Lord of the Rings LCG: Flight of the Stormcaller
Strap in; this is going to be a long article. For years, I have been busy reviewing products and quests for LOTR LCG, but I have never done an article on every single expansion, reviewing both quests and player cards. In truth, this article borrows a lot from Ian’s New Player Buying Guide over at Tales from the Cards . The last time that article was updated was 6 years ago, so I will try and update that myself. I will also add sections for the Revised Content and whether or not buying a pack would be smart if you already own things like the Starter Decks or revised Sagas. Nightmare decks will be left out at the moment since the market is very niche, and it would add 50 expansions to the list. If I don’t want to wait on this article until Christmas (and keep my sanity), I’ll exclude those and perhaps wait for a dedicated NM Buying Guide once I have reviewed every single NM quest. In the meantime, see Ian’s review of everything up til The Antlered Crown here . And to those of you looking for a summarized version of this list on what to buy, see my original buying guide article here. Before we get started, here are a few notes: FFG has confirmed in 2023 that there will be no reprints of the old content, which will be the majority of what is covered in this article. You will have to rely on the second-hand market to get most of these items. I will refer you to this article of mine on where to have the best chance at finding these items, and what pitfalls to avoid. I will also not be including any fan-made content on this list. If you have heard of these projects, you are probably informed well enough to make a decision on whether to buy it or not. You can find more info about these expansions on the sites of the creators. This article only goes into content designed and published by Fantasy Flight Games. From here on, the article will cover each expansion in a brief table on each expansion. The setup for this will look as such, followed by a short paragraph of me talking about the quest and the player cards.: These sections will first list the title of the expansion (not the quests) followed by an image of what the box should look like. This should help you to identify the expansion when seen in shops or online. The type of expansion lists whether or not it is an Adventure Pack, Deluxe Expansion, Print on Demand set, etc. If other expansions are required to play the quest, it will be listed alongside it. This assumes that everyone reading this has a Core Set, revised or otherwise. Without a Core Set, you cannot play the game! Next up is the difficulty of the quest as experienced by the community. I could have added my personal experience, but I would like to make this article as objective as possible. I also won’t include FFG’s rating since that makes little sense. The community difficulty scores are obtained from https://www.lotr-lcg-quest-companion.gamersdungeon.net/ , and you can leave your vote there as well! The quality of the quest is slightly more subjective, and I will rank the quest 1 to 5 stars in how well it balances the game mechanics and shakes things up. Boring quests with a lot of repetition will score lower than quests that have a signature mechanic that people often replay the quest for. The scale will be as such: The next bit is on the included player cards. I rank the quality of cards included and will list the best card in the pack according to myself. This will be a scale of 0-10, judging on which cards I deem worth including in decks. It’s the best measurement I can think of, as there are 10 cards per AP. For larger collections, I’ll try and see if I can explain my reasoning behind the score. The archetypes supported by this pack will be listed below, these can also be found in the Archetype Analysis tab on the blog. I will also include a section on whether or not the cards included are in any of the revised content expansions, mainly those of the Starter Decks. These rankings are as such: The last section attempts to answer that burning question: should you buy it the second you see one. While the answer should usually be yes, there might be better options within the cycle or other expansions better worth your money. This depends on your collection size already, as you might be inclined to buy the last pack of a cycle to complete it even if I don’t recommend it. The categories are: Before we kick off, a shameless plug: In order to support our efforts at the blog, please consider donating any amount via Paypal. It helps us a lot in making these articles and supporting the community with both digital and physical content. Previous donations have allowed us to create two books already, and more support is appreciated for additional books in the future. https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=UDQHK27L3EEAN With that, we will kick off this monster of an article. I hope it helps you all to make informed decisions on