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Like many of the best card games, it’s a simple set of rules made strategically complex by the possible combinations and effects of the cards themselves. Many cards grant bonus abilities when played to a player’s reserve area, making it not quite as obvious as throwing your most powerful cards into the fray. It is, to a degree, an asymmetric game. It feels hard to win if you’re Free Peoples. Much as in the book, the forces of Sauron are so strong as to be overwhelming. As the Free Peoples player, sadly, there is no Deus Ex Machinato see you through to the end. (Although there is an eagles card to get you out of a tight spot!) Nevertheless, every game has been very close, and more importantly an absolutely barnstorming Lord of the Ringsexperience. Players can enter the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and imagine their own version of the epic battle between the Dark Lord, Sauron, and the Free Peoples of Middle-earth in War of the Ring – The Card Game, which was inspired by the best-selling and award-winning War of the Ring board game. With more than 100 original illustrations from the greatest Tolkienian artists in the world, including an amazing gallery of landscapes from The Shire to Mordor by John and Fataneh Howe, War of the Ring: The Card Game is more than a game – it also a memorable collection for all lovers of the world imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien. When we put it all together, path 6 becomes a huge contention for both teams, because the Shadow wants to use Gollum to spam the Shadow favored effects, whereas Free People are trying to move the paths to 7 as fast as possible, which are all Free people favored, AND they can use this Gondor homie to start scoring them for free.
War of the Ring is widely considered to be one of - if not the - greatest adaptations of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to a tabletop experience. Recreating the entirety of Tolkien’s book trilogy as a Risk-style board game, War of the Ring is soaked through with the dense lore and worldbuilding of the novels, combining a faithful commitment to the story of Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring with the sprawling battle between good and evil that spans the whole of Middle-earth. War of the Ring: The Card Game centres around two locations played in the middle of the table each round. One is a battleground representing one of the key battles between the Free Peoples of Middle-earth - elves, dwarves and the nations of Rohan and Gondor, as well as the Fellowship of the Ring - and the orc and Uruk-hai forces of Shadow, while the other is a path card that divides the journey of Frodo into nine key chapters, from the Shire to Mount Doom. War of the Ring: The Card Game released last year as a spin-off from the beloved board game based on Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy. The game pits two to four players - split into teams representing the Free Peoples and the Shadow led by Sauron and Saruman - against each other in a battle to control locations across Middle-earth and corrupt the Ring-bearer. During the game, players will take turns playing cards representing the characters, armies, items, and events of the War of the Ring. Each card they play will help or hinder the journey of the Fellowship as it progresses on its Path; or be used to defend or conquer the strongholds of Middle-earth, as they fight to control the new Battleground cards activated in each round.There are a few other minor actions you can take, but these are rare and don’t have much bearing on the core structure of the game. Starting with components, yeah, this game has a ton of component polish, with a fantastic insert, sturdy chits, and just good feeling cards, whether big or small. Lord of the Rings gem War of the Ring: The Card Game will receive its first expansion later this year, introducing new cooperative and solo modes. Shadow isn’t weaker, but need careful playing and do not follow the rulebook’s marketing. If you’re a really careful gamer, this won’t be an issue. I won’t spoil the details of the strategy: but essentially you cannot get concerned that the FP are utterly destroying you in points- you just need to keep that a little below 10 until late game, where paths 8/9 are very shadow favored.
War of the Ring Card Game is not to be confused with the Fantasy Flight Lord of the Rings Living Card Game, or this game’s bigger older sibling ‘The War of The Ring’, Ian Brody brings us this two to four player card game. A card game inspired by both the novels and the game that came before it, distilling the War of The Ring board game experience into a more palatable game length. This is simpler and shorter than its predecessor but make no mistake that this is not a simple or short game. Cards are played to one of the two locations, or into your reserve for use in future rounds, and this is done through cycling another card from your hand. I really like the simplicity here in not having to worry about the cost of cards in my hand but also knowing the agonising decision that I have to get rid of something I might want to play another card. As a result, War of the Ring is also a whopper of a board game, requiring several hours to play - and potentially several more if you count setup and time to teach its hefty rules. While there are two and three-player variations, this game plays best as a 4 player game: 2v2 – with players teaming up to represent the Free Peoples and Shadow forces. Move a card from the reserve to a path or battleground. Note: Cards that have been played to the reserve in the current round may not be moved during the same round (though there are some card effects that can override this). Card Action
Step 4 – Victory Check
There are a number of actions you can take. Mostly you’ll be playing cards. Three Dùnedain Cards. An item, a character, and an army. Play Action All cards apart from event cards can be played into reserve. This is often done to allow you to use a beneficial effect printed on the card, but can also be a way of holding useful cards for later rounds (using move actions). Set up of the game is straightforward. Assuming you are playing the full trilogy scenario for 4 players the game is set up as follows.
