If i sleeve all the cards then the size of the Moria plastic packaging is just about right to fit them all in and still close it - so i do not personally have an issue with the size to be honest
However i do have an issue with the switch from cardboard to plastic clamshells - in a world where we are supposed to be more environmentally aware and reduce pollution this must be one of the worst decisions. The fact that i preferred the cardboard packs anyway still pales with the fact that we are now throwing a load more gaming plastic away - it is a ridiculous move and they should have been moving away from plastic not embracing it !   
I realise not everyone on an individual level is plastic conscious, but the fact is that the world is slowly coming to think that we should act , FFG as a company fell short of their role in this sadly. That said i notice that some of their newer products are looking more cardboard based again which may show they now conceded they made a mistake.

If i sleeve all the cards then the size of the Moria plastic packaging is just about right to fit them all in and still close it - so i do not personally have an issue with the size to be honest
However i do have an issue with the switch from cardboard to plastic clamshells - in a world where we are supposed to be more environmentally aware and reduce pollution this must be one of the worst decisions. The fact that i preferred the cardboard packs anyway still pales with the fact that we are now throwing a load more gaming plastic away - it is a ridiculous move and they should have been moving away from plastic not embracing it !   
I realise not everyone on an individual level is plastic conscious, but the fact is that the world is slowly coming to think that we should act , FFG as a company fell short of their role in this sadly. That said i notice that some of their newer products are looking more cardboard based again which may show they now conceded they made a mistake.

If i sleeve all the cards then the size of the Moria plastic packaging is just about right to fit them all in and still close it - so i do not personally have an issue with the size to be honest
However i do have an issue with the switch from cardboard to plastic clamshells - in a world where we are supposed to be more environmentally aware and reduce pollution this must be one of the worst decisions. The fact that i preferred the cardboard packs anyway still pales with the fact that we are now throwing a load more gaming plastic away - it is a ridiculous move and they should have been moving away from plastic not embracing it !   
I realise not everyone on an individual level is plastic conscious, but the fact is that the world is slowly coming to think that we should act , FFG as a company fell short of their role in this sadly. That said i notice that some of their newer products are looking more cardboard based again which may show they now conceded they made a mistake.

I am in on Sword & Sorcery Ancient Chronicles as well. I am not in on Middara as the theme and art is not really my cup of tea (and also my friend backed it so i will get to play it anyway).  I really like Sword & Sorcery, it is my current number one dungeon crawler > http://crusadersgames.co.uk/fantasy-board-games/
And i do get what you saying about the characters - there has to be an element of scripted choice going on if there is a story path in the app, however i am not sure it is clear how much scope there is to tweak the character to your own preference, but selecting the character you most like is going to be important. However on a counter arguement, could you not say that each of the Sword & Sorcery characters are scripted in terms of you are chosing upgrade cards from a limited pool - although you can choose between lawful or chaotic to bend it a bit. Most dungeon crawl board games tend to have some limitations on the character and how they develop. Massive Darkness is a clear exception where you can pick a barbarian and make him a sorceror or thief - i actually do not like this at all as my own personal preference is to stick to some guidelines on character type - in fact for MD2 they have chucked this approach away as most feedback wasnt overly positive that i saw. Middara is a more choose your own build i agree, but i cannot say that i prefer this - to me it is just a different style of game.
I really enjoy debating dungeon crawlers, there is no right or wrong just different designs or interpretations - you will like some and really not like others depending on your personal preferance. In this case i am lucky that Legends is playing more to the hand i wanted dealt, but clearly its not for everyone. Hopefully 3rd edition one day will be better for you - however we both seem to like Sword & Sorcery which is great.  
I think my point is the forum here feels so negative but i guess that is because negative or disappointed = vocal but happy and interested people are generally not the ones who bother posting. There is a general desire within dungeon crawlers being released now to have something new or different to stand out and i think this is natural otherwise a game can get lost in the crowd very easily. Descent has a good well known brand name which is why they used it, they have chosen to push the app side and 3d terrain and while I can see this may not be for everyone, it is something to market it with and it may become one that does quite well - i hope so anyway so that it develops and continues.

