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I recently got into LOTR and grabbed a smattering of random expansions largely motivated by price, and now I find myself potentially teaching the game to two new players in a couple of days. Being a bad player myself and doing stupid things constantly (had Sneak Attack and Gandalf in starting hand, didn't save any resources, enemy came out on first turn that killed a hero!) could anyone give me some advice to smooth out the experience? The first time I taught the game to another player he cruised through Passage Through Mirkwood with Core Set Leadership as I played Spirit questing second fiddle in the background and although he enjoyed it, it wasn't exactly the most thrilling experience. I have 1x Core Set, A Journey to Rhosgobel, Return to Mirkwood, Khazad-Dum, Redhorn Gate, Road To Rivendell, Watcher in the Water, Foundations of Stone and On The Doorstep. I know it's an all encompassing question but if anyone could suggest some basic deck archetypes (I feel I have enough to make a serviceable Dwarf deck but not Eagles, for example) or at least point out some pitfalls I'd appreciate it. I'm already considering going easy mode since the earlier mistake I made was caused by Chieftain of the Pit who's out in easy mode. Also stumbled with Sleeping Sentry in another game, and both copies of that are out too. Single Tight Female fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Jul 13, 2014 |
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Jul 13, 2014 00:38
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Failboattootoot posted:I am not an expert at all, but I think I can provide a couple decent tips. Some very useful stuff there, thank you. Over the past few days I've cobbled together three decks which will hopefully work, one pure Tactics, one Leadership/Lore and the last Spirit/Lore. The Tactics one is just a super murder ranged deck (probably awful but if someone gets a big kill with a Black Arrow it'll be worth it), Leadership is a bit of everything that all happen to be dwarves and the Spirit one is hard questing (Eowyn, Glorfindel, Escort from Edoras, stuff like that) and I'll probably take it. That said, I was gonna put Balin in the Leadership deck for shadow card mitigation, but didn't consider treacheries beyond a few event cards. Definitely concerned about a mean treachery card leaving a bad taste in some mouths so I might make that change. Generally speaking I've aimed for at least 20+ allies per deck, and trying to keep the decks as close to 50 cards as possible. Sadly, I do not have Beregond (yet!) either. Well cheers for the assist, I may return with a tale of great woe or stunning success this time tomorrow!
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Jul 15, 2014 13:43
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A lapsed goon friend of mine might be, I can check with him in a couple hours. He only has the core set and Lions of the Rock too, so he might be interested in a pile.
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Oct 14, 2014 16:54
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Baron Porkface posted:Do LOTR This. Also as a megahuge fan of Doomtown, it's a great game. But an unbelievable slog over 3 players. It technically can support any player count over 1, but the length of each game increases exponentially with players. Play it 1v1 or 3 player, but nothing more than that.
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Nov 18, 2015 02:38
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Zephro posted:Hm, thanks. So is the game mostly in the deck design to beat a given scenario? Are you just hunting for the One True Deck that will get you through a scenario, or does player skill play a big role? Player skill is still very important but at least half the game is building the right deck. That said, there's an optional easy mode which removes the more bullshit cards in a given scenario (usually about 4 or 5 cards out of like 40) and starts your heroes with extra resources. Playing that I've beaten about 15 different scenarios with the same deck, which is simply Faramir pushing enemies into spike pits and throwing nets on them. Replayability on individual quests is pretty high, mainly because a lot of cards have two effects, one when they come out normally, and one when they're dealt as a shadow card to an enemy. It leaves room for a lot of unexpected interactions from the deck, a quest you previously breezed through by racing through dark tunnels as fast as possible might next time unleash a huge goblin horde on you (I died to this last night) All that said, it's slightly better two player than solo, and there's only three scenarios in the core set (out of 69 total) so it does want for expansions relatively quickly.
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Dec 13, 2015 21:00
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EdsTeioh posted:Forest Snare is your friend. For clarification, the exact text is: "Any player who does not control a hero with at least 1 Clue objective attached cannot commit characters to this quest. If there are ever no heroes with Clue objectives attached in play, reset the quest deck to stage 2B." To commit characters to a quest is to declare them legally as going on the quest, before the staging step, so they would stay committed even if they lost the clue. On the second point you'd go straight back to stage 2. Not only is there a full player action window between staging and quest resolution (so there's a definable gap between the two) but on quests where there's a different trigger to completing a quest card (for example the Hill Troll in Journey Down the Anduin) you move forward on the quest the instant the condition is met. Stands to reason the reverse is true also.
