Middle – Earth Quest

 

Middle Earth Quest

Middle – Earth Quest is settled in the fictional world of J.R.R. Tolkien.  It’s a semi cooperative game for two to five players where one player controls Sauron and his minions and the others heroes of the free people. Note that you won´t play Gandalf or Legolas or these famous guys….you´re more the everyday elf .

There are different ways for Sauron to win. By controlling armies, by corrupting leaders of the free people and by gaining the ring. He will get a secret goal at the start of the game. Heroes try to prevent him from accomplishing his goals and finally fight one of his minions in an epic battle.

Sauron plays plot cards to push on to his goal. One card might for example allow him to corrupt Saruman. As long as this card is now in play, he’ll get points on his corruption track. The players can remove these card from the game by fulfilling certain conditions, usually travelling to a specific location and discarding “favour” tokens there.

Gaining these tokens is not that easy too. Players might for example get them by visiting non player characters or having other highly thematic encounters on specific locations.

Traveling and fighting is card driven. Cards are also used as life points, wich makes card management a key factor of the game.

The components are fantastic: Minis are great, the art is beautiful and the board is a huge and beautiful map of Middle – Earth.

There is no official solo variant for this, but I’m working on an A.I. for the Sauron player.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments

  • sithknight19 says:

    I also have hundreds of these cards and lots of Rares. I really wish this was still going on. I really loved this game

    • A lonesome Gamer says:

      It is indeed a great game…in Germany there is actually still an active community. Playing tournaments, developing new strategies…
      The fact that this is possible after so many years without a single new card shows how deep and rich this game is.

  • Finbar says:

    Im in the same boat – love playing this game with others, but have always thought about putting some time into creating an AI for the Dark Lord. Also, a way that battles would be handled.

    By the way, there is a very well done variant called “the unfinished tales” that changes some parts of the game and makes the ending more climactic –

    • A lonesome Gamer says:

      Actually, I already have a nice working variant for the battles. But I need a few more game a to test the other stuff. It’s really a great game, and it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with a working A.I.

      • Finbar says:

        Oh – great. Anxious to try your solo rules then sometime –

      • Mark says:

        Yes, unfinished tales is fantastic! That is great that you have a variant for the battles as I think that single area is the toughest to conceptualize for creating an AI. How close are you to letting the proverbial cat out of the bag? I would certainly play this game more with a solid AI mechanism in place.

        • A lonesome Gamer says:

          I´m afraid it´s more a mouse 🙂
          Really, just some simple guidelines that give this a better solo playability…I´m not even sure if it´s a real A.I.
          I cannot tell when…there´s so much to play and to test (also with solo ideas for other games) so “it´s done when it´s done”….

  • Mark says:

    By the way, do you still own Middle Earth CCG? You did two videos on that great game which ended up making my wallet a few hundred dollars lighter. That game could use another play through and I recommend you post your solo variant for it as it works really well.

    • A lonesome Gamer says:

      Yes. I don´t play this on a regular bases at the moment, but you´re right, I should give this another try.
      There are games in my collection, that are put aside for a while, and I don´t mention them on this page. But yes..it should see the table again!!

  • Mark says:

    Hello Johannes! Great website! We’ve communicated in the past several times via BGG and I’ve always loved your videos. I, too, play these American adventure type games solo, preferring euros when I play in the multi player environment.

    This game is very good and I just got it two months ago. I played it solo using one of the suggestions I got through BGG and, although I still enjoyed it, of course it still loses something. I was just wishing there would be a Sauron AI and love that you’ve mentioned it. I look forward to this!

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