See while I think the app is going to bottle neck the game for groups of gamers terribly its not what makes this a hard pass... Its not the lost overlord either, which I'm super sad about as I love being the overlord but I knew it was coming and had kinda made peace with the fact.
Reason I've chosen your post btw is because you said you spend £175 on sword and sorcery.. one of my fav games, I'm all in the ancient chronicles as well and have even been doing proof reading on it, I'm big on that game. I'm also a collaborator on Middara which is another game in the same space and I love to bits... But this game isn't like those and this is where they lost me...
Six pre chosen characters, with predefined races/class combos. You can choose from a selection of skills and upgrades on those characters which they decided was fitting for those race class combos. This game is like the designers ran a roleplay session for a massive campaign and broke it down into encounters between the narrative... The narrative choices are those they made with there characters which they of course love, but they are THEIR characters not ours, then you handle the next encounter, everything that happens is limited to the scope and context of how they saw those characters, you can't even choose your own class/race. They come with pre selected load outs and you know there skills are going to have specific weapon builds in mind, you know the ones they choose... This could be great if the writing supports it which is a big if in itself, but you just need one situation where the narrative makes your character choose something different from how you imagined them and the whole story is ruined.  Your playing there adventure, with there roleplay characters and choices they've chosen for how they imagine those characters... And unlike middara which shares some of those issues, there's no alternative way to play and Middara is completely classless, you can build any character anyway you like so aren't stuck with someone elses imagined character...
That combined with the bottle neck I predict on the APP, the loss of Overlord is why I'm never going to buy this game, which is a good achievement from them, it was a auto buy for me, I have all of 1e, all of 2e and I could have coped with app, fine with co-op but I'm not fun replaying someone elses campaign using identical characters and a preselected narrative, that's not fun its frustrating.

I am quite surprised how many comments are on the negative side really. 
To me there are so many good ideas, interactive storyline, 3 dimensional terrain you can interact with,  weapons to upgrade and craft, heroes with different dice and ways they play using the dice, elements that true to 2nd edition with fatigue and surges, models that look great (surprised me).  I can potentially see this as the dungeon crawl i have waited a long time for.
I get the areas people are highlighting, overlord needed to go really to make this a co-op journey - keep that for another competitive Decent 3rd edition, tiles i get were so good in 2nd edition but i feel like they want the terrain to overlay and pop not the tiles (just my judgement) so i can see the disappointment a bit, i personally quite like the art and am very glad its not just a reprint of Runebound and Descent heroes once again - have we not had enough of those now ?   
Ok price - yes high no doubt but then take a look at things - how much is Massive Darkness 1 lets say £120 core set (not kickstarter) - and that game has none of the impacting elements or storyline this one has and the gameplay is pretty bland as is treasure or being chucked the items you need, and the campaign was laughable. Massive Darkness 2 i backed it , but again i see more interesting things here than in that one which costs $145 plus $40+ postage to get any sort of campaign and a lot more if you want to add extra model sets - yes it has a lot of models but i pretty confident that Legends will provide me with a better gaming experience. I have seen other decent dungeon crawlers on kickstarter, and this one feels like it will beat most of them and the money is not coming up front.
Chronicles of Drunagor is an interesting KS to compare with - has a kind of 3d element and tries to do interactive areas using a book and is campaign - costs between $99 and $269 plus postage - i did not back that and i would take a punt on Legends over that one too given its app campaign. 
Or you could buy heroquest remake for £150 from zatu - is that a better game than this ?
I spent £175 on sword and sorcery which is also a storyline led dungeon crawl adventure game - and actually this is one my favourite dungeon crawlers and was worth every penny lol
But it goes to show that not everyone is down on this - quite the opposite for me. I would likely sell other dungeon crawlers i own to get this one if i needed to raise the money. I really hope it is a major success line for them.

