Dain Ironfoot said:

I start play Decipher tcg from the first set there is also was very small card pool. My complains never was against the small card pool. And not against the game mechanic is briliant. Small card pool is not a problem my friend. Card pool will grow up with adv pack so is only matter of time. This third lotr card game for me for last 12 years.I use to play Middle earth ccg(really coo game) decipher lotr and now this FFG one.I passed with 2 previous game all circle, start , grow up and End(middle earth i play not much as decipher).So i have expirience about the cards game and i know what im talking about.

My problem with this game is : balance is very bad, scaling is awfull( HFG little bit change it), very stupid on my view victory points system(they take this idea from middle earth ccg but there is much more interesting) and low difficult level.

Balance can be fixx with erratas, rules adding, add adv pack , Scaling same way. But quests as i sad before manage to be weak for now. I can accept it in core set cose is beginning. But HFG this is first Adv pack. Is show us the way which the game will grow.

So what is the main thing for this game????

Quests and encounter cards. The quest is heart of the game. Very important. They should be done very interesting and hard. But now all of them done 50% power. Hope it will change. HFG is good but not good enough. Will see Next one.

have you read this article?

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=1981

at least it sounds like they are going for different "flavors" for each adventure pack quest. some focus on exploring, some on brute force, some on location travel, etc. i am intrigued with how they plan on having different sorts of quests.

i'm also looking forward to massing at osgiliath because, you are correct: the quests are super important and are the heart of the game!

i also played MECCG and Decipher's game, and i liked them both, but i am still more excited about this one...and willing to be a bit more patient!

Dain Ironfoot said:

Yes i know this article. A agree wit everything there. But there is the idea of design of the quests.Nothing to do with hard level.

If you play middle earth and Decipher game you understand what i talking about anyway. I wonna to see quests level like: we are 2 players and even when we play 2 50 cards expert decks(3 copies each card) and in the middle of the game when we have lot of attachments on our heroes and lot of allies in support we still scare to lose cose with quest porgress and with power of encounter cards we know there is lot of danger and game can brake easy and mistake is deadly.

For now when you play coop and you on the middle of the game ,have couple allies and attachments 90% you win the game and is only matter of time and victory points. Card like norhtern tracker for example destroy all meaning of locations idea. So ok instead make errata make encounter cards more powerful in next adv pack. HFG this a joke!!!! Not a challenge at all. We need something more serious, much more serious!!!

Thanks for chat with me dude. You give me a hope. There is always a hope as Gandalf sad

Glaurung, one popular variant I've seen people using who find the current Quests too easy, is to draw 1 MORE Encounter card every quest phase than you normally would. At least for now, until some harder Quests are released, this sounded like a pretty easy way to adjust difficulty.

My group, however, has not found these Quests to be too easy yet, as we're just starting out. We haven't even beat the Dol Guldur Quest in 3 player yet.

But yeah, if we ever *do* get to a point where all Quests become pretty easy, we'll probably just do this fix, or try only using 2 Heroes each, since the rulebook says you can play with 1-3 Heroes each.

Hope that helps for now. I'm sure there'll be a good mix of Quests in the near future. On top of the Adventure Pack one that are coming, there's also that Gencon Quest they announced that will be available through print on demand. There's also NinjaDorg's cool homeade ones to try out.

Glaurung said:

Glaurung, I think your best chance to really enjoy the game would be to switch to a competitive variant. Have someone play the shadow. Give them a fixed hand size (say, number of opponents +3 you could tweak the numbers). Let them refill their hand at the end of each phase (or, even as they play, if you want a stronger shadow player). After players make their choice to engage, let the shadow chose which player to engage (assuming they have a suitably high threat). If you want more power to the shadow, let them make more of the choices the player;s normally make. Let them assign damage from the dol goldur scout's, for instance. It's not perfect, but I think you would find it a variant more to your liking, and certainly more challenging.

Mattr0polis said:

Yes we do that. Still so easy. And this destroy balance of the game. We with my friend waitihg for tournaments system and not really like to play by house rules. This expirience will give you mess on the tournaments session.

Actually i make a new deck With HFG cards play very well and quite interesting to play. Bilbo very cool by the way!!!

Total Cards (50)

Hero
Beravor (Core) x1
Bilbo Baggins (THFG) x1
Denethor (Core) x1

Ally
Erebor Hammersmith (Core) x3
Faramir (Core) x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
Gleowine (Core) x3
Henamarth Riversong (Core) x2
Miner of the Iron Hills (Core) x3
Rivendell Minstrel (THFG) x3
Son of Arnor (Core) x3

Attachment
Celebrian's Stone (Core) x2
Mark of Dunedain (THFG) x3
Forest Snare (Core) x3
Protector of Lorien (Core) x3
Self Preservation (Core) x3
Song of Kings (THFG) x3
Steward of Gondor (Core) x3

Event

Strider path (THFG)x3
Ever Vigilant (Core) x2
Sneak Attack (Core) x3

Bohemond said:

And this we also try already. Shadow player is to powerful. Difficult to find balance.

