PWBrian said:

You should look again, there's at least one other person who still feels it's very similar to LotR (and WH:I)

I'll believe that it's really _significantly_ different from LotR after I've played it. I didn't get the impression that the guy who wrote the BGG report knows LotR very well.

I don't have the spare cash to invest in three LCGs anyway, so it'll be two out of three for me: If I like Star Wars better than either CoC or LotR, then one of the latter will have to go.

Then again maybe I'll find someone else to buy the cards, allowing me to play it regularly without investing any money

He seemed to know Star Wars well enough to inform us. The set up is different. The resource system is different. The draw system is different. The zone concept is new. The space combat is obviously new. Battle resolve differently. The AI works differently. Questing's equivalent seems to work similarly but in a significantly different place in the turn order, and only against certain random zones. The enemy has a separate strategy deck. Seems pretty different to me in every way possible.

But maybe not to everyone! And yea, I'd like someone else to buy the cards for me, too, haha.

The missions seem too similar and that is the problem with LotR, hopefully time and the rules will prove me wrong. I will at least buy the core set for sure.