I played invasion since it came out. I tried out LoTr, and the first few times I played, I foudn it interesting and kind of cool, but being felt like the game was too much focused on the "mechanics" of playing the game rather then immerse me in the theme as it intends to do.

However lately, a friend that sells games gave me a opened copy of the LoTr starter set and the hunt for gollom expansion (The man would be a good crack dealer.. the first hit is always free….) With a little more time to spend to read and understand the mechanics and practice them a bit .(My other games were often three player and under rushed time conditions) I found the "fiddelyness" iof the mechanics less of an issue then I first experienced. And being less focused trying to get all the steps properly understood, I was able to let the cards and my imaginiation run with the game, and I really started to find it become a very complete game experience for me.

Meanwhile my first LCG love, Invasion, has been getting a bit tired for me, sure they are trying to mess arroudn with the quest cards and make that more part of them game, but aside from that I find that I am not finding much interesting in the battle packs anymore. Last several I got, nothign stood out as game changing, its more or "Oh wow, another dark elf card with a -1 hot point abaility, another dwarf card that allows a dwarf in the quest zone to be usefull in another phase.. how exciting.. NOT"

My brother and I, and a small handfull of friends got a lot of milege out of invasion, but just suddenly our interest in it has kind of died off.

On the other hand, every new pack in LoTr seams to add a new element to the game as well as a new story to play out, a new puzzle as I like to call them.

From a buisness point of view for FFG business model, it makes no difference.. lol I decided early on no matter how much I liked a game (I like Game of thrones as well, but have few oppenents) I am NOT willing to invest in more then one at a time. I only have so much time to play games, and I like my card games to be complete, so I only want to be devoted to ONE LCG system at a time.

I think its time to drop Invasion and pick up LoTR as my current LCG of chocie, final reasons-

1) Each expasion for LoTr includes a new story, an interesting and fun puzzle to solve, with a simple, but very thematic story to tell.

2) Each expansion contains cards that truely add to the game, a new character to mix up party possiblites, cards synergize well with existing card traits.

3) Almost all the cards have a USE. Sure every set has a dog card or two, but for the most part, most cards have a use, either as a powerfull part of a certain deck build, or as a part of a theme build. Sure some cards can be highy situational, or may not be as good as another simaler card, but by and by most cards have a point.

On the counter point-

Invasion battle packs feel like they contain very little these days. In fact its almost the opposite. I open an invasion expansion, I may find one or two cards that have a place in one of my deck builds, either adding powerfull synergy, or helping make a theme work, but for the most part, the cards just are not all that exciting, and to top it off, there are MANY cards in each expasion that are just poor cards. They might not be terrible, but they are just subpar and only have buisness in a theme deck, if at all. I find I get a new battle pack, literaly 1/2 the cards get tossed in the "might look at again, but most likey not, part of my card storage box, which is really too bad cause I love the warhammer world and in general like the game.

Perhaps LoTr may run out of interesting ideals for there game and they run into the same problem, but I have higher level of hope for the game, the fact that each pack changes the game on three levels, The quest story, the new character, and the new cards, that I think its easier for the designers to keep it some what fresh.

IMo invasion needs a bit of a shake up to keep relevent. Untill then I think I retire from invasion expansions for ahwile and start buying LoTr.

I was concerned about Warhammer: Invasion for a time, but I feel like the last cycle and what's been revealed of the upcoming cycle really help them.

This past cycle has really helped make quests not only more powerful, but also more flexible. And the most recent pack (Shield of the Gods) had plenty of cards that I could see a use for. Not all of them are great, but I certainly would try most of them in various decks- what more could I really ask from a pack?

What's been mentioned about the upcoming cycle sounds extremely exciting as well. Making the Battlefield phase more interactive and involved can only help the game, and add some dimensions to the gameplay.

With that said, Lord of the Rings is still a fantastic game, no doubt. But this doesn't have to be an either/or sort of thing. Why not just play both? Or even better, why not just play all the LCGs?

Warhammer needs a new big box expansion with two new races (Bretonians and Tomb Kings) to really give it a jump start. Especially now with the new cycle focusing on the battlefield, it would be a great time for a Bretonian charge! I also think that the Ogre Kingdoms need to be introduced in the same way that the Skaven were, through battle packs. 3 new neutral races would really help to shake things up.