Single Player/Endurance Format

Let's start with a sad truth: There just aren't that many people playing Lord of the Rings TCG anymore! You're lucky to be able to find another person to play with period. Finding someone to play with on a regular basis (or often enough to feed your wildly growing addiction) is impossible.

At least that's how I felt.

So I decided to solve my problem by trying out some new ways to play Lord of the Rings TCG in a single player mode. Thus the birth of the Endurance Format.

As with the normal format, you represent the Fellowship and have a Ring-Bearer (any one of your choice) and one additional Companion (any one of your choice). You start at Site 1 (any one of your choice).

You have a draw deck that consists of 30 Fellowship cards (they must be unique/only one copy per deck, and may not contain any Companion cards).

You draw 4 cards to start.

Each turn, during the "Fellowship Phase" you may play 1 card from hand. In Endurance Format, you ignore all costs of cards.

When you move to the next site, you randomly choose a site from any site 2.

There is a Shadow Deck that consists of 60 minions (they must be unique/only one copy per deck).

You shuffle the deck and play the top 2 minions from that deck.

You then move to the maneuver phase, the archery phase, and then the skirmish phase as your would in Normal Format.

Ignore all Maneuver and Archery text on minions, but you still calculate the minion archery total and apply wounds to your fellowship.

If you have any Free People's Maneuver, Archery, or Skirmish events in hand you may play them at the appropriate time for free.

During the Assignment phase, if there are more minions than companions (which there quickly will be) you assign them however you choose.

When you have finished the Skirmish phase, if your Fellowship has survived, you move on to the Regroup phase as normal. You do not discard any minions (unless you have a Regroup event or action that allows you to do so).

You may then draw 2 cards, and proceed on to Site 3. There is no limit to the number of cards you can have in your hand, and there is still Initiative.

You then repeat the process, getting another Fellowship phase. Except this time, you play 3 minions. At Site 4, you play 4, and so on, until you have reached Site 9.

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This format is titled 'Endurance' as a nod to video games with an 'Endurance' format where they just send bad guys at you until you can't take it anymore.

It's certainly not the same as the Lord of the Rings TCG you know and love, but it's a fun variant, and opens up a different world of strategies and deck types. What dynamic duo of companions lasts the longest? What cards help you survive the longest? How tough do you want to make your 'Minion Deck'? Try it out, and leave a comment to let me know what you think!

Where to Buy

Happy Holidays Lord of the Rings fans!

I've been getting a lot of email lately asking 'Where can I get cards?'

As always, if you want a small set of cards to get you started on the game, just shoot me an email and I'd be happy to send you, free of charge, enough cards to play a few games (I only ask that you pay $5 for shipping).

If you're in the giving/buying spirit, I highly recommend Hill's Wholesale Gaming. In the Lord of the Rings (Decipher) section there are several options. For $50, you can get two orders of 36 packs of Fellowship of the Ring - the first, and best, set. For $36 you can get two booster boxes of Shadows and two of the Shadows Starter Decks (under the 'By the Pack' section). Either will provide you with enough cards to make lots of fun decks.

I hope you have a great holiday break. Here's a small gift to you if you haven't seen it yet: the trailer for the upcoming Hobbit movie!

The Art of the Bluff

Wow, it's been quite some time since I published an update. Life has gotten all the more busy as I have a second son now. Dominion is my game of choice these days, but I'm hopeful that with the upcoming Hobbit movies, Lord of the Rings TCG will see a resurgence and this blog will have a second life breathed into it. 

But in the meantime, this is a post I've been meaning to write for quite some time.

Imagine this situation: Your opponent has just moved to Site 7 from Sanctuary and is looking pretty good wound-wise. However, he only has 3 people left in his Fellowship. You've got 12 Shadow to play with, you're looking pretty good. The only problem is: You have NO minions in your hand.

Sound familiar?

It's one of the worst positions to be in. Your opponent can basically waltz to Site 8 unscathed, and tip-toe into Site 9 the next turn without a worry. Do you just scoop up and concede now?

Perhaps, or you could bluff it.

