Hunting for Gollum in 2011

I had already purchased a second core set before my first pre-ordered one arrived in 2011. Fantasy Flight Games' articles about the upcoming game had me salivating. A big fan of the books, I made a short-lived and unrealized attempt as a kid to host a club where would learn Elvish. I had heavily purchased the old Middle-Earth CCG, for games that never happened. And I watched the movies on the regular. This new game looked like it was going to scratch a constant itch I had for quality LotR content.

The cores arrived, my wife and I played the heck out of them, and I wanted more. Not only because the game was so tough (to me) with the limited card pool. If you can't grasp my hate for Escape From Dol Guldur, remember that it was one of the only three quests we had at the time! Journey Down the Anduin was the default best quest but you could only play it so many times. Creators such as ninjadorg were coming up with custom quests to pass the time but that didn't solve the player card pool issue.

Then it happened: FFG announced that stores could request preview copies of the very first adventure pack, Hunt for Gollum, for a special event! I read it on my phone and immediately called my local store, The Haunted Game Cafe, begging them to sign up. The wait seemed like it was forever. I checked in a few times with the owner to make sure they were still on the list and the pack was coming. The night came, I convinced a buddy to come play the game for the first time, and we headed out to the cafe!

There were either two or three tables open. Most people came with friends, but there were a few spares looking for a group. We joined up with another player and the three of us began our hunt! Here are my thoughts from the night (which I posted as a Spoiler-Free Review on Board Game Geek shortly after):

What does Hunt for Gollum add to the core set (without specifics)?

The Cards

The core set has the feel of a game with greatness in it's future, but certain strategies and areas of potential need to be fleshed out further. The Hunt for Gollum continues with that feeling. While there is a little bit of addition to previous strategies, the expansion introduces new elements at their basic level. These new elements may add a slight advantage to the core, but it is apparent that they are setting the stage for future expansions. There is at least one card that I found extremely useful for the included scenario, but nothing that made me think "my deck was missing that!" For my second try today, I am going to continue putting a priority on including every new player card from the expansion, but I feel that will actually hinder the deck. The game, in it's initial stages, is developing along the lines of Lost, with the first two "episodes" ending on a cliffhanger. Let's hope everything starts tying together!

The Play

This is a fun expansion to play. The increased difficulty, over Journey Along the Anduin, is felt, but it is still a far cry easier than Escape From Dul Guldur. I prefer to play my initial game with each scenario "blind" (with no knowledge of the contents) and, with three players, we came close to a win. But it was apparent that a little tweaking and thoughtful deck building is greatly in need. Even with that, I can predict some twists the encounter deck might throw next time to make even a well-designed deck struggle a bit. There is a bit of variety in challenges thrown out by the encounter deck and players cannot focus just on one area of potential threat (which is tempting!). while defeated, it was not hopeless and I am eager to start the hunt again!

The Bottom Line

The Hunt for Gollum is a great addition for players who are already on the Lord of the Rings: The Card Game bandwagon. If you were waiting for this expansion to sell you on the game, then you will most likely be disappointed. But if you were wanting a little more variety and a look at things to come, then you will be satisfied with your purchase.

I, personally, was in the middle. I was 95% on subscribing to the entire Shadows of Mirkwood cycle and this expansion convinced me that was a good choice (I signed up last night). But I also bought two cores and, not finding the second set to be a great benefit, was thinking of liquidating one. I was waiting to see if this expansion would convince me of the need to have that extra Unexpected Courage or third Sneak Attack, but I did not find a strong argument here.

So was the need for more player cards met? Not in the way I hoped. But there was a glimmer of hope for the future! Hunt for Gollum was more a promise of strategies to come (like Eagles) vs a welcome expansion to the Core set.

The Revised packaging, with the Hero cards for a campaign released in a single box, is a much more satisfying way to build with new archetypes. It was frustrating to see cards that you hoped would be useful one day but didn't quite hit the mark yet.

Take The Eagles Are Coming! 

This came packaged with a single Eagle, so the card was effectively useless. This gave a sign that more Eagles were on the way (and hopefully would be worth searching for). Frustrating to have a card that was hardly useful at present taking up a precious spot in the very first expansion. If, instead, this had come out towards the end of the cycle it would be a welcome addition to the five eagles released in the cycle.

