Game: Lord of the Rings: The Search

Thread: Re: Missing tile

YeGor — 2008-05-29T08:44:03+00:00

If you can send me an extensive list of what you have, I will review my copy and tell you which one is missing. Send me a Geek mail.

Thread: Missing tile

feldmafx — 2008-05-28T13:00:23+00:00

I am missing a tile from a used copy I bought. Would anyone be willing to work with me to figure out which one? Thanks for not laughing...

Thread: Re: A couple of questions

Blue_rose — 2008-05-12T06:17:40+00:00

Thanks for the answers. Now it's much clearer.

I noticed I misread the rules about those closed regions, so now I understand how it's supposed to work.

I think I'll take a look at the German rules...

Thread: Re: A couple of questions

GSReis — 2008-05-12T05:33:00+00:00

First, throw away the English rules and play by the original German rules (download the translation from the files section). The original game is much better.

Two or more sections form a region, right? And a closed region gets a token.
Two or more sections form a region, but only a closed region with exactly two sections gets a token, as the previous poster said.

But can you move to an open region?
Yes. The rules only prevent you to move to a single section.

And what happens if a hobbit is in a region when it is closed? Does the player get the token or does he have to move out of the region and go back again to get the token?
Notice that such situation may only happen if one of the tiles is face-down. That is not covered by the rules, but I think the most logical solution is to allow the player to take the token on his turn if he does not move.

And what about the tiles with the same landscape on several sides? Does each quarter of a tile count as a section, or each landscape type on a tile? The rules state that two or more sections form a region. And if a quarter is a section, then there are some tiles where a certain landscape type is already a region. Right?
Each quarter counts as a section. So, two adjacent sections of the same landscape type, even on the same tile, are already a region.

And then these "rivers". Is a hobbit allowed to jump over a river, from one mountain to another?
Yes. The rivers exist only to separate mountains, so that whenever you join mountain sections in different tiles you get a closed region with just two sections.

Also, I thought the scoring was a little too confusing.
You may need to refer to the rulebook in the first game or two, but it's quite simple, actually. But again, use the original rules.

Thread: Re: A couple of questions

garygarison — 2008-05-12T01:59:49+00:00

Blue_rose wrote:
Two or more sections form a region, right? And a closed region gets a token. But can you move to an open region?

Only a closed region of exactly two sections gets a token. In other words, a region with a token is made up of two triangle-shaped sections that, when adjacent, form a square.

Sorry about not being able to address your other questions, but perhaps this will help sort things out for you.

By the way, do try the original German version of the rules for this game. They are really the only way to play.

Thread: Re: A couple of questions

Rygel — 2008-05-12T00:48:48+00:00

We played this game only once and found it way to confusing to ever play again. I have tried several times to try and find answers, but have come up empty handed. I hope someone has the answers for you because I would like to see them too.

Thread: A couple of questions

Blue_rose — 2008-05-11T18:03:50+00:00

I just bought this game (English version), but the rules seem a little confusing. We tried playing it with my boyfriend, and there are some questions we couldn't find answers for in the rules.

Two or more sections form a region, right? And a closed region gets a token. But can you move to an open region? And what happens if a hobbit is in a region when it is closed? Does the player get the token or does he have to move out of the region and go back again to get the token?

And what about the tiles with the same landscape on several sides? Does each quarter of a tile count as a section, or each landscape type on a tile? The rules state that two or more sections form a region. And if a quarter is a section, then there are some tiles where a certain landscape type is already a region. Right?

And then these "rivers". Is a hobbit allowed to jump over a river, from one mountain to another?

Also, I thought the scoring was a little too confusing.

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Meat — 2008-05-06T02:48:45+00:00

Close up of Frodo and Sam

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Meat — 2008-05-06T02:39:52+00:00

A long walk to Mt Doom -or- "I told yo we were heading the wrong way, but YOU wouldn't ask for directions!"

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fractaloon — 2008-05-06T00:16:47+00:00

English edition box back - Higher resolution photo (high enough to read all the text easily).

Thread: Re: Rules from the box

feldmafx — 2008-04-28T02:00:23+00:00

I know the rules are bad, I just don't have any other rules except the ones I printed from BGG (which are the translated German rules), and, like I said, they reference the pics on the boxed rules. If I had a copy, I would still use the translated German rules.

FXF

Thread: Re: Rules from the box

Rygel — 2008-04-26T17:25:25+00:00

You do not want the rules from the box. You would have an easier time reading money scratch written in Chinese.

Seriously, they are the worst rules I have ever read. I was hoping to read this link to see the rules better clarified.

Thread: Rules from the box

feldmafx — 2008-04-25T14:21:57+00:00

I bought a used game, and the rules were not included. I downloaded the rules from the file section of BGG for this game, but it references the rules from the box. Doesn anyone know where I can get a copy of the boxed rules?

Frank
fxf@engineer.com

Thread: Re: Searching for the ring with a young child

Daylar — 2008-04-17T20:03:11+00:00

Great report! I've missed seeing this game here, and my kids love all aspects of Lord of the Rings. My 9 year old has been playing Lord or the Rings as well as War of the Ring, but I think my 6 year old would really enjoy this one.

Thread: Re: Where I can I find the "better" original German rules?

thrasymachus — 2008-04-15T19:18:30+00:00

Oops, sorry, I should have read the translation better. So what do people like best about the German rules? Do they really make the game that much better?

Thread: Re: Where I can I find the "better" original German rules?

garygarison — 2008-04-15T00:46:14+00:00

The translation in the files section is indeed the original German version. Do your RGG rules dictate the initial board setup to be a 3X3 cross of tiles? If so, then these rules are changed from the original, where the initial setup is an 8X6 cross. A more careful reading of the translated original German rules will turn up many other differences.

