inconsequential ruminations

My brother and I played War of the Ring for the second time last night. I lost, but narrowly. I rarely post exact details in my session reports, but one nice benefit of playing such a strongly themed game is that session reports are so easy to write and (I hope) read.

My brother, as the Shadow, went for a military victory from the start and managed to overrun Gondor and Rohan fairly easily. The Free Peoples held out in Dol Amroth, spending many dice to get Aragon crowned, but it was ultimately futile. I set out for the Crack of Doom, but got distracted by the attacks on my strongholds. Although I spent most of the game feeling like I was losing, in the end it was suprisingly close. I was on the second space of the Mordor track, with four Character and Will of the West dice in hand, and almost no corruption, before my brother captured Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, to get ten victory points.

I made some big errors:

1. Until half way through, I forgot Gandalf the Grey lets you regenerate Character cards.
2. I should have used Gandalf the White to defend Rohan.
3. I did not notice the mountains between Helm’s Deep and Dol Amroth until it was too late.
4. I should have used Elfen rings more freely.
5. I should have reinforced my strongholds more cleverly.
6. I should have been bolder on the Fellowship Track. I could have run up it faster, while carrying more corruption.

It is the mark of a great game, when it makes you think this carefully about it afterwards.

We both enjoyed War of the Ring very much overall, but some things stop me rating it as a perfect 10:

• We started at 7.30pm and played until 1.15am, with about a half an hour break – almost six hours and I am now at work feeling groggy. I still think we can bring this down, as we were still referring to the rules, and my brother was excruciatingly slow at times, but this is still very long. Think twice about getting this if you cannot leave the game laid out on a table between sessions.
• There is a lot of downtime for the Free People, as the Shadow has so many more dice to use.
• Handing the figures gets very fiddly, especially for the Shadow.

These issues are not enough to stop me looking forward to playing next Tuesday, when Michael comes to visit. I hope I can persuade my brother to join in, so we can try it with three.