Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation

Woah! Nice little game here indeed! I was introduced to this one by chance at WBC and was instantly addicted - this despite the fact that I was taught by some sort of guru who trounced me EVERY game. So many options with each character's unique ability, card play, differing paths to choose to make it to your goal. Wow. Great game that's easily played in a short amount of time but still leaves you feeling satisfied.

I got this in a math trade. Great deal considering I traded Scarab Lords (yawn!). I've only gotten two matches in but LOTR: Confrontation is a fun game. I was a big fan of Stratego as a kid and Confrontation builds on that and produces a game of trying to out think your opponent and always stay two steps ahead. The board is really abstracted, but each character's special abilities are really fun in the way they counter each other. Great, quick-playing 2-player game.

It plays like an abstract but is surprisingly thematic. A fun, quick strategic game of card management, playing your hunches, and bluffing your opponent.

I also like the alternate characters available in the deluxe version. Gives the game lots of life.

...and we'd still play it, anytime. My poor cards are worn and frayed from all the play this one has seen.

It has a great hidden movement/fog of war-style mechanism that sometimes gets ignorantly dismissed as "Stratego". Number 1, Stratego is a great game, and 2, this one has only superficial similarities to Stratego. The card play and character powers make sure of that.

Yeah, it doesn't do its theme perfect justice in terms of movement, but the character powers all make sense and they do manage to cram enough of the LOTR theme into a tight-playing, 15 minute package.

Son, if you're hesitant, don't. Just run and grab a copy of the Deluxe version, it's such a great game.

It's an easy and fun to play tactical game, dripping with theme, everyone with a special ability which makes sense and it's just a great game to try to outsmart your opponent.

One of the best 2 player games you can get and it'll only last 30min tops, so you can easily play a few games to scratch that itch.