I've spent the past ten minutes trying to figure out what in the world this is: https://www.lotrcardgamecollection.com

It's a collaborative effort from FFG and Hachette.

It appears that it may actually be the "new form" of the game that was supposed to come after the hiatus. (If true, plans must have been accelerated.)

It's also not available outside of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, at least for now.

Whatever it is, the players of this game deserve some sort of comment or announcement from FFG for crying out loud!

59 minutes ago, Iranon said:

Whatever it is, the players of this game deserve some sort of comment or announcement from FFG for crying out loud!

Can I get an amen!

odd.

I live in the UK and am please to see this product, or even any new product, however as an owner of everything released so far I'm wondering what's in it for me? ****, what's in it for new players?

So my thoughts on what I might get out of this:

Extra copies of cards so that we can play 2 handed solo.
New versions of card (alt art, foils, updated errata)
Strategy aarticles in full colour with new art
Special products like the 3 gifts on subscription.
Continued support for the game
New quests or campaign modes with old or new cards. New objective allies etc.

Also, I remember ICE version of the LOTR card game called MiddleEarth and they released some books on decks, cards, strategy and new quests. I'm guessing FFG has been inspired by that game in this new venture.

So... that's £6.99 an issue and 4 issues a month. £27.96 a month. This had better be good. For that money they need to put a lot more info on the site.

This type of magazine subscription where you collect hobby based cards or pieces every month seems to be a popular and common thing in the UK. Whereas in the US it's more of an oddity, you don't see this sort of thing very often, if at all. If I hadn't read about these magazines in certain forums I wouldn't even be aware of them.

In the US we're getting a lot of "thing of the month" clubs now - like beer of the month, t-shirt of the month, or something like that. But it doesn't usually come with a magazine.

This seems really weird. I thought it was a joke at first.

These sort of magazines are common here in the UK, but a lot of them die off quite quickly. Seems a very odd choice for a game like this.

4 minutes ago, CaffeineAddict said:

This seems really weird. I thought it was a joke at first.

These sort of magazines are common here in the UK, but a lot of them die off quite quickly. Seems a very odd choice for a game like this.

Are the magazines typically substantial, or just a few pages to accompany the “parts”?

Yeah, at first I was quite excited but reading everything on the website is putting me off. It looks like they are drip feeding the saga expansions but from the entire card pool that we already have.

60 cards in issue 1

24 cards in issue 2

18 cards in issue 3

16 cards in issue 4

Then I'm guessing aprox 16 cards an issue?

So theoretically in 10 regular months you'll pay £279.60 for 40 magazines and aprox 160 cards and associated counters and rules/strategy articles. Looks like a good portion of the magazine is the lore of middle earth and it's characters, artifacts locations etc.

Issue 1 actually has the player drawing a starting hand of 3 cards.

I get the vibe that there's going to be nothing new here and that it's just to get more mileage out of the existing game.

I have the impression that FFG simply don't have the balls to say the game is done. (Although, players tend to ditch a game once a final announcement has been made. (Team covenant posted a message saying customers couldn't back out of paid subscriptions when FFG announced the end of Star Wars Destiny) so maybe I can't blame them. But this new magazine seems to be going over old ground for more money rather than producing a new space for the game and players. Like a cash grab. If this had been new cards, campaigns, even a new era it would have been very appealing. But even new players will be better off picking up the proper game than this magazine. All the strategy is on you tube and the internet why get a magazine. This logically means that FFG may not be printing sets now. Why would they? It would only hurt sales of the magazine. FFG have indeed kept this quiet which means it is a handing over the product rather than a real collaboration otherwise there would have been major announcements, articles and spotlight on new products. They were very quick to announce they have Dead of Winter from plaid hat games.

The only hopeful idea is that they are trying to bring in more players before releasing new content... but why not simply reprint existing stuff more often and ship.. the forums are always full of gamers demanding reprints so the market is there. Fix the core set to include 3 of every card and it'll instantly be more successful.

I don't see how this can be a bad thing because it is a way of bringing new people into the game.

Well this is interesting. It seems more like a side thing for the U.K. players since we in the rest of the world Arendt included. But interesting that the first we hear of it is not from FFG. Oh well if it gets more players into the game, awesome in my book. Also foil cards are sweet and opportunities for alt-arts, errata (stronger or weaker) is there too. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

8 hours ago, Iranon said:

Are the magazines typically substantial, or just a few pages to accompany the “parts”?

It's highly variable. Some things like this are almost book-like, and others just a handful of pages with a glossy cover. I haven't seen this one in a shop yet, so I don't know what this one is like.

Also I've been doing more reading on the site.
It looks to be the saga only. And they've only teased foils as being different.
It's 60 issues at £6.99 so £419.40)
Over 1,200 cards.