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Dec 16, 2015 16:56
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EdsTeioh posted:Ok, that sounds reasonable. I guess we may need to play that again since I *think* we may have played that incorrectly. Not sure since it was our 3rd try that night. Those locations in that one add up REALLY quickly and our Lore player decided to "hold back Glorfindel for defense" despite the fact that I was playing mono Leadership and someone else playing mono Tactics. Oh god yeah people really need to learn to risk taking a hit too. Can't count the number of times I've been the only one bringing willpower to a quest because my friend wants to hold back all three heroes when there's no enemies on the board and only two cards coming out. Also I wish I only worried about the locations in HfG, it's those Hunters from Mordor dropping at the wrong time and becoming 8 atk that worry me.
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Dec 16, 2015 17:19
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Zephro posted:Here's a very unglamorous question - what's the best way to organise LOTR cards? I guess you want binder sections for Lore, Tactics, Leadership, Spirit and Neutral. But what about the encounter cards and the quest cards? I can see storing quest cards on a single binder page for each quest, but I'm not quite sure what to do with the Encounter ones, since they get used in multiple scenarios... Amoeba102 posted:Do it by the symbol on them, like say for core, put the forest ones together, spider ones etc. This. [disclaimer] I'm a shoe box storage person [/disclaimer], but I think for encounter cards it's pretty legit. I've got a bunch of BCW 330 count card boxes (they're sold as 300 count but say 330 on the bottom of the box) and they fit a deluxe expansion/core set and full cycle, sleeved, perfectly. Just sling a divider of your choice between each quest and it's real easy to construct anything on the fly. They also hold two Saga expansions sleeved with a little room to spare. Smaller mobile footprint than taking a core set box, and presumably quicker to build quests than a binder? It is also cheap as poo poo which I'm a big fan of.
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Dec 17, 2015 10:49
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Yeah what I think Boco_T is referring to is the symbol in the very bottom right of a card which denotes where it comes from, purely for identification purposes. Each adventure pack will use mostly its own cards (~30) and then usually somewhere between 1 and 3 sets from the preceding big box/core, to produce a quest that's mostly new cards. Each cycle is designed alongside the box that came before, so there's no need to add new cards to extant sets.
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Dec 17, 2015 15:09
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Epi Lepi posted:The quests are inferior to quests that come later, but who cares, gotta have all them player cards, you never know when you're gonna want to build a deck that needs something from any one of the APs. Yeah I mean, Tactics Boromir, Dain, Fast Hitch, Gildor, Burning Brand - there's plenty of cards in those packs I use to this day. Plus if you buy them all you get pretty much the whole Eagle archetype and the Songs. Now that he's been in the pool for a while, anyone got an opinion on Dori? He got slated to hell when spoiled with the most common complaint being "what does he do that other cards don't do better?" but his whole point seemed to be to allow anyone to defend a high strength enemy. Any decks that use him, or quests he's particularly good in?
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Jan 5, 2016 22:45
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sassassin posted:The first quest of Lost Realm is a bitch. Especially when you draw all hard cards in the first few turns. That whole cycle seems all over the map in terms of difficulty. Like the Lost Realm box quests are all relatively standard and therefore the balance seems tweaked for people who own a lot of cards, but Escape from Mount Gram and Across the Ettenmoors have weird new mechanics so they've accidentally set the difficulty super low. I'd honestly say Mount Gram is the third easiest quest in the whole game, after Passage through Mirkwood and Emyn Muil. Just start a 3 willpower hero and off you go.
