This makes me feel better

Better than me.

Nice job... A great game.. Alot to do for sure.. It take me a few games to have a awesome one ...

This is a pin i've had my eye on for awhile. I was playing a local one at a bar, but realized the game is pretty messed up. When I started the game once or twice, you would be thrown into one of the modes. Like warg battle or war of the ents. I don't think they are supposed to trigger like that. Or I would get the fellowship multiball when I know I haven't gotten each member of the fellowship.

There was one on route here in Madison a couple years back that did the same thing. It was a mess and not a true indication of what the game is like to play. Hope you get a chance to play one that is setup properly someday soon!

Oh man that is truly painful!

I know someone else on this forum who shall remain nameless (but his username rhymes with ESKAYBEE) who was also one shot away from Valinor. Ouch!

This might be the same one. Its on route by a company called C and N and I wouldn't doubt that they bought this off of another gamesupply company.

I feel tempted to just go and pay the ful $5300 at the MN pinballwarehouse and buy this game for myself.

How many balls did it take you to get that far? (extra balls, if any)

Ya, THANKS for the plug rob!! And it was one shot away 6 times! Lol. Actually I think it was one shot away 3 times but The final DTR sequence 6 times.

Good job even reaching that stage.

Yes, the one shot away story is rough. However you proved you could do it once, get back in there and reach your goal.

(Shed a tear? There's no crying in pinball)

I was one shot away as well once and played that game SOOO much. Then I sold the game right after. I will never see Valinor.

Great game but just so un-achievable in all reality sense.

How can you say that if you were one shot away from achieving it?

Well good point but it was only once and I definitely put WAY more games on LOTR than any other game to date and only got that cose once, never was that close any other time. Love the game but it almost felt like a chore playing anymore for me, I knew to get what I wanted was going going to be 30-60 minute games everytime, just was time to move on.

Yeah, I understand what you are saying. LOTR is a great pin, but those long ball times can be a negative for sure.

so when you say "flipper angles dialed in" I've seen where "correct" should be perfectly parallel with the inlane rails that lead up to the flipper edge - did you adjust yours to become parallel or have you moved them up or down while at rest? Just curious

I joined this club last night. First time through completed TTT, had two members left on FOTR, and 2 levels left on RTK. Destroyed the ring. Second time through finished all multiballs but still needed two modes and one gift. Failed on Ring detroy, thought chance was gone. Third time, started all multiballs again and TABA with all elf gifts. Hit four shots, one ring shot. One more to go! first try fell in to orthanc. Second rolled up stopped and STDM. Game over with 370 mil.

Either the greatest game of my life or the worst, I can't decide.

I was there first over two years ago, but have been trying hard to get back ever since. The last two sessions were both very close, one being me sitting there though on my last ball, all modes beat in round one, taba done, 7 gifts, two MB's started on round two, and all I had to do was play out FOTR MB (start it), and then go to DTR and Valinor. I *knew* I should just hold a ball, and let the rest drain, but something inside me wouldn't let me play like that, seemed cheap. Played it and lost the final two balls at the same time...

Thought instantly after of how stupid and careless that was not taking advantage of that. Maybe my play honor paid off, as a week later, this happened for the second time:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/valinor-club

I also had two other near misses after I was there the first time. First I wanted someone to witness, called my kids down, that couldn’t care less. They started fighting with each other over being quite, which distracted me, and I drained trying to knock the held ball out of the ring. The look I gave after could have cut steel…

Then another time, I had DTR ready to start, and a piece of plastic broke above the gimli VUK, blocking the up kicker. Ball three, and DTR to Valinor waiting and this… I opened the door to stop it, and carefully considered my options. I decided I would take out the plastic, door open, leave the ball, close it up, and then it would kick, but because I was so nervous I left it closed, or closed it after I took off the glass, I can’t recall, and the ball popped up, and I stumbled to stop it but it drained, and game over….

I’m glad last night happened again, as I was really starting to think I was destined to never get there again.

Just got LOTR. I can't even come close to Valinor. I must suck at life or not drinking enough. However I destroyed the ring on my second game!

My guess is that less than 5% of LOTR owners have ever reached Valinor. I owned the game for a couple years and never even came close. Heck, I consider TABA to be quite an accomplishment.

Ive had the game for two years, destroying the ring isn't too bad, but I can't even get to TABA, valinor is just a pipe dream. I wonder how people have their games set up. My slings often throw the ball down the outlanes. My high is about 170 mil. How many balls are people playing on, how many extra balls? I award an extra ball at 15 (for guests), then every 100 mil. Guess I'm just a mediocre player.

Lots of extra balls available without needing scoring tiers.

I have only standard extra balls, nothing extra, so I get them from a gift, and from so many right tower shots, as one of the achievements. I believe you get one as well from completing all the shots in Ring Frenzie before cashing that out, which is why you should always play that for all shots.

Other than that, I actually have my rules set slightly harder than default, as I didn’t like how you could unlock all the locks for TTT before locking ball 1. Mine has to unlock a lock, lock a ball, then unlock the next, which is I believe what happens on default for the second time through to qualify for TTT. Also, for ROTK, I made something there harder as well, but I can’t recall what. I limited the shots you could start each MB as well.

I did this right when I got the machine, mainly because TTT just seemed so unbalanced to start as opposed to the rest. Had I known this likely would be a further issue in me getting to Valinor, I would not have, but I have never changed it back, and it’s something I notice blatantly every time I play this at my buddy’s place.

I have two ball DTR set as well. Some think this isn't a big deal in the change, but when you are on ball three and Valinor is waiting (or even DTR some games), the stress level in trying to deal with the 2 ball DTR can be huge, as even making a shot to the ring to knock the other out is not always 100%. I have posts set factory, and clean all my machines frequently, and it plays insanely fast. Orbit shots can be hard to pick up sometimes if shot cleanly.

F'ing love it...