Thread: Where I can I find the "better" original German rules?

thrasymachus — 2008-04-14T22:50:21+00:00

The "translation" in the files section here seems to just be the english rules that came with my Rio Grande version. Is there a link to the original rules somewhere? What are the key differences that make so many people prefer that ruleset?

Thread: Re: Do I Hafta Go to Mt. Doom?

YeGor — 2008-04-04T08:07:54+00:00

I guess you can. Actually, game is won by points, not by reaching Mt. Doom. It does bring a couple of extra points, but usually they are not enough to win. In our games one of us usually goes on getting things after Mt. Doom is revealed.

Thread: Do I Hafta Go to Mt. Doom?

jollypirate — 2008-04-03T13:36:33+00:00

So Mt. Doom gets placed on the other side of the board...can I just use my time to continue fighting Balrogs and whatnot for extra points rather than make a hopeless sprint towards Mt. Doom?

Thread: Re: encounter tokens and neutral tiles

YeGor — 2008-02-19T10:14:22+00:00

If you still have them
And the same goes for all other regions.

Thread: encounter tokens and neutral tiles

ccarlet1 — 2008-02-19T05:00:47+00:00

If a neutral tile encloses a mountain region, do you put an encounter token on it?

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VikingFury — 2008-02-07T08:43:31+00:00

Cover of norwegian edition.

Thread: Searching for the ring with a young child

Timw — 2007-07-16T11:53:46+00:00

My 6 year old son (Robert) has just started to get interested in the Lord of Rings, and asked to play one of my games. I dug out "The Search" as being one of the simplest to learn, and a quick rules explanation later, off we set.

We played the RioGrande rules with just the following changes from the original rules:
- Start by building a 6x8 cross before the exploration phase (saves having to continually count how big the map is during the game)
- place the brown and blue tokens face down so the ring as to be hunted for, and Gollum becomes more of a threat
- after the first game we also required the ring to be found before mount doom can be approached (although we werent keeping it a secret when it was found)
- we also found it easier to keep character / item tiles face up in front of you when you had found them, and only turn them face down when used, rather than the opposite as the rules suggest - this made it easier for me to see what items Robert had that he could play to help him.

Robert declared he would be Frodo, and off we set. He really enjoyed laying the tiles and exploring the map - and also seeing the characters he knew, like Gandalf and Aragorn, appearing and being able to help him. The lure of getting a boat also overcame his initial reluctance to encounter any ememies and he was soon happily bashing his way round middle earth.

Game 1 finished with a victory to me something like 25-15, but he immediately wanted to play again ... as we never found the ring in the first game, and even Robert knew that a Lord of the Rings game should have a ring!!

Off we went again, and this time we decided the ring has to be found before we can go to Mount Doom. Once again Sam reached the mountain first, and this time with the ring, and another victory for daddy.

Undaunted though, the demand was for another game, even though his little sister was trying to entice him into a game of Wii Sports ... which was praise indeed for this game.

A few early encounters with a troll and Shelob meant Robert missed several movement turns - although as he still got to place map tiles he didn't really feel he was missing a turn ... plus he was also racking up early points. He soon stumbled across Gandalf, some bread, a couple of empty caves to earn him a free boat, and an orc, which he used Merry to help him defeat. I meanwhile had a few empty caves, Aragorn, and soonafter, the ring. Mount Doom appeared, although with three spaces left, it was unlikely that this rumoured location would be its final place, so I started heading for the corner I thought it would end up in as I played my last tile as a neutral piece.

I was wrong! Robert gleefully placed his last tile next to himself, and although he was also a long way from Mount Doom, he discovered Aragorn right next to him for more points. He also had no intention of heading to Mount Doom as Legolas and an Elven Cloak were far nearer, and worth more points than ending the game ... so it was left to Sam to move into a large forest, leap aboard Gwahir and land next to Mount Doom. A quick word of advice and Robert used the Athelas to move an extra space and retrieve the cloak just before Sam tossed the ring into the fire.

Final score this time, Daddy-Sam 27, Robert-Frodo 30 ... cue much leaping about and delight from Robert!

A great hour or so which has certainly increased my personal rating for this game.

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pyr-shep — 2007-07-07T11:58:54+00:00

Components

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pyr-shep — 2007-07-07T11:57:35+00:00

Inside the box

Thread: Re: question about the translated rules 2-2b

YeGor — 2007-04-10T07:31:20+00:00

Karmic_devil wrote:
Thanks for the response, but I am still a bit confused. My game came with english directions as well but from what I understand they are significantly modified from the original German rules. There is a file on here that is the original rules translated and that is what I am confused about.

I have read the translated rules here. You're right, they differ significantly. We never built a 6x8 cross, only 3x3. I think, it's up to you what rules to use. I prefer the ones that went with the game, as I've already got used to them, and they seem to me to give more freedom.

Karmic_devil wrote:
I guess what I am asking is, are all the tiles played so that there is eventually a 6 X 8 grid with some of them probably being neutral? Or when you run out of face down tiles is the map just finished being built?

That's how we play: first, we make a 3x3 cross. Then start building a map to be 6x8. If we can't place tiles, we put them as neutral. We don't make any face-up pile. When all the tiles are placed (with neutrals), we end this phase and begin the race for Mt. Doom.

Karmic_devil wrote:
If you are supposed to use all the tiles, after you finish drawing the face down tiles and using the ones in your hand do players just alternate taking any tile they like from the face up stack?

