Designer: Roberto Di Meglio, Marco Maggi, and Francesco Nepitello
# Players: 2 (3-4)
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Evaluation System used with permission http://www.boardgame.de/
Components: War of the ring has a lot of components. A map of Northwest Middle Earth, 204 plastic figures representing the Shadow and Free Peoples (FP) armies, FP leaders, Nazgul, Shadow Minions, and the nine companions of the Fellowship. There are 137 cardboard counters, 96 Event cards, 14 Character Cards, 6 FP action dice, 10 Shadow Player (SP) action dice, and 5 combat dice. The board and all those figures are impressive (although some people have complained about the board coloring I enjoy the “old map” feel of the artwork). My biggest complaint is that the Event cards are printed with a small font that strains even young eyes to read. It is particularly frustrating because there is no reason for them to make the cards and font so small and this should have been better. Also, some of the figures can warp, some look similar in design, and the Nazgul “tip over” rather easily. The items on the map and the national tokens are somewhat cryptic and take a while to identify but over time you get them down straight. Overall the components are great but these issues drive my component rating down a bit and I give it a 7/10 on components.
Object of the Game: This is an asymmetrical game with different victory conditions. The FP wins if they get the Ring to Mt Doom (1) or get 4 VP in Shadow Cities/Strongholds (4). The SP wins by corrupting the Fellowship when the Corruption marker reaches 12 (2) or by Military victory when they get 10 VPs in FP Cities/Strongholds. The numbers after the victory conditions break ties if they happen during the same turn (lowest number has priority).
Flow of Play: Before I go thru the options in a game turn I need to explain a few concepts.
Politics: The various nations in the game can only get involved in the War when they reach an “At War” section of the political track. Only Active nations can advance to War although all nations can advance along the track. The 3 SP nations start the game Active and only the Elves start the game active for the FP.
The Fellowship: The nine companions of the Free Peoples represent the fellowship and their location on the map starts in Rivendell and is identified by the Fellowship Starting Position (FSP) marker. The FP player’s primary objective is to get the FSP into Mordor and to Mt Doom. An interesting element of the game is that when the Fellowship moves you move a marker on the Fellowship track to signify the number of regions that the Fellowship has moved from the FSP location. If the Fellowship’s location is revealed then the FP player must decide the exact location of the FSP.
Moving the Fellowship also allows the SP to roll dice for the Shadow forces that are hunting for the Ring. If the hunt is successful then they can draw a Hunt Tile. Hunt tiles can force the Fellowship to reveal its location and/or cause damage to the Fellowship. Any damage (usually 1-3) can be taken as corruption (by Frodo using the Ring) or the damage can be taken by sacrificing the Guide of the Fellowship or a Random companion.
Map: The map is divided up into different regions for movement with national boundaries marked. There are various locations on the map but the most important ones are Towns, Cities, Strongholds, and Fortifications. Armies can be Mustered (brought into the game) in Towns, Cities, and Strongholds of the various nations once they are “At War”. Cities and Fortifications provide additional defense during combat. Strongholds allow up to 5 units to be protected inside and force the opponent to put the Stronghold “under siege”. Captured Strongholds are worth 2 Victory Points and captured Cities are worth 1 Victory Point.
Armies: Armies are composed of military units. There are Regulars, Elites, and Leaders in Armies. Regulars can take one hit, Elites can take 2 hits or 1 hit and downgrade to Regulars, and leaders provide re-rolls in combat but cannot exist without other military units. Companions (that leave the Fellowship), Nazgul, and Minions are special units that are similar to leaders but can exist without other Armies and can even exist with enemy armies.
Action Dice: There are special dice that are rolled to determine the available actions for each player during each turn. The FP player starts with 4 Action Dice and can get two more during the game. He gets one if he brings Gandalf the White into play and another if Strider declares himself as Aragorn. The SP starts with 7 Action Dice and gets an additional die for each Minion he brings into play. These are the Witch King, Saruman, and the Mouth of Sauron.
