Each time my family has tried to beat this game, we can never make it past the Shelob board.

What are some common strategies that you can suggest to actually win?

Do any of the expansions make the game easier? From what I've read it seems that they only add more difficulty, which is definitely not what we're looking for.

How many hobbits? My approach is the main line rush, meaning as much as possible, push the main activity line. Forget about the side lines. You have plenty of space between you and Sauron and every space can be used, you score the same whether your hobbits are 10 away from Sauron or all but one is dead and that one is 1 away. Rushing the main line means less life tokens from the side lines and thus more corruption at the end of each scenario, but also means, ideally you only get 1-2 Events per scenario. If you have a shot at exiting with 0 Events, take it, take it. I use the Ring pretty much each scenario. Get to three spaces from the end of the main activity line and you have a 50-50 shot of ending the scenario (in Shelob's Lair I use the Ring a bit earlier, to skip the two die roll spaces).

I've played many times (with all expansions) and never won. I usually play to beat my previous best score - I think its one of those games that is a real challenge to beat, or at least it is for me as well.

However, it's still fun!

I still haven't dared to take on the Full Monty: base + Friends & Foes + Battlefields + Sauron. Just playing what I call the Beast (base + F&F + BF) was hard enough.

Whenever I've played with 3 characters, it's gone fairly well, and that's with picking up the tokens to prevent us becoming too corrupted. We definitely make sure to use the ring to get through some of the nastier areas on the boards (ie multiple dice roll sections).We still have yet to win, but we almost always lose on the last space, and the dice roll gets us. Plus we also have a guy that doesn't do well with coop games, so he still often tries to give everyone else a headache because he strives to team up with Sauron. Still, even wit htis treachery we get pretty close, the more you play, the better your strategies get.

I emailed Rules Questions regarding the Rivendell and Lothlorien feature cards. The new rules change was purposeful; all cards are distributed among the players!...

Quite honestly, I think that the game is too easy for my group. I've only played with 2 players, and it was fun, but then we figured it out and are winning almost every time on Sauron on 10. I would advise stocking up your traveling as much as you can and then unload on the Mordor board. Works close to every time. I wish the expansions would become New edition compatible for Sam and I.

I know it's already been asked, but there really are different strategies based on the number of players.

As mentioned before, rushing the main activity line helps no matter how many players you have. Once your are a few spaces from the end of the track, start accumulating life tokens, healing corruption, and drawing cards. Put on the ring on every board to skip unwanted spaces or to end the board early. It's not always possible, but try to have Sam as the ringbearer in Mordor.

In a two-player game, cards are your biggest concern. Tip: don't "waste" too many turns only playing one card (usually because you're short of grey cards). Instead draw two and hope for a better play next turn. Call Gandalf as much as possible. Try to have Sam land on all of the black squares. Try to save the Belt and Mithril Shirt until you reach the final space (60).

In a five-player game, you won't have enough life tokens for everyone to survive each board unscathed. Also, you're runes will be too spread out to call Gandalf much. You will not have any card shortages with five players though.

I find three-player to be the most balanced regarding cards, runes, and life tokens. If you have more than three players in your family, just play with three and have the others cheer them on! Once your family has won, then try a different number of players.

Robert

Titeman said:

Thanks! I was just about to email them myself but thought I would search to see if anyone else had already asked them.

By "distributed", do you mean "Alright, who needs a grey-double-fight? Ok, you get that one. Who wants the Lembas?" Or should it mean "shuffle and deal face down" as in the original game?

I like the change for two-players. I always hated discarding eight really useful cards every game.

Robert

My wife and I came within one space of beating the game the first time we played it and we've never come as close ever since. It's still fun even when we lose though, so when we do win it's going to be awesome!

Usually we play with 2 players with Frodo focusing on the side lines and Sam on the main path. Missing life tokens aren't too bad for Sam. We always rush those side lines which help to avoid super nasty events in the middle of a scene.

My gaming partner and I have found a good strategy in focusing on eliminating the monsters that appear at the beginning of each game board. If you defeat all 30 monsters you win the game regardless of whether or not Frodo makes it to Mount Doom. We've won a few times using this strategy. We've also found that the more players one has, the easier the game is by default.

Even Reiner Knizia himself doesn't like the Military Victory option as is, he instituted the Black Gate variant. I haven't come across many people on the forums (FFG or BGG) that use the Military Victory option. Either they don't use it at all (too easy and cheesy), they use the Black Gate variant (BG at the bottom of the Foe deck, when it empties, shuffle back to eight black icon Foes) or like me, use a permanent Black Gate, meaning it is placed at the bottom of the Foe deck even after a reshuffle. MV is a lame win.

Dam said:

That's right. When I said in my post I had never won, I wasn't counting military victories (which I have achieved thrice - two without and once with the Black Gate card). It just didn't feel like a victory so I simply carried on towards Mount Doom and killed my Hobbits in the process.