Speaking as someone who was a huge fan of the base game, I do sort of agree with you. The base game is a teriffic classic, and theming does take a minor hit in general with Friends & Foes (although the new Bree board is very nice). If you're a casual fan of the game who plays a few times a year, F&F is not a big win, because the added complexity is not entirely trivial.
On the other hand, I also agree with Shannon that this is still an very nice expansion, with the caveat that you must use the Black Gate card. It adds lots of interesting choices, ratchets up the tension quite a bit, and and as long as you're using the Black Gate card and so making the military victory much more difficult, the theme is still quite good. If you've played the base game a lot and find yourself craving some variety, Friends & Foes fits the bill.
I have both expansions. If given the chance (i.e., we've got 5 or 6 players, and all are experienced), we tend to use Sauron, and I feel that one is very easy to recommend if you like the base game. In practice, we don't use Friends & Foes nearly as often, but it's fun when we do, and I'm glad to have it.
Chris
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by vbh70s
Well, that's good. I meant it when I said I was cool with it being well thought of, it doesn't bother me at all that my fun =/= everyone else's fun.
I didn't like how much it changed the game. I thought that the original struck an excellent balance between following the novel and being a playable game. I felt like the foe track/military victory deviated strongly from that, and the moderately increased strategic depth wasn't worth the trade. It was also, as has been pointed out, not well balanced.
Edit: It's late, and I'm not expressing myself well. I'm trying to say that I'm interested in hearing anything else you have to say. (The original text made it sound like I hadn't read the review, but I have.) Sorry.
|