I am about to purchase the Core Set, mainly for the Solo aspect, I like a game I can play solo while I listen to music. I have friends to play with, but I want to know if the game is good in Solo mode.

Where are you about to buy it from is the more important question. Seeing as how the game isn't even out yet...

The_Audiophile said:

I'm going to buy it for the same reasons... this way, even when I want to play it and don't have friends around, I can still enjoy the game.

If it is good? from what I have read and seen (from the video Tutorial) it plays like 2 player mode with the exception of the 2nd player (of course) and a slight change in rules, for example, you only draw 1 card from the ..."Sauron" deck instead of 2, and so on...

Basically, if you think you would enjoy it 2 player, you might like it 1 player too.

I played WoW the boardgame single player mode (lol) and it was really awesome =) but in that ocasion, it's better with more players because it's a co-op pvp game LotR it's just Co-Op

I hope it's good solo.

Can't really say for sure until I play it though.

Sorry about that, I meant buy as in Preorder.

None of us can honestly answer that question as we have not had the chance to pay it solo or otherwise with its release still being about 2 weeks away.

Yes, it is difficult to judge from just looking at the videos and reading the articles. But after all the Core Set is specifically designed for 1-2 players. (I think the Agot core set is for four players?). So ffg will have spent a lot of thought on this game being playable alone. As I like to play and meet with people, the game is probably more fun to play with one or more friends, but I certainly hope this to be a good solo experience.

If ffg manages to have a strong storytelling element (quests, storyline, scenario, etc.) this might actually turn out to be quite fun!

I have only one answer for your question.Its a Lord of the Rings card game it cant be bad .

I'm also wondering about the solo play option, as the game is designed to be co-op.

I have some friends who are excited about the possibility to play solo, but Middle-Earth CCG (a game I still love) had that option as well and it didn't really work for me.

In my oppinion, the real question is "Will this game work as a non-solo co-op game"? Until we get to play it, we won't know either way, but the excellant tutorial confirms to me that this was designed as a solo game. There is only one 'side' in this game - let's call them the good guys - against the encounter deck. The 2 player version just has 2 people working fully together - no competition - to beat the same encounter deck that comes out more quickly. I assume 3/4 players would meet progressively more encounters, but still win/lose together. Therefore, if this game turns out to be good, I can't see it failing as a solo.

At first glance it looks like there will be plenty of action choices and variety of adventures to be good early on, but it will rely on expansions to keep the interest alive. Bang goes the budget if I find I enjoy it! Cheers!

I agree, the expansion are the key to the concept. For my part I really like the adventure packs being grouped into thematic blocks and I hope this adds a lot variety and storytelling to the game. I think the fact that most of the new cards in the adventure packs will be encouner and scenarion cards, seconds that the game really aims at a valid and fun singleplayer experience. I'm so excited! I just love the prospect of being able to test deck creations right and even have fun doing it!

The main reason I buy this game is that I could play alone.

Besides, even if I couldn't play alone I would buy it just for a sheer pleasure.

The graphics are great

The_Audiophile said:

I've got the game today and have played several games solo, and think I'm likely to continue to play this game solo or sometimes 2P co-op.

There are a few abilities that assume there is more than one player, but i've not found a card that is only useful when there is more than one player, and if you want to play that way, i think it is easy enough for a single player to run multiple sets of 3 heroes, with a deck per every three heroes.

It works really well with just 1 player and a single set of three heroes though and i can't see how it would play that much better with multiple players, other than the co-op/social aspects. The game certainly isn't broken with 1P nor gives the impression that solo player was added as an after thought.

And from the sounds of it, solo play will only become a richer experience as more adventure packs are released.

I tried it solo today for a first game using the leadership deck they provide you with and... it's hard. I was shafted in the end by my inability to heal my characters. If I'd been able to heal at all I'd have been better off though I did make one or two other mistakes. It was however good fun and I like the mechanics of the gameplay. I think for solo play a mixed deck might make it much easier.

spirit said:

I can certainly see that- if you are sticking with a one-sphere deck, then you REALLY need to make sure that you play to your strengths, because there's no other aspects (i.e. the other 3 spheres) to help you out.

pumpkin said:

You looking into running 2+ mono-sphere decks side by side, in effect simulating 2+ player game?

jhaelen said:

My experience is complete opposite. Yesterday it took 8 solo games to win the first story because my characters were being beaten consistently by the threat on questing, and then getting ganged up slowly by monsters. The problem with solo play IMO is that because you don't have at least one other player the weaknesses of your deck are exaggerated. It was still fun but very very frustrating.

