War of the Ring is a strategy board game by Roberto Di Meglio, Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello, first produced by Nexus Editrice

Nexus Editrice

Founded in 1993, Nexus Editrice was an Italian game publisher.Nexus produced board games, role-playing games, card games, miniature games, published magazines devoted to games, and licensed to the italian market games from many major international games publishers, such as Fantasy Flight Games,...

 (Italy) and currently published by NG International.
Since its first print-run it has been produced in many languages: Fantasy Flight Games

Fantasy Flight Games

Fantasy Flight Games is a Roseville, Minnesota-based game company that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO, Christian T. Petersen. Since the release of its first game product in 1997, the company has been doing...

 published the English edition. It was released in 2004

2004 in games

This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniature games, and table-top role-playing games published in 2004. For video and console games, see 2004 in video gaming.-Game awards given in 2004:...

. An expansion called Battles of the Third Age was released in 2006

2006 in games

This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 2006. For video and console games, see 2006 in video gaming....

 and a Collector's Edition in 2010 (with both the base game and expansion materials, hand-painted miniatures, a leather-bound rulebook, and corrected and clarified rules and cards). The Fantasy Flight edition of both the base game and expansion are currently out of print.

Components

• One Rulebook
• One simplified rulebook called "The War of the Ring Begins Here "
• The game board depicting a large map of Middle-earth (in two sections)
• The Player Aids folder
• 10 red Shadow Action Dice
• 6 blue Free Peoples Action Dice
• 5 white six-sided Combat Dice
• 204 plastic figures representing the Armies and Characters of The War of the Ring
• 137 cardboard counters
• 96 Event Cards (divided into 4 decks of 24 cards each)
• 14 Character Cards (10 Free People Characters, 3 Shadow Characters, Gollum)

Gameplay

War of the Ring is a 2-player game that takes approximately 3 hours, though there are variant rules for 3 or 4 players where one or both sides play as a team. The game concerns the War of the Ring

War of the Ring

In the fictional high fantasy-world of J. R. R. Tolkien, the War of the Ring was fought between Sauron and the free peoples of Middle-earth for control of the One Ring and dominion over the continent. The War of the Ring took place at the end of the Third Age. Together with the Quest of Mount Doom,...

 starting from the Fellowship's forming in Rivendell

Rivendell

Rivendell is an Elven outpost in Middle-earth, a fictional realm created by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was established and ruled by Elrond in the Second Age of Middle-earth...

. One player controls the Shadow Peoples and tries to conquer Middle-earth

Middle-earth

Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....

 or to corrupt the Fellowship's Ringbearer. The other player controls the Free Peoples and tries to hold back the Shadow long enough to move the Fellowship into Mount Doom

Mount Doom

Mount Doom is a volcano in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. It is located in the heart of the black land of Mordor and close to Barad-dûr, it is approximately high. Alternative names, in Tolkien's invented language of Sindarin, include Orodruin and Amon Amarth...

 and destroy the Ring. A Free Peoples military victory is also possible, but the Shadow's power is overwhelming.

The board depicts northwestern Middle-earth, divided into territories. Some lands form nations while broad swatches sit unclaimed. The Free Peoples are the nations of Gondor

Gondor

Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth by the end of the Third Age. The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, is concerned with the events in Gondor during the War of the Ring and with...

 and Rohan

Rohan

Rohan is a realm in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy era of Middle-earth. It is a grassland which lies north of its ally Gondor and north-west of Mordor, the realm of Sauron, their enemy . It is inhabited by the Rohirrim, a people of herdsmen and farmers who are well-known for their horses and cavalry....

, the Elves

Elf (Middle-earth)

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...

 (Rivendell, Lórien, the Woodland Realm

Mirkwood

Mirkwood is a name used for two distinct fictional forests in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. In the First Age, the highlands of Dorthonion north of Beleriand were known as Mirkwood after falling under Morgoth's control. During the Third Age, the large forest in Rhovanion, east of the Anduin in ...