Speaking of cards, the full set of Hunt For Gollum player cards had not been spoiled by Fantasy Flight Games by the time the preview event happened. I walked away with the adventure pack and did a cringy poll asking people on BGG if they wanted the cards spoiled or wanted to wait for FFG/official release. Obviously everyone wanted to see the cards, so I used my work scanner and posted the first look many people had of the final six cards in the pack.

The Hunt for Gollem is a quest rarely praised in the community. Like most of FFG's Living Card Games, it was the first in a cycle created before the game came out and the world at large started to play the game and give valuable feedback about what worked and what didn't for scenarios. But it was the first. And, for someone in on the ground floor of the game, that gives it a special place in my heart.

A New Dawn

A few weeks ago, I began reading The Hobbit to my younger kids (Bilbo escaped from Gollum yesterday). Tolkien's imagery and characters never fail to lead me back to The Lord of the Rings: the Card Game (Listening to the audio book of Fellowship of the Ring on a road trip ended a hiatus years ago). FFG knocked it out of the park with the art and feel. So it looks like it's time to shuffle up again and deal some shadow cards!

But I had sold off the majority of my collection years ago and only had a few Revised boxes sitting around. I wasn't playing the game at the time, I could use the office space, and why not let someone else take joy in the set? When the out-of-print announcement came, I figured I'd swing by my local game store at some point and (maybe?) buy the revised boxes I was still missing just for the heck of it. That turned into a few weeks. Then turned into the store being full sold out, except for a corse set. 

Calling around other local stores netted nothing. Then I remembered that Wizard's Chest in Denver always had a decent stock. But they also have a great player base and hosted Fellowship events in the past, so the odds felt against me. Lo and behold, they had Two Towers and Return of the King! The worker also said he might have seen some old promos and would throw in any if he found them.

(Side note - A good sense of how much time has passed is not my strong suit. I told the worker at Wizard's Chest that I had played a Fellowship event there, "Four or five years ago." No, friends. Looking at my past posts, it was December 2016 when I participated in a Fellowship event at Wizard's Chest.)

The best of the playmats

So what do I find in my bag when I show up? The Eowyn & the Witch-King playmat! Really debated getting rid of this in the past, even when I liquidated the rest of the collection. An amazing thing to have back in my hands.

Now I'm slowly (yeah, right) buying back older sets and missing revised pieces. I may not get back to a 100% collection, but I'll have plenty of content for quite a while.

Then the question is: Do I just play on my own or actually get the blog going again? Writing up sessions adds a lot to my playtime and I think the act of doing that has contributed to my burn out in the past. I signed back into Blogger to give the stats a peak, expecting this place to have been a ghost town for years. But around a hundred views each day? What the heck was happening. I headed over to r/LoTR and found The End May Be Dark listed under "Notable Archived Blogs and Podcasts." That really warmed my heart. And it helped push me to start the write-ups again.

This is not the first time I've planned on firing the blog up again. After my huge hiatus starting in 2017, a few attempts were made to get back on the bandwagon and they came to nothing. This time I saved up a few quests (3) which I will publish weekly, buying myself a little bit of time in my pattern of flood & drought with write ups. I had intended to wait longer, but I'm impatient to get this thing going again. 

Welcome to a new dawn!

Revised Core Blog

 

And we are back, baby!

Four+ years of hiatus and then a revised core box calls me back from my self-imposed exile to once again show the world how many mistakes I can make in playing one card game.

Last time, the goal was to build or use unique decks to conquer every quest released up to that point. I didn't quite make it to the end (stopping with a few Sands of Harad adventures in drafts), but I did prove to myself that this game is fully capable of being beaten with a solo player piloting a single deck. 

For the revised go-around, the single-deck restrictions and the need to try unique decks most times is off the table. I'll bring whatever feels right for the moment.

And this adventure is also starting at square one. Once I get my new components punched out and organized, it will be time to face down the Flies and Spiders of Mirkwood. New posts will usually come out as new content arrives from FFG.

Revised Core Review

Let's talk about this box. You know how it's exciting for dresses to have pockets? Well it is just as exciting (and surprising) when and FFG core set has good storage. Marvel Champions started out with this type of plastic mold and I'm assuming the revised Arkham Horror core is the same. I am a huge fan. Now what I want to see is how FFG handles cycles moving forward. Marvel Champions releases hero packs and small-boxed encounter expansions with no natural storage. The latest Arkham cycle featured a disposable box of player cards and a well-built box, with storage, for the encounters. There is one two adventure pack and four hero packs coming in the near future for Lord of the Rings to get people started. After that, I hope we can look forward to a release cycle and packaging style similar to Arkham.

