Author: Rhiener Knizia
Category: Board game
Company/Publisher: Hasbro
Line: n/a
Cost: £35.00
Page count: n/a
Playtest Review by David Plank on 12/01/00.
Genre tags: Fantasy

I've read several reviews of this game, and came away utterly confused as to the rules. And I'll be the first to admit that being told about the rules tends to over-complicate matters. You need to play to understand what is going on. What I'm trying to say is; I won't go into too much detail about the rules. I'll confuse you and put you off. You'll have to trust me…

Despite the confusing reviews, I bought the game, because I was intrigued. You see, Lord of the Rings (LotR) is a co-operative game – that is, all the players are working towards a common goal, and playing against 'the board' (who is, in this case, Sauron). If the ring isn't destroyed, nobody wins. If the ring is destroyed, everybody wins.

So I thought, 'how does that work, then?' and bought the game.

Now I'm going to try to tell you all how it works…

Firstly, the game looks fantastic! You get three boards, all with incredible artwork on them, very evocative of the locations they represent (two of the boards are double-sided). The main board is used to keep track of the party's progress across Middle Earth, there is also a corruption track on this board, showing just how close to being taken over by Sauron each player is… The group's progress through specific locations across Middle Earth – Moria, Helm's Deep, Shelob's Lair and Mordor is shown by the other two boards.

Also in the box are five different coloured hobbit markers (did I mention each player takes the role of a hobbit?), a sturdy Sauron figure, several other wooden markers to show progress, cardboard shields and markers of various types, loads of cards, and the Dreaded Dice. Rolling the Dice is bad…

The cards are nicely illustrated, and are essentially in different 'suits' of hiding, travelling, fighting, friendship and jokers. There are also special cards that can be played at any time for the effect written on them (for example, moving a hobbit back up the corruption line to take them further away form the advancing Sauron).

I must admit to being a bit overwhelmed when I had all the pieces out, wondering how they all fit into the game, and what did what and when. But the rulebook was close to hand and answered all my questions. It is fairly clearly written, and is in a logical order. I had trouble locating a few rules that are only mentioned once, and that in a not very obvious place, but overall I had a full understanding of how it all worked after one read-through.

Basically, the players each take the role of a hobbit (Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin or Fatty), each with a special ability. They form a Fellowship, and begin their quest to take the ring to Mordor for destruction. On the main board, the first two locations – Bag End and Rivendell – are mainly good, and each player gains a hand of cards and various other resources, ready for the trials ahead. A Ring-Wraith does turn up in Bag End, and one player has to discard two Hiding cards to avoid it. And so the interaction begins…

The event says that both cards must come from a single player. Jokers may be used instead of Hiding cards, but two need to be played. So who plays them? If nobody does, Sauron (who starts at the far end of the corruption track, on fifteen – or twelve if you're feeling brave) advances one closer to the hobbits (who start on zero). So someone really should try to avoid the wraith. Remember this is a co-operative game, and if Sauron gets the ring, everybody loses. But you want to make sure that you stay in the game if you can – and that takes cards later. So after discussing it, you need to decide what to do.

And this is an easy event! We haven't even got to Moria yet!

After overcoming this little problem, and another minor one that occurs in Rivendell, we eventually reach the tunnels of Moria, and the game starts in earnest.

Essentially, the focus of the game turns to the Moria board, and the Fellowship must either traverse completely through the ruins, or encounter every event, either of which completes the scenario. Once done, the safety of Lothlorien awaits.

Each player takes it in turns to turn up tiles to see if an event occurs, or the party makes progress. Each board has set events that occur in order each time an 'Event' tile is turned up. Events can generally be avoided by the skilful play of cards, or the taking of sacrifices. One particularly delicious choice is when one of the players must decide to either move their own hobbit up the corruption track two spaces, or move Sauron down the track one space. Do you take a personal sacrifice and bring your hobbit closer to destruction to save the rest of the party?

The party moves steadily through each location, with the events getting harder and harder, but all of which are, essentially avoidable (with the exception of one) through the use of cards, sacrifices, or taking note of progress (some events do not occur if the party have breached certain barriers on their progress charts).

Some of the events can even be good if avoided. The first event in Shelob's lair, for instance, allows the active player (the player whose turn it was when the event occurred) to gain Gollum's card, if the group can make certain discards. (Gollum, by the way, counts as three jokers – a very nice card to have!)

So, we progress through the various locations, trying to make it all the way to the top of Mount Doom before Sauron gets us all. The game ends if Sauron overtakes the Ring-Bearer on the corruption track, or the final event on the Mordor board occurs ("The Ring Is Mine!"). Or if the ring is successfully destroyed at the Cracks of Doom. The players each score some points, and everyone is happy.

Will you enjoy this game? I was dubious myself, as was another game-player friend of mine. He said "What is the point of playing it with any other players? If it is co-operative, it may as well be a solitaire game."

It's all in the interaction, you see. You are playing as a group to achieve an objective, but as you are not allowed to swap cards, or show them to anyone else, theories of how best to do that will by necessity differ. So arguments, discussions about probabilities, logical people looking ahead to see what is coming, all of these are rife. Yes, you probably could play it solitaire, but I don't think it would make a particularly good game if you did.

Role-Playing does have a factor as well. The game itself is fairly abstract, and although the art is superb, there is very little 'flavour' to take you to Middle Earth. So having others with which to 'play off' helps enormously in getting the atmosphere right.

The games we have played have rarely stretched over an hour long - even with five players (the maximum) and new players. This means that playing isn't a huge investment in time, and it can easily be played twice in an evening.

One final thing – there is a competitive option you can use, but it makes the game a lot harder to complete, as you strive to maximise the resources you have at the end of the game whilst still trying to complete the overall objective. We played a competitive game once, and while it was great fun to actually play selfishly for once, we didn't even make it out of Shelob's Lair!

If you like the subject matter, or you like the idea of a co-operative game that actually works, or if, like me, you're just intrigued and want to find out how it fits together, then I advise that you look out for this game. While fairly expensive, it does deliver, and I can see myself playing it fairly often in the next few months.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)