War of the Ring

If there's a game that betters War of the Ring in terms of delivering a fantastic, nail-biting experience while expertly balancing narrative and strategic gameplay, I haven't tried it. Many strategy games tend to make concessions when it comes to theme to ensure the mechanics are accessible to new players, or the thematic elements are only pin-on dressings with just a tenuous attachment to what the player is actually doing. Not so, here. This game drops the players right in the middle of a warring Middle Earth. The players are first and foremost competing for victory, but every single action taken towards this goal compound to create an exciting and engaging alternate telling of the Lord of the Rings epic. When playing, I keep switching between grinning like a kid because of the cool situations that are unfolding and scratching my head trying to decide what would be the best course of action.

There are some nitpicks about the production quality that can be made (small text on the event cards, awkward board for handling so many pieces, overly esoteric and subtle symbols to differentiate regions and nationalities) but, really, these don't detract from my enjoyment of the game one iota as these problems are greatly outweighed by what this gorgeous production does right.

Awesome game. Excellent bits and board, very immersive. My favorite 2-player game and favorite AT game. A must have for Lord of the Rings fans. If you want an epic Lord of the Rings gaming experience, this game cannot be beat.

The theme is very well implemented in this game. Both players must allocate their actions between the fellowship of the ring (either finding them or getting them to Mordor) and the War between the Free Peoples and the Shadow. Each nation has their own miniatures and the cards do a very good job of reenacting situations (or possible situations) from the books. The action dice are a cool part of the game that can force you to alter your strategy a bit, but still gives you a ton of choices.

I love the full game, but also enjoy a variant on the intro game I made that cuts out the cards (thus, cutting play time in half) and is more balanced than the original (broken) quick-play rules.

This game begins to rival the Mighty Dune in its ability to capture the feel of the book it was based on. War of the Ring is a wonderful 2 player war game, complete with tons of plastic mini's and well produced bits.

One of am favorite 2 player games, playable in about 4 - 5 hours and rather simple to teach. This one is made better with the expansion, but works very well out of the box.

What more can be said about War of the Ring? A game that is daringly old school, that perfectly straddles the line between Ameritrash and war game, that squeezes ten tons of theme inside a tightly packed box...


It's the kind of game that makes you grateful that you're a gamer.


My full review on BGG has all the details. This is a game that deserves to be in print for years to come, and should it ever fall out of print it will be one that will still be highly sought after.

A masterpiece of boardgames. It captures the epic saga of Lord of the Rings perfectly with a board, cards, and ton of plastic miniatures. Like lots of my favorite 2 player games, the 2 sides play very differently. Painting the bases of the minis isn't required but helps a lot. The rulebook is a bit muddled but take the time to work your way through it. It's much easier to play the rules than to read them, and the initial effort is well worth it.