Mike tells us the best method of getting into the Lord of the Rings card game Buy great games at www.gamenerdz.... Find more reviews and videos at www.dicetower.com
I'd just like to point out, as others did, that the big expansions are required for the cycle of adventure packs that follow them. For example, in the video you said players should choose whether to buy the Khazad-Dum expansion or the Dwarrowdelf cycle packs after finishing Mirkwood, but there's no choice there: you can't play the Dwarrowdelf expansions without the encounter cards from Khazad-Dum. Likewise you can't play the Against The Shadow decks without the Heirs of Numenor expansion, as the video suggests. Just wanted to be sure that someone saw this so that the oversights can be corrected, otherwise viewers may follow this buyer's guide and buy adventure packs they can't use.
Correction: Yes - I overlooked the fact that you need Khazad Dum Encounter Cards and Heirs of Numenor Encounter Cards to play the Dwarrowdelf and Against the Shadow Cycles respectively. In my brain I was thinking in terms of accessibility and difficulty, and overlooked this technicality - my sincere apologies everyone! And thanks to Mr.LongHair for pointing out that Voice of Isengard is not the next Saga expansion for LOTR - that really blows my mind - I guess that's what you get when you assume! ;)
Just a friendly word - if you'd have a card slideshow of that specific expansion while you speak, it would be MUCH more watchable, right now it's a bit painful - 20 minutes of voice, 6 different shots or smth similar, feels like 1998 :/
Vytautas Kubilius what I don't get is how, when and can you mix the adventure packs with the big box expansions and base set for LOTR LCG in one game session ? or are all expansions mutually exclusive and are to be played with the base set only ?
You are aware that you cannot play the quests in the Dwarrowdelf cycle without the Khazad-Dum big box. I think you should put an annotation into the video so that people don't get confused. This caught me off guard too and I don't want others to fall into that trap.
+NOTuNOTme Well I'd definitely recommend the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. They will build your card base very well and give you some really useful cards. Personally, next I would recommend The Grey Havens expansion. This is easily the most enjoyable expansion for me and has some interesting sailing mechanics that arn't too difficult. It also has some great cards for building Noldor decks including arguably the best Noldor hero. The dream chaser cycle goes with that expansion . Not all the packs are out yet but the first few seem incredibly promising and encourage sphere experimentation. After that, well here's a list in order of what I'd get... 1.Core Box 2. Shadows of Mirkwood Cycle 3. The Grey Havens 4. Dream Chaser Cycle 5. Khazad Dûm and the Dwarrowdelf Cycle if you can find it 6. The Voice of Isengard 7. Some Saga Expansions (Hobbit First and a few others) 8. Ring maker Cycle 9. Heirs of Numenor 10. Against the Shadow Cycle Hope this helps!
Haha, the first expansion I bought after the core was Heirs of Numenor. lol, I did it because my friend who I usually play with had bought most of the other expansions, but still, I found the quests nearly impossible to beat and I still haven't won all of them. Then again my friend and I may have been going about playing all wrong. We would always make decks that we wanted and then go pick a random quest to do, we never made deck for a specific quest...that's something me might need to look at in the future...
Just a slight correction, Voice of Isengard is just a standalone expansion leading to the Ringmaker cycle, "The Road Darkens" is the second LOTR saga expansion thats been announced :), also you can't play the adventure cycles without the big box expansions. (you need some of their encounter sets to complete the deck)
Jumping back into this game :) I had 3 of the original Core Sets along with the first 6 Adventure Packs, Khazad-Dum and its 6 Adventure Packs and The Dark Riders saga expansion. Just picked up the Heirs Of Numenor with its 6 Adventure Packs, The Road Darkens saga, 3 of the starter decks, the Dark Of Mirkwood set, and the Mines Of Moria custom scenario kit. Plus a TON of KMC perfect fit sleeves and a couple of things to store all the cards (a zip up binder for the player cards and a case for all the encounter cards). lol I know full well now that I've dropped a bunch of money on it, I'll enjoy the heck out of it for a few weeks. Then put it in my closest and forget about it again >.
Hi Mike, I wish this video was up a few weeks ago. I didn't know what to get so I did the best thing and bought everything! Including all future pre-orders just to make sure. I know I have the LOTR LCG SICKNESS (I think that's a thing). Please keep making lot's of LOTR LCG videos, they are great! Thankyou.
