War of the Ring – Lords of Middle Earth
Expansion of: War of the Ring (Second Edition)With Lords of Middle-earth, the first expansion for the War of the Ring Second Edition board game, players may explore these possibilities, together with many other ones, to create fresh gaming opportunities and new strategies. Important personalities, previously featured in the game only through Event Cards, are represented by specific figures and rules. New Characters include Elrond, Galadriel, Smeagol, Gothmog and the powerful Balrog of Moria, as well as alternate versions of Gandalf, the Witch-king and the Mouth of Sauron.
180m
2 - 4 Players
Ages 13+
Andrzej H
Great expansion! It seems to be not intuitive when you read the rulebook, but in game it works perfectly. Edit after third game: Truly masterpiece, like the whole game!
aubrix
love the new options available to both sides to say nothing of the inclusion of my homegirl Galadriel. i guess Shadow gets the Balrog and Gothmog or whatever too. who cares? the cards are really, really cool. this expansion definitely tilts the balance a little more towards the Free Peoples Player but advantage is probably still to Shadow. i think once you add this and Warriors, however, the game favors Free Peoples Player. i need more plays, though.
ajewo
This expansion adds alternate and additional companions (Elrond, Galadriel), alternate and lesser minions (Balrog, Gothmog), and Smeagol to the game. There are also new event cards and special abilities for the three Elven rings. The theme of this expansion is to offer an "what-if" experience. For example, what if Gimli had not participate in the Followship, what if the Balrog were to roam Middle-earth, or what if Gandalf had used his Elven ring more actively. I like that the alternate companions can start in different regions which makes it easier to activate particular nations which can change the starting setup significantly. Some of the new event cards are also interesting. The best of this expansion is that it opens up the map and offers new strategies that are not all about Isengard/Gondor. I also like the new lesser minions like Gothmog who can recruit units in his region which is very handy to conquer Gondor. Overall, they the new characters add more opportunities and strategies which is nice. The issue with this expansion is, that the new characters add many small rules and game mechanics (e. g., Balrog). I would have found it better if, instead of introducing new game mechanics, the designers had simply based the new characters on existing mechanics. Especially the mechanic for the new (character) dice feels clunky (which is a common complaint for all expansions). I am undecided in regard to Smeagol. It adds more mechanics without improving the base game and rarely comes into play. Overall, this expansion improves the variety and available strategies at the cost of more complexity. So far, Lords of Middle-earth is the best expansion and I would recommend it if you have played the base game several times.