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simon cogan
United Kingdom
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A few things to discuss today:
Firstly, what a fantastic game 'Lord of the Rings: The Card Game' is! I bought this s a few weeks ago and it really is something special. From the gorgeous components to the quite elegant game mechanics and it's set in Tolkien's wonderful Middle Earth. Being a solo gamer for most part, the fact that it's a solo game is very appealing and the scenario aspect of the game is also what triggered my interest in the first place. And it's so blooming difficult to beat the scenarios! It's nearly always a bloodfest in my attic, yet I've shelled out for the first 2 expansion packs already and keep trying to beat them - I'm hooked.
Secondly, how difficult it is to design an Enemy for DWSSG when you're not keen on the source material. I've encountered this difficulty before with the Seventh Doctor expansion, which people know is not my favourite era of the show. Now that I'm down to 2 pages left to complete 'Silence Will Fall' it's just the latest Christams special 'The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe' to fill in. And, of course, there's no bloody villain! So what's a designer to do?
Make one up of course! Well, no not quite as I've always wanted players and the game to have the ability to recreate (if the dice fall that way) the TV episode, so here I have to change some motivation slightly. So the bumbling Droxil and his mates are replaced by nasty, brutal Harvest Rangers who will stop at nothing to see their greedy plans succeed. Yes, you may still encounter Droxil and his team and gain them as Allies, but it's more likely that you'll encounter nasty Harvest Rangers (who still sound like a football team...) who just want to either keep you out of the way or kill you rather than letting you stop their amoral and corrupt plans! You can still get hold of a Harvester vehicle too and even use it to Defeat the Rangers if you've got some Pilots and Engineers too.
In between watching some 'Fellowship of the Ring' with my son, who loves it, I've also watched a fantastic first Doctor adventure - 'The Crusades'. This is one of the era's all time greats and thanks to 2 episodes and a photo reconstruction and audio soundtrack we can all enjoy it. I can't praise this one enough and this is probably my favourite (not counting stories which are totally lost - like Marco Polo or The Massacre) Hartnell story. The quality of dialogue, acting and plotting is masterful with special praise for Bernard Kay as Saladin, Julian Glover as Richard, and Jean Marsh as Joanna who are pitch perfect in their roles.
A stunning 9.5/10 from me (and only not 10 because episode 4 features very little of the 3 main guests above).
Anyone else like this little gem?
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