Looking Back: The Hobbit Saga

The Hobbit. A beloved story for many a young reader and a gateway to dreaming about setting up a club to learn elvish in your garage. When our household interest in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game started waning (due to many unplayed quests), Fantasy Flight Games came out with these two sets just in time to capture our interest for a little longer. It probably helps that we just finished listening to The Hobbit audio book on a road trip right before Over Hill and Under Hill was released.

My goal was to look at both saga expansions as a whole, but they really came across as two very separate sets evoking very different emotions in me. So that's how I'll treat them for this review.

The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill

Trolls, hords of Goblins, Gollum...Fantasy Flight had done it before in the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle, back when the idea of Saga expansions was still undeveloped. Yet all these areas were able to be revisited in fresh, new ways throughout Over Hill and Under Hill. In each quest, you can see yourself living out the events as they happened in the book, or slightly altering events for a taste of "What If." And that is the key of what Saga expansions should bring to the table.

And there is variety! Different paths to victory in the first quest, two different encounter decks in the second, two different staging areas in the third. This game has a great engine that can become boring with standard quests but is fantastic when mixed with creativity on the part of the designers.

Is it beatable with just a single core? Yes. Totally. I haven't tried We Must Away, Er Break of Day in that format yet, but I have done so with the final two quests. That is another essential for me, especially with these Saga expansions. When a new player walks into a store (let's assume everything is in-print and stocked), they'll grab their core set and think "What says 'Middle-earth' to me? Ah, The Nin-in-Eliph!" Nope. They're going to go for The Hobbit or The Black Riders. So, as someone who wants to see more people enjoy this game, I am glad to say Over Hill and Under Hill meets that end.

I know that's not a unanimous opinion. There are plenty of people who find these three quests too difficult or too finicky. True, there are challenges to over come and series of events that can take you out without any notice, but these quests are not characterized by that (well, maybe your first run of Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim is going to be shocking no matter what). As long as players have a fighting chance they can plan for (using a variety of deck types), then I am a happy player.

The Hobbit: On the Doorstep

There was a time when Over Hill and Under Hill was hard to find. I pity the gamer who decided On the Doorstep would be a great follow-up purchase to their single core set instead.

The designers definitely upped the ante this time around. Both Flies and Spiders and The Lonely Dragon had me stumped for a little bit on the best deck-build. I had strong moments of "This is going to take forever to beat." Ultimately, they proved beatable after only a few attempts, but I do have a large card pool to work with.

Difficulty I am not opposed to. Crazy difficulty with very few ways to circumvent it I have major problems with. For me, this strips a lot of the fun and creativity out of the game for the player. I love it when people build fantastic decks with out certain assumed cards (like A Test of Will or Sneak Attack). I love the different races and geographical groups you can build around. There is quite a sandbox to play in for deck building with this game. But the first two quests of On the Doorstep are like some bossy kid on the playground telling you exactly what make-believe game your group will be playing today. No exceptions.

And that opinion is probably fueled by my own lack of creativity in deck-building. I know there are players (somewhere, right?) who loved this expansion and the challenge the first two quests gave them. The design team has also listened to feedback and given us Easy Mode, Normal Mode, and Nightmare Packs to work with. With the Nightmare packs, the design team now has a proper outlet for all of their evil and hatred, saving their love and affection for the general player aiming for Normal Mode.

Then there is The Battle of Five Armies. I'm a bit of a hypocrite about this one. I know it can prove grueling for many players, but I actually loved it. Probably because I loved the deck I used against it, but that positive experience has given me warm feelings towards this scenario. I'm actually excited about building more decks to go against it. Maybe because it does not squeeze you into a box, but expects you to have a well-rounded strategy (which I typically build for).

As I said in the write up, I'll return to the Lonely Mountain to get my treasure. And maybe I'll come to love that quest. Until then I would only recommend 1 of the 3 quests included (the player cards are a different issue and well worth the purchase price).

But my biggest criticism over all? I was really looking forward to that ultra-thematic 45 minute battle between Smaug and the dwarves inside Erebor, culminating in a Rube Goldberg machine that attempts to stop Smaug by coating him in pure liquid gold.

Come on, Caleb and Matt; get with the program. 

Big, necessary note: My enjoyment of The Lonely Mountain has increased slightly. Originally, I found Secret Entrance a fantastic way to see what shadow card Smaug would be dealt next:

While Secret Entrance is the active location, The Lonely Mountain's [Threat] is reduced by half (round up).
Travel: The first player must exhaust a hero and name a card type to travel here. Then, reveal the top card of the encounter deck. If the revealed card is not the named type, return Secret Entrance to the staging area. (The players cannot travel again this round.)  

But, after the write-up, I notice it said "reveal" not "look at" and I had probably played the card wrong. What a brutal card! You're taking a major gamble to reduce the staging area threat. In fact, you increase it (possibly significantly) if you guess wrong. So I played a re-do, avoiding the Secret Entrance, bemoaning the lack of ways to tackle the final stage. Then this arrived in my inbox today:

Secret Entrance should read: “Look at the top card of the encounter deck. If the looked at card…” There is no need to actually reveal and resolve the top card of the encounter deck when traveling to the Secret Entrance. Thanks for asking.
Hope you’re enjoying the On the Doorstep box!
Cheers,
Caleb

I still think the quest is brutal, but it is great to have a built-in way to possibly know what card Smaug will be dealt as his shadow (or to reduce the staging area threat significantly; either way it's a win-win situation).