what pack to buy next! The Core Set should always be your first purchase for this game. Not this version though, go with the Revised Core set to get 3 copies of each player card and the latest errata on all of the cards. The scenarios included do a decent job at showing the difficulty levels of the game, though you will soon have to expand beyond the Core Set to make a decent deck. Easy to recommend this box, as it will be the start of your journey into the game. The first AP that we ever got holds some nostalgic value, especially if you can find the old cardboard versions of the box. The quest is so-so, and much improved in Nightmare mode. The constant setback to stage 2 if you don’t fine enough clues, coupled with the potential location lock or huge enemies early in the game make for a weird balance with this pack. For player cards, the pack is surprisingly good for this cycle. Bilbo Baggins is over-costed, but if you are building an Eagle deck, this is a must-buy for The Eagles and Coming and Winged Guardian. Plenty of value to be had with this pack, apart from the nostalgia. Another strong pack here, mostly improving on quest design. This is not a quest to play blind on your own, but is a great time with friends as you face the trolls and recruit Grimbeorn to your cause. The player cards are a varied set, filling in some niches and are worth to include in your deck. Song of Wisdom and A Burning Brand in the same deck allows any defender to ignore shadow cards, which is huge. Getting Frodo as a hero is nice, though you are not able to play him for most of the Saga’s. He is pretty solid though, as long as you pair him with threat reduction. Poor Rhosgobel, always the butt of the joke. This is arguably the worst quest design in the game, and you are punished heavily while escorting a wounded Eagle to Radagast and finding enough Athelas to heal him. Sounds great in concept, but the loss-conditions on stage 3 are brutal, and there is a lot of direct damage that gets dealt to your characters. It’s not a good time, but better in Nightmare mode. The player cards are decent, but many can be found in the starter decks. If you want Radagast and Landroval for your Eagle deck, go ahead, but aside from that and getting more copies of Ancient Mathom, I would skip this pack if I were you. Where Rhosgobel is an example of bad quest design, Emyn Muil is an example of boring quest design (though I personally don’t mind it). Getting nothing but locations for 8 turns straight can be pretty underwhelming, and a surprise treachery that deals 2 damage to the board will seem like an unfair way to lose. The quest is honestly nothing memorable. The player cards are… ok, I guess. Brand son of Bain is horrible and had to be fixed by AleP. The Leadership cards never see play. The eagle support is more padding for the deck than cards you rely on, but Gildor isn’t too bad for a Noldor deck. If you are playing progression though, it will be a while before that deck becomes viable. Until then, avoid this pack. The quest design on this stinks as bad as the swamp, as you have to guard an objective that can disappear into the encounter deck. Still, if you are fast enough, it is an easy win. The reason to buy this pack though, lies in the player cards. This version of Boromir is awesome, and could be a fun replacement in the Gondor starter deck. Fast Hitch is an essential tool for Hobbit decks that you otherwise don’t have access to. Other good toolkit cards in this pack include a great Battle-quester (Vassal of the Windlord), threat cancellation (Elfhelm), and portable Ranged/Tactics icon/damage deflection with the other attachments in this pack. To finish the cycle, FFG threw all the big enemies into one quest, gave you a screaming Gollum to draw them closer to you, pointed to Thranduil’s Hall, and wished you good luck. This is a tough quest, and many progression players will need to bring out the two-handed strategies to stand a chance. The player cards are hit and miss though. Dain Ironfoot is a staple for Dwarf decks, and with the Dwarrowdelf cycle coming up, he’ll be a great boon for your Dwarves, unless you already have him from the starter deck. Mirkwood Runner, West Road Traveller, and Astonishing Speed are also available in starter decks, so buying this pack won’t get you as much value. Eagles of the Misty Mountains is a staple for Eagle decks though, and the core of many of their synergies. If you are building an Eagle deck, this becomes a Must Buy in a heartbeat. Our first Deluxe box gave us a taste of what these boxes feel like. The player cards are focused mostly around a single archetype, and there are three quests that build onto each other narratively. Into the Pit is a classic decktesting quest that tries to hurt you from all different angles. The Seventh Level is a beat-em-up kind of quest, where you have fight hordes upon hordes of Goblins whilst trying to make it through the quest cards. Flight from Moria has