General game information

Many games have emerged over the past decade with the words “Lord of the Rings” in their name, from traditional board games to Monopoly: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition and Risk: The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a living card game (LGG). In Living Card Games, a system invented by Fantasy Flight Games, all the cards in the game are available in packs, which contain all the cards published in the set, in contrast to Trading Card Games in which the expansions are available in small packs. , called “booster packs” that contain some random cards from the set. That means that with TCGs one has to buy countless power-ups to find specific cards and thus spend a lot of money, whereas with LCGs one only has to buy the appropriate expansions that contain the cards and that’s it. This system has proven to be quite successful considering the economic difficulties that many countries have experienced in recent years. This review is about the basic set of the game, which contains four 30-card starter decks and two-player components. The game’s expansions, called “Adventure Packs,” come out every month and two expansion cycles have been released so far. “Shadows of Mirkwood“Y”Dwarrowdelf“along with a luxury expansion called”Khazad-deumAdventure Packs contain 60 cards that include a new scenario, a new hero, three copies of nine new player cards from all spheres, and new encounter cards. But what are heroes, player decks, encounter decks, and spheres?

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a cooperative game based on the famous novel trilogy by JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the rings. One to four players travel the lands of Middle-earth trying to complete dangerous missions and defeat the ancient and evil Dark Lord, Sauron. Each player controls 1 to 3 heroes that are available from the start of the game and each one has a deck of cards, which can be played by spending resources that belong to a specific sphere. There are four spheres: “Knowledge” that emphasizes the potential of the hero’s mind, “Tactics” that emphasizes the martial prowess of a hero, “Spirit” that emphasizes the strength of a hero’s will, and “Leadership” that emphasizes influence. charismatic and inspiring of A Hero. Each sphere provides a unique play style and you can include cards that belong to more than one sphere into your deck, as long as you use suitable heroes and are the source of resources. Player decks include the allies that come to help your heroes, the events that influence the course of the adventure, and the attachment cards.

At the beginning of the game, you decide which of the three scenarios included in the game you are going to play. Each scenario has a different difficulty and is represented by mission cards that provide the story of the scenario. Each scenario consists of a sequential deck of mission cards and goes along with specific threats (unexplored locations, enemies, betrayal, and objectives) represented by specific encounter sets. Each scenario requires two or three sets of encounters that are shuffled to form the encounter deck.

The game begins by setting each player’s threat level (depends on the heroes used) and shuffling the player and encounter decks. Over the course of the game, the threat level will eventually increase and when it reaches level 50, the player is eliminated. The rest of the players continue the adventure and if at least one survives until the end of the mission, the entire group of players is considered to have completed the mission. The first mission card is revealed and each player draws 6 cards. Then the game continues in rounds, consisting of the following phases:

• Resources are obtained from heroes and a card is drawn from the player’s deck.
• Planning. Each player can use resources and play cards as Allies and Attachments.
• Search. Each player decides which characters (heroes or allies) to send on the mission. Then, cards equal to the number of players in the encounter deck are revealed and placed in the staging area. The total willpower of the heroes is compared to the total threat strength of the cards in the staging area and if the willpower is higher, the players have successfully searched and some progress tokens are placed on the staging card. mission. A specific number of tokens are required in each mission for it to be completed.
• Travel. Players can group travel to a location in the staging area, making it an active location and no longer contributing to their threat level when completing missions. Progress tokens are placed there first after successfully completing a mission until the location is fully explored.
• Meeting. Players can engage enemy creatures in the staging area and then engagement checks are performed to see if any enemies engage the players. Engaging enemies move from the staging area and stand in front of the participating player.
• Combat. The enemies then attack the players first and then the players attack the enemies. Characters can commit to a mission, defend or attack enemies. Each of these actions requires the character to exhaust himself (turn sideways). Characters can also become exhausted when using an ability that requires them to do so.
• To update. All exhausted characters are ready (moved to their normal upright position). Each player increases their threat by 1, and the first player passes the first player token to the next player clockwise to their left. That player becomes the new first player. Then the game moves on to the resource phase of the next round.

But enough with the aspects of the game. Now is the moment of truth. Does the game live up to our expectations?

