I also really like the LotR board game and it too is cooperative. It is also quite challenging without adding the expansions into it. The first expansion adds in the black riders and some other difficult challenges. Just playing the base game I have found is hard enough to get to mount doom before sauron overtakes you. I suggest it for people that are finding they enjoy Co-Op board games.

Played another round last night. 4 players, I was Kirk. Played on Medium (still haven't dared to try hard)

We got smashed by the Klingon cruiser. It kept hittings it's attacks early and we kept losing. Also got done by the Saboteur at the worst time once it got into close with us.

We ended up with the Enterprise on it's last clix with a couple of missions still to complete. We quickly squeaked them out but we had to retreat a few times to survive so we got -6 on everything. So we won, but not a good win at all.

I'm convinced the only way to win well is to win the space battle.

Played this tonight and our group of 4 lost when the Klingon ship killed us...We were on "Yellow Alert" this game and so close to winning.
Does the Klingon ship get to attack back every time you give an action to shoot it? Also Spock seems very pointless at times..except for scouting out where the "trap" missions are on the board.

One thing I've noticed playing on medium is it is usually close one way or the other (either by stardate or the ship almost getting destroyed)

Yes, which makes it seem like it's not worth attacking, however since you attack first you can weaken the klingons for when they retaliate so it can be worth it. Best to attack if you have the Surprise Attack card or the Boost Shields card (or both!).

I think Spock is the best one for most of the missions, or at least in my experience. I guess it depends how you do on the mission tree, but for most of the high end missions he is the best one (2A,3A and 3B missions). He also has the best stats out of everyone.

Thanks a lot. After reading I think we will try and give Spock the crew cards and have someone attack the klingons.

They are tough to beat. Requires getting all the upgrades you can, getting some good cards and hopefully rolling well for the Enterprise and poorly for the Klingons.

I have managed to win a few times now by ignoring the ship battle and just burning through the missions as quick as possible, but it's usually just an okay win (final scores in the middle section). The only time we won on Medium with all three missions in top section was the time we destroyed the Klingon ship, but that time we almost ran out of time so it was still close.