Category Archives: LCG

Multiplayer Ashes

Ashes, LCG

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how to play Ashes with more than two players.

Multiplayer formats for games like MtG with Commander, with not only its deck construction and MtG game play. But the added political layer that gets added with more than two players just takes the game to a new level. A level where having the strongest deck does not guarantee that you are going to win. I just love Commander. As do a lot of MtG players, it is the most popular format for the game.

Even Star Wars Unlimited launched the game with not just its regular two player format, but also a multiplayer format called Twin Suns. That’s how popular multiplayer formats are in these tcg/lcg games.

Multiplayer formats are just easier to get to the table and play with your friends. They are more social.

So why wouldn’t I want this in Ashes as well?

There are official rules for playing at the higher player count of three to four players. Which are as follows:

3-4 Player Rules

“The rules are identical except that whenever player order
matters, start with the Active Player and proceed clockwise. Also, whenever you need to pass something “to your opponent,” pass it clockwise. The Active Player is the player whose turn it is or, if it is not during the player turns phase, the player with the first player token.

When a Phoenixborn is destroyed, its controlling player discards all cards on their battlefield or spellboard. That player and their play area are no longer in the game. If any cards they own are in another player’s play area, those cards stay in play. The game ends when only one player has a Phoenixborn in play. They have won the game!” Page 13, Ashes Rulebook 1.5

However this is a free for all. Which we will come back to later in the post with an interesting variant to these rules. Obviously these are the simplest rules to use, a last person standing with player elimination.

However I think one or two games out there have takes on taking a two player game into a multiplayer game that I think might be worth considering.

I will stress that I haven’t tried these yet in Ashes. So what you have are my thoughts on these and the changes I’ll be making.

The Mistborn take…

Recently I bought the deckbuilder Mistborn which had the following multiplayer mechanic for allocating damage on a turn.

“ In 3-4 player games, there is an added mechanic called the “Target.” The last player from the first player (counting clockwise) starts with the Target. At the end of your turn, after attacking any allies (you may target anyone’s allies during this phase), you must direct your damage points at whoever holds the Target. After a player with the Target takes any amount of damage to their health total from another player, they may pass the Target to another player. Target passing only happens after all damage has already been used for that turn.” Page 15, Mistborn rulebook

This has a kind of King of Tokyo feel with a player occupying Tokyo and taking any damage from the other players with the option to move out after taking any damage.

To do this in Ashes all you need is something to act as the target that can be passed around. A poker chip would be ideal for this. But anything will do.

Vampire the Masquerade Rivals take…

I like the Vampire the Masquerade Rivals take on multiplayer.

Let’s look at what the Rivals rulebook says. I’ve put in bold the bits I think are relevant to what we will be using to replicate the mechanic in Ashes.

“The game ends when any player is knocked out or any player reaches
13 Agenda points. There are 3 ways to win:
. You win if you are the first player to reach 13 Agenda points.
. You win if you you knock out your Rival.
. Have the most Agenda points when a foe gets knocked out that
doesn’t fulfill an above win condition (i.e., Special Affairs Division
or another player knocks out your Rival, etc.).


To knock out a foe, you must do one of the following:
. Cause their Prestige to drop to 0.
. Defeat the last active vampire in their coterie (vampires in torpor
are not active).

If you knock out a foe other than your Rival (or they are knocked
out by effects not controlled by any player), the player holding their Rival token gains 3 Agenda points. A player who is knocked out has their agenda permanently set to 0. Then compare agenda scores. The player with the most agenda wins! See tiebreakers and ‘Rare End of
Game Circumstances’ on page XX if you encounter a situation not
covered above.” Page 3, Vampire the Masquerade Rivals rulebook

This is how Rivals decides which players have which rival.

