After dancing around it for many months, last week I decided to take the plunge and purchased a copy! I'll be starting a new campaign with some co-workers next week, but I was curious to hear of any impressions, advice, or considerations when starting a new game.

As always, I would love to hear any thoughts! I'm so jazzed to start playing!

In general, I'd say it's not a brutally difficult game so you should be able to pick up the strategy just fine as you go. That said, the key is to make the most use possible out of your limited actions per turn, especially on the Journey maps. Try to only perform tests if you feel confident you'll pass, try to avoid having to backtrack, explore at a steady but cautious pace, pay attention to learning the synergies among your cards, and remember to keep your eyes on the prize -- you don't need to kill every enemy or complete every side-quest to succeed in the scenario (though you'll want to do as much as you can to earn XP and Lore to level up your items).

Other than that, Legolas and Gimli are killing machines, so handy to have them in your party. Also, make sure you have a Pathfinder for the Journey maps.

Yeah... Very much as that.

The best bit of strategy I can offer is to explore unexplored tiles ASAP! They run up threat like crazy, which limits the time you have to interact with as many tokens as possible before the end of the adventure.

13 hours ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

The best bit of strategy I can offer is to explore unexplored tiles ASAP! They run up threat like crazy, which limits the time you have to interact with as many tokens as possible before the end of the adventure.

True, but it can be dangerous to explore an unexplored tile if it's the last player's turn, since exploration can often reveal even *more* unexplored tiles or threat tokens.

20 hours ago, Kjeld said:

True, but it can be dangerous to explore an unexplored tile if it's the last player's turn, since exploration can often reveal even *more* unexplored tiles or threat tokens.

Case in point just happened in a game. In an attempt to avoid triggering the next threat event, I had Berevor Sprint (gaining 1 exp and 1 inspiration) to explore a cave at the end of the turn... only to reveal three more unexplored tiles and 2 new enemies! *facepalm*

On 11/25/2019 at 7:17 PM, Kjeld said:

Case in point just happened in a game. In an attempt to avoid triggering the next threat event, I had Berevor Sprint (gaining 1 exp and 1 inspiration) to explore a cave at the end of the turn... only to reveal three more unexplored tiles and 2 new enemies! *facepalm*

Yeah, there's definitely a judgement call to be made. I usually pay attention to the fog to determine if there might be more tiles in a certain direction. Basically, if there's fog there it's a good idea to keep a two tile buffer between you and it. Of course, I'm sure we all found out quickly that "no fog" doesn't mean "no more map."

I wouldn't choose Bilbo to start with, as his playstyle is more complex and he's the most vulnerable to getting killed (I lost my first game on turn 2...not my greatest moment...let's just say he got shot by "event arrows"--you'll know if you play the Bones of Arnor).

Legolas and Gimli are probably the most straightforward to play with, as they can handle enemies most easily. I personally prefer the Aragorn and Elena team though, one with the harp and the other with the banner. With this setup the inspiration keeps flowing in, especially once they gain more XP.

Managing your scouting and prepared cards is probably the most important part of this game. Generally you want to prepare cards with no successes and put the success cards on top of your deck, but some success cards can be really powerful and useful when prepared. In the early game though, you only get 4 successes in your deck and you'll mostly want to be drawing those on tests rather than preparing them. Once you get XP, gun for the success cards, but choose ones you'll want prepared because you'll be preparing them more and more as the game goes on. Inspiration will become your main source of successes.

After many delays, I finally got around to doing a Test Game with my regular game group at the start of the New Year. As we were not intending this to be a full campaign, we opted for the Adventure Mode, just to allow us more breathing room to understand the rules (the party includes Aragorn, Bilbo, Legolas, and Gimli).

With this in mind, the threat meter still went up quite dramatically, but this was more to do with us not recognizing the importance of Threat Tokens. As the meter climbed higher and higher, we finally were able to reveal the Bandit's Hideout, with hordes of orcs, bandits, and wargs arriving and making it really doubtful that we could succeed. As a last ditch effort, Bilbo attempted to find the secret entrance after Legolas had failed after multiple efforts. Sure enough, the Hobbit was able to find the way in, and just in time to save the game!

I personally love it so far, even after one playthrough, but other members of the group are a bit reserved, citing the threat meter (which is essentially a timer) as frustrating to compete with. Personally, I don't find the threat meter as arbitrary as traditional turn-counters (like in Imperial Assault), and it does contribute to a sense of urgency. Does the maximum threat limit differ from each adventure, or does it stay at the set level from the start of the campaign?

22 minutes ago, Kunitzu San said:

Does the maximum threat limit differ from each adventure, or does it stay at the set level from the start of the campaign?

It changes. Some threat tokens will even reduce the current threat.

Early game, if you work to reduce how much threat will accumulate each round you can really extend the adventures. Playing on normal I can usually get most or all of the tokens and complete the objectives. Although it can come back and bite you. One of the last adventures I played I explored two tiles and had to put down five threat tokens.

EDIT: Oh, and battle maps usually have much lower threat limits, but there usually isn't a whole lot to interact with.

On 1/5/2020 at 11:47 AM, Kunitzu San said:

After many delays, I finally got around to doing a Test Game with my regular game group at the start of the New Year. As we were not intending this to be a full campaign, we opted for the Adventure Mode, just to allow us more breathing room to understand the rules (the party includes Aragorn, Bilbo, Legolas, and Gimli).