Event Cards: Event cards have various effects on the game and drive the thematic elements of the game. Each Event card also has a combat effect that can be used during combat (instead of playing the Event effect). These events tie the game and story together. They include events from the books like The Paths of the Dead, Corsairs of Umbar, Ents of Fangorn, Denethor’s Pyre, the Breaking of the Fellowship, and Shelob.
Each game turn if broken up into 6 phases:
Phase 1: Each player draws 2 Event cards.
Phase 2: The FP player can change the guide of the Fellowship (but it must always be a character with the greatest level). Also, during this phase the FP player may “Declare” the Fellowship’s position. This is similar to a “Reveal” during the hunt but the FP player may place the FSP marker in a FP Stronghold or City. This is usually done to avoid the enemy or the Heal the Fellowship. If the FSP is Declared in a FP City or Stronghold then the Fellowship is Healed and the Corruption marker is moved down 1 point on the track.
Phase 3: During this phase the Shadow Player places a number of his Action dice (Eye side up) in the Hunt box. Initially he starts with 7 Action dice and he can place any number of Eyes in the Hunt box up to the number of Companions in the Fellowship. These dice represent the amount of effort that Sauron is exerting toward hunting for the Ring and they take away from his other available actions (the rest of his action dice).
Phase 4: Both players roll their Action Dice (the SP only rolls the ones he didn’t place in the Hunt Box during Phase 3). Any “Eye” results from the SP dice are also place in the Hunt Box.
Phase 5: This is the primary phase of the game where each player alternates turns starting with the FP player. Each player uses one of his Action Dice to perform an action and then the other player does likewise. Each player has various choices depending on the dice results.
Action Dice results:
Palantir Symbol – These allow a player to play or draw an Event card.
Muster Symbol – These allow a player to Muster/Recruit army units. One Muster die result can recruit an Elite, 2 Regulars, 2 Leaders, or 1 Leader and 1 Regular. Muster dice can also be used to play an Event Card with a Muster symbol on it.
Army Symbol – These allow a player to move 2 armies 1 region or 1 army to attack an adjacent region OR to play an Army Event Card.
Character Symbol – These allow an Army with a leader to move or attack an adjacent region OR play a Character Event Card OR the FP may move all companions on the map OR the FP may separate 1 or more companions from the Fellowship OR the SP may move all Nazgul and Minions on the map OR the FP may move the Fellowship OR hide the Fellowship (if revealed).
Will of the West – This is only on the FP Action dice and it allows various special effects (like bringing in Gandalf the White) or it can be used as any other Action Dice result (it is a Wild Card effect).
Eye – These results are placed in the Hunt Box to determine the strength of the Hunt for this turn.
Phase 6: Victory conditions are checked and if any are satisfied then the game ends. If multiple conditions are met, then the side with the lower one (see Object of the Game) wins.
The Hunt for the Ring
The Hunt is a big part of the game. Every time the Fellowship moves the SP may roll for the Hunt. He rolls a number of dice equal to the Eyes in the Hunt Box (max 5) and gets re-rolls if the FSP marker is in regions with SP Strongholds, Nazgul, and/or SP armies. Any results of 6 indicate success and drive the SP to draw a Hunt tile and resolve its effects and damage. The FP player adds his Action die to the Hunt Box and this indicates a modifier for future Hunt rolls this turn. If the Fellowship moves again then the SP will roll the Hunt dice but any results of 5 or more will indicate success. In this way multiple Fellowship moves lead to more successful Hunt effects.
Combat
Combat is resolved by each side rolling dice (up to 5) equal to the number of Army units involved in the battle. Any results of 5 are considered hits. If a defender is in a Fortification or a City then the attacker only hits on a 6 for the first round of combat. Strongholds allow defenders to retreat into the Stronghold and start a siege. Sieges only last for 1 combat round and the attacker can only hit on 6’s. This can be extended by one round if the Attacker reduces an Elite to a Regular after each combat round. During combat both sides get the opportunity to play Combat cards to modify the results of combat and this adds more tactics to the game. FP casualties get removed from the game but SP casualties are placed back with the re-enforcements. This means that over a long game the SP will eventually triumph since he has unlimited troops while the FP has a fixed limit.
