Review War of the Ring

Game: War of the Ring
Designer: Roberto Di Meglio, Marco Maggi, and Francesco Nepitello
# Players: 2 (3-4)

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.

Review Amun-Re

Game: Amun-Re
Designer: Reiner Knizia
# Players: 3-5

Evaluation System used with permission http://www.boardgame.de/

Components: Amun-Re comes with 110 cards (66 represent Gold (money), 39 Power Cards, and 15 Province Cards). They are smaller (about 1”x 3”) but functional and thick enough to hold up to repeated playing. Amun-Re comes with 30 pyramids, 15 building stones, and 10 player markers. These are all excellent quality plastic and provide that tangible aspect so prevalent in Designer games. It has 15 Province Markers and 45 Farmers. These are all made of cardboard and also of fine quality. It comes with two cardboard pieces that you assemble (Amun-Re Temple and Pharaoh). These are also well done and add more theme and flavor to the game. The map folds out and shows all 15 provinces in easy to read, yet thematic, artwork. It is very functional but not overly cluttered and contains a scoring track around the board’s perimeter. Finally, you get 5 summary cards with all the critical information for each round on one side and a Scoring summary on the other side. All in all, the components are excellent and get a rating of 8/10.

Object of the Game: The object is to have the most victory points at the end of the game.

Flow of Play: The game is split into 6 rounds with a scoring at the end of round 3 (Old Kingdom) and at the end of round 6 (New Kingdom). Each round consists of 5 phases (6 phases in scoring rounds). In the first phase Province cards a selected at random equal to the number of players. The 2nd phase involves an Auction to acquire the provinces. Phase 3 allows all players to buy Power Cards, Farmers, and Pyramids in their provinces. Phase 4 is a blind bid sacrifice to Amun-Re. In phase 5 everyone gets income from their provinces. Finally, in scoring rounds there is a 6th phase where victory points are scored.

The cost of items and provinces is a mathematical pattern (1,3,6,10,15,21,28,36, etc). Thus 2 farmers would cost 3, 3 farmers would cost 6, and 4 farmers would be 10. The auction is a clever bidding process where a player must bid on a price for a particular province in player order. If a player wants to bid on a province with another player’s marker, then she must place her marker on a higher bid. When a player has a turn and their marker has been overbid then they must select a different new province to bid on next. The auction ends when all provinces have a player’s marker on them. Provinces are not equivalent with each other. Some start with farmers or have room for many farmers. Some have fixed income and others have temples. Evaluating the value of provinces is a key element throughout the game since their values will change depending on which round they come out, what items are built on them, and what power cards and other provinces players have in their possession.

After provinces are selected, players buy power cards, farmers, and pyramids. There are limits on the Power Cards and farmers based on the provinces a player controls. Pyramids are the primary source of victory points so they are very important, but they do not have incremental uses like farmers (income) and power cards (breaking the rules).

After all players have purchased their items, players make a blind sacrifice (using Gold monetary coins). If players bid high values then the harvest will be plentiful, but if players bid low values then the harvest will be scarce (drought). All players get rewards (farmers, power cards, buildings) based on the amount of their sacrifice relative to each other. Players may opt to steal from the sacrifice to get money (which reduces the sacrifice by 3) but they don’t participate in the rewards.

Finally, players get income based on how plentiful the harvest. In general, provinces with lots of farmers will want a plentiful harvest while provinces with Camels will want a drought so that their income is maximized. Large income is important, since it sets players in position to bid and buy more in subsequent rounds.

The first 5 phases are repeated for 3 rounds and then a scoring occurs. Scores are based on Pyramids (individual, sets, and majorities), temples, and bonus power cards (if their conditions are met). Money also counts in the 6th round (final scoring).

Evaluation: An interesting twist in the game is that at the end of the Old Kingdom (after round 3 scoring), the farmers and province cards are removed but the Pyramids and building stones are left where they were built. This forces players to re-value provinces. Also, the order of the provinces is different each game and this keeps the game fresh and different over multiple playings.

The Power Cards offer several different benefits. Each card can be played in particular phases. Some give additional options during the auction, some provide extra farmers or help in building, and others modify the sacrifice and help increase income in the 5th phase. Finally, there are some cards that give a bonus during scoring if certain conditions are met.

One complaint of the game is that the power cards vary in usefulness and add a very random element. The other common complaint is that the blind bidding is very luck driven. I agree that the power cards can have a varying effect, but the game does allow them to be converted into gold at 1:1 rate at any time. This does help mitigate the risk of getting poor or useless power cards. The blind bidding auction for the sacrifice is interesting because the results of the bid are both special rewards and a cumulative total affects the income of everyone’s provinces. This means that you don’t want to have a camel province if everyone else has farmers or vice versa. Knowledge of this element will also affect the province evaluation in step 2 and this intrinsic linking of phases and decision-making is it’s strongest appeal for me.