I am quite surprised how many comments are on the negative side really. 
To me there are so many good ideas, interactive storyline, 3 dimensional terrain you can interact with,  weapons to upgrade and craft, heroes with different dice and ways they play using the dice, elements that true to 2nd edition with fatigue and surges, models that look great (surprised me).  I can potentially see this as the dungeon crawl i have waited a long time for.
I get the areas people are highlighting, overlord needed to go really to make this a co-op journey - keep that for another competitive Decent 3rd edition, tiles i get were so good in 2nd edition but i feel like they want the terrain to overlay and pop not the tiles (just my judgement) so i can see the disappointment a bit, i personally quite like the art and am very glad its not just a reprint of Runebound and Descent heroes once again - have we not had enough of those now ?   
Ok price - yes high no doubt but then take a look at things - how much is Massive Darkness 1 lets say £120 core set (not kickstarter) - and that game has none of the impacting elements or storyline this one has and the gameplay is pretty bland as is treasure or being chucked the items you need, and the campaign was laughable. Massive Darkness 2 i backed it , but again i see more interesting things here than in that one which costs $145 plus $40+ postage to get any sort of campaign and a lot more if you want to add extra model sets - yes it has a lot of models but i pretty confident that Legends will provide me with a better gaming experience. I have seen other decent dungeon crawlers on kickstarter, and this one feels like it will beat most of them and the money is not coming up front.
Chronicles of Drunagor is an interesting KS to compare with - has a kind of 3d element and tries to do interactive areas using a book and is campaign - costs between $99 and $269 plus postage - i did not back that and i would take a punt on Legends over that one too given its app campaign. 
Or you could buy heroquest remake for £150 from zatu - is that a better game than this ?
I spent £175 on sword and sorcery which is also a storyline led dungeon crawl adventure game - and actually this is one my favourite dungeon crawlers and was worth every penny lol
But it goes to show that not everyone is down on this - quite the opposite for me. I would likely sell other dungeon crawlers i own to get this one if i needed to raise the money. I really hope it is a major success line for them.

I am quite surprised how many comments are on the negative side really. 
To me there are so many good ideas, interactive storyline, 3 dimensional terrain you can interact with,  weapons to upgrade and craft, heroes with different dice and ways they play using the dice, elements that true to 2nd edition with fatigue and surges, models that look great (surprised me).  I can potentially see this as the dungeon crawl i have waited a long time for.
I get the areas people are highlighting, overlord needed to go really to make this a co-op journey - keep that for another competitive Decent 3rd edition, tiles i get were so good in 2nd edition but i feel like they want the terrain to overlay and pop not the tiles (just my judgement) so i can see the disappointment a bit, i personally quite like the art and am very glad its not just a reprint of Runebound and Descent heroes once again - have we not had enough of those now ?   
Ok price - yes high no doubt but then take a look at things - how much is Massive Darkness 1 lets say £120 core set (not kickstarter) - and that game has none of the impacting elements or storyline this one has and the gameplay is pretty bland as is treasure or being chucked the items you need, and the campaign was laughable. Massive Darkness 2 i backed it , but again i see more interesting things here than in that one which costs $145 plus $40+ postage to get any sort of campaign and a lot more if you want to add extra model sets - yes it has a lot of models but i pretty confident that Legends will provide me with a better gaming experience. I have seen other decent dungeon crawlers on kickstarter, and this one feels like it will beat most of them and the money is not coming up front.
Chronicles of Drunagor is an interesting KS to compare with - has a kind of 3d element and tries to do interactive areas using a book and is campaign - costs between $99 and $269 plus postage - i did not back that and i would take a punt on Legends over that one too given its app campaign. 
Or you could buy heroquest remake for £150 from zatu - is that a better game than this ?
I spent £175 on sword and sorcery which is also a storyline led dungeon crawl adventure game - and actually this is one my favourite dungeon crawlers and was worth every penny lol
But it goes to show that not everyone is down on this - quite the opposite for me. I would likely sell other dungeon crawlers i own to get this one if i needed to raise the money. I really hope it is a major success line for them.

