Christian (my oldest son) and I finally played our first game of War of the Ring. We played the base game, no expansions (other than the Treebeard expansion and using the Aragorn - Heir of Isildur & Gandalf the White figures from Lords of Middle Earth).
I was the Shadow, he was the Free Peoples. I was curious at how he would do because I think this is probably the most complex game we have played yet, especially as a competitive game.
The game was a huge success! Not only did he really enjoy it (he wants to play it again as soon as possible), but he nearly won by destroying the ring! He was only one step away from the Crack of Doom when I was able to finally conquer the Woodland Realm. After a couple of turns, he really began to play smart, taking to the card play in actions AND combat. I did help him a little bit here and there with showing him options (like turning Gandalf into Gandalf the White, getting Treebeard into play, which by the way nearly ended Saruman early in the game, and getting Strider to become Aragorn, and other little things here and there…just showing him some of his options with his dice.)
There was a few times when I pulled my punches a bit. I could have attacked Minas Tirith sooner, for example. Instead, I held off a bit, allowing him to crown Aragorn in Minas Tirith. He still probably would have been able to crown him, it just would have taken an extra turn or so to get to one of the other spots. But, all in all, he did a very good job, especially with it being his first game.
The Shadow ended up conquering (for the military win):
Palargir, Dol Amroth, Dale, Minas Tirith, Helm’s Deep, and then the Woodland Realm.
Legolas & Merry died in the defense of Helm’s Deep. The first casualty to fall to the Ring was Boromir, in Hollin. He then soon after, he separated Gandalf & Pippin, getting them to Fangorn Forest, then turning Gandalf the Grey into Gandalf the White, and bringing in Treebeard (and came very close to eliminating Saruman from the story with back to back Ents Awake cards). He got the Fellowship to Lorien and rested a couple of turns before setting the Fellowship back out to continue the quest. He then, soon after, separated Strider & Gimli, heading to Minas Tirith to crown Strider as Aragorn, then sent Aragorn & Gimli to Edoras to help Rohan (even though his strategy there didn’t follow through and just left an army in Edoras with Aragorn, a few Elites and a Leader. This was probably the mistake that cost him the game, as he probably should have set out to Helm’s Deep to relieve the siege there). He did separate Legolas & Merry, though, sending them to Helm’s Deep before the siege actually began (I was waiting for more troops to arrive, as the Ents Awake cards and the battle at the Fords of Isen took a lot out of the Isengard army). It was in the siege of Helm’s Deep that Legolas & Merry died (so sad, too bad). They caused me a lot of grief though, as ther leader re-rolls and Legolas’ combat strength was tough to overcome.
The first strike from the Shadow was a huge Southron & Easterling army sweeping southern Gondor, taking both Palargir and then Dol Amroth, before heading around the mountains to join the weakened Isengard Army to set siege at Helm’s Deep. Meanwhile, far to the north, another S&E army, led by a Nazgul, took Dale, then prepared to assault the Woodland Realm. Sometime during this, the Witchking came into play, bolstering the soon attack on Minas Tirith. Once Aragorn was crowned, though, I decided to play “The Witchking Returns”, sending him to Angmar to begin a possible attack through the Shire, Grey Havens and Erin Luid, but Tom Bombadil’s protection stopped any assault from actually happening. So, the Witchking and 3 other Nazgul were sent back to Minas Tirith to begin the attack there, while other Nazgul were sent to the other areas of Middle Earth to help lead attacks and sieges. The army in Dol Gulder joined up with the army from Moria (and ultimately the Witchking, also) and was in place to assault Lorien.
Minas Tirith fell, then finally Helm’s Deep, followed up with the final conquest of The Woodland Realm, giving the Shadow the military win. It was interesting watching the game unfold, as there was 3 or 4 sieges all taking place at the same time, with other armies in place to begin new attacks.
Christian said there was a lot of tension as his side kept losing battles and strongholds, but the fellowship was so close. There was one play that greatly helped me, though, and probably really helped me win. He had 2 Will of the West dice, and probably would have moved the Fellowship to the final step to win (assuming he would have survived corruption), but I played a card that discarded his unused Will of the West dice results, basically stopping the Fellowship from moving.
Was just an awesome game…so glad he liked it.
