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Monkeyreado
So, to plead for mercy - given the inordinate amount of time it took to paint the Rune Priest - here's something I did earlier this week. I played through a couple of games of this LCG (Living Card Game) by Fantasy Flight Games.
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| ...the box... |
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| What it looks like on the table. |
... And in fact, the games went really well. The rules are accessible and easy to use. The cards/tokens/counters are well made, as I have come to expect from FFG, and the art work on the cards was also pretty good overall (if not quite as 'artistic' as many Magic : The Gathering cards).
Essentially you play as a race with a set of 50 cards against an enemy (or up to 3 in the core box). Cards are split into Units/Support/Tactics types and you play them according to the number of resource tokens you have. The idea is to use your Units to destroy your opponents 'Kingdom' by dealing hit points and eventually setting two out of three zones on fire. You can in turn, defend with your units and use tactics/spells etc. as you go along... you get the idea...
You can mix allied races(e.g. Empire and Dwarfs), but reduce the likelihood of being able to use some abilities - like Magic TG. Each race has its own way of working, and you can build on these, or build other races up by buying other expansion packs (at around £8 or so - at Amazon etc.). The 'Orcz' are suitably thuggish and Chaos use corruption type abilities. The various expansions add new abilities to your forces and some introduce other races, like Lizardmen.
There were, of course, some quibbles over card interpretations but these were not game stopping, with a little give and take. There are also forums (as on the FFG website) where you can check out errata and rules clarification.
In the end each game took about an hour and there was a real sense of battle, and an ebb and flow to the game as it progressed. I was well beaten, but enjoyed the experience all the same. A very successful foray into LCGs. The card abilities and gameplay ends up being a little less 'sophisticated' (and complex) than MTG, however the strategic thinking and careful combining of cards is all here.There is a lot of replayability too, with 4 sets of cards in the intro set. At around £25 to £30, a little expensive perhaps, but look around, I would absolutely recommend it. I am going to look out for the FFG Lord of The Rings LCG set which is due out soon and can be played solo.
Watch this space for more... oh, and a set of the board game Catan has arrived...
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