War of the Ring Board Game Review

I recently decided to commit some time to learning War of the Ring. This is my review after learning how to play and trying it out. War of the Ring is a board game based on Lord of the Rings.

[whitetowerwatchman]

This is an amazing game. Awesome to see people still coming around to this game. I've been collecting the entire line of WoTR (including expansions and spinoffs) and the LotR LCG. Believe or not I'm not a huge Tolkien nut outside of the board game world. They made me a fan more than the books even, which is a testament to how well done they are. If you like WotR, then Star Wars Rebellion is also an interesting take on a similar asymmetric system in the Star Wars universe. Doesn't have quite the artistic love and polish of WoTR, but the mechanics are still great

[Hagen]

Love this game. I’ve played it about a dozen times, switching sides every time, and have lost nearly all my games. It was close nearly every time. This is a testament to the game’s balance. The fact that I still love the game after losing so many times is also a big plus.

[dhelsby]

Hi Ali, thanks for the review. As a keen player of WotR, I enjoy hearing other people's thoughts on it.

I would say replayability has been high for me. I've seen all four win conditions happen. You mainly see attacks at Helms Deep and Minas Tirith, but in my most recent game I lost Erebor, Woodland Realm and Lorien.

For me it's all about thematic immersion and this game does it better than any other, IMHO.

[BrianHazardVideos]

This was a surprisingly comprehensive review for a six-minute video. Also you're a big nerd and I love it.

[hairbrainedgames]

I swear, you do better board game explanations than us board gamers do. Wonderfully done. I wish I had *half* your presentation chops. :)

To speak to your concerns about replayability, its conceivable that the base game could wind up playing out similarly over repeated plays (though I've found enough general changes from game to game that it doesn't bother me. That said, the general flow doesn't variate much. What can mitigate this are two expansions.

Lords of Middle Earth changes up the way the game flows via the storyline of the books and introduces some "what if" kind of scenarios, which can help make for altered strategies that help with replayability. Sadly, it's hard to find.

Warriors of Middle Earth brings in new factions to deal with, so it helps broaden the strategies quite a bit as well.

The final (supposedly) expansion, Kings of Middle Earth, brings in the Free Peoples as much more integral (including sieges!), and is expected by Christmas... nobody knows which year. ;)

On a different note, if you like WotR, there's a Battle of the Five Armies that's really fun take on it. It's much less worldwide, and more focused on the actual battle, so it's a bit more on the battle side but uses similar concepts to War of the Ring.

With your penchant for desiring evil characters to play, you may also like Hunt for the Ring, by the same company. This isn't a "war game with people on a map", it's an actual hidden movement style game, where one side plays Frodo and Co, and the other are Nazgul with the goal of finding Frodo. Much more direct, lots of guesswork as the Nazgul side spreads out to find Frodo, and the Frodo side tries to outguess them.

Finally, it's out of print, but my all time favorite experience was Middle Earth: Quest. It was... so good...

Anyway, thanks for doing these reviews. Great stuff.

[oscarbautista]

I can't even start to describe how much I enjoyed this video

[Kili]

Have nearly finished painting all the miniatures in preparation for my first game. Exciting times.

[ShouldYouPlayIt]

Very useful, and nice editing. Thanks a lot!

[josephraffurty]

I absolutely love War of The Ring. It definitely has a lot of replay value. I get what you are saying about the game tending to have battles in the same places, but the cards and action dice can really change that from game to game. Drawing a lot of event cards for northmen and elf nations, for example, can shift the focus away from Gondor and Mordor. I also play with both the Warriors of Middle Earth and Lords of Middle Earth expansions. These add even more options and variety to the game. For example, Lords of Middle Earth gives you the option to use the elven rings, start fellowship members on different parts of the board, or for the shadow player you can activate the Balrog in Moria or choose an alternative version of the witch king that is more focused on hunting Frodo. If you enjoy war of the ring, I highly recommend you get the expansions.

[grzegorzmj]

Very nice condensed review. Love your creepy stares ;). I've played WotR over 60 times in 2 years and I absolutely adore this game. Hope it adresses your concerns about replayability xD. But honestly, there are so many different strategies that you can try as both sides that it really shouldn't get boring for a looong time (you can also check BGG's forum for some strategy inspiration). And then definitely check out both expansions (and third is on its way) because they add another layer of depth and possibilities into the game.
And one important advice - always listen to LOTR music while playing ;).

[BookishChas]

Wow this seems like a really cool game Ali. I love your presentation too.

[noneyafkn]

I was going to ask for a war of the ring video when I seen it in your channel trailer but forgot. And here it is. Awesome. Wish it would come back in stock. They're coming out with a revised LOTR LCG core box. Looking forward to that.

[zoopzoooom]

“Like The Glorious Saruman or-stupid-head-Aragorn.” That phrase is now permanently in my repertoire of random things to say, but only with the same high to low tone of voice for good measure. Thank you for this!

[SpiderDiscord]

Great review. I can't recognize the point about low replay-ability, though. There's a lot of depth in the base game - and with the expansions it's the 'gold standard' of a two player competitive games.

[dnaseb]

Use the evil men armies inside Harrad to defeat Gondor easily.

[joshyaks]

I got a bit excited when I saw my comment pop up there! War of the Ring is my second-favourite game (after Gloomhaven), and was the subject of my most popular YouTube video. (Unfortunately it was only the second video I ever made, and nobody wants their second video, while they're still in the cringe stage, to be the one that everybody watches!) If anyone loves War of the Ring and is a Star Wars fan, I recommend they check out Star Wars: Rebellion.

[bgm-]

A very good review, but I gotta comment that to question this game's replayability would be to question the replayability of Chess.

And for some context, this game has a very robust tournament scene, where many players will play it ten or twenty times per year. Ask them if it's replayable! :)

[thereichscollector]

I never heard of this game!!! I had been looking at Risk LOTR.

[zacharyclark]

I've played WOTR a few times, and I think it is very replayable. The cards I get in my hand did change what tactics I used, areas I focused on, etc. If your opponent decides to focus on a Ring or military victory, that changed how you'll try to win the game. I love how you feel the weight of your choices, especially towards the end of the game. It is very possible to win, even if the odds are not currently in your favor. A battle might go badly, or an army might make an unexpected move. The Ringbearers might get stuck, etc. A similar game is Star Wars: Rebellion. You should check that one out if you liked War of the Ring.

[khizzkazul]

WotR is my all time favourite board game. I agree pretty much what you said, but imo the replayability is better than you estimated. It is true that the key battles are usually in the same locations, but how the battles (and thus the entire game) go varies a lot. If you want to increase different options, I recommend you to buy either one of the expansions (Lords of Middle-Earth or Warriors of Middle-Earth). Thanks for the good review!