Lord of the Rings

Complexity Medium Cost £35 Duration Medium Players 2-5 Producer Parker, Hasbro Size Medium

Premise

Save MiddleEarth by destroying the One Ring

Review

The most striking thing about this game is the artwork (by one of the formost Tolkien illustrators), especially that on the boards. I wasn't too keen on some of the card graphics which I found bland in comparison and the painting on the resin hobbit tokens could have been better executed. On the other hand, the token for Sauron is a nicely painted and carved piece of good quality wood. The Ring itself is very impressive (in gold plastic), and is engraved with those words...

My most serious concerns regard the rulebook, which is printed on very flimsy paper. It's beautifully printed but how long is it going to last ? Also some of the rules are a bit hard to find after you've completed the excellent introduction. A nice touch is the "Reduced Shakespeare Version" of the book in the rulebook; if you take a deep breath you can almost read it in one pass. One minor niggle is that the spaces in the box insert for the cards aren't big enough for all the cards.

The game itself is rather unusual in that it is a cooperative game between the players. Each player takes a hobbit (the four usual suspects and Fatty) and try between them to complete the game by getting to Mount Doom and chucking the Ring in. Each hobbit has slightly different special abilities; Sam for example is less prone to the corrupting influence of the Ring.

The play takes a spritely sprint through some of the main events in the book (from the point of view of the hobbits) but there is no attempt to split the party up with multiple plot lines like the book (now that would be a game and a half). Some people have objected to this aspect, and how it makes most of the other characters just a single card in the game but it would be foolish to try and stuff the whole book into a family game.

The game starts in Bag End, with a few simple fixed events, moves to Rivendell with the first main card distribution, and then moves to Moria. These are special cards, similar the to the six random "hobbit" cards dealt to each player at the begining, but they either reflect other characters in the game, or are special yellow cards, which can be played at any time.

At this point play moves to the scenario boards (which are exquisitely illustrated). On each board the aim is to complete the main track, before the events down the left edge of the board overtake the party. During each scenario, each player must collect life tokens or risk being corrupted by the Ring and Sauron. Players can also collect shields, which can be cashed in amongst other things to call on Gandalf for help. The Ring itself moves around the party to the person who collected the most ring tokens.

There are various tracks on these boards, there is a single main track (which must be completed to complete the scenario) and several minor tracks. With each track a symbol is associated, and these symbols are in turn found on the various cards. Playing cards allows you to advance along the tracks. On each player's turn an event tile is turned over and these affect the scenario in various ways, not always to the players' advantage.

Once per scenario the Ring bearer can put on the Ring to attempt to skip some of the more perilous obstacles. The player rolls the die, takes the effects and moves a number of spaces equal to four minus the number of symbols on the die. Thus if you roll the blank, you roll 4, if you roll the tripple corruption you move one. No space you land on in this way can affect you for good or bad.

During the game, players get corrupted and Sauron advances, this being reflected on the main board. If a player should meet Sauron, darkness has overcome them and they are out of ther game. If this player is the Ring bearer then the game is lost, although there is an amusing variant where the player may join the dark side and win alone (the "Meet Uncle Sauron" ending).

Players can also be eliminated for failing to discard life tokens or cards when directed. If the players complete the Mordor scenario they have got to the top of Mt Doom and can try to cast the Ring into the deep. If they survive then they have won the game. There is no one winner in this case, but in the less cooperative version the player with the most shields wins.

Although the rules do not consider it, this game is by its nature suitable for adaptation to sollitare play. Hopefully future editions will include rules for solo play.

Most players agree that it's a lovely game with unusual mechanics, although most agree that it's not a game to play over and over in one session - in other words a good family game.

Expansions

Friends and Foes

This is the first expansion set and requires the original. The same illustrator, John Howe supplies the graphics, and the set is designed by Reiner Knizia and the other original designers.

The set provides an additional game-board representing Bree and Isengard, additional rules, an overlay for the main board and cards. As the name implies, the expansion adds new allies and enemies, including Strider, the Barrow Wights, Saruman and the Spiders of Mirkwood. The cost is £18. Fortunately, the expansion fits into the existing box so there's no need to carry around two boxes. The rule supplement is printed on thin card which is much more robust than the original rules.

If you found the gameplay of the original a bit too programatic then you will like this a lot. The expansion adds several new features, two new Gandalf cards (which can be used in the normal game), special one use abilities for the hobbits, new cards for Bree and Isenguard and the foes.

You lose the game if at end of a turn there are eight or more foes displayed. If on the other hand you manage to kill off visible foes, you can skip certain boards altogether. Finally, if you kill all 30 foes, you win a military victory over Sauron. The foes can be killed by taking the penalty on the bottom of the card or by using one of the few special cards (or Merry's one use ability). You can also kill the most recent foe by skipping a turn.

The foes are displayed whenever the hollow card symbol appears (so the discard two cards symbol on the die now means display two more foes). A foe also appears if the first tile that you draw in your turn is not a special event i.e. it is a hiding, fellowship, battle or travelling tile.

When we first played this at Essen, we got eaten at 60 points (which would normally be enough to win the game). I've played it since, and it is possible (but very difficult) to kill all of the foes and win that way, although I suspect you would have to adopt it as your primary objective. It's all in the luck though as usual - I am notorious for drawing the event tiles! An added bonus which goes someway towards one criticism I have of the original is that because each hobbit scores a shield for each foe he kills, you are much more likely to have a decent spread of final scores if you want to play less cooperatively.

Rating

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