At times like these it can be tempting for a bear to hole up in his cave and hibernate. While waiting for my turn to receive the vaccine, I’ve had to find alternative venues in which to enjoy board and card games with friends. A weekly face-to-face meetup at the local game store is replaced with technology like Discord and Steam. While digital gaming is certainly better than nothing, I miss seeing my friends in person and playing with physical cards and game components.
Software ports of games have steadily improved in quality over the years, and Covid will undoubtedly accelerate this trend. The tactile feel of shuffling a deck or moving game pieces on a board is a big part of the appeal for those who use gaming as a vital outlet of socialization. As someone who spends hours a day working with, fighting against, and muttering cajoling intonations at technology, I find a break from the virtual world most welcome.
One the bright side, this new virtual game group has introduced me to some classic games which I had never had the chance to play. Games like Lords of Waterdeep and Through the Ages have become a staple of my gaming life in the last year – games which I had never played before the quarantine. Lords of Waterdeep in particular is a welcome new discovery. Like Lord of the Rings LCG, it fits squarely in the intersection between theme and mechanics. Waterdeep includes a mix of public and hidden information, luck and skill, and deep Euro-style worker placement strategy, wrapped in a classic Dungeons and Dragons theme. If we’re being honest, Dungeons and Dragons as a settings often feels like middle school student stole their friend’s book report on The Lord of the Rings, but the milquetoast fantasy setting works well in this case.
Aside from these design similarities, Lords of Waterdeep and The Lord of the Rings share another interesting feature. The first time I played each of these games, I lost horribly. In the case of Lords of Waterdeep, I lost my first three games against my friends by a considerable margin. Like the perfect wine, each loss was paired with invaluable lessons. I learned not only the rules of the game in the visceral sense as opposed to the abstract sense you get from simply reading the rules.
Losing at a game teaches you the underlying economies, themes and strategies. These are largely abstract concepts, and they often involve personal aesthetic or play style. Any good game is going to afford multiple viable paths to victory. Unless a game is shallow, it will often be necessary to lose – or at least win poorly – before these deeper lessons are learned. I took these lessons to heart and won my most recent game of Lords of Waterdeep, so this story has a happy ending. The important thing is not to let early defeat discourage you, but instead to use it as an opportunity to learn.
As much as the beautiful art, deep mechanics, and rich theme drew me to The Lords of the Rings there was another compelling feature. This game can be punishing in difficulty. I have lost more games of The Lord of the Rings than all of the other games I’ve ever played played. While that’s certainly not the kind of testimonial you will see on the back of a game box, it says something about what draws players to a game, and keeps them playing it years later. Players want to earn their victory, not feel like it was a foregone conclusion.
If not for the difficulty of this game, it is unlikely I would be writing this article right now. The satisfaction of defeating a difficult scenario, especially after countless defeats, is intoxicating. Outside of rants on various forums and the occasional mention in a podcast, the difficulty of this game is often left unspoken or at least remains a quiet bystander to most meta-game conversations. While this difficulty may cause frustration, particularly for new players, many of us would never have stuck with this game if we defeated every quest on the first attempt.
Losing repeatedly against a difficult scenario is even a merit badge, of sorts. All new players must earn it if they are to survive long enough to become experienced players. The best quests are like puzzles. Until you have discovered the right kind of deck to bring and the right strategy to utilize during the game, they can seem nigh impossible. Once you have solved the riddle there is a sense of grim satisfaction. Without exception, my favorite games have been a final victory against a quest which had previously left me flummoxed.
With that in mind, I aim to outline some of the essential criteria to use when evaluating a loss. Think of these as a toolbox which you can use, to disassembled and deconstruct your losses (or even possibly some victories) and ultimately improve your game. It is here worth pointing out that Lord of the Rings really consists of two smaller games: building a deck, and playing a deck.
Some players prefer to use decks built by others, and focus on the second mini-game. Others, like myself, love to process of brainstorming decks, even ones they might not ever play. This is especially true when devising combo decks. The building of the deck is almost always significantly more enjoyable than playing the deck. These concepts will span both deck-building and in-game strategy, but have no fear if you have a preferred area of focus. For those who don’t build their own decks, knowing which cards to include from the sideboard can still be a critical skill. Likewise, if you are less enamored with in-game strategy, you can mitigate this by bringing the right kind of power deck. A powerful deck will often be more forgiving to player mistakes. This is appropriate as the most powerful characters in Middle-earth represent the Free Peoples’ best chance at defeating Sauron.