The_Big_Show said:

I agree with this. The more players the easier the gameplay. With one player monodeck You cannot play only to its strenghts but also cope with its weaknessess. You can make dual sphere deck to overcome it to a certain degree but then another depth arises as You have to cope with different type of resourcess.

In a multiplayer game You can just concentrate on what Your sphere is all about.

The_Big_Show said:

jhaelen said:

Are you raising your threat by the number which you failed to quest by? I shudder to think what would happen to my threat if I didn't quest the first turn (At least +3). That is the number one reason I can't beat the first senario with the Tactics deck. The number two reason is that both times I managed to get to the third stage (and I played it like 4 times with the Tactics deck) I drew Beorn's Path. I could have killed Ungoliant's Spawn in like a single turn but no I had to get 10 more progress tokens instead.

It'd probably help if people mention which sphere they're playing with, as it makes a huge difference.

I've played through the first scenario twice now with leadership; one time was fairly easy, the other was a rough start but was fine by the end.

I also played with the Lore (or is it knowledge) deck and failed miserably. I could slow things down and soak damage, but making quest progress was very slow because of a lack of characters. By the time I was working on the last path, my threat was in the mid-40's and an encounter card put me at 50, game over. It felt like it would take some good luck and some risky play to make it through with that sphere.

At least for solo play, I'm done with mono-sphere decks. I've put together Leadership / Spirit, and Tactics / Lore, trimmed down some cards I didn't like, and will see how that goes.

To max out the core set experience I decided to play each scenario two times with each of the starter decks (spheres). I hope this will give me a good feel for the different spheres and enough experience for solid deck building. I guess you can consider it my solo-play mission. In addition to this I will of course also enjoy co-op mode!

So as for the question as to whether the game is fun or not in solo play I'd like to share some thoughts and experience.

I finished my run throughs with the Leadership and the Lore decks. The experience with each sphere is quite different, but great all in all. I love playing this game even alone and some moments are just fantastic.

One example:

I was in the last quest of Passage through Mirkwood and had to defeat Ungolianths Spawn. I played the Lore sphere deck and I was always slightly overwhelmed and made very slow progress on the questing part and everything. I already put 5 wounds on Ungolianth's Spawn but also was my threat counter on 49! So this to be my last turn, either I'll defeat the Spider for an instant win or I'd lose to the evil forces. And that's when I drew Gandalf, spent 5 resources in my planning phase to slam him on the table and deal an instant 4 points of damage to the Spawn, kill it off and take home the victory!

So, yes, solo play is fun!

But I think there are some things that one has to get used to.

1) it is important to remember all the rules since nobody reminds you to keep track of the counters and all the other things. This game requires a lot to remember so I recommend following the rules closely for the first few games. Even now I use the chart with the turn structure in the back of the rules book.

2) Strictly adhere to the rules. Since you're the only player it is easy to be loose on the rules. Quickly fix a forgotten card draw or playing that attachment even though it is already the encounter phase. I was tempted to do so, too in the beginning, but trust me the game is more fun when you stick to the rules and don't re-do errors. Just learn from them and play on. I think the game has to be difficult to be interesting until you build this really powerful deck, sweep through the quests and gorge on its awesomeness!

A good topic illustrating what I mean with point 2 can be found here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=201&efcid=4&efidt=479154

Apophenia said:

However, after having played my fourth game using the tactics deck, I can tell you, this approach cannot work with tactics. In fact, I think you can only win if you get lucky and there's a steady stream of enemies that you kill with Legolas. After my game (which I lost rather spectacularly) I counted the total Willpower in the deck: It's five!

I then created four 30-card decks using mixed spheres for solo play, one 'main sphere' represented by two heroes and a 'supporting sphere'. I mainly included the expensive cards (cost 3+) of the main sphere and the cheap ones (cost < 1) from the supporting sphere and distributed the rest to end up with a similar number of allies in every deck. Here's the Hero combinations I used:

1. Aragorn, Theodred, Thalin (Leadership/Tactics)
2. Gimli, Legolas, Eowyn (Tactics/Spirit)
3. Eleanor, Dunhere, Denethor (Spirit/Lore)
4. Glorfindel, Beravor, Gloin (Lore/Leadership)

I lost the first game with the first deck due to bad luck (first draw: Ufthak!) but won the four following games with increasing ease (each using a different deck).

Now I feel ready to tackle the second scenario, but after looking at the Hill Troll, I'm not sure if I'll be able to win this without building a strong custom deck (with 3x Gandalf, etc.) for this scenario...