It's going to be a long, long wait until the 3rd quarter of this year for me. The original Adventurers was a personal favorite of mine and a big hit in the house with the wife and kids. This game seems to come out every time we have people over as well.

FFG has put up a preview of the upcoming game and well the wait just got a little longer for me. I know some people aren't happy that this game is a stand alone product and not an expansion to the original but I'm not one of them.

GenCon is going to be mighty costly to my wallet this year.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is one really challenging game to review. The game offers some unique mechanics to the ever growing field of titles Fantasy Flight has classified as "Living Card Games". Despite the interesting mechanics there seem to be some major play balancing issues if you try to play the game right out of the box.  Before I get ahead of myself lets go on a journey through what could eventually be a solid gaming experience. While I won't cover every aspect of playing the game, you can watch the excellent video tutorials on FFG's site for that. I will delve into some of the aspects.

The Parts
LOTR:TCG comes with 226 cards, 2 threat trackers (more on that in a minute) and somewhere around 90 bits for tracking things such as damage and progress. The art work on the cards is fantastic and the symbols on the cards are also pretty easy to identify and remember. This may seem like a small detail but having played other LCG's I really like that the LOTR cards make sense.

The threat dials are no different then dials used in other FFG's product such as Battlestar Galatica but the issue is you're only given two of them. Since you are given enough cards in the starter set to play a game with four players. I really can't come up with a good reason as to why FFG didn't include 4 dials other then to try and sell more core sets. In their defense I don't recall seeing anything in the rules about playing with 4 players but the game is definitely set up for it.  This means if you want to play with 4 players you'll need two starter sets.

The Game or You Better Pick Wisely
Two things sold me on trying LOTR:TCG the first was the ability to play it solo and the second was that it was a cooperative game.  Because the solo experience is where I spent a great deal of my time I'm going to give that it's own section later on but first lets cover the game itself.

The first thing you're going to do in a game of LOTR:TCG is either pick which deck or heroes you want to play. As I said the game comes with four starter decks that suggest they can be played out of the box.

Now whether these decks can be played as is depends on who you ask. Certain scenarios play better with different deck combinations and I would say some are near impossible to be won with certain deck combinations.  While you can customize your own decks most players are going to start with a starter deck and there lies the problem. This game is hard, but with a bad deck combination you could instantly be turned off by the game.


Perhaps FFG wanted people to be challenged with learning the different decks or customizing their own decks. Perhaps this additional learning curve is in place to make up for the lack of quests included in the base game. I'm not sure of the answer I just know that play balancing this off the mark is hard to be missed during testing.


Lets move on to Heroes because they are important. Each Hero has a sphere he is proficient in. The heroes collect a resource token every turn and in order to play cards from your hand you need to pay for them with resources. The catch is you can only pay for card with resources that match their sphere. For example Aragorn is a Leadership hero so if you're playing a card from the leadership deck the resources must come from Aragorn or any other hero with the leadership trait. So if I elect to play the leadership deck then I should pick only the leadership heroes. Playing the leadership deck and then having Legolas be one of your heroes is a waste because his resources won't be useful for playing cards.


Again you can customize your decks thus allowing you to mix and match heroes and cards from all the spheres but this is something you won't be doing the first time out. In fact you may never do it unless you play this game a lot. That got a little long but I think it is important to someone looking to buy this game. In short the game penalizes the player who just wants to pick it up and play once in a while which is a shame.

Once you have determined which heroes you will play and which deck or custom deck you then tally up the threat level of the heroes you control to set your initial threat level on the dial. Threat is important because if your dial ever reaches 50 you're out of the game.


As previously noted the game comes with 3 quests that you can play. A quest is a combination of cards in a sequence and the object is to add progress to the quest to continue on to the next step. In the picture above in order to move to the next Step in the quest the players would need to add 4 progress tokens to this card.

A turn of LOTR:TCG goes along these lines. First players collect a resource token for each hero and add it to that heroes resource pool. Then the player enters the planning phase this is where he/she can play cards for their resource costs. While some cards can be played at other times this is the only stage where an Ally card can be played and these are invaluable cards in the game.

Next is the quest phase which is essentially how players progress to win the game.  Starting with the first player each player determines who he will commit to questing this turn.  A player doesn't have to send anyone but they will still suffer the effects of failing to quest. If you do send someone then a card is added to the staging area for each player who sent some of his characters on the quest.  

The object here is to have the willpower of the committed characters be greater then the threat of the cards in the staging area. If you beat it you add progress tokens to the quest, if not your threat goes up. Recall I said some deck combinations make some quests challenging? Well welcome to play balance issue #2. location cards.

