War of the Ring: The Card Game First Impressions

War of the Ring: The Card Game is based on the board game.

I have not played the board game.

The Shadow against the Free Peoples

The Free Peoples desperately try to complete their quest to destroy the One Ring, while at the same time defending their homelands from the encroaching hordes of Sauron and his evil allies.

The Shadow players must strike quickly and decisively, before the Ring-bearers can complete their quest; or try to slowly corrupt Frodo, burdening him with wounds, toil, and sorrow for the loss of his Companions.

War of the Ring: The Card Game Game Overview

Quick Game Overview

Two locations will be in play. One will be the path, the current part of the story. The other will either be a Free People Homeland or a Shadow… Battleground? I forget the name.

Sides will take turns, or alternate if playing in teams of 2 to play cards to ‘win’ these locations by having more of one symbol than the other. These are either swords or shields defending on if your side is attacking or defending.

The cards involve characters, equipment, action cards etc

How do you win?

Each of the locations is worth points and if one player/team is ever enough points ahead they win instantly.

If not, after the 9th round the team with the most points wins and I believe the Shadow wins ties.

Main Mechanisms

Hand management is a big one! You have to discard a card to play a card and defeated cards are removed from the game. This means you cycle through your ever-decreasing deck pretty quickly.

USP

I’m not sure it’s a USP but you play through the Lord of the Rings story fairly accurately, at the very least chronologically…

Theme

…which really leads into the theme. You start at The Shire or Bag End and end in or around Mordor.

Certain characters can only be played in certain rounds and/or certain locations. For example, Elrond can only be played in round 3, because that’s when you encounter him at Rivendell in the story.

Setup

Each player gets a pre-con deck that needs a shuffle. The location cards need shuffling too.

Components & Artwork

The components are very standard. The graphic design is mostly OK with two of the faction symbols quite similar.

The art is pretty good. It has that classic style you can imagine printed on the cover of a novel.

Ease of Teaching

Individually, card to card, faction to faction, and round to round the game is easy to teach. You only have a few actions you can pick from and lonely one of them, playing a card, takes any kind of explanation.

The rest are straightforward. If playing in teams, pair the experienced player with the newbie so they can help out.

Similar Games

I haven’t played War of the Ring, the board game this card game is based on but it deserves to be mentioned here.

The hand management, art and presentation reminds me of any LCG from FFG. Marvel Champions etc

War of the Ring: The Card Game Review

Positives

The progression through the Lord of the Rings story is really good.

Discarding cards to play cards is always a mechanism I like and leads to really difficult choices.

In a 4 player game, the two sides interact well. For example, I had Elf equipment cards I could use on my partner’s Hobbits. (Like Lembas Bread)

It starts off quite easy for the Free People but as the game advances towards Mordor, it swings the other way as it should.

I like how characters are useful in certain rounds, it’s thematic…

Negatives

…but if you don’t draw them at the right time you don’t get to use them.

Quite often, ‘Pass’ is the best action to take to the point where there are rules in place to stop you from passing too early.

If none of the locations suits your factions, you can’t really do much that round.

War of the Ring: The Card Game Summary

A really good card game, well worth a try if you like the theme.

Jesta ThaRogue