Content, the Good: I am holding in my hands three copies of each player card and eight copies of Gandalf. Fantastic, all-star move from FFG. This is what established players were wanting for most of the game's life. While the price tag reflects the increase, new players can pick up a single core and not feel they are missing out by not having a second (or a third...). We also have the inclusion of a campaign structure, featuring the boons and burdens that come with that. The three core scenarios already followed a linear storyline, but this adds more of a thematic element to it.

Content, the Bad: Escape from Dol Guldur is back. The "why would you expose brand new players to this massacre" quest. Now, I have not given the quest a fair shake with the new campaign structure. Looking ahead, I can see that the designers have attempted to ease up the difficulty a bit (maybe? we'll see how many burdens I have by that point). I am curious to see if this has a real effect on first impressions for the many players who will pick this revised core off the shelf.

Time to punch out these counters, sleeve up these cards, and begin my journey once again!

The End (for now?)

I find myself in a position where several "lifestyle" games are fighting for my limited time & attention. And I want to enjoy each one at it's own pace, without any sense of rush or just getting to a point of completion. A few of those games are experiencing a bit of a downsizing in my life to allow me to enjoy them in more of a focused manner. For Lord of the Rings: the Card Game, that means ending this blog for the foreseeable future.

This game takes a long time for me to play. I'm not sure what it is, but my mental processor slows to a snail's pace while deckbuilding. Then I attempt a quest, fail horribly, and build again. That by itself takes long enough. Blogging about it (as short and mistake ridden as the posts are) adds another huge chunk to the time commitment.

Have I moved on from the game? Nope. My monthly (ha) subscription is still active and I am biting at the chomp to get Folco Boffin to the table. I am simply taking another long, indeterminate pause in chronicling my experiences with the game.

Lord of the Rings: the Card Game is a blast. We have a fun, challenging game with beautiful artwork and a creative design team. I look forward to the continued adventures in paper and digital mediums over the upcoming years.

See you around the community!

Blog Clean Up

Time for a few house-keeping notes!

Formatting

I've noticed some major formatting errors in some posts (looking at you, The City of Corsairs). Just wanted to acknowledge that I've been seeing these and will work on going back and doing a little clean up in the near future. I may also take this time to add historic decks to RingsDB. TBD on that.

Community

Several months ago I saw that the links I had to various members of the community were gone. I likely clicked delete on that section without noticing it while doing a Stats update. The section is back and is starting to fill out more. Know some great resources I'm missing? Have a Lord of the Rings: LCG blog you run or are a fan of? Let me know and we'll get it on there!

Currently Tackling

Sometimes my updates come pretty rapidly. Other times not so much. This will give a quick description of what I'm currently working on in regards to LotR (or will serve as a general update venue).

Looking Back: The Sands of Harad

Like The Grey Havens before it, Sands of Harad took the core fundamentals of the game and accentuated them with just enough thematic elements to place the player in the heart of the theme. Also like the last cycle, the new mechanic (temperature) was featured in the deluxe box but not excessively so.

Another feature I appreciated was the tendency of the encounter deck to have just the right answers for me, but not to the level where any style of deck was full prohibited (well, maybe a low will power, low ally deck for the final quest). I felt like I was playing against a competent player who new the meta and adjusted accordingly.

From a purely scenario mindset, The Sands of Harad is where I would point players to as the second box to attempt after the core. 

Pro-tip: Make Dune references on your blog and the next day you'll find a motherload of Dune books at your local thrift store. Works for me 100% of the time!

Looking Back: The Dreamchaser Cycle

I am Southern Californian, born and raided. More specifically, San Diego county. While I am far from that part of the land now, love of the sea is still in my blood. And growing up in SolCal has the added benefit of Disneyland being a significant part of my childhood (and, heck, adulthood), with it almost hard wired into me to make Pirates of the Caribbean my first stop in the early morning. Something about the cool, crisp morning air makes it feel like you are on the dock waiting to board your ship (and that line gets crazy-long later in the day, so it's pretty practical as well).

The Dreamchaser Cycle had the promise of sea-fairing and swash-buckling, with a middle-earth twist, and I think it lived up to it. There were not many quests that I marked down as favorite, but I truly loved the cycle as a whole piece. A strong theme ran through this one that made the quests feel more connected than the previous cycles. And theme is where this one had me hook, line, and sinker.