Just as I said, I don't know this rule so I don't use it. If these tiles are face up because players weren't able to place them, what's use in them? Just to leave them for some later time when they could be used? We have a maximum of 4-5 neutral tiles on the board, all the rest are usually placed correctly.

Thread: Re: question about the translated rules 2-2b

Karmic_devil — 2007-04-06T15:17:51+00:00

Thanks for the response, but I am still a bit confused. My game came with english directions as well but from what I understand they are significantly modified from the original German rules. There is a file on here that is the original rules translated and that is what I am confused about.

I guess what I am asking is, are all the tiles played so that there is eventually a 6 X 8 grid with some of them probably being neutral? Or when you run out of face down tiles is the map just finished being built?

If you are supposed to use all the tiles, after you finish drawing the face down tiles and using the ones in your hand do players just alternate taking any tile they like from the face up stack?

Thread: Re: question about the translated rules 2-2b

YeGor — 2007-04-06T06:36:18+00:00

Sorry for the late response - checked the rules yesterday. Nothing is said about discarding tiles, if you can't place them correctly. The only thing is that when you can't place them, you have to show all of them to your opponent and then play one as neutral. We don't follow this rule, as we trust each other

And $3 is a bargain!

Good luck to you.

Thread: Re: question about the translated rules 2-2b

YeGor — 2007-04-04T06:15:45+00:00

Man Not every one remembers all the rules by heart.

Karmic_devil wrote:
I just read the translated rules for this game and am interested in trying it out but one section left me confused. It reads:
If the face down supply piles are used up, then the players no longer draw tiles. The players must continue play only with the cards in their hands.
Phase 2b: Searching for Mt. Doom
If the active player is unable to find a suitable Landscape Tile from the face up display to play, then he places one of the tiles face down.

Something seems to be missing in there.

Nothing IMHO.

Karmic_devil wrote:
If you can't play a card you discard your hand of 3 face up and draw 3 face down ones.

? Where did you read this? I haven't played the game for some time, but I don't remember ever reading anything like this in the rules. If you can't play a tile, you simply place it as neutral. You don't discard anything.

Karmic_devil wrote:
Then players always draw from the face down pile right?

Correct. Though we usually divide it into 3 decks and take from whichever we wish.

Karmic_devil wrote:
After all the face down cards are drawn players play from their hands untill they have no remaining cards.

Correct. At this point there should be Mt. Doom on the board, and after all the tiles are laid, players race to it.

Karmic_devil wrote:
After the players have no remaining cards on their turn do they search through the face up pile and take a tile of their choice to play?

As there is no face up pile, they don't search for anything.

Karmic_devil wrote:
And if no tiles fit they choose one to play as neutral?

Correct.

Karmic_devil wrote:
If someone familiar with the trnaslated rules could clarify this for me I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!
Josh

I might be mistaken (and I will read the rules tonight), but I think you've been confused somehow. My rules are in English. Kind of official translation.

Thread: Re: question about the translated rules 2-2b

Karmic_devil — 2007-04-01T16:47:32+00:00

wow....24 hours and no response....this must truly be an unpopular game

and I though $3 was a bargain

Thread: question about the translated rules 2-2b

Karmic_devil — 2007-04-01T04:00:37+00:00

I just read the translated rules for this game and am interested in trying it out but one section left me confused. It reads:

If the face down supply piles are used up, then the players no longer draw tiles. The players must continue play only with the cards in their hands.

Phase 2b: Searching for Mt. Doom
If the active player is unable to find a suitable Landscape Tile from the face up display to play, then he places one of the tiles face down.

Something seems to be missing in there. If you can't play a card you discard your hand of 3 face up and draw 3 face down ones. Then players always draw from the face down pile right? After all the face down cards are drawn players play from their hands untill they have no remaining cards. After the players have no remaining cards on their turn do they search through the face up pile and take a tile of their choice to play? And if no tiles fit they choose one to play as neutral?

If someone familiar with the trnaslated rules could clarify this for me I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Josh

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chindent — 2007-03-18T03:41:41+00:00

Beauty Shot

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GSReis — 2006-12-09T17:53:48+00:00

A rare occasion: all tiles fitted

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Werbaer — 2006-10-31T13:16:44+00:00

box cover (german edition)

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moxtaveto — 2006-10-08T18:40:16+00:00

German edition by Kosmos

Thread: Re: Rules Question

Torbin_Bequette — 2005-12-20T06:27:11+00:00

I believe the answers to both of your questions are:

1. Yes, encounter chips should be placed in each "encounter area" created.

2. Yes, hobbits can pick up encounter chips just placed earlier that turn.

Thread: Rules Question

Vagos — 2005-12-19T22:14:32+00:00

I just bought this game and I have two questions:

1. When a player places a landscape tile, and simultaneously two encounter spaces are made (i.e. a sea and a forest) can he place two encounter chips in the two encounter spaces or just only one?

2. During his turn a player places an encounter chip. When the player moves his hobbit figure, can he pick up the encounter chip he placed earlier in the same turn?

Thank you, in andvance, and sorry for my english...!

Thread: The beating was even worse this time...

ValJor — 2005-08-28T20:50:15+00:00

Date: August 27th, 2005

Game: Lord of the Rings - The Search

Players: Ivan (my son) and Valdir (myself)

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We had played this game for the first time more than two weeks ago (see my session report here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/584546) and right after it I got to know the fact that there are two sets of rules for it: the American one, created by Rio Grande (which comes with the American version of the game) and the German one (which is said to be much better than its American counterpart). I have meant to read these German rules (which are available here at BGG in a good English translation) since that date, but various real life commitments made that impossible.

