Looking Back: The Road Darkens

My first session report from this box was on February 20th, 2015. That is a lot of life lived! The first two quests were attempted & re-tackled during memorable points for me these past two years. That fact alone is going to assign a certain sentimental feeling to this box for me.

As for the quests themselves, the game designers did a great job of cramming a large amount of content into three quests (following in the footsteps of Tolkien, who moves from a drawn out beginning to a rapid end).

I did want to put a quick note about Campaign Mode in general here. Early in the life of Lord of the Rings, the "reset for each quest" was viewed by my wife and I as a downside. We both liked the idea of leveling up our heroes & moving on to tougher challenges with stronger decks. The designer's way of incorporating this after the fact, via burdens & boons, is a good patch but it still feels like a patch. This is mainly due to the restrictions around changing your party. With Lord of the Rings being a primarily deck-building game, I felt handicapped as I moved through a box instead of enabled. There are times when the next quest seems to require a different suit of heroes than I currently have. Case in point would be swapping out Gandalf for Boromir in  Breaking of the Fellowship. Now I have an extra threat point to contend with here on out. There is relief built in for this, with occasional options to change your party, and I appreciate that fact. A big caveat is that some times I want to keep using the same deck (as my report on The Grey Havens will show). And I also see how this adds to the thematic element of the sagas.

Still, critiques of Campaign Mode aside, the Lord of the Rings saga boxes have been really enjoyable so far and I look forward to (finally) playing through the next few.