Brandon Zimmer That may be the case but I have only been gaming for 1 month and have bought 1/2 of heroscape, all of D & D + expansions & all dungeon command games, Mage Knight + expansions,complete star wars x-wing miniatures + pre-orders, Tobago, 5 kickstarters - Krosmaster arena, Arcadia Quest, Tokaido, etc. I can see you have a sickness but I am afraid mine might be a more virulent strain. Is there any hope for me Brandon?
mackstertube haha alright you may have me beat by just a little bit. Call of Cthulhu and game of thrones has lots of cards ha. all d & d expansions?? like the random jungle fighter books and such (lol just a random name but like there is a lot of unnecessary ones)
It should be important to note, you can't do the Dwarrowdelf Cycle if you don't have the Khazad-Dum expansion so there is actually an order to what you can buy in regards to the cycle adventure packs. (Dwarrowdelf cycle depends on cards from Khazad-Dum, Against the Shadow depends on cards from Heirs of Numenor, etc)
haha funny this video came out today. I just received a big box from fed ex filled with goodies! All 6 shadow of mirkwood adventures (except for the hunt for gollum which I already had), all 6 dwarrowdelf adventures, and khazad-dum. My plan: I can't use any of the player cards in any of the adventures until I reach that adventure. I'll be taking them on 1 at a time according to when they were released. I'll play each adventure till I've either won a game...or have given it at least 3 solid attempts before I move onto the next adventure. I have read through all of the player cards in each set...but I haven't read any of the quest or encounter cards. I kinda wish I hadn't read through all the player cards already lol...but at least the first play through of each adventure should be a surprise!
Wow! I just finished the conflict at the carrock (solo) and it was an AMAZING quest! lol Dang I love this game! The game took me just over an hour...Gandalf came down for me 6 times! (-30 threat! haha)...I drew through my entire deck (was drawing 4 cards almost every turn)...grimbeorne came to lend me his aid, and he had 2 attachments attached to him healing him for 4 damage a turn (lols so fun! a 3 defense, 10 hit point ally healing for 4 a turn!!!)...I was also running the core set Aragorn (leadership sphere)...in the end he was at 4 will power (with the ability to add +3 willpower or defense each turn by discarding cards), he could cast leadership, lore and spirit cards, was at 6 attack, and was able to ready after questing each turn and was producing 3 resources each turn!...what a beast! I also run the hero denethor who lets me exhaust him to look at the top of the encounter deck and move that card to the bottom if I want to. I had an attachment equipped to him that readied him...so I was able to look at and replace up to 2 cards for the top of the encounter deck each turn! I never hit more then 32 threat during the game, so none of the 4 unique trolls force engaged me...it made it super nice as I was able to optionally engage the trolls 1 at a time. I was able to use forest snare on 2 of the trolls preventing them from attacking. A nasty hill troll came out of no where and joined the attack. Luckily with grimbeorne at my side the hill troll was no threat at all! A baby mouse would've proven to be a larger threat then the nasty little troll at that point in the game! lol I didn't score the game...and I did make some play mistakes that I didn't discover till it was too late...they may have had a big impact on the game, it's hard to say. Oh well though, I look forward to my next play through! I also didn't score the game. I ended on turn 18, 32 threat, no wound tokens on ANY of my characters, all my heros alive, no cards left in my deck (haha my hand was HUGE). Freaking epic! It was so freaking fun!
Is it just me or are there some fairly major mistakes in this video? You can't choose to get Khazad-Dum before the Darrowdelf cycle, as the cycle requires the adventure cards from that box. You also don't have the choice of getting the Against the Shadow Cycle before Heirs because again, the bigger box is required. Also, as far as I understand, The Voice of Isengard is not the next box in the Black Riders range. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your videos and have enjoyed watching the others, but there seems to be some poorly informed advice in here.
Excellent, Mike; you've given a lot back to the game that has given you so much. I've just been going in the order of release, but I may have to take a detour for The Hobbit saga. Remember, potential LOTR LCG players, it's a dangerous business going out of your door... you step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to! But Mike Vincent can help you navigate the way!
Yes, you need "Khazad-Dum" to play "Dwarrowdelf", "Heirs of Numenor" to use "Against the Shadow" and you will need "Voice of Isengard" to play "The Ringmaker Cycle" All of the big box expansions can be played with just the Core set
Always good to see some Lord of the Rings coverage but this video really needs an overlay to warn people NOT to buy the Dwarrowdelf Adventure Packs unless you already have the Khazad Dum expansion. Especially since Khazad Dum is quite hard to get hold of at the moment.
