lord of the rings strategy board game

Okay, so I’ve been wanting to try out this “Lord of the Rings” board game for a while now. I mean, who hasn’t, right? Huge fan of the books and movies, the whole shebang. Finally, I got my hands on a copy of War of the Ring: Second Edition. It’s the real deal, everyone says this is the one to play.

First off, I opened the box. Man, the components! So many detailed miniatures, cards, dice, the works. Felt like I was unpacking a treasure chest. It all looked pretty complicated, I gotta admit.

Next, I grabbed the rulebook. Tried to read it, and it was dense. Like, really dense. I had to reread some parts multiple times to figure out how everything worked. I spent a whole evening just trying to wrap my head around the basics.

Then, I roped in a couple of buddies who were also into the whole Middle-earth thing. We set up the board, which is massive by the way. It is a huge map of Middle-earth. It was cool, but also kind of intimidating.

We started playing. It took us some time to understand the rules. It’s a long game. We played for maybe three hours, and we barely scratched the surface of the whole campaign. It was a bit frustrating at times, trying to remember all the rules and special abilities.

• There are two teams. One of us controlled the Free Peoples, trying to get the ring to Mordor and all that.
• The other team played as the Shadow, trying to, you know, take over the world and stop the ring bearer.

The game, though, it really does capture the feel of the books. It’s strategic, and you really gotta think about your moves.

After that first session, we decided to try a different version just for kicks. We found this Risk: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition game. And it was way more straightforward, and the map is not that big. We knocked out a game in a couple of hours. It wasn’t as deep, but it was still fun, and it definitely scratched that “Lord of the Rings” itch.

But, I guess the original War of the Ring game is the one we’ll keep coming back to. It’s a beast, but it’s a fun beast. Just need to set aside a whole day, or maybe a weekend, to really get into it. I am ready to try it out again.