Mark Anderson
United States
Sewell
New Jersey
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I picked up this game last week off of Amazon.com. I bought this game because I am really looking forward to the Star Wars LCG, and I figured that this game would give me a similar experience (with both games being solo/co-op).
Just a bit of information on my experience with this type of game. I played Magic the Gathering through High School and I got into the Game of Thrones LCG when it first came out and played it through the first few chapter packs. I really enjoy the LCG model because it allows me to do two things:
1) Rope my wife and friends into playing without an initial cost to them.
2) Have all of the possible options for deckbuilding without spending a fortune.
I've now played three cooperative games (with my wife) and one solo game.
The first game my wife and I played went very poorly. We played the introductory "Passage Through Mirkwood" scenario. I read the rules and decided that we should each play with two heroes. Only have two heroes each left us with few options each turn and the encounter deck overwhelmed us.
The second game, I built us two dual-sphere decks with three heroes each, and we easily handled the first adventure.
The third game, we played the "Journey Down the Anduin" scenario with the same decks. This adventure has a difficulty rating of 4, which is right in the middle of the range (1-7). We struggled through it, and were able to beat the adventure barely, with each of us losing a hero and our other heroes all having significant damage.
The solo game had my one dual-sphere deck (Leadership/Spirit) go against the introductory adventure, and I handled it very well.
The Pros:
This game seems very well balanced. Once we got the hang of it, we beat the "easy" scenario handily and struggled through but won the "medium" scenario. We were forced to make crucial tactical decisions on almost every turn on the "medium" scenario.
As with everything Fantasy Flight Games produces, the quality is top notch.
The adventures are very distinct. I was afraid that all of the scenarios would be the same type of adventure, with different enemies or a higher quest progress required, but each adventure seems to have a different objective. This helps diversify your game sessions so it doesn't feel like we're doing the same thing over and over again.
The mechanics of the encounter decks is very smart. When I bought the game, I thought that it might become overly complicated, but once you play a couple games it becomes pretty simple.
The thematic element is well done. Lord of the Rings is a story were danger and darkness wait behind every corner, and the mechanics of this game reflect that. You don't know when a Hill Troll is going to come out of the Encounter deck, and you're going to end up setting other objectives aside to deal with him.
The Cons:
The only real problem I have with this game is the lack of card variety at this point. I've purchased the first few adventure packs, and I still have trouble building a deck (with two spheres) with the required 50 cards. The main issue here is that each adventure pack only comes with two new types of cards for each sphere. This problem will be remedied in time, but it will take a couple cycles before there is a truly diverse card pool.
In Conclusion
I would suggest this game to anyone who enjoys Lord of the Rings, Cooperative Games, or Living Card Games. I'm always looking for good cooperative games (like Pandemic) to play with my wife because we enjoy them more than competitive games.
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Joseph Jobes IV
United States
Emmaus
PA
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Glad to see you're enjoying the game. The deckbuilding options are definitely kind of limited, but as you add more adventure packs and then when you get Khazad-Dum it goes up a good amount. I'm guessing by the end of the next adventure pack cycle there will be tons of different decks one can build. As of right now there's still a decent amount. Try mixing up the heroes you use, the spheres you use, or doing the "One Deck to Rule them All" approach, where you try to beat every scenario with the same deck.
If you ever have rules questions, everyone on here is extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Good luck with the game as you continue down the Adventure Path quests!
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Fred Cromer
United States
Georgia
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Great review. The game seems interesting enough. FFG scares me alittle with some of their errors and poor game testing. It seems this game is doing just fine. I have Arkham Horror and its a great game. I`m really waiting on the Stars War game to come out. Hopefully, it will be as good as the Lord of the Rings. Just one side note. You should check out Simon Cogan Doctor Who game. Its been a real winner of a game. Simon is working real hard to make it the best solo game ever. Give it try.
Freebird out
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