The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth Review: The One Ring for Two

Tom, Zee and Chris take a look at The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth!

0:00 Intro
1:21 Overview
6:13 Review
14:46 Final Thoughts

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#dicetower #thedicetower

[doggosplosion]

Yes we have original 7 Wonders Duel, but what about 2nd 7 wonders Duel.

[draheim]

Given how busy y’all have been and everything happening in Florida right now, really appreciate the timely review of this!

[GleasonE]

My husband and I like games, have a decent collection, but never been to a convention, have toddlers and not enough bandwidth to play much, and are on a budget. But when this was announced and preorders available, my husband was like “you preordered it right?”

Legit excitement from both of us when it arrived. We opened it and looked at everything, the rules… and decided that I’d better run to the FLGS to sleeve it before first play.

My husband put on the LoTR soundtrack and we had so much fun Friday night, both exhausted from the week. We have 7WD, not sure how much it will ever get played again, take a great game, give it a fun epic theme in a quick weeknight game? 10/10.

Go ahead and flex, game designers and artist and company. Put your names all over the box. Yall game us some epic fun in 30 min. Make it 60 min because one play won’t ever be enough.

[PMMagro]

I really like 7 Wonders Duel with expansions (with the Pantheon espcially it is great). A very strong two player game.
War of the Ring, both the board/map game for two and cardgame (2 vs 2) are also some of my favorite games. Will for sure try this one out!

[joshua]

Good to see some reviews going up again.

[MoriMemento]

As a huge fan of LotR, and a moderate fan of 7 Wonders Duel... this was a delight. Frankly, the subtle differences between this and duel elevate it to a 9/10 for me. Maybe even higher. The art is stunning. The tension is real, even in the earlier rounds. Sure a player with 4 alliances in the second age isn't going to win right away, but what do you think your odds are that you can keep the wizards, ents AND eagles from them in the third? Beautiful design.

[jartree]

The earliest win I have seen so far was right at the beginning of the third era. I had the dwarven powers that made landmarks have no gold cost and let me take another turn after buying a landmark, which is a crazy powerful combo. I bought all the landmarks right at the beginning of the third age and won on the board before even taking a third age card.

[chrisarney]

I didn't know that 7W:D needed improvement, but this pulls it off. It's fantastic. 10/10.

[Mark-jagger]

Fantastic game. It’s absolutely stellar. I love 7 Wonders Duel but this improves on it. Nail biting tension. Usually come down to the wire. My 21 year old son will actually play with me, and usually win, and that’s saying a lot. Highly highly recommended.

[Aermada]

Loving this game so far but all of our playthroughs so far have come down to the tiebreaker at the end of the game, including one where we even tied with the area control, so I was surprised to hear none of their plays have ended that way. Then again my wife and I are highly competitive at the original 7 Wonders Duel (+expansions) and play that at least once a week for years now, so maybe we’re especially adept at cutting off those instant win chances for each other.

[andyreynolds]

Really enjoyed my first play. It feels like they stapled 7 Wonders Duel onto Star Wars Risk/Queen’s Gambit with the three arenas and win conditions.

[otokbarleyfoot]

Good review - the green tokens sound pretty similar to the original, but the other win conditions have changes, sounds cool

[Christian_from_Copenhagen]

Nice review, I'm definitely interested in this one. Would you sleeve a game like this? It only seems necessary to me if they add expansions later on.

[TheSludgeMan]

Surprised you didn't go with "7 wonders to duel them all"!

[boleslawkowalski]

At the moment, 7 wonders duel with Panteon expansion is better for me. I just have a feeling that in 7W, you have more options. You need to think more about what cards are placed on the Panteon and what wonders to build first. When to use wonders powers.
You build your engine on yellow cards or simply on resource cards. In lotr duel, everything is simplified.

I played 7 wonders duel way over 100 times. I played lotr duel only 3 at this moment. But I'm missing something in lotr. Maybe when they release expansion (100% they will), then game will be better for me.

I still enjoy Lord of the Rings duel for the middle earth. It is solid 8/10 for me.
7 wonders duel with Panteon, definitely 10/10

Thank you 😊

[OrmyGaming]

Got it, played it several times with my daughter and absolutely love it! There are so many great improvements that makes it flow much better, the board is a great addition and theme is top notch! LOTR soundtrack is a must when you play :D

[Clappincardboard]

10/10 amazing game. Only minor gripe is I wish there were 4 of the race bonuses. Some of them are crazy strong and you have a 66 percent chance of always getting a particular one from any certain race when you draw the 2.

[thereal]

How does this compare to 7 WD + expansion?

[bushibayushi]

It's way better than base 7 Wonders: Duel. The tension in this one is OUTSTANDING.

[CaptainCrockpot]

Lol. Tom saying, “You shall not pass!” at the end… would’ve been so much better if it got 5s and 6s 😂 Awesome looking game! Excited for it!