This entry is also available in English.
In Language as a Window into Human Nature erklärt Steven Pinker, wie wir in unserem Hirn die begrenzte Menge an Sprachbausteinen in eine unbegrenzte Vielzahl an Bedeutungen umwandeln. Dabei bedient er sich des Fluchens, der Metaphern und des Allgemeinwissens. Dieses Video ist nur ein von RSA schön illustrierter Ausschnitt der gesamten Vorlesung. ((Das Video in voller Länge findet man auf YouTube hier.))
Every man is a poet. At least he would be, if you were to judge him by his knowledge of idioms. Our languages are riddled with examples of metaphors and similes, word combinations that take on a meaning beyond the sum of their parts. Interestingly, however, the origins of these phrases are often mysterious or disputed. Inspired by this short post series over on the World Text blog, I thought I’d take a look at a handful of German idioms relating to food.
Conflict at the Carrock
Second in the Shadows of Mirkwood series of adventure packs, Conflict at the Carrock packs a serious punch, with a difficulty rating of 7 (the same as the final adventure in the original set). Where The Hunt for Gollum sees players dealing with a very location-heavy deck, this time round the focus is very much on the fighting, culminating in a tense battle, as four trolls challenge the heroes.
Firstly, the scenario itself while certainly hard is by no means impossible, and lends itself to multiple strategies. Given the prominent role fighting the trolls plays, there’s a lot of tension here. Aside from the trolls in the new deck, the hill trolls from the original game can also play an ominous cameo role. This quest can see heroes being captured, very similar to the prisoner in the “Escape from Dol Guldur” adventure in the core set, which only adds to the difficulty should a hero get ‘knocked out’ at a critical stage. An interesting addition, this is also the first adventure to feature a player ally in the enemy deck itself, who whilst very expensive, lends himself to fighting the trolls, and can be all that is needed to draw victory from the jaws of defeat.
In comparison to the quest, the player cards are more of a mixed bag, though are still a better selection than in The Hunt for Gollum. The hero in this pack is Frodo Baggins, who is a decent addition to the game, with a relatively cheap starting cost and an ability that makes him virtually invincible (converting damage to threat). There are then two cards per sphere, usually an ally and an event/attachment, plus a song which generates one lore resource per turn. All but one of the cards here can find their uses even without extra cards from other adventure packs.
Aside from the usual gripes which are inherent to the nature of this card game, there are a couple of minor problems with this adventure. First, it doesn’t scale quite as well as the previous one, which although it doesn’t make it unplayable, shows it was clearly designed with two players in mind. The second issue is simply a question of paying attention, but there are quite a few cards which alter the values of other ones in the game, particularly when the four trolls come into play, and it’s easy to overlook these extras. The first time we defeated this adventure, we’d actually missed the fact that our threat level should have risen and killed us, so it pays to be vigilant when reading the card text!
Ultimately, Conflict at the Carrock is a very worthwhile expansion to the core game, offering a challenging and exciting new adventure, very action packed, with a selection of decent player cards. The hero, Frodo Baggins, adds some versatility to the way you play the game, whilst the addition of a player ally hidden in the enemy deck is an interesting twist, and thematically in keeping. If you like the core game and don’t insist on playing the adventure packs in order, this is one of the better ones in the Shadows of Mirkwood series.
The Hunt for Gollum
The Hunt for Gollum is the first adventure pack in the Shadows of Mirkwood series for the base game The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. As with all of these adventure packs, it includes a new hero, extra player cards and a new scenario replete with enemies, locations and treachery cards for the players to face.
The scenario is a fairly decent one, albeit not one of the best. Rated difficulty 4, it’s comparable to the “Journey Down The Anduin” scenario from the core set. Where this adventure improves on those in the core set, is that it does a decent job of adjusting itself to the number of players, with a lot of cards relying on the number of players or allies in the game. In general, the enemy deck is fairly location heavy, which means there is relatively little fighting here, and no particularly large enemies to face.
As to the player cards, unfortunately this aspect of this adventure pack is fairly weak. The hero card, Bilbo Baggins, is fairly ‘expensive’ for his ability, although he suits players who like to play the game solo. There is the first of many ‘song’ cards here, which allow players to cheaply earn specific resources, as well as the first of a number of ‘mark’ cards, which adjust heroes’ stats. However, there are also a couple of cards here which only show their true worth once you’ve bought some more of the adventure packs. If you aren’t set on playing these adventures in the order in which they were released, it might make sense to take one of the later releases first, or at least to buy more than one at once.
Overall if you enjoyed the main game and want to breath some new life into it, this is a reasonable little adventure, not too challenging, yet satisfying at the same time. It’s not one of the most exciting scenarios, but it scales well, so makes playing solo or with 4 players equally challenging. Unfortunately, some of the player cards only prove their worth later, so if it doesn’t bother you to play out of order, and you only want to buy one, it would be worth picking up one of the later adventure packs first.
Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game
Dieser Eintrag ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar.
If you’re interested in cooperative games, Lord of the Rings: LCG is an involving card-based game designed for 2 players, but also playable solo or with up to four. This core set includes all you need for two players to get started, with three adventures of increasing difficulty for the players to overcome. The term ‘living card game’ basically means that the story continues in various expansion sets, so this game has plenty of longevity if you enjoy it.
For those not familiar with this type of game, the fundamentals are fairly simple. Each player chooses up to 3 heroes to play with from a selection, and builds themselves a deck out of the appropriate cards (preset decks are suggested for the first time out). During the game, the heroes generate ‘resources’ with which to pay for bringing cards from their decks into the game, such as extra allies to fight with, weapons and armour for their heroes, or beneficial event cards. Meanwhile, the adventure also comprises a deck of cards, which contains enemies for the heroes to fight, locations for them to explore, and nasty events which can bring tears to their eyes. In each round, players may gain resources, pay for cards from their hands, tackle the adventure, travel to a new location, parry attacks from enemies, and retaliate.
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