Will I one-off quests from this cycle down the line? Maybe. Will I sit down for a series of sessions to tackle the whole thing back-to-back? Definitely.

First Impressions: The Black Serpent

There are two write ups in the queue waiting to be finished, but I just got my grubby hands on The Black Serpent and I wanted to finally do something that has been on my mind for a while: A first impression player card review.

This is right out of the gate. The box is sitting to my left with the seal remove and the clamshell just cracked. Here we go!

Fastred
Alright, so I saw this guy on someone's Facebook post yesterday (which is how I knew the pack was out, since my FLGS had their shipment delayed). Spirit Rohan is great, but the stats are not crazy impressive to me 1 willpower, 2 attack, 3 defense, 3hp. Bounce to the staging area and reduce my threat. I'm thinking of combos with Spirit Merry to lower that threat. Or what about lore Faramir, who would get an attack boost? Still, enemies are often going to have 3+ attack, plus whatever is hiding in their shadow card. Three hit points does not give me a lot of confidence in defending those attacks. Ally Arwen can help. Other than that, I'm struggling thinking of consistent Spirit defense boosters right now. I did see Tales from the Cards used this guy, Tactics Eowyn, and someone else (Dunhere?) for some success. I'm not salivating over Fastred, but he's not Spirit Pippin either.

Song of Hope
Resources = Willpower. Nice. Being Leadership and requiring consistent resources makes me think of Leadership Denethor bringing this with him to slap on the designated quester. Heck, the existence of Steward of Gondor will likely make this a staple for me in any deck with Leadership.

Bursting into Song
Why yes I am. Ready heroes with songs? Into the Elfhelm horse deck you go. Any other applications would probably only happen if I look down at my decklist and realize I have a good handful of songs.

Defender of Cair Andros
A 4 cost situational Tactics ally? First glance says "Pass." But let's think about this. The 1 willpower and 1 attacks gives him some utility early on. At 30+ threat, he can defend decently (I'm much more of a fan when an ally has three defense and three hit points, vs a hero). At 40+ he's a great defender with a Spear of the Citadel tacked on. We'll change that "Pass" to a "Maybe."

Oath of Erol
Full of good attackers and short on defenders? Well, then hopefully you drew this card! When this was spoiled a bit ago I thought of using it in a Hama deck as a back up in case Thicket of Spears didn't make it into my hand. May still try that one out.

Fearless Scout
Cantrip + Scout trait. Not really exciting to me. I remember a card that cares about Scouts questing. Would work well there. I would need to look at the ally pool to see if this has implications for Tactics Prince Imrahil.

Rally in the West
Hello multi-player all-star! A whole table getting +1 willpower? Worth including that hero that fetches a side quest just for this guy. Even solo I wouldn't mind this type of consistent, untouchable willpower increase.

Dunedain Pipe
Oooh, I like this one. You still get to "keep" the unwanted card in your deck (because it shouldn't be fully unwanted if it's in your deck) and you're not risking shuffling the temporarily unwanted card away only to have it be what you draw (at least not risking drawing that exact copy).

Old Toby
...is more flexible than I am. This picture makes me uncomfortable. The card itself is fine. I haven't done a fully dedicated pipe deck, but now with four pipes and two cards that care directly about them, I may have to give this a spin.

Southron Refugee
The full Harad deck is another one I haven't tried yet. Stackable reduction is good incentive to try! Auto-include with that archetype.

Well that is a nice pack of player cards. With the exception of  Defender of Cair Andros, everything strikes me as having a clear place and I look forward to seeing them there.

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.

Looking Back: Angmar Awakened Cycle

Well, I think I have found my favorite cycle!

Angmar Awakened features creative mechanics and a good spread of difficulty among the quests. Even the most difficult ones are still fun experiences and present unique challenges.

No real strong critique here from me. If I went to a random meetup and someone said "We're going to play something from Angmar Awakened," I would be excited despite no knowledge of the specific quest we were going to dive into. That is not something I would be willing to say for preceding cycles.

Let's Build It: Three Hunters

Surprise! I am a mediocre deck builder.

On one hand, I hope that is an encouragement to others that you can get really far in this game without having amazing deck building chops. I could realistically finish up the remainder of my quest backlog without significantly changing the types of decks I bring to the table. But I want to see my skills improve and I want to take advantage of new cards in ways that will lead to new strategies in my play. This has led to my recent adoption of playing through top decks on RingsDB. I can see how those decks work and experience what exactly about them gives a greater advantage over a quest vs. the mid-range decks I gravitate towards.

