War of the Ring: The Card Game - First Play

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.

Legolas' card has 1 attack and 1 defence for battlegrounds (shown on the left in green), can be used during paths 3-9 and 1 defence for paths (shown in white. The knights of Dol Amroth have 1 attack and 1 defence for battlegrounds but have a special rule when defending Dol Amroth.

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.

• The Shadow: The bad guys. Boo!
  • The Witch-King deck: Represents the Mordor faction.
  • Saruman deck:  Basically this deck represents all the remaining evil factions in middle-earth; Haradrim, Isengard and Monstrous.

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.

• Paths: These cards are depict locations which the members of the fellowship travelled through during The Lord of The Rings and are used to represent the journey that Frodo and Same take. As with the battleground cards, each features a large illustration.
  There are 27 path cards, 3 of each numbered 1-9 both on the front and the back. Similarly to battleground cards, they show a defence value and special rules on the right, as well as it's path number. VPs are shown in the top right corner.

• Turn order tracker: This oversized card is used to track the turn order. It is double sided, the side used will be determined by player count.

The 'Trilogy' (4-player) side of the turn order tracker.

This side is used for 3-player games.

Tokens: Round card tokens of varying sizes are used in the game.

• Ring tokens: There are 4 large ring tokens, 2 for each side. Additionally. each ring token is double-sided with a unspent and spent side.

• ​Combat tokens: These tokens are used to track scores for the various types of combat that occur. They are double-sided and can be used for either side.
• Corruption tokens: Black tokens obviously used to track bad stuff happening!

• Turn order marker: Self explanatory. It is used in conjunction with turn order tracker.
• First player tracker: A square token! This is also double-sided.

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.

Even the player guides come in different colours for the 2 different sides.

---

---

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!

That Gandalf - he's like a bad penny!

Right, with that out of the way, let's continue.

On to play
During the game, battleground and path cards will become activated. The 2 opposing sides then vie to 'win' the locations through combat (which earns VPs). This is done by players putting characters, armies and the like into play at those locations to achieve this.
The game is played over a number of rounds and each round follows a specific turn order where players from opposing sides take alternating turns.
A round contains the following steps.
Location step: The first player activates location cards.

• Battleground: The first player reveals the top card from the battleground deck for their side, thus the Frodo player would turn over a Free Peoples battleground card.
  When a battleground card is revealed, it is activated and will have activation text which must be resolved.

• Path: The first player then takes the 3 '1' path cards, randomly picks one and reveals it. The remaining 2 path cards are discarded out of play. As with battleground locations, the revealed path card will be activated and will have an action that must be resolved.
  In subsequent rounds, a randomly chosen '2' path will be used, then a '3' and so forth.

• 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.