+Arbie8327 most people will buy 3 core sets so they can have 3 if each card (for tournament play). Some will go even more so they can build more decks that use the same card. So when you really get into deckbuilding/tournaments, then I'd go for more core sets
Hate to contradict, but most cards (other than heroes of course and a couple of the more powerful cards (Dwarven Tomb comes to mind?)) already come in triplicate in the core set. Also, I think there are like six copies of Gandalf. Now, for more than two players and supporting multiple player-constructed decks simultaneously, a second core set isn't a bad idea, even if just for the tokens and threat trackers to support four players, like Brandon and Mike mention below. There is no need to buy three copies of the core set. Also, at present, I don't believe there is really a tournament mode of this game in the traditional LCG/CCG format.
Whats confusing me is whats the difference between a deluxe and a saga expansion and if its the circular chips and the threat counter you get , do you get a set in every deluxe expansion because if you do that would be silly coz theres like 10 and you would be drowning in cardboard chips lol
What if i only have the base game and just want these 3 expansions most similar to the actual book just because i would like to play all these missions
How is this single-handed solo with extra expansions? The core set only has two quests that feel soloable. I'm interested in investing more into the game, but I'm not sure I'll get my value from it unless it is.
Josh Bodah I don't really play solo, so I don't feel I can give a very educated answer to this, but this game is intended to be played solo, and from listening to podcasts and following blogs, I get the impression that overwhelmingly, most quests work well solo as well.
Arbie8327 I personally haven't, but there are some cards that would be excellent to have multiple copies of - Unexpected Courage and A Test of Will come to mind! I think you can certainly justify it.
Depends on how much extra money you got. But I would recommend another core set. It helps for sure if want to do 3 or four players and there is some cards that only come with one copy that are really good so having 2 of is very nice.
I'd just like to point out, as others did, that the big expansions are required for the cycle of adventure packs that follow them. For example, in the video you said players should choose whether to buy the Khazad-Dum expansion or the Dwarrowdelf cycle packs after finishing Mirkwood, but there's no choice there: you can't play the Dwarrowdelf expansions without the encounter cards from Khazad-Dum. Likewise you can't play the Against The Shadow decks without the Heirs of Numenor expansion, as the video suggests. Just wanted to be sure that someone saw this so that the oversights can be corrected, otherwise viewers may follow this buyer's guide and buy adventure packs they can't use.
I do not care.
Correction: Yes - I overlooked the fact that you need Khazad Dum Encounter Cards and Heirs of Numenor Encounter Cards to play the Dwarrowdelf and Against the Shadow Cycles respectively. In my brain I was thinking in terms of accessibility and difficulty, and overlooked this technicality - my sincere apologies everyone! And thanks to Mr.LongHair for pointing out that Voice of Isengard is not the next Saga expansion for LOTR - that really blows my mind - I guess that's what you get when you assume! ;)
Thanks for this and all the comments. Really helpful to understand a progression & the choices even after 5 years!
Just a friendly word - if you'd have a card slideshow of that specific expansion while you speak, it would be MUCH more watchable, right now it's a bit painful - 20 minutes of voice, 6 different shots or smth similar, feels like 1998 :/
Vytautas Kubilius what I don't get is how, when and can you mix the adventure packs with the big box expansions and base set for LOTR LCG in one game session ? or are all expansions mutually exclusive and are to be played with the base set only ?
You are aware that you cannot play the quests in the Dwarrowdelf cycle without the Khazad-Dum big box. I think you should put an annotation into the video so that people don't get confused. This caught me off guard too and I don't want others to fall into that trap.
So if I can't get hold of the Khazad-dum expansion what would you recommend I get after the core box. Thanks :)
+NOTuNOTme Well I'd definitely recommend the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. They will build your card base very well and give you some really useful cards. Personally, next I would recommend The Grey Havens expansion. This is easily the most enjoyable expansion for me and has some interesting sailing mechanics that arn't too difficult. It also has some great cards for building Noldor decks including arguably the best Noldor hero. The dream chaser cycle goes with that expansion . Not all the packs are out yet but the first few seem incredibly promising and encourage sphere experimentation. After that, well here's a list in order of what I'd get...
1.Core Box
2. Shadows of Mirkwood Cycle
3. The Grey Havens
4. Dream Chaser Cycle
5. Khazad Dûm and the Dwarrowdelf Cycle if you can find it
6. The Voice of Isengard
7. Some Saga Expansions (Hobbit First and a few others)
8. Ring maker Cycle
9. Heirs of Numenor
10. Against the Shadow Cycle
Hope this helps!
+Adam Ainsley Thanks, that was very helpful!
Haha, the first expansion I bought after the core was Heirs of Numenor. lol, I did it because my friend who I usually play with had bought most of the other expansions, but still, I found the quests nearly impossible to beat and I still haven't won all of them. Then again my friend and I may have been going about playing all wrong. We would always make decks that we wanted and then go pick a random quest to do, we never made deck for a specific quest...that's something me might need to look at in the future...
