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I've played it about 20 times (a few with the expansion) and I know where you're coming from. Actually my wife and I just played it three times at a gaming convention over the weekend.
Shelob's Lair appears to be the "make or break" board because there are many hardships (on the event track and lack of bonuses to pick up). If you can get through it, however, the final board isn't as bad as it looks and you should not need to "sacrifice a hobbit" in order to save the day. In fact, you can win many times with all party members surviving.
Here are some straightforward tips that can be easily implemented:
When you are playing cards, don't bother playing one card with a single symbol on it unless it really makes an impact for one party member or all.
Just playing one symbol isn't going to make an impact because you could refrain from playing cards and pick up two cards, and thus on your next turn, probably turn around and play two cards. If you instead elect to play one card, odds are you will be stuck playing one card on your next turn. This means that you've played two cards over two turns without picking any up. OTOH, you pick up two cards, and play two cards in two turns, while retaining the original card that you were going to play, thus netting you one card in the same amount of time. You also can gain a lot of flexibility for the next turn instead of being stuck with what you have.
Don't be afraid to do a "monty haul" thing and go for broke on your turn. If you can play two cards that gets you 3-4 symbols then go for it. As long as it balances out (ie. two life tokens and two shields) and you don't lock out other people from getting life tokens or other commodities then go right ahead. You will be optimizing movement through the board and hopefully progress through it very quickly.
Sometimes when a tile is played and you need to move on one of the tracks, you land on a space that issues a feature card that is usually a double symbol ally. Remember that you can immediately use that card in conjunction with another card during your card play phase. Since drawing a tile that doesn't exist on the mainboard also counts as a "wild tile" then you can play it on any legal track. Plan accordingly by looking at the feature card you will be picking up against the cards in your hand.
When the chips are down and Shelob's banging on the door, it's time to get creative. All three of the following will stop the flow of game time and these actions can be made even if it is not the active player's turn: Invoke the ring, summon Gandalf, play yellow Feature cards. Remember that many of these can be executed not only BEFORE an event tile is revealed, but AFTER the event tile is revealed and BEFORE the event tile is executed. This means that you can gamble and if you're not sure what tile is coming next, you can see what it is first. Then you can summon Gandalf, invoke the ring, play yellow feature cards before the event tile must be performed. This is handy when you can get off the board and avoid that event from actually taking place. This is one of the most important tactics you can do and can help balance the odds of survival.
Last, on the final Mordor board, sprint through the main travel track and get to the mountain to destroy the ring. You could conceivably forget about the other tracks. If the party possess many feet and wild cards, then everyone should be concentrating on using them to get through the main track. Feel free to invoke the ring, summon Gandalf for the double wild, and to sack 7 shields to pick up gollum (first event). Combined, these will move you over halfway through the main track while only performing (technically) one normal action. If you are low on feet and cards in general, you might want to go for Eowyn on the friendship track and try and stall for shields and feet cards.
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© Copyright 2003 by SGS
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