Ares Games War of the Ring 2nd Edition Board Game

Product Information

An interesting aspect of the game is how different named characters, or the ring bearer, can activate and move different armies to a war footing. We really enjoyed that the heroes (or the conflict itself) had to move different Middle Earth nations to war. The action dice for both good and evil. What you roll will dictate what actions you take. War of the Ring is a game of area control, “troops on a map,” dice combat, hidden movement, hand management, and timely card play. If that sounds like a lot to you, that’s because well, it is. This game is massive, not only in its scope but its size. I have a decent sized game table and it consumed most of it. Like any self-respecting grandiose game it has loads of plastic miniatures to shuffle around, as well as custom sculpts for major characters like Frodo, Legolas, Gimli, and all the other made-up words that call themselves names. Free Peoples player will command great hosts of the Third Age kingdoms and face the evil minions of Sauron. Lead the horse-lords of Rohan, Elven Lords of Rivendell and the soldiers of Gondor to gain Fellowship and destroy the ring to claim victory! In a two-players game, each opponent will lead either the Free Peoples or the armies of the Shadow, while in a three- or four-players game, the players will be organized in two team, each team controlling either faction.

In the event cards there are beings like Ents, Grima Wormtongue, Eagles, Tom Bombadil and of course a Balrog, and various items such as the Mirror of Galadriel, all of which have a direct impact on play and are true to the theme. Cards can be used in one of two ways, as events, or to help influence the outcome of a battle. Once again, there is always a decision to take.Overall, War of the Ring is quite simply a masterpiece. The choices are deliciously agonizing, the battles memorable, and the card play clever. It is equally gratifying playing as the Shadow Player or the Free Peoples. This is a fantastically designed game that is as rich as Smaug in theme. Every card and character ability make sense thematically. Gandalf can lead the Fellowship through the mines of Moria, Strider can leave the Fellowship to go level up and become Aragorn, Boromir can be heroically sacrificed to save the hobbits from taking damage. Everything that you would want to do in a Lord of the Rings game, short of finding out what was in that pipeweed, you can do. The only minor quibble I would have with the game is regarding some production quality issues. The miniatures aren’t the highest quality and some of the tokens can be difficult to decipher at a glance, but even this is easily forgivable considering the incredible scope and size of the game as a whole. Here once more you can also see the new size and quality of the Character and Event cards for both sides. As before, the game can be played as a two player or four player working in teams of twoand I must confess to much preferring to play two-player. However, this is very much a personal choice, mainly because I only tend to like such teaming of players on one side when there can still only be one winner. So, Wars of The Roses by Z-man Games and Ragnar Brothers' Promised Land are both games I hugely enjoy, whereas WOTR is definitely a 2 player for my money! War of the Ring is a game for two to four players, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings™. If you aren’t a fan of Lord of the Rings and think playing one game for roughly 6 hours with only one friend (the rules allow 4, but it’s just two teams so it might not work as well) is a bit too much, then I wouldn’t advise it. The game is long and can be a bit dry when learning it/teaching it to others. Every time the Fellowship moves, a “Hunt for the Ring” ensues, with the SP rolling a number of dice to try to catch them. The number of dice, or “Hunt Level” is equal to however many SP action dice are currently in the “Hunt Box,” comprising any “eye” results rolled and any dice specifically allocated in the “Hunt Allocation” phase 3. If the SP rolls even one ‘6,’ the hunt is successful and bad things happen. (more on that later)

