The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, Review

Game Overview

Many games have sprung up over the last decade with the words “The 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 cards in the game are available in packs, which contain all the cards published in the set, unlike Trading Card Games, in which expansions are available in small packs. , called “booster”. packs” that contain some random cards from the set. That means with TCGs one has to buy countless boosters to find specific cards and thus spend a lot of money whereas with LCGs you just have to buy the appropriate expansions that contain the cards and that’s This system has proven to be quite successful considering the economic difficulties many countries have had in recent years.This review is about the basic set of the game which contains four 30-card starter decks and components for two players.Each Expansions of the game come out every month, called “adventure packs” and so far two cycles of expansions have been published”,Shadows of Mirkwood“Y”Dwarrowdelf“, along with a deluxe expansion called “Khazad-dûmAdventure packs contain 60 cards including 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 JRR Tolkien’s renowned trilogy of novels, The Lord of the rings. One to four players travel through the lands of Middle-earth trying to complete dangerous quests 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 have a deck of cards, which can be played by spending resources belonging to a specific sphere. There are four spheres: “Tradition” which emphasizes the potential of a hero’s mind, “Tactics” which emphasizes a hero’s martial prowess, “Spirit” which emphasizes a hero’s willpower, and “Leadership” which emphasizes charismatic influence. and inspiring of A hero. Each sphere provides a unique playstyle and you can include cards in your deck that belong to more than one sphere, as long as you use appropriate heroes and they are the source of resources. Player decks are made up of allies that come to help your heroes, events that influence the course of the adventure, and attached 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 is accompanied by specific threats (Uncharted Places, Enemies, Betrayal, and Objectives) represented by specific encounter sets. Each scenario requires two or three encounter sets that are shuffled to form the encounter deck.

The game begins by setting each player’s threat level (depending 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 will be eliminated. The rest of the players continue the quest and if at least one player survives to the end of the quest, the entire group of players is considered to have completed the quest. The first mission card is revealed and each player draws 6 cards. The game then continues in rounds, consisting of the following phases:

• Resources are obtained from the heroes and a card is drawn from the player’s deck.
• Calendar. Each player can use resources and play cards such as Allies and Attachments.
• Search. Each player decides which characters (heroes or allies) they will send on the mission. Cards equal to the number of players are then revealed from the encounter deck 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 completed the quest and some progress tokens are placed on the staging area. mission letter. A specific number of tokens are required in each mission to complete it.
• Trip. Players can group travel to a location in the staging area, making it an active location and no longer contributing to your threat level in the mission. Progress tokens are placed there first after a successful search until the location is fully explored.
• Find. Players can engage enemy creatures in the staging area and then engagement checks are made to see if any enemies engage the players. Engaged enemies are moved from the staging area and placed in front of the engaging player.
• Struggle. Then the enemies 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 (turn sideways). Characters can also become exhausted when using a skill that requires them to do so.
• To update. All exhausted characters become 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 the left of them. That player becomes the new first player. The game then proceeds to the resource phase of the next round.

But enough of gameplay aspects. Now is the moment of truth. Does the game meet our expectations?

First impressions

Upon opening the game box, I realized that it was simply 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 packets containing the cards and the cardboard sheets with the tokens and threat counters. Looking at the components, I realized how much attention was paid to detail during the design. Fantasy Flight has proven over the years that where appearance matters, it 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 it seemed quite intimidating to read the 32-page manual, but considering that many pages are example illustrations, things have been a bit easier than anticipated. But let’s review our usual rating categories:

Components:

As mentioned above, the cards couldn’t be better designed. The visuals on all the cards are amazing, the tokens are sturdy, and the threat trackers are just great. The only complaint I had is about the number of players that can play the game. 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 to four players, since only two threat counters would be needed. Of course, one can easily trace the threat on a piece of paper, but it still looks a bit awkward. Fantasy Flight preferred benefit over efficiency, stating in the rulebook that “A one- or two-player game can be played using only the content of this base game. (Up to four players can play the game cooperatively with a second copy of the base game).” 9/10

How to Play:

The gameplay is well thought out. The game has a lot of depth and allows for many different strategies giving players the privilege of adjusting their decks as they please even combining different spheres in them and playing according to their style. The game provides absolute immersion, through the beautiful illustrations and the interesting text on the cards, not only the quest cards that describe the quest of the adventuring party, but also the character and enemy cards. Players are constantly faced with important decisions like: Which characters should I use to commit to missions, which ones to defend or attack? Maybe 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 felt comfortable with the rules. The game box states a play time of 60 minutes, but be prepared to play much longer in the early games. Everyone who is not intimidated by the complex rules and long game play 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 follow 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 do that and then explain the game to the others while playing the first one (easiest scenario). Simply stating the rules of the game will be intimidating and won’t do much good, as the rules are quite extensive and will soon be forgotten without the experience of the game. The sequence of phases is shown on the last pages of the rulebook along with when players can perform actions that will prove quite useful. 6/10

Theme:

The game’s quests take place over a 17-year time span: from Bilbo celebrating his 111th birthday (and Frodo’s 33rd) to days before Frodo leaves the Shire. However, the settings do not retell the story of the books, but rather describe 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. I personally find this idea refreshing and most intriguing. The game’s illustrations along with detailed text messages and the appearance of familiar heroes such as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli make the theme of the game always present in every action that the players perform. 9/10

Replayability:

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

Fun:

The game is a lot of fun, though not in a way that makes you laugh or amuse yourself. Most of the time you will have to struggle to make the right decisions on what actions to take or talk to your teammates about the right strategy to progress through the game. I think the most fun stems from the fact that this is a cooperative game. However, this is achieved in an intuitive way, which leaves enough room for player cooperation and allows them to make their own decisions as well. I had a lot of fun playing this game. 8/10

Advantage:

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

Cons:

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

Overall: 8.2

Find out 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