22nd August 2023

It's a Tuesday evening and we're round Simon's for an evening of games and diversions.

War of the Ring: The Card Game is a bit of a mouthful it's also as the name may suggest a card game version of the War of the Ring board game.
Will this game show its quality or will it be a stinker?

What's in a game?
Cards: Unsurprisingly, there's quite a few cards in the game and broadly speaking, they are broken down into 2 types, Faction cards and Location cards.
Faction cards: These represent a mixture of personalities (such as Sam), items (such as Sting), armies and even events from the story. Most cards have some elements from the list below.

• Scores: Character or army cards might include attack and defence scores for 1 or both of the 2 game's 2 types of conflict. Some cards may also include 'leadership' scores. These are shown along the left edge of a card.
• Paths: Some cards will show when that card can be used in the case of certain characters/cards: E.g., Faramir may not appear early on in the game because he does not appear early on in the story
• Items: In the case of an item, text will show who can use it; only Gandalf can use his staff for example.

The bottom half of each card will also contain text detailing what that individual card does.
Finally, each card will have a relevant, recognisable illustration of its subject matter that takes up the top half of the card.

There are quite a lot of faction cards (120 to be exact.) which in total constitute 4 decks of 30 cards each. 2 decks for each of the game's 2 opposing forces (The Free Peoples & The Shadow.).
​Each of the 4 decks is further subdivided into factions.

• The Free Peoples: The heroes! The Free Peoples consist of the following decks.
  • Aragorn deck: This deck contains the Dunedain and Elven factions.
  • Frodo deck: Dwarves, Rohan, Hobbits and Wizard (Just Gandalf really!) factions are represented here.

Location cards: These oversized cards are also broken down into 2 types; Battlegrounds and Paths.

• Battlegrounds: There are 14 of these cards and they are split evenly into Free Peoples and Shadow battlegrounds.
  As then name suggests, battleground cards represent the sites of various battles that occurred and each is well depicted with a large illustration.
  On the right of each battleground card will show it's defence value and which faction(s) is defending it, as well which faction(s) are attacking it and any special rules. The card's victory point (VP) value is shown in the top left.

Average best sums up the component quality for War of the Ring: The Card Game, which means the cards and tokens are all of a acceptable quality, nothing bad here but nothing to write home (or blog) about really. Unless the components are abused, they should be fine.

However; very good best sums up the quality and style of the artwork used. Fairly colourful, yet moody and evocative of middle-earth, it presents recognisable subjects to anyone familiar with Lord of the Rings.
If I were to be a harsh though, I would say that the art style looks a little 'samey' and similar to art found on a lot of other Lord of the Rings games and merchandising related to the film trilogy (Although characters look nothing like their cinematic counterparts.) but I'm not sure that it's a bad thing,  - it just gives it a consistent presentation will probably appeal to fans of the films and ultimately, I can't fault the presentation.

There's quite a lot of iconography used throughout the game for factions, different flavours of combat and also types of cards, etc.
On top of this, a lot of information is provided via text on the card and the rulebook has a glossary on how the wording works. Players will probably find themselves referring to the glossary a few times early on but it's not a deal-breaker and I'm probably making it sound a lot worse than it is.

Note: The description here is for the 4-player version of the game (Called the trilogy scenario.). 2 & 3 player count games have slightly different rules.

How's it play?
Setup
Location cards:

• Battleground decks: Sort the battleground cards into their 2 types and shuffle each into a face-down deck.
• Path deck: Sort all path cards into their 9 types then create a deck by placing the 3 '9' cards at the bottom then the 3 '8' card on top and so on until eventually the 3 '1's are on the top.

Player setup: War of the Ring: The Card Game is a team based game meaning that it is a 2v2 game. This adds an extra consideration for setup.

• Teams: Players will need to sort themselves into 2 opposing teams.
  On the Free Peoples' team, one player should be the 'Aragorn' player and the other the 'Frodo' player.
  The Shadow players should choose between the 'Witch-king' and 'Saruman'.
• Seating: Ideally players should arrange themselves around the central playing area in alternating order between teams and each player should face their teammate on the opposite side, think like how bridge is played.
• Cards: Sort all the faction cards by type and give each deck to their respective player. All players should shuffle their cards into a face down deck.
  • Draw cards: Each player should draw 7 cards and discard 2 cards (Called cycling here, more on cycling below.).
• First player: For round 1, the Frodo player will be the first player. After this, the first player will change for every round.