Regarding the number of players. I think that with 3 players it is a little bit weaker because there is less variation in the auctions and less provinces to select. I have found it to be more enjoyable with 4 or 5 players though and it is always a game that I’m willing to play. It can run a little longer (~120-150 min) with less experienced players but once you have a good sense of the game flow it can be played in less time (~90 min).

Overall, I give Amun-Re 8/10 and it is highly recommended.

House Rules/Variants:
The only house rule I play with is when using a power card that modifies the value of the sacrifice. The card allows a player to shift the total bid by +/-3 but it must be played before a player sees the total of the bid. This often leads to a wasted play since the player generally wants to push the bid up or pull the bid down and therefore is only looking to shift the bid in one direction. Our house rule is to allow the card to shift the total bid by +/- 4. This tends to make the card more useful without making it too strong. It falls more closely in relative worth with the other Power Cards.

The only other power cards that I have considered weaker are the auction power cards because once players become experienced at evaluating the provinces these power cards are much less useful. I’ve decided recently to allow the auction power cards to be “interchangeable” so that either card provides either power (but not both). If you have the one that lets you rebid in the same province then you can use that card as stated OR as a blocking auction card that forces someone to bid higher to pass you.

Game Review Format

This posting is to highlight the criteria I use to rate games in my reviews. Most of my game reviews will be on games that I own since I have more familiarity with them and also enough plays to comfortably offer my opinions on them.

Each review will start with a graph showing 5 different criteria (this format the same as Kulkmann's G@mebox) and is used with permission from Frank Kulkmann.

Evaluation System used with permission www.boardgame.de

For my review purposes I will use the following rankings for each of the five Criteria. The rankings are subjective (and only my opinions) but I will try to give a guideline as to what each ranking means for each Criteria.

Complexity -- This is a criteria to measure both the process of learning a game and the clarity of the rules provided.

1) Understood by intuition, obvious rules that a 2 year old can easily follow

2) Simple, easily understood rules

3) Appropriate for pre-school to elementary school children to easily grasp

4) More advanced concepts for many young kids, but easily grasped by adults

5) Top end for most non-gamer games and ideal for many family level games

6) Gateway games and many family games with moderate rules

7) Majority of Gamer games fall into this category of complexity

8) Advanced complexity, gamers need learning curve

9) The top end of reasonable complexity

10) Overly complex rules that challenge even very experienced gamers

Design -- This criteria ranks a games components as well as the overall impression and presentation of the game. Both it's visual and tactile appeal.

1) No components or garbage components
2) Terrible components and design, drastically impacts gameplay
3) Serious concerns about design, may impact gameplay
4) Some problems with the components but still functional
5) Standard game components, no big issues
6) Above average components, but could have some small issues
7) Excellent components, general level for many Euros
8) Very well done components and design, above the norm for Euros
9) Exceptionally well done components, visually appealing
10) Top notch components that place this game above the field

Fun - This Criteria is just how enjoyable the game is for me and how frequently I would be willing to play it.

1) Complete waste of time, will NEVER play again
2) Boring, not worth the effort to play
3) Will play if forced by others, will not recommend
4) Okay game, would play again but wouldn't suggest
5) Average gameplay experience
6) Above average, enjoyable experience
7) Excellent game, engaging and very fun
8) Great gameplay, will always play and often suggest
9) Highly entertaining, very thematic or involved game, will always suggest/play
10) Great experience, would play again and again

Strategy - I try to rank the impact of strategy and tactics involved in the game and usually the key dividing point is how many strategic choices are viable over multiple plays of the game.

1) Complete luck or game plays by itself
2) Very limited options, roll and move
3) One obvious strategy and it is always the best choice
4) Some strategy but one strategy tends to dominate
5) At least two viable choices at varying points in the game
6) More than one route to victory or multiple tactical decisions
7) Multple paths to victory with tactical decisions along the way
8) Subtle strategies emerge through multiple plays
9) Abstract levels of strategy with great depth and replay value
10) Multiple layers of strategy and room for innovative tactics to succeed

Overall Evaluation - This is my overall ranking of the game relative to others in my collection and how willing I am to bring it out to the gaming table.

1) Only useful in the fireplace
2) Feeble game, will not play
3) Weak game, will only play when coerced into it
4) Below average, might play but won't suggest
5) Average game, will play sometimes
6) Good game, will play if suggested but not all the time
7) Strong game, will play more often than not
8) Excellent game, will always play and often suggest
9) Great game, will always play and always suggest
10) Will always recommend/play and this will not change

After the Ratings Graph, I will describe the game components. This will cover most (or all) of the game components and help explain my design rating. Then I will explain the Object and detail the Flow of Play for the game under review. Finally, I will wrap up with Overall Evaluation. Then in some cases I'll add details and explanation for any House Rules that I use for playing the game (sometimes to alter game balance and sometimes just for variety).