A monster coming into the staging area is far easier to deal with then location cards. Monsters can be attacked or will engage you if your threat level is high enough. This gets them out of the staging area onto your characters which removes their threat level from the quest calculation. 

Locations aren't as easy because when a location comes up you can elect to travel to it which makes it an active location but you can only travel to one location at a time. A location acts as a buffer to the quest, meaning if a location is active any progress you make that would normally go to the quest needs to go to the location until it is explored. 

Locations can pile up, especially in the starter quest and only two decks handle locations very well. So if you should choose the 2 decks not equipped to handle locations and your encounter deck hands you a lot of locations in a row you've essentially lost. In fact after playing several games you'll often be able to see a losing deck well before the game would end.

Going it Alone
LOTR:TCG sets up and scales well whether playing it alone or with 2,3 or 4 players. However the solo game is more challenging to play and suffers from the same issues mentioned above. I would love to see someone take the starter quest Passage through Mirkwood and play it with the leadership deck 20 times and get more then one win without cheating at all. However the same scenario can be beaten  with the Spirit deck with far more success assuming you can avoid the monsters.

The game plays very quick, especially solo and it's an easy setup and tear down game. I've played most of my games during a lunch break.  From a solo standpoint the game is one of the few that really works for the single player.

Summing it up

I've played this game with other people a half dozen times and each time the feelings were about the same. The game is cool but very challenging and most would play it again but weren't exactly banging down the doors.

I've played 22 games of LOTR:TCG solo and I have won twice. These were games 21 and 22 so what you can take from that is a few things. I could suck at this game and this could be my issue alone although searching forums on various sites would say you were mistaken.

The game has a steep learning curve which means that it is going to take an investment of time to become good. Again I would partially disagree as the rules are simple and it is one of the better card games mechanically I've seen.

It's all a crap shoot and their is so much randomness to the encounter deck that unless you know the scenarios and know which decks work with them you're going to be handicapped. To me this is the crux of the problem with LOTR:TCG and that it's a really good game mechanically but it is impossible to play balance.

The game sets up for someone wanting to customize their deck and really come up with great hero / deck combinations for beating scenarios. This is in stark contrast to every other LCG I've played which I've been able to have fun with right out of the box.

Bottom line is this is a good game, it is very challenging and the way it stand right now for you to get maximum enjoyment out of it you're going to need to either learn which decks work with which quests or craf your own combinations.

I was having my morning coffee and integrating my Cosmic Incursion Expansion into the base game and was suddenly musing aloud about how curious FFG is about their game release announcements. It was before they even released Cosmic Encounter that they'd made waves saying they were re-skinning Dune into the Twilight Imperium universe, while they released Android as a sneak attack, shipping about one month after to was announced. On top of that they've released at least a dozen new, in-house designs in the interim. And yet, no new incarnation of Dune. No previews, developer blogs, prototype components and plastic bits. Nothing.

So here's my public appeal. How about this year? Maybe by GenCon? Please, I promise, we'll be extra good this year.

Here’s a little item that slipped in and out of my brain over the last few weeks: FFG have announced they are releasing a revised edition of the Arkham Horror Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion sometime this spring.

As a self-described “Arkham-Whore” I admit I was a little taken aback by this announcement. Dark Pharoah is by far my least favorite of the small box AH expansions, it just didn’t seem to really work all that well with the game. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought so. It “…came to become the one that deviated most from our later Arkham Horror design vision and over time came to stand apart from the Arkham Horror family as a whole.” So, a proposed fix, though this sounds more like it was completely dismantled and rebuilt. Most intriguing to me are the enhanced presence of exhibit artifacts, which rarely, if ever, were accessible in the original release, patrolled neighborhood tokens, and benefit and detriment cards.Yeah, so I'll buy it.

Full details here.

Apparently the boats are finding their way to port a lot lately over at the FFG warehouses. Several products were announced as on sale today.

First we have a couple of reprints of some Asylum packs for the Call of Cthulhu card game. From the description these are not only reprints but have been upgraded to the new 60 card format. Also what I gather top be a new asylum pack for the game is on sale as well.

For those of you still playing Tannhäuser, first of all congratulations because that is an achievement in itself, a new single figure expansion and an equipment card pack were also release.

Maybe one day I'll write about how excited I was for Tannhäuser and how it is now just an odd sized box on my wall of games.

They can't all be winners right?

For more on these products head over to the Fantasy Flight site.

I just recorded an out of the box video for the new Tide of Iron expansion Fury of the Bear so I should get that edited sometime in the next few days.

I'm hoping to have an interview with Richard Berg the designer of the upcoming game Godzilla: Kaju World Wars. Richard has agreed to the interview so I'm just waiting on the responses to our questions.

