle takes months to play which I find a pain - note to Caleb if you ever read this - everyone on the boards raves about the sagas but I prefer the more standalone games or more relaxed cycle adventures which you can pull out at any time and just play as one-offs). With regard to the PODs, Stone of Erech is an absolute must buy, and all of the others are perfectly good, but can be difficult.

I've been playing through the LotR saga without using campaign mode. There is really nothing stopping you from treating the saga as a collection of stand-alone adventures. Their quality is excellent and doesn't at all depend on the few extra campaign elements.

I would still hesitate to recommend them to a new player. The quests start out challenging with a small card pool, and they get progressively harder. Mirkwood or the Dwarrowdelf cycle might be safer starting points.