SPI War Of The Ring -Almost a great game but it missed
[IMG]www.sircollectalot.co.uk/images/uploads/war_of_the_ringsmall.jpg[/IMG]Anybody ever play SPI's War Of The Ring? I had this game back in the 80's and i beleive it came out in the late 60's.
A bookcase strategy game with a big map of Middle Earth as the game board. It was a war strategy war game where you could take one of three factions. Mordor,Free Peoples or Isnengard. The artwork was perfect and lore acurate. It featured the entire scope of the War. Both the military aspect and the ring mission.
The Dark power player had shadow points limiting how much energy the Dark Lord has to move his armies conduct searches and lead attack or defend in battle. If he fought without shadow points left his armies fought at half strength so he had to pick his battles each turn. Both the Nazgul and Armies could search for characters entering their hex so you could conduct searches for the ring bearer.
The Military situation was accurate to the Lore. Upon a certain turn Mordor would become mobilized and receive huge reincorcements for several turns. Before that he could not move armies or attack. The free peoples could only get mobilized once they were attack or when Gandalf visited their capital. Then they would receive reinforcements for maybe two turns. The free peoples only had a small fraction of the military forces of Mordor and thus usualy have to defend in towns or Citadels. Isengard has an advantage they automaticly mobilize on turn two and receive Uruks and men from Dunland for several turns. Saurmans forces also can try to seize the ring. It's his choice to ally with or battle Mordor.
Two destroy the ring you had to end your turn uncaptured in Orodruin. If this happens the free peoples win. They also have an impossible military victory condition that is hopeless to acheive. Mordor wins by either seizing the ring and bringing it to Barad Dur or a very slow but likely eventual military conquest. Isengard wins by seizing the ring and holding it in Isengard for ex amount of turns.
The problem with the game is that because the free peoples have no realistic hope for defeating Mordor's militarily it comes down to the Free peoples heading for Mordor with all speed with the ring bearer and his companions to destroy the ring. He either bunches his characters to survive being spotted and survive an attak by the Nazgul or army detachment or he makes several small stacks of harder to locate characters and takes different routes to Mount Doom. All character identity is hidden unless leading armies so Mordor can't be sure which stack has the ring bearer. The smaller the stack the harder to spot.
The game simply ends up The frree peoples defending in one hopless seige after another while the Mordor player bunches armies and Nazgul around every hex surounding Mount doom and Orodruin itself. Ends up being a bunch of search checks right at the end and possible combat where the fellowship should eventualy be overwhelmed or just slip through. The military situation is hopeless.
It also has even cards including the ents intervention and a card alowing Aragorn to travel through Dunharow to recruit the dead men to help in battle. Boromir attempts to seize the ring, palantir cards and other lore events make the game interesting and give it potential. But after a cool start it is clear how simple the direction the game will go and how all the early planning usualy is moot. Will they evade and survive the final searches and combat or not?
Shame something couldn't be done to improve the game because it is detailed and looks very lore accurate. The characters pcitures are drawn well and the map of Middle earth as a grognard strategy war game is juicy, The counters for the factions have details of where the units are from and are color coded. Red for Mordor but also specific colors for Rhun and Harad. Also Orcs of mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. Free peoples have several different colors for Men of Gonbdor, Rohan ,Elves, Dwarves, Men of Dale, Isengard is Gery/White. Also had small side game for the siege of Minis Tirith and the Battle of the Last Alliance with every major leader. Pretty cool lore geeky stuff.
Anybody play the cool but flawed game?
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Originally Posted by Macilrille
