Newbie: Which Books?

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 3:57 am

Which books are recommended for a newbie with a few Challenge decks?  I have 3333 (Wizards Companion), but not the Players Guide (3334), the maps (3338), the Casual Companion (3340) or the Mastering Middle Earth.  Are any of those worth hunting down before just dinking around for a while?

Thanks.

- Jonathan

Sauron_the_Great · Post by **Sauron_the_Great** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:33 am

If you can get your hands on "Mastering Middle-Earth", grab it. Although it mentions only the The Wizards, The Dragons and Dark Minions, it's quite useful for learning the basic game mechanisms...such as: which sites to use, which hazard-deck works best with a given resource-deck. It also features a huge list of sample decks, which are built around a given theme.

The Player's Guide is useful, if you just need to quick research what a specific card does...it  is not that useful, since it only refers to The Wizards with a coming expansion "The Dragons", so do not expect to many tricks which will still work nowadays. Also, it doesn't have any errata in it, (like Thorough Search...)

Hope this helps

Markus

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:14 pm

Thank you.  I am a bit unclear on the contents of the Challenge decks.  Do they include Dark Minions or Dragon cards?  If not, does that mean only the companion and the players guide will be useful?

Thanks. - Jonathan

ordagnir · Post by **ordagnir** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:18 pm

the challenge-decks contains cards from all sets (save balrog). The guide book will therefore not cover all the cards. But you will get details and tips of use (perhaps a bit obsolate) for many of the cards.
I also think "Mastering Middle-Earth" is the one of the mentioned books that is worth chasing.

Best option in my opinion to get into the game is to find someone who can teach you the game IRL or simply play and learn and hang around here for tips and ideas, and not hesitate to ask.

Martin

Post by **Gwaihir** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:52 pm

Welcome to MeCCG.net, Jonathan

. I've never actually read Mastering Middle-earth (just browsed a bit), so I can't really speak about that one. Beside that, I'd personally go for (way) more cards first, starting with the remaining challenge decks. IMHO having more cards opens the game up way more than any book can do for you.

Moved to All About the Cards (though All About the Products sounded to boring to us, it is what this area actually comes down to.

)

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:37 am

Thanks to everyone.  I got the 10 Challenge Deck box, so it might take a while to get through them & understand the game before I start deckbuilding.  I'm in Seattle, if people are looking for newbies to beat up on.