Boardgame Bulletin 25-9 ~ Fateful learning of Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship (Z-Man Games, 2025)

Coming out of the long holiday weekend here in the States, I put Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship (Z-Man Games, 2025) onto my Game of the Week table. My intent is to use a few evening hours each day this week to learn the game leading up to a full solo play Friday or Saturday.

I am familiar with the Pandemic game engine. I enjoy Pandemic: Fall of Rome (Z-Man Games, 2018) which shares some common game features (Barbarian Hordes vs. Shadow Troops, battling dice, etc.). Given the popularity of this new release, and the attention that fans and Asmodee/Z-Man themselves are giving it, I figured the fastest way to learn how to play would be to do what all the cool kids do these days and watch a video. For that it seemed logical to go to the best and that means Rodney at Watch It Played.

After nearly 50 minutes I finished watching and…went back to the rulebook.

It’s not that Rodney’s video is bad (it’s not); it is just not how I learn games. I learn how to play a game best with a rulebook open in front of me and components spread about. I don’t “read” the rules as much as I “explore” them. As the rules introduce a concept or component I place them on the board or rummage through the deck. I set up the examples of play and physically work through them. It is, admittedly, a very tactile or “hands-on” way of learning.

Thankfully, the rulebook for Fate of the Fellowship is well done. Clear writing and plenty of supporting graphics and examples of play. I took my time and spent about 60 minutes learning the game.

I think I choked a bit on the video teach because it did not give me the opportunity to connect my previous Pandemic learning with the new game. As I explored the rulebook, I had more-than-a-few “aha!” moments where I placed rules for Fate of the Fellowship into my mental context model of Pandemic games.

So, what did I learn?

Not only did I learn how to play Fate of the Fellowship, I learned that I really am a grognard. As much as I engage with technology, at heart, I am not a visual learner of new games; I am clearly a tactile learner.

Next up…gaming run-throughs. More on that to follow…

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Feature image courtesy RMN

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