Some rules
Before going on to explain how the game plays, it might be an idea to explain some a few of the rules regarding faction cards, specifically, cycling, elimination & forsaking.

• Cycling: Players will frequently be cycling cards. This means they discard a card face-down from their hand to the cycling pile.
  As the name suggests, cards from the cycling deck can eventually be shuffled back into the draw when the draw deck is depleted.
• Elimination: Whenever a player has to eliminate a card, they must discard a card to the elimination pile. Typically, elimination will refer to specific cards. These cards are now out of the game, they cannot come back into play.
  When certain cards are eliminated, they may have actions triggered.
• Forsaking: Sometimes a forsaken action occurs, when this happens a card is placed into the elimination pile.
  However, unlike elimination, when a card must be forsaken, it can be discarded from the players hand OR from any faction card in play OR blindly from the top of the players draw deck.
  As with eliminations, some cards will trigger actions when forsaken, even when forsaken blindly from the deck!

• Multiple location cards: Dependant on circumstance, it is possible that multiple battleground cards will be active at the same time. It's also possible to activate and  complete' more than one path card in a round.
  Additionally, it is also possible to 're-activate' battleground cards that have already been completed.

Action step: This is where the majority of gameplay takes place. In turn order, each player takes an action until all players have consecutively passed. The action step ends when this occurs.
Actions include:

• Cycle card: The active player may spend an action to cycle a card.
• Move card: The active player may move a card from their reserve to a location card with the following restrictions.
  • A card cannot be moved in the round it is played.
  • A card cannot be moved to a location it could not be played to.
• Play card: The active play may play a card from their hand. When doing so, they must cycle another card.
  Taking restrictions into account, a card may be played to one of potentially several spots. This could be a battleground, path or reserve.
  Item cards: These are played on characters and will stay with them.
  Event cards: These are resolved immediately and then eliminated.
  A card may have multiple actions depending on where it's placed. These actions may be resolved now or later in the round accordingly.
  • Battleground location: A card may be played to a battleground, provided its faction matches one of the factions involved in the battle.
  • Path location: Provided the card has a path number that matches the current path card, it can be played to that path.
    Note; army cards cannot be played to paths.
  • Reserve: A card can be played to the player's reserve area.
• Use action: The active player may resolve an action to resolve the text on a card in play.
  The actions on a card may differ depending on where it has been played to.
• Use ring token: The active player may flip their ring token to its used side to draw 2 cards.
• Winnow: The active player may eliminate 2 cards in order to draw 1 more.
• Pass: The active player may choose to pass, provided 1 of the 2 following conditions are met.
  Unlike many other games, when a player passes, they are not out of play and may have the opportunity to ! See below for more on this.
  • Carryover limit: each player has a carryover limit which starts at 2. When a player's hand is equal to or less than their carryover limit, they may pass as their action.
  • Less cards: If the active player has less cards than all other players, they may choose to pass.
• End of action step: When all players have consecutively passed, then this step is over.
  Thus if one player passes and others do not, then that passing player will have the opportunity to take an action when it comes back to their turn again or they may pass again.

Combat step: Broadly speaking combat for battlegrounds and paths work in a similar manner.

