LotR 133 - Passage Through Mirkwood (31) and Jump Drive (8)

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I had my colleague JL over for the first time since the stupid plague put everyone in "lockdown" aka house arrest. This is a work colleague who also was one of the last people to visit, back in February. We've been playing intermittently, some Android:Netrunner, and we even set up his Gloomhaven box for a spin through the first scenario. He seems to have settled in to Lord of the Rings game for now, so that's what we set up.

Lord of the Rings LCG

As in February, these quests were played with a pair of deck in the Eowyn and the Odd Fellows Fellowship. Very standard Single Core decks with Leadership/Lore and Tactics/Spirit. Still fun to play!

In all of the following, I took the Leadership/Lore deck A Noble Core Rides Forth, with colleague JL taking A Noble Core Quests for a Fight.

We played Passage Through Mirkwood again, so that JL could get used to the game. He had forgotten a lot about it. We beat the quest, but definitely could have beaten faster, at least 1 maybe 2 rounds.

Our next play is likely going to be Escape from Dol Guldur.

Jump Drive

While this is my 8th game of Jump Drive, it's been a while, and I had review the rules in some detail. This was JL's first play. I was able to build an income engine (card draw) really early, which resulted in some massive scoring on the last two rounds. JL ended up using the Explore capability twice. Final score was 86 for me, 59 for JL.

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.