“Randomly determine who goes first and give them the ‘1st Player’ token. Each player has a number based on where they are sitting. The player with the ‘1st Player Token” is Player 1. The player to their left is Player 2, etc. In a 2_player game, your only foe is your Rival. In a 3p game, grab Rival tokens 1_3. In a 4p game, use tokens 1_4. Place the tokens face down in the middle of the table and mix them up. Starting with player 1 and continuing clockwise, each player in turn grabs a token and flips it over. If you grab a token with your player number on it, grab a new one and then throw yours back in face down and mix them up again. When there are 2 players yet to grab a token, if either of their numbers have not been
revealed by the earlier players, flip the remaining tokens over and each player who doesn’t have a token grabs one that isn’t their own. This prevents these players from being left with their own token. Compare your token to the turn order (clockwise from player 1). The player whose number is on your token is your Rival for the game. So if you grab token #2, your Rival is player 2—the player one seat clockwise from player 1.” Page 4, Vampire the Masquerade Rivals rulebook

To start with we will need four tokens numbered 1 to 4. There needs to be no change to how the Rivals rules describes to select your rival.

The win conditions are you win if you knock out your rival.

Or if you knock out someone else’s rival, it’s the player with the most phoenixborn health left, with the player holding the rival token of the player just knocked out getting 3 health back (up to the phoenixborns max health).

The Star Realms/Epic take…

I love Star Realms. It’s probably my most played deck builder. Especially if I include app plays (over 12k games played).

“Hunter (3-6 Players)

Randomly determine which player is going first. That player gets a three-card starting hand. Play proceeds clockwise around the table. The player going second gets a four-card starting hand. All other players get a five-card starting hand.

Players may only attack/target the player to their left and/or the Bases belonging to players on their left and right. If a player is eliminated, put all of their cards into the Scrap Heap. The last player remaining wins the game!

All we take from these rules is you can only attack/select the player to your left.

Hunter First Blood (3-6 Players)

The same rules as Hunter, but when the first player is defeated, the game immediately ends and the player to their right wins!” Page 6, Star Realms rules

“Jackpot Gumbo
Suggested by Anthony Harris
“This variant is for all the people who love the tactical combat of multiplayer in ‘Star Realms’, but don’t want to have to wait for final elimination like in monopoly. It also creates more tension and strategy for all players involved.
Basically, instead of playing until only one is left, the game is over when the first players’ authority reaches zero. At that point, the person with the highest authority is the winner.
This way, everyone is in the game until the end, and they all have to be mindful of every decision they make. Instead of just racing to elimination. sometimes players may even have to consider teaming up to ‘pull’ another player back, or even helping a player who is weak and close to getting eliminated.” https://www.starrealms.com/multiplayer-rules-jackpot-gumbo/

This variant kind of takes the free for all format and removes the player elimination element. If I was going for a free for all game this is the version I’d play. Players aren’t left sitting around watching from the side line.

“Hunter – Last One Standing
Same as Hunter – First Blood, except when a player is eliminated, the person to their right doesn’t win. Instead, that person gains 5 health and draws a card.” https://www.epiccardgame.com/formats-multiplayer/

Might be worth trying.

There are some team formats (especially in Star Realms/Epic) but I’m not sure how the shared life side would work. More thought and play testing is required.

But I’m hoping to try some of the above ideas real soon.

I’m back, back in the New York Groove 

LCG, lcg/ccg/tcg game night, netrunner

“Many years since I was here, On the street I was passin’ my time away… I’m back, back in the New York Groove ” New York Groove

That’s how it felt to finally to run those servers, break that ice, and score those agendas once more.

Since those Null Signal Game (NSG) designed expansions for Netrunner dropped through the letter box I’ve been dying to get the game to the table.

In preparation I got an original FFG Android Netrunner core set cheaply off eBay for its tokens and rulebook. The NSG token set haven’t turned up yet. I’m hoping anyday now. At least having this core set also gives me some more pre-made decks to play with noobs. Even if those decks are just each faction/corps cards plus the neutral ones.

Dave suffering being made to play a runner

I have to say these NSG learners decks are great fun to play. Plus having it so that once you have played a handful of games with them, you can then shuffle in ten more cards that add one or two new mechanics.