Today my son wanted to play the game once more and as none of us have read the “German rules” yet, we played once more with the RGG ruleset. Today it was an even bigger massacre than last time, Ivan beat me 34 to 12. But this time I have various good reasons to explain my bad performance.

First of all, one of the rules that is not clear on the RGG ruleset is the use of the special characters that allow the player to play again. How many of those can you play in one single round? I would imagine that the answer should be only one, but nowhere in the rules is that written out. What happened in our game was that in one of my moves I created two encounter regions and as Ivan’s hobbit was a bit far, I knew that I would be able to take both tokens. However, he played nothing less than four of the “play again” tokens and took my tokens away. Eight points more for him, eight points less to me. Just because of this one move we decided that no matter what the rules say (or omit to say), from now on only one such token can be played per turn, otherwise it’s too devastating.

The other event in this session that robbed me quite a few points was a bit ironical: my hobbit was sitting near one side of the playing area, close to two mountain tokens. Ivan’s figure was farther away and had no hope of getting any of those two mountain tokens. At this moment a small fly landed nearby and in order to make it go away, I blew at it but by doing so I also turned up the two tokens that were sitting there in the mountains. They were a 5 and a 4! Because of the incident, Ivan took them out, shuffled them with the rest of the mountain tokens and chose two others randomly. When I finally turned them up, they were both empty caves. I was robbed of nine points!

If it were not by these two events, I could have won the game by 29 to 26! Anyway, after this we continued our game, Ivan was the first to Mount Doom as he had Gwaihir, the eagle that takes you faster than normal to the next spot on the map; there was really no contest. When we counted the points I knew it would be bad, but I didn’t expect to be that bad. Wow!

The next day I finally read the German rules and they really seem to be much more interesting. I still have to play using them, but just the fact that the final tiles will be face up and the need to couple tokens to play a further action makes the game much more balanced in my opinion.

Thread: First game, to learn the rules

ValJor — 2005-08-12T14:07:47+00:00

Date: August 11th, 2005

Game: Lord of the Rings - The Search

Players: Ivan (my son) and Valdir (myself)

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This week I won a bidding for Lord of the Rings - The Search and got it just two days later. The funny thing is that I wasn’t even that interested in the game, I made my bid just for fun, I thought others would outbid me but that didn’t happen. Lucky me, I guess...

I’m not a huge fan at all of LotR, so I wasn’t expecting much. I had already played Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation and hadn’t liked it that much. My son, on the other hand, was in a hurry to play this game, so he read the rules and asked me to join him in a learning game.

When we played I wasn’t even aware of the two rulesets that exist for this game. We played with the RGG ruleset that doesn’t seem to have the favour of the BGG community. I have since printed the translation of the original German rules to try them out to compare.

We developed the land around the Shire, Ivan went to the south and east while I went to the north and west. As I was just learning the game (I told him to just give me the rules that I needed to start and he would give me more as I needed them), I made some huge and obvious newbie mistakes, I kept putting tiles in his path. Therefore he had a good supply of tokens to take while I wasted a lot of time wandering through empty land.

As I didn’t have two caverns, I didn’t buy a boat, which prevented me from getting the water tiles. Ivan bought his boat but used it only once - to take Gwaihir, the eagle - which allowed him at the end of the game to travel much faster than me and get to Mt. Doom before I could do anything about it.

However, the final result of the game wouldn’t have been much different if he didn’t have that eagle. I had some weak tokens like 2, 2, 3, etc, while he had 4’s and 5’s; he won 42x20. Even if he had not arrived at the mountain first, he would still have beaten me by a big margin.

One thing that I disliked in The Confrontation was the fact that every character had a special power and on top of that the cards brought more special powers into play. Now, in The Search this also exists, but it is much less annoying because it’s not so overwhelming.

The people who are LotR fans diss this game because it doesn’t follow the books. Me, as I don’t care for this whole LotR universe, I find the game quite attractive. I still have to try the German rules to see how much they change the game, but even now I think I may say I liked the game quite a bit.

Thread: User Review

bucklen_uk — 2004-11-05T19:49:36+00:00

This review is of the Rio Grande (English) Version

This is a simple, quick, vaguely enjoyable 2-player tile laying/exploration game with a Lord of the Rings theme. A typical game will take about 45 minutes.

The players build a map of Middle-Earth starting at the Shire using tiles. In the completed map of 48 tiles (6x8) will be Mount Doom (represented by a stand-up cardboard volcano) and usually this will be located in one of the last tiles placed. As the map is being constructed (one tile a turn is placed by each player) the players may move their hobbit markers to explore the map, having encounters. These encounters are in the form of tokens (chits): items (like Sting), characters (like Aragorn), Gollum, the Ring and monsters (Orcs). All the tokens players collect are worth points. You can also 'use' the tokens for a benefit within the game but then the points they provide are reduced. The tokens are placed face up apart from the 'monsters' so the searching element of the game is more a matter of racing to the highest value tokens.

Once the map is completed the players then race to Mount Doom and the game ends as soon as one reaches it. This player gets some bonus points (more if you also have the Ring), and the player with the most points at the end is the winner.

The mechanics of the game are quite simple and after a couple of games you probably will not refer to the rulebook again. The building of the map from tiles and the placement of tokens mean that the game is different each time, but the theme of the Lord of the Rings is rather thin. This is really an abstract tile game and any exploration theme could have been used.

If you are looking for a quick little fun abstract game and are happy with a Middle Earth theme then this could be the game for you. If you are searching for an in-depth Lord of the Rings gaming experience then I suggest you search elsewhere.