There are many other effects that happen during the game but this is the basics. The FP player is trying to move the Fellowship rapidly to Mordor but not too fast since the Hunt can result in too much corruption. The SP is trying to get 10 VPs of Fellowship locations quickly but he must keep some resources on the Hunt to slow down the Fellowship. It is an asymmetrical race and if either side falters or over-extends then the other side can counter or win with an alternate Victory condition (FP Military or SP Ring victory). Many games come down to a close finish with the Fellowship in Mordor (where Hunt tiles have more powerful effects) and the SP trying to capture the last few VPs while the SP tries to hold them off in a valiant last stand.
Evaluation: One big pitfall for simulating this epic story is that the Shadow player knows where the Fellowship is headed whereas in the books Sauron never suspected that they were trying to destroy his ring. In the SPI version this almost always resulted in a final confrontation between the Nazgul and the Fellowship on Mt Doom. The Fellowship of the Ring game by ICE solves this issue by setting the Free Peoples player’s goal as getting as far as possible quickly and then disbanding the Fellowship (a little anti-climactic). War of the Ring does a masterful job of incorporating the Hunt in an abstract fashion into the flow of the game and it works wonderfully. The SP cannot simply build a wall of units around/in Mordor to stop the Ringbearers from completing their quest.
The game is best suited as a 2 player game in my opinion even though there are rules for 3 and 4 players. These rules just divide up the 2 player roles. To be fair, I have only played it with 3 players twice and never with 4 players but it just seems more of a 2 player contest. Game length can be an issue, especially when trying to learn it for the first time without a very experienced teacher. The rules have some ambiguities and unusual situations arise during gameplay that they don’t address adequately (thus there is a Huge FAQ for this game). With experienced players the game can take anywhere from 60 min (with certain strategies) to 180min+ for long games.
The game is filled with tough decisions and the Event cards provide opportunities for various strategies throughout. Players must decide which Action Die to use and what action to take and weigh the current situation plus the opponent’s available action dice and also consider all cards (Event/Combat) in both player’s hands and how they might affect each decision. Timing is critical and sometimes surprises do happen in the game!
There are some problems with the game that I will discuss in a 3-part strategy review but if you are a Lord of the Rings fan then this game needs to be in your collection. I own many different Lord or the Rings themed games and none of them come close to capturing the tension, flavor, and theme as well as this game. This is a game that I enjoy playing regardless of who wins because it is so exciting to play. For me, this is the best Lord of the Rings games ever designed and it is one of my top games of all time. For this reason I give it a 10/10 overall since I will always be willing to play it and teach it to anyone with an interest.
Object of the Game: This is an asymmetrical game with different victory conditions. The FP wins if they get the Ring to Mt Doom (1) or get 4 VP in Shadow Cities/Strongholds (4). The SP wins by corrupting the Fellowship when the Corruption marker reaches 12 (2) or by Military victory when they get 10 VPs in FP Cities/Strongholds. The numbers after the victory conditions break ties if they happen during the same turn (lowest number has priority).
Flow of Play: Before I go thru the options in a game turn I need to explain a few concepts.
Politics: The various nations in the game can only get involved in the War when they reach an “At War” section of the political track. Only Active nations can advance to War although all nations can advance along the track. The 3 SP nations start the game Active and only the Elves start the game active for the FP.
The Fellowship: The nine companions of the Free Peoples represent the fellowship and their location on the map starts in Rivendell and is identified by the Fellowship Starting Position (FSP) marker. The FP player’s primary objective is to get the FSP into Mordor and to Mt Doom. An interesting element of the game is that when the Fellowship moves you move a marker on the Fellowship track to signify the number of regions that the Fellowship has moved from the FSP location. If the Fellowship’s location is revealed then the FP player must decide the exact location of the FSP.
Moving the Fellowship also allows the SP to roll dice for the Shadow forces that are hunting for the Ring. If the hunt is successful then they can draw a Hunt Tile. Hunt tiles can force the Fellowship to reveal its location and/or cause damage to the Fellowship. Any damage (usually 1-3) can be taken as corruption (by Frodo using the Ring) or the damage can be taken by sacrificing the Guide of the Fellowship or a Random companion.
