Ares Games War of the Ring 2nd Edition Board Game

Product Information

The game can be won by a military victory, if Sauron conquers a certain number of Free People cities and strongholds or vice versa. But the true hope of the Free Peoples lies with the quest of the Ringbearer: while the armies clash across Middle Earth, the Fellowship of the Ring is trying to get secretly to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. Sauron is not aware of the real intention of his enemies but is looking across Middle Earth for the precious Ring, so that the Fellowship is going to face numerous dangers, represented by the rules of The Hunt for the Ring. But the Companions can spur the Free Peoples to the fight against Sauron, so the Free People player must balance the need to protect the Ringbearer from harm, against the attempt to raise a proper defense against the armies of the Shadow, so that they do not overrun Middle Earth before the Ringbearer completes his quest.

Trying to cut off the ringbearer’s traditional routes doesn’t always go as planned either. In one of our games, Frodo eventually ended up in Mirkwood and cut directly South, forcing me to pull armies from other areas of the board to cut them off and engage with the army (possibly) escorting them south. The result was evil being duped into less than ideal engagements and eventually allowing the good player to reach Mt. Doom. Final Thoughts:

War of the Ring: Pre-orders for Kings of Middle-earth expansion are open

The base of War of the Ring is a solid, challenging and not over complex, two player area control strategic war game. On this alone War of the Ring is a seriously good game. Add to this the lovely presentation and components, how well it brings to life the events and characters in Lord of the Rings and immerses the players into Middle Earth, it really is a winner. Kings of Middle–Earth introduces two new types of Characters to War of the Ring Second Edition: Sovereigns and Dark Chieftains. The Sovereigns of the Free Peoples were targeted by Sauron’s attempts to bend the will of the peoples opposing him - using the palantíri (the seeing stones), through emissaries, like Gríma, and possibly with other subtle and deceitful means. At the same time, it was crucial for the morale of the Free Peoples to rally around these charismatic figures - Brand, Dáin Ironfoot, Denethor, Théoden, and Thranduil - to fight against the Shadow. So if the FP decides to move the Fellowship a second time in a round, the SP then only needs to roll a “5” the second time around to be successful. Going a third time, like hiring Gollum as your sous chef, is even riskier. That’s not how you make a tuna tartare. Character Action: Move armies that contain a leader, move the special characters (Companions for FP, Minions for SP), or play a Character Event Card. FP can also use this action to move, hide, or split up the fellowship.

Due out this September is a deluxe special edition of The Battle of Five Armies, the War of the Ring spin-off based on prequel The Hobbit. As with the limited edition of War of the Ring and its two expansions, the set will include 126 fully painted miniatures, plus the previously unreleased mini-expansion The Fate of Erebor. 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! All the counters and markers are of very sturdy cardboard and I particularly like the new squareArmy markers [which replace the former, smaller round ones]inscribed with elven script that can be used to replace large numbers ofunits that are then placed in the Army Holding boxes on the map. Beside the few physical changes, overall there have been very limited minor changes and additions to the rules- why change what was very good in the first place? Fellowship Phase: The FP can choose to declare the location of the fellowship, allowing them to potentially activate a nation, heal corruption damage, or change out their guide.

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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. 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! 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. If the Fellowship succeeds in destroying the Ring before this happens, or the armies of the Free Peoples succeed in turning the tide and conquering the enemy’s strongholds themselves, the fall of the Dark Lord is at hand…

War of the Ring is a 2 to 4 player area of control and hidden movement game that takes about 2 hours to play. War of the Ring captures the epic battles between good and evil featured in the Lord of the Rings and the perilous quest of the fellowship of the ring as they try to avoid the Nazgul on their way to destroy the ring in Mt. Doom. Gameplay Overview:

The Wise Speak Only of What They Know – Final Thoughts

Jocul poate fi câștigat prin victorie militară de oricare dintre tabere, atunci când se atinge un anumit număr de orașe și fortărețe cucerite. Dar adevărata speranță a Popoarelor Libere se află în mâinile Purtătorului Inelului: în timp ce armatele se ciocnesc în varii teatre de război ale Pâmântului de Mijloc, Frăția Inelului încearcă să ajungă în secret la Muntele de Foc pentru a îndeplini cea mai grea sarcină - distrugerea Inelului. Sauron nefiind conștient de intenția reală a dușmanilor săi, caută cu disperare Inelul în orice colț al Pământului de Mijloc. Frăția Inelului va fi supusă numeroaselor capacane, drept pentru care Popoarele Libere trebuie să echilibreze nevoia de a proteja Frăția cu sarcina minuțioasă de a încropi o apărare adecvată împotriva Armatelor Umbrei. 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. Face the evil minions of Sauron on the field of battle in a desperate attempt to delay their onslaught, while you lead the Fellowship of the Ring in the Quest for Mount Doom. If the Shadow conquers enough of its enemies’ cities and strongholds, or if the Ring-bearers fail and are corrupted, Darkness will triumph.