Review of Lords of Middle-earth

Blurb from the publisher: 'What if the Keepers of the Elven Rings had used their Rings of Power to challenge the might of the Dark Lord? What if the Balrog had risen out of Moria to bring fire and fury to the lands of the Free Peoples? What if the Council of Elrond had decided differently regarding the Fellowship of the Ring?

This is not a complete game. A copy of the War of the Ring Second Edition or an upgraded copy of a previous edition of War of the Ring is required to play.'

What you get: Your EUR 34,95 or equivalent will buy you Lords of Middle-earth, the first expansion for the War of the Ring (Second Edition) game line. War of the Ring is a two to four player asymmetrical, action drafting, dice rolling, hand management, card-driven, simulation-like game, and I am certain that there are a few more categories it can fall under. It can be played in under four hours. Since its initial release in 2012 it has climbed to BGG's top-15, as well as the top-5 of BGG's 'war' and 'thematic' categories. In short, it is enormously successful and is considered to be one of the best heavy 2-player games out there.

In addition to the 32-page rulebook that can be found on the publisher's website free of charge, the game contains the following: 8 plastic figures (Aragorn, Elrond, Galadriel, Gandalf the White, the Balrog, Gothmog, the Mouth of Sauron, the Witch-king), 5 Special Action dice (Erlond, Faladriel, Narya, the Balrog, Gothmog), 11 cardboard counters, and 28 Event and Character cards.

Gameplay: The eight new characters come with their own miniature each. Elrond adds his special Action die to the Free People's pool, can never leave Rivendell, and turns all the Elite Elven units in his region into Leaders. Galadriel also adds her special Action die, can never leave Lórien, and allows the Free Peoples to recruit in Lórien even if it is under siege. Gandalf the Grey is the last Character to add a die to the Free People's pool; more on that later. Sméagol is the tamed, friendly version of Gollum, and actively helps the fellowship as a Guide while actively soaking Corruption. He is not Gollum; events that require the latter are not affected if the former is in play. The Balrog of Moria adds its own die to the bad guys' pool, as well as a 2 Combat strength to the Shadow army. The Balrog can leave Moria when it is active, even though it cannot fly. Gothmog also adds his Action die, while he facilitates the recruitment and upgrade of Shadow units. The Mouth of Sauron is an alternative to the one found in the base game; the two cannot be used simultaneously. He extends sieges without reducing Elite units and increases the ease of moving and attacking with an army. The Witch-king can immediately converge upon the Fellowship once it declares itself in a non-stronghold region. If the Shadow plays a card while he is there, a new card can be immediately drawn.

The new Action dice come into play when Elrond and Galadriel appear, or when Gandalf the Grey becomes the Guide of the Fellowship. The dice are partially similar to the standard Action dice of the base game. All of them share a Muster, Event, and Card Draw side, depending on the die however one might get a Character, a Character/Remove, an Army/Remove, an Eye, an Eye/Remove and an Army side. The Remove action relates to a die getting permanently removed from the game. The Eye on the other hand functions like the Eye on the Shadow's Action dice; Sauron has noticed you, and will take advantage of that die during the Hunt. The Shadow's lesser minions also get their own Action dice. These share a Muster, a Card Draw, and an Eye/Remove side, yet there are also Character/Remove, Army/Remove, use Balrog, and Army.

The new rules concerning the Elven Rings work in addition to the Rings' previous use of mitigating a die result once per turn. Now, each of the three rings is attributed to a particular Character, namely Gandalf, Lord Elrond, and Lady Galadriel. If they are in play and their dedicated ring is used, an even more powerful result can take effect. Elrond allows you to keep a rolled result from the previous turn, Galadriel annuls the drawing of a standard Eye tile, while Gandalf can directly activate a Nation and bring it to the 'at war' status. Finally, the new 'Three Rings for the Elven-Kings' card allows the Free Peoples to retrieve a ring that was previously used.

The Council of Rivendell is an optional scenario with a stronger starting point for the Free Peoples; the Fellowship may now include more powerful heroes. Six characters from the base game (namely Boromir, Gimli, Legolas, Merry and Pippin) have an alternate version. The Free Peoples can choose whether to use the previous version or the new ones. As an example, the new Legolas grants Combat strength only in regions of the Elven Nation, but may be separated from the Fellowship in order to reduce the Hunt damage. Depending on whether a Companion starts the game outside the Fellowship, the Shadow player may start with an advantage towards moving Nazgûl or bringing Shadow Nations closer to war.

Note that even though the expansion appears partially modular, it strongly recommends to either add everything altogether or not add anything at all. The only exception are the Companion cards relating to The Council of Rivendell.

The strong points: More dice, more options, more variation in game outcomes! The Free Peoples feel stronger, while the concept of the fellowship comes to the foreground more potently than before. The Shadow can use the Witch-king to actively hunt for the Ring and make the Ring-bearer's life even more miserable. The new dice are not overbearing, seeing how if you roll more than one, you only get to use one single result, not to mention that these dice can disappear if you get unlucky. Sméagol is a very cool addition, a kind of Corruption armor that can cause serious trouble to the Shadow player. My personal favourite however is by far the new version of Gandalf. He might not have any pluses in combat, what do you need that for though when he can immediately bring otherwise disinterested nations to war? In the strategic level, he fundamentally improves the Free Peoples' fighting abilities.

Behaviour-wise you will notice many differences when playing with this expansion. Easy example: Galadriel's and Elrond's advantages when fighting at home. Elven armies are now more likely to stay within their Nation's borders in order to stave off a potential military Shadow rush. By definition, this means that more fights will be fought there, and not elsewhere. The same is valid for the tactics that the Free Peoples will use in order to increase their dice pool. To keep a long story short, the transition tactics from early game to mid-game, as well as the intermediate goals for both players feel different. Seeing how the expansion aims for variance, that's a success.

The artwork behind the expansion follows that of the base game, so you know what you are getting. The miniatures are cool, once again, even though some parts might be slightly bent. The new dice are quite improved when it comes to visibility, even though the two darker ones are still kind of problematic.

If all this is not enough for your and you want more, the game is supported by another two expansions, namely Warriors of Middle-earth and the upcoming Kings of Middle-earth. We will visit both shortly.

The weak points: As much as it adds options to the game, at no point did I feel that this is a must-buy expansion. The thematic paths it explores are more likely to be appreciated by the books' megafans and not by the lovers of the base game. The game becomes longer, and the military aspect feels partially nerfed. The rules are not hard themselves, yet the game continues with the practice of exception upon exception. Ultimately, all this rules-fidliness stacks up, and there is no player aid to help you this time. My impression is that even if I were playing the base game once every two weeks, I wouldn't put this expansion out more often than 25% of the time, and especially not with inexperienced players.

What went wrong with the price? Clearly one pays for the options and the thematic gameplay, yet the components in this box do not justify the EUR 34,95 price tag. In all honesty, this should have cost around 40% less, and even more so because much of the expansion's contents are about replacements, not add-ons.

Pointless insert: check. If you sleeve your cards, things no longer fit in the box, lest you throw the insert away.

Conclusion: More of a 4 / 3,5 than a true 4 / 4, Lords of Middle-earth is not a must-buy expansion. Yet, the options it offers make it a solid expansion for those who play War of the Ring (Second Edition) systematically and wish to add variance and flavor every now and then.

For more info on Lords of Middle-earth visit Ares Games at https://www.aresgames.eu.

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