[ShannonA]

Ah, yeah, I can see that similarity.

The big difference that I saw in the DT combat is that it can very much be a war of attrition. Usually you can attack with superior forces if you work at it, and thus usually you can guarantee a wound/kill if you're willing to expend the appropriate card. Because there's the opportunity for a lot less fights than in LOTR:TC, this overkill stratetegy can work. I think this takes a lot of the randomness out, though it can give you resource problems down the road if you let the game go too long.

I'd actually say that the luck factor is considerably less in DT because you can guarantee a win where all the second-guessing of the special cards tends to prevent that in LOTR:TC.