But this time I would like your help.

Many of the deluxe boxes have been coming with a "Hey, you should build this deck" pool of player cards (The Black Riders, The Land of Shadow, The Flame of the West, The Lost Realm, The Sands of Harad).  I've taken a crack at a Three Hunters version of the player cards included with The Sands of Harad. It's a passable deck that I would be happy to give a spin. But could it be significantly better? That's where you come in.

Let me know (here or @RingsDB):

• What improvements you would suggest and what cards would you remove to make room?
• What quest in Angmar Awakened, Dream-chaser, or Haradrim you would like to see this ran agains?

 And now onto my first draft...

TEMBD Three Hunters v.1

Heroes
Aragorn (Core)
Gimli (Sands of Harad)
Legolas (Sands of Harad)

Allies
Faramir (Core) x1
Fili x1
Galadriel (The Road Darkens) x3
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x3
Dunedain Pathfinder x2
Kili x1
Gandalf (Core) x3


Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x2
Dunedain Mark x3
Dunedain Warning x3
Dwarven Shield x2
Roheryn x1
Steward of Gondor x3
Sword that was Broken x1
Mirkwood Long-knife x2
Unexpected Courage x3
Strider x2


Events
Sneak Attack x3
Unlikely Friendship x3
A Test of Will x3
Elven-light x3
Inspiring Presence x2

Sets Used
Core
The Hunt for Gollum
Conflict at the Carrock
The Watcher in the Water
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Road Darkens
The Dread Realm
The Drowned Ruins
The Flame of the West
The City of Corsairs
The Sands of Harad
Race Across Harad

RingsDB Link

I called this version 1, but there were a few adjustments made as I went along. Originally there were two copies each of Dwarven Sellsword and Weather Hills Watchman. I wanted a cheap ally and the ability to pull more signals in my deck. These went out in favor of Galadriel, who can give me a one-turn ally and get my attachments equipped faster. Her higher cost combines with the free attachment to be a net value in my mind, especially considering Voltron is a goal of this deck. The forth spot went to the one-off of Roheryn.

Before publishing both this post and deck, I decided to do a quick search on RingsDB to make sure there was no obvious archetype utilizing these three hunters that I was missing. Only a handful of decks came up and most of them had the same essential framework listed. A few notable additions among different versions would be King Under the Mountain and Envoy from Pelargir, both great ideas to consider (although it would be an interesting move for me to not include Envoy for once). A notable exclusion from the other decks was Inspiring Presence. Yes, it is pricey to get the full use out of it, but giving Gimli +2 defense and Legolas +2 attack in a crucial round is nothing to lightly pass up. But that's the trick for me in deckbuilding: It is not hard to find good cards for a deck, but hard to determine which good cards to leave out and which to keep. Captains Wisdom, Dunedain Remedy, and many other cards could have made the cut. I want to hear from you which ones actually should have.

Looking Back: The Lost Realm

Good hype about this box had made its way to my ears since its release and that was not proved unfounded. Intruders in Chetwood is a great entry-level quest for the current cardpool. The Weather Hills, while taking me quite a while to conquer as I tried to make a certain deck work,  presents a unique challenge that takes some thinking to work around (or it took me that at least). Deadmen's Dike is a solid, challenging quest. All-in-all, The Lost Realm is a fantastic box that I highly recommend. Unsure how just a Core + this one would fair beyond the initial quest, but there are some solid Core-only decks out there and this gives the pool you need for a decent Duendain archetype (although I have yet to really explore that path myself).

My biggest regret is spreading out this box over months and not really getting into the thematic mindset, which feels like it could be really rich with this one. Blame my Xbox and Arkham Horror for that. Also, looking over some of the quests while writing this, I'm realizing the encounter deck played it pretty easy with me on some of these. Most notably Deadmen's Dike, where I faced down zero side quests and any of the three would have posed serious problems to me in that final play through.

Let's go back to the player cards. Too often I open a new box, add the cards to my pile, and realize down the line that some of these have been fully untouched. That is exactly the case here. While I played with, and loved, Secret Vigil right of the box, most of the cards are semi-known and never seen in my decks. But there are some awesome contributions pulling you towards an interesting enemy engagement strategy. Now I want to dive into the Dunedain archetype and see if I can wreak some face in this cycle.