I usually play with the following 2 variants, as I think this improves the game:

1/ Place all encounter tokens face down. You can 'use' any token to look at any 2 face down tokens. Defeated monsters that are used in this manner count 1 less point at the end of the game like any other used token. If the tokens you look at are the same colour you can swap them. Using Gollum allows you to look at any 3 face down tokens.

2/ Double the points allocated for reaching Mount Doom first.

Thread: Re:User Review

Spark — 2004-07-14T01:58:22+00:00

zzini, I am using the Rio Grande rules. I have not looked into the original rules, but perhaps I will! For now, I am distracted by my recent acquisition of Runebound.

Thread: Re:User Review

zzini — 2004-07-10T10:54:04+00:00

Spark (#44503), which rules are you using the original kosmos rules or the rio grande rules, there is quite a bit of difference and most feel the rio grande rules are not as good as the original

Thread: Re:Session Report

Spark — 2004-07-10T00:00:22+00:00

Fred Erb wrote:
You can try to make regions in your opponents vicinity larger so that it takes more tiles to complete and therefore takes longer to get the item for that region but thats about it.

Actually, what you've said implies that you missed the rule about encounter spaces--making a region larger than 2 tiles means it will never get an encounter token!

Maybe my finacee and I are just vicious, but we definitely enjoy screwing up each other's side of the map!

Thread: Re:For those who give the game a chance

Spark — 2004-07-09T23:56:53+00:00

There is also another minor paradox, which is that a region that is "open" and consists of exactly two sections can suddenly become "closed" when the map reaches its final dimensions. For example, let's say there is a tile placed so that it has two forest sections at bottom right and the tile itself is on the bottom right of the map. Let's further say the map is currently 6 tiles high and 7 tiles wide. This forest region is still open, because the map might be extended to the right. On the next turn, if someone plays on the left side of the board, the forest region is now suddenly against the right side of the board, and it is now an encounter region. In theory, a hobbit could occupy this region while it is open and then still be there when it is closed.

This won't happen very often, but if it does, I think the simple thing is to let the hobbit pick up the tile on its next turn by declaring a move of zero.

As for the neutral tiles, I think it is generally best to treat their sections as all being disconnected and to allow their sections to take on the color of any type of neighboring section, including another neutral region. If the neighboring section is an isolated section of the four "normal" types of terrain, this will create an encounter region, otherwise, it will just "close" part or all of a larger non-encounter region. As for neutral adjoining neutral, with this rule neutrals, like mountains, always create 2-section regions (hard to move through all that blasted terrain, I guess!).

This rule change/clarification removes all paradoxes AND makes it easy to use up all the encounter tiles.

Thread: Re:General Comment

Spark — 2004-07-09T23:43:33+00:00

The rules strongly imply that there is a separate "race to Mt. Doom" phase of the game that starts after the tile-laying phase, so I would assume that it is not legal to climb Mt. Doom prematurely.

Thread: Re:User Review

Spark — 2004-07-09T23:39:39+00:00

I made an error in my review: the "Gollum penalty" is only -1, so Gollum is not that much of a risk, but given that he is only worth +1 if you have the Ring and get to Mt. Doom first, he is still rarely worth the trouble.

One other clarification: when fighting, you still lay tiles, you just can't move. Obviously, you want to try to play tiles away from your opponent's hobbit, since you are stuck.

Thread: User Review

Spark — 2004-07-09T23:03:09+00:00

What this game is not

"Lord of the Rings: the Search" is a game from the Kosmos two-player line. It is important to understand from the outset that this is a LotR themed game; to put it more bluntly, it is a mechanic with LotR artwork and names pasted on. This game is not an attempt to re-create the story of the books in any meaningful way; in fact, the premise and scoring of the game really make no sense in the context of the books. If you can’t get over this disconnect, you should perhaps consider instead Reiner Knizia's "Lord of the Rings" (www.boardgamegeek.com/game/823). With that behind us, we can now proceed to consider the game for what it is.

What this game is, in brief

"The Search" is essentially a treasure-hunting game. The players take turns laying tiles to build a map, and certain regions of the map end up with encounter tokens on them. The players move their hobbit figures around the map to pick up the encounter tokens, which are worth victory points; some of the encounter tokens have special powers as well. Towards the end of the game, one region on the map is designated to be "Mount Doom"; the player who reaches Mount Doom first ends the game and earns additional victory points in the process. The player with the most victory points wins the game.

There are some opportunities for tactics and short-term planning in “The Search”, since careful placement of map tiles can lead to the player’s hobbit finding more encounter tokens. However, there is a large element of luck in the game, since the encounter tokens are worth varying amounts of victory points and the choice of which token goes where is essentially random. Given the large luck element to the game, there is not much room for long-term strategic planning. There are occasional opportunities for players to interfere with each other, which adds a small amount of tension to the game. In our experience (over a dozen games), the games are often close, but blowouts do occasionally happen.

Most of the components of the game are heavy linen-finish cardboard, featuring pleasing artwork by John Howe (personally, I prefer the artwork in this game to that in the Knizia "Lord of the Rings" game). The two Hobbits figures included in the game (nominally representing Frodo and Sam) are mildly cheesy – they are hard plastic and each is painted a single bright color. In terms of "component value", the game seems on par with, or perhaps slightly above, other Kosmos games.

I find “The Search” to be an interesting addition to my collection because it sits somewhere between American-style “roll the die, move the pawn” games and other, slightly more subtle German-style games, such as Carcassone. As such, it would make a decent introductory game, but it is definitely not a “gamer’s game”. I guess that I have a soft spot for it because it was a spontaneous purchase that gave me and my fiancee our first taste of the tile-laying mechanic.