Just a slight correction, Voice of Isengard is just a standalone expansion leading to the Ringmaker cycle, "The Road Darkens" is the second LOTR saga expansion thats been announced :), also you can't play the adventure cycles without the big box expansions. (you need some of their encounter sets to complete the deck)
MrLongHair Okay - now I'm feeling sheepish - this entire time I thought Voice of Isengard was the next Saga expansion - crazy! My apologies!!!
Jumping back into this game :) I had 3 of the original Core Sets along with the first 6 Adventure Packs, Khazad-Dum and its 6 Adventure Packs and The Dark Riders saga expansion.
Just picked up the Heirs Of Numenor with its 6 Adventure Packs, The Road Darkens saga, 3 of the starter decks, the Dark Of Mirkwood set, and the Mines Of Moria custom scenario kit. Plus a TON of KMC perfect fit sleeves and a couple of things to store all the cards (a zip up binder for the player cards and a case for all the encounter cards).
lol I know full well now that I've dropped a bunch of money on it, I'll enjoy the heck out of it for a few weeks. Then put it in my closest and forget about it again >.
This is the video I was looking for. Thank you fam.
Nice!!! Perfect timing for me. Just picked up the base game off Craigslist and was looking into the expansions but got a little overwhelmed lol.
Hi Mike, I wish this video was up a few weeks ago. I didn't know what to get so I did the best thing and bought everything! Including all future pre-orders just to make sure. I know I have the LOTR LCG SICKNESS (I think that's a thing).
Please keep making lot's of LOTR LCG videos, they are great! Thankyou.
mackstertube oops....sorry.... ;) Don't worry - I also have LOTR LCG Sickness - at least you know how 6 months worth of entertainment ;)
I have bought everything for 5 lcgs :/ I have a bigger sickness haha
Brandon Zimmer That may be the case but I have only been gaming for 1 month and have bought 1/2 of heroscape, all of D & D + expansions & all dungeon command games, Mage Knight + expansions,complete star wars x-wing miniatures + pre-orders, Tobago, 5 kickstarters - Krosmaster arena, Arcadia Quest, Tokaido, etc. I can see you have a sickness but I am afraid mine might be a more virulent strain. Is there any hope for me Brandon?
mackstertube haha alright you may have me beat by just a little bit. Call of Cthulhu and game of thrones has lots of cards ha. all d & d expansions?? like the random jungle fighter books and such (lol just a random name but like there is a lot of unnecessary ones)
It should be important to note, you can't do the Dwarrowdelf Cycle if you don't have the Khazad-Dum expansion so there is actually an order to what you can buy in regards to the cycle adventure packs. (Dwarrowdelf cycle depends on cards from Khazad-Dum, Against the Shadow depends on cards from Heirs of Numenor, etc)
haha funny this video came out today. I just received a big box from fed ex filled with goodies!
All 6 shadow of mirkwood adventures (except for the hunt for gollum which I already had), all 6 dwarrowdelf adventures, and khazad-dum.
My plan:
I can't use any of the player cards in any of the adventures until I reach that adventure. I'll be taking them on 1 at a time according to when they were released. I'll play each adventure till I've either won a game...or have given it at least 3 solid attempts before I move onto the next adventure.
I have read through all of the player cards in each set...but I haven't read any of the quest or encounter cards. I kinda wish I hadn't read through all the player cards already lol...but at least the first play through of each adventure should be a surprise!
Wow! I just finished the conflict at the carrock (solo) and it was an AMAZING quest! lol Dang I love this game!
The game took me just over an hour...Gandalf came down for me 6 times! (-30 threat! haha)...I drew through my entire deck (was drawing 4 cards almost every turn)...grimbeorne came to lend me his aid, and he had 2 attachments attached to him healing him for 4 damage a turn (lols so fun! a 3 defense, 10 hit point ally healing for 4 a turn!!!)...I was also running the core set Aragorn (leadership sphere)...in the end he was at 4 will power (with the ability to add +3 willpower or defense each turn by discarding cards), he could cast leadership, lore and spirit cards, was at 6 attack, and was able to ready after questing each turn and was producing 3 resources each turn!...what a beast!
I also run the hero denethor who lets me exhaust him to look at the top of the encounter deck and move that card to the bottom if I want to. I had an attachment equipped to him that readied him...so I was able to look at and replace up to 2 cards for the top of the encounter deck each turn!