Well i am really excited about the new game.
I do not feel they have to try and replicate everything that was in the 2nd edition - they want to make an app based dungeon crawl which is built from ground up unlike road to legend. There is so much in 2nd edition anyway that if you want to play overlord, keep playing that one. I am really looking forward to a new adventure game with surprise app generated content and future expandability.
And what they have shown looks very cool to me, i think this could be the best dungeon crawl around but we have to wait and see. I am much more excited for this than Frosthaven for instance which just looks more like a lot more Gloomhaven really with a few minor tweaks and additions.
Should add that the weapon crafting idea feels excellent and builds on what sword & sorcery did a little bit of - how much more interesting is having to search and find things to help craft a next level sword - compare that to the ridiculous loot drop extravaganza of Massive Darkness where you do not have to earn anything just pick up 700 items in each room and change it into whatever you want (i exaggerated of course but you get the point).

Well i am really excited about the new game.
I do not feel they have to try and replicate everything that was in the 2nd edition - they want to make an app based dungeon crawl which is built from ground up unlike road to legend. There is so much in 2nd edition anyway that if you want to play overlord, keep playing that one. I am really looking forward to a new adventure game with surprise app generated content and future expandability.
And what they have shown looks very cool to me, i think this could be the best dungeon crawl around but we have to wait and see. I am much more excited for this than Frosthaven for instance which just looks more like a lot more Gloomhaven really with a few minor tweaks and additions.
Should add that the weapon crafting idea feels excellent and builds on what sword & sorcery did a little bit of - how much more interesting is having to search and find things to help craft a next level sword - compare that to the ridiculous loot drop extravaganza of Massive Darkness where you do not have to earn anything just pick up 700 items in each room and change it into whatever you want (i exaggerated of course but you get the point).

Quite amazing the amount of work you have put into this , and it does have a lot of useful tools for co-operative play in there - so thank you

Quite amazing the amount of work you have put into this , and it does have a lot of useful tools for co-operative play in there - so thank you

I am happy to announce that the Sands of the Past expansion has been released. 
For more details see my BGG post.

Just started the cycle and I have to say i really enjoyed this quest solo, it is a longer one than most and it may be i just had a nicely balanced deck to play against it but i loved the theme of hunting the dragon through various caves and then holding my breath as the allies died one by one when the ice dragon was finally cornered. My latest game i went through my whole 50 card play deck (that never happens) and ended with 1 card left in my hand and a threat of 48, all my allies were killed, but the three heroes surviving (Gandalf, Legolas, Eowyn) finally brought down the drake. It did not help having to spend ages finding the clues and having the dragon fully healed again before i cornered him for the 2nd time, but i was not after a quick game and this was great fun.
I do like quests with a story and with the weather and cave hunting this one really has got it for me > http://crusadersgames.co.uk/board-games/lord-of-the-rings-lcg/

Just started the cycle and I have to say i really enjoyed this quest solo, it is a longer one than most and it may be i just had a nicely balanced deck to play against it but i loved the theme of hunting the dragon through various caves and then holding my breath as the allies died one by one when the ice dragon was finally cornered. My latest game i went through my whole 50 card play deck (that never happens) and ended with 1 card left in my hand and a threat of 48, all my allies were killed, but the three heroes surviving (Gandalf, Legolas, Eowyn) finally brought down the drake. It did not help having to spend ages finding the clues and having the dragon fully healed again before i cornered him for the 2nd time, but i was not after a quick game and this was great fun.
I do like quests with a story and with the weather and cave hunting this one really has got it for me > http://crusadersgames.co.uk/board-games/lord-of-the-rings-lcg/

