Lord of the Rings Game Review

Decipher has a history of making great games. Their games are successful for two reasons. First, they make games that play well and have a twist. Their games have always featured unique mechanics and respect the feel of the material they are adapting. Second, they have incredible visual appeal. The layout and design are always crisp and clean. And the art is typically drawn from actual photos or footage from the movies and television shows the games are based on. This makes the cards appealing to collectors as well as players. As excellent examples of Decipher's game quality, take a look at the Star Wars and Star Trek: The Next Generation trading card games. These are the two longest continuously published TCG's after Magic: The Gathering!

The Lord of the Rings game proves once again that Decipher knows its business. The game mechanics are simple to learn, yet promise plenty of room for the complex maneuvering that is required to keep a game from getting stale. And the art is drawn from the upcoming Lord of the Rings movie. Seeing the images 6 weeks before the film comes out may be reason enough for fans to buy some of these cards!

Each player plays both Frodo (the ring bearer) and the Shadow forces. On your turn, you gather companions such as Gandalf, Samwise, and Legolas, and you move them on their mission to destroy the One Ring. On other players' turns, you play cards that represent the Shadow forces' attempts to destroy the Fellowship and reclaim the One Ring.

Movement feels similar to that found in the Star Wars or Star Trek games, but it is much simpler. Those of you familiar with I.C.E.'s Middle Earth TCG (now long out of print) will enjoy seeing the mechanic of movement has been improved. Players start on site #1 and move toward site #9, one site at a time (but sometimes two sites can be traversed in one turn). You win if you can get to site #9 first. Getting across nine sites is (just like in the book and film) not a cakewalk! The first few sites are generally pretty easy, but as you move along the forces of Shadow get stronger .

One of the things I always look for in a game is how the balance is kept between the stronger and weaker cards. Decipher dreamed up a nice mechanic this time. When the Fellowship player plays companions or equipment, he or she puts Twilight tokens in a pool. Twilight tokens are also paid when moving to the next site. The Shadow player plays their cards using these Twilight tokens. This makes for some interesting game play! Strong cards cost more Twilight tokens and generate a lot of opportunity for the Shadow player to womp you. But playing cards that cost fewer Twilight tokens won't make your Fellowship strong enough to last in the later sites when things get more dangerous. The other balancing factor on the Shadow forces is that each card has a site number on it. A card is more expensive to play if you play it before the Fellowship reaches the given site.

Most turns result in a battle between the Fellowship and Shadow forces. This is probably the one thing about this game that doesn't excite me. The battle rules are likely well balanced, but there seem to be a few too many steps and rules here for the casual player to feel comfortable. The battle steps break down like this: