The Lord of the Rings... The Card game

In my ongoing quest to explore all gaming things related to Middle-Earth, I have long had my eye on Fantasy Flights, The Lord of the Rings - The Card Game...

But I am more of a miniatures kind of guy... so I like tabletop miniature wargames obviously, and boardgames that feature miniatures of some sort... so the card game stayed on the shelf, as I was unsure whether I'd get a kick out of playing with just 'cards'...

But I eventually caved in to temptation, especially when I stumbled across it online at a reduced price compared to that which I had normally seen advertised, thanks to the "Book Depository"... so I bought it for Xmas... but as you can probably tell... its stayed unopened for some months as other hobby/gaming activities held my attention...

However, the other week I got to grips with it, thanks in part to the online video tutorials from Fantasy Flight, also available at Youtube...

Intro here:

The game follows a series of missions or quests you can complete, and it's that Living Card Game system where you can collect further themed packs to add to this Core Set, to enhance the gaming experience...

From my perspective, it plays a little like a Role-play session, but without the GM, the game itself being the GM against you, and your mate, if you wish. It's a game that can be played solo against the game, or co-op with a friend against the game. An interesting concept.

It is lavishly filled with wonderful art work on the cards themselves, and the game certainly feels like adventuring in Middle-Earth.

The video tutorials will help with getting to grips with the game and completing the intro training scenario. This one is fairly easy...

The problem comes with the second scenario in the game, and this one presents a serious learning curve... thus far I've tried it about 6 times with my son... and we haven't got past it yet!

But we'll keep trying...

Must admit, if we'd found it a little easier, I'd be buying all the expansion packs, to continue the fun... but with coming up against a road block of a mission, in 2nd one in the game, I do feel a little that I am being compelled to buy more expansion sets, to get the extra cards I need, to get past this hurdle... which is slightly annoying... In theory we should be able to do it with just the core set cards, but that requires 'Deck Building' - another experience I am yet to figure out how best to do...

Still, no doubt over time I may collect some of the extra sets, especially as there are Hobbit sets too...

An entertaining game, that's quick to set up an play and perfect for a wet weekend afternoon... so if you're a Middle Earth fan, and used to these living card games and deck building, you're sure to enjoy it...

Painting Challenge doldrums and Elder Sign.

For those who have been keeping an eye on the myriad of activity over at the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge, you may have noticed I am languishing near the bottom of the pack (as I anticipated), without a submission to my name, as yet...

I am steadily plodding away, and have got the 36 goblins from the The Hobbit starter set, about 75% done. I have also got the Goblin King, Scribe and the two goblin captains assembled and base painted.

 And the throne... that was quite a mission as the back of the sculpt is hollow and undetailed which I didn't like, so had to pack it with foam and filler then clad it in bark chip to texture it as rock. No small task...

 But its progressing steadily...

And Sunday night saw the Bowman family head back to the cinema to see the movie again, just to top up the motivation ;-) . I have to say, we saw the 3D version again , as that's all that was available locally at the time we could go, and as much as I love the movie, I think I prefer the 2D version, as there's less blurring, and a clearer image throughout.

The weather hasn't helped either, were finally getting some consistent summer days and its darn hard to stay inside and paint while the weather is glorious. But I did get a little hobby time in over the weekend, and enjoyed sitting out in the sun, under the patio table's umbrella, sipping a chilled beer, or three... while I sat and snipped, trimmed and assembled my 15mm PSC half-tracks (again!) this time though for the command vehicle upgrades, using the PSC upgrade kit.

I made three half tracks with the addition of the  optional PaK36 AT gun mounted up front, instead of the forward firing MG.

This leaves two more to do and I have a choice of stummels, 8cm mortars or flame throwers... I can't decide which to pick! I could add the stummels or mortars to my existing 2 of each, bumping up the platoon size of each to 4 vehicles, or I could add the flame throwers for something a bit different.

Anyone with any experience of using half track flame throwers please shout up!

While I deliberated over that, I started making the 15mm PSC Tiger I kits I got, and got the first 'big cat' assembled. Three more to go...

I picked the 'Mid period' model as my Wehrmacht forces are themed Mid-War eastern front onwards, and I just don't like the look of the Late period's wheels... so I figured if I need to use these guys in Late-War, we'll they'll just have seen a lot of action and be darn experienced to boot! ;-)

Also, last night we had a spot of board-gaming, when mate Jon came round with his Elder Sign game by FantasyFlightGames.

Elder Sign is a Cthulhu-lite themed game, which is both card and dice played.

It is a co-opertative style game, where the players are working together to beat the game, and stop an Eldritch Horror being released into the world.

A lot of fun, which my 9rd old son also got to grips with very quickly and was rapt!

We played several games over the course of an evening, interspersed with a game of Munchkin too.

Great stuff. I do enjoy a good 'board-game' in the right company every now and then, time allowed,  and I can control the guilt at not picking up the paint brushes!