Asmodee The Lord of The Rings Journeys in Middle-Earth Board Game - Epic Cooperative Adventure Game for Kids and Adults, Ages 14+, 1-5 Players, 60+ Minute Playtime

I love this game. Love love love this game. Not because I am a Lord of the Rings enthusiast, just because it is a really fun board game. Its gameplay combines a lot of the elements I like from games like Gloomhaven and Legends of Andor and minimizes some of the drawbacks of those games. If you like cooperative campaign-style board games, you will probably love this one.That said, there are a few things I would have liked to know before buying, and I will share some of those to help readers know if this is what they want:1. This game uses an app to run the campaign. It is not just a "helper" app to keep track of your stats, it basically serves as your DM for the game. Make sure that you install the app on the device that you plan to use for the entire game. I recommend using a device that you can somehow stream to a TV to make it easier for the whole party to see. Passing around a phone or tablet is annoying and hinders the sense of cooperation and party unity. It would be very helpful if the app could connect to the TV via Chromecast, but it sadly lacks that feature.2. The starting characters are locked into the game. You can change classes between games, but you cannot change characters. The game makes it seem like this is a minor choice that can be corrected later, but it is a very important consideration. If you are playing on easy mode, the game gives all the players plenty of inspiration, so it is probably not worthwhile to have a character who excels in giving other players inspiration.3. You cannot tag players in and out of the game. Whoever starts the campaign is in it until the end, and no one new can be added. The only option would be to start over as a new save game. My weekly gaming group varies week to week as far as who shows up, so we could not really play this at our regular board game night.4. If you do decide to have multiple campaigns running at once, I recommend keeping track on paper of what cards each character has in each campaign. That will make setup easier so you can quickly look at what items and cards each character has.5. The main campaign is comparatively short, compared to Gloomhaven for example. If you want this to be a game that you play for years, you will need to factor in the cost of DLC campaigns when assessing the value.

This was on my son's wishlist for Christmas. We've played it numerous times and liked it so much he has since picked up one of the expansions. In it, you pick a character and role (profession?) that you take in the group of adventurers, then you work your way through a series of scenarios. It's a cooperative game, so you succeed or fail as a group.Each time your character needs to succeed at something (searching, attacking, etc) you draw cards from a small deck to see how you did. You can also *equip* skills/talents from that deck onto your character, which provide addition ways for your character to aid themselves or their companions.

Great game.

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