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Jan 9, 2016 15:30
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Baron Porkface posted:That's a pretty big exaggeration, the deck has lots of tricks. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it's an easy quest (although I should clarify I very much mean in solo, but the way the quest works you're largely playing solo regardless), but I'm not saying you win if you start a 3 willpower hero. It stops you getting locked up at the start though, which is the most important thing to avoid out the gate. The problem with Mount Gram is that quite a few of the encounter cards don't fire. Captives of Gornakh can simply fizzle, Feeble and Weary sometimes results in a threat increase of like 2 or 3, when you're starting with 14 at the absolute most. Sound the Alarm results in a teeny little Dungeon Guard most of the time. Prison Cell is just free stuff. If I'm counting correctly only half the Mount Gram cards even have shadow effects, and they aren't very strong either. I'm just saying that quest is arguably the most unusual overall design, and as such they didn't have a good pool of experience to pull from for balance. As such, they've undershot it. edit: Also for what it's worth, I've played it like 20 times. The design is just so cool that I ended up playing it with every hero combination I had in the 4 decks I had built for MP. It took 17 rounds to finish with Mablung apparently. Single Tight Female fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Jan 9, 2016 |
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Jan 9, 2016 19:55
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Steward of Gondor seems very strong (probably is) but by design or as a result, Leadership has very much become the "rich" sphere. Due to that their costs tend to trend higher, so it all balances out. Or if it doesn't, you can always build without it. The beauty of non-competitive!
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Jan 10, 2016 00:51
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Going straight in with two cores you're presumably talking 3 or 4 players. So take note of the fact that the adventure packs (small boxes) contain a greater percentage of player cards than the big boxes do. The saga boxes especially are just flat out low on player cards. The Road Darkens is something bonkers like 7 different player cards, 5 of which are unique (can only have one copy on the table total, not per player) and 1 which might as well be. The quests are great but if you want to unlock some actual deckbuilding you'll want to just increase your player card pool first.
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Jan 14, 2016 23:26
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Zaphod42 posted:That's a good point, and you could actually buy the smaller booster packs without buying the big-box expansion first if you didn't care about the adventures. The player cards should work in any deck and if there's some new rule you can just look it up online. The reason they require the expansion is because the adventures mix in encounter decks from the expansion. Agreed with all of this, I'd only advise personally against getting a string of big boxes if you're buying for a group. I've bought adventure packs without owning the deluxe expansion for very specific cards, but that was when I already owned half the game. People shouldn't do this! There are probably other concerns if it is indeed intended to play 4 regularly. Like any quests people would suggest for Macdeo as being easier for large groups? Personally I'm 90% solo so I got no idea!
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Jan 15, 2016 00:14
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Zephro posted:Note that Black Riders and Khazad-Dum are both being reprinted and almost impossible to find right now (in the UK at least). Although if anyone was looking for a copy of Black Riders in the UK I have an extra copy from Christmas 2014 that I forgot about that I'm happy to shift at a reasonable price, shrink wrapped and all.
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Jan 15, 2016 01:36
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theroachman posted:What's the deal with the Sack keyword? The rules explain how to apply the trigger, but they don't give an example of the effect. If you meant what Sacks actually do, there's a mini deck of (iirc) 7 sack cards, that attach to characters with (the most willpower, the most defense, the most printed hit points, etc) and stop them from readying, attacking, defending, committing to the quest and triggering abilities. It's just one of many quest specific mechanics you get in LOTR, in this case people getting stuffed in bags. Except Gandalf, who cannot be sacked.
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Feb 10, 2016 18:08
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I just realised all the "Resolve that effect again for each copy of ______ currently in your discard pile (you may choose different targets)." cards make Message from Elrond finally work. Not particularly well, but holy poo poo I never thought that card would be good for anything.
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Feb 11, 2016 17:55
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Zephro posted:Did you ever get my PM, by the way? Balls! I knew I meant to do something when I got back. Uh I just turned on the thingy that lets users email you if you want to do that. I've never needed PMs before so gonna save the  Zaphod42 posted:Sheeeeet LOTR LCG Law in effect! When faced with two options, assume the worst.
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Feb 11, 2016 21:18
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Although the idea that FFG is only willing to support so many lines and therefore might kill something for L5R (as it's considered CoC died for Conquest) is possible, there's been zero indication from FFG themselves that anything will go. Even if something did, there's no way it'd be LOTR, Netrunner or AGOT - they're all big sellers. LOTR just happens to be big in a really invisible, silent way. I want to say I doubt they'd trash Conquest so early but then I remember Diskwars and get irrationally angry. Gotta think it'd be Star Wars, but CoC was at a place in its life that it made sense to shut down. Nothing else does right now.
