War of the Ring latest great game that we have played

 

So, on a dare and a whim we decided to play this game. We probably should not have tried this game without at least one of us having at least glanced at the rules... Well neither of us had played this before nor even opened the rule book so it was a slow slog of a game. First was the challenge of going through the rule book, then quite a lot of prep work to set up the game, then the actual trying to figure out what we should be doing with our faction. It took some time.

There are a lot of options in this game and a lot of variables, enough to wreak havoc on any plans that you might make. The dice determine what actions you can do. Each turn you role a certain amount of dice, the Good side starts with 4 while the Evil side has up to 7 dice but you are allowed to allocate dice towards the hunt (for the one ring) Each dice face has a unique action associated with it but the rub is that you may not always get the results you need right now. The dice actions are resolved one at a time and in alternating order. So even when resolving the dice actions there is a certain amount of strategy as you may want to delay some actions until you see what your opponent has done, but then again hesitate and they may do something that directly impacts on your side. Choices, choices.

Each player also draws 2 event cards each turn. These cards can trigger events, or allow you to recruit more forces or effect the game in some way. They also can be used in combat, the bottom part of the card grants a bonus to your forces when engaged with the enemy. So do you use the card for a special event or save it for battle? Between the cards and the dice we were presented with a wide array of options every turn. 

So it was a slow game as we carefully negotiated our way through the rules and tried to figure out a game plan. We set a time limit for the game (thankfully) as the time just rapidly ticked away. (We also interrupted play for dinner) In the end we called it a game around 12:30 AM. At that point we had a pretty good grasp of the rules and what we wanted to accomplish. 

So, I have said that it was a slow slog but, it was a fun slog too! This game has a very high replay factor going for it. It was always interesting always challenging and always fun!

Check out THIS review by Shut Up & Sit Down for more details, and opinions that I agree with, I think they covered it very well!