The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a truly excellent cooperative card game. This is a game in which the mechanics perfectly reinforce the game's theme to genuinely recreate the experience of being a party of heroes struggling to complete a quest. The game is scenario-based, with lots of "Encounter Cards" per scenario, and when combined with customizable player decks, this element makes for lots of replayability. The various components and tokens that come with the cards in the box are very nice-looking, and the graphic design-work put into this package is of very high quality. The artwork on the cards is stunningly beautiful -- so much so that I would recommend buying this game to any devoted Tolkien fan solely for the artwork on the cards. Thankfully, the characters depicted on the cards do not look exactly like the characters from the movies (sometimes, not even close), and it is highly refreshing to finally see a new vision of Tolkien's creations. Furthermore, the adventures and quests which the heroes must complete do not originate from Tolkien's brain, although the locales and creatures do, so those of us who are a bit weary of walking to Mordor to dunk a ring in a volcano now have a few more perilous items added to our to-do lists.
Like many cooperative games, this one can be played with a single player (that's you!). And both solitaire and multiplayer are fun and rewarding experiences -- a two-player game being the most fun for me personally because it is relatively easy to find synergies between the two player decks (a simple example of this would involve one player fielding a Tactics deck with lots of attacking power, while the other player uses Spirit cards to keep the players' threat level low and make progress on the quests). Because of the tension created by the game and the threats coming out of the Encounter Deck, both players will often have to find ways to come to each other's aid, so it never feels like you are just looking out for yourself in a multiplayer game. The game scales fairly well, but playing solitaire is always tricky because you usually do not have enough space in your deck for cards that can effectively counter every individual threat generated by the Encounter Deck. Some of the scenarios, such as "Escape from Dol Guldur," the third and most difficult quest in the core set, were obviously not meant for solo play.
In fact the three scenarios, or quests, included in the core set are all fairly challenging for newer players, but with practice and as one learns the Encounter Deck, they are all very winnable. However, it will soon become apparent that building an effective player deck to counter each Encounter Set will be necessary to winning games, and the experience of crafting your own strategic approach and exploiting card combinations, and then testing your homemade decks against the various scenarios is highly rewarding in itself. There are some player cards in this set that seem a bit overpowered, and utilizing these to their fullest can almost feel like cheating, but it is very possible that as more scenarios appear -- via Adventure Packs -- the designers will find ways to puzzle and frustrate our heroes once again.
One aspect of this game that stirs up quite a bit of debate would be the rules. The game rules contained inside of the ~30-page rule book can be a bit intimidating to new players, especially non-gamers. Each game round has seven phases, and the game as a whole is fairly elegant and nuanced, but as a particular game progresses, players will find each game round goes quicker and becomes fairly streamlined. Further, because it is a cooperative game it is not too difficult to teach because newer players do not have to be familiar with all of its intricacies. And be warned, there are a lot of them. You'll often find yourself wondering if a certain action is legal, or what the effect of an Encounter Card does in a specific situation. Usually, it is best to interpret the text on the cards as literally as possible, but if that does no good, there are plenty of card references and FAQ's available online. But even with these resources, you will still occasionally find yourself in situations in which you just don't know what the correct resolution would be.
This is not necessarily a weakness of the game. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is so flavorful and fun that home-brewed rules interpretations do not get in the way of a highly enjoyable game experience, and neither do scenarios that are sometimes either too easy or too difficult to win.
I gave this game a five-star rating, but that does not mean that as a product, this box set does not have some weaknesses, and they are pretty dissappointing at that. For one, as many others have pointed out, there is no convenient way to store the cards in the box. Another huge downer is that the core set does not come with three of each player card (a tournament-legal deck can have as many as three of any one card, and some of these cards you really want to have three of), although that does not mean that there are not enough cards to build a decent deck with. At present, the only way to rectify this situation is to purchase three core sets. Thankfully, Fantasy Flight fixed this problem in all of the expansions released so far: each of them come with three copies of the included player cards. Another downside is the fact that the cards themselves will wear out pretty quickly if you play frequently, so make sure to buy some sleeves and sleeve your beautiful new cards right away. And one last nitpick would be that some of the artwork is recycled in the expansion packs. So far I have only caught two cards that share the same artwork, and hopefully this will not continue to occur as more packs are released.
