I'm in the mood for a card game and I'm intruiged by the LCG that Fantasy Flight Games is offering. I find that a nice change of pace from Magic cards and the constant "chase" cards and randomness. Out of all the LCG games, LotR cought my eye. I like the co-op features and most of all, solo play. I have some questions and would also like to hear your guys' opinions on the game.

1: How well does the game stack up for solo play?

2: How much replayablility is there? From what I understand you take on quests, but does undergoing the same quest get repetitive?

3: Do the deck building options allow for great variety? I hear there are 4 decks or themes; does one deck play differently from the next?

4: How much do the APs expand the Core game? Does replayability, deck building options, variety and solo/co-op play enhance greatly with one or more of the APs? I'm sure they do to some extent, but bottom line is, are they worth it?

Thanks in advance.

1) Solo quests are definitely tough. If you enjoy a challenge though, they are a ton of fun.

2) The quests are mostly randomized, so it's never really the same game twice. The encounter deck doesn't change, but it's random what you get and when. I think you can play each quest quite a few times before it really starts to feel old. There are new quests being released every month too!

3) Each sphere has it's own style. Some are more focused around combat, some around questing. There is a good variety between the spheres I think. You will typically end up playing a 2 sphere deck most likely.

4) Adventure packs are definitely worth it. Each one comes with a new quest and a few more player cards for deck building. At only about $15 each there's really no reason not to pick them up.

Svenn said:

I concur. There is alot of gameplay in the core set, and I have found the three quests in the core set to be very replayable - certainly you'll want to play them over both to learn their particular challenges, and to get a feel both for game itself and for the various decks. The four sphere are very distinct in their style, and they feel very different in the way they play. The adventure packs expand the game both with regards to deck-building and to replayablity. The new quests are very fun and quite challenging. I like the solo game, but the game has been best with two players - the coop elements are fantastic. Plus you get to pin your losses on someone else

I hope you try the game, and I hope you enjoy it.

With the previous posters I agree. I also played MtG a long time ago. I started playing at the end of Ice Age, and stopped in Urza's Saga, because the cards became stronger and stronger and this is the trick with which WotC force the players to constantly buy new cards. LotR as an LCG is much more user-friendly, because the contents of the Adventure Packs are fixed, and provide 3 copies of each player card (the maximum you are allowed to have in you deck). This makes playing this game affordable to me. Sadly, this isn't the case in the core set (there are some cards which have only 2 or only 1 copy of it), but FFG realized that and claimed to change it in upcoming big expansions.To your questions: The 4 spheres play very differently as has been stated previously, but there's even more variety for deck-building coming in through traits: Look e.g. at the eagle and creature trait in Landroval and The Eagles are Coming and Radagast, and how well they're working together. And I guess there will be a lot about the dwarf trait in the upcoming Khazad Dum expansion...

For winning a quest, you have to complete the tasks that are given on those cards, and up to now, those are very different! That's the biggest advantage in respect to MtG, in my opinion. I've played LotR with my brother, and he also thinks that these monthly new adventures are a big improvement in the whole LCG/CCG industry. Replayability of a single quest is high. The randomization has been stated, and the "double usage" of encounter cards as shadow cards increase this effect. The abilities of the starting heroes can also influence the outcome of a quest a lot.

Solo, most quests are pretty tough, especially the last one in the core set is unbeatable, but scaling is improving in the released Adventure packs. If you try the game, also try at least one Adventure Pack, they're worth the money.

All in all, I really recommend this game. It's pretty different to MtG and could be a nice alternation for you, I think.

A big Tally Ho! and huge Hear! Hear! to all the comments above. My advice to you Soullos is GET IT! You won't be disappointed. Everything you thought and the others confirmed, is there in Spades. Have fun! Cheers!

I agree with everyone on questions 3 and 4. On 1, I have to say that some of the core set quests do not scale as well solo. Dol Guldur is a prime example of this: it is nearly impossible solo, but the difficulty diminishes greatly once you start adding players. On question 2, it's really all about the player: most people here find the quests very replayable, I'm the exception here, I find that once you have beaten a quest a few times, I don't have the motivation to continue playing it that much. The answer to that question is going to be very much up to you.