Bad Luck
Let’s address the Mûmak in the room. No discussion of strategy can ignore that the game involves a certain amount of luck. The other sections will address various strategies for mitigating bad luck, but there is only so much you can do. Many scenarios are at the most dangerous in the first two or three rounds. Sometimes, even after a mulligan, none of your critical cards are in your opening hand. If you don’t find any of these cards within the critical early turns, you’re likely in trouble.
Luck applies just as much to the encounter deck as to player decks. If you’re playing A Journey to Rhosgobel in a two player game, the first quest phase could end your hopes of saving Wilyador instantly. Unless you have A Test of Will in hand, or one of the players is using Eleanor, you’re in for a rough day in southern Mirkwood when Exhaustion turns into Festering Wounds. Sometimes, the best thing to do is laugh in the face of fate, and scoop your cards. The more cards revealed from the encounter deck, the more likely that the encounter deck can reveal combinations like this. This is why multiplayer games often involve wider swings of good and bad luck. We’ll look at different strategies for mitigating bad luck, but sometimes victory is just not in the cards.
Mulligan and Setup
Players are given the option of a single mulligan and the decision of whether or not to take it can be difficult. Your entire hand must be shuffled back into the deck, so hands with one or two desired cards can lead to the agonizing decision: Do you give up a few cards you want for the hope of an even better hand? Some losses can be traced back to this decision. Knowing your deck and the specific demands of a scenario is critical to deciding when to mulligan.
One of the most important factors in deciding to mulligan is whether or not your deck relies heavily on single card. An obvious example would be an Elrond + Vilya deck. Barring statistically unlikely extremes, any opening hand that includes Vilya is a hand which should be kept. Likewise, a deck built around any single powerful attachment (Steward of Gondor, Narya, Gandalf’s Staff, etc.) is happy to see that card – even if the rest of the opening hand is underwhelming.
For more general purpose decks choosing when to mulligan is less clear. What you want in your hand is often determined by the scenario. This is where understanding the particular challenges of a quest and your own deck’s strengths and weaknesses is critical. If a quest threatens to overwhelm you with locations, looking for location control or high willpower allies in your opening hand is the way to go. Similarly, an early engaged enemy might necessitate a first turn weapon or armor, or combat trick like Feint. Knowing what your deck needs for early survival is a skill worth cultivating.
Some heroes help, directly or indirectly, with the mulligan process. Galdor from the Havens actually replaces the basic mulligan with a modified effect which not only lets you keep some of the cards from your first hand but also lets you seed your discard pile with critical events like Elven-light and Lords of the Eldar. It’s also fun to throw a copy of Glorfindel ally into the discard pile as it gives you another card and you always just play him later, as though he were in your hand.
Another hero who helps mitigate a poor opening hand is Thurindir. Gather Information is one of the most powerful player side quests and the search effect is perfect for any deck that builds an engine around a few cards. Even more general purpose decks can use Gather Information to find whatever card best solves the challenge at hand. Some scenarios will punish a side quest strategy. For example, they may require you to place progress on the main quest to avoid negative effects. On the other hand, side quests are actually helpful against some scenarios, where turtling is a viable strategy.
Gather Information is not the only choice with Thurindir. The Threat reduction from Double Back can provide players an extra few rounds to get setup, before enemy engagement looms. The encounter deck control from Scouting Ahead can be used as a shield against bad early luck. This side quest is particularly strong in solo where you can potentially control multiple rounds worth of revealed encounter cards to your benefit.
The One Ring only just became available as a player card, but it must be included in any discussion of mulligan and setup. It is not included in your deck proper, so choosing The One Ring effectively means that you have a 49 card deck. More importantly, it allows you to fetch a single Master card into your opening hand. This effect is most often used with one of the Master attachments, but as we will discuss in the next section it can also be used with an event. In fact, the one viable strategy is to include multiple Master cards in your deck and choose the one which best suits the current scenario.
Starting Threat
Your chosen mix of heroes is probably the most important deck building decision you make. Beyond the stats and abilities your heroes provide, they also set your starting threat. When we talk about a deck archetype, the starting threat plays an oversized role in how a deck is played. A Hobbit deck with 19 starting threat certainly implies Secrecy, though there are powerful low threat Hobbit decks which eschew these cards. On a deeper level, you know that early game enemy engagement is something that such a deck is likely trying to avoid.
On the other end of the spectrum, a deck with a starting threat in the high 30s is clearly designed to be aggressive. If your starting threat is 36, most enemies are coming straight for you – whether you like it or not. Most players’ first experience with the importance of starting threat is the Hill Troll in Journey Along the Anduin. Many a player learned the hard way that bringing an aggressive deck to that quest can quickly end in a bloodbath of trampled heroes.
