Scott Roberts
United States
Southlake
Texas
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How long does this game take to play? Also, the BGG entry says 2-4 players. How does the game work with 3 or 4? Does it use teams, free for all, or something else?
Thanks
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Andrew Rice
United States
Forest Grove
Oregon
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I've had games last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, usually depending on the number of players. It's enjoyable with 3 or 4, although more complex.
It is a free for all.
Each player plays a Fellowship, like in the movies -- with Ringbearer and other characters (Hobbits, Dwarves, Men, Elves, Wizards), whose purpose is to survive while traveling through 9 sites (at the end of which, the movie ends!). The opponent(s) play Shadow cards (Isengard, Moria, Ringwraith, Sauron) against that Fellowship to stop them from moving or to kill their characters (or to corrupt the Ringbearer).
First player to reach (and complete) site 9 with Ringbearer alive and uncorrupted wins :-)
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Michael Jordal
United States
Austin
Minnesota
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Or last fellowship alive or uncorrupted wins.
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David F
United States
Emeryville
California
Set up a lot of the PBF framework for BSG, Runewars, Small World, The Devil's Castle. PBF in Gears of War, Death Angel, A Game of Thrones. Currently playing Twilight Struggle, Middle-Earth Quest and Eclipse on Vassal.
I'm anal about using the right terms to describe games and have posted an alternative glossary to the inconsistent sprawl in BGG's database and lexicon that is clear, accurate and simple. I care big time about my reviews, ratings and comments.
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2 hours?? Sounds like that's for 3-4 players. With 2 players, it'd always finish in 30-45 minutes. Tournaments allocated 1-hour rounds, and only the AP players (and there isn't much cause for AP in this game) would test the limit.
The 3-4 player rules are a bit of a throwaway - the game shines best with 2, my fellowship vs. yours. 3-4 player rules make the game 1.5/2x as long (since you have extra fellowships to move), and cards were never designed with multiplayer in mind. Also, your 2-player deck needs to be modified before a multiplayer game (at the very least, need to add more cards to your 2-player deck due to the longer game time).
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Scott Roberts
United States
Southlake
Texas
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Thanks, David, that is helpful
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Chris Long
United States
State College
Pennsylvania
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scottandkimr wrote: How does the game work with 3 or 4? Does it use teams, free for all, or something else?
I'm surprised no one really correctly addressed this question yet, but here goes...
In a multi-player game, when it is your turn, you play out fellowship cards as normal. Then, each other player, in turn, has the option of playing down Shadow cards against you. Because of the twilight pool mechanic of paying for cards, this works out surprisingly well regardless of how many opponents you have. Each opponent deals with their characters for the most part, and then since everyone refreshes their hand, everyone is ready to go for the next player's turn.
I have always really enjoyed 3-4 player games, although it does add a lot of time, with games usually lasting for 2 hours, as suggested. I played this style game all the time in college and had a lot of fun with it. Part of this format is always the negotiating that comes into play as each of the shadow players try to decide how much they're going to work against a particular player, or how much to save for the next person. It's a lot of really fun table-talking and negotiation.
You do NOT need to modify your deck in order to play multiplayer. Some decks might do slightly better, but overall the Twilight concept works really well. The only real downside to multiplayer is that it is usually pretty difficult to double-move, because you are almost assured that your opponent(s) will be able to field monsters against you.
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Raistlin
Italy
Torino
Torino
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Multiplayer is really bad in my opinion.. I play it in VTES-fashion, allowing players to only do their Shadow phases on the player on their right (and not all together vs the active one as intended by the rules). In this way it results more balanced. It is not perfect, but it works better than the original, which is a terrible non-sense mess.
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