And yes I have really missed playing this game. It most definitely is as much fun as I remember it.

I think Dave enjoyed his games. As results went it was a draw. We both won a game as a runner and as the Corp.

I want some more games with these learner decks and maybe with the original core set decks before jumping back into the deckbuilding side.

Sadly due to an imminent new arrival in the Dave household I don’t know when Dave will be able to play again. Quite rightly his priorities will be elsewhere.

But in the meantime “I’m back baby!”

Netrunner Initial Impressions

LCG, netrunner

This morning I had the pleasant surprise of my Netrunner order arriving.

An even more pleasant surprise was seeing the size of the packaging of each set. The big mostly empty set boxes from the FFG days gone. Now we have deck boxes stuffed with cards. Which I really like. It makes the starter decks in the System Gateway very portable.

Sadly the drawback is where once you got the rule book in the core set and the tokens needed to play. Now you don’t get either.

Instead you get the rules online, plus have to source tokens from a third party. This later point means the game isn’t very accessible for new players to the game.

You can download the rules as a pdf, and like me get them printed out (I used Doxzoo in the UK).

One nice touch is the new player guides to take a corp or runner through learning the game using the starter decks. I’d love these to be available as a pdf too so they can be printed. I like that there is also a video to go along with these starter guides.

I like the included reference cards. Whether it’s a summary of the actions a player can take, to on the starter runner and corp identities the play areas. Plus having a card with the starter decks on is really handy for resetting the decks for teaching new players.

Card quality seems amazing, and the art looks stunning. I believe they have used some of the same artists as FFG did.

Also considering the price of each set is less than £30 they present amazing value.

The only thing you need to take into account as an additional cost is sourcing tokens for the game.

Yep really impressed with the production of these sets.

I have a problem!

LCG, Lord of the Rings, LoTR, LotR lcg GenCon Scenarios

In a previous post I mentioned I had bought a few of the LotR lcg standalone scenarios that were done for Gen Con.

I did end up splashing out for the Murder at the Prancing Pony scenario, plus one or two others. The full list of new arrivals is the following:

  • Murder at the Prancing Pony – Fellowship 2015 Scenario
  • The Wizard’s Quest – Gen Con 2018
  • The Woodland Realm – Fellowship 2018 Scenario
  • The Hunt for the Dreadnaught – PoD 2020
  • The Old Forest – Gen Con 2014
  • Fog on the Barrow-downs Fellowship 2014 Scenario
  • Attack on Dol Guldur – Fellowship 2017 Scenario

The last three have only just been purchased and will arrive before the week is out.

What this means is that I’m two short of having all the standalone scenarios.

A situation I hadn’t planned on being in.

But now the completionist in me is whispering “go on you might as well get them all”.

These do make great one off game night scenarios.

I’ve played two of them now on our lcg/ccg/tcg club night. Murder at the Prancing Pony was fun but we ran out of time the evening we played it. We nearly played The Battle of Lake-Town last Tuesday (there is no write up of this evening) but the Dunedain deck I was playing that evening was a very poor match up for this scenario. Instead we went with The Massing at Osgiliath.

The Massing at Osgiliath kicked our butt twice that evening. In the first attempt I lost a hero in the first round! We quickly reset a couple of rounds later when it was clear we were doomed.

The second attempt we did a lot better but in the end we were defeated.

A plan that formed in my mind is to add the Old Forest and Fog on the Barrow-Downs to the campaign when we start The Fellowship of the Ring saga. They apparently fit in nicely in telling the story of the first book.

Just need to set up when to start the campaign.

Murder at the Prancing Pony

LCG, lcg/ccg/tcg game night, Lord of the Rings, LoTR, LotR lcg GenCon Scenarios

Finally it was time to get The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game to the table.

But what scenario were we going to play?

I did finally cave and pay eBay prices for the Murder at the Prancing Pony standalone scenario for the LotR lcg.

