Drafting LOTR

[sickofpalantirs]

I had a friend the other day who found a source for some LOTR draft and booster boxes (all pre hunters).  He wanted to buy some and draft LOTR over Christmas break, but neither of us could remember A. What draft packs had in them, and B. How drafting LOTR had worked back in the olden days.

Anyone have answers to either of these questions?

[Air Power]

Never drafted, but here's what I got in my anthology draft packs:

Fellowship Draft Packs

1.
Goblin Patrol Troop
Moria Archer Troop
Goblin Runner
Goblin Marksman
Goblin Bowman
Goblin Bowman
Goblin Marksman
Goblin Runner
Moria Archer Troop
Goblin Patrol Troop
Shotgun Enquea
Isengard Retainer
Isengard Servant
Isengard Shaman
Gandalf TGW
TMaYOD
Mysterious Wizard
Gandalf TGW
Sam PP
Hobbit Sword
Merry FOtB
Uruk Lieutenant
Fror GK
Dwarven Axe
Dwarf Guard
Delving
Gimli DotMR
Boromir SoD
Arwen ER

2.
Goblin Runner
Moria Archer Troop
Goblin Patrol Troop
Shotgun Enquea
Isengard Retainer
Isengard Worker
Saruman SotE
Isengard Worker
Isengard Shaman
Isengard Servant
Isengard Retainer
Ulaire Nertea MoDG
Orc Pillager
Orc Scouting Band
Gandalf TGW
Legolas PoM
TMaYOD
Intimidate
Legolas PoM
Gandalf TGW
Sam PP
Goblin Domain
Gimli DotMR
Their Halls of Stone
Dwarf Guard
Dwarven Axe
Farin DE
Cleaving Blow
Gimli DotMR

[Alazzar]

Fellowship Draft was probably my favorite play format in this game.  The rules are basically as follows:

1.  Everyone has to bring their own Ring-bearer, One Ring and site path to the table before the draft even starts.  This is to ensure that you'll actually have the cards needed to play the game.  And, yes, it means that you have to pick your sites without knowing what your deck will be like.  For this reason, you might end up drafting sites during the draft, once you start to figure out what your deck is going to look like.

2.  Everyone gets a draft pack.  You open your pack and get a look at what kind of cards you'll have for a basis for your deck.  These cards are NOT passed or drafted--they're yours to keep, and they'll usually give you some sort of starting theme for your deck.  (i.e., you'll get a bunch of Isengard Orcs, or Moria archers, or whatever.)

3.  After everyone has reviewed the contents of their draft packs, they all open a booster pack.  In the example of Fellowship draft, you'd each open a Fellowship pack.  Everyone selects one card to keep and passes the rest of the pack to their left.  You continue in this fashion until the entire pack is gone.

4.  Everyone opens their second pack.  (In Fellowship draft, it would be a Mines of Moria booster.)  Do the same process as step 2, except you're passing to the RIGHT this time.

5.  Repeat one more time with a third and final pack.  (This example = Realms.)

6.  Once all cards have been drafted, you get some time to build your decks.  The deckbuilding rules are a little different than in standard format, though--the minimum deck size is 40 instead of 60.

7.  Now you're ready to play!  The game plays just like a constructed game, except that once your draw deck is gone, you have the option of reshuffling your discard pile into your deck.  You can do this only ONCE per game.


EDIT:  I forgot to mention:  the booster packs you use are determined by the block of your draft pack, of course.  But you don't HAVE to do one pack from each set of that block; for example, in a Fellowship draft, you COULD do 2 Fellowship/1 Mines, or 3 Fellowship, or the classic 1 Fellowship/1 Mines/1 Realms, or whatever.  Just make sure the block of your boosters matches the block of your draft packs!

[FM]

And for added fun, I'd suggest trying passing the Draft Pack around. It's not official, but it sure is a lot of fun (also, get as many people involved as possible, makes it more fun).

[sickofpalantirs]

Whats the exact breakdown of card types in draft packs?  It looks like you can get promos? (or were they called premiums?)

[Alazzar]

Yes, you can get starter-deck cards (the "P" cards).  You get 14 free peoples, 14 shadow, and one random rare.  The rare will often suck.

Also, I wouldn't recommend passing the draft packs and drafting from them--they were specifically designed so you'd have a foundation on which to build your deck.

[sickofpalantirs]

sweet.  right now we have a FOTR draft box, I think we'll end up buying a mines of moria and a FOTR.  That will run us about $65 + shipping, so it will be about $8 a person to do it, but we will have enough packs to do it 4 times ish.   lots of fun.

[sickofpalantirs]

Well we ended up going with 4 MoM boosters each and a draft pack, kept the entire draft pack, drafted the boosters.   This was the first time I've ever played Fellowship Block, and I loved it.  The Balrog mechanic where you have to plan to face him was so awesome...

We had 7 people so we did a round robin tournament.  It was Me, BtO, our little brother, Peterpot , yourstinkenface( the only member to be banned from tlhh ) AragornElessar and his little brother.  I ended up 5-1 with a loss to my little brother, and ysf was 5-1 with a loss to me.  We decided to rematch, with him just beating me (freaking disquiet of our peoples...) Both games had been so close we decided to go best out of 3, and I won the third, despite losing 3 companions on site 9 and ending up with Sam proper poet and Haldir as my full fellowship. 

I'll write a bit more of a full report if anyone is interested.

[hsiale]

This was the first time I've ever played Fellowship Block, and I loved it.  The Balrog mechanic where you have to plan to face him was so awesome...

You can have more of it in Sealed FotR block league ran currently at http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/ - currently week 2 is running, with each player having access to a starter deck (random one out of six available in FotR block), 9 boosters (3 of each set) and some fixed cards (a few C/U companions + C Balrog).

[sickofpalantirs]

Wait, so it is online LOTR?  Or how exactly does it work?

[hsiale]

Yes, it's an online platform to play LOTR. Still in development phase (last set added is Black Rider and it happens from time to time that a bugged card is spotted) but best that I know. Gameplay is automatic (you only make decisions and choices, effects happen by themselves then, like in Decipher's LOTRO), it works more or less on any web browser (people play even from mobile devices) and needs no downloads at all. You just need to register (I don't remember details as I registered in the summer soon after the site was launched).

Currenly the site has average of 60-70 games played each day. http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,7476.0.html - more info about the site, http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,7634.0.html - more info about the league running currently.