, and the Gray Havens

Lindon (Middle-earth)

Lindon is the land beyond the Ered Luin, the Blue Mountains, in the northwest of Middle-earth in the fictional universe of J. R. R. Tolkien. It is the westernmost land of the continent. The Gulf of Lune divides it into Forlindon and Harlindon...

), the Dwarves (the settlements in Erebor, the Iron Hills and the Blue Mountains) and "The North" (the men of Dale, Carrock, and Bree, and the hobbits of the Shire

Shire (Middle-earth)

The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in The Lord of the Rings and other works. The Shire refers to an area settled exclusively by Hobbits and largely removed from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is located in the northwest of the continent, in...

). The Shadow Peoples are Sauron

Sauron

Sauron is the primary antagonist and titular character of the epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.In the same work, he is revealed to be the same character as "the Necromancer" from Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit...

 (Mordor

Mordor

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Mordor or Morhdorh was the dwelling place of Sauron, in the southeast of northwestern Middle-earth to the East of Anduin, the great river. Orodruin, a volcano in Mordor, was the destination of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to...

, Moria

Moria (Middle-earth)

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Moria was the name given by the Eldar to an enormous underground complex in north-western Middle-earth, comprising a vast network of tunnels, chambers, mines and huge halls or 'mansions', that ran under and ultimately through the Misty Mountains...

, Angmar

Angmar

Angmar is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's continent of Middle-earth.-Synopsis:Angmar was founded in in the far north of the Misty Mountains by the evil Lord of the Ringwraiths, who became known as the "Witch-king of Angmar"...

 and Dol Guldur

Dol Guldur

Dol Guldur was Sauron's stronghold in Mirkwood in the fictional world of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. It is first mentioned in The Hobbit. The hill itself, rocky and barren, was the highest point in the southwestern part of the forest. Before Sauron's occupation it was called Amon Lanc...

), Isengard

Isengard

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Isengard , a translation of the Sindarin Angrenost, was a large fortress. Both names mean "Iron fortress" In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Isengard , a translation of the Sindarin Angrenost, was a large fortress....

, and the combined Southrons and Easterlings.

Setting up the game is the same every time. Each player has two decks of event cards that need to be shuffled and placed on the board. The Fellowship starts in Rivendell with all companions in the party and the party being led by Gandalf

Gandalf

Gandalf is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In these stories, Gandalf appears as a wizard, member and later the head of the order known as the Istari, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West...

 the Grey. Armies are distributed throughout the board as described in the manual. The Free Peoples player starts with the three Elven rings on their side of the board. A marker indicating how far the Fellowship has moved since it was last revealed starts at 0 as well as the corruption counter. Each nation starts with a marker on the political track with Sauron and Isengard one step from going to war and the Southrons and Easterlings two steps from war. Gondor is two steps from going to war and the rest are three steps. All Free Peoples but the Elves must also be "activated," making them aware of the rising threat. This requires a visit from a Fellowship member or a gross insult, such as a Shadow invasion or the return of the Witch-king.

The Free Peoples player starts with four action dice and the Shadow Armies player starts with seven.

Each turn of the game has six phases.

Event Phase: In this phase each player draws two cards, one from each of their event card decks. Each player is limited to six cards in their hand at any given time so they must discard if pushed over.

Fellowship Phase: This phase applies to the Free Peoples. If the fellowship is in either Minas Morgul

Minas Morgul

Minas Morgul , also known by its earlier name of Minas Ithil , is a fictional fortified city in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth...

 or Morannon then the player must declare it and move the Fellowship into the final Mordor track. Otherwise, the player can declare where the Fellowship is, may heal the Fellowship, may change the Fellowship guide, or may do nothing. If they declare the Fellowship's location the counter for how far they've moved is reset to zero and the player may place the Fellowship token in a region on the board that many spaces away from the last location. If the Fellowship ends up in the stronghold for a Free Peoples nation then that nation is activated on the political track if it isn't already. If the user heals the Fellowship, they must be declared in a city or stronghold and one point of corruption is removed. If the player changes the guide of the Fellowship, they must pick between their companion characters with the highest levels as indicated on their cards.