I thought just like the other standalone scenarios I’ve purchased (some more expensive than others) I thought this would make a good “one shot” to play with others.

Heck they were designed to be played at conventions.

“There are some folk in Bree who are not to be trusted.”
–Strider, The Fellowship of the Ring

Released in 2015 as part of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Fellowship Event, Murder at the Prancing Pony is a standalone scenario that has you solve a mysterious murder.

The premise of this scenario is the following:

“You have arrived in Bree to find the village abuzz over a recent crime.”

“Someone has broken into The Prancing Pony, murdered a guest and made off with the victim’s belongings. Barliman Butterbur begs you to find the killer before the trail goes cold.”

Yep the Murder at the Prancing Pony scenario turns this lcg into a card based Cluedo or for any American readers Clue.

Dave and I used starter decks, whilst Marcin used a deck (I think) he got off the internet.

  • Dwarves of Duri deck – Me
  • A custom dwarf deck – Marcin
  • Elves of Lorién deck – Dave

“..there was trouble right here in Bree, bad trouble. Why, we had a real set-to, and there were some folk killed, killed dead!”
Barliman, The Return of the King

The usual suspects!

Our starting staging area had two Chetwood Outlaws. We were not going to take them on anytime soon in our investigation. But at some point we would have to. It was inevitable.

Our investigation into the recent death wasn’t going that fast (thanks to those Chetwood Outlaws). Too few locations were appearing for us to dig around in for clues. The hand full of times we were able to find any clues enabled us to narrow the suspects down to two possibilities.

Dun dun

We were just not getting anywhere on finding the hideout. Eventually we got a breakthrough and were able to eliminate Bill Ferney’s House.

The big issue we found was controlling our threat levels. Each round while the quest card 1B was showing saw our threat going up by two or an extra encounter card drawn. Our choice.

It’s not as if we could blitz through the quest card. We were restricted to putting a maximum of four questing points on it a turn. Those Chetwood Outlaws made it so we had to commit a lot of heroes to do anything.

There was an eventual reckoning with those Chetwood Outlaws that did involve Gandalf making an appearance to defeat them.

It then became a bit easier in making progress.

“Just one more thing…”

The clock was against us. I really needed to be heading home and getting some sleep with work the next morning.

With only one hideout eliminated from our investigation and two suspects left, we made a wild guess.

Our deduction skills told us it was Todd the Troll at the Staddle Hiding Hole.

Amazingly we got the hideout correct, whilst sadly getting the wrong suspect. Susie the Spider had successfully point the finger of suspension onto an “innocent” sap.

We didn’t have any time to play through the fallout of our wrong decision.

This really was a fun scenario to play. It’s just a shame that it’s not easier and cheaper for people to get.

The Fellowship of the Ring Saga Plans

LCG, Lord of the Rings, LoTR, LoTR LCG Saga

Over a year ago I had plans to start playing the LoTR lcg with Nathan.

But like a lot of things those plans never happened.

Since then though I have got the final part of the revised saga The Return of the King. Plus the three revised campaigns Angmar Awakened, Dream-chaser, and Ered Mithrin including the matching hero boxes.

Another expensive spin off is I have bought some of the GenCon stand alone scenarios to play. I’m not getting all of them. That’d be some serious cash splashed out. I’ve gone for the ones that interested me.

So which ones did I get?

  • The Massing at Osgiliath – GenCon 2011 Scenario
  • The Battle of Lake-Town (Hobbit) Scenario GenCon 2012
  • The Mines of Moria – Gen Con 2019 Scenario Pack
  • Escape from Khazad-Dum Custom Scenario Kit
  • The Siege of Annuminas – Fellowship 2016 Scenario

Yes it’d be nice to get them all. Even better it’d have been nice for FFG to have done a box set containing them all. But that’s just a wild dream. It’s not going to happen.