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Feb 13, 2016 02:27
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TheHoosier posted:Runnin out of game companies its okay to give money to. Please dont betray us ffg youre all I have left They stopped making Diskwars expansions. The greatest injustice in the history of boardgames.
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Mar 3, 2016 10:12
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Amoeba102 posted:I just kept going "I want this, and this and this" when making the decks. I think making 4 mono sphere decks would be easier to build, just a bigger pain to play. This is a legit plan because I did the same thing a while ago and it worked really well. Having focused decks helped my friends who don't own the game since they didn't have to juggle multiple spheres of resources, and you can give them a very obvious plan which is straightforward to follow. I had a Spirit deck that was just a huge quester, a Lore trap deck, Leadership Gondor ally swarm and Tactics Ents (ok, one Lore hero in this one). Once I knew what each deck was going to be based on they somewhat built themselves. Any two of these decks could deal with a goodly number of quests with minor changes
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Apr 19, 2016 09:42
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Can't get over how bonkers Tactics Éowyn is. Okay she can already quest for 4, but a grappling hook would let her quest once for 10 after staging cards have been revealed. I've played enough games where that would have made the difference between a win and a loss. Interested to see if there's more cards coming that play off her unusual starting threat stipulation (the "Setup:..." bit instead of her just being 6 threat), right now I can't think of much beyond Loragorn, if that's how it'll work.
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Apr 28, 2016 14:18
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Oops, I specifically meant player cards. Obviously there's a mechanical design involved, balancing the reduction with the increase if you trigger her ability. However, it also lends itself to new design space with other cards.
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Apr 28, 2016 15:16
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Rusty Kettle posted:There are people who disagree with my ent superiority theory but they are all wrong. Ents are insane and anyone who thinks otherwise is more insane. Don't mind me just gonna Entmoot into this Entmoot into this Entmoot, and now I'll give +2 HP to any three characters I want in the entire game. Also the Ents are good.
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May 4, 2016 10:36
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I'd still argue for Mirkwood first. It's good to see the design progressing, but they're still relatively straightforward. They will teach you that sometimes you just have to build for the quest (Rhosgobel  ) and they can be rough to come back to when you play much better quests later.Also nobody asked but The Treason of Saruman + The Antlered Crown/Escape from Mount Gram gives you half the Ent cards and a totally viable deck out the gate. Only The Steward's Fear does that better.
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May 4, 2016 11:20
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Sleeping Sentry! (I know Exhaustion is just Necromancer's x 2 but still, Sleeping Sentry is the most bullshit card)
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May 4, 2016 12:42
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Single Tight Female posted:Interested to see if there's more cards coming that play off her unusual starting threat stipulation (the "Setup:..." bit instead of her just being 6 threat), right now I can't think of much beyond Loragorn, if that's how it'll work. Going back over spoilers I remembered what the hell I was thinking of when I made this comment. Inspiring Presence:  She can inspire all the hobbits! (except Bilbo)
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May 5, 2016 15:41
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If you search Outlands in text you get two more cards as well.
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May 5, 2016 22:13
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I organise my player cards by sphere, type, uniqueness, cost and then alphabetically. Is that too much?
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May 10, 2016 16:55
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Flight of the Stormcaller is pretty wild. Took my Galdor/Grima/Celebrimbor Silvan deck against it and came within a hair of beating it. Didn't draw a single copy of O Lórien! all game which kinda made a huge difference. Managed to go through about two thirds of my deck, including triggering Galdor's ability near the end. The quest has a really good flow to it, it's another slam dunk of design. You're racing after The Stormcaller through storms and jagged reefs, trying to either catch or destroy it. It uses it's own quest deck that starts at Stage 2, and whenever you're at the same Stage number you can fight it. After a slow start I managed to mostly keep pace through standard Silvan bouncy stuff and sank a couple small boats but never fought the thing itself. Eventually at 47 threat with The Stormcaller one progress away from escaping, I could only bring about two thirds of the willpower needed to catch it. By this point it had picked up a small escort of two other ships, so mathematically I couldn't beat it.