First impressions

When I opened the game box, I realized that it was too big for what it contained. The actual content requires only the middle third of the box, while the other two-thirds are covered with pieces of cardboard. Overcoming the initial frustration I began to open the small packages containing cards and sheets of cardboard with tokens and the threat counters. Looking at the components, I realized the attention that was paid to detail during the design. Fantasy Flight has proven over the years that where looks matter, you can make a difference and this game is no exception. All cards are exquisitely beautiful and detailed.

And then comes the rule book. I have to admit that I found the 32-page manual quite intimidating to read, but considering that many pages are sample illustrations, things have been a bit easier than anticipated. But let’s go over our usual rating categories:

Components:

As mentioned above, the cards couldn’t be better designed. The images on all the cards are impressive, the tokens are sturdy, and the threat trackers are just excellent. The only complaint I have is about the number of players that can play. While four 30-card decks are included in the box, allowing four players to play, only 2 threat counters are included. I think it would be appropriate to give full components for four players, as only two threat counters would be required. Of course, one can easily trace the threat on a piece of paper, but it still seems a bit awkward. Fantasy Flight preferred gains over efficiency, stating in the rulebook that “A one to two player game can be played using only the content of this core set (up to four players can play the game cooperatively with a second copy of the core set).” 9/10

How to Play:

The gameplay is well thought out. The game is very deep and allows for many different strategies giving players the privilege of adjusting their decks to their liking, even combining different spheres on them and playing according to their style. The game provides absolute immersion, through the beautiful illustrations and interesting text on the cards, not only the mission cards that describe the adventurer group’s mission, but also the character and enemy cards. Players are constantly faced with important decisions such as: Which characters should I use to engage in missions, which ones to defend or attack? Perhaps he could use the character’s special ability instead. I was very impressed with the length of the first few games until all the players were comfortable with the rules. The game chart indicates a play time of 60 minutes, but be prepared to play a lot more in the first few games. Anyone who is not intimidated by complex rules and long gameplay and is a fan of the book will simply love this game and will never get bored of playing it. 8/10

Learning curve:

All that is required to learn the game is to go through the rules once and play the game once. Although that might take a while. It is recommended that one of the players who likes to read the rules just do that and then explain the game to the others while playing the first one (easier scenario). Simply stating the rules of the game will be intimidating and of little use, as the rules are quite extensive and will soon be forgotten without experience of the game. The sequence of phases is shown in the last pages of the rulebook along with the time when players can take actions that will prove quite useful. 6/10

Theme:

The game’s missions take place over a period of 17 years: from Bilbo celebrating his 111th birthday (and Frodo’s 33rd) to the days before Frodo leaves the Shire. However, the scenarios are not retelling the story from the books, instead describing new adventures throughout the history of Middle-earth. That can be seen as a positive or negative point for the players and it is clearly a matter of character. Personally, I find this idea refreshing and more intriguing. The illustrations of the game along with the detailed text messages and the appearance of well-known heroes such as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli make the theme of the game always present in every action that the players take. 9/10

Replayability:

Replayability is another strong point of this game. While new adventure packs are released every month, keeping the interest in the game, even the basic set with its 3 scenarios is quite interesting as you will always want to replay the scenarios to achieve better scores (lower scores are! better!) and accomplish missions in fewer rounds. So replayability is at its best here. 9/10

Fun:

The game is a lot of fun, although not in a way that amuses you or makes you laugh. Most of the time you will have a hard time making the right decisions about what actions to take or talking to your teammates about the correct strategy to advance in the game. I think the funniest thing is the fact that it is a cooperative game. However, this is accomplished in an intuitive way, allowing enough space for player cooperation and allowing players to make their own decisions as well. I had a lot of fun playing this game 8/10

Pros:

• Beautiful works of art and high quality material.
• Each game is different as the encounter and player decks are shuffled.
• The theme is implemented more efficiently
• Full platform customization
• All cards are available in adventure packs (LCG system)

Cons:

• The learning curve is a bit slow (complex rules)
• Play time can be several hours, especially for the first game.
• Components can be included for all 4 players with minimal additions

Overall: 8.2

Learn more about this game at:

http://www.boardgamemaniac.com/Games/By-Genre/Customizable-Games/LCG/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-The-Card-Game-l97.html