What do you think of LOTR: TCG so far?

It looks very cool. I'm definitely gonna pick up some starters and give it a try. The only thing that has me concerned is cost. With 365 cards, Fellowship is the biggest set of anything D has ever put out, and 121 of those are rares. And a bunch of those rares are ones you'd want in multiple, especially the good minions like Lurtz and the Witch-King, since minions die at the end of the turn. Add the fact that there's only one card pool and that I usually end up playing CCGs with my cards on both sides (I can get my friends to learn the rules and play a game of non-SWCCG cards, but I never could get anyone to invest in their own cards) and I'd have to spend several hundred to build competitive decks for two players. And that's just Fellowship, forget the future expansions and the facts that I still like SWCCG and JK, not to mention that I have other, more important things to spend money on than a bazillion card games.

 

Has Decipher posted the LOTR rules yet? If they look any good, I might give the game a try.

 

Yes, the rules are up. I like them, especially in multiple player games. I am really looking forward to the game. The idea of playing "good" and "bad' in the same deck is cool.

EDIT:
A few rule basics (I'm going to use a lot of SW:CCG termonlogy here:

Your deck needs 9 Sites and at least 60 other cards (with even numbers of free peoples and evil cards)

You can start the game with a company that costs a maximum of 4 twilight points (Frodo is free and has to be in the fellowship with the one ring. The cost lets you have another main in the fellowship or a few minor characters)

Sites go out during the game when someone moves. Turns then go in the fo,llowign order:

Fellowship:
The active player may play (deploy) characters and allies and also play any fellowship action. Most actions have a cost where the player puts tokens into the twilight pile. The fellowship may then move, putting in one token for each character in the fellowship +1.

Shadow:
All onon active players are the shadow players. They play minions and perform shadow actions. Costs are payed for by taking tokens out of the twilight pile (I think this is a really cool concept)

Maneuver phase:
Perform any actions that specify Maneuver phase (starting with the active player and then counter clockwise)

Archery:
Basically, your archery characters do damage here

Assignment:
You pick who is going to fight who (generally one on one fights between characters)

Skirmish:
Characters skirmish, with the higher strength wounding the lower one. When a character has wounds greater or equal to their vitality, the die.'

Regroup:
Non-active players (minions) draw or discard to eight cards, and the active player may move again (there are limits, one extra move per turn for each opponent)

If they don't move, the turn moves on.

EDIT 2: Dumbo here forgot to mention that you win if you reach the 9th site first. On the other hand, you lose if all your valid ring bearers (Frodo or Sam) dies OR if your ring bearer is corrupted.

The way each turn is one player vs everyone else is cool.
I really like the Lord of the Rings books, am I am really looking forward to the release, though I do share Ocelot's cost concerns.

 

I'm trying to get together another SRL issue. Would anyone here be interested in having us conduct an interview witrh D on LOTR?

 

I am interested.

 

Oops, I misinterpreted the moving rule. When your fellowship moves, you add to the twilight pool a number of tokens equal to the total numbered on that site card + one for each member of the fellowship.

 

So basically, the closer you get to Mount Doom, the more forces your opponent can bring against you? Cool.

"There is evil there that does not sleep."

 

One thing that I'm worried about concerning the numbered site path: since each site has a number, and you have to include one of each number from 1 to 9, I'd assume you could choose from all available 1's, all available 2's, etc. But in Fellowship, the sites only tkae you as far as they actually traveled in Fellowship of the Ring. I'm assuming that future sets will take the fellowship farther, but still remain on the 1-9 range. So you could make it all the way from Anduin River to Mordor in one move? Or you could move from the outskirts of Mordor to Emyn Muil? That doesn't seem to make much sense.

 

It probably makes as much sense as Jar Jar battling Tarkin on the Executor.

I'm sure that Decipher has some plan up their sleeve for the sites. Maybe they'll say that you have to have x sites from between a certain range. I don't know.

One thing I was able to check was my biggest concern about the game play. During the assignment phase, the Free People's player asigns as many skirmishes as they wish, and then passes. I was concerned because I thought you assigned one skirmish and then passed.

 

The Assignment Phase is definitely NOT described well in the rulebook, BPJ. While I didn't read it the way you did, with assigning only one skirmish, I thought the Shadow player got to assign who fought who, rather than the Free Peoples player, and I wasn't the only one. According to their review of the game, mtgplanet.com thought the same thing for a while. It probably made the game pretty un-fun, since everyone would just go after Frodo all the time.

 

The best place to ask question is the Decipher BBS. Chuck Kallenbach often posts there, and there are regular "green" posts as well. That's where I got the answer to my question. There is A LOT of complaining about the rulebook. It really isn't set out well, which is a shame, because now that I have a better understanding of the rules, they are pretty cool! IT is a very balanced game, but I am concerned that the end of the game will be very hard for the free peoples, and that most will be a case of who can kill Frodo/ Sam first rather than who can make it to the end first.