• Defender: Determine who is the defender and who is the attacker.
  Path: The Free Peoples side is always the defender in path locations and thus the Shadow side is always the attacker.
  Battleground: If the battleground location is a Free Peoples location, then The Free Peoples side is the defender and the converse is true if its' a Shadow location.
• Compare scores: Compare the total value of the attacker's attack icons to the total value of the defender's defence icons.
  If the attacker has the higher value they win, otherwise the defender wins (defender always wins ties).
  Essentially, the attacking icons are cancelled out by the defending icons until they are all cancelled out or cannot be cancelled out. This can be tracked using the combat tokens.
• Aftermath: Once combat has been resolved, all attacking cards are eliminated. Defending cards are only eliminated if they had to be used to to defend, thus, if defence icons on defending faction cards were not needed to cancel out attacking icons, then those cards are cycled, not eliminated.
• Spoils of war: To the victor go the spoils, in this case that means location cards which is slightly different depending on whether it's a battleground or path.
  Battleground: The battleground location card goes to whichever side wins its combat, it will be worth the VPs shown in the top left corner.
  Path: If The Free Peoples win a path card, they gain the VPs displayed in the top left corner of the card. If the Shadow players win the card, their side gets VPs equal to the number of corruption tokens placed on it, these are in essence uncancelled attack icons.

​Victory check step: Once all combat has been resolved, both sides should total and compare their current VPs. If one side is beating the other side's score by 10 or more VPs, then that side immediately wins!
Draw step: The Free Peoples players draw 3 cards while the Shadow players draw 4! Those cheating bad guys!

• New round: The first for the next round should be selected as per the turn order tracker.

​Endgame
Provided the game does not end during the victory check step (It's generally unlikely the game will end this way.), then it will end when combat on the 9th and final path card has been resolved.
Each side scores as per follows:

• Battleground: Each side scores the displayed VPs from the battlegrounds they won.
• Paths: These score differently for each side.
  Free peoples: The Free Peoples gain the listed VPs for each path card they won.
  Shadow: Shadow players score 1VP for each corruption token they placed on a path card that they won. VPs listed on path cards are worth 0 to the Shadow players.
• Corruption tokens: The Shadow players gain 1VP for each other corruption token they earned (other than those on path cards).
• Ring tokens: Each unused ring token at the game end now earns 1VP for its respective side.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.
In the case of a tie, the Shadow side wins! Definitely cheating bad guys!

Overall
War of the Ring: The Card Game feels very appropriate thematically. As with the books, the gameplay is split between the large events and battles while the fellowship makes it's way to Mount Doom through its paths.

It's also quite challenging and at it's heart, this is a auctioning/bidding game.
The cards with their attack and defence values represent bids, winning the auction means winning the battle and the card is the prize.
Where it gets interesting through, is in the mechanics going on around it.

Players are constantly forced into making difficult, meaningful decisions - every time a cards is played, another must be cycled. Players will need to continually assess which cards they can discard and since every card is good, it's not easy.

Battles compound this, every card a player contributes to an attack will be gone from the game afterwards; more hard decisions to make! Even defending cards will invariably be eliminated.
This also has the consequence of making the 'pass' action actually a powerful move.
It might seem counterintuitive but the earlier a player can choose pass, the better it is for them. In many games passing means a player is out the running. Here it means a player can potentially sit back and watch what their opponents are committing to a combat before they have to do so themselves.

Another element to consider is teamwork. Each deck will have its own strengths and weaknesses. Team mates will need to try and coordinate their actions to exploit their strengths and mitigate their vulnerabilities.
There is no secret communication at the table here and chat is open so everyone can hear it. Anything said to a teammate is heard by all.
I guess it means communication between allies will be limited to meaningful eyebrow waggles.

Players must also balance the need to win current conflicts but also retain cards for future battles as over time their options are whittled away. Knowing what to keep for what comes later can be a real game changer. E.g., no matter how powerful a personality is, if can't be played on the current or upcoming path cards, its usefulness becomes somewhat limited.

This ties in with a criticism I have: There were several times during the game where I felt I just could not counter or match the cards played by an opposing player.
I'm not sure if this was down to my opponent(s) knowing the game better and knowing what to keep in hand or sometimes luck playing a bit too much of a role.
Either way it made for a bit of a frustrating experience.
This definitely seems like a game that needs several playthroughs in order to grasp the nuances.

Additionally; we played the game 4-player and the general consensus seems to be that this is the best player count for it.

There's a lot of direct interaction and conflict between players in this game and some people will find that stressful or off putting which means they probably won't get on with this game but if you do like that sort of thing, then here's a lot to like in War of the Ring: The Card Game and it's definitely work a look. Especially if you've got 3 reliable friends who will play it with you several times.