Issue 1 60 cards
Issue 2 24 cards
Issue 3 18 cards
Issue 4 16 cards

Meaning 1082 cards over 56 issues is 19.34 cards an issue. let's make it 20.

They must be drip feeding 1 stage of a quest per issue on easy mode to put this out in 60 issues.
There are 6 saga boxes with 3 quests each say with 3 stages each and the two POD quests. So that's 60 stages. (For 60 issues.. neat)

Cost is £419 spread over 15 months.

Now you could just buy the game...
1 core set £35 and 215 cards
6 saga sets £27 and 165 cards each (£162 and 990 cards)
2 print on demands £30 and 120 cards

So total cost is £227 and 1265 cards

Throw in the three novels £26.97
An encyclopedia £25.99
A playmat £15.99
A Tolkien art book £25.99
Total extra is £94.94

Total spend is £321.94 room to buy two more core sets. 😁

@asgardianphil availability is also a factor. I really struggled to get hold of the sagas. If I was starting out I’d be seriously considering taking up on this. I’m even thinking about getting the first issues as I still don’t have the POD quests. UK stock levels are so bad ☹️ and, as a casual player, I’m not on the ball of when stock is in.

I am up to date with the LOTR LCG but I'm still tempted to buy this, just because a weekly magazine could encourage my kids to play.

I wonder if the card quality would be different... if they are really planning on being able to print this every week, would it be more akin to the PoD material?

59 minutes ago, player3351457 said:

I wonder if the card quality would be different... if they are really planning on being able to print this every week, would it be more akin to the PoD material?

A community member picked up the cards and told us that the quality is the same as the POD expansions. That means a different card texture than the usual expansions. The cards also appear a slightly different colour when compared to their Core Set counterparts. But to those of us sleeving our collection, the texture doesn't matter a lot.

Having to cut out your cards and most importantly tokens? Eww. I guess you track your threat on paper with a pencil?

Well, I'm currently towards the end of two Hachette subscriptions, so I have a couple comments...

Typically these publications contain occasional "opt-out" items. They can vary in cost and quality, but from my existing subscriptions they tend to be books for anything from £10 to £20, up to the latest one from the Warhammer Conquest subscription which was a £35 paint guide - it sounds a lot, but contained that much just in paint alone, so was probably the best bargain of the bunch

With that in mind, I wonder what the opt-out items could be with this subscription - additional cards? Alt-arts? Sleeves? It will be interesting to find out.

From what we know:

1. The to be released collection is not the full game (insufficient volume).

2. FFG has made no announcement of this.

3. Distribution is UK/Ireland only.

4. The new golden rule is “if you don’t know what something means, ignore it” (says so on tue pictures on the CotR fb page).

5. The promotion of this product relies on an initial bait offer and tacky (non)-descriptions of what the game is actually about.

6. Caleb was not aware of this.

For me the conclusion at hand is that this is a local attempt to cash in on existing material targeting an audience that is not aware of the current game’s existence.

I think it is safe to say that this has nothing to do with the future (or non-future) of the game itself. Presumably, the reason we haven’t heard from it by FFG is that the product is not for the core gamer audience.

Not a peep from FFG about this and Caleb was unaware of this existing, different rules in certain spots (i.e. drawing 3 cards at setup, their "Golden Rule" of ignore stuff if you don't know etc.) looks sketchy AF.

I'm a UK player, and these magazines are a standard thing here. They're not aimed at the people on these boards or BGG but for a more casual audience with an interest in LoTR. I'm with some of the above posters that think it's a great idea as it will (hopefully) bring new players to the game. After 60 magazines you'll have over 1200 cards, and presumably all of the LoTR Saga scenarios, so more than enough to be going on with.

21 hours ago, soullos said:

their "Golden Rule" of ignore stuff if you don't know

Heyyy, I kind of like that one. Better than my usual Golden Rule of "just automatically assume the worst" because the encounter deck is trying to kill you lol.

I wouldn't follow it, I'm too obsessive-compulsive. But i like it.

11 hours ago, Vince79 said:

Heyyy, I kind of like that one. Better than my usual Golden Rule of "just automatically assume the worst" because the encounter deck is trying to kill you lol.

I wouldn't follow it, I'm too obsessive-compulsive. But i like it.

I kinda don't. Rule conundrums are usually "either or", and can't be ignored, lest the game be stalled and/or abandoned. Sounds like a very unhealthy rule.

I'm not on Facebook so I can't see the comments posted under the photos. Did anyone post a list of the cards in the first issue?

I see there is at least one Unexpected Courage, and A Test of Will, but what about other key cards from the core set (Sneak Attack, Feint, Gandalf, and Brok Ironfist!)? Also, though there is a slight colour difference between cards, did anyone mention if it is noticeable on the back of the cards?

I guess what I'm asking is, can us cheapskates use the first issue to bulk up our "missing" core set cards!? Assuming we can find a copy, that is...