Hunt Allocation Phase: This phase applies to the Shadow Armies. The player may put any number of action dice up the amount of companions in the Fellowship in the Hunt for the Ring box on the gameboard. These will be used to hunt for the ring if the Free Peoples player chooses to move the Fellowship.

Action Roll Phase: Both players roll their action dice. If the Free Peoples have Gandalf the White or Aragorn in play they may roll an extra dice for each. If the Shadow Armies have the Witch-king, Saruman

Saruman

Saruman the White is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the tale, but later on aims at gaining...

, or the Mouth of Sauron

Mouth of Sauron

The Mouth of Sauron is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He appears in The Lord of the Rings — specifically in the chapter "The Black Gate Opens" in the third volume, The Return of the King — as the chief emissary of Sauron.He belonged to the race of the Black...

 in play they may roll an extra dice for each. All Shadow Army rolls that end up with Sauron's eye must be placed in the Hunt for the Ring box.

Action Resolution Phase: In this phase players take turns using action dice starting with the Free Peoples player. If a player has less action dice left than the other player they may pass. There are six different symbols that come up for each player:

• Army: Move up two different armies to adjacent territories, attack a territory, conduct a siege, or play an Army event card
• Character: Move or attack an adjacent region with an army that contains a leader or character, play a Character event card, or use one of the army's special abilities. The Free Peoples may flip the fellowship counter to hidden if it is visible, move the Fellowship (which initiates a hunt), separate a companion or group of companions from the fellowship and move them amount equal to the fellowship counter plus the highest level of the characters leaving, or move all companions on the board. The Shadow Armies player may move all Nazgûl anywhere on the board except a Free Peoples stronghold not under siege.
• Muster: Move a nation forward on the political track (they cannot go to war unless they are activated), if a nation is at war units can be recruited. When recruiting the player can choose to get two regular units, two leader units, a regular unit and a leader unit, a character (if all necessary requirements are met), or an elite unit. When recruiting two units they must be placed in different settlements.
• Event: Draw an Event card from either pile or play any Event card
• Army/Muster: Pick either Army or Muster as the action
• Will of the West: (Free Peoples only) Can be any other action or used for special cards

Victory Check Phase: Players win in this order:

• Corruption counter reaches 12, the Shadow Armies win
• Fellowship reaches Crack of Doom, the Free Peoples win
• Shadow Armies control 10 victory points worth of Free Peoples settlements, the Shadow Armies win
• Free Peoples control 4 victory points worth of Shadow Armies settlements, the Free Peoples win

Criticism

The game has extensive errata

Erratum

An erratum or corrigendum is a correction of a book. An erratum is most commonly issued shortly after its original text is published. Patches to security issues in a computer program are also sometimes called errata. As a general rule, publishers issue an erratum for a production error An erratum...

.

War of the Ring has been mildly criticized for shipping all the Free Peoples' armies as blue and all the Shadow armies as red when the sides have five and three different nations, respectively, with different pieces. The armies become difficult to distinguish at any distance. The pieces are interchangeable in normal use but not for their more esoteric and powerful abilities: for instance, the "Devilry of Orthanc" card can only be played if there are Uruk-hai present at a siege. Each nation does have a specific color on the map:

• Gondor: Blue
• Rohan: Dark Green
• Elves: Light Green
• Dwarves: Brown
• Northmen: Light Blue
• Sauron: Red
• Isengard: Yellow
• Southrons and Easterlings: Orange

Some players paint their pieces, or at least their bases, to match the color of their nations.

External links

• Official War of the Ring Forums (Nexus Editrice/Fantasy Flight Games version)
• Site of one of the War of the Ring playtesters, with an extensive FAQ and useful articles