My Comments: I have played War of the Rings a couple of times, but I have never acquired it because I know it is not a game my wife would enjoy. However, this hits a lot of the same high notes but transitions the game from dudes on a map to tense card play and that connects a lot better with both of us. With so many Lord of the Ring games on the market, I really feel this does enough to elevate it above others to warrant a place in your collection. This is certainly a game that benefits from multiple plays and trying the various game modes and it’s fantastic that you can play a shorter 1v1 scenario or a larger full scale sprawling recreation of the trilogy story as a 2v2 or 2v1 straight from the box. Once you’ve got your head around the rules and understand the terminology and interplay between the cards there is a deep and rewarding card game here that feels epic compared to the sum of its parts. Each round is full of tough and meaningful choices that will impact on how you can approach subsequent rounds keeping a high level of tension throughout. It might not have the table presence of War of the Ring but then why shouldn’t I keep it? Speaking of the original WOTR, that game was INSANELY hard to learn, its like the the rulebook and its player aids were some archaically worded parchment that were ACTIVELY gatekeeping the play. Happy to report that learning this War of the Ring is mostly good, with good examples, good use of space, fantastic card breakdown, etc. etc. This is helped by the good player aid that explains all the symbols, and slightly differentiated for the opposing teams here. I loved this game, but before I explain why, let me just point out the only reason I can see for not liking the game. Her Comments: For the most part I liked the card play and the choices present, but it was annoying to feel like I could not do anything at times because I did not have the needed cards required for a path or battlefield.If the number of Free People’s shields can cancel out all of the skulls, they win and take the Path card into their victory pile. War of the Ring - The Card Game is more than just a game; it's also a treasure trove for all admirers of the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien, featuring more than 100 original illustrations from the greatest Tolkienian artists in the world, including an incredible gallery of landscapes from The Shire to Mordor by John and Fataneh Howe. Its first expansion, Against the Shadow, enables players to experience the adventure alone or cooperatively. Or how about when you see hobbits on a path- shouldn’t you be putting Nazgul on there to search for the ring- no actually you don’t want to do that in this game because Nazgul ALL DIE AFTER GOING ON PATHS, and Hobbits ALWAYS survive, don’t have the Nazgul tap themselves out too early from going on the hunt for the ring they’re thematically supposed to do…
Like its board game cousin, War of the Ring: The Card Game is highly faithful to Tolkien’s original novels. Not just in the luscious artwork and deep lore on the cards, which stretch into corners of Middle-earth sometimes passed over by other games, but in the way that the story of The Lord of the Rings shapes the flow of the gameplay itself. This is really a case of trying to sell the IP so hard, because Frodo Baggins is a single character card that you’ll see maybe on 4 paths a game if FP play very efficiently. Oh and no point is the actual 1 ring a mechanic during gameplay where Frodo himself is getting corrupted- corruption is just a generic VP for the Shadow. So yeah sorry WOTR fans, this game is just about maximizing VP on different locations flips before the game ends, not about going invisible, charting a proper path or anything like that. Games are broken into 9 rounds (as given by the 9 sets of Path cards). Each round is broken down into 5 steps. Step 1 – Location Step Frodo– Free Peoples: Dwarf, Hobbit, Rohan, and Wizard cards (Sidenote: “Dwarf” is just Gimli and his axe!)For the Free People, how about Gandalf who says you shall not freaking pass on a path to get a new one! Then he can die there, no problem, because Gandalf 2.0 can ride Shadowfax to rush to defend Minis Tirith for insane stats! This game has received post game support including new scenarios to try which can be found online and I’m excited to hear they’ve just announced a solo and co-operative mode to be released via an expansion later in the year, meaning you’re going to have a wide array of options to play this game depending on what fits your mood. Is This The One Ring? Players can enter the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and imagine their own version of the epic battle between the Dark Lord, Sauron, and the Free Peoples of Middle-earth in War of the Ring - The Card Game, which was inspired by the best-selling and award-winning War of the Ring board game. The Path mechanics are particularly clever. Being able to play certain characters and cards only at certain times greatly adds to their power to invoke the central story. After Rivendell, the Ringwraiths can’t be played on paths until later on in the game. There are few things better when Gandalf gets to head the Balrog off at Khazad-Dùm. An occurrence made all the sweeter by the fact it won’t happen in every game. There is also another clever mechanic concerning Gandalf and Aragorn. They start the game as Gandalf the Grey and Strider. You do have access to cards for Gandalf the White and Aragorn, but once they are played, the original incarnations are completely removed from the game. Like, you might have asked yourself, what if Minis Tirith gets flipped over round one? Well this THREE point battleground is gonna be pretty hard to Shadow to get with its defense and free people helping ability… and remember Free People don’t even have to commit troops there to necessarily win! the walls And if you do the math, Shadow needs between 2-3 troops to get over Minas Tirith’s base defense value AND the troops need to match the battleground type… this is a LOT to ask on the first turn, so the shadow HAS to essentially give it up, giving FP an early VP lead, putting the burden on the Shadow to later re-activate this place, spending their own resources.
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