War of the Ring

(gift/free/prize)

Good game, but ultimately a pain to try to understand/remember all the rules.

1-5 plays. I was extremely disappointed with this as I was convinced I would really like it. It oozes theme and I think the Fellowship/Ring to Mordor/Hunt mechanism is excellent. However, at its heart, it's a wargame - and a distinctly average one at that (if anything it reminded me of Axis & Allies but not as slick). The game is overly long with much of the time spent fiddling with the pieces and understanding the plethora of rules nuances and the exceptions created by the cards. Whilst the board and pieces look extremely attractive, in game terms, the implementation is poor; Mountains and regional borders are not particularly clear; units just don't fit in the regions and regularly cover key cities/strongholds which, if you're not totally familiar with the map, can be fatal; the decision to (presumably) cut costs by making allied nations all the same colour makes it virtually impossible to distinguish them resulting in a distinct loss of gameplay and a feeling that you spend more time trying to understand where you are rather than actually playing the game. Now I accept that this is based on one play and familiarity will address some of these issues but I found Squad Leader easier to take in and less clunky after one outing and the prospect of spending another 20 or 30 hours just to get to a level where I can start to think about enjoying it as a game is not my idea of fun. I'd be happy to play again but I would much prefer it if some of the theme had been sacrificed for playability and a shorter playing time. And a final note, to flag this as 2-4 player game is merely to satisfy the marketing people. This is a 2 player game. The rules for 3 & 4 are tagged on at the end in an attempt to sell more copies.

I love this game, but I do not manage to get it to the table as much as I would like because we usually play games with 4+ people.

This was a fun game, but sure will chew up a game session. It has a hell of a lot going on, and a lot of decisions compressed into each turn. I would have to play many more times to learn all of the nuances for the different strategies.

Yet to understand full rules. Basic variant is no fun at all.

reviewed on my blog.

Tentative rating. The system seems very detailed and flexible, but my first game was somewhat lackluster. I was playing the Free Peoples, and my opponent, as the Shadow, wasn't comfortable enough as a gamer to play as aggressively as that side warrants.