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. Her Comments: I am not a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and I do not think I have even seen one of these movies since the last one was in theaters. While I did not connect with theme, the game does have an epic fantasy feel. Note: It is not possible to pass until your hand is below your “carryover limit.” This means that sometimes you are forced to play cards before you would ideally like not to. 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. 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?

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…

What’s in the Box?

Both Battlegrounds and Paths may have some text that tells players immediately to carry out an action. Usually directing players of certain affinities to draw or discard cards. Both types of cards also have a number of victory points associated with them. In each round, the cards are fought over, with the victor taking the spoils. The person with the most victory points at the end of the game is the winner. 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. Inspired by the best-selling and award-winning War of the Ring board game, War of the Ring - The Card Gameallows players to journey to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Ringsand create their own version of the dramatic conflict between the Dark Lord, Sauron, and the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.

Then, items are a very feast or famine type of card, where they can be good to AMAZING if you get to play them on a very specific character, but useless otherwise. If you lost the host card, whether through fault of your own or through a random forsake, then they’re utterly useless and really cut decision making. Feasting looks like: Frodo GETS mythril armor on a path, the one item that is equipped to him, adding TWO defense to a path where FP already win ties is amazing. The player(s) control the Free Peoples, using the normal rules and cards included in the War of the Ring – The Card Game.

Categories

Item Cards are played onto characters that have already been played. They usually convey buffs or alter some of the game rules so that they don’t affect the character they are played to. 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. 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. Each player is given a ring token and a player aid. (The ring token can be used to give you a one-off extra card draw during the game or can be cashed in for a victory point at the end.)

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? 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.

Step 4 – Victory Check

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. All images and assets belong to Ares Games, if you enjoy this mod please consider supporting the official publishers. 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. Frodo– Free Peoples: Dwarf, Hobbit, Rohan, and Wizard cards (Sidenote: “Dwarf” is just Gimli and his axe!)

War of the Ring: The Card Game has launched an interest in Tolkien in my kids that I’ve been quietly hoping would come along for about 15 years. (Admittedly, my oldest was 2 then, so I was perhaps being a little premature.) I played the game with my 3 boys, 17, 13, and 10. They were all very taken with it. My youngest in particular has now wanted to learn more about Middle Earth ,its stories, and characters. I am in clover! 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).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. 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. Once everybody has passed, the action step is over and we move on to the combat step. Edoras is a Free Peoples Battle Ground. Note it can only have Rohan, Wizard cards played to it by Free Peoples players and Isengard by the Shadow players Step 3 – The Combat Step