Campaign Catch-Up

For my own enjoyment and feeling of truly completing the campaign experience, I decided to re-play A Knife in the Dark through Journey in the Dark. These are all quests already beaten and will not be added to my tally of cumulative plays nor discussed in detail. Below is a quick summary of these recent attempts as well as any resulting campaign resolutions.

Previous Campaign Resolutions
Boon: Mr. Underhill attached to Frodo Baggins
Boon: Old Bogey-stories (added to starting hand)
Boon: Ho! Tom Bombadil! (added to starting hand)
Burden: Gandalf's Delay added to staging area

A Knife in the Dark

With greater knowledge of the need to dispatch Bill Ferny ASAP, this was a single run-through that survived a few twists of the encounter deck and saw my mighty Hobbits sweep a solid victory.

Campaign Resolutions
Boon: Noble Hero attached to Sam Gamgee


Flight to the Ford

One nail-biting race lost when The Enemy is Upon Us! stalled out my progress, leading to Frodo's death, and one non-nail biting race that was a clean sweep. Looking back at my write-up the first time around, I think I miss-read the thematic level of this one. It truly captures an urgent rush to get Frodo to Rivendell before he succumbs to the Witch-king's wound.

Campaign Resolutions
Burden: Panicked

Note: I forgot that I slightly miss-played this one the first time around (having multiple copies of the unique elf-stone in play), so I'll up my number of attempts by 2.

The Ring Goes South
Took me a few more attempts than I'd like to admit, primarily due to my desire to use Gandalf, Aragorn, and Sam as my heroes. A lot of ground is covered in these three stages, taking you all the way from the safe haven of Rivendell to the battle against the Watcher in the Water at the Doors of Durin. The designers did well here and improved greatly over the Watcher in the Water quest.

Campaign Resolutions
Boon: Sting
Boon: Mithril Shirt
Boon: Glamdring
Boon: Anduril


Journey in the Dark

Really wanted to get a thematic win here by destroying the Balrog, but gave up on that dream after a few attempts. I decided to push through before he appeared and victory was mine with one damage token remaining on Doom, Doom, Doom.

Campaign Resolutions
Burden: Shadow of Fear
Burden: Overcome by Grief

And I'm all caught up again! POD saga quests are folded in and accounted for in my campaign pool and the quests are all fresh in my mind. Now time to beat the final quest in The Road Darkens.

Side Quest: Arkham Horror

Departing the realm of Middle-earth, I took a detour tonight into the world of H.P. Lovcraft's Cuthulu Mythos. Even before it's release, Arkham Horror: The Card Game was receiving positive press and speculation that it heralded the downfall of Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. The same designer (Nate French, along with Matthew Newman this time) took five years of lessons and combined them with a theme that is arguably more popular these days with the gaming crowd (at least publishers seem to think so). Now that is has been released, the word on the street is that Arkham Horror is indeed a strong contender for the title of best cooperative living card game published by Fantasy Flight Games.

My first impression? This is a fantastic game. The art does not appeal to me as much as LotR, and it has been years since I was into Lovecraft, but the gameplay itself was highly enjoyable. The designers directly state that they are looking to bring an RPG feel to the table and they succeeded. While not an open-world game, you are responsible for decisions that will not only impact the success or failure of the scenario but what that success or failure looks like. I found myself deciding between achieving a beneficial task or holding insanity at bay for my investigator. Either choice seemed positive and I had no idea which would have the bigger impact on future scenarios. That was exciting and refreshing: Having a list of available options that color the outcome of the quest instead of simply leading to a clean victory or defeat. Another positive was that the start deck I used was actually usable and able to defeat the introductory scenario (a sore point with LotR's own core set that frustrates 10/10 new players).

So has Lord of the Rings: the Card Game been made obsolete? No. I am not the first to state this, but Arkham and LotR are both very different types of games and neither should directly replace the other. Arkham does show lessons FFG has learned in designing living card game which would be great to see retroactively implemented in LotR. In fact, as has also been pointed out by others, you can see how different elements of Arkham were tested out in LotR over the past year (such as the travel mechanic of Temple of the Deceived and the how the ability on Galdor of the Havens is almost identical to the standard mulligan rule in Arkham). The basic fact in favor of LotR's continued existence is that, from what we hear, it is still making FFQ cold, hard cash. What I do think Arkham brings to the surface is the need for an LotR reboot. Five years of lessons can be used to make a smoother, more immersive experience. A way can be found to encourage more frequet social play (if not on a competitive front). And a re-boot allows new players an entry point into a game that has now grown very costly to complete.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game and Arkham Horror: The Card Game are both very welcome parts of my game collection. After I take time to discover the full Arkham core set, I have a feeling I will be quickly adding this to my LCG subscription and begin spending my game time hopping between the rich lands of Middle-earth and the mysteries of realms beyond.