I never hit more then 32 threat during the game, so none of the 4 unique trolls force engaged me...it made it super nice as I was able to optionally engage the trolls 1 at a time. I was able to use forest snare on 2 of the trolls preventing them from attacking. A nasty hill troll came out of no where and joined the attack. Luckily with grimbeorne at my side the hill troll was no threat at all! A baby mouse would've proven to be a larger threat then the nasty little troll at that point in the game! lol
I didn't score the game...and I did make some play mistakes that I didn't discover till it was too late...they may have had a big impact on the game, it's hard to say. Oh well though, I look forward to my next play through!
I also didn't score the game. I ended on turn 18, 32 threat, no wound tokens on ANY of my characters, all my heros alive, no cards left in my deck (haha my hand was HUGE).
Freaking epic! It was so freaking fun!
twitchster77 How did you get Gandalf in six times? Sneak Attacks?
Is it just me or are there some fairly major mistakes in this video? You can't choose to get Khazad-Dum before the Darrowdelf cycle, as the cycle requires the adventure cards from that box. You also don't have the choice of getting the Against the Shadow Cycle before Heirs because again, the bigger box is required. Also, as far as I understand, The Voice of Isengard is not the next box in the Black Riders range. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your videos and have enjoyed watching the others, but there seems to be some poorly informed advice in here.
Gareth Davies Yes, please see my comment at the top of the comments.
Excellent, Mike; you've given a lot back to the game that has given you so much. I've just been going in the order of release, but I may have to take a detour for The Hobbit saga. Remember, potential LOTR LCG players, it's a dangerous business going out of your door... you step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to! But Mike Vincent can help you navigate the way!
Do you need Khazad-Dum to play the Dwarrowdelf cycle APs? (and thanks for doing this; very helpful!)
Yes, you need "Khazad-Dum" to play "Dwarrowdelf", "Heirs of Numenor" to use "Against the Shadow" and you will need "Voice of Isengard" to play "The Ringmaker Cycle"
All of the big box expansions can be played with just the Core set
Great, thank you!
Always good to see some Lord of the Rings coverage but this video really needs an overlay to warn people NOT to buy the Dwarrowdelf Adventure Packs unless you already have the Khazad Dum expansion. Especially since Khazad Dum is quite hard to get hold of at the moment.
+Arbie8327 most people will buy 3 core sets so they can have 3 if each card (for tournament play). Some will go even more so they can build more decks that use the same card. So when you really get into deckbuilding/tournaments, then I'd go for more core sets
Hate to contradict, but most cards (other than heroes of course and a couple of the more powerful cards (Dwarven Tomb comes to mind?)) already come in triplicate in the core set. Also, I think there are like six copies of Gandalf. Now, for more than two players and supporting multiple player-constructed decks simultaneously, a second core set isn't a bad idea, even if just for the tokens and threat trackers to support four players, like Brandon and Mike mention below.
There is no need to buy three copies of the core set. Also, at present, I don't believe there is really a tournament mode of this game in the traditional LCG/CCG format.
Whats confusing me is whats the difference between a deluxe and a saga expansion and if its the circular chips and the threat counter you get , do you get a set in every deluxe expansion because if you do that would be silly coz theres like 10 and you would be drowning in cardboard chips lol
Oh and one more thing, The Voice of Isengard isn't a saga expansion. It's the start of the Ring-Maker's Cycle.
Thanks, I was expecting this video :)
What if i only have the base game and just want these 3 expansions most similar to the actual book just because i would like to play all these missions
How is this single-handed solo with extra expansions? The core set only has two quests that feel soloable. I'm interested in investing more into the game, but I'm not sure I'll get my value from it unless it is.
Josh Bodah I don't really play solo, so I don't feel I can give a very educated answer to this, but this game is intended to be played solo, and from listening to podcasts and following blogs, I get the impression that overwhelmingly, most quests work well solo as well.
I'm struggling to find the shadows of mirkwood cycle in the UK dose anyone know where I can get them at a reasonable price
Chipper i have the mirkwood set
Chipper if you can't find them, FFG probably hasn't reprinted them for a while. Be patient, and keep checking FFG's site for updates on reprints.
Is there a benefit to picking up a second core set, as with Netrunner?
Arbie8327 I personally haven't, but there are some cards that would be excellent to have multiple copies of - Unexpected Courage and A Test of Will come to mind! I think you can certainly justify it.
Depends on how much extra money you got. But I would recommend another core set. It helps for sure if want to do 3 or four players and there is some cards that only come with one copy that are really good so having 2 of is very nice.
what can i do to convince my LGS to hold organized play tournaments?