Lord of the Rings Card Game

[Omahavice]

Great job! I still have not played the 3rd scenario and just when I thought I master the Journey Down the Anduin and that annoying Hill troll, I played a solo game with Tactics only and got slaughtered! I cant wait to get the expansion packs for this. Have you played any of NinjaDorg's sceanrios that put up on BGG?

[Hahma]

Thanks

I never ended up using that deck for the second scenario, as my nephew came over and we played co-op so I had to bust up that deck, at least for that night as he wanted Leadership and I took Spirit. We were only intending on playing the first scenario, but we did very well with it, so my nephew asked if we could continue down the river in Nightmare mode. We did, and we did pretty good, being lucky enough not to have to fight two Trolls. Since we made it through there, we figured that we might as well move on to the third scenario. We got most way done with the second quest card before he threated out and then I did shortly after. However, since then I have learned that I messed up with a couple parts of that third scenario that made things pretty much impossible for us. I kept attaching encounter cards to the objective cards in the staging area even after they have been cleared of the original encounter card (I read on either BGG or FFG forums that they don't get any more encounter cards attached to them after the first). The second and more costly mistake was when it said "players can only Play one Ally card total per round," I mistakenly thought it meant that you could only activate one Ally card per round between the two of us, so you can imagine how difficult that made things, especially when we had a lot of Ally cards in play already from the second scenario. I've since learned that you can only Play, as in put in play during the staging phase, one Ally card between us. That would have made things a ton easier for us. Next time we'll know better.

Yeah, Tactics isn't a solo sphere deck that can do much. They can kill but can't quest. But they may do well in a co-op game as the "muscle", or as part of a multi-sphere deck.

I'll have to give the second scenario a go with that multi-sphere deck I had previously to see if I have any better luck against that Troll than you did. We may have gotten lucky with our co-op game, or maybe it's just a different animal when playing solo. I also can't wait for the Adventure Packs.

No, I haven't tried NinjaDorg's scenarios yet. I gave them a quick glance and may try it sometime. Have you played them? I've taken a break from this game since last Saturday with my nephew, as I think I was playing it too much too soon and didn't want to burn out on it and then be Jonesing for the Adventure Packs too much. So I've been playing Thunderstone a bit more lately and a Scape project. I'll pick LOTR up again maybe this weekend or next week to give scenario 2 a go solo.

[Omahavice]

No, I havent played NinjaDorg's scenarios yet but they look kind of fun. I did get to play my first 3-player LOTR game last night after setting up maps for todays Nebraska Multiplayer Madness tournament. I played with Matthias Maccubus and Adam from Wisconsin. We did Passage to Mirkwood since it was Adam's first time playing.

I played Leadership, M.M. played Tactics, and Adam had the Lore deck. We destroyed the Encounter deck and that nasty Ungoliant Spawn was no match for us. Between the 3 of us we only had 2 total wounds at the end of the game and our threats were all in the low 30's. It was almost too easy with 3-players. Still loving this game though and cant wait for the expansions.

[Hahma]

That's cool that you got to play 3 player. I've read on the FFG forums that it was easier with more than 2 players. I guess that's why they have the various Modes you can play so that you can make it more difficult depending on how many players you have. It's got to be an extremely difficult type of game to balance as you have the four different types of spheres, you can have multi-sphere decks, solo or co-op play with either the base sphere decks or custom decks and you have the variables of the card draws for players and encounter deck.

I can't wait for the adventure packs too and I hope they continue to have the variable levels of difficulty for the scenarios so it's not impossible for solo play, yet not too easy for multiples.

[Matthias Maccabeus]

Instead of posting in the board games thread, I thought I would post in this one.

I'm definitely addicted to this game right now. I'm not entirely sure why because when it first came out I was like, eh it's fun but not great. I think the fact that it was ridiculously hard and that it can be played solo helps a ton. Plus I love the aspect of deck building for each scenario and then trying to build one for all scenarios.