Anyway friends thanks for all answer to me.

I really hope maybe one day we can meet on the world cup Lotr lcg. Why not a??????

Glaurung, I'm getting the feeling that you are always going to find the game too easy.

The reason? Simple: The game is made for 1 core set, two-player, mono-sphere.

If you deviate from that the difficulty level gets messed up.

You're playing 3 core sets, 4-player, multi-sphere.

Unless you adopt house rules you are never going to find the game a challenge.

IMO you have two choices:

a) spend time with your mates figuring out the best house rules to introduce a challenge.

b) play a different game.

Johnny Awesome said:

Do you have any evidence to support these claims? They all seem inaccurate to me, but the one about the game being mono-sphere is particularly ridiculous.

hes probably just basing it off the box saying 1-2 players and the fact that you get 4 mono spehere decks in the core set.

Right, but we have cards that are specifically designed to enable dual sphere play.

Hey since we're off-topic anyway now, have you guys checked out the previews for Fantasy Quest yet??

...

javascript:void(0);/*1311374838810*/

I little bit thinking about future adventures packs...........

Frodo next hero in next Adv pack. He ability to convert damage to threat is amazing.

Can you image: staring hero Frodo, Theodred, Eleanor. starting thread 7+8+7= 22

So frodo spirit there is Northern tracker, Greatings, test of will, Hasty stroke, U. courage.

Theodred leadership :sneak attack, Steward of Gondor, Faramir and so on.

With all this threat reducing , counter ability, (by Eleanor and other spirit events) resources boost this deck can be very very powerful.

Yes you need some strong attacker. Maybe some alies???

SO player decks power grow up more and more. Difficult level of the quest should be increase as well. Maybe C. in Carrock will be 4 or 5 difficult level???

I hope so........

Bohemond said:

I was talking difficulty wise. Not in the literal sense. Of couse the game has sphere synergies. That's not the point.

In other words, just to be totally clear for all the literalists out there:

The game's difficulty ratings are geared toward two people sitting down with one core set, picking a sphere and playing.

As soon as you give yourself advantages beyond that like multiple cores, 3+ players, and multi-sphere super decks the game's difficulty ratings can be thrown out the window.

With so many different factors involved (amount of players, number of spheres in deck and different amount of owned core sets/expansions) the difficulty level will stay fluid. I wonder why FFG has introduced a difficulty rating of 1-10 which will make casual gamers believe that the difficulty levels of the various quests are somewhat locked and technically predetermined. A system like "Easy, Normal, Difficult" or "Normal for 2-Players, Difficult for solo play" would have suited much better imho.

Shelfwear said:

Yes you right. And 1 more thing about difficult level. Anduin is difficult 4. Hunt for Gollum also is difficult 4. But i suppose the Anduin quest is more hard.

The last stage on the Gollum quest is very easy if you compare with ambush on the last stage of Anduin. HFG much easy!!!

In HFG quest you must follow the golden rule: If you can travel than travel. Never keep more than 1 location on the staging area if possible.

Keep this rule and you will win mostly.

Anduin much more harder with troll on the first stage and long boat trip on the second. And last stage ambush also can be very tricky.

But FFG ranking both of them same. Strange!!!

Shelfwear said:

That's the mindset I have when I start playing solo and then I lose the Anduin quest over and over and I'm thinking, "This is only a FOUR?" Or I try to imagine what an 8-10 must be like, if Prisoner is only a 7.

Be very interesting to see what rank the next quest gets, that's for sure. Between 4 and 6 would suit me, although it would probably kill the game for Glaurung!

NinjaDorg said:

Actually i already dont care. I understand already this game is not same level like Middle earth ccg or Decipher tcg. I really doubt the game as a sport will ever come to serious level. So i relax already. Just have fun sometimes play home once a week or something..........

And more and more players get same feelings. Many people start to complain about easy level and boring quests. Will be more and more.

I dont thing the game will have big future but as i already say i dont care anymore.

Unless you're only playing with 4 players all the time, I think you must be missing some minor rule to consider Escape easy. I've gotten to the point where I can beat Anduin fairly regularly with 2 players but Esape is still impossible. With 4 or even 3 players the loss of 1 hero is relatively insgnificant, but huge when playing solo or with 2 people.

Glaurung said: