Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 180 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 15-25 minutes

War of the Ring Rules Description:

War of the Ring is an epic game as you and your opponent play out the Lord of the Rings trilogy in a board game. But the outcome might not be the same.

You play as either the Free Peoples or the Shadow player. War of the Ring plays very differently depending on which side you play. The Free Peoples player must get to Mount Doom and destroy the ring or wage a successful military campaign. The Shadow player must either achieve a military victory or corrupt the ring bearer.

If you play as the Free Peoples you face an uphill battle, especially if you hope to achieve a military victory. The Shadow player has more military strength and resources. On top of that many nations that make up the Free Peoples are not willing to go to war. You must spur them to action in order to launch a military campaign.

The other way for you to win is going to Mount Doom and destroying the ring. Representatives of the Free Peoples nations form the Fellowship and they have the ring. You move the fellowship in secret and hope to avoid detection by the Shadow player. If you can make it all the way to the top of Mount Doom without being corrupted, you win. You may have to sacrifice members of the fellowship in order to help the ring bearer survive.

The key to winning as the Free Peoples player is holding off the Shadow player’s military advance while destroying the ring as quickly as possible.

The Shadow player is set up to win with a military campaign. However if you ignore the Fellowship you can quickly find yourself with a couple hobbit in Mordor hiking up Mount Doom.

The action in War of the Ring is driven by the dice. The Shadow player can denote some of their dice to hunting for the Fellowship. But this will mean you have less dice with which to wage war. Discovering the location of the ring bearer allows you to corrupt him. If the ring bearer’s corruption is high enough you win. At the very least corruption may slow down the Fellowship. They can heal corruption but need to stop and rest in a Free Peoples’ stronghold to do so.

Combat takes place two ways: on map spaces and as sieges within fortresses. The main difference is that fortresses are easier to defend. You score Victory Points by controlling your opponent’s fortresses and cities.

Event Cards are played by either side during combat and help you gain an upper hand in battles. The Event Cards mimic many of the events from the Lord of the Rings books.

Speaking of the books, many of the prominent characters from the book are in War of the Ring. Some come into the game after you meet certain conditions. These characters add more dice and allow you to take more actions.

A Quick War of the Ring Review:

War of the Ring is an excellent war game. And although I am not always too attached to themes in games, this game does an amazing job in keeping to books. It is awesome the way you must balance attacking and defending with moving or searching for the Fellowship.

The way the sum of the parts equates into such a memorable experience is great too. You’ll be remembering and talking about victories in War of the Ring long after they occur. The narrative the game creates is that good.

I love the mechanic for moving the Fellowship. No one really knows exactly where they are until they are revealed or declare their position, even the Free Peoples player.

Some people feel War of the Ring is unbalanced and requires things to go just right for the Free Peoples player to win. The Second Edition helps balance the game and clarifies many of the rules questions from the original.

War of the Rings is fairly complex and you will probably miss a few rules your first few times through. Just keep the rules close by and know that this happens less the more you play.

If I have anything negative to say about War of the Ring it is the play time. While I really enjoy this game it is hard to get to the table because it is so long. It is totally worth the time spent but can be hard to set the 3-4 hours aside to play it. War of the Ring is fairly complex and though the rules have been simplified there is still a pretty steep learning curve. There is a lot to keep track of and you will probably miss a few things on your first couple of plays.

Set up can take a long time but you can paint the figures or keep them in their own separate baggies to help speed things up. And although the box says 2-4 players, it is best with two.

All in all I have to say War of the Ring is an excellent game. If you like Lord of the Rings you’ll love the theme and how true to the narrative the game is. Even with its long play time and learning curve, it is still a great two player war game. That may mean it will hit the table less than I like, but I will be happy when it does. If you are a Lord of the Rings fan you must try this game, you’ll really enjoy it.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 6 out of 6
Fun 6 out of 6
Overall 6 out of 6 (especially if you are a Lord of the Rings fan)