Overall, I rate the game as a “6” out of “10” on the BGG scale: it is mildly amusing and I will play it once in a while if I am in the mood.

In the following sections, I describe the game in greater depth for the interested reader.

The order of play

Players decide who goes first and then alternate turns for the rest of the game, with some exceptions described below. Each turn consists of four phases:

1. play a tile (required, if possible)

2. move the player's hobbit figure (optional)

3. have an encounter (if relevant)

4. draw a new tile (if any remain)

Phases 1 to 3 are discussed in more detail in the following sections.

Tiles and tile-laying

The map on which the treasure hunt takes place is based on a 6x8 grid of 48 square tiles that is built as the game progresses. Each tile is divided into four wedge-shaped sections (as if an "X" had been drawn on the tile), and each of the sections on a tile represents one of four types of terrain, each with its own distinctive color and artwork: plains (yellow), mountains (brown), forests (green), or water (blue). There are ancillary illustrations on the tiles (such as castles and dragons) to keep the map from looking too much like a geometric puzzle, but these pictures have no effect on gameplay (although I think it would be interesting to come up with a variant that did use these for some purpose).

Adjacent sections on a tile can be the same color; in the case of water, plain, or forest, adjacent sections are considered to be contiguous, whereas adjacent mountain sections on a single tile are always separated by a river and are never considered to be contiguous.

Subject to some minor rules, tiles are placed domino-style so that adjoining sections on adjacent tiles have matching terrain types. Thus, as the tiles are laid, regions consisting of two are more sections of a given type of terrain are created.

Regions that a) consist of exactly two sections and b) cannot grow (either because they are surrounded by other colors or because they are at the edge of the map) are encounter regions. Encounter regions are important, because they are where encounter tokens appear, and encounter tokens lead to victory points (more on this later).

Players start the game with three tiles each, and then must play a tile at the start of each turn and draw a replacement at the end of each turn until the stock of tiles runs out. Having a “hand” of multiple tiles usually gives choices about what to play when, and even allows players to set up some plays in advance. For example, you might play a tile on the present turn such that two encounter regions will be created near your hobbit figure on the next turn. It can take a bit of time to check for all possible plays of your tiles, so having three in the hand seems about right--if players had more, the game would grind to a halt, if players had less, the luck factor would be too high.

This brings us to one of the forms of player interaction: interfering with your opponent's capacity to create encounter regions. Let's say your opponent has set up to create both a forest encounter and a plain encounter by careful placement of tiles near their hobbit token. If you then lay a tile with two forest sections so that it joins the single forest section already on the board, the result is a region with at least three forest sections. This will not be an encounter region, and thus you have deprived your opponent of a possible forest encounter. Friendly? No. Fun? Yes!

As the game progresses, it will happen that a player cannot play any of her tiles, because none of them match the available playing spots. When this happens, the tile is placed upside down as a "neutral" tile, and each section on the tile is treated as being the color of the adjoining section on a neighboring tile, if any (this may or may not create encounter regions). When a neutral tile is laid, a stand-up of "Mt. Doom" is placed on the tile. As subsequent neutral tiles are played, Mt. Doom moves, and its position is not finalized until all 48 tiles have been played. Reaching Mt. Doom first is worth victory points, and can also end the game (which may be advantageous if your opponent is about to pick up valuable encounters), so being able to predict where Mt. Doom will end up is useful. The players can lay tiles to influence the result to some extent, so this adds another tactical dimension late in the game.

Movement

The movement rules are simple: each turn, a player may, if she wishes, move her hobbit figure from its current region to any adjacent region that is not occupied by the other hobbit figure. Your hobbit can thus be used to block the opposing hobbit from getting to valuable encounter spaces. Large regions are useful as a form of "express" transport, since the hobbit is considered to be anywhere in the region, which may span a large portion of the map. As described in the following section, two types of encounter tokens can help with movement, and movement over water is not allowed until the player has obtained a boat.

(For the benefit of Mojo Nixon fans: “Hobbits need boats / Hobbits need boats / Hobbits, hobbits, hobbits / Hobbits, hobbits, hobbits / Hobbits need boats”)

Encounter tokens

There are four stacks of encounter tokens, one for each type of terrain. A random encounter token of the appropriate color is placed on an encounter region when it is created. Brown tokens are placed face down, while all other tokens are placed face-up.

Brown (mountain) encounter tokens are either empty caves, indicating no encounter, or fight encounters, featuring a picture of a monster such as an orcs, a troll, Shelob, or the Balrog. Fights are worth from 2 to 5 victory points, and cause the loss of either one or two turns. In practice, the loss of turns is rarely problematic, unless it happens very late in the game, and certain green and yellow tokens can avert the loss of turns. Shelob and the Balrog (4 and 5 victory points, respectively), are two of the most valuable tokens, and usually a player is happy to stumble across them. Brown tokens have another use: two of them can be traded in to get a boat, which makes it possible to traverse water regions and pick up blue tokens. Empty caves are worth 0 victory points, so ideally a player could trade these in to get the boat, although this is not always possible.

Green (forest) and yellow (plains) encounter tokens are either allies (Aragorn, Legolas, etc.) or equipment (Sting, Athelas, etc.). These encounter tokens are worth from 2 to 5 victory points. Each token also has a power that can be used once, at a cost of one victory point (so, for example, a "used" 3-point token is worth 2 points at the end of the game). The power is either travel, allowing the hobbit to move an extra region during the movement phase, or fighting, which eliminates one turn that would be lost due to a fight (from a brown token). Forest tokens are biased towards fighting and plains tokens towards travel, but otherwise there is no inherent difference between them, and both contain a total of 26 victory points.

