Finally it was time...
War of the Ring: The Card Game was on our “must-buy” list at SPIEL22 but regrettably it has been just sitting on our shelf since October.🙈 We suddenly had an urge to try and did 2 back-to-back plays! 😁 I was cautiously optimistic when I first heard a card game version was coming - the original War of the Ring is such an epic experience, I wasn’t sure how it would translate to a card format. Spoiler alert: it's epic! 🥳 It works splendidly, though the game’s length is also epic - we clocked in around 3 hours each for our first 2 games.😬 At least setup is much much shorter!
The game flow is fairly straightforward, the depth comes from the cards. The game is playable with 2-4 players, which is nice. The bad thing is that with 2 players you need to double-hand 2 decks (at least in the basic “Trilogy” game mode). It’s not too difficult but you have to get used to it, and not misplace cards. Each deck contains cards of different factions, so not everyone can do everything.
At the start of a round the active player draws a Path and a Battleground. Paths represent points of Frodo’s journey from the Shire to Mount Doom, Battlegrounds are different cities and strongholds where epic fights take place. During the round you will fight for control of these in a fun tug-of-war-like fashion. They are the only source of points in the game. Paths and Battlegrounds have icons on them that determine which armies or characters can be assigned to them. Your hand of cards strongly influences what you can do - but draw randomness is somewhat counterbalanced by the Cycle mechanic.
Every time you play a card you have to cycle another one - meaning you discard it. This adds a layer of fun and agonizing dilemmas, plus it helps go through your deck faster to get to cards you might need. It’s a really neat mechanic!
💬 Early rounds tend to be shorter, but as cards might be played into the Reserve, later rounds will sometimes have much bigger battles. It’s really exciting as you never know what the others have up their sleeves. This game reminds me of Air, Land & Sea (or Critters at War) in a good way - but with stakes much higher and decisions more critical.
I can’t wait to play again!