Looking Back: Ringmaker Cycle

Celebrimbor's Secret and The Three Trials.

Not only is this the name of my new band, but these are the only two quests I really enjoyed out of the entire Voice of Isengard box + Ringmaker cycle. Part of that is my fault. In misunderstanding how Time X works on locations, I added a layer of punishment to the cycle that was not the designer's intention. I will add a little benefit to my doubt and classify this cycle as "My least favorite, but possibly better than I realize."

Note: Trouble in Tharbad was marked as a favorite quest as well, but that was more to do with the unique nature of getting your threat down to zero than anything else. I may consider changing that classification, or I may find that my new realization about Time X only solidifies my original choice.

Time to Reformat

Recently I pulled out the card table, unrolled my playmat, and got to work re-tackling Journey in the Dark. It was a blast! It has been a while since it was just me, the cards, and a good time. That memory was fresh in my mind while listening to the Grey Company Podcast episode 41 today, where everyone took turns recounting what adventures they had been going up against recently. I realized how much playtime I am missing due to the work I put into my detailed quest logs and how counter that is to the original purpose of this blog: to get me playing more!

Why The Quest Logs? The secondary purpose for this blog is to serve as a resource for fellow mediocre solo players. Think a quest can't be beat one-handed solo? Think again! But it is one thing to simply say "No, you can totally beat that" and another to show the work (number of attempts made), planning (decklist), and strategy (the breakdown) that goes into that. Hopefully this has helped other players improve their game, but I know some early comments felt the quest logs were a bit tedious (which led to the inclusion of infrequent commentary notes).

What Will Replace the Logs? The recap sections of the blog posts have been, frankly, a bit unnecessary. Moving forward, I will still detail and explain the deck I won the ques with and then hae a recap section that includes my final score, a more detailed review of the quest, and highlights from my play-throughs. These highlights will focus not only on memorable moments I was proud of (or ashamed of), but will also try to highlight challenges or advantages a solo player has when going up against this specific quest.

So that's the new plan. This blog gets enough traffic to make me happy but is not a major player by any means. It is my assumption that removing the quest logs will have little impact on readers while having a major impact on how frequently the game hits my table. If you do feel the quest logs have been a significant draw to you, please do let me know and I will consider some other solutions.

Thanks for going down this journey with me!

Artist Spotlight: Preston Stone

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is beautiful. I'm not going to speak in hyperbole and say that I love every single piece of art, but I can honestly say I love most of them. The game is full of hundreds (thousands?) of cards that impress me and help immerse me in the world of Middle-earth. I sometimes pause (less often than I care to admit) to pick up an encounter card and just admire the detail that went into one of many cards in one of many quests.

Last week I was at the closing of a midnight prerelease for another game (hint: probably the only one that does midnight prereleases) waiting for prizes to be distributed before I could go home and get some needed rest (false: I went grocery shopping, hung out with my family, and then finally crashed). A couple of guys were talking next to me, including one who had stood out due to an awesome pull he made from one of his packs. Bits of their conversation floated over and, as the board game industry was mentioned and projects that could be discussed and not discussed, I realized this guy I had noticed before was doing art for games. Consider my interest peaked! Then he mentioned Fantasy Flight Games. Then he went through a small list, ending with Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. I had been slowly turning in the general direction of the conversation and I'm basically salivating with excitement and anticipation now. When there was an appropriate moment, I asked him for his name and what work he had done on the game. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: Preston Stone.

(Preston's on the right. I assured him he looked just fine 

after 9 hours of gaming, which began at midnight).

In the interesting timey-wimey world of art commissioning, Preston is a fairly newcomer to players of the game. He had two pieces in the Agmar Awakened cycle and one piece featured in the Grey Havens deluxe box. But for Preston, these are pieces he completed and turned in a while a go. He had to think a bit about all the pieces he did. He remembered one with ghostly wargs, one with a guy being pulled from a ship, and he was not sure if a sword he had done went to print yet or not. Let's see what could be dug up:

White Warg (The Wastes of Eriador #21)

Daechanar's Brand (The Treachery of Rhudar #110)

Lingering Malevolence (The Grey Havens #34)

(Note: All images were lifted from The Hall of Beorn. Big thanks to The Second Hand Took for helping me learn how to use Beorn's tools to look up an artist. This game has a great community!).