One of the most significant factors at play in War of the Ring: Second Edition is its sheer scope. The map covers most of Middle-Earth, including regions some fans won’t be familiar with. You also have various factions at play on both sides of the battle, and these factions are represented by over 200 hundred miniatures. As you can probably imagine, this means that both setting the game up and learning all of the rules and mechanics that govern it is quite an undertaking. It can take upwards of an hour to set the game up when you first attempt it, which isn’t aided by how similar some of the miniatures can look. Trying to find enough space to actually run the game is going to be your first challenge. At his command gather Sauron’s legions of Orcs and Trolls, the forces of the wizard Saruman, and the hosts of the Southrons and Easterlings, set to bring darkness over the West. Along with the bigger is better motif, the cards are much larger. They are at least twice the size of the FFG cards, more like the size of Tarot cards, if you know what those are like. They are also much more readable, and have room to make everything bigger, so that you can see all of the icons without a magnifying glass. Some cards have been modified to improve their usefulness, and the abilities of the characters themselves have been changed as well. Pippen and Merri might actually be useful for something more than just fodder to prevent corruption to the ring bearers. Dates are subject to change. Under normal conditions, release date outside the US is normally 4 to 8 weeks after US release, depending on transit times to local distributors.War of the Ring is a board game where 2-4 players aged 13 years and over will compete in teams of Free Peoples and Shadow Armies. The strategy game will bring players into the world of The Lord of The Rings created by J.R.R. Tolkien where they can experience incredible action and conflict. Ultimately War of the Ring is a two player strategic war game driven by action dice and event cards, which despite the asymmetrical nature, is extremely well balanced. The 96 event cards ensure every play of War of the Ring is going to be different. The game is fairly complex because there is a lot going on, and there are a lot of rules although each rule is simple and the two sided player aid card helps a great deal. If I have any gripes the figures representing the armies of the Free Peoples are difficult to tell apart and I’m not a great fan of bendy plastic figures – but at least they will not break. Secondly War of the Ring does take some time to set up. Lastly towards the end victory or defeat can hang on a single event or dice, it can feel tense, it can feel random, but there is strategy in avoiding the random. Some of you may feel that a review of War of The Ring 2nd edition [from now on standard abbreviation WOTR] is a little unnecessary, but that was what I was asked to undertake, before moving on to the expansion WOTR: Warriors of Middle-Earth. The second aspect is moving the Fellowship/ringbearers around the board secretly to move them slowly and safely into Mordor. This added a whole new dynamic to an area of control game I hadn’t gotten to play before. As evil, I constantly had to make the decision on how many dice I wanted to commit to the hunt for the ring, limiting my recruitment and moves during the action phase. The good player gets to declare where the fellowship is each turn if needed then removes the token from the board keeping me guessing on which paths, they would take to Mordor. Starting positions on the board. Let the war begin!

In the event any translated versions of the Anniversary Release are announced to become available, customers can choose to switch from the English version to another version free of charge. Beyond the military conflict side is the quest of the Fellowship of the Ring to get to Mount Doom and throw the ring into the fires, destroying the power of the dark lord forever. The Fellowship consists of all of the characters from the books and movies, at least in the beginning. You may lose companions along the way, or they could be forced to leave to try to save another part of Middle Earth from the unrelenting march of the Shadow’s armies. Definitely! I’m no stranger to big war games after having played regular games of Twilight Imperium, dabbling in old classics like Warrior Knights, and loving an epic miniatures game when you have a free day. And with all that said, this has got to be one of the best out there. The mechanics used for your actions are the classic dice roll, requiring different symbols to be revealed to allow them to be spent as those actions. Sauron’s side start with more dice as they are more prepared to take the world by force. The Fellowship have an extra symbol on their dice that allows it to be spent as any other symbol, giving them more flexibility to react to impending doom! One narrative strength of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe is that underneath all the grand gilded garrisons of a war epic is the simple story of two buddies going cross-country to return some jewelry. The importance of the “little guy” amidst worldwide chaos was never lost on the author, demonstrably having Frodo and Sam, two mostly normal Middle-Earth hillbillies, being the primary protagonists. War of the Ring stays true to this ethos. While navigating international diplomacy and managing military might is crucial to survival, we can’t forget that the quest is still about the ring.

Follow Us

Final Score: 5 Stars – A deep strategy area of control game with multiple aspects that keep it fresh and deserving of the Lord of the Rings brand. The players take part in the struggle of the armies of the Free Peoples and the heroic Companions of the Fellowship of the Ring against the dark host of the Shadow and the powerful Minions of the Dark Lord.

Action Resolution: This is the meat of the game. Players take turns activating dice to do the action listed on that die face. In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/or http://www.youronlinechoices.com.Fast forward to 2011, Ares games received the rights from defunct NG International and decided to publish the game in the United States on their own. The FFG version has long been considered one of the best adaptations of the struggle between the shadow and the inhabitants of Middle Earth ever made. So how can you improve on that? This is highlighted superbly in War of the Ring by the game mechanics of moving the Fellowship. While we know canonically that the party starts at Rivendell, the journey that the Fellowship takes is primarily in secret. This is accomplished by a very clever set of mechanics.