There is one more I’d like Murder at the Prancing Pony, which basically makes the game into a Cluedo inspired murder mystery who done it. I’m curious as to how it plays. Does it work considering the theme?

So what of the plans hinted at in the posts title?

Well discussions have started with Marcin and Dave to gauge interest in playing through the three book sagas on a Saturday. They seem to like the idea, and interested.

So I need to select a Saturday to start the journey.

I’ll talk deck specifics in another post nearer to the start of the campaign.

In the meantime the hunt for play mats starts!

LoTR LCG: Fellowship of the Ring

LCG, Lord of the Rings, LoTR, LoTR LCG Saga

I had this idea that this series of posts will look at playing the three sagas that make up the telling of the Lord of the Rings. At the time of writing this initial post only the first two sagas, Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers have been released. So hopefully by the time I get to the end of The Two Towers the third and final saga The Return of the King will have been released.

There is a good likely hood of that being the case as my intention on playing these sagas is to play them first with Nathan. I want to share the experience of playing through the scenarios for the first time with him. Luckily we start our journey through Middle Earth next week when I visit him.

The background stuff

I own the Revised Core Set, The Dark of Mirkwood scenario pack, two of the starter decks (dwarfs and elves), and the two sagas mentioned above. Which means I have none of the earlier released material. I’m coming to this from playing the sagas for the first time.

In a previous post I’ve described how I began what has now been a four decade long love affair with the books.

Yes there are paratexts I have used for these posts. The most obvious ones are the original books by Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit. But at one point or other in my life I’ve also read Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion. Plus a couple of biographies, JRR Tolkien A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter, and J.R.R. Tolkien Author of the Century by Tom Shippey.

There are also the BBC radio plays of both books, plus Tales from the Perilous Realm. The later has The Adventures of Tom Bombadil which which was not included in the original radio play. I’ve also at some point listened to the CD J.R.R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait and a CD I have somewhere of Tolkien reading extracts from his books.

I’d be amiss if the Peter Jackson movies were not mentioned here also, particularly the extended editions. I also can’t forget the 1979 animated movie by Ralph Bakshi. Which I do have a soft spot for. After all it’s one of my earliest memories of being introduced to Tolkien and Middle Earth.

Oddly enough I only subscribe and watch one Tolkien/LoTR based YouTube channel, and that’s Jess of the Shire.

DISCLAIMER: Some of these paratexts are fresher in my mind than others. Also I’m not in anyway claiming to be anything more than a fan. In no way shape or other am I claiming to be an expert. There are far more knowledgeable people out there than me.

Before I go any further I should give a SPOILER ALERT! As I write these posts I’m not sure where there are going but I’m pretty sure they may touch on spoilers for this campaign. It’s not my intention to ruin the surprises, twists and turns that the campaign has for anyone. So if you don’t want to run the risk of me doing that for yourself then please avoid this series of posts.

For this dramatic playthrough of the Fellowship of the Ring campaign I’ll be using the starter decklists as given in the expansions rulebook.

FFG Starter Decklists

As a brief aside although the Revised Core set supports up to four players. I do feel that it is primarily meant to be a two player experience. This is based on the fact we have a deck list for two decks to be played. That more than two players just take the cards for a single sphere of influence seems a bit of a cop out and lazy to me.

The two deck lists in this expansion (see above) help reinforce this feeling that the designers see this as a two player game.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining. This is mainly how I play the game. It’s either with Nathan when I visit him. Or with one of my friends. I’m not a solo gamer (although I like the idea). And I haven’t played or thought of playing the game with more than two players. Although if I were it’d be a three player game.

Before I close off this initial post I should point out that the LoTR Revised Core set ended up being my game of the year for 2023.

The next post in this series will be the start of our journey through the Fellowship of the Ring saga and the scenarios I get to play with Nathan on my visit to him. See you then.

How I play Marvel Champions (and LoTR lcg)

LCG, Marvel Champions

After plans to get Marvel Champions to the table fell through earlier in the day. I spent the afternoon instead organising the collection instead.