I am not an art critic. My eye is pretty rough and my taste is along the lines of "I like that" or "eh." Ranking these three cards, I'm going to go for: Daechanar's Blade, Lingering Malevolence, and White Wargs. I do think they're all good pieces.

For the Blade, there is something about the clarity of the clean lines that emphasizes the horror of what you are seeing. At the same time, the lighting and placement of the blade draws your eye to the proper focus of the piece.

For Lingering Malevolence: Who would have thought you could summon up feelings of claustrophobia in a sea-based adventure? Preston told me this was actually part of a larger piece and he was sad to see the whole thing not used. I'm torn between sympathy for the artist and the judgement call of really just freaking out the player if they stare at the card too long. Imagine yourself in that guy's place! I will say, though, that the art and text of the card are a perfect pair but the name seems a bit out of place for one-time, harsh effect. Or maybe the name and art are perfect (for a condition attachment?) but the text is out of place. In any case, the card serves its purpose of freaking me out both artistically and in the way it may wreak my game plan.

White Warg has a great eerie feel to it, with the purples and muted tones. The card mentions nighttime effects (spoiler!) and this is an animal I would not want to face on a winter camping trip (which is basically what our heroes are doing, right?). The art conveys movement and you can just see that warg slowly creeping toward you in the night.

Now Preston does have more up his sleeve than just the shivers, as you can see over at his Deviant Art page (Forest Romp is a personal favorite). He even has at least one more Lord of the Rings piece (likely not for the game).

Preston was a great guy to chat with. Besides getting my question answered about the pieces he did, I got to hear what it is like to be an artist and the hopes he has for increasing his work. Now I have even more reason to pause, pick up a card, and admire the effort that went into bringing me the quality gaming experience that Lord of the Ring: The Card Game is.

The Journey Ends

A little under four months ago I decided to embark on a journey to play through my (growing) backlog of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game quests. Before investing any more in the game, I wanted to enjoy what I had.

Forty quests into 43 quests I own, it is clear to me that the game is worth at least a little more of my investment. The next two Adventure Packs for the Ring-Maker Cycle, plus The Road Darkens, are on their way to me as I type. The final Ring-Maker AP will be coming out soon and will be ordered ASAP. In light of that, I decided to end the challenge prior to starting the newest cycle and instead play through it with the full player card-pool (which is how the cycles are play-tested). This will be done at a more casual pace alongside my wife.

There have been a lot of mistakes along the way (Conflict at the Carrock, which will need to be re-done at some point) and much growth in my skill as a player and deckbuilder. While I am still not an expert player, I guarantee the lessons learned over these past few months will make the game much more enjoyable for my family in the future. And that was the whole point, after all.

J.R.R. Tolkien created a rich world and the team at Fantasy Flight Games has crafted a truly enjoyable way to enter that world. While there are misses (Voice of Isengard), the hits (The Black Riders) outweigh them. I look forward to many more years of selecting my heroes, gathering my allies, and exploring the riches of Middle-earth. And I hope this blog will aid you in our own journey!

Looking Back: The Voice of Isengard

Just as I was surprised that I enjoyed the Against the Shadow cycle, I was surprised that I did not enjoy this box. There were new mechanics and creative ideas, but the quests just did not come together for me. The Ford of Isen and Into Fangorn were mediocre quests for me. I might come back to them, but they won't be at the top of the list. But To Catch and Orc actually came off as broken to me. I would put it as low as Escape from Dol Guldur in terms of victory being primarily dependent on luck (but also requiring a good deck and skill).

Design wise, I have to give big round of applause that 1) all encounter sets were used among the three quests 2) all three quests could be assembled at the same time. That was a fantastic decision I hope to see repeated again!

Looking Back: Against the Shadow

I honestly did not expect to enjoy this cycle as much as I did.

Four of the six quests included ranked in the "Favorite Quest" category for me, with the remaining two proving fairly easy. And an easy quest that was not a top one will most likely be returned to in the future. (Now, it's true I took the easy way out on Assault on Osgiliath and could have made that more of a challenge by not including Tactics Boromir).

This cycle did bring some challenges, but more often brought creativity and freshness to the table. As the card pool continues to expand, I look forward to returning here with a variety of approaches.