When I was writing Beorn’s Path, I was tempted to change up the hero lineup for Journey, and lean in to a turtling strategy. This is clearly the optimal strategy for beating the quest, especially with a deck built using only the Core Set. Seastan and Xanalor both have excellent tri-sphere decks with low starting threat which can consistently handle Journey Along the Anduin without much trouble. It was actually intentional that I stuck with the same hero lineup, but it is worth mentioning here.
Card combinations were something I wanted to highlight, and they are a great example of one way to mitigate a high starting threat. Son of Arnor and Forest Snare can feel like a bit of a one trick pony, but there are other ways to buy time for a deck with higher starting threat. As always, Core Set Gandalf is a solution to most problems. Whether you cheat him into play with Sneak Attack or pay the full cost thanks to an early Steward of Gondor, the 5 threat reduction fro Gandalf can be all that you need to setup your troll defense. A spirit heavy deck will likely have lower starting threat, but it also gains access to threat reduction like The Galadhrim’s Greeting and Double Back.
With a modern card pool, a simple solution to the enemies like the troll can be a dedicated defender. Beregond with a Shield of Gondor can easily just defend the troll every round, while you rally your attackers. There are two trolls in Journey, so you don’t want to spend too much time mustering combat strength, but having a powerful defender certainly makes life easier. With readying, your defending could even potentially handle multiple powerful enemies. Attack cancelation like Feint, Coney in a Trap, and Grimbold can help buy some time as well.
Having a low starting threat is probably the easiest way to avoid troublesome enemies, but the modern card pool means that this is not the only viable strategy. An example of a fun modern troll solution is to bring a mono-Lore deck and use card draw to find a first turn The Great Hunt. This card is difficult to play because of the resource constraints but it is incredibly powerful as a way to completely nullify a powerful enemy which starts in play. It won’t work on immune enemies, but those are best handled with a dedicated defender in any case.
If all else fails, chump blocking is another way to handle an early enemy, but this strategy should be used with caution. Many scenarios will punish you when characters are defeated. Even when they do not, there is the simple problem of keeping up with the encounter deck. Each round, it can bring more enemies into play. If you keep chump blocking with your allies, you are going to need excellent card draw and resource acceleration in order to stand a chance of keeping pace.
Treachery Cancelation
In the section on Bad Luck, we discussed horrible treachery chains. These are the cause of many a lost game. Fortunately, the game now includes multiple forms of treachery cancelation to help guard from these sorts of calamaties. The One Ring has a hefty cost, lowering our threat elimination by 5. However, it allows you to add a Master card to your hand at startup. This means that you can start the game with cancelation in hand, every game. The Master Ring does not cost resources, which is important in the early game when resources are at a premium. Having to choose between spending spirit resources on an Unexpected Courage and saving for treacheries is one of the classic decisions which every Spirit deck faces.
Eleanor provides repeatable cancelation, though she can only cancel treacheries. Unfortunately she is decidedly underwhelming as a hero, aside from her ability. The opportunity cost of including Eleanor, especially in a solo game, may be too steep. On the other hand, Eleanor can be an invaluable inclusion in multiplayer and the deficit of stats is easier to amortize when there are more heroes in play.
A Test of Will is the gold standard of treachery cancelation effects, and for good reason. It works against all When Revealed effects and costs only 1 resource. For any quest with troublesome treacheries this card is basically an auto-include, as long your deck includes at least one Spirit hero. It can be tempting to see these options and immediately make a deck with Eleanor, The One Ring, and three copies each of A Test of Will and The Master Ring. While this will certainly be the foundation of a powerful control deck, we have to remember to include tools which actually allow us to defeat quests. Progress tokens and damage tokens don’t place themselves, and we need characters with willpower and combat stats if we want a chance at victory. By itself, cancelation only holds back the encounter deck for a round, it does not further our goals. The best decks include a mix of proactive and reactive effects.
Early Game Willpower
If you find you are consistently losing games with an overwhelming level of threat in the staging area, your deck may need more willpower. Alternatively, you might consider giving a greater priority to questing allies and willpower boosting effects in your opening hand. One way or the other, location and progress will always be required to defeat a quest. It’s not enough to kill all of the enemies – you’ve got to meet the non-combat requirements as well.
This is an area of the game where Tactics has traditionally struggled. On average, Tactics heroes have the lowest willpower of any sphere. Likewise, the allies available in the sphere are not much better. Only a few Tactics allies have two willpower, and they tend to be more expensive or have abilities which make them less suited to questing. Still, things have improved considerably thanks to Tactics Éowyn. It is now possible to field even field a mono-Tactics deck which can hold its own at questing.
