I got this game when it came out, played a bit of it, solo, 2 player and a 4 player game. Then it got put on a shelf for ages, but over Christmas I dug it out again.

From what I learnt last time, and from reading various forums, solo play is too hard, 4 players is too easy. A lot of people were saying that it works best with 2. Luckily for me, it was just me and the g/f, so we were away.

The plan was to build us a deck each and play through each scenario individually.

I bought one core set, but made proxy cards so I had 3 of every card. The decks I made up I thought were pretty good.

Scenario 1: A walkover. I think we beat it in 3 or 4 turns it was that easy. Maybe we were lucky on cards, but I remember playing this a few times months ago and remembered that was also easy too.

Opinion: The scenario is a bit too easy for 2 players with a constructed deck. This was probably intentional so that people can play the starter decks against it and the game is therefore playable right out of the box. I have no issue with this. For me, this scenario is just to help learn the game.

Scenario 2: We have played this twice now and lost both times. In both games, it appeared we were doing ok, but then things just got away from us. Game 1 we died due to threat. Game 2 we just ended up with wounds galore everywhere, and then when a treachery card killed Glorfindel, and another one killed Aragorn, we conceded.

Opinion: The scenario is tough. I remember beating it before, back in August, but I cant remember with what decks or how many players.

And onto the reason for my post: I like the game, I love the artwork, I love that it is co-op and that me and the g/f can sit down and work together at trying to work out what the best thing to do it.

However, it is the deck and the cards that I'm finding doesnt sit well. One of the nice things I like about some of the newer card games (GoT / CoC) is that you get 2 cards per turn. This gives far more flexibility in game play. So, when I got LotR and realised it was 1 card per turn in a 50 card deck, I was a little disappointed.

In both of our attempts at Scenario 2, the game lasted between 8 and 10 rounds. This means we were about 15-16 cards through our 50 card deck. I have a problem with this for a couple of reasons.

What is the point in going to all the effort to build a 50 card deck when we see less than half of it? I know the ratios and stuff like that, but it seems a lot of effort to make my 50 cards up, sleeve them, shuffle them, etc and only see 16 of them.

The other bigger issue is that because we only saw 16 out of our 50 cards, the game was more down to the luck of the draw. In the second game, we died because there were a lot of wounds. "I need more healing cards" I said, and went to tweak my deck. But, I had them all in there, they just didnt come out. We both have 3 Gandalf cards, and we only saw 1 of them. If we'd seen 2 (one each), the game would have been completely different.

So, whilst I know that constructing a better deck will give us the chance of doing better, it is a bit demoralising to put the effort into building the 50 card deck, when I'm not going to see most of what I put in there.

Just thought I'd see if I was doing something wrong... thanks all

Paul Grogan said:

i actuallly believe there is a simple solution to this- i get that your onw main problem is card draw correct? one thing that immediatly comes to mind is that there are quite a few event/ally card draws out there...

gildor

loriens wealth,

gandalfs search

gleowine

mustering the rohirrim

gandalf

ancient mathom

the eagles are coming

valient sacrfice

cards like these all let you boost your card draw by quite bit, and search through your deck- also my favourite for this is bilbo-he lets you draw 2 cards per turn instead of 1, and this was sort of the gist of the problem i gt from your post, so if you include these cards then i can guarentee you will see more of your deck, as this was the point in the cards design

ps. i realise some of the exmples are in the adventure packs, so i guess my point is that it gets better if you invest in the game......which you may or may not now want to do

rich

Let's not forget the good ol' Beravor and Unexpected courage combo! you get a couple of UCs on her and you can draw 6 cards a turn. She also works well with Brand son of Bain who you can use to ready her, so there's 8 cards a turn right there. all you need then is some resource acceleration and you'll have an answer to almost any situation.

Paul Grogan said:

jhaelen said:

I am quickly heading this same direction!

Thanks for the replies.

But.....

I am playing 2 Lore characters in my deck. Yes, I could switch Denethor for Braevor and add some draw cards into the deck.

However, even with some extra card draws, exactly how far am I really going to get through my deck.

I'd like to hear from others who have played the other quests, including expansion ones.

The fundamental question is that even with extra card drawing, I am still only going to see about half my deck. And the other player who doesnt really have much card drawing is going to see a lot less than half. Therefore, winning or losing seems to be less about deck construction than I thought and more about the luck of the draw.

Then again, the luck of the draw from the encounter deck is already quite high

In my albeit limited experience, Beravor gives you a ton of draw, especially if you can get Unexpected Courage on her. I've played quite a few games so far where by the end I have my whole deck, or quite close to it, in hand.

And if you have multiple UE:s on Beravor and use Bilbo and/or Ancient Mathom you often will have the whole deck in your hand sooner than you would expect. Goes very well with Protector of Lorien since you won't have the resources to play all those cards!

Paul Grogan said:

There is defiantly a high luck factor in this game, though all card games have that.. it is one of the things that keeps it fresh. I mean what card games are you playing were you go though your entire deck? Defiantly not and of the LCGs or Magic the Gathering, I mean you might now and then.. but then sometimes people do in this game as well. As for card draw there is a deck called cycles that is designed for nightmare mode, the entire point of that deck is to draw all 50 cards into your hand at once as quickly as possible and then cycle using will of the est so every time you draw a card you are just drawing your best events and allies. So card draw is pretty crazy in this game.

Still this is something that the more "hardcore" players are starting to talk about. That is how this game can be refined for tournament play. One of the things (I was talking about this in another thread) is the fact that the score system dose not take into account failed quests. So people can build decks that get great scores but low win percentages a example of this is the Rabbit Run deck. You will find if you make a more stable deck, as in one that wins nearly 100% of the time, your score will go down... but your win percentage will go up AND at the same time the game itself will slow.. allowing more of the encounter cards to be seen as well as your own deck.

You mentioned 2 player.. well a great way to start a simple draw engine is to run Bilbo and Beravor and Brand on the players team opposite Beravor. Bilbo will allow the 1st player to draw 2 cards a turn no matter what, adding card advantage to both players, and brand will be able to untap beravor each turn, with out even the need to put a UC on her you are drawing 6 cards a turn form turn 1. (assuming you get mobs you can kill off) A few UCs and this simple set up can get CRAZY.

booored said:

Yes you right Boored. Actually i think this crazy draw in this game is something wrong. As you say With Brand ,Bilbo, Beravur and Courage in co-op game you can wn sometimes too easy. And game is really boring with that. NIghtamare mode invented for hard core players just doesn work cose in the end is more simple then normal game.( I has already explain before how in Nightmare mode you can choose your starting hand form quest to quest is extremely powerful advantage).

Im sure for the tournaments play should be some restricted list ans additional rules.

Before i complain a lot about difficult level and unbalanced card but now with RTM and KD release the game much more balanced (At least for solo game).Im more happy now then before.

So if you look on the begin of the game and current time, you will see designers make they job better. I think this cycle should be much better then first one and maybe soon they will invent the tournaments system.

with brevor and lore you can run out of cards to draw with a 50 card deck. once i was wishing i added 65.