Thank you, as a solo player i will definitely be following your blog and am interested in seeing your solo rule tweaks. I really enjoy your site so thank you...
My own take on how i enjoy solo play :
I do have two core sets and do not limit myself so i can use two copies of the relevant cards, for example unexpected courage, although it is so rare that i ever get both in play in one game it seems, but it does increases the odds of it appearing.  I always use a 50 card support deck.
I use all the encounter cards, removing some always feels a little bit of a game limiting option and could lose the real flavour of the quest.
I always start with an extra resource, which to me has always been the best balancing item enabling you to get a card or two in play as a single player early on. So i use a semi-easy mode in reality.
I am not very knowledgeable on the books, but i would tend to limit thematically to some extent for instance no mounts included on the ships or eagles underground, as these just do not make sense to me.
I have dabbled with using rules for ranged and sentinel - mainly : exhaust a ranged character to deal one damage to an enemy in the staging area / sentinel exhaust to add their defense to another defender. However of late i have dropped these rules again and tend not to miss then overly much.
Tweak a quest card rule. This is rare but some  harder quests are clearly written with only multiplayer in mind, for instance an example is some 'first player' triggers which would unfairly impact a solo game every round whereas there is a clear inference to spread the pain across players. So in some cases i may reduce the trigger to every other round to compensate for the fact that i should have passed the first player token on. I only do this for the most difficult quests and where i see a clear relationship between the trigger and player count. The witch king attack effect in battle of pelennor fields is an example of this. Conversely i have also been known to add an additional encounter trigger such as 'search for an enemy and add to staging', when a quest is too easy with my current deck to make them more difficult. Sometimes this is easier than starting to limit what you can include in your deck and trying to remember which cards were issued with which set.
 In the end i have no issues about players making the game play out solo in a way that works for them. It is the best solo game i own by far > http://crusadersgames.co.uk/board-games/lord-of-the-rings-lcg/
   
 

Thank you, as a solo player i will definitely be following your blog and am interested in seeing your solo rule tweaks. I really enjoy your site so thank you...
My own take on how i enjoy solo play :
I do have two core sets and do not limit myself so i can use two copies of the relevant cards, for example unexpected courage, although it is so rare that i ever get both in play in one game it seems, but it does increases the odds of it appearing.  I always use a 50 card support deck.
I use all the encounter cards, removing some always feels a little bit of a game limiting option and could lose the real flavour of the quest.
I always start with an extra resource, which to me has always been the best balancing item enabling you to get a card or two in play as a single player early on. So i use a semi-easy mode in reality.
I am not very knowledgeable on the books, but i would tend to limit thematically to some extent for instance no mounts included on the ships or eagles underground, as these just do not make sense to me.
I have dabbled with using rules for ranged and sentinel - mainly : exhaust a ranged character to deal one damage to an enemy in the staging area / sentinel exhaust to add their defense to another defender. However of late i have dropped these rules again and tend not to miss then overly much.
Tweak a quest card rule. This is rare but some  harder quests are clearly written with only multiplayer in mind, for instance an example is some 'first player' triggers which would unfairly impact a solo game every round whereas there is a clear inference to spread the pain across players. So in some cases i may reduce the trigger to every other round to compensate for the fact that i should have passed the first player token on. I only do this for the most difficult quests and where i see a clear relationship between the trigger and player count. The witch king attack effect in battle of pelennor fields is an example of this. Conversely i have also been known to add an additional encounter trigger such as 'search for an enemy and add to staging', when a quest is too easy with my current deck to make them more difficult. Sometimes this is easier than starting to limit what you can include in your deck and trying to remember which cards were issued with which set.
 In the end i have no issues about players making the game play out solo in a way that works for them. It is the best solo game i own by far > http://crusadersgames.co.uk/board-games/lord-of-the-rings-lcg/
   
 

