Reiner Knizia (Our Man In The Stands With A Hat) has produced a large number of games that have impressed a lot of gamers. I was not one of this lucky throng; I find his games clever but curiously lacking in atmosphere or involvement. It's like watching Jeremy Paxman - he's clever yes, but who cares since he is also an unattractive personality? But this game is rather different because the atmosphere and background of the story has not been washed out until it becomes a barely visible water-mark, rather here it is an integral part of play - often rather subtly so. This improvement I ascribe to the noble Dave Farquhar. Although like most German games Lord of the Rings encourages game-play rather than rule reading it includes a considerable number of factors and is probably towards the complex end of the genre, though it wears it well. It is also very playable with younger gamers. A clever mixture all finished splendidly. To details - the game is run by any number of players up to the number of Hobbits (five as Fatty Bolger is conscripted), each of the players taking the role of one Hobbit. Unlike most games Lord of the Rings requires co-operation amongst the players if they are to prevail. A failure to act together will lead to sub-optimisation of progress and increase the chance of Hobbits yielding to the Dark Lord and becoming corrupted. This major feature may cause some gamers to object to playing the game - you should listen to them because you would not want people like that in the Fellowship in "real" life. Give them another game to play. The Hobbits journey along a side elevation view of the route from Bag End to the Cracks of Doom. The seven locations are Bag End, Rivendell, Moria, Lothlórien, Helm's Deep, Shelob's Lair and Mordor. The Players tool up with valuable cards in Bag End, Rivendell, and Lothlórien, but must fight through scenarios on Moria, Helm's Deep, Shelob's Lair and Mordor. The main route map also includes the Corruption line. This is a 15-space row with the Hobbit figures at one end and the Eye of Sauron Plinth at the other. As time passes the Eye of Sauron moves down the numbers and the Hobbits move up it. A meeting of the two symbolises the corruption of that Hobbit. Each of the scenario boards has a number of tracks that must be passed through to gain cards and tokens and to journey to the end of the board. A noted Tolkien artist, John Howe, has done the excellent illustrations that are used on all the boards. This is a quality product. The five hobbits (Pippin, Merry, Sam, Frodo and Fatty) each have a neat plastic figure, a card and a Special Feature. There is a big pile of Hobbit Cards (that provide the wherewithal of moving, fighting, hiding etc.) and of Feature cards that are found at various Elf Holds. Cards come in five varieties: Friendship, Travelling, Hiding and Fighting and a Star type that can be any of the others. The various tracks on the scenario boards use the same split. Players start with 6 Hobbit cards though the early appearance of the Nazgûl will require some discarding. Play is run by a series of Event Tiles and scenario activity is rewarded with Life Tokens and Shields, all of which are required to keep one's Hobbit in play for as long as possible. There is no requirement for any particular number of players, but since the more cards the better it is unsurprising that the more players the better (usually). This being the case we play with two hobbits each in two-player games. Our Quest Begins Our quest begins we draw our six Hobbit Cards at Bag-End from Gandalf and one of the group must discard a hiding (tree symbol) card to avoid the gaze of the Nazgûl. Failure to do so moves the Sauron marker down the Corruption track. Not a good start my precious. The Fellowship now journey to Rivendell where they can receive the 12 Feature Cards. Since each Player receives no more than 4 cards a two-player party would lose 4 here - a serious problem. These cards are either Super-Hobbit cards or Special Cards. At Rivendell there are double value Hiding cards (Legolas), Fighting cards (Bormoir, Gimli and Andúril), travelling Cards (Gandalf), and Star Cards (Glamdring, Aragorn and a single-value Sting). In addition Mithril (ignore one corruption die roll) Athelas (ignore missing Life Tokens), Miruvor (pass one card to another player) and a Staff (ignore certain event tiles) are available. Players may then pass one card to the player next to them before each must discard a Friendship card to form the Fellowship. A failure to feel friendly (by lacking such a card) causes a Corruption die roll. We now arrive at the Gates of Moria. Each scenario board has a number of tracks and a number of events. The Moria board has its main track as Fighting ("Battle against the wolves, the Orcs and the Balrog") and each space has Shields (the currency of venturing), a Ring Life Token or a Corruption Die roll. Only by reaching the end of this track can we exit the scenario. In addition, there are Hiding ("Quietly advance through Moria") and Travelling ("Flee to the exit of Moria") tracks. These yield Ring, Heart and Sun Life Tokens and two feature cards (the Book and the Pipe). Which tracks you travel in your own turn depends on your cards and your need for Life Tokens. As ever you would prefer to go on the minor tracks while other players carried the party along the main track. Shields can be used for events, to purchase the assistance of Gandalf and in some cases to recover on the Corruption track. Life Tokens (heart, ring and sun) are needed if you are to survive and resist corruption. If you do not have all three you move along the corruption track the number of missing tokens (so a diet of fighting will speed on the Fellowship but leave you three boxes up the Corruption Line). This "supply" concept requiring a balances conduct of the quest is most ingenious. Note that one does not place your hobbits on particular