With this in mind, the threat meter still went up quite dramatically, but this was more to do with us not recognizing the important of Threat Tokens. As the meter climbed higher and higher, we finally were able to reveal the Bandit's Hideout, with hordes of orcs, bandits, and wargs arriving and making it really doubtful that we could succeed. As a last ditch effort, Bilbo attempted to find the secret entrance after Legolas had failed after multiple efforts. Sure enough, the Hobbit was able to find the way in, and just in time to save the game!

I personally love it so far, even after one playthrough, but other members of the group are a bit reserved, citing the threat meter (which is essentially a timer) as frustrating to compete with. Personally, I don't find the threat meter as arbitrary as traditional turn-counters (like in Imperial Assault), and it does contribute to a sense of urgency. Does the maximum threat limit differ from each adventure, or does it stay at the set level from the start of the campaign?

The threat meter takes some getting used to. This game is all about trade-offs, so you need to balance exploration with the risk of generating new threat. Some guidelines:

1) don't explore too much too fast. Exploring can generate new explored areas, which means more threat increases.

2) explore areas that aren't near fog first. They're less likely to generate more unexplored areas.

3) Try to explore earlier in the action phase rather than later. This gives you time to deal with any threat tokens, unexplored areas, or enemies that might ruin your day.

4) try not to waste too much time moving. The more moving you do, the less other stuff you have time to do.

5) waiting for enemies to come to you, or using ranged weapons, saves you time.

6) focus on the mission objectives. You won't always have time to search everything (but sometimes you will).

7) don't neglect threat and search tokens. Removing Threat tokens decreases threat increase, and both search and threat token may also decrease the actual threat meter. I personally love these kind of events. By the way, always light the signal fire. You won't be sorry.

On 1/10/2020 at 4:25 PM, player3640663 said:

The threat meter takes some getting used to. This game is all about trade-offs, so you need to balance exploration with the risk of generating new threat. Some guidelines:

1) don't explore too much too fast. Exploring can generate new explored areas, which means more threat increases.

2) explore areas that aren't near fog first. They're less likely to generate more unexplored areas.

3) Try to explore earlier in the action phase rather than later. This gives you time to deal with any threat tokens, unexplored areas, or enemies that might ruin your day.

4) try not to waste too much time moving. The more moving you do, the less other stuff you have time to do.

5) waiting for enemies to come to you, or using ranged weapons, saves you time.

6) focus on the mission objectives. You won't always have time to search everything (but sometimes you will).

7) don't neglect threat and search tokens. Removing Threat tokens decreases threat increase, and both search and threat token may also decrease the actual threat meter. I personally love these kind of events. By the way, always light the signal fire. You won't be sorry.

Thanks for the tips! I started a new campaign with other friends, and I kept those pointers in mind as we were playing. We're all loving it so far, and are excited to continue onto the Battle Board tonight!

Session three is starting up tonight! We're back on the Journey Map to continue our hunt for Gulgator. Very excited to progress!

We just finished Chapter 5, suffering our first loss. It wasn't as big a setback, as we were able to accumulate substantial lore so that everyone was able to upgrade their items. We play in the Conference Room at our office, so I have my laptop plugged into our big monitor and we just have lots of fun as passerbys poke their head in to see what we are doing. We have had a lot of interest, and I think this game is going to be a big hit after working hours! Can't wait to finish this one up and start Hunt for the Ember Crown!

11 hours ago, Kunitzu San said:

We just finished Chapter 5, suffering our first loss. It wasn't as big a setback, as we were able to accumulate substantial lore so that everyone was able to upgrade their items. We play in the Conference Room at our office, so I have my laptop plugged into our big monitor and we just have lots of fun as passerbys poke their head in to see what we are doing. We have had a lot of interest, and I think this game is going to be a big hit after working hours! Can't wait to finish this one up and start Hunt for the Ember Crown!

Chapter 5 is the only one I don't think I've ever won against, in several campaigns. Not sure if there's a trick to it or you just have to get really lucky?

10 hours ago, SpiderMana said:

Chapter 5 is the only one I don't think I've ever won against, in several campaigns. Not sure if there's a trick to it or you just have to get really lucky?

This is my first play-through, but it certainly felt like the odds were stacked against us. We probably could have made it if it weren't for one of our party members dying from fear damage, at which point we only had to the end of the round. Had he rallied, I think we probably could have made it.

How long is the Bones of Arnor Campaign? I know Ember Crown is around 5-6 chapters.

24 minutes ago, Kunitzu San said:

This is my first play-through, but it certainly felt like the odds were stacked against us. We probably could have made it if it weren't for one of our party members dying from fear damage, at which point we only had to the end of the round. Had he rallied, I think we probably could have made it.

How long is the Bones of Arnor Campaign? I know Ember Crown is around 5-6 chapters.

I don’t know. My next play will be chapter 10, I skipped one chapter.

1 hour ago, Kunitzu San said:

This is my first play-through, but it certainly felt like the odds were stacked against us. We probably could have made it if it weren't for one of our party members dying from fear damage, at which point we only had to the end of the round. Had he rallied, I think we probably could have made it.

How long is the Bones of Arnor Campaign? I know Ember Crown is around 5-6 chapters.

Yeah, it’s always from people dying. Maybe if we took it slower and dealt with the enemies more and didn’t risk being in darkness so much? Who knows.

Arnor can be... I want to say 11-13 missions? Depending on if you take one optional path that adds a bit?

And I want to say Ember Crown is definitely longer than 5-6 chapters, but I suppose there are several optional missions towards being beginning.