Hello lotr friends.

I have been playing this game for almost a year now and really enjoy it when I have the time to play it.
I have the sets up until and including The Redhorn Gate. I've completed most quests I have except Escape from Dol Goldur, The Massing at Osgiliath and Flight from Moria.

The last weekend from November me and 3 other friends are having a weekend away with lots of playing all sorts of games all weekend long. I know the other 3 will love this game. One has already played it and I told the other 2 about it. We are all 4 familiar with the Decipher TCG which we played for years. We are planning to play a couple of matches again this weekend as well.

But I was thinking what the best way is to introduce the 2 new players to the game. I have never played a 4 player game, is this much harder then solo or 2 player games or much easier? I have played and completed The Hunt for Gollum and Passage through Mirkwood 2 player game.

Can people recommend playing a 4 player game ? Or split up and play 2 2 player games? And what scenario would you choose? Just the Passage through Mirkwoord or something different. Decks will be interesting but i'm planning on making 4 of them for each of us to save some time. Not sure if I will make all single sphere decks or just mix them up.

Any thoughts and advice here would be appreciated.

Although they are relatively knowledgeable about the type of game, CCG's.

I would recomend for the first game to use simple mechanics and probably single sphere decks and one easy quest, such as Passage through Mirkood.

And after that, switch to different decks (probably mix) and some more difficult quests.

The difficult of 4 player games is related to the quest you play. For instance, Massing at Osgiliath is super difficult with four players, in my play group we only managed to beat it 2 times and we have already played it at least 10 times…

But other quests, such as "Into the Pit" (from Khazhad-Dum expansion) we did it with relative easy, but the decks where specifically designed to those quests.

In introducing new players, the decks must be simple and don't have complicated combos. But you can make them interact with each other, like for instance make a leadership deck and instruct or during play agree to give celebrian stone to a spirit hero (ex: Eowyn) to boost it's willpower.

I believe that the two most interesting things to new players is to have a lot of actions (combat) and to interact with the other players, as is my experience in introducing some (few but some)

I tend to use the one sphere decks to help them understand the game rules and phases.

I agree. Do a 4 player player game, each person with a mono-sphere deck. Passage through Mirkwood and Journey down the Anduin would be fine. It is different with 4 players and a lot of fun to see all those cards getting used, you get your moneys worth!