Iron Past
07-01-2011, 09:45 PM
I look for board/card games I can play solo, and recently came across a couple recent ones I wanted to bring up. Here I'll mention The Lord of the Rings LCG (living card game).
It's similar to other Fantasy Flight card LCGs in that you can build a deck with the core set and upcoming expansions, but these decks are based around "spheres of influece." You play with 1-3 heroes, each of which correspond to to one of four spheres. Heroes start out the game in play, and you get resources for each one you have at the start of each turn. Other cards in the deck belong to the spheres (or are nuetral on occasion) and in order to pay for those, you must spend resources accumulated on a hero of that sphere, which informs how you build the deck that will contain events, allies and attatchments. If all your heroes eat it, you're out.
http://i52.tinypic.com/2hfrthl.png
You play through a scenario a card at a time--three are in the core set--and use specially constructed event decks that contain cards adhering to the theme of the scenario. The quest cards are locations that may have special effects and must be filled with quest trackers before moving past them. Enemies are drawn from the deck into a staging area, and are pulled in based on your threat level; combat almost plays like a single-player Magic variant.
To keep things moving along, you're given a "threat tracker" that will slowly fill up; hit 50 and you lose. Depending on the heroes you use, you start at a different value at the start of each game (hence why you might not want 3 heroes, or all very powerfull heroes) and gain at least one threat point every round. I find there to be just enough randomness to keep things fun and not just a math problem, and if you play the game in the mindset of constructing a story, it's really cool.
Since this is only a couple months old, there are no expansion packs yet, but the first one releases at the end of the month and has another scenario along with addition deck cards. My only real gripe is that Fantasy Flight is using thin cards now, which while still quality, come out of the box all rounded. I'm hoping they flatten as they air out.
Here's a video review I found if you like:
PYpAn4qZHB0
Note: This is based on the novel, not the films.
It's similar to other Fantasy Flight card LCGs in that you can build a deck with the core set and upcoming expansions, but these decks are based around "spheres of influece." You play with 1-3 heroes, each of which correspond to to one of four spheres. Heroes start out the game in play, and you get resources for each one you have at the start of each turn. Other cards in the deck belong to the spheres (or are nuetral on occasion) and in order to pay for those, you must spend resources accumulated on a hero of that sphere, which informs how you build the deck that will contain events, allies and attatchments. If all your heroes eat it, you're out.
http://i52.tinypic.com/2hfrthl.png
You play through a scenario a card at a time--three are in the core set--and use specially constructed event decks that contain cards adhering to the theme of the scenario. The quest cards are locations that may have special effects and must be filled with quest trackers before moving past them. Enemies are drawn from the deck into a staging area, and are pulled in based on your threat level; combat almost plays like a single-player Magic variant.
To keep things moving along, you're given a "threat tracker" that will slowly fill up; hit 50 and you lose. Depending on the heroes you use, you start at a different value at the start of each game (hence why you might not want 3 heroes, or all very powerfull heroes) and gain at least one threat point every round. I find there to be just enough randomness to keep things fun and not just a math problem, and if you play the game in the mindset of constructing a story, it's really cool.
Since this is only a couple months old, there are no expansion packs yet, but the first one releases at the end of the month and has another scenario along with addition deck cards. My only real gripe is that Fantasy Flight is using thin cards now, which while still quality, come out of the box all rounded. I'm hoping they flatten as they air out.
Here's a video review I found if you like:
PYpAn4qZHB0
Note: This is based on the novel, not the films.