Map: The map is divided up into different regions for movement with national boundaries marked. There are various locations on the map but the most important ones are Towns, Cities, Strongholds, and Fortifications. Armies can be Mustered (brought into the game) in Towns, Cities, and Strongholds of the various nations once they are “At War”. Cities and Fortifications provide additional defense during combat. Strongholds allow up to 5 units to be protected inside and force the opponent to put the Stronghold “under siege”. Captured Strongholds are worth 2 Victory Points and captured Cities are worth 1 Victory Point.
Armies: Armies are composed of military units. There are Regulars, Elites, and Leaders in Armies. Regulars can take one hit, Elites can take 2 hits or 1 hit and downgrade to Regulars, and leaders provide re-rolls in combat but cannot exist without other military units. Companions (that leave the Fellowship), Nazgul, and Minions are special units that are similar to leaders but can exist without other Armies and can even exist with enemy armies.
Action Dice: There are special dice that are rolled to determine the available actions for each player during each turn. The FP player starts with 4 Action Dice and can get two more during the game. He gets one if he brings Gandalf the White into play and another if Strider declares himself as Aragorn. The SP starts with 7 Action Dice and gets an additional die for each Minion he brings into play. These are the Witch King, Saruman, and the Mouth of Sauron.
Event Cards: Event cards have various effects on the game and drive the thematic elements of the game. Each Event card also has a combat effect that can be used during combat (instead of playing the Event effect). These events tie the game and story together. They include events from the books like The Paths of the Dead, Corsairs of Umbar, Ents of Fangorn, Denethor’s Pyre, the Breaking of the Fellowship, and Shelob.
Each game turn if broken up into 6 phases:
Phase 1: Each player draws 2 Event cards.
Phase 2: The FP player can change the guide of the Fellowship (but it must always be a character with the greatest level). Also, during this phase the FP player may “Declare” the Fellowship’s position. This is similar to a “Reveal” during the hunt but the FP player may place the FSP marker in a FP Stronghold or City. This is usually done to avoid the enemy or the Heal the Fellowship. If the FSP is Declared in a FP City or Stronghold then the Fellowship is Healed and the Corruption marker is moved down 1 point on the track.
Phase 3: During this phase the Shadow Player places a number of his Action dice (Eye side up) in the Hunt box. Initially he starts with 7 Action dice and he can place any number of Eyes in the Hunt box up to the number of Companions in the Fellowship. These dice represent the amount of effort that Sauron is exerting toward hunting for the Ring and they take away from his other available actions (the rest of his action dice).
Phase 4: Both players roll their Action Dice (the SP only rolls the ones he didn’t place in the Hunt Box during Phase 3). Any “Eye” results from the SP dice are also place in the Hunt Box.
Phase 5: This is the primary phase of the game where each player alternates turns starting with the FP player. Each player uses one of his Action Dice to perform an action and then the other player does likewise. Each player has various choices depending on the dice results.
Action Dice results:
Palantir Symbol – These allow a player to play or draw an Event card.
Muster Symbol – These allow a player to Muster/Recruit army units. One Muster die result can recruit an Elite, 2 Regulars, 2 Leaders, or 1 Leader and 1 Regular. Muster dice can also be used to play an Event Card with a Muster symbol on it.
Army Symbol – These allow a player to move 2 armies 1 region or 1 army to attack an adjacent region OR to play an Army Event Card.
Character Symbol – These allow an Army with a leader to move or attack an adjacent region OR play a Character Event Card OR the FP may move all companions on the map OR the FP may separate 1 or more companions from the Fellowship OR the SP may move all Nazgul and Minions on the map OR the FP may move the Fellowship OR hide the Fellowship (if revealed).
Will of the West – This is only on the FP Action dice and it allows various special effects (like bringing in Gandalf the White) or it can be used as any other Action Dice result (it is a Wild Card effect).
Eye – These results are placed in the Hunt Box to determine the strength of the Hunt for this turn.
