LotR: Card game

[Grish]

Hey guys,

I have moved cities a few years ago and one of the things my friends loved doing was playing board games. When we get together, we generally pull out a game, but it's more of learning the rules than actually deep gaming; you have to play a game enough to get a feel for it's subtleties.

So my friend tried this game, and I had a great time. It was challenging, and there isn't a requirement for players to be around equal skill to have a good game.

Has anyone else played this game, or know of any other games that are strategic, but can be played with people of varying skill levels? It seems a contradiction, but being co-op means you actually can strategize in this and overcome that problem.

 

[Zarovich]

I have been playing this game for some months now. Its a good, fun game and yes it is quite easily played with someone who has never played the game before as you are working together against the game instead of against each other.

Another game which you might want to look at, with a vampire theme to boot is the Castle Ravenloft game. It is also a cooperative game, with the players playing against the game itself. Here is a link to a positive review

http://noquarterbattles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/castle-ravenloft-board-game.html

 

[robtion]

Trust Strahd Von Zarovich to talk up a Ravenloft game Just kidding I am a Ravenloft fan from way back.

I used to play the old LOTR's card game which was called Middle Earth and was quite good. Not sure if you can get it now though (I still have a couple of decks though).

Magic the Gathering is also really good if you haven't tried it. It is complex with a lot of strategy but is quite easy to learn and you can balance it quite easily by giving beginners a stronger deck.

 

[Zarovich]

Trust Strahd Von Zarovich to talk up a Ravenloft game

I NEED to feed!! The more foolish adventurers I can get to wander into my parlour, the better!

But seriously, its a good game. Especially good to play if you're a VC person, because then, you can just replace the Strahd miniature in the game with your own favourite Vampire mini...

 

[Grish]

@Rob: MtG is a good game, but specifically I am looking at a game I can play with someone that has never played and still have a good time. You can't do that with MtG; I cannot build a great deck, hand over a bunch of cards to a newcomer, and have them play well enough to have a fun time.

 

[robtion]

@Grish: True. It's worth the effort to teach them though as it's a great game and usually only takes a game or two for people to get the gist of it a develop a reasonable level of skill. I take your point though.

A couple of older board games which are fun are Heroquest and Space crusade. I have heard that Age of Conan is a good strategic board game that is easy to get the hang of but haven't played it myself?

 

[Zarovich]

I have heard that Age of Conan is a good strategic board game that is easy to get the hang of but haven't played it myself?

Age of Conan is a brilliant game. It got a bad reception because many people were expecting to be able to play as Conan, and were unhappy when they realised that they had to play instead as the ruler of one of the four major powers in the game (Stygia, Turan etc.).

But as a strategy game it is excellent.

Its also suitable for playing with new people because there is quite a good amount of luck involved. Here is a review of this game that I did some time back

http://noquarterbattles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/age-of-conan-board-game.html

 

[Zarovich]

I also came up with a Ravenloft expansion for Age of Conan, just for the heck of including a vampire and a werewolf experience for Conan in the game

http://noquarterbattles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/ravenloft-expansion-for-age-of-conan.html

 

[robtion]

@Zarovich: Nice review, my wife always beats me at things too I may have to check out Age of Conan then as I am a fan of Hyboria in general and love the original Robert E. Howard short stories. That Ravenloft expansion looks very in depth I will give it a try if I get Age of Conan.

 

[Grish]

Heroquest I did not like as a game; haven't heard of Age of Conan.

My favourite games are:
Puerto Rico, Twilight Struggle, El Grande, and Battlestar Galactica. Highly skilled games all of them (barring Battlestar, which is just plain fun )

 

[Zarovich]

@Zarovich: Nice review, my wife always beats me at things too I may have to check out Age of Conan then as I am a fan of Hyboria in general and love the original Robert E. Howard short stories. That Ravenloft expansion looks very in depth I will give it a try if I get Age of Conan.

Grish, if you are a fan of Hyboria in general then you really should try out the Age of Conan game - its really good fun. If you do try out the expansion would really appreciate any feedback, specially if its negative. You will need to also have the Castle Ravenloft game to play it though...

re: being beaten by the other half - very frustrating for me because I usually win on the actual military/wargaming part of the game, but because she is ahead on the diplomacy part and the Conan adventures, I lose the game