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May 11, 2016 19:37
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StashAugustine posted:I play on OCTGN both solo and with a friend Tactics Hero Boromir. He's always good but if you make it to the final stage of the quest he can escape in a single round instead of the standard four. Lots of the shadow effects are +ATK or deal direct damage, so anything that increases HP - Citadel Plate, Elven Mail, Ent Draught. Take extra treachery cancellation because the treacheries are brutal. When a card gives you an option between (A) and (Surge), always take (A). Always send a cheap ally questing with your heroes in case you hit Sudden Pitfall. Amoeba102 posted:If there is a "Response: ... Any player may trigger this response." Can multiple players trigger the response? I feel like they can't, but I don't see why not. LOTR LCG FAQ posted:(1.08) Responses per Trigger So the triggering event will still only have happened once, it's just that anyone can choose to react to it. Like Robin Smallburrow has "Response: After you travel to a location... Any player may trigger this response." but the trigger is the travelling, which occurs one time.
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May 16, 2016 14:48
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KongGeorgeVII posted:I bought both of the Hobbit Saga boxes because that is what my FLGS had and now I am trying to make 2 decks so I can run through some quests with a friend. How bad do these two decks look and do they have any chance of making it through anything other than the beginner quest? The way you've done your unique characters might be a problem. If either deck draws their Kili/Fili from the wrong sphere you have a problem. Same with the Gandalfs, second deck might keep their OHuAH Gandalf out a turn too long when first deck wants to Sneak Attack core Gandalf out. 3 Great Yew Bows is probably too much since you can only attach one, and it's just not as good an ability as it seems. Same for 3 Bifurs, if you're running three copies of any unique it's to see it in play ASAP. With his ability and you having Bombur, you want to drop him after another dwarf, so you don't need 3.
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May 18, 2016 21:28
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Amoeba102 posted:I ntered the Pit and got out again. It seemed like I was on the first quest card for ages, getting nowhere. We had exactly this situation last night, but with the addition of me being engaged with a Patrol Leader for the -entire- game. But the good news is Grima makes a good defender... when he's an Elf-Friend, wearing a Cloak of Lórien and holding a Burning Brand.
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May 22, 2016 21:12
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Amoeba102 posted:I kept seeing the "cancel damage" shadow cards, but the Patrol Leader never got lucky against me. Though I think I had to kill it twice. Wow. The deck my friend was running was a mono-Leadership Aragorn/Hirluin/Erkenbrand Outlands deck and it doesn't run the Sword That Was Broken. Thanks for reminding me that card exists, would have been looking at about 15 more willpower late game. Also I'm a big Khazad-Dum fan, but tbh the Dwarrowdelf cycle is even better. You're in for a treat!
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May 23, 2016 13:26
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COOL CORN posted:So, speculation is saying that FFGs LOTR license is ending within the year. I wonder if that is why they're planning on pushing the Arkham stuff as a co op / solo stuff?? Any chance of a link? Not saying I doubt you, just not seeing anything like this in the usual places. Single Tight Female fucked around with this message at 09:44 on May 26, 2016 |
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May 26, 2016 09:33
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Oh that's interesting then. Still, gotta assume they'd renew if that is the case, LOTR LCG is quietly a big seller for them.
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May 26, 2016 14:10
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Maybe Campfire Tales will never be amazing (unless you get a hero with an Elrond like ability: "whenever a player card makes you draw a card, draw another one") but every Mirkwood cycle Spirit Event is Rohan related. It doesn't take much for those cards to become noticeably better. edit: ^^^ yeah that
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May 26, 2016 16:38
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I mean if we're just throwing out random opinions as fact I much prefer the newer stuff because I don't give two figs about LOTR lore and boats are a refreshing change from endless orcs, goblins and wargs.
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May 26, 2016 20:51
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No. Those comments are contradictory anyway. They're inventing stuff right now within LOTR, they don't need to move. Plus Matt and Caleb are newer to this and the stuff they're doing is already more interesting than the first couple cycles. Game isn't going anywhere.
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May 26, 2016 23:35
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