tracks. The group is proceeding on all tracks but only the active player collects tokens by moving. One member of the group may move on different tracks each turn, and different players on different tracks picking up where others stopped. It is as if three or four themes were being played but each voice can carry but one at a time. Where the Event Tile so requires we do not have a player turn immediately but an event occurs. Usually these events are relatively unimportant at the beginning of each scenario but then decline rapidly. They can often require cards to be played with Corruption, movement of the Eye of Sauron or Corruption dice rolls. They also carry many elements of the story. In Moria the events are: Speak Friend and enter Watcher at the Well Stone in the Well Trapped? Orcs attack, and Fly you fools! " Speak Friend and enter" requires the group to discard a Star and Friendship card (any one or more players can contribute) or see the Eye move one space. Whereas " Orcs attack" requires cards with five Fighting value or the Eye moves two boxes towards out chums. The Scenario board therefore encourages you to speed down the main track, but penalises you with a lack of Life Tokens if you do, and with horrid events if you do not. Emerging (we hope) minus one Balrog the players are in Lothlórien and ready to receive further Feature cards from Galadriel. Once more there are twelve cards and a maximum of four per player. At Lothlórien there is a double value Hiding card (Elven Cloak), Fighting cards (bow), Travelling Cards (Elven Rope and a Boat) Friendship cards (a Brooch), and Star Cards (Arwen, and Galadriel and a single-value Box of Earth). In addition Belt (do not make one corruption die roll), Phial (do not draw the next Event Tile), Elesar (one character may recover one space on the Corruption Line) and Lembas (increase your hand to six hobbit cards) are available. The Players may also use 2 shield counters either to draw two Hobbit cards or recover one space on the Corruption Line. Then the interfering Galadriel administers her test and anyone without a star card suffers a Corruption die-roll. Three Scenario Boards in a Row The Fellowship is now faced with three scenario boards in a row. There is no more respite save Gandalf's magic and drawing further Hobbit cards. Helm's Deep takes us to the eponymous citadel. Here there are once again three tracks. The major one is (again) Fighting ("Battle of Helm's Deep") but you cannot disregard the Friendship Track ("King Théoden") or the two part Travelling track ("Riders of Rohan reinforce Helm's Deep" and "Arrival of the Ents"). The Life Tokens are mainly found on Travelling but the Friendship line includes Rings as well as the Théoden, Shadowfax and Éomer Feature cards. The first two being double travel cards and the last a double fighting card. The events follow the usual pattern but successful performance not only avoids Corruption but can obtain the Riders of Rohan (a very handy double-Fighting card). The Events really do encourage the swift completion of the subsidiary tracks (which is much as the story would have it). The events are: Wormtongue unmasked Riders of Rohan Orcs attack the gate Fire of Orthanc Orcs Storm forward, and Orcs conquer Helm's Deep (a horrid two Eye moves and two Corruption dice at worst). Hopefully staggering out of this scenario our brave lads suffer their Life Token losses and march into Shelob's Lair. Once again, Fighting is the main track ("Fight against Shelob") with Hiding tracks ("Henneth Annun") and Travelling "Long march along dead marshes, plains of ash, ithilien, and stairs of Cirith Ungol"). Two feature cards lurk on the tracks or in the events: Faramir (a double travelling card) and Gollum (a treble star BUT with a Corruption Dice for his use). The Events get progressively more horrible (and by this stage some poor card distributions and bad event Tiles can destroy the Fellowship swiftly). Gollum Faces of the Dead The Forbidden Pool The Lord of the Nazgûl searches for the Ring Shelob appears, and Shelob attacks (unless you have seven fighting cards you suffer three moves of the Eye). It is worth noting at this point that the game can come down to reading ahead and building a hand to defeat the hindsight-acquired target. For example " The Forbidden Pool" can yield a Hobbit card each providing one player has five shields ready to use, otherwise it is two Eye moves - ouch! This building of a hand ahead of the event tends to weaken the storytelling element. Mordor If you have survived so far one moves to the final scenario - Mordor. Here four tracks are available (as the Fellowship is now truly split up). The main track is now Travelling ("Struggle up Mount Doom to destroy the Ring"), with a Hiding Track ("March towards Mordor to distract Sauron) which has a handy Corruption recovery in it, a Fighting track ("Siege of Minas Tirith") with the same advantage. The Friendship track ("Find New Allies") features three cards Ghân (double travelling), the Army of the Dead (double fighting) and Eowyn (double star). The use of these cards can be vital in passing those last points on the travelling track. The nearer one reaches Mount Doom though the more Corruption Dice appear and many a Fellowship has failed close to success. The Events are by now very horrid Sam saves Frodo Lord of the Nazgûl attacks (one needs Eowyn here) Battle of Pelennor Fields Mouth of Sauron Surrounded by dark forces, and The Ring is Mine! (This is pretty terminal). As you will have noticed in the tour of the scenarios there are a lot of minor differences keyed to the original story-line so that one is always reminded that this is more than a dumb-ass German game. The central mechanisms now need to be considered. Each Player turn on the scenario boards (starting with the Ring-Bearer who has a nice plastic ring with the necessary legend upon it) opens with a Turn of an Event Tile. You