Phase 6: Victory conditions are checked and if any are satisfied then the game ends. If multiple conditions are met, then the side with the lower one (see Object of the Game) wins.
The Hunt for the Ring
The Hunt is a big part of the game. Every time the Fellowship moves the SP may roll for the Hunt. He rolls a number of dice equal to the Eyes in the Hunt Box (max 5) and gets re-rolls if the FSP marker is in regions with SP Strongholds, Nazgul, and/or SP armies. Any results of 6 indicate success and drive the SP to draw a Hunt tile and resolve its effects and damage. The FP player adds his Action die to the Hunt Box and this indicates a modifier for future Hunt rolls this turn. If the Fellowship moves again then the SP will roll the Hunt dice but any results of 5 or more will indicate success. In this way multiple Fellowship moves lead to more successful Hunt effects.
Combat
Combat is resolved by each side rolling dice (up to 5) equal to the number of Army units involved in the battle. Any results of 5 are considered hits. If a defender is in a Fortification or a City then the attacker only hits on a 6 for the first round of combat. Strongholds allow defenders to retreat into the Stronghold and start a siege. Sieges only last for 1 combat round and the attacker can only hit on 6’s. This can be extended by one round if the Attacker reduces an Elite to a Regular after each combat round. During combat both sides get the opportunity to play Combat cards to modify the results of combat and this adds more tactics to the game. FP casualties get removed from the game but SP casualties are placed back with the re-enforcements. This means that over a long game the SP will eventually triumph since he has unlimited troops while the FP has a fixed limit.
There are many other effects that happen during the game but this is the basics. The FP player is trying to move the Fellowship rapidly to Mordor but not too fast since the Hunt can result in too much corruption. The SP is trying to get 10 VPs of Fellowship locations quickly but he must keep some resources on the Hunt to slow down the Fellowship. It is an asymmetrical race and if either side falters or over-extends then the other side can counter or win with an alternate Victory condition (FP Military or SP Ring victory). Many games come down to a close finish with the Fellowship in Mordor (where Hunt tiles have more powerful effects) and the SP trying to capture the last few VPs while the SP tries to hold them off in a valiant last stand.
Evaluation: One big pitfall for simulating this epic story is that the Shadow player knows where the Fellowship is headed whereas in the books Sauron never suspected that they were trying to destroy his ring. In the SPI version this almost always resulted in a final confrontation between the Nazgul and the Fellowship on Mt Doom. The Fellowship of the Ring game by ICE solves this issue by setting the Free Peoples player’s goal as getting as far as possible quickly and then disbanding the Fellowship (a little anti-climactic). War of the Ring does a masterful job of incorporating the Hunt in an abstract fashion into the flow of the game and it works wonderfully. The SP cannot simply build a wall of units around/in Mordor to stop the Ringbearers from completing their quest.
The game is best suited as a 2 player game in my opinion even though there are rules for 3 and 4 players. These rules just divide up the 2 player roles. To be fair, I have only played it with 3 players twice and never with 4 players but it just seems more of a 2 player contest. Game length can be an issue, especially when trying to learn it for the first time without a very experienced teacher. The rules have some ambiguities and unusual situations arise during gameplay that they don’t address adequately (thus there is a Huge FAQ for this game). With experienced players the game can take anywhere from 60 min (with certain strategies) to 180min+ for long games.
The game is filled with tough decisions and the Event cards provide opportunities for various strategies throughout. Players must decide which Action Die to use and what action to take and weigh the current situation plus the opponent’s available action dice and also consider all cards (Event/Combat) in both player’s hands and how they might affect each decision. Timing is critical and sometimes surprises do happen in the game!
There are some problems with the game that I will discuss in a 3-part strategy review but if you are a Lord of the Rings fan then this game needs to be in your collection. I own many different Lord or the Rings themed games and none of them come close to capturing the tension, flavor, and theme as well as this game. This is a game that I enjoy playing regardless of who wins because it is so exciting to play. For me, this is the best Lord of the Rings games ever designed and it is one of my top games of all time. For this reason I give it a 10/10 overall since I will always be willing to play it and teach it to anyone with an interest.
1 comment:
You write very well.
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