I have a few other interviews in the works and as these pan out I'll post about them. I took advantage of the GMT coupon and order a few games. The only relatively new one would be Dominant Species. I've heard so many good things about this game and I thought for 50% off it made sense. Also have a P500 order in for Fighting Formations which is Chad Jensen's newest game. If you don't know Chad he is the man behind Combat Commander. I can't help it I have a war gaming addiction and no opponents.

FFG has announced their plans to release an expansion called The Horned Rat for the game Chaos in the Old World. You can learn more at their site but the meat of the expansion is the addition of the Skaven to the game as a 5th player.

I really like Chaos it's a good game that doesn't see enough table time but I'm not sure a 5th player was needed. The board as it is feels pretty tight with 4 players. The expansion adds new cards for the existing races and what they are calling "expert" level old world cards.

Seems like i have a knack for talking about a game when it is about to get a media blitz. FFG is putting up a video tutorial everyday this week for their upcoming game. Usually when this happens the games release is imminent.

The first tutorial is an overview of the game and can likely be skipped, but the second covers the card decks and is a good watch.

For those interested in watching head on over to the FFG site or take this shortcut to get right to the videos.

Recently FFG posted the rules to the upcoming Living Card Game Lord of the Rings. I wasn't very interested in this game to be honest. After getting invested in Summoner Wars and War Hammer Invasion and seldom playing them I wasn't sure I wanted another game.

The rules of the LOTR card game changed my mind however. I like the fact that it is a co-operative game which fits more in line with the theme. It is also scenario based and the rules make the game seem like it has a real narrative as you play. Player must work through challenges together, whether they be locations or enemies. Add to the fact that the game comes with multiple characters and 4 different spheres (i.e. decks) to play from and the game sounds very intriguing. I also like the fact that it seems to set up for a great solo experience.

Of course the game isn't even out yet and there are already two announced expansion card packs, such are the ways of LCG's. However unlike other games there is a real ability here to add scenarios and challenges for the players without making the packs about pimping out your player deck.

So it went from a zero interest title to very anticipated title. My only hope is it doesn't contain the amount of mis-prints found in FFG's recently release Mansions of Madness.

I really enjoyed this game last night. I'm saving the review for Chris since he will have in several plays by the time he puts it into blog form.

However after playing the game I examine the FAQ put out by Fantasy Flight. This game has numerous printing errors and not of the typo variety. Errors that affect game play, it also has several story errors in the text that comes with the game.

In fact in reading the FAQ / errata sheet I began to feel I know owned a game that was not really the best in terms of quality control.

6 cards have printing errors according to the sheet. Some of the story errors affect set up which can foil a game from the start. The map tiles are warping more then they should be for a new product. I notices in the copy we played several monster don't stay in there bases and at least one of the base clips was broken.

This isn't really what I expect from FFG in terms of a finished product, especially one they knew would be this popular. The warping issue is also affecting other publishers. My new D&D game had warping playing cards, Betrayal at house on the hill was unplayable after I bought it because of the warping of everything included. Not sure what is going on as of late but the quality of some games is not cutting it.

To expand on what Dan mentioned earlier, Fantasy Flight Games has officially announced Rune Age. Follow the link the their full announcement.

And yes, it's yet another deck building game, the 5th game to use the Terrinoth setting begun in Descent. The description promises a faction-specific set of cards for each player as well as scenarios with different victory conditions to set it apart from the 75 other deck building games that have been released since Dominion swallowed the gaming universe.

I will try and keep my inherent cynicism at bay while we wait for more info to develop. Who am I kidding, it's FFG, I'll buy it.

I received an email this morning from a long time reader, I'm happy we have at least one of those, who asked what I thought of the new Tide of Iron expansion called Fury of the Bear. I'll be honest I haven't played TOI is a very long time. In fact I have a mint condition Normandy expansion that has never been played.

Why did a game that i was so crazy about fall by the wayside? I really had to think about that. I have a shelf full of two player wargames that don't get played. I'm not your typical gamer, I'm middle aged with two young daughters and have only been living in my current area for about 7 years. Although I attend a regular board game group seldom are two player war games hitting the table. I don't have any friends at this point in my life who are like the friends I had before moving. Lets face it there is a difference between a friend you see once in a while and one you can call on the drop of a dime and go get some chicken wings with.

Next TOI while a good game is far surpassed by any number of other 2 player games I have. Combat Commander is one of the best tactical WW2 games I have ever played. I have other great 2 player games that seldom see the table like Washington's War, Hannibal and For the People. So if I have a chance to play a 2 player game Tide isn't usually number one on my list.

Finally FFG basically stopped talking about, promoting or even acknowledging the series. Honestly Fury is an expansion most thought was canceled and by the lack of activity on the Geek forums about it many could care less. I would be surprised if this series sees anymore love from FFG going forward.

