Despite the title, this is meant to be humorous. But it really happened.

I decided to play the Watcher in the Water scenario. This was probably the fourth of fifth game I had tried against it over the last week. I have yet to beat it. (I almost always play solo.)

So, I shuffled up both decks and drew my hand. Not bad. Hasty Stroke, Test of Will, Arwen, Glorifindel, Gandalf, Mirkwood Runner. I figured I could play that. Then I dealt out the encounter deck cards.

Card #1: Wrapped!

Card #2: Wrapped!

Card #3: Wrapped!

What are the odds? I shrugged and reshuffled…

Boris_the_Dwarf said:

Ha! That's awesome!

Lol, I've come close to having this happen a few times too! I've also had Disturbed Waters (Doomed 5) come up multiple times, followed by the card that makes you discard all of your resource tokens. I usually like to play games out no matter what, but there have been a few times where that initial draw just annihilates you, and in your case, actually is game over!

You had Glorfindel in your starting hand? O.o

Cotillion37 said:

hehe, this puzzled me too!

Cotillion37 said:

Sorry, I meant Gleowine. I suck at remembering names of cards, lol.

Boris_the_Dwarf said:

Perfect response. When I hear people rant and rave over the randomness and unfairness of a card game that can be played solo in 20 minutes I shake my head.

Personally I love when this kind of stuff happens (to an extent). If the encounter decks didn't have any bite to them, this game would get boring quickly.

Bullroarer Took said:

Chris51261 said:

In a modest defense of the ranters and ravers . . .

I totally get the point that you need the encounter deck to present some challenges, including challenges that could overwhelm even the most powerful player decks. But let's keep in mind that "this kind of stuff" and unfairness in the case presented is the game auto-killing you before you can do anything. I can't fathom what there is to love about it. By my view, there is zero value in a gaming experience that never lets me make a decision (Yes that is not so subtle shot at Candy Land).

Sure it is easy to just reshuffle and start over. And I would certainly agree it is much more important to ensure no uber auto-win player card combos exist as that undermines the game outside of an individual expansion. But it is simply carelessness in design that allows for the possibility of the described gaming experience in a game that is supposed to provide an in depth thematic and strategic experience. While I don't think extreme and exaggerated statements about the enjoyability of the game are meaningful based mostly on these types of relatively unlikely scenarios, I do think it is fair to call it poor game design and to question the play testing/thought process around ensuring a solid gaming experience. (And yes that is also a not so subtle shot at the game designers who should be paying meticulous attention to game balance within each scenario and across the game as a whole)