aged a little more than the others, and can be over in a single round with a bit of luck. Play it the intended way, and you will be running for your lives with a Balrog close behind. If you ever have a spare afternoon on your own, try beating these three quests back-to-back, it’ll be a good time! As for player cards, it’s all beardy boys in this box. If you don’t like Dwarves, then this set of player cards is going to do very little for you. However, if you like Dwarves, then you likely already own the Dwarves of Durin Starter deck, and you will have access to the best cards from this box already. There are some decent additions to that deck, especially in Spirit with the Zigil Miner and Untroubled by Darkness (which is great in a cycle set mostly underground), but there is nothing that this box has that pushes Dwarves to further heights. Get this for the quests, rather than the player cards. The first AP of the Dwarrowdelf cycle takes you up the mountains above Moria. This quest punishes characters by reducing willpower, and dealing damage to any that have 0 willpower. This makes it difficult to get to the end, but not impossible if you build for it. The final stretch is designed poorly though. You need a set number of Victory Points to win, and the necessary locations could not show up all game or be discarded as shadow cards. This can make the quest take forever if you are unlucky. For player cards, this is quite a weak pack. Elrohir is nice, but you will need Elladan to make him worth his cost. Timely Aid is perhaps the only card that is used often by me out of the 10 cards in this pack, and that’s mostly thanks to later cards making Secrecy viable. While there are some absolutely BS treacheries in this quest (which haunt the dreams of many players to this day), the Ambush mechanic is great! It forces enemies to engage you in the quest phase, often punishing you if they engage right away. The idea is quite novel and I would have liked to see this be used more often. Sadly, many players remember the quest for Sleeping Sentry and Orc Ambush giving them a quick scoop on turn 1-2. In terms of player cards, you get Elladan, for whom you’ll need Elrohir from the previous pack. There are also some good Secrecy cards in here, as Out of the Wild can be a fantastic way to remove some horrible cards from the encounter deck. The End Comes is… less than ideal though. This is the first hero-focused deck, where many of the included player cards focus on the hero included. This is Lore Aragorn for this pack, the first time a hero gets a second version. Sword that was Broken, Arwen, and Elrond’s Counsel all go well in his deck, and you can even give him the Rivendell Bow included here as well. Aside from him, Resourceful is a fantastic way to compensate for being down a hero if you choose to dive into Secrecy. The quest is pretty iconic, fighting off the many tentacles of the Watcher. The ending is a bit clunky though, and later player cards clear this quest without you having to go through the Doors of Durin or kill the Watcher. This is quite a forgettable pack, were it not for the fact that this includes one of the best healers in the game. Warden of Healing can be reason enough to get this pack, though the rest of the cards are more niche. Erebor Battlemaster and Hama have received errata that make them less powerful than before, but Word of Command can be useful in the right deck. The quest is nothing special, and nobody really replays it. The Locate tests can be infuriating the one or two times per game that you have to do them. Skip it to get to the good stuff! This is the best quest in the cycle, and an all-time community favorite for multiplayer games. You are sent to the lowest point of Moria, where you’ll fight off horrors unlike any other. Washing away and splitting up for the first time gives you a really unique experience, trying to find ona another to escape the Nightmare. The player cards in this pack are top-notch. This is the Spirit Glorfindel pack, who is one of the best heroes that threat can buy. Pair him with Light of Valinor, Asfaloth, ánd Daeron’s Runes in one pack, and I’d almost suggest you get more than 1 copy of the pack! Don’t though, other people will want this pack as well. The conclusion of the Dwarrowdelf cycle gives a fight against the Balrog, which is a very climactic boss-fight. It also gives you a taste of Secrecy, since every deck starts at 0 threat. For player cards, this is the Elrond pack, but there are a lot of other useful cards in here as well. Hands Upon the Bow can snipe anything from the staging area, Hardy Leadership further buffs your Dwarves, and Master of the Forge allows you to find the attachments in your deck a lot faster. Elrond is already included in the Elves of Lorien deck though, as well as some other player cards, so you won’t get the best deal with this pack if you already own that one. At the start of the Against the Shadow cycle you will find that the