The Legends Have Returned! (A Review of Legends of Andor)

"We demand to be taken se..." okay I"m done

"The King's ambassadors can hardly believe their eyes. Prince Thorald has finally returned and has managed to gather the bravest heroes in all of Andor."

So begins your first legend in the cooperative fantasy adventure epic game that is Legends of Andor. Your quests will take you far across the countryside, into territories unknown and mysterious realms, bringing you face-to-face with monsters, mystics, and treasure, all in the hopes that you will succeed and go down in history as one of the Legends... of Andor.  

Your quest begins here.

News Bits: 5/13/2013

Another week packed with NEWS:

IELLO hosts King of Tokyo championship [Link] This is your chance to prove if you are, in fact, the King of Tokyo. Regional qualifiers with a final tournament at this year's GenCon. I'm not enamored of this game, but @Futurewolfie likes it quite a bit.

The Fellowship: What Can Men Do Against Such Reckless Hate?

In my last post, I detailed how I orchestrated my first victory over the spiders of Mirkwood. My spirits were flying pretty high. I beat the first scenario a few more times in order to get a feel for the game a bit more before upping the ante and beginning my Journey Down the Anduin.

Nothing will dampen your spirits like trolls.

The Fellowship: Caught in a Web

My fearless band

In my last post, I described my first five attempts at the Passage through Mirkwood scenario in the Lord of the Rings LCG. I'll provide the tl;dr summary of that last post: FAILURE.

After my first five failures, I tried deck-building using tactics as the backbone of a tactics/lore deck. I will briefly describe the result: MORE FAILURE.

But I was not cowed.

The Fellowship: One Does Not Simply Walk into...Mirkwood?

So here we are. Three posts in, and I'm finally going to embark on my first quest.

The rulebook suggests beginning with the scenario "Passage through Mirkwood," which it states is a difficulty 1 (of 10) scenario. I looked briefly through the encounter deck to get a sense of what I might be up against, saw lots of spiders, and the sphere that screamed out to me was "tactics."

Tactics, for those of you not in the know, is the sphere that focuses on physical strength. It's also the sphere wherein I recognize all three heroes included in the base game (Gimli, Legolas, and Thalin). I looked at their stats, was impressed with their attack values, and rushed to fight Ungoliant's spawn. What can go wrong? I thought.

Everything. That's what can go wrong.

News Bits: 9/24/2012

Check out this week's top news stories. Or at least those top news stories as determined by me.

The Fellowship of the Dice
WizKids--maker of dice and wielder of high-powered intellectual properties--announced last week a plan to combine both into the Lord of the Rings dice-building game. The game uses a modified Quarriors engine as players semi/cooperatively battle the hordes of Mordor. I wasn't a huge fan of Quarriors, and the rebranding seems like a money-grab, but I know this game will definitely find its fans. I am just not likely to be among them.

The Fellowship: An Unexpected Journey

I wrote a long post about CCGs (customizable card games) for my personal blog, which you're welcome to read if so inclined. The basic gist of it: My name's Lenny, and I'm addicted to CCGs.

Hi, Lenny.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I used to be addicted. When 100% of my money was discretionary income, 100% of it was spent on trading card games. Overpower, Redemption, and then the Star Wars CCG were the biggest monetary sinkholes, but I also dabbled in just about every other CCG that was released, even the lesser-known ones. When Magic: The Gathering was in its heyday, there were many, many copycats.

Because of my former addiction, I've tried hard over the years to steer clear of overly mercenary collectible card games. When I discovered Dominion, I found what I imagined was the Platonic ideal for all those CCG shadows on the cave wall: no random collecting, no trading, simple enough rules that anyone can jump in and play.

The Great Battle of Our Time (A Review of War of the Ring)

War of the Ring is a wargame of epic proportions, in which the story of Lord of the Rings unfolds in brand new ways.  With a lot of strategy and a little bit of luck, 2-4 players can see what might have happened if Boromir went to Fangorn with Gandalf, or Saruman conquered Helms Deep, or Gimli roused the dwarves to war.

Taking on a franchise like Lord of the Rings is no small task.  Does War of the Ring successfully weave a glorious legend of good versus evil, or does it sink into the river to be forgotten for all time?

The Name on the Box Top: Reiner Knizia

My favorite Knizia game. Indeed, one of my favorite games.

I am almost certain that those who participate in the board gaming hobby who have tried to tell others about it have, at one point or another, been met with a response of, "Oh, is that like Clue and Monopoly?"

What separates hobby board games from the majority of mass-market titles, aside (arguably) from fun, is the name on the box top. Like the byline on books or the signature in the corner of a painting, hobby board games typically bear the name of their creator. But more than their name, hobby board games typically bear the style of their creator as well. Just like you might expect different things from a book by Kurt Vonnegut than you would from Graham Greene, you can expect different things of a game depending on whose name is on the box top.

The Name on the Box Top may become a regular series about game designers, their trademarks, and what I think of their designs. Or it could die here. In any case, I want to talk today about one of my favorite designers: Reiner Knizia.

One Ring to Rule Them All...

This is where it all starts.

I recently got a chance to play the recently released second edition of War of the Ring. While this is not a review—I'd hate to base my opinions of a game on a single play, especially a game as epic as this—I thought I'd share a little on what went down. If you're a Lord of the Rings fan, if you're interested in the game but not sure if it's worth your money, or if you know you will never be able to fit this into your gaming budget (whether of time or money), read on, friend! Allow me to share the wonder with you.