War of the RingHow To Play the War of the Ring Boardgame |
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Playing War of the Ring
War of the Ring RulesWar of the Ring is a game for 2 to 4 players and it takes approximately 3 hours to finish. The suggested age for players is 14 years and up. War of the Ring won the 2005 and 2006 International Gamers Award for 2-player games, and it's recommended for heads-up two-player action. Because WoTR has two levels of conflict--on the personal level and on the level of whole realms--you can play the game with more than 2 players. The Free Peoples must be attacked by Sauron's forces before they get involved in the war, a game mechanic characterized by the Political Track. As the Political Track moves, more nations and kingdoms can get involved in the wars. The rules for winning War of the Ring involve two sorts of victories. You can win by conventional military victory if you seize enough cities and provinces from your enemy. Those opposing Sauron also can win if their party journeying to Mount Doom succeeds in dropping the ring inside that volcanic mountain and destroying the ring. Of course, Sauron is scouring the land for the ring, so it can win victory by collecting the ring. War of the Ring InstructionsYou'll need to read the instructions closely, because these give specific details on how to set up armies at the beginning of the game. War of the Ring comes with two separate decks of cards, so you'll need to separate these two decks, shuffle each to randomize, and deal the cards as instructed throughout the game. One important component is to set up the Political Track correctly. Each nation begins play a certain number of steps from going to war. When the Political Track moves, this lets you or your opponent activate (or get closer to activating) nations for war. At the beginning of the game, Sauron and Isengard are one step from war. The Southrons, Easterlings, and Gondor are two steps from war. Every other kingdom or tribe on the game board is three steps from war. When one or these realms is activated, you'll be able to use them for combat, as (Free Peoples nations) will be alerted to the threat, while the Shadow peoples will be answering the call from Sauron. Another important tracker is the Corruption Track, which shows the amount of corruption a ring-bearer is dealing with. If the ring-bearers become totally corrupt (reaching 12 corruption), the game ends. Action DiceOne major game mechanic is the use of "action dice". Each side of an action die depicts a particular type of game action. If you roll a picture which depicts an action, you can take that step towards victory. Actions include things like moving a ring-wielding character, moving an army, recruiting troops and armies, and advancing the Political Track to bring in more allies. The game comes with 10 "Shadow" action dice and 6 Free Peoples action dice, along with five standard combat dice, so be sure to use the right dice (color-coded) when making your moves. The action dice include Army, Character, Muster, Event, Army/Muster (choose), or Will of the West, which can be any of the aforementioned actions or the ability to activate a special card. Each turn in the game has an Event Phase, Fellowship Phase, Hunt Phase, Action Phase, Action Resolution Phase, and Victory Check Phase. The action resolution phase is going to take the longest, as it involves rolling action dice to resolve the outcome of your proposed actions. War of the Ring Strategy Tips for WinningWhen you play the Free Peoples, your strategy revolves around holding back the Shadow armies long enough to let the ring-bearers do their job. While the person playing the Free Peoples can win in a conventional military fashion, the armies of Sauron are overwhelming, unless the person playing them is both incredibly unlucky and a strategically unwise. Winning War of the RingTo win War of the Ring, one of the following must happen. When it comes time for the Victory Check Phase, if one of the following conditions has happened, a winner is declared.
As you can see by how few opposing settlements you have to control to win for the Free Peoples, a military solution probably isn't going to work for the alliance of humans, elves, and dwarves. This shifts the onus of winning to game on the Fellowship of the Ring, where it rightly belongs. Still, if you ignore the defense of the Free Peoples, you'll lose, so you have to maintain a vigorous defense of your territories to win the game. For the Shadow side, the strategy is simple: overwhelm the enemy and push Corruption any chance you get. Be ready to activate special abilities when you have your units in place. This can be particularly devastating to your opponent's defense, because all of the units are the same solid color, making it sometimes hard to keep track of which special characters your opponent has deployed. For this reason, some players of the War of the Ring board game prefer to paint the base of their units the color of their home territory, since the various territories are color-coded.
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War
of the Ring is a thematic wargame and adventure board game
rolled into one. War of the Ring is a 2004 game based on the
popular Lord of the Rings movies. The game is designed to
parallel much of the over-arching plot of the film trilogy, including a
quest to Mount Doom to destroy the one-ring, Sauron's quest to find the
ring, and the rallying of the Free Peoples to resist the onslaught of
Sauron's dark armies. Copyright 2007-2011 Board Games Pub - All Rights Reserved