Why isnt Confrontation an Expansion to this game? Are they completely different games or do they use the same mechanics?

If Im looking for a good 2 player game which one should I pick up?

Yes, theyr'e two different games. They both are on the Eurogame side of games, but Confrontation is a head-to-head match between two players, while the Boardgame is an abstract cooperative game.

Confrontation: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18833

Board Game: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/823

This game is a cooperative 2-5 player game (with 3 expansions). Luck will play a fairly large role, as the tiles that you draw can make or break your game.

The Confrontation is a competative 2-player only game. There is basically no luck in this game; everything is determined by one or more of the players.

Both games are pretty abstract.

I personally prefer the Confrontation, but I've never been a huge fan of co-op games. They always seem to become too easy after a few games; and as the game always behaves the same, you don't get much variety. Plus, I usually like to minimize the luck in my games.

Joram said:

This is a fairly good "capsule summary of the two games.  I'd add that LOTR:TBG plays better (and feels less "scripted") the more players you have.  LOTR:TC only works with 2.

I picked up TBG because of its place in boardgaming history.  it is, AFAIK, the first truly "cooperative" boardgame.  There are no traitors (unlike BSC), very little hidden information (unlike AH), and nicely captures the theme of the books/movies:what sacrifices must we make in order to get the Ring to Mount Doom?

I still play this.

-J 

Oh, is this the game where you play the 5 Hobbits that set off from Bag End?

If so I played it once years ago and rember it being quite good.

jadrax said:

Yes, this is the five hobbits game. And all the movie watchers who never read the book can sit and scratch their heads wondering who Fatty Bolgar is.

Joram said:

that would be me. I got this game today and upon seeing the character cards was like.. "What the... Fatty?"

GamerAtom said:

Fredigar "Fatty" Bolgar was one of the conspirators who determined not to let Frodo vanish out of the Shire like Bilbo did (Merry had found out about the ring years before). As such, he was a closer friend of Frodo's than Folco Boffin, for example, who did not know of the conspiracy. However, his friendship with Frodo did not extend as far as Merry's or Pippin's, and he was unwilling to leave the Shire. So when the other four hobbits left, Fatty stayed behind at Frodo's house in Crickhollow to keep up a pretense for as long as possible that Frodo was still in the Shire. FFG took the liberty of changing the course of the book, and saying that Fatty ended up going along with them.

No doubt some of that information is foreign to you as well.

Wait, so in this game, you work together, and in Confrontation, you face off?

TheChampIsHere said:

Yes.

There is a bit more to it than that, but that is nevertheless a 100% true statement.

Joram said:

Yup. But thank you for the  background information. :)