difficulty for the game has suddenly increased. Progression players now come to a steep learning curve but the player cards included do help to overcome some of the struggle. Peril in Pelargir is an introduction to the Siege/Battle quest mechanic, where you fight through the city to keep hold of an objective. Into Ithilien is your first introduction to the Mumakil enemies, which will force you into combat if an objective ally dies. The final quest at Cair Andros has some interesting quest design, where the number of stages you have to clear depends on the number of locations you’ve cleared. All three quests fall victim to notorious treacheries that punish multi-sphere decks, and enemies that hit way harder than anything in Dwarrowdelf. It’s a struggle, but that does make victory over these quests all the sweeter. The player card focus in this pack is on the Gondor trait, and setting up the Outlands and Trap minor archetypes to be later expanded upon in the cycle. Most of these cards will be in the Gondor starter deck, making this a tricky box to recommend. The heroes are solid, but you won’t need duplicates. Additional copies of Ranger Spikes and Envoy of Pelargir are nice to have if you want to build two Gondor decks at the same time, though I would recommend different expansions if you are going in that direction. This is arguably the best AP in the collection based on player cards included. There isn’t a single card in here that I’d rather not touch. The stand-out trait in this pack is obviously Outlands, which get a hero and 1 ally per sphere in this pack. It makes the pack almost a deck of its own, and makes this pack worth getting even if you cannot find the Deluxe. The quest is good as well, and very replayable with different villains and plots to discover. It does require proper location control, but that’s a minor comment on an otherwise amazing pack. Get this whenever you can. Coming off the incredible high of the previous pack, the Druadan Forest helps decks that feature heroes of the same sphere. Each sphere gets one card that works best in a mono-sphere deck, and the neutral White Tower Watchman can slot into any deck with heroes of the same sphere. Aside from this, the pack has Forlong for the Outlands deck and Mighty Prowess as a great tool to dish out some direct damage. The quest itself is quite novel, but I am not a big fan personally. The Prowl keyword is annoying, as it steals resources you desperately need to pay off the enemies. It’s nice fighting something other than Orcs though. Honestly, there is little harm in skipping this pack. The quest is a nice break from the brutal difficulty of the cycle, but poses little challenge and can be beaten in as little as two turns. The idea of you rescuing villagers is nice though, but it is better executed in the Nightmare version of the quest. The real stinker in this pack are the player cards. Pippin is outclassed by his Lore version and even his ally version if you slap Messenger of the King on him. The Gondor cards in this pack don’t see a lot of play, as Gondorian Discipline is reactionary, Minas Tirith Lampwright needs a lot of scrying (or luck), and ally Denethor is just bad. Get this pack for completion’s sake, but skip it otherwise and have a quick run through the quest digitally. This pack is a little better than the last one, though the quest suffers more from early-development-syndrome. The quest can either be won in 1 turn, or it can take forever. The gimmick is that you take control of locations you explore, and enemies can push those locations back into play. As long as not too many locations enter play, you can still win, but it gets harder and harder the longer the quest takes. For a better feeling of this quest’s mechanics, play Wrath and Ruin. The player cards are decent, focusing on Outlands (Sword of Morthond/Men of the West) and Rangers with their traps. It also contains the Palantir card, so I cannot not recommend it 🙂 The concept of this quest was interesting, as you obtain “Hidden” cards that can suddenly reveal more enemies halfway through the round. However, the mechanic falls a bit flat on its face when you play this in multiplayer mode, as the encounter deck runs out of cards. That means you are cycling the same treacheries over and over again, and it gets a bit dull after a while. The player cards are pretty sweet. You get Caldara in this pack, which at one point ruled the meta of this game. Mono-spirit also gets support from Emery, a free ally if you discard the right cards. Dwarves will also gladly take Well-Equipped from this pack, which can get them attachments for free! This is a painful pack to analyse, as the quest is pretty good. It is a desperate race through 3 bosses in order to rescue Faramir before he is brought to Minas Morgul. There are some flaws in the design, but I still enjoy it in lower player counts. The problem is that nearly all the player cards from this pack are in the Starter decks.