2nd May 2023

It's a Tuesday and we're at The Sovereigns with the Woking Gaming Club​ for a game of Long Shot: The Dice Game.

Component quality throughout Long Shot: The Dice Game is good.
While not actually horse-shaped, the horse tokens are chunky, made of wood and feel satisfyingly weighty to handle.
The dice are plastic and not wooden (Which is always my preference.), they still feel solid and well made, additionally their icons are not printed and are shaped in relief.
Since this is a roll-and-write game, many of the components such as the player boards and horse cards can be written on. They are sturdy as you would expect. As is the race track board.

The game also makes good use of bright solid colour, everything is brash, colourful and eye catching. There's also a definite humorous element to the cartoony artwork and illustrations that matches the game's luck-driven light gameplay.

The game's iconography is a bit of a mixed bag.
The player board is a busy looking affair with lots of stuff presented to the player and definitely can feel a little intimidating. However, in practice, it's not that bad. Much of the information is conveyed through numbers/colours. There are a handful of icons but for the most part they are easily understood after a round or two.

How's it play?
Setup

• ​Game board: Put out the game board into the central playing area.
  Horse tokens: Put out the horse tokens in their starting positions on the track.
  Horse cards: Select 1 of the 2 sets of horse cards or alternatively, cards can be chosen from both sets - provided only 1 of each number gets selected.
  Then put out the cards face-up into the central playing area.
• Players: Give each player a player board.
  Starting cards: Shuffle the starting cards into a face-down deck and randomly deal 1 to each player.
  Each player should then mark off their starting setup on their player board as dictated by the starting card. This will include marking off some spots on the concession bids and adding a couple of starting bets on their board.
  Finally, each player should note $12 in the allotted spot.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
Money counts in large amounts. Long Shot: The Dice Game is all about winning the most cash, this is done not just by players only betting on the winning horses but also 'manipulating' the outcome of the race.
Long Shot: The Dice Game sort of has a traditional turn order but since players get to act in all other players' turns, it's only relevant for rolling the dice which is done by the active player.
Each turn basically has 2 phases.

• Roll the dice: The active player rolls both dice at the same time. This will determine which horse moves and how many spaces it moves.
  ​Move horse: Take the horse token that matches the colour/number that was rolled on the horse, then move it a number of spaces forward that is indicated on the movement die (Which will be 1-3 spaces.).
  Secondary movement: Now check for secondary movement.
  Look at the horse card that matches the horse that was just moved and check which other horses have been marked off on the secondary movement bar: All marked off horses should be moved forward 1 space.
  Finishing: After a horse has crossed the finish line, it should be moved to it's finishing position on the side of the board.
  Finish line: If any horse that has to be moved is already past the finish line, do not move it.
• Actions: This is where the bulk of the game occurs and each player can perform exactly 1 action from a choice of 5. This is done in turn order with the active playing acting first.
  • Bet: A player may place a bet on the horse indicated on the horse die, this can be for $1-3.
    Finish line: A horse past the finish line cannot be bet on.
    No bet line: As the name suggests, once a horse passes the no bet line it cannot be bet on unless the betting player has acquired that horse's helmet.
    Free bets: during the game, players may acquire free bets, these follow the same rules as usual bets.
  • Buy: A player may buy a the horse that matches the result on the horse die provided it has not already been bought by another player.
    Finish line: Once a horse has crossed the finish line, it cannot be bought.
  • Concession: A player may mark off a spot on their concession grid which matches the result on the horse die.
    When a row or column is completed, the player crosses off one of the bonus boxes below the concession grid and gains its benefit. This may include extra money, a free bet, marking off a helmet or jersey and moving a horse forward or backward. It should be noted that a horse cannot be moved across the finish line this way or in fact moved backwards across it either.
  • Helmet: The player may mark off the helmet for the horse that matches the result on the horse die.
    As mentioned above, this allows the player to still place bets on a horse past the no be line.
  • Jersey: A player may mark off the jersey on a horse that matches the result on the horse die.
    When a horse's jersey is marked off, the player may also mark off another horse on that horse's secondary movement bar. This means there will be more secondary movement when that horse is moved again.
    Additionally; when both the helmet and jersey for a horse has been marked off, the player gains extra cash at the game end.
• Additional rules: There are some additional rules that can apply during the game.
  • Horse ability: Each horse has a special ability which can be applied during the game. However, only the owner of a horse has access to this ability and choose when and whether to trigger it - although some abilities will have specific timing.
  • Horseshoes: If at any time a player cannot take an action because of the result on the horse die (Because they've taken all the available options for that horse I guess.), then they can cross off a horseshoe to use it as a wild result. This allows them to mark off something for any other horse.
    If all 3 horseshoes are marked off when the player cannot take an action, then they spend their action to clear a mark off of one of their horseshoes.
• End of round: Once all players have taken their action in turn order, the round is over.
  The die are passed to the player on the left of the current first player who now becomes the new first play. They begin a new round by rolling the die.