The fighting tokens are handy, but in our experience the movement tokens are more powerful, since they may allow one hobbit to speed past another to pick up a valuable encounter token. For example, let’s say Gandalf (5 victory points) appears three regions away from “Frodo” and one region away from “Sam”, and it is now Frodo’s turn. If Frodo “spends” two movement tokens (at a cost of 2 victory points) to go past Sam and pick up Gandalf, then Frodo has effectively earned 8 victory points (he has denied Sam 5 points and has increased his own net points by 3).

Blue (water) encounter tokens are generally worth 1 victory point, and all have other special powers or effects. Ents allow you to take an extra turn during the map-building phase, which can be very handy, especially if you have tiles that set up a good play. Gwaihirs allow you to travel long distances, subject to certain constraints, and it is not uncommon for the well-timed play of a Gwaihir to shift the balance late in the game. Like the yellow and green tokens, these tokens cost 1 victory point to use, making them effectively worth zero victory points once used (we just discard them into the box to simplify the end-game accounting).

Two special (and, I daresay, controversial) encounter tokens are The Ring and Gollum. The Ring is inherently worth 1 victory point, whereas Gollum has no inherent value. The Ring is effectively worth 2 victory points if the player holding it gets to Mt. Doom first, and it is worth 3 victory points if the player reaches Mt. Doom first and also has Gollum. On the other hand, if the player has Gollum and fails to reach Mt. Doom first (either with or without the Ring), there is a penalty of 3 victory points. Given that there is already a bonus of 3 victory points for getting to Mt. Doom first, it is rarely worth the trouble and risk to try to pick up Gollum. I've played this game over a dozen times, and I don't think I remember ever seeing anyone bother with getting both the Ring and Gollum before proceeding to Mt. Doom. I seem to recall once picking up Gollum incidentally when I did not have the Ring, simply because he was on my shortest path to Mt. Doom and I was already ahead in the scoring (the “first-to-Mt.-Doom-bonus” cancelled out the “Gollum penalty”).

Given that this game is a theme slapped on a mechanic, one would hope that it would at least have really good mechanics; as such, this defect in the scoring is perhaps the most disappointing thing about the game (I got over the “Hobbit vs. Hobbit” weirdness pretty quickly). The good news is that it is pretty easy to come up with a number of alternative scoring systems, some of which are posted here on BGG. Or, as my fiancee and I have done, you can just accept the weird mechanic and enjoy the game for what it is: a lightweight break from more intense games.

Thread: Re:rules question

Torbin_Bequette — 2004-06-05T05:08:00+00:00

sanderkerel (#38139),

If the region in question can be made larger later in the game, it is not an encounter space at any time during the game. For an example of an encounter space, examine the mountains. All of the mountain sections create encounter spaces once they are made adjacent to another mountain section; one four sided "space" made up of 2 sections. You can't make it any bigger because it is self enclosed at that point, hence "completed". Hope that helps

Thread: rules question

sanderkerel — 2004-05-31T21:11:38+00:00

Hi everyone,

I have the dutch version of the game, which comes with badly translated rio grande rules. I was very happy to discover the the translated german rules on this site, because those are clearer and seem to make the game more fun.

I have a question about the translated german rules. They say:
As soon as a complete space is created consisting of exactly 2 sections, this area becomes an encounter space. (formatting added)
I wonder what is meant by a 'complete space'. Consider for example a tile in the landscape with two connected forests. The forests are a region of size two at the moment, but that region will grow bigger later in the game, when other forest tiles are placed next to the tile. Is this a complete space that should get an encounter chip?

In response to an earlier thread: I think it is logical to assume that a neutral tile consists of four separated sections, because that is suggested by the lines drawn on it. If the sections were connected they wouldn't have drawn them, I think.

Thread: Reifferent rules

zzini — 2004-03-18T00:39:21+00:00

Perdurab00 (#19724), we have picked up this game (but not played yet but read both rule sets, german and those provided by rio grande) since reading threads here and other places sighting what a good game this is once the german rules and maybe some scoring variants are put into place, in the german rules here on the geek it states, "Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, Boromir, Pippin or Merry (all green) coupled with Sting (Stich), Anduril, or Mithril (all yellow): When a player displays one of these combinations he loses one less movement turn in the battle against enemies in the mountains!" i take it this means you have to have 1 green and one yellow token mentioned to lose 1 movement point? in other words you have to have a character and a weapon type object to avoid losing 1 movement and therefore 2 characters and 2 objects to defeat the balrog and shelob? likewise for the rule of looking at an adjacent tile, you will need a character and a material type token?

also for each yellow-green combination used you lose a point at the end of the game, correct?

we plan on using the german rules, any other variants that anybody uses regularly or would suggest avoiding would be appreciated as i have read some play with all the tokens face down, all tokens when taken are kept secret until used except the ring, the ring must be found before anyone enters mount doom (you MUST have a boat to get the ring), play blue tiles on ALL enclosed water regions (not just the normal ones),

the final scoring i will assume most use the variants posted here but i also saw one for have the ring worth 5 points (should be most valuable item), attach an additional 5 points (10 total) for getting to Mt. Doom with the ring. This means if you're opponent has found the ring you had better try and get to Mt. Doom first or you are at a 10 point disadvatage, and not scoring creature-encounter points without playing a character-encounter tile to defeat them

Thread: Reifferent rules

Perdurab00 — 2003-09-20T08:47:31+00:00

Game Geek (#19722),

o The rules for initial tile placement are different.

o Yellow tokens allow you to peek at a nearby token (german) vs. yellow tokens allow you to move an additional step.

o Blue and brown tokens are placed faced down on the map (german) vs. only brown tokens are placed faced down.