keep turning these until an Activity symbol appears allowing the player to make his moves. There are nine event tiles types. In the first group are non-activities representing outside events. These can be an Event occurring (sometimes this can be avoided with the expenditure of Life Tokens, shields or cards), the Ringbearer moving along the Corruption Line or a choice of a move by the Eye (which threatens all Hobbits) or one Hobbit bravely moving two Corruption spaces. The second group of Event Tiles is the four Activity types which give a free move on the relevant track (if there is one). In one's turn there are three things you can do, but you can select only one. You can either play one or two Hobbit cards (probably to move along a Track), OR draw two Hobbit cards, OR move towards the Light one Corruption Space. Once again individually one would prefer to draw fresh cards or move towards the light, but the Fellowship must also move forwards. Hopefully the players can share tasks wisely and perhaps one Hobbit who is far down the Corruption Line can be "carried" by his colleagues as he recovers? Two cards can only be played if one is white and other grey (otherwise one must play only one). Each Hobbit has a Special Feature. Frodo may use any white Hobbit Cards as stars (that is as any type of card he wishes) a vital feature where the main track cards are missing from everyone's hands. Merry only needs two different Life Tokens instead of three. Fatty gets two free Hobbit Cards at the end of each scenario. Pippin can play any two Hobbit cards irrespective of colour. Finally Sam can suffer no more than one damage per Corruption Dice roll - which makes him a useful Ringbearer. The Corruption dice (a special 1d6) represents the battle between good and evil. Three sides cause the rolling Hobbit to move one, two or three steps up the Corruption Line. One causes the Eye to move towards the Fellowship, another requires two cards to be discarded and finally there is a non-event side. As play progresses players are put under a number of pressures. They need to keep a good hand of cards to meet events (which requires they do not move as much), but they want to complete scenarios quickly to avoid events (which cannot occur once the scenario completes), yet they also need Life Tokens and the other items on subsidiary tracks. This together with the uneven effect of a random Event Tile (or Tiles) all contribute to a very atmospheric game. The Ring tokens are not only Life Tokens but determine who will be the Ringbearer in each scenario. This can require a bit of management as the Ringbearer needs to be as far away from the Eye as possible on the Corruption Track. The Ringbearer can use the Ring once per scenario. He throws the Corruption Dice and gets to move on one track for four spaces less the number of symbols on the dice (giving a range of one to four points travelled). This is a process only for a relatively uncorrupted Ringbearer, who otherwise may take three turns of inaction to recover. The use of shields (usually acquired on the Fighting tracks) to buy Gandalf magic is often vital. These cards can be used once only and are very powerful. One can: move one character two spaces towards the Light (useful to save a weakening Ringbearer) Rearrange the top three tiles (very useful nearer Mount Doom) Ignore an event tile Have a double star card, or Draw 4 Hobbit Cards Play continues until either the Ring is sent into the Cracks of Doom or the Ringbearer is eliminated. Whenever a Hobbit meets the Eye on the Corruption Track he is eliminated. If the corrupted Hobbit is not the Ringbearer he simply retires from the game, otherwise the game ends as the Ring falls to Sauron (with a slight modification on Mount Doom). Points are scored depending on how far one got on the main tracks (if the Fellowship failed) or based on the track plus shields for a successful "melt-down". Co-operative Game Lord of the Rings is sailing into little travelled regions with a co-operative game. The game requires that players keep their cards secret, though when we play two player games we run two Hobbits each, with all in-play cards face-up. The level of co-operation is not set in the usual common-fight (one cannot do anything but go along with the rest of the Fellowship) but in whether players deploy their cards for the greater good or hoard them for themselves. Sometimes of course such a policy will leave the Ringbearer exposed and the game will be lost, but it may also prevent your Hobbit being zapped. However, as I understand it the only way you can win is as part of a group victory (and you participate in these whether you are alive or dead). This means one should always be ready to take a bullet for the Ringbearer. I can imagine a lot of gamers not being able to get beyond the issue though. All this said what is the game offering? Essentially we are at war against the system - a five-player solitaire game if you will. Furthermore, by reading ahead we know what we might encounter in a way that loses much of the suspense of the story. The feeling that one is so sure it would good for one of the group to keep 5 shields in certain scenarios because one just knows it will come in handy is an odd one. Its atmosphere is excellent and it gives an enjoyable session, but it remains an acquired taste that many two-player competitive gamers will not like (and quite right too). I found it very clever and rather engaging as well as very difficult to win. [Have you noticed that the board sequence is not complete? Each scenario has a ten point main track. But the 1-10 sequence and 21-30 are missing this would suggest something Tom Bombadil and Barrow-wight country and some encounter before Helm's Deep but after Moria, perhaps involving Saruman?] Back to Perfidious Albion #102 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. 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