Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Replicates an Adventure Well

Recently, Fantasy Flight Game sent over two of their Living Card Games (LCGs), Marvel Champions and Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. While both fit into that LCG space, they are both very different experiences. We have already written about Marvel Champions in our first impressions article here , but I wanted to get my first impressions of Lord of the Rings up as quickly as possible.

For many, myself included, you might assume that most Living Card Games play out the same way. When I saw two different IPs being published by Fantasy Flight Games, I instantly assumed they were similar experiences with different themes. I couldn’t be more wrong.

To use a Fantasy Flight Example, I would argue the similarities between these two LCGs is like saying Descent: Legends of the Dark, Star Wars: Imperial Assault, and Lord of the Rings: Journey’s in MIddle Earth are alike. While these three games all share a grid based, miniatures experience, they all approach it in different ways.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is an adventure game first and foremost, and not necessarily about defeating a specific villain like in Marvel Champions. Players will choose three heroes, create a deck, and will head out on an adventure that spans a number of different location cards. These location cards need to be visited and “completed” before flipping to the next card in the stack. In between, other locations (side locations) will be flipped and can be explored, but there will also be enemies to deal with.

Like in Marvel Champions, players will have an opportunity to play cards into their play area, paying the associated costs. You can get additional allies (like Gandalf!), equip weapons, armours, and skills, and so much more. These will ultimately help you defeat enemies and clear locations.

But the aim of the game is to move from A to B to C, etc. until you get the final location card which will have some type of mission that needs to be completed. Oftentimes, this final mission does require you to kill a specific enemy, but that isn’t always the case.

I’ve been toying in my mind with the thoughts of which game I like better, Marvel Champions or The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Ultimately, I think it’s an unfair question to ask since both games approach this genre in majorly different ways.

Sometimes I want to sit down and focus my efforts on a specific villain. When that’s the case, Marvel Champions is the streamlined game I want to play. But if I’m excited about having a massive adventure across multiple locations, with tons of heroes in a fantastic fantasy setting, then obviously Lord of the Rings is the easy choice.

Still, if I personally had to pick one game to own, it would be Lord of the Rings. There is a lot more going on in this game, and I’m more of an adventurer than a straight shot hero taking down big bosses. But as I said, I think the Lord of the Rings box packs more content into it.

With multiple adventures to embark on, and 12 heroes to play with, even with just the core box, there is a ton of content to sift through and enjoy. So I would pick Lord of the Rings, and I likely will continue to add expansions to my core box – there is just so much to love about the turn-to-turn moments in this game.