As to Titans comments about replayability, of course it comes down to personal preference. However, although many people enjoy building mixed decks and trying out new themes, this game allows for even more variety. Don't forget that it is not only your decks that can be adjusted, either to make a scenario easier or harder, unofficially - who can stop you? - the encounter decks can be manipulated as well. There are scores of players own scenarios out there. I myself have nearly finished fully testing 3 of my own called 'The Capture of Ufthak', 'Saurons River Camps' and 'The March of the Trolls'. Even the official set scenarios can be adjusted by adding a few cards from other encounter decks. When you take into account all this and the official variation of player numbers, mixed/mono sphere decks, single/campaign scenarios, basic/expert levels, quickest finishes or lowest scores etc., the replayability goes through the roof. On your own you can do whatever you like. When playing with others, just make sure you all know and agree how you will play it. Cheers!

Thanks for all the replies, they're very helpful. I'm been scouring this forum for any and all information (I always do a lot of research before buying each game ) and I found a few interesting bits and also more questions to ask here. The interesting bit was playing two player decks at once. I won't do this at first, but when I'm more comferable with the game, I'm sure I'll try this out to tackle the harder quests "solo." What interests me most about this is the fact that this is a co-op game, so there is no metagame advantage of knowing what the player has in their hands to "ignore" in order to play that ay (I've tried playing two Magic card decks against each other; it didn't work lol). So, that should be fun.

Also, Rashley, you pointed out some good points about the encounter decks about adding variety by changing them. Now to my question: From what I understand, the AP has a dedicated encounter deck, so would it be reccomened to make one large encounter deck from any AP I may have into the core deck? How would that change the game? Is there a deck list for each AP if I desire to reset the encounter deck to the default AP deck?

Now to my last point, I promise, this is the last one. Searching these forums, I've found a large thread about the annoyance of constantly deck building for each scenario, instead of having one or 2 decks to choose from that is multi-purpose, or in this case, multi-scenario. This is a concern for me; I rather not have to reconstruct a deck to try out a new quest. Do the AP additional player cards help alleviate this? How about playing two decks at once for solo play?

Thanks for the answers so far. It might seem like I'm nitpicking every little detail, but money is tight and I want to get the best bang for my buck.

The core set comes with several Encounter sets. Each quest builds itself using a few of these encounter sets. The cards have an icon displaying which set they belong to so you can easily strip that encounter set out for use with another scenario.

Each quest uses it's own encounter set plus 2-3 of the regular encounter sets.

soullos said:

The AP encounters are usually built using the included encounter deck plus a couple of the encounter decks from the Core Set. The Core Set brings seven encounter decks. They are usually smaller than the AP encounter decks and you combine 3-4 of them to form an encounter deck in the Core Set quests. They are all marked with different symbols so that you know what goes where.

As far as changing encounter decks, this is not recommended. It will play differently than originally intended. People who change encounter decks usually have more than one Core Set and add extra cards in order to increase difficulty.

I've found that with the APs, changing the decks around to suit the quest works better, as far as defeating the quests. I don't understand why players find it annoying to change decks. Card games are, in no small part, about deck building. Personally, I find using the same deck over and over, boring. However, there is a least one deck build with Leadership/Spirit that performs pretty well on most quests.

I've really been out of touch with card games for too long it seems, I can't believe set symbols slipped my mind, lol. I guess I can get along with deck building for each quest and whatnot. Normally in Magic I build the deck based on a theme but once built, I hardly change it. I will tweak and refine it, but for the most part, it's set in stone. I have well over 30 decks to choose from. And yeah I agree, playing one deck over and over can get old. I guess I never really thought it was a problem with having so many decks. I think I can manage the change of pace and mindset.

Well, thanks for all your help everyone. I'm sold and I can't wait explore Middle-Earth! Now to wait for payday. *drums fingers on deck*

Soullos,

It's a great game that I highly recommend. Folks already made most of the key selling points, but one thing I'll add. It is absolutely a fun and viable challenge to make "One Deck to Rule Them all". My goal is to make a single deck with the same heroes that can beat the full Shadows of Mirkwood cycle (the adventure pack story line that are currently underway). It adds some fun to an already fun game. Of course, I like experimenting with deckbuilding being a Recovering CCGholic, but if you want to have a versatile, take all comers deck...have at it.