Hi everyone,
I am pleased to announce that Vision of the Palantir will be starting a new series as we welcome a new author to the blog: dragoncymru. This new series of his will be called There and Back Again, and will be a true solo Progression series. But not just any progression series, this one will make slight tweeks to the card to balance them for solo players, and will try to stay as thematic as possible, ergo: no Eagles in Moria. Read all about this introduction to the series here: https://visionofthepalantir.com/2019/05/02/introduction-to-the-there-and-back-again-series/
The entire series will be posted at a regular interval on Vision of the Palantir and can be found here: https://visionofthepalantir.com/other/there-and-back-again/
Hopefully, this will allow me to keep up the stream of content for the coming 5 months, as I will be busy graduating. In the mean time, I will also like to mention that the final date for becoming eligible for exclusive VotP loot will be August 31st. If you are subscribed to the Patreon page by then, you will have some awesome loot heading your way in October. I will be attending Con of the Rings 2019, so I can hand it to you in person. If you cannot attend, then I will mail it to you, but additional shipping costs may apply. We have recently crossed the $50 mark, so we are very close to meeting the next goal, at which I will be releasing the second strategy guide for cycles 3&4 to the public. Patreon subscribers get early access to this document, which is being worked on as we speak.
That about covers it. Please check out the new series, I will keep this thread updated with the new articles that are released (hopefully as soon as next week).
Durins_Father

There are a number of uk stockings listed , albeit none have very much stock in them.
I do not know what happened to the last 2019 re-print run as nothing i was after have ever showed up in the UK despite them coming up as shipped on FFG website etc- i am not sure if they are still coming or if there was never enough stock printed to actually reach the uk - this is especially true of the saga expansions.
It is as tough a task hunting down specific older packs as actually beating them in play  - slowly getting there, added Old Forest and Stone of Erech this year (albeit the forest was a relatively expensive place to visit in the end !).
I would hate to be just starting out, it is slightly less daunting when you already have a lot of packs to narrow down the searches. 
Wizard's Quest and Woodland Realm look imminent now which is exciting - has been a long wait for those as well !

I agree with the poster about giant spider and dungeon crawl type quests, these always go down well with me.
I have a list of my own favourite quests based on the quest not the player cards, and grouped into type on my website > http://crusadersgames.co.uk/board-games/lord-of-the-rings-lcg/
Currently i really enjoy replaying Lost In Mirkwood & Return to Mirkwood, Seventh Level, Redhorn Gate, Treachery of Rhudaur - there are many good ones around though !

I'm not sure how to answer this question.  There are quests that are pure fun yet require specific builds.  Some quests are more open ended and give the player a lot of design space.  There are incredibly difficult quests that push you into a narrow design space.  This game gives you a lot of variety.
Its the kind of game where whats fun for one player is not fun for another.
I find the variety comes from the deck building challenge.  I really like building decks.
As for scenarios.
I really like Escape From Mount Gram.  That one lets you put captured cards into play at no cost when you 'rescue' them.  Bring your janky decks here and see whats behind door number one!
For some odd reason I like Nightmare Passage Through Mirkwood. As for others in no particular order I like Across the Ettenmoors, Massing at Osgiliath, Foundations of Stone, Nightmare Journey Along the Anduin, Battle of Lake-Town (hey its Smaug), Peril in Pelargir (excuse to play Beorn), Trouble in Tharbad, anything that feels like Dungeons and Dragons (Rhudaur), and anything with giant Spiders. 

yes - i mostly order from chaos cards or magicmadhouse myself

Well i do have the two expansions required and now ordered Belthir off the back of this release - so hopefully others will also buy expansion content to play it which will boost sales and FFG will do well from it. They need to keep their stock levels up though.
Maybe we will get an undead campaign or trollfens one later as well. A Bilehall campaign would be awesome.

You are building your own fantasy adventure story, two heroes sacrificed themselves for the benefit of others, and the goal was achieved. You won in my book, however there is room for improvement to try and defeat with all heroes intact.  I always tell my own story as i play which helps make it fun win or lose really.

You are building your own fantasy adventure story, two heroes sacrificed themselves for the benefit of others, and the goal was achieved. You won in my book, however there is room for improvement to try and defeat with all heroes intact.  I always tell my own story as i play which helps make it fun win or lose really.