War of the Ring 2nd Edition Board Game for 2 to 4 Players

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1. War of the Ring (2E) – REVIEW Verified Buyer – 23 March 2025

   I love this game. In fact, I wish I had someone to play it with weekly I love it so much. I bought all the expansions. That said, this is a game review for people who are wondering if they should invest in War of the Ring: Some potential turnoffs: – The game takes a long time to set up. If this isn’t something you are willing to spend at least 20-30 minutes just with setup then this game may not be for you. – Lots of rules. It’s not necessarily a complicated rule set, but the rules are very “deep” in that, you will be referencing the rule book almost every turn, if not every other turn for your first few playthroughs. We were well into our 5th or 6th game and were still asking things like “wait, what’s a sortie again and why do I want to do it?” – The game will make a LOT more sense if you are familiar with the LOTR world. If you are not, I can imagine you may miss some nuance in the gameplay and rules. – You will spend time looking over the map trying to find out the locations referenced during gameplay. I am LOTR fan and have poured over the appendices and maps for many years. Even I found myself asking, “where’s Mount Gundabad again?” – Differentiation of the little figurines and markers can be hard. We often would reference the rule book to figure out which elites were Rohan or which political marker was what. We finally took different colored Sharpie markers and colored around the bases of the miniatures to assist. – Luck. There is a serious element of luck in this game. Whatever strategy you work towards in this game could be thwarted by a series of poor dice rolls. On a scale of chess to Monopoly, War of the Ring is Risk. – Some may consider this game long – block out 4+ hours your first few run throughs. – It’s not really a four player game even though it is advertised 2-4 players. Yes it does have four player rules, but it is best played with two people. Cool things: – This game is a truly amazing adaptation of the tension associated with the story in the original Lord of the Rings books. My long history spent with the books (and movies of course) was rewarded in this game through their skillful application of everything from political drama or the power of the ring to corrupt, to Sauron’s feverish search for the ring, on and on. I am amazed at how the game designers made this work. – Balance – This game has great balance. Every time I have played, against multiple opponents, there has never been a blowout victory. In fact, 9/10 times it has come down to the last few turns to decide the victor. We found that highly satisfying. – Design quality – the artwork, figure design, board, almost everything is of a very high quality. You will feel you got your money’s worth when you unbox, set up, and ultimately play through this game. – Not too long. Yes, I said above that this is a long game, but I have played other games that can post 6-12 hours (Risk, Axis & Allies, Diplomacy). This game, once you get the hang of it, can be knocked out in 2+ hours. That is a fantastic game length and totally worth the set up and tear down time. – It is a really great 2-player game, which sometimes is hard to find. I hope this helps some of you decide if you should go all in on War of the Ring.