For starters I had four character packs to “file away” along with The Hood Scenario pack. Plus the latest campaign box Next Evolution.

Whilst organising the new cards my mind wondered and made me think how I’m currently (the couple of times I’ve played it) and plan to use the game. It’s a bit like how I also use the Lord of the Rings lcg too.

A lot of the content creators out there on the various media platforms out there build their own character decks. They get a lot of enjoyment out of doing that. And to be fair I would too. After all it’s a side of MtG, Dice Masters, and Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.

However there is only so much spare time in my life. Unfortunately I don’t have any spare to dedicate to this side of playing these two lcgs.

Also I only get to play both games with other players who do not own a copy of the game, and are not into building their own decks.

So using the pre-constructed hero decks as you buy them allows me to play with others who enjoy the game but haven’t committed to it financially.

During setup I can say “which hero is your favourite?” or ‘who do you fancy playing?” Grab the decks and away we go.

Obviously before hand I can decide on the villian we are going to go up against and which modular scenarios (if not using the recommended) we are using. However I can also repeat the hero selection for the villian to and let the other player chose their favourite.

I like this grab and go, no thought needed approach too.

How do I thematically justify it?

Well Marvel used to print two comics that would cover this mix and match approach.

The first was Marvel Team-up. This would see two heroes come together to defeat a common villian. Usually these two heroes would be polar opposites.

The other comic they did and also ended up as an animated series on Disney+ is What if…? Which explores major moments in the Marvel universe and what would happen if they happened differently.

Both could explain why the heroes were together and why they were facing off against a villian they had never gone up against before.

Another factor in the not deck building is I only want to play the games with others. I don’t play solo, or only play solo. If I was playing solo I’d be more tempted to build my own decks. I don’t get much enjoyment out of playing games solo. It’s the social side I enjoy.

Anyway sorry to have bored you with that thought!

Mirkwood Paths #1 – A Passage Through Mirkwood

Campaign, father son gaming, LCG, Lord of the Rings, LoTR, Mirkwood Paths

I know the LoTR lcg has been out for a few years. Plus the revised core set that I have has also been out for a couple years too. But still I feel that for this play through of the revised core set campaign (mine and Nathan’s first time playing it) I should give the old SPOILER ALERT! warning.

If you intend to play through the campaign included in the core revised set and prefer not to have anything spoiled then avoid this post and join me in another post.

Just remember that was a SPOILER ALERT! You have been warned and if you continue reading this post (which I hope you do) and it ruins your enjoyment of the campaign then it is on you.

Ok let’s get on with the post.

As hinted in my long winded ramblings justifying giving a spoiler alert above this is the first time Nathan and I have played through the campaign mode that comes with the core revised set. It’s also the first time Nathan has played the LoTR lcg, and my third time of playing the opening quest of the campaign Passage Through Mirkwood.

Passage Through Mirkwood is the recommended introductory scenario for new players. Which considering my other two plays of the game were introducing new players to the game (including myself) it made sense to go with the official recommendation each time.

However this third time was different not only because we were playing it in campaign mode, but because of the decks used.

“You are traveling through Mirkwood forest, carrying an urgent message from King Thanduil to the Lady Galadriel of Lorien. As you move along the dark trail, the spiders gather around you…” Flies and Spiders, card 119

For this campaign we are using the Leadership & Spirit deck, and the Lore & Tactics deck from the Learning to Play Guide of the core set.

I’m playing the Leadership & Spirit deck, that has the following heroes: Aragorn, Théodred, and Éowyn. Which means Nathan is playing the Lore & Tactics deck with Legolas, Beravor, and Denethor as it’s heroes.

According to the Learning to Play Guide the Leadership & Spirit “deck excels at putting allies into play and contributing lots of willpower to the quest.” Whilst the Lore & Tactics deck is a “deck should be used to provide additional card draw and handle most of the combat.”