BTW check The One Ring.net for great pictures of the products!

 

I believe they've managed to get images of locations from all three films and so the sites go the entire length of the journey.

Hence the story of the game is about the attempted destruction of the ring which would happen at site 9.

I think this shows just how flexible the film owners are being. Being able to produce the game in time for the film's release will make a massive difference!

btw Joeri wasn't exagerating about the number of demos that were done in Essen. The volunteers were working harder than any dwarf could.

 

I like the way different strategies are appearing. For instance, by the look of the two Sauron Culture cards that are appearing, if you play Sauron Culture you will be aiming to corrupt the opponent. Thus I am assuming that a Moria Culture will be thick with cheap, plentiful minions, while the Nazgul will be a few big tough characters with support.

I wonder what trends are going to arise. I mean, will people trend towards one culture, or will there be a smattering of cultures in a deck. At the moment, I am lookign at making a Moria swarm deck, which is backed up by a couple of Nazgul. Maybe the corruption strategy will make a nice "backup" strategy, but needing a Sauron Orc to exert could force it to be a major plan. I dunno.

 

The LOTR PDF spoiler is up! Yay! You can access it here

 

Well, I think Ulaire Ostea (a Nazrul for those of you who don't speak Elvish) will be going in my Isengard decks.

A Power 9 damage+1 fierce minion and another power 9 minion for a total cost of 7 tokens is going to be a bit nasty!

Ian

 

You bet! Nuzgul are great characters.

Last night I did a playtest using old Mortal Kombat cards with post-Its on them, and I discovered a few things about the game:

1) Never playtest multiplayerr games. It's crazy.

2) The Mortal Kombat Gard Game has never been so fun!

3) Let's get serious now. A big character early on in the game is handy for overwhelming. Otherwise, don't waste your precious minions too early obn. Remenber that Site 3 is a sactuary, and thus 5 wounds will be healed. This can make soem attacks pointless.

4) IMHO a bigger starting company is better to back up Frodo.

5) Cards like Hobbit stealth and the other "cancel skirmish" event may be commons, but their worth their weight in gold. You can let a big fatty skirmish Frodo early and simply cancel the skirmish. This forced the opponent to waste an early minion they could have used better later.

6) Maybe because I'm naturally a cautious card player, but not much happenedd in my first few turns, and the companies all made it to Site 3 without much of a wound.

Just some thoughts.

 

Is the game any good?

 

It will be more fun with customized decks rather than the starters. Oh, and I take back what I said about starting with a big fellowship. This can have drawbacks as well.

 

I really want to try it but I had some bad comments from 2 people who went to somes demos already so I wanted to get some more opinions.

 

The fact is that it's impossible to portray the depth of a game like this in a short demo.

From what I know, everybody who's played with the starters has been instantly hooked (though I hear the Aragon one usualy wins).

Anyone who's looking to take the game seriously and wants to discuss strategy can email me on ivincent@ecgd.gov.uk

Ian

 

Heaps of cards posted today. The game is looking great!

 

I picked up the LotR starters today, and I must say, I'm very impressed with the game. The first thing I noticed (since I was still puzzling out the rules nad couldn't note anything about the text on the cards) was how great the art is. And I don't even mean the images, which are good too (Moria Scout is so cool!). The borders and formats and whatnot unique to each culture are really something. Although Elven looks a little too close to Magic blue for my taste (I hate Magic).

After playing two games against myself, I've come to the following conclusion: Moria ROCKS! I thought the Uruk-hai from the Aragorn starter were gonna be the minion threat to beat in the starter games, with each of them having damage +1. But Moria's goblin swarms overwhelm Frodo every time. BTW, am I playing this right: Fellowship has Aragorn and Frodo, Shadow has like 6 different Goblins. Fellowship assigns Frodo and Aragorn to one Goblin each, and the Shadow player gets to assign the 4 leftover Goblins wherever (all on Frodo). It looks like thats what the rules are telling me to do, but if that's the case, Moria seems just too strong.

 

I like LOTR, too. And yes, Ocelot, I think you're playing it correctly. But keep in mind, when Frodo is about to take a wound he slips on the ring, and now he can take up to 10 burdens instead of 4 wounds.

 

Frodo can't put his ring on when his strength is doubled :-(

The first things you can do to defend against this is to start with more than one charactor.

Once you get more cards ones like "Power to match his stacture" will help by dealing one wound to each Orc attacking Frodo (enough to kill most Moria minions).
For a cheaper solution, look for the two Hobbit stealth cards. They will help protect Frodo upto site 5 (by which time you will probably have more charactors out).