Thursday, July 31, 2014

War of the Ring

Recently I got in a couple games of War of the Ring 1st edition by Fantasy Flight Games. I picked this up at the MayDay auction last year I think (or was it the year before?) for if I remember correctly, $12. What a great game!  In this game one player plays Sauron and all the forces of the evil and the other plays the Free Peoples. The object being either to conquer Middle Earth or chuck the Ring into Mount Doom (for the Free Peoples) or completely corrupt the ring bearers (for Sauron).

Each sides actions are carried out by rolling action dice to determine which actions are available to you. Further play options are carried out by playing character or strategy cards. There's plenty to do and it's not just a matter of move army here, squash these guys and you're done. Do the Free Peoples player move the Fellowship closer to Mordor or do they try and push Rohan into declaring war on Sauron? Does Sauron mass his forces for a couple big hits on Minas Tirith or does he devote more resources to look for the Fellowship?

The board itself is really big, second only to my Napoleon's Triumph board.  The figures for each side are really nice. The only complaint I had is from my opponent and he wishes each nation was a different colour so it's easier to distinguish the various nations. The rest of the components are typical FFG quality - really good. It took us about 4 hours for our first game and 2 hours for our second. The game can take 3 or 4 players, but its really a 2 player game.  I think with 3 or 4 it would be rather boring and just wouldn't feel the same. Evidently FFG doesn't make it any more which is a shame as it's really a great game and I definitely recommend it.

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