The War of the Ring is a fairly popular strategic board game set in the land of Middle Earth. Two players control the evil forces of Sauron and Saruman while the other two players move the fellowship of the ring and the forces of the elves, dwarves, and men. However, only one of the four players can win.
The look of the game is very good with a large, colorful map, beautiful character tokens, and lots of tokens and cards. The mechanics work well but take a good hour or so to figure out all of the nuances in the rulebook. I definitely recommend playing this game a few times right after you’ve learned it so that no one in your gaming group forgets how to play before next time.
The evil forces vastly outnumber the good, and oftentimes the forces of Rohan will be overrun before they can be reinforced. The good players must concentrate on always moving the fellowship closer to its goal so that the ring might be destroyed. It is rare that the good armies can muster enough force to achieve a military victory.
By pitting each of the four players against each other, the game is designed to force allies to turn on one another towards the end of the game. However, in our games the allies almost always stick with each other so that their “partner” wins. After a couple hours doing battle it’s easier to let your “ally” win then try to help the enemy.
It’s a little expensive and the rules take a few times to really nail down, but the game is unique and fun.