These (and other) changes make a big difference to game play.

-----
There's a translation of the German rules on the Geek page, by the way.

Thread: Reifferent rules

Game Geek — 2003-09-20T07:42:07+00:00

What's the difference between the English and German rules?

Thread: Reifferent rules

Perdurab00 — 2003-05-20T06:46:25+00:00

Perdurab00 (#8703),
Hi, I was wondering why the Rio Grande version of the rules for LOTR:The Search are so different from the original rules. The game certainly plays very differently, but I love the game both ways.

I was unhappy with the original rules and changed them with the author's permission.

Jay M Tummelson
Rio Grande Games
www.riograndegames.com

PO Box 45715
Rio Rancho, NM 87174

Thread: Different rules

Perdurab00 — 2003-05-19T18:48:37+00:00

This is actually a tight, strategic little game. It's probably true, however, that the Rio Grande rules are broken - they are certainly different from the original rules in many ways.

I certainly recommend the german rules (available here on BGG in translation).

Thread: Re:For those who give the game a chance

dead jawa — 2003-01-13T20:55:50+00:00

Gamemaster (#5389),
We first played (paradoxically) that neutrals could form encounters, after the tiles around it have been placed, as that seemed to follow how the rules were written. That's how we discovered the problem. Then we went with the idea of neutals forming encounters only for mountains, even though the rules never placed any restrictions on neutrals forming encounters and (by way of the mountain clarification) implied that they did form encounters. This seemed the simplest fix but proved unsatisfying because we kept winding up with unused encounter tokens that way (perhaps we just wound up making crappier maps than you). We also occasionally wound up with huge areas connected by neutrals. So I came up with a fix that addressed both of these problems, and still required no waiting.

Thread: Re:For those who give the game a chance

Gamemaster — 2003-01-09T23:54:43+00:00

dead jawa (#5254),

Yes, that rule is not clarified in the rules. So, we base it off of what it DOES say, which is an encounter tile appears on mountains, even mountains attached to neutral tiles. So, we play that ONLY brown encounter tiles appear on neutral-mountain regions. No other encounter appears on a neutral tile.

This rule works very well and there is no waiting to see if an encounter space occurs on a neutral tile. Besides, encounter tiles usually run out on the rest of the board.

~Jeff

Thread: For those who give the game a chance

dead jawa — 2003-01-06T14:37:16+00:00

This is a great game, but if you're unable seperate a LOTR themed game (like LOTR chess) from one where you're actually playing the plot of the stories, then don't bother. It looks like several people have, while trying to make the game follow the LOTR plot more, damaged the quite good mechanics of the game. All they're doing is breaking the game by trying to make it follow the plot, not improving it.

One very important strategy that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere on BGG is the fact that the two Hobbits can't coexist on the same space (and can thus block eachother). The smart player doesn't just rush to the items with the most points, but carefully moves their piece around to deny the other player access to the section of the board with the most possible points on it. Then, scoop up those points when the other player trys getting points elsewhere. Remember, this isn't the book. Sam and Frodo aren't working together but the other character is instead your competition.

There is one possible paradox in the rules as presented (that should have been clarrified). When you play a Neutral Tile, you create a viable region for movement (at least two sections). But if you wait until surrounding tiles are played to determine whether or not it is an encounter space, you could move to the region and then determine if it has an encounter. Since the rules state that mountains on neutral tiles create encounter spaces (p. 3), there must be a non-paradoxical way to determine neutral encounter spaces at the time of placement. Therefore, the best way to do this (imho) is to assume that all four sections on a neutral tile are separate and non-adjacent (for purposes of determining connected regions). I.E. a neutral tile could be forest on its bottom section and right side, but those two forests are separate regions. Two neutral tiles touching form a neutral (blank, blasted, empty) region, without an encounter.

Thread: Re:General Comment

Prestonisnormal — 2002-09-03T18:19:00+00:00

Prestonisnormal (#3366),

OK, I think I have it down now. Been working on this game the artwork is just to cool to let it sit in the mediocrity that the original rules have it stuck in.

1. As stated before one person must have the ring in order for anyone to enter Mt. Doom (thus boats are needed which makes people search the brown tiles). All blue tiles are placed upside down. When one person finds the ring, they do not have to let the other person know, thus the opponent keeeps searching. Only when someone reaches the final Mt. Doom must the ring be produced. In order for all blue tiles to be played, whenever a water is closed a tile is placed on it.

2. Ring and Mt. Doom= +6
Ring and Gollum and Mt. Doom =+9
Ring and no Mt. Doom= +1
Gollum and no ring= -3

3. You get the brown points regardless of fighing the creatures or not.

Thread: Quick Comments

Prestonisnormal — 2002-08-30T20:01:34+00:00

I would rank game a 6 with current rules. With the rules I and others have added I give it a solid 8. New rules can be seen in gen. comments.

Thread: Re:General Comment

Prestonisnormal — 2002-08-29T13:59:39+00:00

Tom Scutt (#1754),

I have gone with the same rules as Greg, and added a few more to make it a little less abstract and more like the book.

1. The ring must be found before anyone can enter Mt Doom. This means all blue tiles are placed upsdie down in the game along with all brown tiles. Green and yellow are still placed up. This leads to alot more searching and since you need the boat.

2. I like the deal that you have with brown creatures and the VP. I have thought about balancing that out as well, since I feel you gain to much for running into a bad foe and it is to easy to defeat them.
We have thought about a die role to defeat them. You must role a four or higher, if not you spend another VP from your hero to roll again and again if needed.