The Lord of the Rings Strategy Board Game - Cooperative Adventure for 1-5 Players, Ages 14+, 60+ Minute Playtime by Fantasy Flight Games

My wife and I are on the 5th scenario and are thoroughly enjoying the game.

My wife and I absolutely love this game. I bought it for her birthday and we've probably played more than a hundred hours at this point. Do note that this base pack only comes with one campaign (though it is a long one!). There are more campaigns available that you can buy, but most of them require buying more physical expansion sets as well. That said, the map layouts and many of the encounters on each scenario are randomized, giving the campaign a lot of replayability.We initially played with each of us just controlling one character. One thing that was a little frustrating was with only two characters we were very limited in how many actions we could perform per turn, so we couldn't do most of the optional encounters (and get their lore points). As a result we couldn't even upgrade all our gear by the end of the campaign. On our next playthrough we decided to play two characters each, and it feels much better in terms of progression, even though the scenarios themselves are far more challenging. But I would recommend learning with just one character until you're very comfortable with the mechanics, otherwise two at a time would be overwhelming.I would definitely recommend getting some sleeves for the cards, since with all the shuffling you do, ours have already started to degrade.

Algo complicado

Overall, Lord of the Rings (LOTR): Journeys in Middle Earth is a must own for LOTR fans. I have always wanted to get into a table top role playing game (RPG) for years (>10 years), but I could never convince my wife until LOTR Journeys in Middle Earth. Both of us love the franchise so that probably helped convince her to try it out.First off, this app driven game is the game master so it doesn't require you to come up with a story or keep track of how much health enemies have; all of it is stored in the easy to use app (downloaded via Steam, Apple store, or Google store). The app tells you which map tiles to put down and where (including initial placement of enemies, various tokens, etc), and you simply place all of the physical pieces on your table to match the app. It is all interactive through your tablet or mouse (if you're using a computer) to select what you want to do. The app even saves your progress so if you can't finish a mission or adventure because it is getting late, you can save the game and come back to it (you'll just have to keep track of where your enemies are on the board). The app experience is so well done and it really facilitates the table top experience; however, I wish there was an "undo" function if you made a mistake after confirming an action.The quality of the heroes/enemies, tiles, and cards are great. Also, there are separate character packs that you can buy as well (I own both of them).The base campaign is made up of multiple adventures, and the game will tell you whether or not failing that particular adventure will cause you to fail the campaign. If you fail a mission that requires you to pass, you can just reset the adventure for that particular mission and replay it (didn't figure that out until 2nd playthrough).You can easily play some adventures (adventures make up the campaign) for 2-3 of hours whereas some are quicker than others. It really depends on how much you strategize.This is a role playing game, so you do upgrade your character/class and items throughout the campaign. Once again, the app stores all of this information for you and it is very easy to use.The large booklet of instructions is easy to follow, but we did run into some instances that required us to search online for a solution to our dilemma.I own both physical expansions and recently finished the Shadowed Paths expansion. I haven't played the Spreading War expansion yet, but I'd recommend getting Shadowed Paths for sure. I haven't purchased the digital expansions yet, but you can get them on Steam, apple store, or Google store. I will eventually purchase the digital expansions.I would have liked to have seen more story lines included in the base game (maybe they could have included the digital expansions with the base game).We absolutely love this game and hope more content will be developed for this game! Great family memories!***We play a lot of different board games such as Betrayal at House on the Hill, Plunder: a pirates life, Castle Panic (with all expansions), Mansions of Madness (with expansions), Pandemic (with expansions), Ticket to Ride Europe, and many others.****

Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth is the latest board game/app game hybrid from Fantasy Flight Games. In order to play the board game, players must download the free app from Fantasy Flight Games. The game itself plays a lot like Fantasy Flight's Cthulhu games, particularly Mansions of Madness but with some important differences. The box is massive, and contains mountains of tiles, tokens, cards, and minis. Players choose which characters to play as, such as Aragorn, Bilbo, Gimli, Legolas, and others. Each character has a card sheet with states, such as how much physical damage and fear that character can stand. It also states the characters stats for different skills. Players prepare their individual skill decks by taking a number of cards for the character, a number of cards for their role (captain, burglar, etc..), a number of basic cards, and a number of Weakness cards (cards that just take up space in your hand). The app directs the players to place starting tiles, either for an exploration mission or a combat mission. During the players phase they can take actions with their characters such as moving, attacking, or interacting with features on the app/game board. Then there is the shadow phase, where new monsters spawn, move and attack. Additional unhappy things can happen during the shadow phase as well. Finally, during the rally phase, players can manipulate their decks. Throughout the game, players must engage in skill checks. This is where their stats come in. In Mansions of Madness and other Cthulhu games players roll the number of dice on their stats. Here, players draw cards from their deck in the hopes that one or more of the cards will have successes that will allow them to pass the test. Each game is a chapter in a longer campaign, and players win individual games if they complete the requirements of the chapter.Lord of the Rings: Journeys in middle Earth is a fun and engaging game that really blends the digital storytelling with the cardboard experience quite well. The various monster minis are really cool, and there is undoubtedly a huge toy box factor in this game. As stated above, the game really draws heavily from Mansions of Madness, which was the first Fantasy Flight Games' game to use an app in this way. It really is a great story-telling devise. The card skill deck is an interesting twist, and one feels almost as though they added this instead of dice just to be a little different and not copy the Mansions of Madness experience too much. (It kind of reminds me of the token dropping system from Runebound, 3rd Edition.) Personally, I prefer the dice system, but I do appreciate the what the skill deck brings to the game. I do have somme complaints, however. The game only comes with one campaign. This is an issue for a few reasons. Somewhere down the line Fantasy Flight Games will undoubtedly produce expansions. Regardless of whether the new campaigns are free or not, it will still cost more money to access them. Also, and this is the biggie, there is no stand along scenario mode. I'm not in the mood for a campaign all the time, especially when I want to introduce this game to new people. Some stand alone scenarios would have really been appropriate. Perhaps in the coming the months they will produce them, and hopefully at some will be free of charge. Some may ask if you need this game if you already have Mansions of Madness, or if you're thinking of buying them both. The answer is, I believe, not really. They are very similar in a lot of ways, and I guess it is a matter of which IP you prefer. Personally, I prefer Mansions of Madness because I love the Lovecraftian theme. All told, however, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth is a fun board game experience that is sure to delight fans of the books and movies, and there's a good game there regardless of the IP.The Discriminating Gamer