The other spheres have plenty of options, when it comes to early-game willpower. Over time, most decks should be building their total willpower, either by mustering allies or playing attachments like Sword that was Broken and Visionary Leadership. With Three Hunters decks, every restricted attachment ultimately yields a willpower boost, but cards like Silver Circlet and Celebrían’s Stone are of particular import to ramping up early willpower.
Burst willpower is worth considering, especially for decks which take a few rounds to build up. The “burst” refers to cards which provide a temporary boost which does not necessarily stick around. Escort from Edoras is a perfect example of this. For two Spirit resources he quests for 4 willpower, then he is discarded. He can be brought back using cards like Gamling, Guthwine, or Stand and Fight, but you will not necessarily have these cards ready at hand in the early game. Even if you are just using him for a one round boost, that one round might be all that you need. As your resource acceleration and card draw effects become available you can find other, more consistent, forms of questing.
One last note about questing, if you find yourself getting pincushion to death by archery, your immediate instinct may be to add 3 copies of Warden of Healing to your deck and call it a day. While this can be a viable way to solve encounter for direct damage, it is risky as there is only so much healing you can include before you start to dilute your deck. Instead, consider including more willpower (or attack/defense for Battle or Siege quests). The reasoning here is that you only have to face archery and direct damage for each round that you play. If you can shorten the game by taking an aggressive questing approach, you lessen the amount of damage you will take from treachery. You also decrease the likelihood of deadly encounter deck combinations. This is the strategy that I used successfully against Nightmare Into Ithilien, among many quests.
Early Game Combat
Journey Along the Anduin posed a future threat, with the Hill Troll waiting in the staging area. Some quests are even more direct, with players starting engaged with an enemy. Scenarios like Intruders in Chetwood instead punish players for leaving enemies in the staging area, making it vital for your deck to be able to handle combat quickly or risk precipitous consequences. Whatever the specific reason, a lack of early game combat ability can often spell doom for a deck.
To the surprise of none, it turns out that bears are excellent at combat. Beorn is one of the best solutions to early game combat available, especially in quests which swarm you with multiple pesky enemies. He defends multiple attacks, his hit point pool makes him much more likely to survive an early onslaught of enemies that most heroes. Best of all, his 5 attack is often enough to kill many enemies by himself, without the help of weapons or other combat boosts.
Tactics offers several other excellent choices for shoring up your early game combat. Boromir has built in action advantage, so long as you can mitigate the threat cost. Na’asiyah is a formidable warrior, so long as your have resource acceleration on hand to pay for her ability. Tactics isn’t the only sphere with character to help with early combat.
Leadership has excellent defenders like Erkenbrand, Amarthiul and the original version of Dain. For attack you have Aragorn, Prince Imrahil, and Éomer, to name a few. This is not to say that your combat needs necessarily must be solved in the leadership sphere. A common pattern is to include a hero like Denethor, Gildor Inglorion, or Théodred, and use them as support for heroes from other spheres. With resource acceleration, readying, stat boosts, and shadow cancelation, Leadership is an excellent sphere to support in combat, without having to specialize in that aspect of the game.
Spirit and Lore have evolved over the life of the game. They used to relegated to support spheres, simply because they lacked many heroes who excelled in combat. That is no longer the case. Lore has excellent attackers like Haldir, Haldan, and Lore Aragorn. It also has stout defenders like Elrond and Radagast, made all the more durable by A Burning Brand and defensive attachments like Protector of Lórien.
Spirit, likewise has added some impressive combatants over the life of the game. Glorfindel, Idraen, Lanwyn, and Legolas all fill the role role of attacker admirably, with Lanwyn and Legolas even bringing ranged to a sphere which used to lack that keyword. For defense Spirit Dain is probably the best early game defender available. No matter how bad your hand seems after the mulligan, it is nice to have a hero who can defend for 6 on the first turn.
There are many reasons why a game can be lost, not all of them are under our control. As mentioned at the top, sometimes it just comes down to bad luck. This is why persistence and patience are are key skills when playing The Lord of the Rings LCG. Even the most unlucky games offer some small nugget of useful information. If not, you can always just shuffle up and try again. Other defeats have a much more obvious cause, and these are the games to which we should especially pay heed.
Should we have take a mulligan, even though our opening hand had two good cards? Is our deck lacking in early game willpower? Do we need to bring a bit more threat control, or maybe even swap out a powerful hero for one who puts our starting threat below a critical threshold. Maybe just swapping out a “shoot for the moon” combo for three copies of A Test of Will is all it takes to turn ignominious defeat into glorious victory. These concepts and more, are there to teach us if we are open to learning from our losses.