Would I play Tide or Iron again, certainly I would. However my opportunities are limited and I think that it will be a while before I'm cursing those little plastic guys and why they don't stay in their stands.

While nothing official has been announced by Fantasy Flight some participants at the recent Realms of Terrinoth event got to play a game in development by FFG called Rune Age.

This looks to be another in the growing stable of deck building games. You can find the post here and it does a great job of explaining the game.

According to the FFG website this anticipated title is now shipping to retailers. In talking to some sources some places may have it as early as tomorrow.

Keep an eye out to the blog for our review in the near future.

Fantasy Flight Games has announced another expansion Arkham Horror called Miskatonic Horror. With the large number of already released suppliments to this game, FFG has taken a new approach with this expansion.

Miskatonic Horror is a new type of Arkham Horror expansion that builds upon the materials found in the ample library of other Arkham Horror expansions. While the components and rules found in Miskatonic Horror can be enjoyed with only the Arkham Horror base game, the more expansions you incorporate, the more aspects of Miskatonic Horror you can enjoy.

Personally I'm eagerly awaiting Mansion of Madness but for all the Arkham lovers this looks to be a nice expansion.

Tonight we're going to look at the Americans in Civilization the Board Game. The Americans may seem like one of the more vanilla civilizations to play but they provide a good starting point for a player who can be flexible and depending on the situation open up any avenue of victory.

The Americans get a random great person, so what you get can certainly dictate how you proceed. However the addition of a great person at the start can be very helpful, especially if it leads to increased culture or wealth.

Because of their special ability to acquire 2 hammers every time you convert trade into production the Americans would do best to put their cities in areas heavily favored to Trade. Cities place near water with harbors can lead to a lot of excess trade that can be converted very easily into units or buildings.

Finally with Currency as a starting tech the Americans can immediately build a market to get their economy rolling. Also the ability to convert incense to gain 3 culture during the city management step means if the Americans can get a good great person draw and get out and explore they can take an early culture lead.

So next time you find yourself playing the Americans don't look around in envy at the other players. Analyze the set up and situation and pick a plan and hold the course. If you do so victory can be yours in a number of ways.

While my copy is set to arrive today I had the chance to play this one last night and my initial impressions are that I loved it. I'll be digging into this much deeper over the coming days but this is really a great game entry in the genre.

We set up for 4 players, the game needed to be punched and rules needed to be explained so that was an hour of time right there. The game itself is pretty easy to follow once you play about 2-3 turns. I think once everyone knows how to play this game could be knocked out in 2.5-3 hours.

As a first game though we didn't even finish and we were close to 2-3 hours in after the initial set up. Part of that is first game normalcy, part of it is not really having a focus on a victory condition and then it comes down to the group.

The game is broken into 5 steps to a Turn and 3 of those steps are done simultaneously, I've marked those below.

Start of turn Actions*
Trade*
City Actions
Movement
Research*

The first two actions should be relatively quick as unless you get a few player haggling over trading something there is not a lot going on. I noticed while we played that many people were constantly counting their trade every round, even when nothing changed to effect it. If you had 11 last round and didn't build anything to alter that you still have 11. Perhaps some scratch paper for the forgetful?

You essentially get one city action per city and you have to determine your production for each city on a turn so this step is the longest. Movement is where combat can come in, but combat is quick and effective so that's not much of an issue.

Finally research is where the game seemed to bog down and it shouldn't You know if you're going to research a tech by the trade phase usually, at the very latest the City Management Phase. So while other players are doing those action you should be looking at your tech deck and deciding what to do.

Anyway enough with the rant on how to play the game, just expect a longer game the first time out.

The game itself was great, I like every mechanic and really can't think of one I didn't enjoy. I'm going to cover these over the next week. I love the 4 ways to victory and last night I really didn't focus on one. As Germany and with my initial set up and the way the game evolved I should of been pursuing a military victory.

However I was all over the place, I think I had the biggest tech pyramid when we quit, I was 2nd in culture which took a lot of doing, had only 1 gold coin in terms of the wealth victory condition and I definitely had the biggest military force. With all that I wasn't anywhere close to winning.

The game suggest not using wonders or two of the Civs in a first game and to simply set up and play a few turns and start a new game. I balked at this notion, however I think it is a really good thing to do. Most players will be too focused on learning the mechanics, looking at techs and exploring to even explore a strategy. Playing even just 3-4 turns will get everyone's feet wet and then make the second game a much more focused setting.

Next time I'll get into the Civilizations and how they differ. For those looking for a recommendation I would say if you like the genre or the computer game you shouldn't hesitate to buy this as long as you have a group to play it with.