The art of bluffing is a delicate one, that requires both good timing, good poise, and a whole lot of acting.

The bluff essentially consists of you representing enough minions to give your opponent a 'good' fight, but acting as if you'd rather he move on to the next site to give you the sure over-whelming of his Ring-Bearer.

Some keys to bluffing include counting out the available Shadow in the pool into groups that represent the minions (the non-existent ones) in your hand.

For example, if you're playing Wraiths and your opponent gives you 12 Shadow, you might count out one group of six and two groups of two to represent a Nazgul and two Morgul Brutes. For extra finesse, make sure to look back between your hand and the Shadow pool repeatedly, as if you're trying to get the math correct.

If you want to really put on a show, you can take extra pool on the side, and act as if you're seeing how much Shadow you would have total when your opponent moves to the next site.

The bluff ends when you fold up your hand and say, "No Minions." Then you get to see if bluff worked. Chances are against you, but there is nothing more satisfying than when you know you've mastered this art and your opponent replies, "I reconcile."

Machine Gun Enquea

My! Time flies fast during the holidays, it's already been over a month since the last post.

While it would be nice to do something holiday themed, I thought it would be more fun to share one of the most brutal strategies to have ever hit the lands of Middle Earth: Machine Gun Enquea.

This was a combo that was only possible in the Open environment, but still shocking nonetheless.

Using Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul

and cards that add burdens, the most popular being Morgul Brute,

you get your opponent to 5 burdens. You then begin to exert Enquea to wound companions.

Now, you're saying to yourself, "you can only would three times before Enquea's exhausted, no big deal."

That's when you realize you can use the Ring of Rancor to heal Enquea, adding on the number of wounds you can deal for the cost of removing a burden.

And now you're saying to yourself, "well as soon as you remove the 5th burden, you can't use Enquea's text anymore!". That's where the fun of playing in Open comes in. Using Site Path manipulation, you place your opponent's Fellowship at the Slag Mounds

Now, each time you kill a companion, you add a burden back in. Placing your wounds strategically, you can exhaust multiple companions before unleashing the full fury of the machine gun, killing a companion, adding a burden, then removing the burden to heal Enquea, and repeating the process, until only the Ring Bearer is left to face your minions, not the least of which is the Fierce, Strength 11, healable one with the smoking machine gun.

Prance on!

It's been a while since I've posted! But in the interim, several new players have received welcome packages from me and I hope they enjoy their new cards. Please feel free to submit deck lists or commentary on the game, and I'll throw it up on the blog!

I thought I'd write about a simple card today that I've been thinking a lot about lately, since it encompasses so many of the things I like about Lord of the Rings: The Prancing Pony.

There are two really brilliant things about this card. The first is that it allows you to automatically pull Aragorn from your draw deck. I've always been a fan of eliminating chance as much as possible from your game. If you're dependent on Aragorn for a strategy for your deck, stocking four of him in your draw deck and hoping that you draw him is sometimes just not good enough. For the cost of a decent starting bid, and then another burden, you can ensure that this key part of your strategy is always available.

The second thing I like about the Pony is that it's available to both players. This is something great about the Site Path in the Lord of the Rings. Both players share the pros and cons of each site. While this may benefit a certain player more (i.e. one player didn't stock Aragorn in his/her deck), it keeps the playing field more level.

The next time you're creating a site deck, think about how you can craft your path to minimize the luck of the draw from your deck, and how the text benefits both you and your opponent!

Free Black Rider Packs!

The first two people to comment on this post get a Black Rider pack free!

Free Packs!

I wanted to change things up a bit and give my readers some incentive to check back on the blog early and often, so I'm starting a contest of sorts.

Some time this week, I will be post a new entry titled "Free Black Rider Packs". The first two people who respond to the post with the comment "First" (and "Second" after the first has posted) will get a free Black Rider pack from me! I'll even pay for the shipping.

In order for me to contact you to get your shipping address, you have to be a Follower of the blog, so use the Followers gadget on the left side of this page if you're not a member already. I'll be able to contact you directly using the gadget.

Hopefully this will be fun for all, and if it is I've got plenty more stuff to give away!