Anyway my point for posting is I've been able to win most scenarios with at least a 50% win ratio. I own all but MaO which I've only played one and got destroyed. But I've struggled with aJtR. That stupid eagle keeps dying on me... Anybody else had issues with the quest? I finally did beat it when I built a total deck only suited for the quest but even then I only had 3 Athelas plants when I made it to stage 3 and Wilyador had exactly 15 wounds on him. Thankfully I had Protector of Lorien out and discarded my whole hand to get the extra willpower to push through the questing. Otherwise I still proably would have lost. For a DL=6 quest, this sure feels like an 8 or 9 to me.

[Hahma]

I just ordered all the adventure packs and the large expansion MM, so I have been lax for quite a while in playing much of this game lately, but I plan on hitting it hard soon to come

[Matthias Maccabeus]

Originally Posted by Hahma

I just ordered all the adventure packs and the large expansion MM, so I have been lax for quite a while in playing much of this game lately, but I plan on hitting it hard soon to come

Just to warn you the difficulty levels of Khazad-dum are night and day compared to the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. They are much harder. But they certainly are beatable.

[Matthias Maccabeus]

Well this whole secrecy thing really has me intrigued and I know the more adventure packs we get the more options we'll have but I wanted to share with you my recent Secrecy Deck that I've been having a blast with and it's performed quite well. It's also a Zigil Miner deck.

Heroes -
Dunhere (Spirit)
Bifur (Lore)
Starting Threat of 15

Allies -
Dunedain Wanderer (Leadership) x 3 - Great Card with Secrecy
Rivendell Minstrel (Lore) x 3 - To make sure I get my Song of Kings quickly
Zigil Miner (Spirit) x 3 - This guy is key to get the resource engine running
Gandalf (Neutral) x 3 - I mainly use him for threat reduction, but I have used him for card draw and wounds from time to time
Gildor Inglorion (Lore) x 2 - This guy combined with the miner is nuts! Plus his stats are awesome
Haldir of Lorien (Lore) - Good stats plus he has ranged for those odd quests that require it
Elfhelm (Spirit) - Solid ally plus his response ability to keep threat down is huge in a secrecy deck
Faramir (Leadership) - Solid ally plus his ability is pretty useful for questing
Henamarth Riversong (Lore) x 2 - Scrying the deck almost seems like cheating when playing solo
Brok Ironfist (Leadership) - Solid stats and good miner resources
Bofur (Spirit) - When used right you get a sweet ally for 1 cost

Attachments
Dunedain Mark (Leadership) x 3 - Dunhere with these is crazy good.
Song of Kings (Neutral) - Needed to use leadership resources.
Unexpected Courage (Spirit) x 3 - Dunhere can run crazy into the staging area

Events
Out of the Wild (Lore) x 3 - This can get some crazy bad stuff out of the encounter deck for you. Team this with Henamarth and you got some crazy good combos here.
Needful to Know (Lore) x 3 - Once again when teamed up with Henamarth you got get your threat crazy low.
Timely Aid (Leadership) x 3 - This card is amazing with secrecy, especially teamed up with a Zigil Miner deck with expensive allies.
Stand and Fight (Spirit) x 2 - You'll be discarding a lot with Ziggy so you'll need this to pick them back up occasionally.
Will of the West (Spirit) x 2 - See above
A Test of Will (Spirit) x 3 - Treachery cards can be super nasty and it's always nice to have an insurance policy.
The Galadhrim's Greeting (Spirit) x 3 - The key to secrecy and Dunhere's ability is to keep your threat low.
Dwarven Tomb (Spirit) x 3 - A lot of good Spirit cards that you may want to use again.

50 cards total. Between Dwarven Tomb, Will of the West, and Stand and Fight you should never run out of cards even with Ziggy going to work. It might be a bit overkill actually. I may end up dropping a few of them for Ancient Mathoms to give me some card draw since this really lacks that.