Endgame
Once the third horse has crossed the finishing line and been placed on it's finishing spot, the end game is triggered, the current round is completed and the game then goes to scoring or winnings. There are numerous ways to accumulate cash.

• Finishing place: The owner of a horse earns cash according to its finishing position. This of course only applies to horses that finished 1st-3rd and will earn $15-$35 accordingly.
• Bets: Players now calculate their winnings from bets from each horse they bet on, this will depend on where the horse finished and how much was bet on it.
  1st - 3rd place: Multiply the bet placed on a horse by its finishing odds.
  E.g., if a horse came in 2nd place and had 2nd place odds of 4/1 and the player had placed a bet of $6, then that horse pays out 4x6; $24.
  No bet line: If a horse has crossed the no bet line but not the finish line, it pays out at 1/1, i.e., the player gets back what they bet.
  Other horses: If a horse has not crossed the no bet line, then the player has lost their bet.
• Sets: Each matching set of helmet and jersey for a horse that a player has will earn them $5.
• Cash: Any unspent cash is counted.
• Abilities: Some horse abilities may also money.

Cash is tallied, highest value wins.

Overall
With it's colourful presentation, Long Shot: The Dice Game fits its theme well. Players will be putting bets on horses, then watching and hoping those horses win.

While there are various ways to accumulate cash (Buying horse that win! Getting sets and completing concession lines.). Probably the single biggest method for gaining money is betting. 
There's more to it of course, since players will also have the opportunity to influence the outcome at least to some degree. This means they need to balance their actions between betting and other options.

The game provides various avenues to achieving this. Chief amongst these I think, is the secondary movement bar. A player can pick a horse bet on early and heavily, then spend actions marking its number off other horses' secondary bars. This means that the picked horse will move more often when other horses do so.
Players can also cross off lines on their concession grid to move horses (Or gain other benefits.).
Using helmets in conjunction with the no bet line can provide an alternative way to score big wins on bets. Players can spread their bets and hope to get bets several top 3 finishing horses. and getting helmets for horses is useful here. It allows players to bid on horses right up until their on the finish line and the finishing order is more apparent.
One last thing to mention is the odds, the lower numbered horses on the inside of the track have to move less to pass the finish line, this is reflected in the odds, which are shorter for these horses.
The number 8 horse (The titular ling shot.) pays out more or less twice as much as the number 1 horse for finishing in the top 3.
The provides some asymmetrical opportunities for players and real risk-and-reward mechanics to choose from.

While actions other than betting will probably pay out less, it's unwise to ignore them. They are still a source of money, useful benefits and influence over the game.

There's also a higher level of play going on; all information is open and it's possible to try and anticipate what other players are trying to achieve. If it seems like another player is betting heavily on a horse for example, other players may also bet on that horse to 'piggy-back' off its success.

Long Shot: The Dice Game is a fairly light game that is easily understood and accessible with a theme most people will find relatable. Although, it has to be said that luck and dice rolls can play a big part here; which to be fair, feel appropriate for a game about betting on horse racing.
I'm sure that the gambling theme and luck driven gameplay wont appeal to everyone but treat the game as just some fun and not to be taken too seriously (Much like actual gambling I would suppose.), then you'll probably have a good time.

I found it to be a lightweight but enjoyable experience.