Downsides aside, The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a fun, refreshing, challenging, and beautiful game, and its excellence is the only reason why such small flaws are so disappointing. But all in all, this game is high quality and highly recommended. I know I will be playing it for a long time to come, and I really can't wait for those Adventure Packs I ordered last week to get here.
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| Lord Of The Rings The Card Game Revised Core Set | Lord of the Rings The Card Game: Khazad-Dum Campaign | Lord of the Rings The Card Game: Over Hill and Under Hill Saga Expansion | Lord of the Rings The Card Game: Conflict at the Carrock Adventure Pack | Lord of the Rings The Card Game: The Redhorn Gate Adventure Pack | Lord of the Rings The Card Game: The Fortress of Nurn Adventure Pack | |
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| Price | $55.99 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Type of Game | Living Card Game | Living Card Game | Living Card Game | Living Card Game | Living Card Game | Living Card Game |
| Number of Players | 1 to 4 Players | 1 to 4 Players | 1 to 4 Players | 1 to 4 Players | 1 to 4 Players | 1 to 4 Players |
| Average Playtime | 30 Minutes Per Player | 30-90 Minutes | 30-90 Minutes | 30-90 Minutes | 30-90 Minutes | 30-90 Minutes |
| Recommended Player Age | Age 14+ | Age 14+ | Age 14+ | Age 14+ | Age 14+ | Age 14+ |
| Number of Cards | 313 | 165 | 165 | 60 | 60 | 60 |
| Objective | This epic card game puts players in control of some of the greatest heroes and artifacts of Middle-earth. Select heroes, gather allies, acquire artifacts and coordinate your efforts to face Middle-earth’s most dangerous fiends. | The heroes of Middle-earth must search for signs of Balin and his fledgling Dwarven colony. | Three new scenarios can be played one at a time or they can be linked to form a campaign that allows players to relive Bilbo's dramatic story arc! | This adventure pack focuses on the lumbering Trolls terrorizing the Beornings, and while facing them in combat is fearful enough, Sacked! cards will endanger your heroes at every turn. | Escort Arwen to Rivendell through bone-chilling snowstorms and hordes of enemies, into the twists and turns of the entire Dwarrowdelf cycle. | As the Vengeance of Mordor cycle rises to its ultimate confrontation with The Fortress of Nurn, you’ll lay siege to a castle in this expansion’s brand-new scenario. |
| Cooperative Game | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Strategy Game | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Expansion(s) Available | ✓ | is an expansion | is an expansion | is an expansion | is an expansion | is an expansion |
| Type of Expansion | Revised Core Set | Campaign Expansion | Saga Expansion | Adventure Pack | Adventure Pack | Adventure Pack |
Reviews with images
Good deal
Arrived in great condition. Game itself is well made and card art is beautiful.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2012
Size: 1. Starter SetProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2016
Size: 1. Starter SetProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Udhayakumar
OVERLY PRICED
Reviewed in India on March 27, 2021Size: 1. Starter SetProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Jamie Lyn Otto
Wonderful game in wonderful condition
Reviewed in Canada on January 2, 2020Size: 1. Starter SetProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
KyoskVII
Excelente compra y producto
Reviewed in Mexico on November 13, 2018Size: 1. Starter SetProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Diana
Good quality
Reviewed in Germany on September 29, 2019Size: 1. Starter SetProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Ánxelo Gonzalves Vicente
Juego divertido y variado, tal como viene
Reviewed in Spain on January 11, 2018Size: 1. Starter SetProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