Hopefully we can remember our decks strengths as we play the scenarios in the campaign.

At least using these decks I don’t have to perform any mental gymnastics to explain Galadriel being in the party of heroes battling through Mirkwood.

“King Thranduil has assigned a guide, Mendor, to assist you in your passage through Mirkwood Forest.” Mirkwood Paths – Part 1, card 129

If Mendor gets defeated, aka killed we lose the scenario. Just a little extra pressure to start with.

“The nastiest things they saw were the cobwebs; dark dense cobwebs, with threads extradionairly thick, often stretched from tree to tree, or tangled in the lower branches on either side of them. There were none stretched across the path, but whether because some magic kept it clear, or for what other reasons they could not guess. – The Hobbit” Flies and Spiders, card 119

Our parties made their way south through Mirkwood following forest paths dispatching the odd forest spider as they dropped from the trees.

Such an early attack of opportunity from a spider managed to do serious damage to Aragorn after I had leant heavily into the decks main questing focus and had no one to defend with.

We were or I should say that team Legolas were already engaged with Ungoliant’s Spawn when we had to choose which path to follow.

To give me a bit of variety from my previous two plays of this scenario we went with the other card that I hadn’t played before, 3B Beorn’s Path.

We had to defeat Ungoliant’s Spawn before we could complete the quest itself. Which was slightly different from the other path.

If we had gone the other way we would have won a round quicker but I wanted to keep things fresh for me. So we quickly finished off the wounded Ungoliant’s Spawn. Freeing up my team of heroes to throw everything into completing the main quest. Luckily some ally powers allowed this to happen.

“The forest is dangerous, but that was beyond what one might expect to find.” Mendor seems shaken. “I fear something is not right in the land. I shall continue to travel with you.” Mirkwood Paths – Part 1, card 129

Our reward for successful competing this first scenario was to add a copy of the boon Mendor’s Support to our decks. Plus Ungoliant’s Swarm to the encounter deck.

Nathan liked his first play of the game. Although he thought this introductory scenario was on the easy side. To which I countered it was aimed at introducing players to the game. So it was never going to be really challenging.

I actually liked the core set recommended deck. It was fun to play with. And played well to it’s strengths. Nathan didn’t seem to have any problems piloting his deck. So that to me says that these are great decks for new players.

‘T was in the darkest depths of Mordor

Game day, LCG, Lord of the Rings, LoTR, star wars

I spent a very enjoyable few hours today round Jeff’s playing LoTR themed games punctuated with a delicious bowl of chicken and mushroom curry.

We started our gaming with War of the Ring the card game.

Jeff played the free peoples of Middle Earth. Whilst for a change for me from the last couple of plays I’ve had I was the minions of Sauron.

Mordor won in the end by a narrow couple of points.

Jeff was a little unsure of the game and thought he needed a few more plays to decide. But he thought it had potential.

Our second game after a break for lunch (the chicken and mushroom curry washed down with coffee) was LoTR the living card game revised core.

We played the introductory scenario seeing as it was Jeff’s first time with the game.

Luckily Jeff had done some homework and had watched a couple of YouTube how to play videos. So no teaching required.

Jeff chose the starter decks for our play and went elves, leaving me dwarves.

I’ve already written about this introductory scenario so I’m not going to repeat myself here.

Suffice to say the combined might of the dwarves and elves won.

Unsurprisingly Jeff really liked LoTR LCG. I had a strong suspicion he might. After all Jeff loves Arkham Horror LCG and they are similar mechanically.

Which reminds me the previous evening John and I met up and played Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

John played Obi Wan, whilst I went with Ashoka against Ventress. We played at the padawan difficulty (3 missions).

Even though the game was brutal against us and beat us (we needed another two turns minimum to win) Jonathan enjoyed this implementation of the pandemic engine.

I have had two gaming sessions with two of my oldest and closest gaming friends. Who these days I don’t get to game with as often as I’d like. So to get to spend quality time with them sharing great games was a Summer highlight.